Can a bilingual lexicon be sustained by phonotactics alone?

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 330-365
Author(s):  
John M. Lipski
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
False Memory ◽  
Close Relationships ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Content Word ◽  
Related Question ◽  
Language Identification ◽  
Bilingual Lexicon ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Mixed Language

Abstract This study focuses on bilingual speakers of Ecuadoran Quichua and the mixed language known as Media Lengua, which consists of Quichua morphosyntactic frames with all content word roots relexified from Spanish. For all intents and purposes, only the lexicon – more specifically, lexical roots – separate Media Lengua from Quichua, and yet speakers generally manage to keep the two languages apart in production and are able to unequivocally distinguish the languages in perception tasks. Two main questions drive the research effort. The first, given the very close relationships between Quichua and Media Lengua, is whether each language has a distinct lexicon, or a single lexical repository is shared by the two languages. A second and closely related question is the extent to which language-specific phonotactic patterns aid in language identification, possibly even to the extent of constituting the only robust language-tagging mechanism in a joint lexicon. Using lexical-decision and false-memory tasks to probe the Quichua-Media Lengua bilingual lexical repertoire, the results are consistent with a model based on a single lexicon, partially differentiated by subtle phonotactic cues, and bolstered by contemporary participants’ knowledge of Spanish as well as Quichua.

scholarly journals Mixing the stimulus list in bilingual lexical decision turns cognate facilitation effects into mirrored inhibition effects

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 836-844
Author(s):  
Flora Vanlangendonck ◽  
David Peeters ◽  
Shirley-Ann Rueschemeyer ◽  
Ton Dijkstra
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Representation ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Stimulus List ◽  
Linguistic Form ◽  
Bilingual Lexicon ◽  
Lexical Decision Tasks ◽  
Mixed Language ◽  
Interlingual Homographs ◽  
Item Types

AbstractTo test the BIA+ and Multilink models’ accounts of how bilinguals process words with different degrees of cross-linguistic orthographic and semantic overlap, we conducted two experiments manipulating stimulus list composition. Dutch–English late bilinguals performed two English lexical decision tasks including the same set of cognates, interlingual homographs, English control words, and pseudowords. In one task, half of the pseudowords were replaced with Dutch words, requiring a ‘no’ response. This change from pure to mixed language list context was found to turn cognate facilitation effects into inhibition. Relative to control words, larger effects were found for cognate pairs with an increasing cross-linguistic form overlap. Identical cognates produced considerably larger effects than non-identical cognates, supporting their special status in the bilingual lexicon. Response patterns for different item types are accounted for in terms of the items’ lexical representation and their binding to ‘yes’ and ‘no’ responses in pure vs mixed lexical decision.

The effects of language immersion on the bilingual lexicon

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 614-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy P.K. Mok ◽  
Alan C.L. Yu
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
Language Immersion ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Bilingual Lexicon ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Translation Priming ◽  
Cross Language

Abstract Previous studies have consistently found an asymmetry where priming in the L1-L2 direction is stronger than that in the L2-L1 direction. However, some studies showed that an L2 immersion environment could attenuate bilingual speakers’ access to the L1 and result in a ‘bilingual disadvantage’. This study investigated how language immersion modulates the priming effects of late adult bilingual speakers. We compared late Chinese-English bilingual speakers with high L2 (English) proficiency in an L1 environment and those in an L2 immersion environment. Both semantic and translation priming in same-language and cross-language conditions were investigated. The results showed no ‘bilingual disadvantage’ of the immersed participants. The priming asymmetry was weakened for the immersed participants who were more comparable in their reaction time to different language conditions. Both semantic and translation priming were found in L1-L2 and L2-L1 directions, suggesting that both types of priming are similar in nature in the bilingual lexicon.

scholarly journals The Influence of Second Language Experience in the Pattern of Language Processing of the Bilingual Lexicon

MANUSYA ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-95
Author(s):  
P. Sudasna ◽  
S. Luksaneeyanawin ◽  
D. Burnham
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
English Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
High Group ◽  
Bilingual Lexicon ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Thai English

The present experimental research studies whether Thai-English bilinguals’ language experience in their non-native language influences the pattern of language processing of the bilingual lexicon. Two groups of 100 native Thai bilingual speakers with high or low English language experience were asked to perform Stroop Interference Tasks, with the processing of word forms being either Thai or English and the processing in colour naming also being either Thai or English. The results showed that when the processing of word forms was in Thai, there was more intra- than interlingual interference, and that the degree of interference was equivalent between the two English experience groups. When the processing of word forms was in English, the high and the low groups showed more intra- than interlingual interference; however, the high group showed more interference than the low group did. The results provide evidence that the maximal interference occurs in the processing of the first language and the interference in the processing of the second language is proportional to L2 language experience. The results suggest that there is a relationship between language experience and language processing of the bilingual lexicon.

