Bilingual Mental Lexicon Research Articles

Memória lexical e semântica de bilíngues

Issues regarding the organization and processing of the bilingual mental lexicon present a challenge for researchers interested in investigating second language acquisition. Research related to the memory of words for the bilingual’s two languages present different results, which intensify this debate. On one side of this debate, researchers support a theory that there is a shared storage for the lexicons of the first and second languages; on the other side, researchers support a theory that storage is separate. This debate also raises questions related to the activation of the bilingual’s two languages during lexical production. The present paper reviews two models of bilingual lexical and semantic memory (RHM and BIA+) and the studies associated with the models. The goal is to address whether semantic memory of the bilingual’s two languages is represented in an integrated way.

The Impact of Metalinguistic English Vocabulary Knowledge and Lexical Inferencing on EFL Learners’ Lexical Knowledge Considering the Cross-Linguistic Issue of L1 Lexicalization

The present study endeavors to unravel the enigma of the psycholinguistic mechanisms underpinning bilingual mental lexicon by analyzing the issue of L1 lexicalization as a construct epitomizing an overarching framework. It involves 78 juniors at the Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch. The study inspects the impact of the interventionist/noninterventionist treatments on both sets of lexicalized and nonlexicalized items pedagogically. It further tries to bring the bilingual mental lexicon under scrutiny by investigating the cross-linguistic issue of L1 lexicalization psycholinguistically. The results, obtained through the independent t-test, indicate a significant difference between the two groups dealing with both sets of items. The paired t-test shows that the learners had a greater degree of familiarity with lexicalized items at pretesting, and they were more successful in learning lexicalized items at posttesting. However, no significant difference was found in gain scores in the two groups. The descriptive analyses indicate that the number of lexicalized words produced productively was approximately two times as many as the number of nonlexicalized items at the same level in the interventionist group. Moreover, the number of nonlexicalized items learned partially was much greater in comparison with their lexicalized counterparts. The results have implications for EFL methodologists and theoreticians.

Universal structures and their functions in bilingual mental lexicon

The paper presents a research of universal structures and their functioning in the mental lexicon of an adult, studying L2 in classroom conditions. Bilingual mental lexicon is modeled in form of associative-verbal network on the basis of the materials of word association tests with native Russian-speaking subjects at different levels of their English language proficiency (beginner level and intermediate level). A universal structure is represented by a local grouping of nodes, expressed by different language code and characterized by integral meaning, which is distributed along two between-node connections. Universal structures preserve their stability in the mental lexicon at different levels of L2 proficiency; are formed in the direction from the surface linguistic level to the deep conceptual one; fulfill the connecting, integrative and mediating functions and provide for the processes of inter-lingual interaction of L1 and L2 in the network.

FMRI Research on the Bilingual Brain

In this article, I review the use of the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique to investigate the bilingual brain. Specifically, this review will discuss the types of research questions that can be (and have been) answered using this specific methodology, as well as questions this technique cannot answer. The review will then focus on providing a recent overview of fMRI studies of the bilingual mental lexicon, bilingual sentence processing, and the bilingual advantage in cognitive control. The pros and cons of this technique will be discussed in detail. This review will end with a discussion of the state of the art in the field of bilingual brain research and will provide avenues for future research directions to continue investigating the bilingual brain.

The effect of age of L2 acquisition on the organization of the bilingual lexicon: Evidence from masked priming

This study investigates the role of age of acquisition (AoA) on the bilingual mental lexicon. Four groups of participants were tested: (i) English native speakers with minimal exposure to French; (ii) late English–French bilinguals; (iii) early English–French bilinguals; and (iv) simultaneous English–French bilinguals. We used a masked priming paradigm to investigate early, automatic lexical processing at the semantic level by testing both a within-language semantic condition and a cross-language translation condition. AoA was investigated both through group effects and a correlation analysis. We found significant translation priming effects for the simultaneous and early bilinguals only, and a significant correlation between AoA and translation priming effects. Due to the matched L2 proficiency of the early and late bilinguals, these results support our hypothesis that an early AoA, regardless of L2 proficiency, is crucial in order to find the L2-to-L1 priming effects that have often been elusive in recent studies.

Just a matter of scope

Mental load is an important construct in reading, writing, bilingualism, and multitasking research. It is also an implicit concept in most accounts of both translators’ mental processes and expertise, where it is often related to controlled and automated processes, which are interrelated. TPR projects tend to equate problem solving with controlled processing, but problem solving is not fully conscious or analytic and TPR should consider many other factors and the translation event as a whole. On the other hand, automated processes seem to comprise several phenomena, such as the optimization of the bilingual mental lexicon, the proceduralization of translation routines, and the development of translation-specific monitoring and evaluative processes and coping tactics. Many of the coping tactics translators develop are epistemic actions that deserve further study. Focusing on mental load in TPR may foster both theoretical and empirical efforts and also establish a bridge with interpreting research.

