Word recognition in deaf readers: Cross-language activation of German Sign Language and German

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 831-854 ◽  
Author(s):  
OKAN KUBUS ◽  
AGNES VILLWOCK ◽  
JILL P. MORFORD ◽  
CHRISTIAN RATHMANN
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Unrelated Word ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Deaf Readers ◽  
Language Activation ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
German Sign Language

ABSTRACTThis study addressed visual word recognition in deaf bilinguals who are proficient in German Sign Language (DGS) and German. The study specifically investigated whether DGS signs are activated during a monolingual German word recognition task despite the lack of similarity in German orthographic representations and DGS phonological representations. Deaf DGS–German bilinguals saw pairs of German words and decided whether the words were semantically related. Half of the experimental items had phonologically related translation equivalents in DGS. Participants were slower to reject semantically unrelated word pairs when the translation equivalents were phonologically related in DGS than when the DGS translations were phonologically unrelated. However, this was not the case in Turkish–German hearing bilinguals who do not have sign language knowledge. The results indicate that lexical representations are associated cross-linguistically in the bilingual lexicon irrespective of their orthographic or phonological form. Implications of these results for reading development in deaf German bilinguals are discussed.

scholarly journals The gender congruency effect during bilingual spoken-word recognition

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUIS MORALES ◽  
DANIELA PAOLIERI ◽  
PAOLA E. DUSSIAS ◽  
JORGE R. VALDÉS KROFF ◽  
CHIP GERFEN ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Congruency Effect ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Spoken Word Recognition ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Language Activation ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Gender Congruency Effect

We investigate the ‘gender-congruency’ effect during a spoken-word recognition task using the visual world paradigm. Eye movements of Italian–Spanish bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals were monitored while they viewed a pair of objects on a computer screen. Participants listened to instructions in Spanish (encuentra la bufanda / ‘find the scarf’) and clicked on the object named in the instruction. Grammatical gender of the objects’ name was manipulated so that pairs of objects had the same (congruent) or different (incongruent) gender in Italian, but gender in Spanish was always congruent. Results showed that bilinguals, but not monolinguals, looked at target objects less when they were incongruent in gender, suggesting a between-language gender competition effect. In addition, bilinguals looked at target objects more when the definite article in the spoken instructions provided a valid cue to anticipate its selection (different-gender condition). The temporal dynamics of gender processing and cross-language activation in bilinguals are discussed.

The processing of derivational morphology in Korean–English bilingual readers

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
SAY YOUNG KIM ◽  
MIN WANG ◽  
IN YEONG KO
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Priming Effect ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Unrelated Word ◽  
Derivational Morphology ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Language Activation ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Bilingual Readers ◽  
Cross Language

Three experiments using a priming lexical decision paradigm were conducted to examine whether cross-language activation occurs via decomposition during the processing of derived words in Korean–English bilingual readers. In Experiment 1, when participants were given a real derived word and an interpretable derived pseudoword (i.e., illegal combination of a stem and a suffix) in Korean as a prime, response times for the corresponding English-translated stem were significantly faster than when they had received an unrelated word. In Experiment 2, non-morphological ending pseudowords (i.e., illegal combination of a stem and an orthographic ending) were included, and this did not show a priming effect. In Experiment 3, non-interpretable derived pseudowords also yielded a significant priming effect just as the interpretable ones. These results together suggest that cross-language activation of morphologically complex words occurs independently of lexicality and interpretability.

scholarly journals Psycholinguistic, cognitive, and neural implications of bimodal bilingualism

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
KAREN EMMOREY ◽  
MARCEL R. GIEZEN ◽  
TAMAR H. GOLLAN
Keyword(s):  
Control Process ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Unique Form ◽  
Motor Systems ◽  
Lexical Information ◽  
Semantic Level ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Language Activation ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
The Brain

Bimodal bilinguals, fluent in a signed and a spoken language, exhibit a unique form of bilingualism because their two languages access distinct sensory-motor systems for comprehension and production. Differences between unimodal and bimodal bilinguals have implications for how the brain is organized to control, process, and represent two languages. Evidence from code-blending (simultaneous production of a word and a sign) indicates that the production system can access two lexical representations without cost, and the comprehension system must be able to simultaneously integrate lexical information from two languages. Further, evidence of cross-language activation in bimodal bilinguals indicates the necessity of links between languages at the lexical or semantic level. Finally, the bimodal bilingual brain differs from the unimodal bilingual brain with respect to the degree and extent of neural overlap for the two languages, with less overlap for bimodal bilinguals.

scholarly journals Language co-activation and lexical selection in bimodal bilinguals: Evidence from picture–word interference

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARCEL R. GIEZEN ◽  
KAREN EMMOREY
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Lexical Selection ◽  
Interference Effects ◽  
Semantic Interference ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Co Activation ◽  
Language Activation ◽  
Cross Language

We used picture–word interference (PWI) to discover a) whether cross-language activation at the lexical level can yield phonological priming effects when languages do not share phonological representations, and b) whether semantic interference effects occur without articulatory competition. Bimodal bilinguals fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) and English named pictures in ASL while listening to distractor words that were 1) translation equivalents, 2) phonologically related to the target sign through translation, 3) semantically related, or 4) unrelated. Monolingual speakers named pictures in English. Production of ASL signs was facilitated by words that were phonologically related through translation and by translation equivalents, indicating that cross-language activation spreads from lexical to phonological levels for production. Semantic interference effects were not observed for bimodal bilinguals, providing some support for a post-lexical locus of semantic interference, but which we suggest may instead reflect time course differences in spoken and signed production in the PWI task.

scholarly journals Bilingual lexical access: A dynamic operation modulated by word-status and individual differences in inhibitory control

