Write a piece about your experience as a multilingual, I was asked. A personal piece, then. Maybe not as belaboured an enterprise as producing a scientific thesis on one of the many facets of multilingualism, but infinitely more intimidating. A baring of the soul of sorts, because the history of one’s languages is essentially one’s own history, and personal histories are intimate. Yet my story cannot be a factual chronology of my life as a polyglot, of my meanderings across political and linguistic borders. The relationship I have to my languages is too visceral for precise dates, precise geographies, precise events. There will be no exact whens, whys and hows. I can only tell an emic tale.
What might the study of language processing look like if the canonical language user were assumed to be bilingual? In this chapter we offer some reflections on how the origins, assumptions and practices of psycholinguistics constructed a particular view of language and of the typical language user, with distinct consequences for the construction of bilingualism as an object of inquiry. We suggest that if psycholinguistics is to fully embrace its “bilingual turn” it will benefit from exploring new ways of conceptualizing and approaching the study of bilingual language processing rather than uncritically adopting questions and approaches that were initially framed to understand single language use. Specifically, we suggest that research designs that allow language phenomena to emerge, rather than be expressly manipulated or restricted by researchers’ preconceived assumptions and that build in a broader range of variables and consider an expanded range of bilingual groups, will advance our understanding of the bilingual mental lexicon in important ways.
In some circles in psycholinguistics, there is the view that words are the least interesting aspect of language processing. In others, there is the view that monolingual speakers will tell us all that we need to know about language in the mind and the brain. In the past two decades there has been an upsurge of research on bilingualism and much of it has examined the lexicon. The new research on lexical processing in bilinguals has revealed persistent activation of words in both languages even when comprehending or producing one language alone. The consequences of this discovery have been profound for understanding the architecture of the lexicon and the dynamics of lexical access more generally. Cross-language activation changes both languages and engages domain general cognitive mechanisms that extend beyond language. There is a level of interaction between the bilingual‘s two languages that shapes a dynamic system to enable comprehension and production in each language and that is reflected in both behavior and in the brain. Most critically, research on the bilingual lexicon has become a model for the examination of cross-language interactions at every level of language processing, including the grammar and phonology. It also exposes the dynamics of the lexicon in a way that would not be known if we examined monolingual performance alone. In this chapter we review the most exciting new behavioral and neural evidence on the bilingual lexicon and consider the implications for learning new words, adapting existing ones, and for acquiring cognitive control more generally.
One common assumption in the second language acquisition literature is that learning words in a second language (L2) is somehow distinct from acquiring new words in a native language (L1), particularly for beginning adult learners. Indeed, several models of the bilingual lexicon ascribe a special status or protection mechanism (often lexical mediation via the L1 translation equivalent) to new L2 words during early stages of acquisition (e.g., Grainger, Midgley, & Holcomb, 2010; Kroll & Stewart, 1994; Kroll, Van Hell, Tokowicz, & Green, 2010). In this chapter, we examine this assumption by comparing parasitic models, which posit such separate learning processes for L1 and L2 words, and non-parasitic models, which do not. To do so, we review empirical evidence related to word learning in beginning adult L2 learners, with a focus on the influence of the lexical and conceptual knowledge from their L1. Are there factors that differentially affect word learning in the L1 versus the L2 or at different levels of L2 proficiency? If so, how can identifying these factors inform our understanding of the underlying mechanisms? Answering these questions challenges the notion that a special mechanism is necessary for L2 word learning in adults and outlines a research agenda to gain further insight into these issues.
Several theoretical accounts have been developed to describe the nature of the bilingual mental lexicon. In the last decades, functional magnetic resonance studies have provided some insight into the neural basis of lexical processing in healthy bilinguals and in bilinguals with aphasia. This chapter will discuss the bilingual mental lexicon as a complex knowledge system, which behaves dynamically as a function of various factors, including L1 and L2 proficiency level (exposure and use), psycholinguistic (semantic and phonological) characteristics of words within and across the spoken languages, learning methods, and the environment where learning happens (formal vs. informal), which in turn have an impact on the type of memory processing (implicit vs. explicit) involved in word storage. The bilingual mental lexicon is revealed as even more complex when phonological and semantic similarities and differences within and across languages are taken into account.
The current chapter takes the approach that the default mental lexicon is the bilingual mental lexicon. We present a subset of models from the bilingual research literature and argue that such models could be adapted to simultaneously explain multilingual and monolingual language functioning. We specifically focus on how these models address the issue of selective vs. non-selective language access in the multilingual language user and discuss how these conceptual paradigms can be applied to human language processing in general. We focus specifically on three factors that modulate selective/non-selective access: (1) lexical features (2) language dominance and (3) semantic context.