Interlingual influence in bilingual speech: Cognate status effect in a continuum of bilingualism

The present study investigates voice onset times (VOTs) to determine if cognates enhance the cross-language phonetic influences in the speech production of a range of Spanish–English bilinguals: Spanish heritage speakers, English heritage speakers, advanced L2 Spanish learners, and advanced L2 English learners. To answer this question, lexical items with considerable phonological, semantic, and orthographic overlap (cognates) and lexical items with no phonological overlap with their English translation equivalents (non-cognates) were examined. The results indicate that there is a significant effect of cognate status in the Spanish production of VOT by Spanish–English bilinguals. These bilinguals produced /t/ with longer VOT values (more English-like) in the Spanish production of cognates compared to non-cognate words. It is proposed that the exemplar model of lexical representation (Bybee, 2001; Pierrehumbert, 2001) can be extended to include bilingual lexical connections by which cognates facilitate phonetic interference in the bilingual mental lexicon.

The Bilingual Mental Lexicon: Interdisciplinary Approaches edited by PAVLENKO, ANETA

article reviews the book The Bilingual Mental Lexicon: Interdisciplinary Approaches, edited by Aneta Pavlenko.

Bilingual compound processing: The effects of constituent frequency and semantic transparency

Two lexical decision experiments were designed to address the effects of frequency and semantic transparency of the constituent morphemes in bilingual compound processing. In Experiment 1, the frequency of the second constituent morphemes and the lexicality of the translated compounds in the non-target language were manipulated. A significant interaction in RT data between the constituent frequency and the lexicality of the non-target language was revealed: the lexicality effect of the non-target language was stronger for compounds with high-frequency second constituents compared to those with low-frequency ones. In Experiment 2, the semantic transparency of the constituents of the target language, the lexicality of the non-target language, and the second language (L2) proficiency of the participants were manipulated. A significant three-way interaction was found: for the high-proficient group, there was a lexicality effect for opaque words but not for transparent words. For the low-proficient group, no interaction was found between semantic transparency and the lexicality of the non-target language. Taken together, these findings provided evidence for compound decomposition, cross-language activation in bilingual mental lexicon, and for the mediator role of L2 proficiency.

Neural circuitry of the bilingual mental lexicon: Effect of age of second language acquisition

Numerous studies have proposed that changes of the human language faculty caused by neural maturation can explain the substantial differences in ultimate attainment of grammatical competences between first language (L1) acquirers and second language (L2) learners. However, little evidence on the effect of neural maturation on the attainment of lexical knowledge in L2 is available. The present functional magnetic resonance study addresses this question via a cross-linguistic neural adaptation paradigm. Age of acquisition (AoA) of L2 was systematically manipulated. Concrete nouns were repeated across language (e.g., French–German, valise suitcase–Koffer suitcase). Whereas early bilinguals (AoA of L2 < 3 years) showed larger repetition enhancement (RE) effects in the left superior temporal gyrus, the bilateral superior frontal gyrus and the right posterior insula, late bilinguals (AoA of L2 > 10 years) showed larger RE effects in the middle portion of the left insula and in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG). We suggest that, as for grammatical knowledge, the attainment of lexical knowledge in L2 is affected by neural maturation. The present findings lend support to neurocognitive models of bilingual word recognition postulating that, for both early and late bilinguals, the two languages are interconnected at the conceptual level.

Second language vocabulary acquisition from language input and from form-focused activities

Interest in L2 vocabulary learning and teaching started long before the nineteen-eighties (for references to earlier studies, see Rob Waring's database http://www1.harenet.ne.jp/~waring/vocab/vocrefs/vocref.html) but it declined with the advent of generative linguistics to the point of discrimination and neglect (Meara 1980). In 1986, I argued that vocabulary was about to acquire a legitimate and prominent place within applied linguistics (Laufer 1986), but I did not envisage the vast quantities of lexical research that would have been produced in the following two decades. One of the central concerns of vocabulary researchers is the source of L2 vocabulary learning. Is it L2 input, enhanced input, interaction, communicative tasks, non-communicative ‘artificial’ exercises, list learning, or repetition? A similar question is addressed by SLA researchers in general. This similarity of interests, which demonstrates the integration of vocabulary into mainstream SLA, prompted me to define the topic of this timeline as I did. And since the field of SLA developed in the 1980s, this timeline starts in the nineteen-eighties. I focus here on the external sources of learning, i.e. language input and instructional techniques, and not on learner-related variables, like motivation, L1, age, or strategies of learning. Nor do I focus on any other areas of lexical research, important as they may be, such as the construct of vocabulary knowledge, lexical development, testing, bilingual mental lexicon, or corpora analyses.

The Composite Nature of Interlanguage as a Developing System

This paper explores the nature of interlanguage (IL) as a developing system with a focus on the abstract lexical structure underlying IL construction. The developing system of IL is assumed to be ‘composite’ in that in second language acquisition (SLA) several linguistic systems are in contact, each of which may contribute different amounts to the developing system. The lexical structure is assumed to be ‘abstract’ in that the mental lexicon contains abstract elements called ‘lemmas’, which contain information about individual lexemes, and lemmas in the bilingual mental lexicon are language-specific and are in contact in IL production. Based on the research findings, it concludes that language transfer in IL production should be understood as lemma transfer of the learner’s first language (L1) lexical structure at three abstract levels: lexical-conceptual structure, predicate-argument structure, and morphological realization patterns, and IL construction is driven by an incompletely acquired abstract lexical structure of a target language (TL) item.