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 537-554
Author(s):  
ARUNA SUDARSHAN ◽  
SHARI R. BAUM
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Simon Task ◽  
Word Type ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Lexical Selection ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Language Activation ◽  
Cross Language

A question central to bilingualism research is whether representations from the contextually inappropriate language compete for lexical selection during language production. It has been argued recently that the extent of interference from the non-target language may be contingent on a host of factors. In two studies, we investigated whether factors such as word-type and individual differences in inhibitory control capacities influence lexical selection via a cross-modal picture-word interference task and a non-linguistic Simon task. Highly proficient French–English bilinguals named non-cognate and cognate target pictures in L2 (English) while ignoring auditory distractors in L1 (French) and L2. Taken together, our results demonstrated that lexical representations from L1 are active and compete for selection when naming in L2, even in highly proficient bilinguals. However, the extent of cross-language activation was modulated by both word-type and individual differences in inhibitory control capacities.

scholarly journals The Role of Orthotactics in Language Switching: An ERP Investigation Using Masked Language Priming

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aina Casaponsa ◽  
Guillaume Thierry ◽  
Jon Andoni Duñabeitia
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Access ◽  
First Language ◽  
Language Switching ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Priming Paradigm ◽  
Language Activation ◽  
Language Context ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Detection Mechanisms ◽  
Language Detection

It is commonly accepted that bilinguals access lexical representations from their two languages during language comprehension, even when they operate in a single language context. Language detection mechanisms are, thus, hypothesized to operate after the stage of lexical access during visual word recognition. However, recent studies showed reduced cross-language activation when sub-lexical properties of words are specific to one of the bilingual’s two languages, hinting at the fact that language selection may start before the stage of lexical access. Here, we tested highly fluent Spanish–Basque and Spanish–English bilinguals in a masked language priming paradigm in which first language (L1) target words are primed by unconsciously perceived L1 or second language (L2) words. Critically, L2 primes were either orthotactically legal or illegal in L1. Results showed automatic language detection effects only for orthotactically marked L2 primes and within the timeframe of the N250, an index of sub-lexical-to-lexical integration. Marked L2 primes also affected the processing of L1 targets at the stage of conceptual processing, but only in bilinguals whose languages are transparent. We conclude that automatic and unconscious language detection mechanisms can operate at sub-lexical levels of processing. In the absence of sub-lexical language cues, unconsciously perceived primes in the irrelevant language might not automatically trigger post-lexical language identification, thereby resulting in the lack of observable language switching effects.

Sublexical modulation of simultaneous language activation in bilingual visual word recognition: The role of syllabic units

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 696-712 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARKUS CONRAD ◽  
CARLOS J. ÁLVAREZ ◽  
OLIVIA AFONSO ◽  
ARTHUR M. JACOBS
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
German Language ◽  
Inhibitory Effects ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Syllable Frequency ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Structural Differences ◽  
Language Activation

We addressed the question of whether syllabic units of the presented language would activate words containing these syllables in the nonpresented language. In two lexical decision experiments using Spanish and German words presented to two groups of late Spanish–German and German–Spanish bilinguals and to two monolingual control groups, target words’ syllable-frequency in the nonpresented language was manipulated. Inhibitory effects of syllable-frequency in the nonpresented language were found only when Spanish–German bilinguals read German L2 words– suggesting that L2 sublexical syllabic units activated L1 syllabic neighbors’ representations that would interfere with L2 target processing. On the contrary, no inhibitory effects but rather a facilitation tendency due to syllable-frequency from the nonpresented German language was obtained for both groups of bilinguals reading Spanish words. This dissociation concerning the spread of activation from sublexical units to lexical representations from bilinguals’ two languages is discussed in terms of structural differences between the two languages.

scholarly journals What is the Source of Bilingual Cross-Language Activation in Deaf Bilinguals?

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 356-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill P Morford ◽  
Corrine Occhino ◽  
Megan Zirnstein ◽  
Judith F Kroll ◽  
Erin Wilkinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Semantic Similarity ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Similarity Judgments ◽  
Syllabic Structure ◽  
Language Activation ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Relationship Of

Abstract When deaf bilinguals are asked to make semantic similarity judgments of two written words, their responses are influenced by the sublexical relationship of the signed language translations of the target words. This study investigated whether the observed effects of American Sign Language (ASL) activation on English print depend on (a) an overlap in syllabic structure of the signed translations or (b) on initialization, an effect of contact between ASL and English that has resulted in a direct representation of English orthographic features in ASL sublexical form. Results demonstrate that neither of these conditions is required or enhances effects of cross-language activation. The experimental outcomes indicate that deaf bilinguals discover the optimal mapping between their two languages in a manner that is not constrained by privileged sublexical associations.

scholarly journals Finding a 'flower' in a 'peanut' is as easy as in a 'garden': towards a lemma-based model of bilingual word recognition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Wang ◽  
Marcus Taft
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Priming Effect ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Semantic Transparency ◽  
Morphological Decomposition ◽  
Strong Trend ◽  
Priming Paradigm ◽  
Morphological Priming ◽  
Language Activation ◽  
Cross Language

The present study investigates how morphological information is processed and represented in the bilingual lexicon. We employed a masked cross-language morphological priming paradigm to examine morphological decomposition and semantic transparency in bilingual lexical processing. A robust and reliable morphological priming effect was observed for both transparent compounds and opaque compounds, though there was a strong trend for more facilitation in the former than the latter. To account for these results, we propose a lemma-based bilingual model specifying the activation/competition between lemmas during cross-language activation at the morphological level. Our novel findings advance the understanding of interplay between morphology and bilingualism.

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