This two-stage model of lexicalisation can help us understand a common experience which psychologists refer to as the ‘tip-of-the-tongue state’. This is the experience of being unable to retrieve a particular word despite strong feelings of knowing it. The tip-of-the-tongue state can be seen as the result of success at the stage of lexicalisation that involves contacting the lemma but failure at the stage of making contact with the lexeme (see Harley, 2001).