TIP OF THE TONGUE (TOT)
المؤلف:
John Field
المصدر:
Psycholinguistics
الجزء والصفحة:
P305
2025-10-20
97
TIP OF THE TONGUE (TOT)
A state in which a language user is aware of the existence of a particular word (perhaps a search for the word has been triggered by a meaning code) but cannot retrieve it from the lexicon.
Experimenters sometimes create the ‘Tip of the Tongue’ state artificially by providing subjects with definitions of obscure words and asking them to name the words. The task elicits responses which are inaccurate but bear resemblances to the target words; these provide insights into the criteria we use when searching the lexicon.
TOT evidence strongly supports similar evidence obtained from Slips of the Tongue (SOT), which indicates that certain aspects of a word are less likely to be misrepresented than others. Especially robust are the initial and final syllables, stressed vowels, the distribution of lexical stress and the number of syllables. These appear to be the kinds of cue which enable us to locate words; and they are therefore probably a feature of the way words are associated in the mind by form.
The TOT state demonstrates that it is possible to hold the meaning of a word in one’s mind without necessarily being able to retrieve its form. This has suggested to commentators that a lexical entry falls into two distinct parts, one relating to form and one to meaning, and that one may be accessed without the other. In assembling speech, we first identify a given word by some kind of abstract meaning code and only later insert its actual phonological form into the utterance we are planning.
See also: Slips of the Tongue
Further reading: Aitchison (2003)
الاكثر قراءة في Linguistics fields
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