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Article published In:
Translation, Cognition & Behavior
Vol. 1:1 (2018) ► pp.42–73

Lexical access in trilinguals

Evidence from a double masked translation priming paradigm

| Paris-Est Créteil University
| Paul Valery University, Montpellier

An original double-masked translation priming study investigates how trilingual translation trainees process their non-dominant languages (L2 and L3) and how these languages influence one another. We recruited 24 French (L1)- English (L2)- Spanish (L3) unbalanced trilinguals to perform lexical decision tasks in their L2 and L3. Target words were preceded by two primes, which were either the same word (repetition), a translation in one language, translations in two languages or unrelated words (in one or two languages). The results highlighted strong translation priming effects, with a repetition effect in both target languages. In addition, when the translation primes belonged to the other non-dominant language, reaction times (RTs) were slower in comparison to semantically unrelated primes in the same priming language. When two different languages were presented as a prime, L1 primes were more efficient when presented as first prime. These results are in line with previous experiments on masked translation priming studies in trilinguals and suggest that the multilingual lexicon is mediated by the L1.

Keywords: trilingualism, translation trainees, lexical decision, masked translation priming, repetition priming, switch cost
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Language switching in translators and simultaneous interpreters
    • 1.2Masked priming paradigm studies in multilinguals
    • 1.3Connections between the two non-native languages
  • 2.The present study
    • 2.1Variables and conditions
    • 2.2Methods
      • 2.2.1Participants
      • 2.2.2Stimuli
      • 2.2.3Apparatus and procedure
      • 2.2.4Results
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Overall analysis
      • 3.1.1Reaction times
      • 3.1.2Error rates
    • 3.2English lexical decision (L2 targets)
      • 3.2.1Reaction times
      • 3.2.2Error rates
    • 3.3L3 Lexical decision
      • 3.3.1Reaction times
      • 3.3.2Error rates
  • 4.Discussion and conclussions
    • 4.1Language repetition
    • 4.2Translation priming
    • 4.3Related and unrelated primes
    • 4.4Language switching
  • References


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Published online: 2 March 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tcb.00003.apa
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