Cover not available
Part of
Bilingual Cognition and Language: The state of the science across its subfields
Edited by David Miller, Fatih Bayram, Jason Rothman and Ludovica Serratrice
[Studies in Bilingualism 54] 2018
► pp. 307–324

Chapter 14
Words on the brain

The bilingual mental lexicon

| Gordon College
| University of California, Riverside
In this chapter, we view the recent evidence on the bilingual lexicon that points to a dynamic view of lexical processes. In contrast to earlier assumptions that words in the bilingual’s two languages were represented and processed independently, the findings of studies with both adults and children demonstrate that words in both languages are activated in parallel. Critically, the co-activation of the two languages does not depend on their structural similarity but on the very presence of the two languages themselves. The consequences of cross-language activation can be seen in language processing, not only from the first language (L1) to the second (L2) but also from the L2 to the L1. They can also be seen in the recruitment of cognitive resources in response to the demands of language processing and in the way that words come to influence language processes at the level of the grammar. From this perspective, the lexicon is far more than a collection of words but a lens into the dynamics of bilingualism.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Bilingual language co-activation
    • 2.1Adaptations to each language
    • 2.2Adaptations to context
  • 3.Changes to the lexicon as a function of bilingualism
  • 4.Links between the lexicon and syntax
  • 5.Consequences of bilingualism across the lifespan
  • 6.Conclusions
  • References
Published online: 8 March 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.54.14bob
References (81)
References
Abutalebi, J., & Green, D. W. (2008). Control mechanisms in bilingual language production: Neural evidence from language switching studies. Language and Cognitive processes, 23, 557–582. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2016). Neuroimaging of language control in bilinguals: neural adaptation and reserve. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19(4), 689–698. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Alladi, S., Bak, T. H., Duggirala, V., Surampudi, B., Shailaja, M., Shukla, A. K., … & Kaul, S. (2013). Bilingualism delays age at onset of dementia, independent of education and immigration status. Neurology, 81, 1938–1944. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Alladi, S., Bak, T. H., Mekala, S., Rajan, A., Chaudhuri, J. R., Mioshi, E., … & Kaul, S. (2016). Impact of bilingualism on cognitive outcome after stroke. Stroke, 47, 258–261. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ameel, E., Storms, G., Malt, B. C., & Sloman, S. A. (2005). How bilinguals solve the naming problem. Journal of Memory and Language, 53, 60–80. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bak, T. H., Nissan, J. J., Allerhand, M. M., & Deary, I. J. (2014). Does bilingualism influence cognitive aging? Annals of Neurology, 75, 959–963. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Benton, A. L., & Hamsher, K. (1976). Multilingual aphasia examination. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa.Google Scholar
Benton, A. L., & Hamsher, K. D. (1976). Multilingual examination. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2011). Reshaping the mind: the benefits of bilingualism. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue Canadienne de Psychologie Expérimentale, 65, 229. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E., Abutalebi, J., Bak, T. H., Burke, D. M., & Kroll, J. F. (2016). Aging in two languages: Implications for public health. Ageing Research Reviews, 27, 56–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Freedman, M., 2007. Bilingualism as a protection against the onset of symptoms of dementia. Neuropsychologia, 45, 459–464. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., & Luk, G. (2008). Lexical access in bilinguals. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 21, 522–538. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E., & Luk, G. (2012). Receptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingual adults. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 397–401. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bice, K., & Kroll, J. F. (2015). Native language change during early stages of second language learning. NeuroReport, 26, 966–971. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blumenfeld, H. K., & Marian, V. (2011). Bilingualism influences inhibitory control in auditory comprehension. Cognition, 118, 245–257. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013). Parallel language activation and cognitive control during spoken word recognition in bilinguals. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25, 547–567. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blumenfeld, H. K., Bobb, S. C., & Marian, V. (2016). The role of language proficiency, cognate status and word frequency in the assessment of Spanish–English bilinguals’ verbal fluency. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 18, 190–201. