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Lexical organization of language-ambiguous and language-specific words in bilinguals
Abstract and Figures
Previous research has shown the importance of sub-lexical orthographic cues in determining the language of a given word when the two languages of a bilingual reader share the same script. In this study we explored the extent to which cross-language sub-lexical characteristics of words -measured in terms of bigram frequencies- constrain selective language activation during reading. In Experiment 1, we investigated the impact of language-nonspecific and language-specific orthography in letter detection using the Reicher-Wheeler paradigm in a seemingly monolingual experimental context. In Experiment 2, we used the masked translation priming paradigm in order to better characterize the role of sub-lexical language cues during lexical access in bilinguals. Results show that bilinguals are highly sensitive to statistical orthographic regularities of their languages and that the absence of such cues promotes language-nonspecific lexical access, whereas their presence partially reduces parallel language activation. We conclude that language co-activation in bilinguals is highly modulated by sub-lexical processing and that orthographic regularities of the two languages of a bilingual are a determining factor in lexical access.
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... Nevertheless, other studies in which language membership was irrelevant to the task or conducted in a purely monolingual context, i.e., without the presence -or awareness-of the nontarget language, suggest instead an automatic processing of orthographic markers, which has recently led to another theoretical proposal: the BIA+s model see Fig. 4). A facilitation effect for marked words has been observed in experimental settings involving both languages but no overt requirement for language detection (see Table 2), such as the progressive demasking task (Casaponsa et al., 2014) or the Reicher-Wheeler forced-choice letter identification paradigm (Casaponsa & Duñabeitia, 2016). Such an effect has also been reported using a pseudoword naming task in which participants freely choose the language of the letter string, thus requiring more implicit language detection (Oganian et al., 2016). ...
... Such an effect has also been reported using a pseudoword naming task in which participants freely choose the language of the letter string, thus requiring more implicit language detection (Oganian et al., 2016). Finally, a markedness effect appeared in more 'monolingual' settings through the use of the lexical decision or semantic categorization tasks, either associated (Casaponsa et al., 2015Casaponsa & Duñabeitia, 2016;Commissaire, 2022) or not (Commissaire et al., 2019) with the masked priming paradigm. Using a standard lexical decision task, reported that French/English bilinguals were faster to recognize marked than unmarked English (L2) words but slower to reject marked pseudowords. ...
... Early detection of language membership through sublexical orthographic markers could theoretically have an impact on lexical activation in both languages and modulate the degree of language nonselectivity during lexical access by (1) promoting the selection of target language representations and 2) inhibiting nontarget language representations more rapidly. According to Casaponsa and Duñabeitia (2016), marked words would preferentially send activation to withinlanguage lexical representations while unmarked words would send activation to both within-and cross-language lexical representations. To our knowledge, only two studies have examined this proposal so far (Casaponsa & Duñabeitia, 2016;Commissaire, 2022), albeit using three different experimental paradigms. ...
In the past decade, research on bilingual visual word recognition has given rise to a new line of study focusing on a sublexical orthographic variable referred to as orthographic markedness, derived from the comparison of the two orthotactic distributions known by a bilingual reader. Orthographic markers have been shown to speed up language decisions but also, to some extent, to modulate language nonselectivity during lexical access (i.e., the degree of co-activation of lexical representations of the two languages). In this review, we (1) describe the results available in the literature about orthographic markedness on language membership detection and lexical access and discuss the locus of these effects, which leads us to (2) present theoretical extensions to the bilingual interactive activation models and discuss their respective adequacy to the data, finally leading us to (3) propose future research directions in the study of orthographic markedness, such as extension to different reading tasks and contexts as well as considering developmental and learning dynamics.
... Over the past two decades, researchers in the field of bilingualism have debated whether native language representations are spontaneously accessed during second language processing. Mounting evidence now supports language non-selective access in L2 reading, listening, and speaking (Thierry and Wu 2007;van Heuven and Dijkstra 2010;Wu et al. 2013;Spalek et al. 2014), although some studies have also provided evidence for selective access under specific conditions (Rodriguez-Fornells et al. 2002;FitzPatrick and Indefrey 2010;Casaponsa and Duñabeitia 2016;Casaponsa et al. 2020). ...
... The authors interpreted these results as showing that processing negative words in L2 impaired automatic access to L1 representations, thus eliminating translation-priming effects on the target word. Their findings showed that, in some circumstances, cross language-activation is blocked, as it has been shown in masked priming experiments manipulating language-specific orthographic cues (Casaponsa and Duñabeitia 2016;Casaponsa et al. 2020). ...