The strength of each representation in the mental lexicon depends on factors such as word frequency and conceptual concreteness. For bilinguals, each concept has two lexical representations, and so representational strength also depends on the salience of first- and second-language activation and the dominance of each language. The relative salience of the dominant language is a critical reason for observed asymmetric language switching costs, but the language context can reverse this effect. Therefore, context is another important influence on the relative level of activation in the mental lexicon, a factor that is often overlooked in the literature. Here we explore the contribution of contextual cues on salience of representations in the mental lexicon for bilinguals.
Experimental studies examining the production and comprehension of language switches have provided evidence for a subtle but significant “switch cost:” switched words take longer to process than non-switched words (e.g., Altarriba, Kroll, Sholl, & Rayner, 1996; Gollan & Ferreira, 2009; Gollan, Montoya, & Werner, 2002; Meuter & Allport, 1999). However, bilingual speakers produce code-switches seamlessly and effortlessly (Myers-Scotton, 2002) and do not experience disruptions during the comprehension of naturally occurring code-switches (Guzzardo Tamargo, 2012). These two observations suggest that bilinguals make use of particular sources of information to seemingly alleviate the challenges associated with switching between two languages. In the work presented here, we ask whether the cognate status of switched words may be one such source of information. To examine this question, the eye movements of Spanish-English early and late bilinguals were recorded while they read sentences on a computer screen. The experimental stimuli consisted of 4 versions of the same sentence, corresponding to 4 experimental conditions. Conditions 1 and 2 were code-switched conditions with a progressive verb. In Condition 1 the switch occurred immediately before the verb (…los instructores are preparing) and in Condition 2 it occurred at the verb (…los instructores están preparing). Conditions 3 and 4 were analogous to Conditions 1 and Conditions 2 but involved a verb in the perfect form (…los instructores have prepared and los instructores han prepared). Critically, half of the verbs (48) were cognates (‘prepare’/ ‘preparar’) and half were non-cognates (‘ship’/ ‘enviar’). Bilinguals demonstrated an asymmetry in how they process code-switched sentences with the perfect structure vis-à-vis code-switched sentences with the progressive structure, and how cognate status impacted the integration of code-switch.
Difficulty retrieving words that are known to the speaker is common in certain pathologies, such as aphasia and dementia, but may also occur in apathological change associated with healthy aging and with first language attrition. This chapter reviews findings from bilingual individuals who experience compromised lexical retrieval, focusing on three sub-populations. We first review lexical change in the first language of healthy bilingual adults who are immersed in their second language. Studies of bilingual speakers who acquire aphasia resulting from brain damage are then reviewed, demonstrating the complex influence of a variety of speaker- and language-related variables. Finally, data from studies with older bilinguals who experience typical and pathological aging-related language change are addressed. These three sources of evidence highlight the dynamic nature of the mental lexicon and the complex nature of lexical change in adulthood.
In English, as in most of the world’s languages, the majority of words are multimorphemic. In the psycholinguistic literature on lexical processing in bilinguals, however, multimorphemic words have thus far received relatively little treatment. In this chapter, we discuss the opportunities that the study of multimorphemic words afford. We also consider the consequences that a multimorphemic perspective may have on the conceptualization of the bilingual mental lexicon in general and on the links among lexical reoperations within in. We present a study of compound processing among Hebrew-English bilinguals. These bilinguals performed a lexical decision task with constituent priming in both their languages. We investigated within and between language priming effects as well as differences among compound word types. Results point to a highly integrated lexical organization but also illustrate the complexity of such experimental studies.
Language processing in older adults has been the subject of much recent research. While previous research on language processing in bilingual older adults has focused on vocabulary and lexical access, very little is known about potential effects of aging on grammar in bilinguals. The current study investigates morphologically complex words in old-age bilinguals using German past participle formation as a test case, for which grammar-based processes (-t suffixation) can be distinguished from memory-based properties (e.g., stem changes). We will discuss results from two experimental studies with young and old bilinguals as well as with young and old monolinguals relying on lexical priming and speeded production, to determine changes of morphological processing across the lifespan. Our findings indicate that lexically mediated priming effects, which require access of inflected word forms from memory, are affected by aging. The combinatorial aspects of morphological processing (viz. stem+affix decomposition), however, seem to be more stable.