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blumenfeld, H. K., Schroeder, S. R., Bobb, S. C., Freeman, M. R., & Marian, V. (2016). Auditory word recognition across the lifespan: Links between linguistic and nonlinguistic inhibitory control in bilinguals and monolinguals. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 6, 119–146. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bobb, S. C., Drummond Nauck, L. Y., Altvater-Mackensen, N., Von Holzen, K., & Mani, N. (2016). Listening with your cohort. Cognitive Control and Consequences of Multilingualism, 2, 47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bobb, S. C., & Wodniecka, Z. (2013). Language switching in picture naming: What asymmetric switch costs (do not) tell us about inhibition in bilingual speech planning. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25, 568–585. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Broersma, M., & de Bot, K. (2006). Triggered codeswitching: A corpus-based evaluation of the original triggering hypothesis and a new alternative. Bilingualism: Language and cognition, 9, 1–13. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Calvo, A., & Bialystok, E. (2014). Independent effects of bilingualism and socioeconomic status on language ability and executive functioning. Cognition, 130, 278–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carlson, S. M., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2008). Bilingual experience and executive functioning in young children. Developmental Science, 11, 282–298. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chang, C. B. (2012). Rapid and multifaceted effects of second-language learning on first-language speech production. Journal of Phonetics, 40, 249–268. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chen, P., Bobb, S. C., Hoshino, N., & & Marian, V. (2017). Neural signatures of language co-activation and control in bilingual spoken word comprehension. Brain Research, 1665, 50–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Colomé, À. (2001). Lexical activation in bilinguals’ speech production: Language-specific or language-independent? Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 721–736. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cop, U., Dirix, N., Van Assche, E., Drieghe, D., & Duyck, W. (In press). Reading a book in one or two languages? An eye movement study of cognate facilitation in L1 and L2 reading. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.
Costa, A., Miozzo, M., & Caramazza, A. (1999). Lexical selection in bilinguals: Do words in the bilingual’s two lexicons compete for selection? Journal of Memory and Language, 41, 365–397. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
DeAnda, S., Poulin-Dubois, D., Zesiger, P., & Friend, M. (2016). Lexical processing and organization in bilingual first language acquisition: Guiding future research. Psychological Bulletin, 142, 655–667. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dijkstra, T. (2005). Bilingual word recognition and lexical access. In J. F. Kroll & A. M. B. de Groot (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 179–201). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dussias, P. E., & Sagarra, N. (2007). The effect of exposure on syntactic parsing in Spanish–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 10, 101–116. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Elston-Güttler, K. E., Gunter, T. C., & Kotz, S. A. (2005). Zooming into L2: Global language context and adjustment affect processing of interlingual homographs in sentences. Cognitive Brain Research, 25, 57–70. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Emmorey, K., Borinstein, H. B., Thompson, R. L., & Gollan, T. H. (2008). Bimodal Bilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11, 43–61. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fricke, M., Kroll, J. F., & Dussias, P. E. (2016). Phonetic variation in bilingual speech: A lens for studying the production–comprehension link. Journal of Memory and Language, 89, 110–137. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garbin, G., Sanjuan, A., Forn, C., Bustamante, J. C., Rodríguez-Pujadas, A., Belloch, V., … & Ávila, C. (2010). Bridging language and attention: Brain basis of the impact of bilingualism on cognitive control. NeuroImage, 53, 1272–1278. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gold, B. T., Kim, C., Johnson, N. F., Kryscio, R. J., & Smith, C. D. (2013). Lifelong bilingualism maintains neural efficiency for cognitive control in aging. The Journal of Neuroscience, 33, 387–396. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Golinkoff, R. M., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Cauley, K. M., & Gordon, L. (1987). The eyes have it: Lexical and syntactic comprehension in a new paradigm. Journal of Child Language, 14, 23–45. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gollan, T. H., & Acenas, L. A. R. (2004). What is a TOT? Cognate and translation effects on tip-of-the-tongue states in Spanish-English and tagalog-English bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30, 246.Google Scholar
