Article published in:
Emotion words in the monolingual and bilingual lexiconEdited by Jeanette Altarriba, Aneta Pavlenko and Norman Segalowitz
[The Mental Lexicon 3:1] 2008
► pp. 47–71
Feeling affect in a second language
The role of word recognition automaticity
Norman Segalowitz | Concordia University, Montréal
Pavel Trofimovich | The Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance
Anecdotal evidence from second language users and results from experimental studies indicate that affectively valent words are not always represented identically in a person’s first language (L1) and second language (L2) mental lexicons. The present study investigated whether such differences reflect how automatic (immediate, involuntary) the processing is of the affective element of affectively valent words, and what the relation is between this kind of processing and general word recognition efficiency for L2 words lacking affective valency. Participants were 48 L1 speakers of English with L2 French. Automaticity of processing adjectives with affective valence was operationalized using an Implicit Affect Association Task (IAAT) developed for this purpose. General efficiency in L2 word recognition was operationalized using a speeded semantic classification task with affectively neutral concrete nouns. Reaction time results from the IAAT showed that the processing of affectively valent words was less automatic in the L2 than in the L1. However, results from the semantic classification task indicated that this effect is not related to general weaker L2 word recognition abilities. Implications for an understanding of the L2 mental lexicon are discussed.
Published online: 07 April 2008
https://doi.org/10.1075/ml.3.1.05seg
https://doi.org/10.1075/ml.3.1.05seg
Cited by
Cited by 22 other publications
Caldwell-Harris, Catherine L.
2015. Emotionality Differences Between a Native and Foreign Language.
Current Directions in Psychological Science 24:3 ► pp. 214 ff. 
DEGNER, JULIANE, CVETA DOYCHEVA & DIRK WENTURA
2012. It matters how much you talk: On the automaticity of affective connotations of first and second language words.
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 15:1 ► pp. 181 ff.
Fernández-Mira, Paloma, Emily Morgan, Sam Davidson, Aaron Yamada, Agustina Carando, Kenji Sagae & Claudia H. Sánchez-Gutiérrez
2021. Lexical diversity in an L2 Spanish learner corpus.
International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 7:2 ► pp. 230 ff.
Ferré, Pilar, Manuel Anglada-Tort & Marc Guasch
2018. Processing of emotional words in bilinguals: Testing the effects of word concreteness, task type and language status.
Second Language Research 34:3 ► pp. 371 ff.
FERRÉ, PILAR, ROSA SÁNCHEZ-CASAS & ISABEL FRAGA
2013. Memory for emotional words in the first and the second language: Effects of the encoding task.
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 16:3 ► pp. 495 ff.
Garrido, Margarida V. & Marília Prada
2021. Comparing the valence, emotionality and subjective familiarity of words in a first and a second language.
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 24:2 ► pp. 275 ff.
Gutierrez, Anna, Maura Pilotti, Eric Romero, Salif Mahamane & Tyler Broderick
2013. Proactive interference between languages: Do task demands matter?.
International Journal of Bilingualism 17:4 ► pp. 505 ff.
Imbault, Constance, Debra Titone, Amy Beth Warriner & Victor Kuperman
2021. How are words felt in a second language: Norms for 2,628 English words for valence and arousal by L2 speakers.
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 24:2 ► pp. 281 ff.
Javier, Rafael Art. & Marko Lamela
2020.
In Assessing Trauma in Forensic Contexts,
► pp. 151 ff.
Joyce, Paul
2013. Word Recognition Processing Efficiency as a Component of Second Language Listening.
International Journal of Listening 27:1 ► pp. 13 ff.
Macklem, Gayle L.
2011.
In Evidence-Based School Mental Health Services,
► pp. 61 ff.
Mergen, Filiz & Gulmira Kuruoglu
2021. PROCESSING EMOTION WORDS IN THE LATE-LEARNED L2.
Psycholinguistics in a Modern World 16 ► pp. 205 ff.
Miozzo, Michele, Eduardo Navarrete, Martino Ongis, Enrica Mello, Vittorio Girotto & Francesca Peressotti
2020. Foreign language effect in decision-making: How foreign is it?.
Cognition 199 ► pp. 104245 ff.
Ni, Chuanbin & Xiaobing Jin
2020. Will Emotional Effects Modulate L2 Lexical Attrition as they Do in L2 Acquisition?.
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 49:4 ► pp. 583 ff.
Opitz, Bertram & Juliane Degner
2012. Emotionality in a second language: It's a matter of time.
Neuropsychologia 50:8 ► pp. 1961 ff.
Pavlenko, Aneta
2012. Affective processing in bilingual speakers: Disembodied cognition?.
International Journal of Psychology 47:6 ► pp. 405 ff.
Pavlenko, Aneta
2017. Do you wish to waive your rights? Affect and decision-making in multilingual speakers.
Current Opinion in Psychology 17 ► pp. 74 ff.
Pili-Moss, Diana, Katherine A. Brill-Schuetz, Mandy Faretta-Stutenberg & Kara Morgan-Short
2020. Contributions of declarative and procedural memory to accuracy and automatization during second language practice.
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 23:3 ► pp. 639 ff.
Rost, Michael
2014. Listening in a Multilingual World: The Challenges of Second Language (L2) Listening.
International Journal of Listening 28:3 ► pp. 131 ff.
Sheikh, Naveed A. & Debra Titone
2016. The embodiment of emotional words in a second language: An eye-movement study.
Cognition and Emotion 30:3 ► pp. 488 ff.
Simcox, Travis, Maura Pilotti, Salif Mahamane & Eric Romero
2012. Does the language in which aversive stimuli are presented affect their processing?.
International Journal of Bilingualism 16:4 ► pp. 419 ff.
Toivo, Wilhelmiina, Christoph Scheepers & Kristof Strijkers
2019. Pupillary responses to affective words in bilinguals’ first versus second language.
PLOS ONE 14:4 ► pp. e0210450 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.