Pub Date : 2026-01-02DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100904
Arthur Stepanov, Sara Andreetta, Matic Pavlič
This study examines sentence comprehension in two in-situ heritage Slovene communities in Italy’s border-shift context, comparing the Gorizia/Trieste (N = 66) and Natisone Valley (N = 43) adult populations with monolingual Slovene speakers. While both heritage groups operate in Italian-dominant bilingual environments near the Slovenian border, they differ in Slovene exposure due to varying institutional support. Using a sentence–picture verification task, this study examines comprehension of non-canonical word order, relative clauses and cataphoric dependencies. The Gorizia/Trieste group performed comparably to monolinguals, demonstrating strong sensitivity to case morphology and syntactic processing. Conversely, the Natisone group showed reduced accuracy and longer response times across all domains, reflecting case system vulnerability and processing limitations linked to reduced exposure. These findings highlight the important role of active maintenance and institutional support, independent of geographical proximity to the mainland, in shaping heritage language grammars and their use.
{"title":"Heritage language in a border-shift context: Differential input effects on sentence comprehension","authors":"Arthur Stepanov, Sara Andreetta, Matic Pavlič","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100904","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100904","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines sentence comprehension in two <jats:italic>in-situ</jats:italic> heritage Slovene communities in Italy’s border-shift context, comparing the Gorizia/Trieste (N = 66) and Natisone Valley (N = 43) adult populations with monolingual Slovene speakers. While both heritage groups operate in Italian-dominant bilingual environments near the Slovenian border, they differ in Slovene exposure due to varying institutional support. Using a sentence–picture verification task, this study examines comprehension of non-canonical word order, relative clauses and cataphoric dependencies. The Gorizia/Trieste group performed comparably to monolinguals, demonstrating strong sensitivity to case morphology and syntactic processing. Conversely, the Natisone group showed reduced accuracy and longer response times across all domains, reflecting case system vulnerability and processing limitations linked to reduced exposure. These findings highlight the important role of active maintenance and institutional support, independent of geographical proximity to the mainland, in shaping heritage language grammars and their use.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"42 1","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145893673","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 : 2026-01-02DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100874
Iring Koch, Luz María Sánchez, Chiara Koch, Tanja C. Roembke, Andrea M. Philipp, Mathieu Declerck
Proactive language control is thought to regulate the interference from the nontarget language in bilingual contexts in a sustained way. This study examined the persistence of proactive control in cued picture naming. Participants first named pictures in L1 (German) and L2 (English) in pure blocks, then in mixed language blocks and finally again in pure blocks. In mixed blocks, there were language switch costs, and L1 responses were generally slower than L2 responses (“L1 slowing”). Critically, L1 remained slower than L2 even in postmixing single-language blocks. This persisting L1 slowing suggests overshooting control that downregulates lexical access to L1 representations in a sustained manner. Yet, this persistence of L1 slowing was found only in the first single-language block after the mixed language blocks and no longer in the second postmixing block, suggesting that proactive control has inertia but dissipates over time.
{"title":"Persistence of situational language balance in bilingual switching: Evidence from carryover of proactive language control","authors":"Iring Koch, Luz María Sánchez, Chiara Koch, Tanja C. Roembke, Andrea M. Philipp, Mathieu Declerck","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100874","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100874","url":null,"abstract":"Proactive language control is thought to regulate the interference from the nontarget language in bilingual contexts in a sustained way. This study examined the persistence of proactive control in cued picture naming. Participants first named pictures in L1 (German) and L2 (English) in pure blocks, then in mixed language blocks and finally again in pure blocks. In mixed blocks, there were language switch costs, and L1 responses were generally slower than L2 responses (“L1 slowing”). Critically, L1 remained slower than L2 even in postmixing single-language blocks. This persisting L1 slowing suggests overshooting control that downregulates lexical access to L1 representations in a sustained manner. Yet, this persistence of L1 slowing was found only in the first single-language block after the mixed language blocks and no longer in the second postmixing block, suggesting that proactive control has inertia but dissipates over time.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"50 1","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145893670","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 : 2026-01-02DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100898
Isabelle Chou, Agustina Birba, Jiehui Hu, Edinson Muñoz, Guoqing Kwon, Adolfo M. García
Simultaneous interpreting (SI), a challenging task enabled by bilingualism, is claimed to distinctly tax working memory (WM). However, causal designs are missing, limiting our understanding of the phenomenon. We recruited 50 Chinese-English bilinguals and assessed their WM performance (alongside inhibitory and fluency outcomes) before and after L1–L2 SI or a control task (text comprehension). WM scores (especially under high-demand, multimodal conditions) increased after text comprehension but not after SI, adjusting for age of L2 appropriation, years of L2 use, L2 proficiency and SI competence. Of note, WM was assessed immediately before and after SI, ruling out other cognitive influences. Conversely, no distinct patterns were observed on inhibitory or fluency tasks. Briefly, this activity seems to hinder practice-related WM gains – a finding that expands contemporary accounts of interpreting.
