John Benjamins Publishing Company
“Multilingual brains”
Abstract
Individual differences in multilinguals are considered as group-specific behavior and processing. For this review paper, we selected two lines of research to look into more specifically. In the first research project, two groups of multilinguals (early and late trilinguals) are compared on a sentence processing task using fMRI. Findings showed the specific differences in processing due to age of onset. The second project compared two groups of healthy bilinguals differing in their susceptibility to switch unintentionally between two languages. A variety of tasks and different methods (including psycholinguistics and electroencephalography) allowed isolating the key factor distinguishing both groups: cognitive control (assessed by executive functions tasks). The non-switcher group was more efficient, faster and more correct, whereas the switchers showed difficulties of language control and cognitive control, in particular being more distracted by irrelevant information.
Abstract
Individual differences in multilinguals are considered as group-specific behavior and processing. For this review paper, we selected two lines of research to look into more specifically. In the first research project, two groups of multilinguals (early and late trilinguals) are compared on a sentence processing task using fMRI. Findings showed the specific differences in processing due to age of onset. The second project compared two groups of healthy bilinguals differing in their susceptibility to switch unintentionally between two languages. A variety of tasks and different methods (including psycholinguistics and electroencephalography) allowed isolating the key factor distinguishing both groups: cognitive control (assessed by executive functions tasks). The non-switcher group was more efficient, faster and more correct, whereas the switchers showed difficulties of language control and cognitive control, in particular being more distracted by irrelevant information.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Foreword xi
-
Part I. How language is acquired and lost in multilingual settings
- Case marking in child L1 and early child L2 German 3
- First exposure learners make use of top-down lexical knowledge when learning words 23
- Wh -questions in Dutch 47
- The emergence of a new variety of Russian in a language contact situation 63
- The acquisition of gender agreement marking in Polish 81
- Discourse cohesion in the elicited narratives of early Russian-German sequential bilinguals 101
- German segments in the speech of German-Spanish bilingual children 121
- Agreement within early mixed DP 137
- Gender marking in L2 learners and Italian-German bilinguals with German as the weaker language 153
- A bidirectional study of object omissions in French-English bilinguals 171
- Foreign language reforms in Swiss primary schools 189
- “Multilingual brains” 207
-
Part II. How language changes in multilingual settings
- Subject-verb inversion in 13th century German and French 223
- Multilingual constructions 241
- Pseudo-coordinations in Faroese 259
- Toward a fused lect 281
- The formation and distribution of the analytic future tense in Polish-German bilinguals 297
- Changing conventions in English-German translations of popular scientific texts 315
- Perception and interpretation of intonational prominence in varieties of South African English 335
- The prosody of Occitan-French bilinguals 349
- Diachronic prosody of a contact variety 365
- Devoicing of sibilants as a segmental cue to the influence of Spanish onto current Catalan phonology 391
-
Part III. How language is used in multilingual settings
- Explaining the interpreter’s unease 407
- Measuring bilingual accommodation in Welsh rural pharmacies 419
- Becoming bilingual in a multilingual context 437
- List of contributors 457
- Name index 461
- Subject index 469
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Foreword xi
-
Part I. How language is acquired and lost in multilingual settings
- Case marking in child L1 and early child L2 German 3
- First exposure learners make use of top-down lexical knowledge when learning words 23
- Wh -questions in Dutch 47
- The emergence of a new variety of Russian in a language contact situation 63
- The acquisition of gender agreement marking in Polish 81
- Discourse cohesion in the elicited narratives of early Russian-German sequential bilinguals 101
- German segments in the speech of German-Spanish bilingual children 121
- Agreement within early mixed DP 137
- Gender marking in L2 learners and Italian-German bilinguals with German as the weaker language 153
- A bidirectional study of object omissions in French-English bilinguals 171
- Foreign language reforms in Swiss primary schools 189
- “Multilingual brains” 207
-
Part II. How language changes in multilingual settings
- Subject-verb inversion in 13th century German and French 223
- Multilingual constructions 241
- Pseudo-coordinations in Faroese 259
- Toward a fused lect 281
- The formation and distribution of the analytic future tense in Polish-German bilinguals 297
- Changing conventions in English-German translations of popular scientific texts 315
- Perception and interpretation of intonational prominence in varieties of South African English 335
- The prosody of Occitan-French bilinguals 349
- Diachronic prosody of a contact variety 365
- Devoicing of sibilants as a segmental cue to the influence of Spanish onto current Catalan phonology 391
-
Part III. How language is used in multilingual settings
- Explaining the interpreter’s unease 407
- Measuring bilingual accommodation in Welsh rural pharmacies 419
- Becoming bilingual in a multilingual context 437
- List of contributors 457
- Name index 461
- Subject index 469
