The representation of "false cognates" in the bilingual lexicon

Towards a distributed connectionist account of cognates and interlingual homographs: evidence from semantic relatedness tasks

Background

Current models of how bilinguals process cognates (e.g., "wolf", which has the same meaning in Dutch and English) and interlingual homographs (e.g., "angel", meaning "insect's sting" in Dutch) are based primarily on data from lexical decision tasks. A major drawback of such tasks is that it is difficult-if not impossible-to separate processes that occur during decision making (e.g., response competition) from processes that take place in the lexicon (e.g., lateral inhibition). Instead, we conducted two English semantic relatedness judgement experiments.

Methods

In Experiment 1, highly proficient Dutch-English bilinguals (N = 29) and English monolinguals (N = 30) judged the semantic relatedness of word pairs that included a cognate (e.g., "wolf"-"howl"; n = 50), an interlingual homograph (e.g., "angel"-"heaven"; n = 50) or an English control word (e.g., "carrot"-"vegetable"; n = 50). In Experiment 2, another group of highly proficient Dutch-English bilinguals (N = 101) read sentences in Dutch that contained one of those cognates, interlingual homographs or the Dutch translation of one of the English control words (e.g., "wortel" for "carrot") approximately 15 minutes prior to completing the English semantic relatedness task.

Results

In Experiment 1, there was an interlingual homograph inhibition effect of 39 ms only for the bilinguals, but no evidence for a cognate facilitation effect. Experiment 2 replicated these findings and also revealed that cross-lingual long-term priming had an opposite effect on the cognates and interlingual homographs: recent experience with a cognate in Dutch speeded processing of those items 15 minutes later in English but slowed processing of interlingual homographs. However, these priming effects were smaller than previously observed using a lexical decision task.

Conclusion

After comparing our results to studies in both the bilingual and monolingual domain, we argue that bilinguals appear to process cognates and interlingual homographs as monolinguals process polysemes and homonyms, respectively. In the monolingual domain, processing of such words is best modelled using distributed connectionist frameworks. We conclude that it is necessary to explore the viability of such a model for the bilingual case.

Data scripts materials and pre-registrations

Experiment 1: http://www.osf.io/ndb7p; Experiment 2: http://www.osf.io/2at49.

Does language similarity affect representational integration?

Previous studies have suggested that multilingual speakers do not represent their languages entirely separately but instead share some representations across languages. To determine whether sharing is affected by language similarity, we investigated whether participants' tendency to repeat syntax across languages was affected by language similarity. In three cross-linguistic structural priming experiments, trilingual Mandarin-Cantonese-English participants heard a sentence in Cantonese or English (which they matched to a picture) and then described a dative event in Mandarin. When prime and target sentences involved different actions (Experiment 1), structural priming was unaffected by language similarity. But when prime and target involved the same action (Experiments 2 and 3), priming was stronger between related languages (i.e., Cantonese to Mandarin) than unrelated languages (i.e., English to Mandarin). Similar languages are not more integrated than dissimilar languages overall, but the representations that connect lexical and syntactic information are more closely integrated.

Predictors of Item Accuracy on the Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes Peabody for Spanish-English Speaking Children in the United States

This study examines the response patterns of 288 Spanish-English dual language learners on a standardized test of receptive Spanish vocabulary. Investigators analyzed responses to 54 items on the Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes (TVIP) (Dunn & Dunn, 2007) focusing on differential accuracy on items influenced by a) cross-linguistic overlap, b) context (home/school), and c) word frequency in Spanish. The response patterns showed cross-linguistic overlap in phonology was a significant predictor of accuracy at the item level. After accounting for item number (expected difficulty level), context of exposure was a significant predictor of the likelihood of obtaining a correct response. Spanish word frequency was not a significant predictor of accuracy. The current findings substantiate the influence of cross-linguistic overlap in phonology and context on Spanish vocabulary recognition by Spanish-English speaking children. Children were more likely to obtain correct responses on lexical items that were associated with the home context. Researchers and practitioners should consider phonological cross-linguistic overlap in addition to context of word exposure and word frequency when designing and utilizing vocabulary assessments for children from linguistic minority backgrounds.

Cross-linguistic transfer effects after phonologically based cognate therapy in a case of multilingual specific language impairment (SLI)

BACKGROUND

Clinicians globally recognize as exceptionally challenging the development of effective intervention practices for bi- or multilingual children with specific language impairment (SLI). Therapy in both or all of an impaired child's languages is rarely possible. An alternative is to develop treatment protocols that facilitate the transfer of therapy effects from a treated language to an untreated language.

AIMS

To explore whether cognates, words that share meaning and phonological features across languages, could be used to boost lexical retrieval in the context of multilingual SLI. This is dependent on exploiting the phonological information in the one, trained language as a mechanism for (phonological) language transfer to the other, untrained languages.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

The participant is an 8.5-year-old girl diagnosed with SLI who showed a severe naming deficit in her three spoken languages (Bulgarian, English and Greek). She received training on cognates (n = 20) using a picture-based naming task in English only, three times a week, over a 4-week period for 20 min each time. Phonological-based naming therapy was carried out using form-based strategies.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

There was a significant improvement during therapy and immediately after intervention on cognate performance in English which was maintained 1 month after intervention. Cognate production in Bulgarian and Greek also improved during all stages of the intervention. Improvement in the non-treated languages was slightly more than half of the improvement recorded in English. The findings reflected some degree of cross-linguistic transfer effects.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

Cross-linguistic transfer effects were evident during therapy and after therapy had finished and the effects were maintained 1 month post-treatment. Both the native language (Bulgarian) and the dominant language (Greek) benefitted equally from the treatment of cognates in English. Generalization to non-treatment words was evident, predominantly for English. The results suggest that cognates can indeed be used successfully as a WFD intervention strategy for multilingual children with SLI with lasting effects.

