The Structure of Lexical-Semantic Networks at Global and Local Levels: A Comparison between L1 and L2

Abstract

This article applies quantitative methods from complex network analysis to investigate and compare the organization of L1 and L2 lexical-semantic networks. Forty-eight English learners with Chinese as their native language completed a semantic fluency task, first in English and then in Chinese, based on which two lexical-semantic networks were constructed. Comparison at the global level found that the L1 lexical-semantic network displays more prominent small-world and scale-free features and a clearer modular structure in comparison with its L2 counterpart. Locally, although the two lexical-semantic networks share most of their central words, they differ remarkably in their composition and the connection pattern of their peripheral words. Specifically, L1 peripheral words are likely to connect with each other to form local modules while L2 peripheral words tend to connect with central words. Moreover, word centrality was found to be closely related to time of generation, generation frequency, and accuracy in fluency tasks, and such tendency is more obvious in L1 than in L2. The findings demonstrate the advantages of quantitative analysis granted by network science in the investigation of mental lexicon and provide insights for lexical representation research and classroom vocabulary instructions.