This study examines when and how second language (L2) learners begin to exhibit sensitivity to key factors influencing the choice between the English double object and prepositional object constructions. While previous research has shown that such choices in native speakers are influenced by such factors as animacy, pronominality and verb bias, little is known about the developmental timing of these effects in L2 production. Using 5,785 dative constructions from a large-scale learner corpus, we analyzed how these variables interact with learners’ proficiency levels across 23 verbs. We found that learners showed systematic sensitivity to all of these factors, including statistical verb bias derived from a native speaker corpus (Corpus of Contemporary American English), at much earlier stages than previously suggested. These results suggest that learners may possess a cognitive bias that maps preexisting conceptual structures onto linguistic constructions, reflecting more than mere statistical learning.
{"title":"Factors influencing L2 learners’ use of the English dative construction: Insights from a learner corpus","authors":"Junya Fukuta, Akira Murakami, Masato Terai, Yu Tamura","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100965","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100965","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines when and how second language (L2) learners begin to exhibit sensitivity to key factors influencing the choice between the English double object and prepositional object constructions. While previous research has shown that such choices in native speakers are influenced by such factors as animacy, pronominality and verb bias, little is known about the developmental timing of these effects in L2 production. Using 5,785 dative constructions from a large-scale learner corpus, we analyzed how these variables interact with learners’ proficiency levels across 23 verbs. We found that learners showed systematic sensitivity to all of these factors, including statistical verb bias derived from a native speaker corpus (Corpus of Contemporary American English), at much earlier stages than previously suggested. These results suggest that learners may possess a cognitive bias that maps preexisting conceptual structures onto linguistic constructions, reflecting more than mere statistical learning.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146109852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-30DOI: 10.1017/s1366728926100984
Inka Romero-Ortells, Manuel Perea, Jon Andoni Duñabeitia
Dual subtitles, combining captions (audio transcription) with subtitles translated into another language, are increasingly used in language learning. However, how they shape visual attention remains unclear. In the present experiments, we tracked the eye movements of Spanish–English bilinguals, as they viewed instructional videos with either no subtitles (Experiment 1) or dual subtitles (Experiment 2), manipulating subtitle position and audio language. Without subtitles, L1 audio focused gaze on the speaker’s eyes, while L2 audio distributed it between the eyes and mouth. With dual subtitles, gaze shifted strongly to the text, with a preference for the top line, which attracted more viewing time regardless of language. Viewers selectively attended to the line matching the audio. Comprehension improved for L2 audio with subtitles, while L1 comprehension was unaffected. Our findings demonstrate that display layout and language alignment jointly govern attentional allocation in bilingual viewing, with direct implications for L2 instructional design.
{"title":"Hearing once, reading twice: How dual subtitles shape visual attention in bilingual viewing","authors":"Inka Romero-Ortells, Manuel Perea, Jon Andoni Duñabeitia","doi":"10.1017/s1366728926100984","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728926100984","url":null,"abstract":"Dual subtitles, combining captions (audio transcription) with subtitles translated into another language, are increasingly used in language learning. However, how they shape visual attention remains unclear. In the present experiments, we tracked the eye movements of Spanish–English bilinguals, as they viewed instructional videos with either no subtitles (Experiment 1) or dual subtitles (Experiment 2), manipulating subtitle position and audio language. Without subtitles, L1 audio focused gaze on the speaker’s eyes, while L2 audio distributed it between the eyes and mouth. With dual subtitles, gaze shifted strongly to the text, with a preference for the top line, which attracted more viewing time regardless of language. Viewers selectively attended to the line matching the audio. Comprehension improved for L2 audio with subtitles, while L1 comprehension was unaffected. Our findings demonstrate that display layout and language alignment jointly govern attentional allocation in bilingual viewing, with direct implications for L2 instructional design.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"93 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146089519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-29DOI: 10.1017/s1366728926100972
Harald Clahsen, Ioannis Iliopoulos, Constantina Maltezou, Silke Paulmann
Previous research has highlighted that supplementing standard group-level event-related potential analyses with assessments of individual variation can enhance our understanding of language-related brain activity. The present study pursues this approach by examining bilingual speakers’ brain responses to morphologically complex word forms in both their native (German, L1) and their second language (English, L2). We tested 108 bilingual speakers using an ERP violation paradigm examining overapplications of regular verb inflections (‘regularizations’) and of irregular ones (‘irregularizations’). We found a striking L1/L2 contrast within the same bilingual speakers, a left-anterior negativity for regularizations in the L1 and a positivity (P600) for both violation types in the L2. Consistent with previous research, individuals’ brain responses were found to vary along negativity-/positivity-dominant effects. However, the crucial L1/L2 contrast in participants’ brain responses to regularizations was stable across individual differences. We conclude that linguistic constraints, that is, violation type and language status (L1 vs. L2), limit individual variability.
