The Word Sketch Tool. Lexicon Learning within Connectionism Framework

This paper introduces the learning of lexicon within the connectionism perspective with the goal of arguing that each word is related to other words with which it constitutes nets of overlapping relationships characterized by connections of the features of words. In this perspective, it will be suggested that the Word Sketch tool offers a corpus-based analysis that can be used as a valid support for learning the lexicon of a language starting from the real behaviors of words and its relations in the several contexts of use. After describing the Word Sketch tool and its use in the field of language education, the third part of the paper will present the implementation of the Word Sketch tool for language learners (SKELL) by exploring some examples of lexicon search.