Mental Representation of Multiple Default Plurals: Evidence from the Adaptation of English Loanwords in Arabic

The present work argues for the existence of multiple default regularities plural formation in Arabic. As evidenced corpus loanword adaptation Jordanian Arabic, this study calls a reassessment treatment idiosyncratic forms mental lexicon. This investigation is line with dual mechanism theory where both memory and rule are active, but more reliance on (feminine sound –aat) over (broken patterns). avoidance broken plural, which less predictable transparent, explained by limited lexicon that defines such loanwords thus blocks successful mapping plural’s inflection memory. failure retrieval, especially words do not match canonical root system (tri-consonantal), application feminine most productive, regular formation. result, frequency association predicted prosodic similarity between patterns contribute to avoiding -aat overgeneralization short term.