Morphological integration and the bilingual lexicon
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Gary Libben
Abstract
In English, as in most of the world’s languages, the majority of words are multimorphemic. In the psycholinguistic literature on lexical processing in bilinguals, however, multimorphemic words have thus far received relatively little treatment. In this chapter, we discuss the opportunities that the study of multimorphemic words afford. We also consider the consequences that a multimorphemic perspective may have on the conceptualization of the bilingual mental lexicon in general and on the links among lexical reoperations within in. We present a study of compound processing among Hebrew-English bilinguals. These bilinguals performed a lexical decision task with constituent priming in both their languages. We investigated within and between language priming effects as well as differences among compound word types. Results point to a highly integrated lexical organization but also illustrate the complexity of such experimental studies.
Abstract
In English, as in most of the world’s languages, the majority of words are multimorphemic. In the psycholinguistic literature on lexical processing in bilinguals, however, multimorphemic words have thus far received relatively little treatment. In this chapter, we discuss the opportunities that the study of multimorphemic words afford. We also consider the consequences that a multimorphemic perspective may have on the conceptualization of the bilingual mental lexicon in general and on the links among lexical reoperations within in. We present a study of compound processing among Hebrew-English bilinguals. These bilinguals performed a lexical decision task with constituent priming in both their languages. We investigated within and between language priming effects as well as differences among compound word types. Results point to a highly integrated lexical organization but also illustrate the complexity of such experimental studies.
Chapters in this book
- 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
Chapters in this book
- 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
