Bilingualism

In the world today, bilingualism is more common than monolingualism. Thus, the default mental lexicon may in fact be the bilingual lexicon. More than ever, social and technological innovation have created a situation in which lexical knowledge may change dramatically throughout an individual’s lifetime. This book offers a new perspective for the understanding of these phenomena and their consequences for the representation of words in the mind and brain. Contributing authors are leaders in the field who provide a re-analysis of key assumptions and a re-focusing of research. They bring new insights and new findings that advance the understanding of both bilingualism and the mental lexicon. This volume serves to generate new directions and advances in bilingualism research.

Prof. Norman Segalowitz, Concordia University (Montreal):
The works in this volume are based on a truly provocative assumption—that to properly understand the mental lexicon, bilingualism is the correct default context for studying it. For this reason alone, this collection makes a significant contribution. The chapters, all written by leading researchers, provide thorough and compelling analyses, and touch on a comprehensive range of ways to think about the dynamic and integrated nature of the mental lexicon. Graduate students and seasoned researchers alike will profit from the wealth of ideas in this volume. This is a must-have reference for all mental lexicon theorists and researchers.