{"title":"Working memory exertion after simultaneous interpreting in bilinguals","authors":"Isabelle Chou, Agustina Birba, Jiehui Hu, Edinson Muñoz, Guoqing Kwon, Adolfo M. García","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100898","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100898","url":null,"abstract":"Simultaneous interpreting (SI), a challenging task enabled by bilingualism, is claimed to distinctly tax working memory (WM). However, causal designs are missing, limiting our understanding of the phenomenon. We recruited 50 Chinese-English bilinguals and assessed their WM performance (alongside inhibitory and fluency outcomes) before and after L1–L2 SI or a control task (text comprehension). WM scores (especially under high-demand, multimodal conditions) increased after text comprehension but not after SI, adjusting for age of L2 appropriation, years of L2 use, L2 proficiency and SI competence. Of note, WM was assessed immediately before and after SI, ruling out other cognitive influences. Conversely, no distinct patterns were observed on inhibitory or fluency tasks. Briefly, this activity seems to hinder practice-related WM gains – a finding that expands contemporary accounts of interpreting.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"25 1","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145893671","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 : 2025-12-29DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100849
Xuanyi Jessica Chen, Esti Blanco-Elorrieta
Bilingualism research has long been challenged by a lack of a unified approach to quantifying language dominance and degree of multilingualism. While numerous questionnaires (e.g., LHQ, BLP, LEAP‑Q, and LUQ) provide valuable data on language background variables, they lack a standardized formula to compute key measures from it. We introduce two formulas that synthesize critical linguistic variables to efficiently calculate language dominance and a multilingualism score that ranges from perfect monolingualism to native-like proficiency in multiple languages. Validation across two large datasets shows our dominance measure closely aligns with more complex PCA methods while being simpler and more efficient.
{"title":"A theoretically driven and empirically grounded calculation for language dominance and degree of multilingualism","authors":"Xuanyi Jessica Chen, Esti Blanco-Elorrieta","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100849","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100849","url":null,"abstract":"Bilingualism research has long been challenged by a lack of a unified approach to quantifying language dominance and degree of multilingualism. While numerous questionnaires (e.g., LHQ, BLP, LEAP‑Q, and LUQ) provide valuable data on language background variables, they lack a standardized formula to compute key measures from it. We introduce two formulas that synthesize critical linguistic variables to efficiently calculate language dominance and a multilingualism score that ranges from perfect monolingualism to native-like proficiency in multiple languages. Validation across two large datasets shows our dominance measure closely aligns with more complex PCA methods while being simpler and more efficient.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145847160","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 : 2025-12-19DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100862
Hannah Bou-Lai Lam, Johanne Paradis, Adriana Soto-Corominas, Redab Al-Janaideh, Xi Chen, Alexandra Gottardo
We examined the growth of English-L2 clausal density (CD) in narrative language samples from 129 school-age Syrian refugee children during their first 5 years of residency in Canada. First, we found that CD showed unique developmental trajectories from MLUw, and relatively rapid acquisition, consistent with studies with non-refugee participants. Second, faster growth in CD was associated with superior cognitive abilities and higher maternal education. An older-age advantage was found at Time 1, but a younger-age advantage emerged across Time 2–3. Factors more specific to the refugee experience (time in refugee camps and wellbeing difficulties) also predicted variance in CD and MLUw development but to a lesser extent. Finally, modeling performance on sentence repetition tasks revealed stronger contributions of lexical diversity and MLUw than CD. We conclude that complex syntax is relatively resilient in the L2 acquisition of refugee children and that CD in naturalistic production and SRT capture different abilities.