Lexical processing in bilinguals

1995 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kees de Bot ◽  
Albert Cox ◽  
Steven Ralston ◽  
Anneli Schaufeli ◽  
Bert Weltens
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Bilingual Lexicon ◽  
The Third ◽  
Processing Level ◽  
Auditory Lexical Decision ◽  
Mode Of Presentation ◽  
Visual Lexical Decision

In this article data from an auditory lexical decision experiment with English-Dutch bilinguals are compared with data from a similar experiment using visual lexical decision. The aim of the experiments was to investigate three factors that may play a role in lexical processing: level of proficiency in the second language, mode of presentation (visual vs. auditory) and cognate- ness of lexical items. The structure of this article is as follows. In the first part a description is given of current theoretical models of the bilingual lexicon. In the second part we present a summary of an experiment on visual lexical decision (Kerkman, 1984; Kerkman and De Bot, 1989), and in the third part we report on the auditory lexical decision experiment. In the last part these two sets of data are discussed in the light of recent theorizing on the bilingual lexicon.

scholarly journals Recent experience with cognates and interlingual homographs in one language affects subsequent processing in another language

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 206-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
EVA D. POORT ◽  
JANE E. WARREN ◽  
JENNIFER M. RODD
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Recent Experience ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Subsequent Processing ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Interlingual Homographs

This experiment shows that recent experience in one language influences subsequent processing of the same word-forms in a different language. Dutch–English bilinguals read Dutch sentences containing Dutch–English cognates and interlingual homographs, which were presented again 16 minutes later in isolation in an English lexical decision task. Priming produced faster responses for the cognates but slower responses for the interlingual homographs. These results show that language switching can influence bilingual speakers at the level of individual words, and require models of bilingual word recognition (e.g., BIA+) to allow access to word meanings to be modulated by recent experience.

scholarly journals The tug of war between an idiom's figurative and literal meanings: Evidence from native and bilingual speakers

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy van Ginkel ◽  
Ton Dijkstra
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Literal Meaning ◽  
Final Word ◽  
Idiom Comprehension ◽  
Figurative Meaning ◽  
Related Target ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Sentence Interpretation ◽  
Target Words

AbstractIn two lexical-decision experiments, we investigated the processing of figurative and literal meaning in idioms. Dutch native and German–Dutch bilingual speakers responded to target words presented after a minimal context idiom prime (e.g., ‘He kicked the bucket’). Target words were related to the figurative meaning of the prime (‘die’), the literal word at the end of the idiom (‘water’), or unrelated to both (‘face’). We observed facilitation in RTs for figuratively and literally related targets relative to unrelated targets for both participant groups. A higher frequency idiom-final word caused inhibition in responses to the literally related target for native speakers, indicating competition between the idiom as a whole and its literal word constituents. Native speakers further showed sensitivity to transparency of the idiom's meaning and the plausibility of the idiom as a literally interpretable sentence. The results are interpreted in terms of available L1/L2 idiom comprehension models, and a more detailed processing account for literal and idiomatic sentence interpretation.

Intonation Patterns in Pijal Media Lengua

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Current Literature ◽  
Content Word ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
Transcription System ◽  
Investigative Tool ◽  
Mixed Language ◽  
Acoustic Analyses

Pijal Media Lengua (pml) is a mixed language described as having Quichua morphosyntactic and phonological systems where nearly every content word (89%), including pronouns and determiners, is replaced by its Spanish-derived counterpart through the process of relexification. pml speakers however, often regard their language as intonationally distinct from both Quichua and Spanish. This paper offers a basic description of the pitch accent and boundary tone configurations found in pml using the autosegmental framework (Pierrehumbert, 1980) in a ToBI transcription system (Silverman, 1984). This paper also explorers the current literature on mixed language phonetics and attempts to promote acoustic analyses of intonation as a useful investigative tool for analyzing the origins of prosodic material. The results suggest that pml predominantly makes use of Quichua-like intonation patterns along with innovative and/or preserved structures.

Bildts as a mixed language

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (242) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulus van Sluis ◽  
Eric Hoekstra ◽  
Hans Van de Velde
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Specific Nature ◽  
Loan Words ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
The North ◽  
Mixed Language ◽  
Core Lexicon ◽  
The One

AbstractBildts is a speech variety spoken by around 10,000 persons as a first or second language in the province Fryslân, in the north of the Netherlands. It is commonly claimed to be a dialect of Dutch containing some Frisian loan words. This article provides an analysis of Bildts based on a comparison of Bildts with its source languages: Frisian on the one hand and specific dialects of the province of South Holland on the other hand. It argues that Bildts combines a core lexicon mainly derived from Hollandic dialects with a grammar mainly derived from Frisian. However, the core lexicon also contains some Frisian words and the grammar has to some extent been levelled. The precise mixture is not easily described, let alone accounted for, in most models of language contact. Our approach combines sociological-historical information with linguistic factorisation in order to arrive at a plausible view of how Bildts came into existence. It is argued that Bildts is a mixed language, comparable to better known cases such as Ma’á, spoken in Tanzania, and that the specific nature of the mix involved the mutual accommodation of two groups of speakers: a group of mother tongue speakers of Frisian who acquired Bildts as a second language and a group of balanced bilingual speakers of Bildts and Frisian.

False memories for morphologically simple versus complex words in English

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Pycha
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
False Memory ◽  
Memory Effect ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Complex Versus ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Activation Level ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Versus Complex ◽  
Complex Words

Abstract In tasks such as lexical decision, people respond differently to morphologically complex words compared to morphologically simple ones (e.g. in English, lies vs. rise). These divergent responses could conceivably arise from differences in activation levels, or alternatively, from the additional steps required to decompose complex words. To investigate this issue, we used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) false memory paradigm, which probes activation of lexical representations by measuring the probability of recalling or recognizing a word (such as lies) after listening to a list of its phonological neighbors (such as wise, lose, lime, etc.). Our results showed a significant false memory effect for complex words, which demonstrates that similar-sounding words can activate representations for stem-plus-affix combinations. Our results also showed no significant difference between false memory rates for complex versus simple words, which suggests that complex stem-plus-affix representations activate at levels equivalent to those of simple stem representations. These findings indicate that differences in activation level probably do not lie at the source of divergent responses to complex and simple words, and that decomposition is the more likely origin.

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