I saw this somewhere else: The Spanish Ambiguous Words (SAW) database

- SAW database provides 210 Spanish Ambiguous Words.
- Word senses were classified based on subjective responses and dictionary criteria.
- The correlation between dictionary and subjective number of senses was moderate.
- Word recognition is best predicted by the subjective number of senses.
- These normative data reflect the psychological reality of subjective word senses.

The present paper describes the Spanish Ambiguous Words (SAW) database, which comprises 210 words (133 polysemous and 77 homographs). Three-hundred and fifteen Spanish university students took part in the study on which SAW is based. First, subjective word meanings and senses were collected by means of a meaning retrieval task. Two judges then assigned participants' responses to different categories of meaning according to lexicographical and statistical criteria. Results showed that, while there was a relatively high relationship between the number of senses included in the dictionary and those provided by participants (r = .62), regression analyses on lexical decision and naming times revealed that participants' number of senses had significant predictive power, whereas those from the dictionary did not. This indicates that normative data from participants seem to better reflect the psychological reality of word senses. Hence, the SAW database constitutes a useful tool for future research into ambiguous word learning and recognition in Spanish.