The bilingual lexicon
-
Judith F. Kroll
Abstract
In some circles in psycholinguistics, there is the view that words are the least interesting aspect of language processing. In others, there is the view that monolingual speakers will tell us all that we need to know about language in the mind and the brain. In the past two decades there has been an upsurge of research on bilingualism and much of it has examined the lexicon. The new research on lexical processing in bilinguals has revealed persistent activation of words in both languages even when comprehending or producing one language alone. The consequences of this discovery have been profound for understanding the architecture of the lexicon and the dynamics of lexical access more generally. Cross-language activation changes both languages and engages domain general cognitive mechanisms that extend beyond language. There is a level of interaction between the bilingual‘s two languages that shapes a dynamic system to enable comprehension and production in each language and that is reflected in both behavior and in the brain. Most critically, research on the bilingual lexicon has become a model for the examination of cross-language interactions at every level of language processing, including the grammar and phonology. It also exposes the dynamics of the lexicon in a way that would not be known if we examined monolingual performance alone. In this chapter we review the most exciting new behavioral and neural evidence on the bilingual lexicon and consider the implications for learning new words, adapting existing ones, and for acquiring cognitive control more generally.
Abstract
In some circles in psycholinguistics, there is the view that words are the least interesting aspect of language processing. In others, there is the view that monolingual speakers will tell us all that we need to know about language in the mind and the brain. In the past two decades there has been an upsurge of research on bilingualism and much of it has examined the lexicon. The new research on lexical processing in bilinguals has revealed persistent activation of words in both languages even when comprehending or producing one language alone. The consequences of this discovery have been profound for understanding the architecture of the lexicon and the dynamics of lexical access more generally. Cross-language activation changes both languages and engages domain general cognitive mechanisms that extend beyond language. There is a level of interaction between the bilingual‘s two languages that shapes a dynamic system to enable comprehension and production in each language and that is reflected in both behavior and in the brain. Most critically, research on the bilingual lexicon has become a model for the examination of cross-language interactions at every level of language processing, including the grammar and phonology. It also exposes the dynamics of the lexicon in a way that would not be known if we examined monolingual performance alone. In this chapter we review the most exciting new behavioral and neural evidence on the bilingual lexicon and consider the implications for learning new words, adapting existing ones, and for acquiring cognitive control more generally.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Author information ix
- Prologue xiii
- The dynamic lexicon 1
- Languages without borders 7
- The bilingual lexicon 27
- Mechanisms underlying word learning in second language acquisition 49
- The bilingual mental lexicon 73
- Non-selective language activation and bilingualism as the default mental lexicon 103
- The influence of contextual cues on representations in the mental lexicon for bilinguals 123
- When cognate status produces no benefits 143
- Lexical retrieval difficulty in bilingual speakers with and without pathology 181
- Morphological integration and the bilingual lexicon 197
- Morphological processing in old-age bilinguals 217
- Index 249
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Author information ix
- Prologue xiii
- The dynamic lexicon 1
- Languages without borders 7
- The bilingual lexicon 27
- Mechanisms underlying word learning in second language acquisition 49
- The bilingual mental lexicon 73
- Non-selective language activation and bilingualism as the default mental lexicon 103
- The influence of contextual cues on representations in the mental lexicon for bilinguals 123
- When cognate status produces no benefits 143
- Lexical retrieval difficulty in bilingual speakers with and without pathology 181
- Morphological integration and the bilingual lexicon 197
- Morphological processing in old-age bilinguals 217
- Index 249