{"title":"The longitudinal development of L2 complex syntax in Arabic-English refugee children: sources of individual differences and comparison of measures of syntax","authors":"Hannah Bou-Lai Lam, Johanne Paradis, Adriana Soto-Corominas, Redab Al-Janaideh, Xi Chen, Alexandra Gottardo","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100862","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100862","url":null,"abstract":"We examined the growth of English-L2 clausal density (CD) in narrative language samples from 129 school-age Syrian refugee children during their first 5 years of residency in Canada. First, we found that CD showed unique developmental trajectories from MLUw, and relatively rapid acquisition, consistent with studies with non-refugee participants. Second, faster growth in CD was associated with superior cognitive abilities and higher maternal education. An older-age advantage was found at Time 1, but a younger-age advantage emerged across Time 2–3. Factors more specific to the refugee experience (time in refugee camps and wellbeing difficulties) also predicted variance in CD and MLUw development but to a lesser extent. Finally, modeling performance on sentence repetition tasks revealed stronger contributions of lexical diversity and MLUw than CD. We conclude that complex syntax is relatively resilient in the L2 acquisition of refugee children and that CD in naturalistic production and SRT capture different abilities.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145777577","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 : 2025-12-17DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100795
Wenfu Bao, Claude Alain, Michael Thaut, Monika Molnar
Bilingual experience may enhance attentional control, but little work has addressed whether monolinguals and bilinguals differ in allocating attentional resources. Focusing on speech processing, we examined listening effort via pupillometry in English monolinguals and simultaneous bilinguals, while they listened to passages in a familiar or unfamiliar language. Results demonstrated similar pupil responses across conditions in bilinguals, yet monolinguals showed significantly larger pupil size when listening to the unfamiliar language than the familiar one. Further, more English exposure (especially a longer stay in an English-speaking family) correlated with smaller pupil size in the familiar language condition. Overall, our findings suggest that bilinguals tend to exhibit greater listening effort than monolinguals, and a more cognitively demanding situation (i.e., listening to an unknown language) requires more effort in monolinguals. With this, we broadened the scope of research on bilingual cognition and demonstrated that bilingualism affects attentional resource allocation in spoken language processing.
{"title":"Bilinguals differ from monolinguals in attentional resource allocation during spoken language processing: pupillometry evidence","authors":"Wenfu Bao, Claude Alain, Michael Thaut, Monika Molnar","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100795","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100795","url":null,"abstract":"Bilingual experience may enhance attentional control, but little work has addressed whether monolinguals and bilinguals differ in allocating attentional resources. Focusing on speech processing, we examined listening effort via pupillometry in English monolinguals and simultaneous bilinguals, while they listened to passages in a familiar or unfamiliar language. Results demonstrated similar pupil responses across conditions in bilinguals, yet monolinguals showed significantly larger pupil size when listening to the unfamiliar language than the familiar one. Further, more English exposure (especially a longer stay in an English-speaking family) correlated with smaller pupil size in the familiar language condition. Overall, our findings suggest that bilinguals tend to exhibit greater listening effort than monolinguals, and a more cognitively demanding situation (i.e., listening to an unknown language) requires more effort in monolinguals. With this, we broadened the scope of research on bilingual cognition and demonstrated that bilingualism affects attentional resource allocation in spoken language processing.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145765093","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 : 2025-12-10DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100886
Victor A. Sanchez-Azanza, Daniel Adrover-Roig, Tanya Dash, Ana Inés Ansaldo
This study investigated whether differences in executive control exist between bilinguals and monolinguals who share a dual-language context. We compared functional monolingual and bilingual groups’ cognitive performance and the correlation between self-reported and objective linguistic variables and cognitive outcomes. Group comparisons revealed no significant differences between functional monolinguals and bilinguals on inhibition, task switching and updating of information. However, distinct correlational patterns were observed within groups. In functional monolinguals, participants with lower bilingualism scores showed better task-specific inhibition (Color–Word part of the Stroop task) and a better ability to monitor for conflicts (Digits Forward task). In contrast, bilinguals with higher degrees of bilingualism showed better overall inhibition outcomes (Stroop effect). Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of adopting more comprehensive methodological approaches to study bilingualism as a heterogeneous phenomenon, considering the diversity within each group and the cultural and linguistic context in which the bilingual experience takes place.