Depressed individuals are excessively sensitive to negative information but blunt to positive information, which has been considered as vulnerability to depression. Here, we focused on inhibitory control over attentional bias on social evaluation in individuals with depression. We engaged individuals with and without depressive symptoms (categorized by Beck Depression Inventory-II) in a novel attention control task using positive and negative evaluative adjectives as self-referential feedback given by social others. Participants were instructed to look at sudden onset feedback targets (pro-saccade) or the mirror location of the targets (anti-saccade) when correct saccade latencies and saccade errors were collected. The two indices showed that while both groups displayed longer latencies and more errors for anti-saccade relative to pro-saccade responses depressed individuals spent more time reacting correctly and made more errors than non-depressed individuals in the anti-saccade trials and such group differences were not observed in the pro-saccade trials. Although group differences in correct anti-saccade latencies were found for both positive and negative stimuli, depressed individuals spent more time making correct anti-saccade responses to negative social feedback than to positive ones whereas non-depressed individuals featured longer correct anti-saccade latencies for positive relative to negative evaluations. Our results suggest that depressed individuals feature an impaired ability in attention control for self-referential evaluations, notably those of negative valence, shedding new light on depression-distorted self-schema and corresponding social dysfunctions.
... Over the past two decades, researchers in the field of bilingualism have debated whether native language representations are spontaneously accessed during second language processing. Mounting evidence now supports language non-selective access in L2 reading, listening, and speaking (Thierry and Wu 2007;van Heuven and Dijkstra 2010;Wu et al. 2013;Spalek et al. 2014), although some studies have also provided evidence for selective access under specific conditions (Rodriguez-Fornells et al. 2002;FitzPatrick and Indefrey 2010;Casaponsa and Duñabeitia 2016;Casaponsa et al. 2020). ...
... The authors interpreted these results as showing that processing negative words in L2 impaired automatic access to L1 representations, thus eliminating translation-priming effects on the target word. Their findings showed that, in some circumstances, cross language-activation is blocked, as it has been shown in masked priming experiments manipulating language-specific orthographic cues (Casaponsa and Duñabeitia 2016;Casaponsa et al. 2020). ...
It is now well established that reading words in a second language (L2) automatically activates native language (L1) translations in bilinguals. Although there is evidence that access to such representations is inhibited when words have a negative emotional valence, the mechanism underlying such inhibition is elusive, and it is unknown whether inhibition arises online as L2 is being processed or whether negative valence affects subsequent L1 processing. Here, we recorded event-related brain potentials in Chinese-English bilinguals engaged in an implicit translation-priming paradigm involving L2 (English) word pairs. Participants performed a semantic relatedness task, unaware that word pairs could conceal a sound repetition if translated into Chinese. When emotional valence was manipulated in prime position (first word), we observed form repetition priming through L1 translations for positive but not for negative words. However, when emotional valence was manipulated in target position (second word), priming occurred for both positive and negative word valences. This result begins to elucidate the mechanism by which emotion regulates language processing in bilinguals: Negative words in L2 induce a refractory period during which cross-language lexical access is blocked. These findings show that despite being neuroanatomically distinct in the human brain, emotional (limbic) regulation systems can penetrate language processing.
... In a sense, this statement is true, but the characters were not the same characters, and this description of the methodology and the findings it produced may be misleading to readers. Comparable failures to match forced-choice alternatives across stimulus conditions when claiming to use the R-WP can also be found with letter-based stimuli and letter alternatives (Casaponsa and Duñabeitia, 2016;Laszlo and Federmeier, 2007), and across languages as diverse as Korean (Chen et al., 2017) and Croatian (Matić et al., 2018). ...
The study of word recognition has been influenced greatly by findings obtained when visual stimuli are presented very briefly. Under these conditions, a great deal of evidence suggests that words are perceived better than nonwords, and even single letters, and it is generally accepted that these “word superiority effects” reflect the relative efficiency with which words are perceived. For more than 50 years, a key procedure for establishing these effects has been the Reicher-Wheeler Paradigm in which potentially confounding effects of non-perceptual guesswork are cleverly suppressed. More recently, however, the actual nature of the Reicher-Wheeler paradigm and its contribution to research have become misrepresented in a range of publications, and its use in experiments has been confused and conflated with other, less sophisticated procedures. In this article we describe the actual contributions made by the Reicher-Wheeler Paradigm to word recognition research and show examples of how these important contributions have been misunderstood and misconceived in experiments reported in the recent literature.