先前的研究强调,用个体差异评估补充标准的群体层面事件相关潜力分析可以增强我们对语言相关大脑活动的理解。本研究通过考察双语者对母语(德语,第一语言)和第二语言(英语,第二语言)中词形复杂的大脑反应来探索这一方法。我们使用ERP违规范式测试了108名双语使用者,检查了规则动词屈折(“正则化”)和不规则动词屈折(“非正则化”)的过度使用。我们发现,在同样的双语者中,L1/L2有显著的对比,L1的正则化为左前负性,L2的两种违规类型都为正性(P600)。与之前的研究一致,个体的大脑反应被发现随着消极/积极主导的影响而变化。然而,参与者大脑对正则化反应的关键L1/L2对比在个体差异中是稳定的。我们的结论是,语言约束,即违反类型和语言状态(L1 vs. L2),限制了个体差异。
{"title":"Limits of variability in bilingual language processing: An event-related potential study of German and English verb morphology","authors":"Harald Clahsen, Ioannis Iliopoulos, Constantina Maltezou, Silke Paulmann","doi":"10.1017/s1366728926100972","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728926100972","url":null,"abstract":"Previous research has highlighted that supplementing standard group-level event-related potential analyses with assessments of individual variation can enhance our understanding of language-related brain activity. The present study pursues this approach by examining bilingual speakers’ brain responses to morphologically complex word forms in both their native (German, L1) and their second language (English, L2). We tested 108 bilingual speakers using an ERP violation paradigm examining overapplications of regular verb inflections (‘regularizations’) and of irregular ones (‘irregularizations’). We found a striking L1/L2 contrast within the same bilingual speakers, a left-anterior negativity for regularizations in the L1 and a positivity (P600) for both violation types in the L2. Consistent with previous research, individuals’ brain responses were found to vary along negativity-/positivity-dominant effects. However, the crucial L1/L2 contrast in participants’ brain responses to regularizations was stable across individual differences. We conclude that linguistic constraints, that is, violation type and language status (L1 vs. L2), limit individual variability.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"117 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146071701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-29DOI: 10.1017/s1366728926100996
Angela de Bruin
Bilinguals vary in their daily-life language use and switching behaviours, which are also frequently studied in relation to other processes (e.g., executive control). Measuring daily-life language use and switching often relies on self-reported questionnaires, but little is known about the validity of these questionnaires. Here, we present two studies examining test–retest reliability and validity of language-use questionnaires (relative to Ecological Momentary Assessment, Study 1) and language-switching questionnaires and tasks (relative to recorded daily-life conversations, small-scale Study 2). Test–retest reliability and validity of the LSBQ (Anderson et al., 2018) were high and moderate, respectively, suggesting this questionnaire can capture daily-life language use well. Although only examined with a small sample size, Study 2 suggested relatively low validity of most language-switching questionnaires, with short language-production tasks potentially offering a more valid assessment. Together, these studies suggest that tools are available to reliably capture language use and switching with (a certain degree of) validity.
