One might expect that, since then, numerous studies would have explored morphological processing; however, this has not been the case. Research on word processing has tended to prioritize the material dimension of words—particularly their phonetic and phonological aspects—and their relationship with orthography, rather than their morphological and semantic features.

The title of this series of workshops was, of course, inspired by Jean Aitchinson’s book (Words in the Mind, 1987). Yet, the main leitmotiv is to bring morphological processing to the attention of researchers. The mental lexicon is a fascinating field of study, more frequently explored by psycholinguists and neurolinguists than by theoretical linguists. Consequently, the integration of experimental methods into theoretical approaches to the lexicon and morphology remains a relatively recent undertaking. 

Promoted by The Word Lab, the Words in the Mind workshop series began in 2024 and has since been held annually. The next edition will take place in May 2026 – we invite you to consider the open call bellow.