Journal of Linguistic and Rhetorical Studies

Journal of Linguistic and Rhetorical Studies

Bidirectional Interaction of Psycholinguistics and Corpus Linguistics; Some Challenges Persian Frequency Dictionaries Meet

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Masoumeh Mehrabi 1
Behrooz Mahmoodi Bakhtiari 2
1 Associate Professor of Linguistics at Ayatollah Boroujerdi University, Broujerd, Iran (Corresponding Author)
2 Associate Professor of Linguistics at Fine Art College of Tehran University, Tehran. Iran.
10.22075/jlrs.2025.37997.2679
Abstract
Lexical decision tasks in psycholinguistics is the exact intersection of psycholinguistics and corpus linguistic findings and outputs. Here is the ground which the corpus analyses will be used directly. Throughout the course of using the frequency dictionaries of Persians the researcher(s) may encounter(s) some shortcomings and deficiencies that lead to the conclusions: Frequency estimates are not sufficient. Part of this relates to the fact that the word frequency as depicted in frequency dictionaries is affected by other factors (like the kind of sources used in data compilation) and the other part relates to the effects of other variables which correlates with word knowledge (like word prevalence, word length, age of acquisition of the word, similarity to other words, and concreteness of the word content). Here, the research problem is that it seems current Persian frequency dictionaries are insufficient for psycholinguistic researches. The present article tries to find why it is the case.  The main question of the present study is the psychological reality of the frequency effects which two main Persian frequency dictionaries (abbreviated as RPFD and PFD here) are able to depict. It asks what psycholinguistic factors will provide corpus compilation methodology with frequency dictionaries to be more realistic and valid. Using lexical decision tasks, the present article shows that some other psychological factors (like the recency effect, prominence, and prevalence) will correlates with word knowledge which these dictionaries miss to show or they ignore. Considering these factors will enhance Persian frequency dictionaries. The article systematically addresses each limitation (e.g., lack of prevalence data, recency effects). It also proposes solutions (e.g., integrating psycholinguistic metrics into corpus design).
Keywords
Corpus Linguistics
Frequency Dictionary
Psycholinguistics
Persian
Frequency of occurrence
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Journal of Linguistic and Rhetorical Studies
Volume 17, Issue 43
Winter 2026
Pages 107-134