scholarly journals Cross-linguistic differences affect emotion and emotion-laden word processing: Evidence from Polish-English and Romanian-English bilinguals

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692098730
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Bromberek-Dyzman ◽  
Rafał Jończyk ◽  
Monica Vasileanu ◽  
Anabella-Gloria Niculescu-Gorpin ◽  
Halszka Bąk
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
First Language ◽  
Word Type ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Emotion Word ◽  
Lower Accuracy ◽  
Context Of Learning

Aims: We study how emotions are represented in Polish-English and Romanian-English bilinguals, whose respective languages either mostly share emotion lexicon (Romanian-English) or not (Polish-English). We test to what extent such variance in lexical proximity between the two bilingual groups affects their decisions about emotional word content. Methodology: In a masked priming paradigm, participants viewed prime-target adjective pairs, and judged whether the target adjective was positive or negative in meaning. Primes and targets either named (emotion word) or evoked (emotion-laden word) emotions, and were either related – that is, belonged to one word type (emotion or emotion-laden) – or unrelated. Data and analysis: Behavioural data were analysed using linear mixed-effects models, with within-subject fixed effects of language, word type, valence and relatedness, and their interactions. Findings/conclusions: We found processing facilitation of emotion-laden rather than emotion words in both participant groups, irrespective of language of operation. Emotion target adjectives, particularly of negative valence, tended to slow down responses of Polish-English bilinguals in their first language. In the Romanian-English group, emotion target adjectives were recognized with lower accuracy in the second language. This pattern of results suggests that affective responsiveness is modulated by the lexical proximity between the first language and second language. Originality: Extending bilingual emotion research, this study tests how emotions are represented in languages that vary in lexical proximity with English: Polish and Romanian. We demonstrate that cross-linguistic differences between the respective languages of a bilingual impact emotional meaning processing in the first and second language. Significance/implications: We provide support for the emotion context-of-learning theory, language-specific episodic trace theory and the sense model in bilingualism, showing that cross-linguistic differences between the first and second language modulate emotion and emotion-laden word processing. Our findings also demonstrate that the distinction between the emotion and emotion-laden words is not as universal as previously assumed.

scholarly journals Exploring Affective Priming Effect of Emotion-Label Words and Emotion-Laden Words: An Event-Related Potential Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 553
Author(s):  
Chenggang Wu ◽  
Juan Zhang ◽  
Zhen Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Word Processing ◽  
Priming Effect ◽  
Word Type ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Affective Priming ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Emotion Word ◽  
Priming Paradigm ◽  
Emotion Label ◽  
Target Words

In order to explore the affective priming effect of emotion-label words and emotion-laden words, the current study used unmasked (Experiment 1) and masked (Experiment 2) priming paradigm by including emotion-label words (e.g., sadness, anger) and emotion-laden words (e.g., death, gift) as primes and examined how the two kinds of words acted upon the processing of the target words (all emotion-laden words). Participants were instructed to decide the valence of target words, and their electroencephalogram was recorded at the same time. The behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) results showed that positive words produced a priming effect whereas negative words inhibited target word processing (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, the inhibition effect of negative emotion-label words on emotion word recognition was found in both behavioral and ERP results, suggesting that modulation of emotion word type on emotion word processing could be observed even in the masked priming paradigm. The two experiments further supported the necessity of defining emotion words under an emotion word type perspective. The implications of the findings are proffered. Specifically, a clear understanding of emotion-label words and emotion-laden words can improve the effectiveness of emotional communications in clinical settings. Theoretically, the emotion word type perspective awaits further explorations and is still at its infancy.

Understanding second language fluency behavior: The effects of individual differences in first language fluency, cross-linguistic differences, and proficiency over time

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 755-785 ◽  
Author(s):  
AMANDA HUENSCH ◽  
NICOLE TRACY-VENTURA
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
First Language ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
Language Fluency ◽  
Multiple Regressions ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Mitigating Factors ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Over Time

ABSTRACTThis study examined the extent to which first language (L1) fluency behavior, cross-linguistic differences, and proficiency can predict second language (L2) fluency behavior over time. English L1 Spanish (n= 24) and French (n= 25) majors completed a picture-based oral narrative in the L2 before and after 5 months residing abroad and later in the L1 after returning home. Data were coded for seven measures of speed, breakdown, and repair fluency. The results from multiple regressions indicated that L1 fluency behavior, cross-linguistic differences, and proficiency differentially contributed to explaining L2 fluency behavior prior to and during immersion. These findings suggest that when investigating L1–L2 fluency relationships considerations of mitigating factors such as cross-linguistic differences are necessary, and it is worthwhile to focus on how the contributions of these factors shift during development.

