A word-based account of comprehension and production of Kinyarwanda nouns in the Discriminative Lexicon

Abstract Are the cognitive units in mental lexicon of Bantu speakers words or morphemes? The very small experimental literature addressing this question suggests that answer is morphemes, but a closer look at results shows premature. A novel theory lexicon, Discriminative Lexicon, which incorporates word-based view and computationally implemented Linear Learner (LDL) put to test with data set 11,180 Kinyarwanda nouns, LDL used model their comprehension production. predicts production nouns great accuracy. Our work provides support for conclusion are words.