ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the multifaceted nature of word knowledge and the importance of words’ positions among other words within our mental lexicon. At the word level, single words have intraword characteristics that affect their use in language performances, be it reading, writing, speaking, or listening. Such characteristics include frequency, length, phonology, morphological structure, and aspects of semantics such as imageability, concreteness, and multiple meanings. Effects of these word characteristics on language processing are discussed. In addition, it is important to stress that lexical items do not stand alone in our mental lexicons. Words are interrelated in various ways, through phonological, orthographic or semantic similarities; contextual or thematic relations; and frequency of co-occurrence. In this chapter we focus on various types of semantic relations and how these are assessed in research. Word knowledge comprises many facets which necessitate different operationalizations in different contexts. We review a number of these operationalizations and the results they have generated in previous research.
