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Annual Review of Psychology

Volume 50, 1999

ON KNOWING A WORD

Abstract

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A person who knows a word knows much more than its meaning and pronunciation. The contexts in which a word can be used to express a particular meaning are a critical component of word knowledge. The ability to exploit context in order to determine meaning and resolve potential ambiguities is not a uniquely linguistic ability, but it is dramatically illustrated in the ease with which native speakers are able to identify the intended meanings of common polysemous words.

Keyword(s): context, lexical semantics, polysemy, sense identification, WordNet
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1999-02-01
2025-06-20
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