双语者在日常生活中的语言使用和转换行为各不相同,这些行为也经常被研究与其他过程(如执行控制)的关系。日常生活中语言使用和转换的测量往往依赖于自我报告的问卷,但对这些问卷的有效性知之甚少。在这里,我们提出了两项研究,检验了语言使用问卷(相对于生态瞬间评估,研究1)和语言转换问卷和任务(相对于记录的日常生活对话,小规模研究2)的重测信度和效度。LSBQ的重测信度和效度(Anderson et al., 2018)分别为高信度和中等信度,说明该问卷可以很好地捕捉日常生活中的语言使用情况。虽然只有小样本量的研究,但研究2表明,大多数语言转换问卷的有效性相对较低,而简短的语言生成任务可能提供更有效的评估。总之,这些研究表明,有工具可以可靠地(在一定程度上)有效地捕捉语言的使用和转换。
{"title":"Examining the reliability and validity of bilingual language use and switching measures","authors":"Angela de Bruin","doi":"10.1017/s1366728926100996","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728926100996","url":null,"abstract":"Bilinguals vary in their daily-life language use and switching behaviours, which are also frequently studied in relation to other processes (e.g., executive control). Measuring daily-life language use and switching often relies on self-reported questionnaires, but little is known about the validity of these questionnaires. Here, we present two studies examining test–retest reliability and validity of language-use questionnaires (relative to Ecological Momentary Assessment, Study 1) and language-switching questionnaires and tasks (relative to recorded daily-life conversations, small-scale Study 2). Test–retest reliability and validity of the LSBQ (Anderson et al., 2018) were high and moderate, respectively, suggesting this questionnaire can capture daily-life language use well. Although only examined with a small sample size, Study 2 suggested relatively low validity of most language-switching questionnaires, with short language-production tasks potentially offering a more valid assessment. Together, these studies suggest that tools are available to reliably capture language use and switching with (a certain degree of) validity.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146071480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-21DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100850
Magdalena Kachlicka, Ashley E. Symons, Yaoyao Ruan, Kazuya Saito, Frederic Dick, Adam Tierney
Learning a second language (L2) is challenging partly due to perceptual strategies inherited from learners’ first language. For example, speakers of tone languages like Mandarin over-use pitch in English prosody perception and production. We developed a novel training paradigm to help Mandarin learners adopt more native-like strategies by enhancing their use of duration relative to pitch cues during prosody categorization. After prosody training, participants used duration more during phrase boundary categorization but showed no clear change for contrastive focus and lexical stress, suggesting that cue weighting training is most effective when targeting a feature’s primary cue. The control group, who practiced English vocabulary, relied more on pitch in lexical stress categorization and phrase boundary production after training, suggesting that without targeted instruction, listeners default to existing strategies. Our findings demonstrate that although default strategies in L2 speech perception are difficult to resist, lifelong perceptual habits can be adjusted with training.
{"title":"Effects of targeted perceptual training on L2 suprasegmental weighting strategies","authors":"Magdalena Kachlicka, Ashley E. Symons, Yaoyao Ruan, Kazuya Saito, Frederic Dick, Adam Tierney","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100850","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100850","url":null,"abstract":"Learning a second language (L2) is challenging partly due to perceptual strategies inherited from learners’ first language. For example, speakers of tone languages like Mandarin over-use pitch in English prosody perception and production. We developed a novel training paradigm to help Mandarin learners adopt more native-like strategies by enhancing their use of duration relative to pitch cues during prosody categorization. After prosody training, participants used duration more during phrase boundary categorization but showed no clear change for contrastive focus and lexical stress, suggesting that cue weighting training is most effective when targeting a feature’s primary cue. The control group, who practiced English vocabulary, relied more on pitch in lexical stress categorization and phrase boundary production after training, suggesting that without targeted instruction, listeners default to existing strategies. Our findings demonstrate that although default strategies in L2 speech perception are difficult to resist, lifelong perceptual habits can be adjusted with training.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"70 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146021820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-19DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100953
Haoyan Ge, Albert Lee, Hoi Kwan Yuen, Fang Liu, Virginia Yip
This study examined the acoustic realization of focus in Cantonese-English bilingual autistic children’s first language (L1) Cantonese, compared to bilingual typically developing (TD) children and adults, and explored the effects of bilingualism on the production. Results from an elicitation task showed that bilingual autistic children primarily relied on duration to mark focus in L1 Cantonese, similar to adults, but exhibited weaker use of pitch and intensity compared to bilingual TD children. Second language (L2) English exposure and proficiency did not influence focus marking in bilingual autistic children likely due to their later and reduced English exposure compared to TD children. Conversely, bilingual TD children’s prosodic use was modulated by English exposure and proficiency. These findings reveal that bilingualism does not hinder autistic children’s prosodic focus production in their L1 Cantonese and highlight distinct bilingualism effects on prosodic focus production in autistic and TD children.
