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2.1 Words and Their Associative Fields

 

According to Aitchison (1987), a network in relation to the mental lexicon refers to an interconnected system. This system can be based on the linguistic elements such as the phonological structure, the syntactic category, the morphological structure, and the presence of semantically related words. Ferdinand de Saussure states, “a particular word is the center of a constellation; it is the points of convergence of an indefinite number of coordinated terms” (1959, p. 126). De Saussure illustrates these relations in the form of a diagram with the center-word enseignement. We used the same principle in our diagram with the central word constructor.

 

In this diagram, six lines of association radiate from the noun constructor. In the first group, constructors are “class methods that are executed when an object of a class or structure is created” (Programming Guide, n.d., para.1), and five types of constructors are presented. The second group contains agent nouns formed from verbs with the help of the suffix –or. They share the same morphological structure: root+suffix –or. The third group is built on the associations of the characteristics a constructor/builder possesses. The fourth group is based on semantic associations, while the fifth group shares the stem construct. The sixth group shares word class: all the words belong to the class of nouns. “Mental association creates other groups besides those based on the comparing of terms that have something in common” (de Saussure, 1959, p. 125). The number of associations depends on the ability of the mind to create “as many associative series as there are diverse relations” (p. 126).

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