Abstract: A picture naming task was used to investigate the word length effect in speech production of Chinese. Pictures that can be named both as single syllable,monomorphemic words and as disyllable,two morphemic compound words,were selected. These pictures were divided into two groups according to whether the monomorphemic words were used as the first or the second constituent morphemes in compound names. Subjects were asked to name the pictures in either monomorphemic names or compound names. A significant length effect was observed for both groups of stimuli,with monomorphemic names pronounced faster than compound names. This finding was interpreted as supporting the view of incremental phonological encoding and planning. A post hoc analysis was also conducted for word and syllable frequency effects in word production.

Key words: speech production, picture naming, phonological encoding, length effect, frequency effect