Abstract: Two experiments were conducted to investigate the processes of meaning access and the effect of inhibition of two-syllable homophones in Chinese. Cross-model semantic priming paradigm and lexical decision task were employed in the experiments. The homophones were presented after a word which was used as context in Experiment 1 and in sentences in Experiment 2. The results showed: First, in the -150ms ISI condition, the homophones’ inappropriate meanings which were inconsistent with context semantics were inhibited. Second, in the 50ms condition, priming effects were found for the homophones’ appropriate meanings which were consistent with context semantics. Third, the processes of meaning access of homophones was influenced by meaning frequency.

Key words: homophones, Resolving Lexical Ambiguity, Inhibition