Mental lexicon: pairs of expression and meaning

part of procedural, not of declarative memory
procedures to associate both sensory input and motoric output with mental operations

comprehension precedes production

inference based on semantic and pragmatic context

First words:
• lexemes (milk, drink), not grammatical formatives (some, will)
• denote things and situations present in the speech situation (milk, drink), not absent or imagined entities (bell, chime)
• concrete (car, broken), not abstract (trip, check).