The contribution of lexical and semantic knowledge to verbal short-term memory (vSTM) span is explained by language-based models, assuming that vSTM is deeply grounded within the linguistic system with to-be-remembered items being activated in a non-strategic and automatic manner. However, direct evidence for a non-strategic account of lexical and semantic contributions to vSTM span is scarce. In this study, we assessed the influence of several types of long-term linguistic knowledge (lexicality, lexical frequency, semantic similarity and imageability) on vSTM using a fast encoding running span procedure preventing any strategic processes during encoding. We observed reliable effects of lexicality (words vs. nonwords, Experiment 1), lexical...