... Building upon these findings, Schröter and Schroeder (2018) conducted an experiment with German-English bilingual children using a "monolingual" lexical decision task in both English and German. They discovered that bilingual children's word recognition systems initially rely solely on lexical-level information, unlike bilingual adults and teenagers, who utilize sublexical orthographic information as well, a concept supported by Casaponsa and Duñabeitia (2016). This finding suggests that bilingual children initially use a language-nonselective approach to lexical access, developing sensitivity to language-specific orthographic structures over time. ...
The study of bilingualism and its interaction with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) in children has often led to divergent theories and perspectives. This dissertation presents a comprehensive investigation into this complex interplay, employing a combination of behavioural analyses and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs). Across three distinct studies, it examines cognitive control, lexical processing, and executive functions in bilingual and monolingual children, both with and without DLD. Study 1 reexamines the widely accepted notion of a bilingual cognitive advantage. It unveils that bilingual children face distinct processing challenges, marked by prolonged reaction times and unique neural patterns, especially when encountering unfamiliar lexical stimuli. These findings illuminate the intricate cognitive processing dynamics inherent in bilingual contexts, challenging existing perceptions and adding depth to our understanding of bilingual cognition. Study 2 shifts focus to bilingual children with DLD, juxtaposing their abilities with those of typically developing bilingual peers. Contrary to the prevalent belief that bilingualism intensifies language disorders, the study reveals a nuanced, facilitative role of bilingualism in processing familiar lexical items, offering a fresh perspective on bilingual language development. Study 3 furthers this exploration by comparing bilingual and monolingual children with DLD. It discovers that while bilingualism introduces specific challenges in processing unfamiliar words, it does not invariably exacerbate cognitive control or familiar word processing difficulties. Collectively, these studies forge new paths in understanding the dynamic interplay between bilingualism and DLD. They propose that bilingualism can present both challenges and potential advantages in cognitive and linguistic development, compelling a revaluation of long-standing paradigms. This dissertation not only challenges established beliefs but also emphasizes the importance of considering individual linguistic experiences and cognitive strategies in deciphering bilingualism's role in language disorders. This work highlights the multifaceted nature of bilingualism and DLD, advocating for a more comprehensive and individualized approach in this evolving field.
... This is a task that requires the same responses to words and nonwords, while being heavily influenced by top-down lexical effects. For instance, many experiments have shown that it is easier to recognize letters when embedded in words than in nonwords (i.e., a word superiority effect; see also Reicher, 1969;Wheeler, 1970;McClelland, 1976;Prinzmetal, 1992;Grainger et al., 2003;Casaponsa and Duñabeitia, 2016;see Cattell, 1886, for the first demonstration). In the task, we presented each item briefly either intact (without diacritics) or with extra non-existent diacritical marks in the target language (Spanish) [e.g., words: amigo (friend) vs. ãmîgô; nonwords: agimo vs. ãgîmô]. ...
Introduction
Recent research has reported that adding non-existent diacritical marks to a word produces a minimal reading cost compared to the intact word. Here we examined whether this minimal reading cost is due to: (1) the resilience of letter detectors to the perceptual noise (i.e., the cost should be small and comparable for words and nonwords) or (2) top-down lexical processes that normalize the percept for words (i.e., the cost would be larger for nonwords).
Methods
We designed a letter detection experiment in which a target stimulus (either a word or a nonword) was presented intact or with extra non-existent diacritics [e.g., amigo (friend) vs. ãmîgô; agimo vs. ãgîmô]. Participants had to decide which of two letters was in the stimulus (e.g., A vs. U).
Results
Although the task involved lexical processing, with responses being faster and more accurate for words compared to nonwords, we found only a minimal advantage in error rates for intact stimuli versus those with non-existent diacritics. This advantage was similar for both words and nonwords.
Discussion
The letter detectors in the word recognition system appear to be resilient to non-existent diacritics without the need for feedback from higher levels of processing.
... This early timing emerges much earlier compared to classical language-related ERP components, which have been reported starting around ~200 ms (for single word reading: Kutas and Federmeier, 2011;Swaab et al., 2012;for picture naming: Ganushchak and Schiller, 2009;Indefrey and Levelt, 2004). In the reading task, one could argue that an early visual distinction of the word stimuli in the two languages could have triggered such an early effect (although Casaponsa and Duñabeitia, 2016, reported orthographic effects later in time, ~250 ms). ...