{"title":"Production of focus in Cantonese-English bilingual autistic children: An acoustic analysis","authors":"Haoyan Ge, Albert Lee, Hoi Kwan Yuen, Fang Liu, Virginia Yip","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100953","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100953","url":null,"abstract":"This study examined the acoustic realization of focus in Cantonese-English bilingual autistic children’s first language (L1) Cantonese, compared to bilingual typically developing (TD) children and adults, and explored the effects of bilingualism on the production. Results from an elicitation task showed that bilingual autistic children primarily relied on duration to mark focus in L1 Cantonese, similar to adults, but exhibited weaker use of pitch and intensity compared to bilingual TD children. Second language (L2) English exposure and proficiency did not influence focus marking in bilingual autistic children likely due to their later and reduced English exposure compared to TD children. Conversely, bilingual TD children’s prosodic use was modulated by English exposure and proficiency. These findings reveal that bilingualism does not hinder autistic children’s prosodic focus production in their L1 Cantonese and highlight distinct bilingualism effects on prosodic focus production in autistic and TD children.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"177 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146000841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-15DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100928
Kristi Hendrickson, Anna Sagan, Hector Sanchez Melendez, Jina Kim, Zara Harmon, Stephanie De Anda
It has been argued that lexical access in bilinguals is language nonselective. However, little is known about how the input modality (spoken or written) affects cross-language activation during listening and reading. The current study characterizes the nature of within- and cross-language competition for spoken and written words in adults who are bilingual and biliterate in Spanish and English. Using a recently developed cross-modality version of the Visual World Paradigm, we found that competition differs for spoken and written words. For spoken words, the auditory stimulus unfolds overtime giving an additional boost to within- and cross-language competition. Conversely, written words can be seen at once, and thus, incremental processing is less of a factor, resulting in less competition within a language and no competition across languages. The findings show that word recognition is fundamentally language nonselective but can behave in selective ways depending on the modality of the input and language experience.
{"title":"Language nonselective lexical access in bilinguals: Input modality matters","authors":"Kristi Hendrickson, Anna Sagan, Hector Sanchez Melendez, Jina Kim, Zara Harmon, Stephanie De Anda","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100928","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100928","url":null,"abstract":"It has been argued that lexical access in bilinguals is language nonselective. However, little is known about how the input modality (spoken or written) affects cross-language activation during listening and reading. The current study characterizes the nature of within- and cross-language competition for spoken and written words in adults who are bilingual and biliterate in Spanish and English. Using a recently developed cross-modality version of the Visual World Paradigm, we found that competition differs for spoken and written words. For spoken words, the auditory stimulus unfolds overtime giving an additional boost to within- and cross-language competition. Conversely, written words can be seen at once, and thus, incremental processing is less of a factor, resulting in less competition within a language and no competition across languages. The findings show that word recognition is fundamentally language nonselective but can behave in selective ways depending on the modality of the input and language experience.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145972014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-15DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100941
Julian van Bijnen, Roberto A. Ferreira, Ton Dijkstra
Word frequency databases like SPALEX and SUBTLEX-ESP treat Spanish as a uniform language, but prior studies and an initial survey (Experiment 1) revealed significant lexical differences between Spanish in Spain and Latin American countries, especially Chile. To establish subjective frequencies of Spanish word usage, an extended survey (Experiment 2) was conducted with Chilean participants, categorizing words by usage area: General, Spain, Chile, and Latin America. Consistent with the initial survey, Chilean participants assigned subjective higher ratings to General and Chilean words. In a lexical decision experiment (Experiment 3), participants responded faster and more accurately to words from these categories. Using survey data, simulations with Multilink+ (Experiment 4) revealed that subjective word ratings better predicted Chilean reaction times than frequencies from existing databases. These findings emphasize the need to address Spanish dialectal differences in research, with word ratings offering a more accurate measure of region-specific lexical nuances than current databases.