Introduction

Introduction

Structural and conceptual equivalence in the acquisition and use of emotion words in a second language

The purpose of the study presented here is to examine the importance of structural and conceptual (non-)equivalence in the acquisition and use of emotion words in a second language (L2). The use of these words is examined in a corpus of 206 narratives collected with two stimuli from first language (L1) speakers of Russian and English, and L2 learners of Russian and English. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses of lexical choices made by the participants show that in the case of structural non-equivalence L2 learners can shift patterns of structural selection in the mental lexicon. Thus, L2 learners of English pattern with L1 English speakers in favoring adjectival constructions in the same context where L1 and L2 Russian speakers favor verbs. Conceptual non-equivalence, on the other hand, was shown to complicate acquisition of emotion words and lead to negative transfer, lexical borrowing, and avoidance. Implications are offered for models of the bilingual mental lexicon and for L2 instruction.

The representation of grammatical gender in the bilingual lexicon: Evidence from Greek and German

This paper investigates the shared or independent nature of grammatical gender representations in the bilingual mental lexicon and the role word form similarity (as in the case of cognates) plays in these representations. In a translation task from Greek (L1) to German (L2), nouns that had the same gender in both languages were translated faster than nouns with different genders, but only when the L2 target utterance required computation of gender agreement (adjective + noun). This tendency held for both cognates and noncognates. Unlike noncognates, however, gender-incongruent cognates yielded more errors than gender-congruent cognates. These results are interpreted as evidence for a shared L1–L2 gender system with L2 cognates relying more heavily on the L1 gender value than noncognates.

Processing verb argument structure across languages: Evidence for shared representations in the bilingual lexicon

Although the organization of first language (L1) and second language (L2) lexicosemantic information has been extensively studied in the bilingual literature, little evidence exists concerning how syntactic information associated with words is represented across languages. The present study examines the shared or independent nature of the representation of verb argument structure in the bilingual mental lexicon and the contribution of constituent order and thematic role information in these representations. In three production tasks, Greek (L1) advanced learners of English (L2) generated an L1 prime structure (Experiment 1: prepositional object [PO] and double object [DO] structures; Experiment 2: PO, DO, and intransitive structures; Experiment 3: PO, DO, locative, and “provide(someone)with(something)” structures) before completing an L2 target structure (PO or DO only). Experiment 1 showed L1-to-L2 syntactic priming; participants tended to reuse L1 structure when producing L2 utterances. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that this tendency was contingent on the combination of both syntactic structure and thematic roles up to the first postverbal argument. Based on these findings, we outline a model of shared representations of syntactic and thematic information for L1 and L2 verbs in the bilingual lexicon.

Bilingual education &amp; bilingualism

Bilingual education &amp; bilingualism

Shared and separate meanings in the bilingual mental lexicon

This paper proposes a shared, distributed, asymmetrical model for the bilingual mental lexicon. To test the sharing of conceptual relations across translation equivalents, Experiment 1 used the classical priming paradigm with specific methodological innovations, trying to satisfy various constraints that had not been addressed in previous studies. The results suggest shared storage for the conceptual representations of the bilingual's two vocabularies and asymmetrical links between concepts and lexical names in the two languages. Experiment 2 examined the details of meaning separation by eliciting semantic closeness rankings for conceptual relations that are equivalent across language translations and those that are not. The results indicate that bilinguals tend to integrate conceptual differences between translation equivalents, but that they also display a “separatist” tendency to maintain the L1 conceptual system in the representation of L1 words and to adopt the L2 conceptual system in the representation of L2 words.

Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition: A Lexical Input Processing Approach

Abstract: This article discusses the importance of vocabulary in second language acquisition (SLA), presents an overview of major strands of research on vocabulary acquisition, and discusses jive principles for effective second language (L2) vocabulary instruction based on research findings on lexical input processing. These principles emphasize presentation of new words as input, allocation of limited processing resources during vocabulary acquisition, distinct components of vocabulary knowledge (e.g., form, meaning, mapping), and appropriate types of instruction for different stages of development. Empirical support is included.

The Bilingual Mental Lexicon and Speech Production Process

The Chinese/English intrasentential code-switching data provide evidence that the bilingual mental lexicon involves language contact between language-specific semantic/pragmatic feature bundles. Lemmas in the mental lexicon are tagged for specific languages and contain semantic, syntactic, and morphological information about lexemes. In a bilingual mode, the speaker makes choices at the preverbal level of lexical-conceptual structure, and these choices activate the lemmas in the mental lexicon for the speaker's preverbal message to be morphosyntactically realized at the functional level of predicate-argument structure. The result will be language-specific surface forms at the positional level of morphological realization patterns. The languages involved in the bilingual's mixed speech are never equally activated, with one language projecting the sentential frame and the other supplying a particular type of morphemes for the speaker's communicative intentions.