Binomials (e.g., hanky-panky) are sequences of two or more words whose irreversible order is determined by semantic and phonological constraints (Cooper & Ross, 1975). The main objective of this talk is to present the results of a psycholinguistic investigation of the psychological reality of these constraints in native and non-native speakers of English and French. The study revealed that the intuitions of native English speakers were generally more in line with the proposed constraints than those of native French speakers.

Viola Green is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Modern Languages. She received her Ph.D. in French Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin. Her expertise lies in Second Language Acquisition, Bilingualism and Psycholinguistics. Before joining Georgia Tech, Dr. Green taught various levels of French at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT). She also served as a French Language Coordinator at the University of Utah from 2010 to 2012.