{"title":"Lexical distributions of Spanish dialects and their processing implications for Chilean Spanish","authors":"Julian van Bijnen, Roberto A. Ferreira, Ton Dijkstra","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100941","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100941","url":null,"abstract":"Word frequency databases like SPALEX and SUBTLEX-ESP treat Spanish as a uniform language, but prior studies and an initial survey (Experiment 1) revealed significant lexical differences between Spanish in Spain and Latin American countries, especially Chile. To establish subjective frequencies of Spanish word usage, an extended survey (Experiment 2) was conducted with Chilean participants, categorizing words by usage area: General, Spain, Chile, and Latin America. Consistent with the initial survey, Chilean participants assigned subjective higher ratings to General and Chilean words. In a lexical decision experiment (Experiment 3), participants responded faster and more accurately to words from these categories. Using survey data, simulations with Multilink+ (Experiment 4) revealed that subjective word ratings better predicted Chilean reaction times than frequencies from existing databases. These findings emphasize the need to address Spanish dialectal differences in research, with word ratings offering a more accurate measure of region-specific lexical nuances than current databases.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"141 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145972023","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-14DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100916
Jen Ting
This study investigates an asymmetry in (Mandarin) Chinese-English word-internal code-switching: while Chinese inflectional morphemes readily attach to English verbs, Chinese derivational morphemes are consistently rejected when combined with English lexical bases. This pattern raises questions about how the free morpheme constraint should be formulated in bilingual grammar. Building on the phonetic form (PF) interface condition, as proposed in MacSwan’s [Generative approaches to codeswitching. In B. E. Bullock & A. J. Toribio (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic code-switching (pp. 309–335). Cambridge University Press (2009)], we argue that the asymmetry is best explained in a lexicalist model that permits post-syntactic affixation. In this approach, inflectional morphology may attach at PF through PF merger, whereas derivational morphology is assembled prior to syntax. The observed asymmetry thus follows from the distribution of morphology across components and the conditions governing the mapping from syntax to phonology. The findings show that derivational timing shapes code-switching, support the viability of lexicalist models that permit post-syntactic affixation, and indicate that word-internal code-switching is permitted under specific interface conditions.
{"title":"An asymmetry in word-internal Chinese-English code-switching: A PFIC-based account","authors":"Jen Ting","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100916","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100916","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates an asymmetry in (Mandarin) Chinese-English word-internal code-switching: while Chinese inflectional morphemes readily attach to English verbs, Chinese derivational morphemes are consistently rejected when combined with English lexical bases. This pattern raises questions about how the free morpheme constraint should be formulated in bilingual grammar. Building on the phonetic form (PF) interface condition, as proposed in MacSwan’s [Generative approaches to codeswitching. In B. E. Bullock & A. J. Toribio (Eds.), <jats:italic>The Cambridge handbook of linguistic code-switching</jats:italic> (pp. 309–335). Cambridge University Press (2009)], we argue that the asymmetry is best explained in a lexicalist model that permits post-syntactic affixation. In this approach, inflectional morphology may attach at PF through PF merger, whereas derivational morphology is assembled prior to syntax. The observed asymmetry thus follows from the distribution of morphology across components and the conditions governing the mapping from syntax to phonology. The findings show that derivational timing shapes code-switching, support the viability of lexicalist models that permit post-syntactic affixation, and indicate that word-internal code-switching is permitted under specific interface conditions.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145968408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-06DOI: 10.1017/s136672892510093x
Liv Hoversten, Clara Martin
Previous studies suggest that bilinguals can quickly identify the language to which a word belongs in order to suppress a task-irrelevant language. The current study tested whether nontarget language suppression occurs at the lexical and/or semantic levels and whether the degree of processing differs across these representational levels. Spanish–Basque bilinguals classified words by language membership and animacy, and event-related potential (ERP) results demonstrated that task demands to attend to a single target language reduced frequency effects and eliminated concreteness effects for words in the nontarget language. Results support a partially selective mechanism of bilingual language control based on task demands such that words belonging to the nontarget language are only partially processed at the lexical level and are not processed at a deeper semantic level. These findings specify the locus of bilingual language control in comprehension and call for revisions to models of bilingual visual word recognition such as BIA+.
{"title":"Partial lexical and complete semantic suppression of a task-irrelevant language in bilingual word recognition","authors":"Liv Hoversten, Clara Martin","doi":"10.1017/s136672892510093x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s136672892510093x","url":null,"abstract":"Previous studies suggest that bilinguals can quickly identify the language to which a word belongs in order to suppress a task-irrelevant language. The current study tested whether nontarget language suppression occurs at the lexical and/or semantic levels and whether the degree of processing differs across these representational levels. Spanish–Basque bilinguals classified words by language membership and animacy, and event-related potential (ERP) results demonstrated that task demands to attend to a single target language reduced frequency effects and eliminated concreteness effects for words in the nontarget language. Results support a partially selective mechanism of bilingual language control based on task demands such that words belonging to the nontarget language are only partially processed at the lexical level and are not processed at a deeper semantic level. These findings specify the locus of bilingual language control in comprehension and call for revisions to models of bilingual visual word recognition such as BIA+.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145903622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}