{"title":"The paradoxical associations between language and executive control in monolinguals and bilinguals","authors":"Victor A. Sanchez-Azanza, Daniel Adrover-Roig, Tanya Dash, Ana Inés Ansaldo","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100886","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100886","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigated whether differences in executive control exist between bilinguals and monolinguals who share a dual-language context. We compared functional monolingual and bilingual groups’ cognitive performance and the correlation between self-reported and objective linguistic variables and cognitive outcomes. Group comparisons revealed no significant differences between functional monolinguals and bilinguals on inhibition, task switching and updating of information. However, distinct correlational patterns were observed within groups. In functional monolinguals, participants with lower bilingualism scores showed better task-specific inhibition (Color–Word part of the Stroop task) and a better ability to monitor for conflicts (Digits Forward task). In contrast, bilinguals with higher degrees of bilingualism showed better overall inhibition outcomes (Stroop effect). Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of adopting more comprehensive methodological approaches to study bilingualism as a heterogeneous phenomenon, considering the diversity within each group and the cultural and linguistic context in which the bilingual experience takes place.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145711276","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 : 2025-12-10DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100758
Esmee Miron Aalders, Moritz M. Daum, Stephanie Wermelinger
Research on multilingualism often assumes homogeneity within monolingual and multilingual groups, overlooking diversity in language environments, such as differences in language exposure and combinations. This study examines three such diversity indicators – language entropy, context entropy and linguistic distance – and their relationship to vocabulary in 4- to 5-year-old mono- and multilingual children ( N = 257). Results reveal significantly greater vocabulary in monolinguals than multilinguals when comparing one language, but multilinguals outperform monolinguals on conceptual vocabulary. Vocabulary size in multilinguals showed a quadratic relationship with language and context entropy, initially increasing but declining at higher entropy levels. Additionally, children with greater linguistic distances generally had larger dominant vocabularies. However, within the group with high linguistic distance, further increased distance was linked to smaller dominant vocabularies. These findings suggest that the applied diversity indicators capture meaningful variation in language environments, offering valuable insights about diversity in environments on vocabulary outcomes in multilingual children.
{"title":"Diversity in monolingual and multilingual communicative environments and its relation to vocabulary in early childhood","authors":"Esmee Miron Aalders, Moritz M. Daum, Stephanie Wermelinger","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100758","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100758","url":null,"abstract":"Research on multilingualism often assumes homogeneity within monolingual and multilingual groups, overlooking diversity in language environments, such as differences in language exposure and combinations. This study examines three such diversity indicators – language entropy, context entropy and linguistic distance – and their relationship to vocabulary in 4- to 5-year-old mono- and multilingual children ( <jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 257). Results reveal significantly greater vocabulary in monolinguals than multilinguals when comparing one language, but multilinguals outperform monolinguals on conceptual vocabulary. Vocabulary size in multilinguals showed a quadratic relationship with language and context entropy, initially increasing but declining at higher entropy levels. Additionally, children with greater linguistic distances generally had larger dominant vocabularies. However, within the group with high linguistic distance, further increased distance was linked to smaller dominant vocabularies. These findings suggest that the applied diversity indicators capture meaningful variation in language environments, offering valuable insights about diversity in environments on vocabulary outcomes in multilingual children.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"113 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145711277","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 : 2025-12-09DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100813
Nayoung Kwon, Gyu-Ho Shin
The present study examines how L1-English learners acquire Korean subject honorification – a system that is socio-pragmatic in interpretation but syntactically constrained. Using a multi-method design (corpus analysis, politeness ratings, and self-paced reading), we find that learners show increasing sensitivity to politeness norms yet limited awareness of morphosyntactic constraints. In corpus analysis, learners used subject honorification almost exclusively alongside addressee honorification, indicating limited functional differentiation. In politeness ratings, learners consistently associated the subject honorific suffix with greater politeness, regardless of subject type, diverging from native speakers’ judgments. In self-paced reading, learners were sensitive to semantic anomalies (e.g., inanimate subjects) but not to morphosyntactic violations. Together, these findings suggest that learners interpret the subject honorific suffix as a general politeness marker, likely due to its low cue validity and frequent co-occurrence with pragmatically salient features. Our results highlight how cue reliability and competition shape L2 acquisition pathways under conditions of noisy linguistic representations.
