Specific Questions

1
Intralingual Homographs The impact of L2 lexical
acquisition on L1
Julia Peters Manuel SinorUniversity of
Alberta, Canada
Manuel Sinormsinor_at_ualberta.ca
Julia Petersjuliap_at_ualberta.ca
Specific Questions
Methodology
Basic Question
Will form overlap in one language (e.g., voler)
create links between the translation equivalents
in the other language (e.g., fly steal)?
Will the acquisition of another language change
the way in which words of the first language are
stored and organized in the Mental Lexicon?
Means of Testing primed lexical decision task
to see if the one of the intralingual homographs
translation equivalents (e.g., fly) will prime
the other translation equivalent (e.g., steal)

• PROCEDURE for Bilingual E/F Group
• Part A Primed Lexical Decision Task in English
  -- Monolingual language mode ? E(F)
• Part B Short recorded interview in French to
  activate French lexicon and gather background
  information on participant
• Part C Dual Language Primed Lexical Decision
  Task -- Bilingual language mode ? E/F

Evidence that knowledge of an L2 changes the
relationship of L1 words to other L1 words could
indicate a close proximity of words from
different languages within one unified bilingual
word storage system.
?
FLY
STEAL
VOLER

• PROCEDURE English Only Group
• Primed Lexical Decision Task completely in
  English E

Current Views on Bilingual Lexicon

• External communicative circumstances will affect
  the level of interlingual interaction, with more
  interaction taking place within a bilingual mode
  of processing (Grosjean 1998). So..

Results
Dual Lexicon View one lexicon per language

• intuitive appeal proficient bilinguals would
  typically report little interlingual interference
• slower perception of code-switched speech
  (Grosjean Soares 1986)
• alternate availability of the two languages in
  bilingual aphasics (Paradis et al. 1982)

• Error Delayed Response Analysis
• Eliminated target wore from subsequent analysis
  due to errors/delays

Will the language mode (monolingual mode vs.
bilingual mode) alter the extent of activation
between words of the two languages, with more
activation occurring during bilingual mode
processing?
Homogenous Lexicon View all words in one lexicon

• history of bilingual memory modeling legitimizes
  this hypothesis (cf. Libben, 2000)
• ample evidence for cross-linguistic priming
  (e.g., Hernandez et al. 1996, Van Heuven et al.
  1998)
• INTERLINGUAL HOMOGRAPH priming (Beauvillain
  Grainger 1987, de Groot et al. 2000)
• one word form with meanings in two languages
  (e.g., pain gt Eng. ache, Fr. bread)

• PILOT STUDY
• conducted a dual language lexical decision task
  with the translation equivalents (fly or steal)
  acting as the prime and the intralingual
  homograph (voler) acting as the target
• conducted a translation accuracy task with timed
  response
• results verified interlingual priming,
  eliminated certain problematic stimuli

• However, no WORE responses were problematic
  when primed by translation equivalent of
  intralingual homograph CARRIED

Intralingual Homographs
Our Stimuli

• Response Time Analysis
• Overall, no difference in processing target words
  between English Only (E), bilinguals in English
  monolingual mode (E(F)) and bilinguals in
  bilingual mode (E/F)

• INTRALINGUAL HOMOGRAPHS words with two distinct
  meanings in one of the bilingual's languages
• Fr. voler means both to steal and to fly
  (i.e., it has two distinct translation
  equivalents in English)
• Item Criteria
• no cognate translation equivalents (e.g.,
  pêche/peach)
• no interlingual homographs (e.g., courses)

MAIN STUDY

• REVISED STIMULUS SET
• PRIME TARGET French Intralingual Homograph
• 1. fly steal voler 2. carried wore
  portait 3. book pound livre 4. mouse smi
  le souris 5. wood drink boit 6. chee
  k play joue 7. summer been été 8. f
  act does fait 9. worms towards vers 1
  0. end thin fin

• However, when looking at prime/target pairs of
  the SAME SYNTACTIC CATEGORY, may be a priming
  effect in bilingual mode (E/F)

References Beauvillain, C. and J. Grainger,
(1987). Accessing interlingual homographs some
limitations of a language-selective access.
Journal of Memory and Language 26, 658-672. de
Groot, A. M. B., Delmaar, P., Lupker, S. J.
(2000). The processing of interlexical
homographs in translation recognition and lexical
decision Support for nonselective access to
bilingual memory. The Quarterly Journal of
Experimental Psychology, 53, 397-428. Grosjean,
F. and Soares, C. (1986). Processing mixed
language Some preliminary findings. In Vaid, J.
(Ed.). Language Processing in Bilinguals
Psycholinguistic and Neuropsychological
Perspectives. Hillsdale, New Jersey Lawrence
Erlbaum. Grosjean, F., (1998). Studying
bilinguals Methodological and conceptual issues.
Bilingualism Language and Cognition, 1 (2),
131-149. Hernandez A. E., Bates, E. A. Avila,
L. X. (1996). Processing across the language
boundary A cross-modal priming study of
Spanish-English bilinguals. Journal of
Experimental Psychology Learning, Memory, and
Cognition, 1996, 22, 4, July, 846-864. Libben,
G., (2000). Representation and processing in the
second language lexicon the Homogeneity
Hypothesis. In Archibald, J. (ed.), Second
Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theory.
Oxford Blackwell. Paradis, M. Goldblum, M.-C,
and R. Abidi (1982) Alternate antagonism with
paradoxical translation behavior in two bilingual
aphasic patients. Brain and Language,
1555-69. Van Heuven, W.J.B., Dijkstra, A.,
Grainger, J. (1998). Orthographic neighborhood
effects in bilingual word recognition. Journal of
Memory and Language, 39, 458-483.
Discussion

• PARTICIPANTS
• 16 speakers of French and English (bilingual)
• English is either first or early dominant
  language (if simultaneous acquisition)
• all functionally bilingual, at ease in French,
  and currently use both languages
• 16 native speakers of English with no or little
  knowledge of French (E)

• No evidence of links between general English
  words that share translation equivalents in
  French
• When processing in bilingual mode, connections
  may be enhanced as shown by
• priming of words that share both syntactic
  category translation equivalent
• lack of problems with wore in bilingual mode
  when primed by carried