Bilingual Mental Lexicon and Translation: A Psycholinguistic Study of Bengali-English Language Pairs

Abstract

This study explores the cognitive processes involved in translation between two languages through a psycholinguistic approach, specifically by examining the bilingual mental lexicon. The study investigates how bilingual individuals access and use their knowledge of both languages to perform translation tasks and the factors that influence the translation process. Results indicate that the mental representation of words and their meanings in each language influences the translation process, with bilinguals varying in their reliance on each language depending on factors such as proficiency, context, and task demands. The study contributes to the field of psycholinguistics by expanding our understanding of the mechanisms involved in translation and the bilingual mental lexicon. Future research could explore how different types of bilinguals approach translation tasks and how context and task demand influence translation performance. The study has practical implications for language education, language processing, and translation.