Write a piece about your experience as a multilingual, I was asked. A personal piece, then. Maybe not as belaboured an enterprise as producing a scientific thesis on one of the many facets of multilingualism, but infinitely more intimidating. A baring of the soul of sorts, because the history of one’s languages is essentially one’s own history, and personal histories are intimate. Yet my story cannot be a factual chronology of my life as a polyglot, of my meanderings across political and linguistic borders. The relationship I have to my languages is too visceral for precise dates, precise geographies, precise events. There will be no exact whens, whys and hows. I can only tell an emic tale.
What might the study of language processing look like if the canonical language user were assumed to be bilingual? In this chapter we offer some reflections on how the origins, assumptions and practices of psycholinguistics constructed a particular view of language and of the typical language user, with distinct consequences for the construction of bilingualism as an object of inquiry. We suggest that if psycholinguistics is to fully embrace its “bilingual turn” it will benefit from exploring new ways of conceptualizing and approaching the study of bilingual language processing rather than uncritically adopting questions and approaches that were initially framed to understand single language use. Specifically, we suggest that research designs that allow language phenomena to emerge, rather than be expressly manipulated or restricted by researchers’ preconceived assumptions and that build in a broader range of variables and consider an expanded range of bilingual groups, will advance our understanding of the bilingual mental lexicon in important ways.
In some circles in psycholinguistics, there is the view that words are the least interesting aspect of language processing. In others, there is the view that monolingual speakers will tell us all that we need to know about language in the mind and the brain. In the past two decades there has been an upsurge of research on bilingualism and much of it has examined the lexicon. The new research on lexical processing in bilinguals has revealed persistent activation of words in both languages even when comprehending or producing one language alone. The consequences of this discovery have been profound for understanding the architecture of the lexicon and the dynamics of lexical access more generally. Cross-language activation changes both languages and engages domain general cognitive mechanisms that extend beyond language. There is a level of interaction between the bilingual‘s two languages that shapes a dynamic system to enable comprehension and production in each language and that is reflected in both behavior and in the brain. Most critically, research on the bilingual lexicon has become a model for the examination of cross-language interactions at every level of language processing, including the grammar and phonology. It also exposes the dynamics of the lexicon in a way that would not be known if we examined monolingual performance alone. In this chapter we review the most exciting new behavioral and neural evidence on the bilingual lexicon and consider the implications for learning new words, adapting existing ones, and for acquiring cognitive control more generally.
One common assumption in the second language acquisition literature is that learning words in a second language (L2) is somehow distinct from acquiring new words in a native language (L1), particularly for beginning adult learners. Indeed, several models of the bilingual lexicon ascribe a special status or protection mechanism (often lexical mediation via the L1 translation equivalent) to new L2 words during early stages of acquisition (e.g., Grainger, Midgley, & Holcomb, 2010; Kroll & Stewart, 1994; Kroll, Van Hell, Tokowicz, & Green, 2010). In this chapter, we examine this assumption by comparing parasitic models, which posit such separate learning processes for L1 and L2 words, and non-parasitic models, which do not. To do so, we review empirical evidence related to word learning in beginning adult L2 learners, with a focus on the influence of the lexical and conceptual knowledge from their L1. Are there factors that differentially affect word learning in the L1 versus the L2 or at different levels of L2 proficiency? If so, how can identifying these factors inform our understanding of the underlying mechanisms? Answering these questions challenges the notion that a special mechanism is necessary for L2 word learning in adults and outlines a research agenda to gain further insight into these issues.
Several theoretical accounts have been developed to describe the nature of the bilingual mental lexicon. In the last decades, functional magnetic resonance studies have provided some insight into the neural basis of lexical processing in healthy bilinguals and in bilinguals with aphasia. This chapter will discuss the bilingual mental lexicon as a complex knowledge system, which behaves dynamically as a function of various factors, including L1 and L2 proficiency level (exposure and use), psycholinguistic (semantic and phonological) characteristics of words within and across the spoken languages, learning methods, and the environment where learning happens (formal vs. informal), which in turn have an impact on the type of memory processing (implicit vs. explicit) involved in word storage. The bilingual mental lexicon is revealed as even more complex when phonological and semantic similarities and differences within and across languages are taken into account.
The current chapter takes the approach that the default mental lexicon is the bilingual mental lexicon. We present a subset of models from the bilingual research literature and argue that such models could be adapted to simultaneously explain multilingual and monolingual language functioning. We specifically focus on how these models address the issue of selective vs. non-selective language access in the multilingual language user and discuss how these conceptual paradigms can be applied to human language processing in general. We focus specifically on three factors that modulate selective/non-selective access: (1) lexical features (2) language dominance and (3) semantic context.