DECOMPOSITION OF INFLECTED WORDS IN A SECOND LANGUAGE

2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Neubauer ◽  
Harald Clahsen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Combinatorial Structure ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Acceptability Judgments ◽  
Morphological Parsing

German participles offer a distinction between regular forms that are suffixed with –t and do not exhibit any stem changes and irregular forms that all have the ending –n and sometimes undergo (largely unpredictable) stem changes. This article reports the results from a series of psycholinguistic experiments (acceptability judgments, lexical decision, and masked priming) that investigate regular and irregular participle forms in adult native speakers of German in comparison to advanced adult second language (L2) learners of German with Polish as their first language (L1). The most striking L1-L2 contrasts were found for regular participles. Although the L1 group’s performance was influenced by the combinatorial structure of regular participle forms, this was not the case for the L2 group. These findings suggest that adult L2 learners are less sensitive to morphological structure than native speakers and rely more on lexical storage than on morphological parsing during processing.

scholarly journals First language polysemy affects second language meaning interpretation: evidence for activation of first language concepts during second language reading

2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerrie E. Elston-Güttler ◽  
John N. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Critical Condition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Response Times ◽  
First Language ◽  
Word Type ◽  
Second Language Reading ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Meaning Interpretation

The present study investigates the influence of first language (L1) lexicalization patterns on the processing of second language (L2) words in sentential contexts by advanced German learners of English. The focus was on cases where a polysemous word in the L1 is realized by independent words in the L2, e.g. German Blase realized by English bubble and blister. An anomaly detection task was used in which participants had to indicate whether a target word formed an acceptable completion to a sentence. The critical condition was where the other sense ( blister) of the translation equivalent Blase was appropriate, but the word ( bubble) did not complete the sentence meaningfully, e.g. 'His shoes were uncomfortable due to a bubble.' This was compared to a control condition in which neither sense of the L1 translation made sense, e.g. 'She was very hungry because of a bubble.' Factors of word type (noun vs. verb) and degree of relatedness of L1 senses (high vs. moderate) were also manipulated. Relative to native speakers of English, advanced German learners made more errors and displayed longer correct response times in the critical condition compared to the control condition. An effect of meaning relatedness was obtained for nouns but not verbs. The results are discussed in terms of the role of lexical-level translation connections in activating L1 concepts from L2 words, even in highly proficient learners and in all-L2 tasks.

scholarly journals Cross-linguistic differences in prosodic cues to syntactic disambiguation in German and English

2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARY GRANTHAM O'BRIEN ◽  
CARRIE N. JACKSON ◽  
CHRISTINE E. GARDNER
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
First Language ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Prosodic Cues ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L2 Production ◽  
Learning English

ABSTRACTThis study examined whether late-learning English–German second language (L2) learners and late-learning German–English L2 learners use prosodic cues to disambiguate temporarily ambiguous first language and L2 sentences during speech production. Experiments 1a and 1b showed that English–German L2 learners and German–English L2 learners used a pitch rise and pitch accent to disambiguate PP-attachment sentences in German. However, the same participants, as well as monolingual English speakers, only used pitch accent to disambiguate similar English sentences. Taken together, these results indicate the L2 learners used prosody to disambiguate sentences in both of their languages and did not fully transfer cues to disambiguation from their first language to their L2. The results have implications for the acquisition of L2 prosody and the interaction between prosody and meaning in L2 production.

scholarly journals THE SPECIFICITY OF EVENT EXPRESSION IN FIRST LANGUAGE INFLUENCES EXPRESSION OF OBJECT PLACEMENT EVENTS IN SECOND LANGUAGE

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Wojciech Lewandowski ◽  
Şeyda Özçalışkan
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Specific System ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Event Description ◽  
L2 Production ◽  
Description Task

Abstract Speakers show cross-linguistic differences in expressing placement events involving support (cup on table) and containment (apple in bowl) in first language (L1) contexts. They rely on either more-general (e.g., Spanish for support, Polish for containment) or more-specific (e.g., German, Polish for support; Spanish, German for containment) descriptions. Relatively less is known about the expression of placement events in second language (L2) production contexts. In this study, we examined object-placement event descriptions produced by two groups of L1 Polish speakers—with either German or Spanish as their L2—in comparison to monolingual speakers of German, Spanish, and Polish, using an animated event description task. Bilingual speakers showed greater effect of L1 patterns in moving from a more-general to a more-specific system and L2 patterns in moving from a more-specific to a more-general or between two more-specific systems, suggesting that the specificity of event expression in L1 influences patterns of placement expression in L2.

Kitchen Russian: Cross-linguistic differences and first-language object naming by Russian–English bilinguals

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANETA PAVLENKO ◽  
BARBARA C. MALT
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Object Naming ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Word Use ◽  
Concrete Nouns ◽  
Linguistic Categories ◽  
Familiar Objects

We examined first language (L1) naming of common household objects in three groups of Russian–English bilinguals: early, childhood and late bilinguals. Their naming patterns were compared with those of native speakers of Russian and English, in order to detect possible second language (L2) English influence on L1 Russian naming patterns. We investigated whether such influence is modulated by the speaker's linguistic trajectory, specifically, their age of arrival in the L2 environment, which in turn influences their relative proficiency and dominance in the two languages. We also examined whether the potential for L2 shifts can be linked to specific characteristics of the categories in the L1 or L2. L2 influence was evident in the data, increasing with earlier age of arrival but most pronounced with lowest L1 proficiency. The changes entailed both narrowing and broadening of linguistic categories. These findings indicate that L1 word use is susceptible to L2 influence even for concrete nouns referring to familiar objects, and the nature of the shift for a given word appears to be driven by several factors.

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