Is language selection decodable from neural activity in balanced bilinguals? Previous research employing various neuroimaging methods has not yielded a conclusive answer to this issue. However, direct brain stimulation studies in bilinguals have detected different brain regions related to language production in separate languages. In the present MEG study, we addressed this question in a group of proficient Spanish-Basque bilinguals (N=45), who performed two tasks. In a picture naming task, they were asked to name a picture either in Basque or in Spanish if the ink turned from black to green after one second (10% of trials). Similarly, in a word reading task, participants read printed words out loud only when the ink turned to green. Sensor-level evoked activity was similar for the two languages on both tasks. However, decoding analyses classified the language used in both tasks, starting ~100 ms after stimulus onset. Crucially, searchlight analyses revealed that the right occipital-temporal sensors contributed most to language decoding in the picture naming task, while the left occipital-temporal sensors contributed most to decoding in word reading. Temporal generalization analyses for the picture naming task showed a sustained effect, while for the word reading task two stages of processing (at ~100 ms and starting ~300 ms) were evident. Cross-task decoding analysis highlighted robust generalization effects from the picture naming to the word reading task in the later time interval. The present findings provide support for the possibility of exploring the trial-by-trail variability in MEG activity for dissociating languages in the bilingual brain. For the first time, we provide evidence for a differential role of the two hemispheres in language selection for picture naming and word reading. We also provide novel evidence on the shared language representations between naming and word reading.
... For example, bilinguals produce higher activation of both meanings of homonyms in comparison with monolinguals (Kousaie et al., 2015), which could be an effect of language co-activation and simultaneous activation of those meanings. Moreover, meanings of polysemic words are distributed more closely, with diverse depth levels, than those of homonyms (Rodd et al., 2004), and words sharing more sub-lexical similarities (Warms 1995) across languages are more closely organized in the mental lexicon than words sharing less similarities (Casaponsa & Duñabeitia, 2015). This may lead to faster spread of activation when words with high overlap in sub-lexical features are read. ...
Purpose
This study investigated the influence of L1 co-activation and meaning frequency of homonyms on L2 lexical access of Brazilian Portuguese–English bilinguals during an L2 meaning decision task.
Design
Eighty-four university students completed a meaning decision task—with cognate homonyms—a meaning recognition task, a Language History Questionnaire, and an L2 proficiency test. The meaning decision task was composed of 128 prime words followed by one out of three possible targets: related to the dominant meaning, related to the subordinate one, or unrelated. Independent variables were cognate status (64 cognate × 64 non-cognate words), homonym status (64 homonym × 64 non-homonyms), prime-sharedness (16 dominant meaning shared words × 16 subordinate meaning shared words), and target-relatedness (64 related to dominant meaning × 64 related to subordinate meaning × 64 unrelated words). Dependent variables were reaction times and accuracy.
Data and analysis
Data were analyzed using linear mixed effect models in R.
Findings
Results showed that, in this sample of bilinguals, processing of target words related to the meaning of the prime was confounded when primes were homonyms. In general, this interference was not decreased by the co-activation of cognate words across languages. Accuracy scores benefited from cognate status only when no ambiguity was present. Word processing was faster and more accurate when target words were related to the dominant meaning of the homonym prime, which shared this same meaning across languages.
Originality
L1 co-activation via cognate words was not enough to decrease homonym interference effect in L2 word processing.
Implications
This study lends support for a non-selective bilingual lexical access view and for frequency approaches during L2 word recognition. It also indicates limitations of the cognate facilitation effect.
Does neural activity reveal how balanced bilinguals choose languages? Despite using diverse neuroimaging techniques, prior studies haven’t provided a definitive solution to this problem. Nonetheless, studies involving direct brain stimulation in bilinguals have identified distinct brain regions associated with language production in different languages. In this magnetoencephalography study with 45 proficient Spanish–Basque bilinguals, we investigated language selection during covert picture naming and word reading tasks. Participants were prompted to name line drawings or read words if the color of the stimulus changed to green, in 10% of trials. The task was performed either in Spanish or Basque. Despite similar sensor-level evoked activity for both languages in both tasks, decoding analyses revealed language-specific classification ~100 ms post-stimulus onset. During picture naming, right occipital-temporal sensors predominantly contributed to language decoding, while left occipital-temporal sensors were crucial for decoding during word reading. Cross-task decoding analysis unveiled robust generalization effects from picture naming to word reading. Our methodology involved a fine-grained examination of neural responses using magnetoencephalography, offering insights into the dynamics of language processing in bilinguals. This study refines our understanding of the neural underpinnings of language selection and bridges the gap between non-invasive and invasive experimental evidence in bilingual language production.