The strength of each representation in the mental lexicon depends on factors such as word frequency and conceptual concreteness. For bilinguals, each concept has two lexical representations, and so representational strength also depends on the salience of first- and second-language activation and the dominance of each language. The relative salience of the dominant language is a critical reason for observed asymmetric language switching costs, but the language context can reverse this effect. Therefore, context is another important influence on the relative level of activation in the mental lexicon, a factor that is often overlooked in the literature. Here we explore the contribution of contextual cues on salience of representations in the mental lexicon for bilinguals.
Experimental studies examining the production and comprehension of language switches have provided evidence for a subtle but significant “switch cost:” switched words take longer to process than non-switched words (e.g., Altarriba, Kroll, Sholl, & Rayner, 1996; Gollan & Ferreira, 2009; Gollan, Montoya, & Werner, 2002; Meuter & Allport, 1999). However, bilingual speakers produce code-switches seamlessly and effortlessly (Myers-Scotton, 2002) and do not experience disruptions during the comprehension of naturally occurring code-switches (Guzzardo Tamargo, 2012). These two observations suggest that bilinguals make use of particular sources of information to seemingly alleviate the challenges associated with switching between two languages. In the work presented here, we ask whether the cognate status of switched words may be one such source of information. To examine this question, the eye movements of Spanish-English early and late bilinguals were recorded while they read sentences on a computer screen. The experimental stimuli consisted of 4 versions of the same sentence, corresponding to 4 experimental conditions. Conditions 1 and 2 were code-switched conditions with a progressive verb. In Condition 1 the switch occurred immediately before the verb (…los instructores are preparing) and in Condition 2 it occurred at the verb (…los instructores están preparing). Conditions 3 and 4 were analogous to Conditions 1 and Conditions 2 but involved a verb in the perfect form (…los instructores have prepared and los instructores han prepared). Critically, half of the verbs (48) were cognates (‘prepare’/ ‘preparar’) and half were non-cognates (‘ship’/ ‘enviar’). Bilinguals demonstrated an asymmetry in how they process code-switched sentences with the perfect structure vis-à-vis code-switched sentences with the progressive structure, and how cognate status impacted the integration of code-switch.
Difficulty retrieving words that are known to the speaker is common in certain pathologies, such as aphasia and dementia, but may also occur in apathological change associated with healthy aging and with first language attrition. This chapter reviews findings from bilingual individuals who experience compromised lexical retrieval, focusing on three sub-populations. We first review lexical change in the first language of healthy bilingual adults who are immersed in their second language. Studies of bilingual speakers who acquire aphasia resulting from brain damage are then reviewed, demonstrating the complex influence of a variety of speaker- and language-related variables. Finally, data from studies with older bilinguals who experience typical and pathological aging-related language change are addressed. These three sources of evidence highlight the dynamic nature of the mental lexicon and the complex nature of lexical change in adulthood.
In English, as in most of the world’s languages, the majority of words are multimorphemic. In the psycholinguistic literature on lexical processing in bilinguals, however, multimorphemic words have thus far received relatively little treatment. In this chapter, we discuss the opportunities that the study of multimorphemic words afford. We also consider the consequences that a multimorphemic perspective may have on the conceptualization of the bilingual mental lexicon in general and on the links among lexical reoperations within in. We present a study of compound processing among Hebrew-English bilinguals. These bilinguals performed a lexical decision task with constituent priming in both their languages. We investigated within and between language priming effects as well as differences among compound word types. Results point to a highly integrated lexical organization but also illustrate the complexity of such experimental studies.
Language processing in older adults has been the subject of much recent research. While previous research on language processing in bilingual older adults has focused on vocabulary and lexical access, very little is known about potential effects of aging on grammar in bilinguals. The current study investigates morphologically complex words in old-age bilinguals using German past participle formation as a test case, for which grammar-based processes (-t suffixation) can be distinguished from memory-based properties (e.g., stem changes). We will discuss results from two experimental studies with young and old bilinguals as well as with young and old monolinguals relying on lexical priming and speeded production, to determine changes of morphological processing across the lifespan. Our findings indicate that lexically mediated priming effects, which require access of inflected word forms from memory, are affected by aging. The combinatorial aspects of morphological processing (viz. stem+affix decomposition), however, seem to be more stable.