Morphology and L 2 Lexical Access

Abstract

Second language (L2) learners encounter new words that are further divisible into morphemes, the smallest linguistic units bearing meaning. How do they access such complex words in the mental lexicon? They have two options: a learner of English who hears the word unreadable , for example, can (a) search for it in memory or (b) decompose the word and analyze its constituents: un‐read‐able . The first route will be available to the learner only if the word is indeed stored in the mental lexicon. The second decompositional route can be used for both familiar and unfamiliar words.