Engleski se jezik smatra prestižnim, a takav je status povezan s jezičnim posuđivanjem, jezičnim stavovima i jezičnom izloženošću. Engleski je postao dominantan jezik davalac, a zbog prestižnog statusa umanjuje se vjerojatnost da će se posuđene riječi prilagoditi jeziku primaocu. Zbog toga se mnoge riječi posuđene iz engleskoga rabe u neprilagođenom obliku. U hrvatskome se jeziku preporučuje uporaba domaćih riječi, no čini se da one još uvijek u potpunosti ne zadovoljavaju potrebe govornika. Istraživanja su pokazala da hrvatski govornici imaju pozitivan stav prema engleskim riječima u neformalnom kontekstu, ali i da je uporaba engleskih riječi povezana s boljom procjenom osobe u kategoriji socijalne poželjnosti. To se može objasniti jezičnim prestižem, ali i izloženošću engleskom jeziku, koja u novije vrijeme počinje već u predškolskoj dobi, a za mnoge je govornike svakodnevna. Izloženost jeziku pogoduje spontanom usvajanju jezika te je prepoznata kao važan čimbenik u istraživanju dvojezičnosti u širem smislu. Time se stvaraju uvjeti za istraživanje kognitivne obrade engleskih riječi u okviru dvojezične obrade jezika, a nedavno razvijeni računalno–jezikoslovni i psiholingvistički resursi za hrvatski jezik omogućuju provođenje eksperimentalnih istraživanja. Cilj ovoga rada je predstaviti interdisciplinarni pristup engleskim riječima, razmotriti dostupne resurse i eksperimentalne metode te izložiti pojavu engleskih riječi u teorijskom okviru dvojezičnosti i dvojezične obrade jezika. Ovaj istraživački pravac još nije ispitivan u drugim jezicima te predstavlja novi pristup u istraživanjima dvojezične leksičke obrade
Hebrew–English cognates (translations similar in meaning and form) and noncognates (translations similar in meaning only) were examined in masked translation priming. Enhanced priming for cognates was found with L1 (dominant language) primes, but unlike previous results, it was not found with L2 (nondominant language) primes. Priming was also obtained for noncognates, whereas previous studies showed unstable effects for such stimuli. The authors interpret the results in a dual-lexicon model by suggesting that (a) both orthographic and phonological overlap are needed to establish shared lexical entries for cognates (and hence also symmetric cognate priming), and (b) script differences facilitate rapid access by providing a cue to the lexical processor that directs access to the proper lexicon, thus producing stable noncognate priming. The asymmetrical cognate effect obtained with different scripts may be attributed to an overreliance on phonology in L2 reading.
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.
How do bilinguals detect the language of the words they read? Recent electrophysiological research using the masked priming paradigm combining primes and targets from different languages has shown that bilingual readers identify the language of the words within approximately 200 milliseconds. Recent evidence shows that language-detection mechanisms vary as a function of the orthographic markedness of the words (i.e., whether or not a given word contains graphemic combinations that are not legal in the other language). The present study examined how the sub-lexical orthographic regularities of words are used as predictive cues. Spanish-Basque bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals (control group) were tested in an Event-Related Potential (ERP) experiment, using the masked priming paradigm. During the experiment, Spanish targets were briefly preceded by unrelated Spanish or Basque words. Unrelated Basque words could contain bigram combinations that are either plausible or implausible in the target language (Spanish). Results show a language switch effect in the N250 and N400 components for marked Basque primes in both groups, whereas, in the case of unmarked Basque primes, language switch effects were found in bilinguals but not monolinguals. These data demonstrate that statistical orthographic regularities of words play an important role in bilingual language detection, and provide new evidence supporting the assumptions of the BIA+ extended model.
Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Numerous studies have shown that the native language influences foreign word recognition and that this influence is modulated by the proficiency in the non-native language. Here we explored how the degree of reliance on cross-language similarity (as measured by the cognate facilitation effect) together with other domain-general cognitive factors contribute to reading comprehension achievement in a non-native language at different stages of the learning process. We tested two groups of native speakers of Spanish learning English at elementary and intermediate levels in an academic context. A regression model approach showed that domain-general cognitive skills are good predictors of second language reading achievement independently of the level of proficiency. Critically, we found that individual differences in the degree of reliance on the native language predicted foreign language reading achievement, showing a markedly different pattern between proficiency groups. At lower levels of proficiency the cognate facilitation effect was positively related with reading achievement, while this relation became negative at intermediate levels of foreign language learning. We conclude that the link between native- and foreign-language lexical representations helps participants at initial stages of the learning process, whereas it is no longer the case at intermediate levels of proficiency, when reliance on cross-language similarity is inversely related to successful non-native reading achievement. Thus, at intermediate levels of proficiency strong and direct mappings from the non-native lexical forms to semantic concepts are needed to achieve good non-native reading comprehension, in line with the premises of current models of bilingual lexico-semantic organization.
This article explores how bilinguals perform automatic morphological decomposition processes, focusing on within- and cross-language masked morphological priming effects. In Experiment 1, unbalanced Spanish (L1)-English (L2) bilingual participants completed a lexical decision task on English targets that could be preceded by morphologically related or unrelated derived masked English and Spanish prime words. The cognate status of the masked Spanish primes was manipulated, in order to explore to what extent form overlap mediates cross-language morphological priming. In Experiment 2, a group of balanced native Basque-Spanish speakers completed a lexical decision task on Spanish targets preceded by morphologically related or unrelated Basque or Spanish masked primes. In this experiment, a large number of items were tested and the cognate status was manipulated according to a continuous measure of orthographic overlap, allowing for a fine-grained analysis of the role of form overlap in cross-language morphological priming. Results demonstrated the existence of between-language masked morphological priming, which was exclusively found for cognate prime-target pairs. Furthermore, the results from balanced and unbalanced bilinguals were highly similar showing that proficiency in the two languages at test does not seem to modulate the pattern of data. These results are correctly accounted for by mechanisms of early morpho-orthographic decomposition that do not necessarily imply an automatic translation of the prime. In contrast, other competing accounts that are based on translation processes do not seem to capture the present results.
U n c o r r e c t e d p r o o f s - J o h n B e n j a m i n s P u b l i s h i n g C o m p a n y A large body of empirical research, accumulated over the last twenty years, has set the foundations for a generic model of word comprehension in relatively flu-ent bilinguals (the bilingual interactive-activation (BIA) model). This approach combines an initial language non-selective access process with inhibitory con-trol mechanisms in order to limit cross-language interference. However, it is still not clear how such an architecture could emerge during the learning of a second language. The present chapter briefly summarizes the key results in favor of the original BIA-model and describes the research agenda that hopefully will help fill in the "missing link" – that is, a developmental investigation of second language vocabulary acquisition. We present a theoretical framework (the de-velopmental BIA-model, BIA-d) designed to guide future research in this area.
Does language-specific orthography help language detection and lexical access in naturalistic bilingual contexts? This study investigates how L2 orthotactic properties influence bilingual language detection in bilingual societies and the extent to which it modulates lexical access and single word processing. Language specificity of naturalistically learnt L2 words was manipulated by including bigram combinations that could be either L2 language-specific or common in the two languages known by bilinguals. A group of balanced bilinguals and a group of highly proficient but unbalanced bilinguals who grew up in a bilingual society were tested, together with a group of monolinguals (for control purposes). All the participants completed a speeded language detection task and a progressive demasking task. Results showed that the use of the information of orthotactic rules across languages depends on the task demands at hand, and on participants' proficiency in the second language. The influence of language orthotactic rules during language detection, lexical access and word identification are discussed according to the most prominent models of bilingual word recognition.
A number of cross-language priming experiments are reported that evaluate whether word meanings in the first and second language are represented in common or separate systems. A masked priming procedure was used on the assumption that when prime awareness is limited, any priming effects directly reveal the underlying structure of the semantic system. Primes were presented in the subjects' first language, while targets were in their second language. Priming effects were obtained for word pairs that were semantically highly similar but not translation equivalents, for example fence-haie (= hedge in French), suggesting that words in the two languages share common elements of semantic code. Priming was also obtained between translation equivalents which, in conjunction with the results for semantically similar pairs, is most naturally interpreted in terms of partially shared semantic representations. However, no masked priming effects were obtained between associated pairs of relatively low semantic similarity, for example shoe-pied (= foot in French), whereas such pairs did produce an effect when primes were unmasked. The results are discussed in terms of limitations on the semantic activation produced by masked words, and the role of collocational relationships in priming between associated words in the same language.