On Knowing How Many Entries

Abstract

The research reported here concerns a problem that on the face of it has little or no connection with ambiguity. The problem in question is the supposed nonexistence of word frequency effects in semantic categorization tasks, and the implications of this phenomenon for theories of lexical access. However, as we pursue this issue, it will eventually become clear that the theoretical implications of the results may call into question our understanding of how ambiguity is represented in the lexicon, and how those lexical representations are accessed.