Gollan, T. H., Montoya, R. I., Cera, C., & Sandoval, T. C. (2008). More use almost always means a smaller frequency effect: Aging, bilingualism, and the weaker links hypothesis. Journal of Memory and Language, 58, 787–814. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gollan, T. H., Montoya, R. I., Fennema-Notestine, C., & Morris, S. K. (2005). Bilingualism affects picture naming but not picture classification. Memory & Cognition, 33, 1220–1234. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gollan, T. H., Slattery, T. J., Goldenberg, D., Van Assche, E., Duyck, W., & Rayner, K. (2011). Frequency drives lexical access in reading but not in speaking: The frequency-lag hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 140, 186. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Green, D. W., & Abutalebi, J. (2013). Language control in bilinguals: The adaptive control hypothesis. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25, 515–530. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guo, T., Liu, H., Misra, M., & Kroll, J. F. (2011). Local and global inhibition in bilingual word production: fMRI evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals. NeuroImage, 56, 2300–2309. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hermans, D. (2004). Between-language identity effects in picture-word interference tasks: A challenge for language-nonspecific or language-specific models of lexical access? International Journal of Bilingualism, 8, 115–125. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hopp, H. (2014). Working memory effects in the L2 processing of ambiguous relative clauses. Language Acquisition, 21, 250–278. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hoshino, N., & Kroll, J. F. (2008). Cognate effects in picture naming: Does cross-language activation survive a change of script? Cognition, 106, 501–511. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ivanova, I., & Costa, A. (2008). Does bilingualism hamper lexical access in speech production? Acta Psychologica, 127, 277–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kroll, J. F., Bobb, S. C., & Hoshino, N. (2014). Two languages in mind: Bilingualism as a tool to investigate language, cognition, and the brain. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23, 159–163. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kroll, J. F., Dussias, P. E., Bice, K., & Perrotti, L. (2015). Bilingualism, mind, and brain. In M. Liberman & B. H. Partee (Eds.), Annual Review of Linguistics, 1, 377–394.Google Scholar
Kroll, J. F., Dussias, P. E., Bogulski, C. A., & Valdes-Kroff, J. (2012). Juggling two languages in one mind: What bilinguals tell us about language processing and its consequences for cognition. In B. Ross (Ed.), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation (Vol. 56, pp. 229–262). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Lauro, J., & Schwartz, A. I. (2017). Bilingual non-selective lexical access in sentence contexts: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Memory and Language, 92, 217–233. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Libben, M. R., & Titone, D. A. (2009). Bilingual lexical access in context: Evidence from eye movements during reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35 , 381–390.Google Scholar
Linck, J. A., Hoshino, N., & Kroll, J. F. (2008). Cross-language lexical processes and inhibitory control. The Mental Lexicon, 3, 349. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Linck, J. A., Kroll, J. F., & Sunderman, G. (2009). Losing access to the native language while immersed in a second language: Evidence for the role of inhibition in second-language learning. Psychological Science, 20, 1507–1515. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marian, V., & Spivey, M. (2003). Competing activation in bilingual language processing: Within-and between-language competition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 6, 97–115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marian, V., Spivey, M., & Hirsch, J. (2003). Shared and separate systems in bilingual language processing: Converging evidence from eyetracking and brain imaging. Brain and Language, 86, 70–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McLaughlin, J., Osterhout, L., & Kim, A. (2004). Neural correlates of second-language word learning: Minimal instruction produces rapid change. Nature Neuroscience, 7, 703–704. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meuter, R. F., & Allport, A.. (1999). Bilingual language switching in naming: Asymmetrical costs of language selection. Journal of Memory and Language, 40, 25–40. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Misra, M., Guo, T., Bobb, S. C., & Kroll, J. F. (2012). When bilinguals choose a single word to speak: Electrophysiological evidence for inhibition of the native language. Journal of Memory and Language, 67, 224–237. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Morford, J. P., Wilkinson, E., Villwock, A., Piñar, P. & Kroll, J. F. (2011). When deaf signers read English: Do written words activate their sign translations? Cognition, 118, 286–292. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Morton, J. B., & Harper, S. N. (2007). What did Simon say? Revisiting the bilingual advantage. Developmental Science, 10, 719–726. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Poarch, G. J., & Van Hell, J. G. (2012). Cross-language activation in children’s speech production: Evidence from second language learners, bilinguals, and trilinguals. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 111, 419–438. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Portocarrero, J. S., Burright, R. G., & Donovick, P. J. (2007). Vocabulary and verbal fluency of bilingual and monolingual college students. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 22, 415–422. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prior, A., & Gollan, T. H. (2011). Good language-switchers are good task-switchers: Evidence from Spanish-English and Mandarin-English bilinguals. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 17, 682. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013). The elusive link between language control and executive control: A case of limited transfer. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25, 622–645. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roberts, P. M., Garcia, L. J., Desrochers, A., & Hernandez, D. (2002). English performance of proficient bilingual adults on the Boston Naming Test. Aphasiology, 16, 635–645. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rosselli, M., & Ardila, A. (2002). A cross-linguistic comparison of verbal fluency tests. International Journal of Neuroscience, 112, 759–776. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sandoval, T. C., Gollan, T. H., Ferreira, V. S., & Salmon, D. P. (2010). What causes the bilingual disadvantage in verbal fluency? The dual-task analogy. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13, 231–252. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, A. I., & Kroll, J. F. (2006). Bilingual lexical activation in sentence context. Journal of Memory and Language, 55, 197–212. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, A. I., Kroll, J. F., & Diaz, M. (2007). Reading words in Spanish and English: Mapping orthography to phonology in two languages. Language and Cognitive Processes, 22, 106–129. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shook, A. (2014). Bilingual spoken language comprehension – A computational and empirical study of lexical semantic processing in pilinguals. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Shook, A., & Marian, V. (2013). The bilingual language interaction network for comprehension of speech. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16, 304–324. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spivey, M. J., & Marian, V. (1999). Cross talk between native and second languages: Partial activation of an irrelevant lexicon. Psychological Science, 10, 281–284. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thierry, G., & Wu, Y. J. (2007). Brain potentials reveal unconscious translation during foreign-language comprehension. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104, 12530–12535. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Assche, E., Duyck, W., & Gollan, T. H. (2013). Whole-language and item-specific control in bilingual language production. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 9, 1781–1792.Google Scholar
Von Holzen, K., & Mani, N. (2012). Language nonselective lexical access in bilingual toddlers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 113, 569–586. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2014). Bilinguals implicitly name objects in both their languages: An ERP study. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1415. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weber, A., & Cutler, A. (2004). Lexical competition in non-native spoken-word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 50, 1–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Woumans, E. V. Y., Santens, P., Sieben, A., Versijpt, J. A. N., Stevens, M., Duyck, W., 2015. Bilingualism delays clinical manifestation of Alzheimer’s disease. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18, 568–574 DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wu, Y. J., & Thierry, G. (2010). Chinese-English Bilinguals Reading English Hear Chinese. Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 7646–7651. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013). Fast modulation of executive function by language context in bilinguals. The Journal of Neuroscience, 33, 13533–13537. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Serratrice, Ludovica
2022. Chapter 7. What can syntactic priming tell us about crosslinguistic influence?. In Syntactic Priming in Language Acquisition [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 31], ► pp. 129 ff. DOI logo
Długosz, Kamil
2021. Lexikalischer Zugriff bei Mehrsprachigen: Eine Studie zur visuellen Verarbeitung von Kognaten im Polnischen als Erstsprache. Zeitschrift für Slawistik 66:1 ► pp. 45 ff. DOI logo
Długosz, Kamil
2023. The Gender Incongruency Effect in L3 Swedish due to Imperfect Gender Acquisition in L2 German. European Journal of Scandinavian Studies 53:1 ► pp. 117 ff. DOI logo
Rothman, Jason, Jorge González Alonso & Eloi Puig-Mayenco
2019. Third Language Acquisition and Linguistic Transfer, DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2022. Bilingualism, Language Development and Processing across the Lifespan [Bilingual Processing and Acquisition, 15], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 july 2024. 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.