Constructing a Large-Scale Database of Japanese Word Associations

For cognitive scientists investigating the nature of lexical knowledge, one essential task is to map out the rich networks of associations that exist between words. This paper reports on a project to construct a large-scale database of word association norms for basic Japanese vocabulary and, utilizing the database, to develop lexical association network maps that tap into important aspects of words and their connectivity. The Japanese word association database will complement existing databases concerning the lexical features of Japanese vocabulary, such as familiarity ratings and frequency counts (Amano & Kondo, 1999; Yokoyama, Sasahara, Nozaki & Long, 1998), and the kanji corpus research highlighted in this special issue. Part 2 of this paper outlines the construction of the database, by detailing initial collections of word association responses from two major questionnaire surveys and the current state of the database. Part 3 introduces the lexical association network maps that will be developed based on the word association norm data and discuses some particularly promising applications of the database and the network maps in the areas of cognitive science and Japanese lexicography and language instruction.