Aphasia therapy in the age of globalization: cross-linguistic therapy effects in bilingual aphasia

Introduction. Globalization imposes challenges to the field of behavioural neurology, among which is an increase in the prevalence of bilingual aphasia. Thus, aphasiologists have increasingly focused on bilingual aphasia therapy and, more recently, on the identification of the most efficient procedures for triggering language recovery in bilinguals with aphasia. Therapy in both languages is often not available, and, thus, researchers have focused on the transfer of therapy effects from the treated language to the untreated one. Aim. This paper discusses the literature on bilingual aphasia therapy, with a focus on cross-linguistic therapy effects from the language in which therapy is provided to the untreated language. Methods. Fifteen articles including two systematic reviews, providing details on pre- and posttherapy in the adult bilingual population with poststroke aphasia and anomia are discussed with regard to variables that can influence the presence or absence of cross-linguistic transfer of therapy effects. Results and Discussion. The potential for CLT of therapy effects from the treated to the untreated language depends on the word type, the degree of structural overlap between languages, the type of therapy approach, the pre- and postmorbid language proficiency profiles, and the status of the cognitive control circuit.

The Bilingual Language Interaction Network for Comprehension of Speech

During speech comprehension, bilinguals co-activate both of their languages, resulting in cross-linguistic interaction at various levels of processing. This interaction has important consequences for both the structure of the language system and the mechanisms by which the system processes spoken language. Using computational modeling, we can examine how cross-linguistic interaction affects language processing in a controlled, simulated environment. Here we present a connectionist model of bilingual language processing, the Bilingual Language Interaction Network for Comprehension of Speech (BLINCS), wherein interconnected levels of processing are created using dynamic, self-organizing maps. BLINCS can account for a variety of psycholinguistic phenomena, including cross-linguistic interaction at and across multiple levels of processing, cognate facilitation effects, and audio-visual integration during speech comprehension. The model also provides a way to separate two languages without requiring a global language-identification system. We conclude that BLINCS serves as a promising new model of bilingual spoken language comprehension.

Impaired L1 and executive control after left basal ganglia damage in a bilingual Basque-Spanish person with aphasia

Bilinguals must focus their attention to control competing languages. In bilingual aphasia, damage to the fronto-subcortical loop may lead to pathological language switching and mixing and the attrition of the more automatic language (usually L1). We present the case of JZ, a bilingual Basque-Spanish 53-year-old man who, after haematoma in the left basal ganglia, presented with executive deficits and aphasia, characterised by more impaired language processing in Basque, his L1. Assessment with the Bilingual Aphasia Test revealed impaired spontaneous and automatic speech production and speech rate in L1, as well as impaired L2-to-L1 sentence translation. Later observation led to the assessment of verbal and non-verbal executive control, which allowed JZ's impaired performance on language tasks to be related to executive dysfunction. In line with previous research, we report the significant attrition of L1 following damage to the left basal ganglia, reported for the first time in a Basque-Spanish bilingual. Implications for models of declarative and procedural memory are discussed.

Effects of cognate status on word comprehension in second language learners: an ERP investigation

ERPs were used to explore the different patterns of processing of cognate and noncognate words in the first (L1) and second (L2) language of a population of second language learners. L1 English students of French were presented with blocked lists of L1 and L2 words, and ERPs to cognates and noncognates were compared within each language block. For both languages, cognates had smaller amplitudes in the N400 component when compared with noncognates. L1 items that were cognates showed early differences in amplitude in the N400 epoch when compared with noncognates. L2 items showed later differences between cognates and noncognates than L1 items. The results are discussed in terms of how cognate status affects word recognition in second language learners.

Cognate status and cross-script translation priming

Greek-French bilinguals were tested in three masked priming experiments with Greek primes and French targets. Related primes were the translation equivalents of target words, morphologically related to targets, or phonologically related to targets. In Experiment 1, cognate translation equivalents (phonologically similar translations) showed facilitatory priming, relative to matched phonologically related primes, in conditions in which morphologically related primes showed no effect (50-msec prime exposure). Cross-language morphological priming emerged at longer prime exposure durations (66 msec), but cognate primes continued to generate more priming than did those in the morphological condition. In Experiments 2 and 3, the level of phonological overlap across translation equivalents was varied, and priming effects were measured against those for matched phonologically related primes and those in an unrelated prime condition. When measured against the unrelated baseline, cognate primes showed the typical advantage over noncognate primes. However, this cognate advantage disappeared when priming was measured against the phonologically related prime condition. The results are discussed in terms of how translation equivalents are represented in bilingual memory.