GENDERED MENTAL LEXICON IN COGNITIVE SEMANTICS AND ASSOCIATIVE RESPONSE PATTERNS

Abstract

This paper investigates how gender influences the structure and dynamics of the mental lexicon, focusing on differences in associative semantic responses between male and female language users. Drawing from cognitive semantics, psycholinguistics, and gender studies, the study explores whether conceptual associations to the same lexical stimuli diverge systematically by gender, and what such divergences reveal about underlying mental representation. The research is grounded in theories of prototype semantics, frame theory, and connectionist models of lexical access, which posit that lexical meaning emerges through culturally and cognitively mediated networks of association.