Phonetics & linguisticsAbstract-only summary

What does it mean to ‘know a word’?

Jennifer Hay

University of Canterbury

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Analyze this Interspeech 2026 paper now: "What does it mean to ‘know a word’?" (ID: hay26_interspeech). Lead with a useful explanation of its mechanism and significance, not a digest restatement or an upfront clarification question. Complete the analysis below using the evidence you can access.

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Wiki: https://interspeech-2026-wiki.vercel.app/papers/hay26_interspeech/
Raw Markdown: https://interspeech-2026-wiki.vercel.app/papers/hay26_interspeech/markdown.md

## Paper metadata and wiki digest

```markdown
---
id: hay26_interspeech
title: What does it mean to ‘know a word’?
authors:
  - Jennifer Hay
year: 2026
isca_url: https://www.isca-archive.org/interspeech_2026/hay26_interspeech.html
pdf_url: https://www.isca-archive.org/interspeech_2026/hay26_interspeech.pdf
session: "Keynote3 - Jennifer Hay: What does it mean to ‘know a word’?"
topics:
  - phonetics
  - low-resource
category: phonetics-linguistics
institutions:
  - University of Canterbury
code:
  url: ""
  license: ""
open_to_collaboration: false
wiki_frontmatter:
  id: hay26_interspeech
  category: phonetics-linguistics
  institutions:
    - University of Canterbury
  updated: 2026-09-28
  confidence: abstract-only
  source: https://www.isca-archive.org/interspeech_2026/hay26_interspeech.html
wiki_url: https://interspeech-2026-wiki.vercel.app/papers/hay26_interspeech/
markdown_url: https://interspeech-2026-wiki.vercel.app/papers/hay26_interspeech/markdown.md
---

# What does it mean to 'know a word'?

**Category:** `phonetics-linguistics`

**TL;DR** — A keynote talk arguing that word knowledge spans a far wider continuum than usually assumed, from implicit awareness of words in a language one doesn't speak to richly detailed phonetic/social memory for highly familiar words.

## Problem

Existing accounts of 'knowing a word' describe a continuum from passive recognition to complex contextual usage, but this talk argues the continuum should extend further in both directions than commonly studied.

## Method

Drawing on corpus and experimental studies of te reo Māori and English, the talk examines implicit knowledge of words in an unspoken but ambiently-heard language, alongside detailed phonetic and social information stored for highly familiar words and used in speech perception.

## Results

The work shows people can develop implicit knowledge that a word exists without conscious awareness (even for an unspoken language), and that familiar words carry rich phonetic/social detail that structures individual variation and informs listener perception.

## Code

None released (as of this page's `updated` date). If you are an author with a repo, please claim this entry — see CONTRIBUTING.md.

## Applications

Relevant to psycholinguists and phonologists studying lexical representation, language exposure effects, and models of speech perception that go beyond simple word-meaning mappings.

## Institutions / 機構

University of Canterbury

## Related

- No closely related Interspeech 2026 papers found.

<sub>All 950k paper pairs scored by TypeSafe Jev (`scripts/related/`); relatedness 0 = unrelated … 3 = directly comparable.</sub>
```

This summary is based on the abstract only. Details beyond the abstract have not been verified against the full paper.

TL;DR — A keynote talk arguing that word knowledge spans a far wider continuum than usually assumed, from implicit awareness of words in a language one doesn't speak to richly detailed phonetic/social memory for highly familiar words.

Problem

Existing accounts of 'knowing a word' describe a continuum from passive recognition to complex contextual usage, but this talk argues the continuum should extend further in both directions than commonly studied.

Method

Drawing on corpus and experimental studies of te reo Māori and English, the talk examines implicit knowledge of words in an unspoken but ambiently-heard language, alongside detailed phonetic and social information stored for highly familiar words and used in speech perception.

Results

The work shows people can develop implicit knowledge that a word exists without conscious awareness (even for an unspoken language), and that familiar words carry rich phonetic/social detail that structures individual variation and informs listener perception.

Code

None released (as of this page's updated date). If you are an author with a repo, please claim this entry — see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Applications

Relevant to psycholinguists and phonologists studying lexical representation, language exposure effects, and models of speech perception that go beyond simple word-meaning mappings.

Institutions

University of Canterbury

No closely related Interspeech 2026 papers found.

All 950k paper pairs scored by TypeSafe Jev (scripts/related/); relatedness 0 = unrelated … 3 = directly comparable.

SOURCE & COVERAGE

AI-assisted abstract summary. Check important claims against the original paper.