This introduction sets the stage for the papers making up this special issue. Its focus is on two major problems in the study of lexical processing-determining the phases involved in recognising a spoken word and identifying the nature of different types of contextual influences on these phases. An attempt is made to decompose the process of recognising a word into phases which have both theoretical and empirical consequences. A similar analytic approach is taken in the discussion of the problem of context effects by distinguishing qualitatively different types of context (lexical, intra-lexical, syntactic, semantic, and interpretative). We argue that such an approach is necessary to make explicit the relationship between a particular type of contextual information and the phase(s) of processing at which it has its impact.