{"title":"Overgeneralization of Korean subject honorification by English-speaking learners of Korean","authors":"Nayoung Kwon, Gyu-Ho Shin","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100813","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100813","url":null,"abstract":"The present study examines how L1-English learners acquire Korean subject honorification – a system that is socio-pragmatic in interpretation but syntactically constrained. Using a multi-method design (corpus analysis, politeness ratings, and self-paced reading), we find that learners show increasing sensitivity to politeness norms yet limited awareness of morphosyntactic constraints. In corpus analysis, learners used subject honorification almost exclusively alongside addressee honorification, indicating limited functional differentiation. In politeness ratings, learners consistently associated the subject honorific suffix with greater politeness, regardless of subject type, diverging from native speakers’ judgments. In self-paced reading, learners were sensitive to semantic anomalies (e.g., inanimate subjects) but not to morphosyntactic violations. Together, these findings suggest that learners interpret the subject honorific suffix as a general politeness marker, likely due to its low cue validity and frequent co-occurrence with pragmatically salient features. Our results highlight how cue reliability and competition shape L2 acquisition pathways under conditions of noisy linguistic representations.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145704600","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 : 2025-12-02DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100655
Yajun Liu, Antonella Sorace, Kenny Smith
Continuous immersion in a second language causes speakers’ first language to change, a phenomenon known as L1 attrition. We explored (1) whether bilingual native Mandarin speakers display attrition-related changes in their use of referring expressions in Mandarin after exposure to English and (2) whether the severity of attrition is affected by the amount of exposure to both Mandarin (L1) and English (L2) and English proficiency. All participants completed a questionnaire to assess their language experience and a picture description task in spoken Mandarin. The results show that where more monolingual Mandarin speakers preferred null pronouns, bilingual speakers tended to use overt pronouns, suggesting attrition-related changes in their native language which favoured explicitness. Our study also shows that decreased use of L1 coupled with increased use of L2 and higher L2 proficiency are likely to result in a greater degree of attrition, although such an association is statistically unreliable in some models.
{"title":"Mandarin speakers undergoing attrition produce more explicit referring expressions","authors":"Yajun Liu, Antonella Sorace, Kenny Smith","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100655","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100655","url":null,"abstract":"Continuous immersion in a second language causes speakers’ first language to change, a phenomenon known as L1 attrition. We explored (1) whether bilingual native Mandarin speakers display attrition-related changes in their use of referring expressions in Mandarin after exposure to English and (2) whether the severity of attrition is affected by the amount of exposure to both Mandarin (L1) and English (L2) and English proficiency. All participants completed a questionnaire to assess their language experience and a picture description task in spoken Mandarin. The results show that where more monolingual Mandarin speakers preferred null pronouns, bilingual speakers tended to use overt pronouns, suggesting attrition-related changes in their native language which favoured explicitness. Our study also shows that decreased use of L1 coupled with increased use of L2 and higher L2 proficiency are likely to result in a greater degree of attrition, although such an association is statistically unreliable in some models.","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"272 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145651493","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}