Bilingualism: Language and Cognition最新文献

Due to the lack of explicit word boundary markers, L2-Chinese learners have shown some difficulties in Chinese word segmentation. This study aimed to tackle the possible reasons of L2-Chinese learners’ difficulties in word segmentation: L1-biased processing strategy or developing mental representations of Chinese compound words, or both. In an eye-tracking experiment, high-frequency two-character Chinese compound words were used as targets. These compound words were embedded in sentences where their first component characters with prior verbs were manipulated to be either plausible or implausible, while the whole compound words were always plausible. Sentences were presented in character-spaced or word-spaced style. High-proficiency L2-Chinese learners and native Chinese speakers participated. Results revealed non-native-like patterns of L2-Chinese learners: they holistically processed compound words only in the word-spaced condition, while native speakers did so regardless how sentences were presented. The findings indicated that high-proficiency L2-Chinese learners’ difficulty in word segmentation is predominantly caused by their L1-biased processing strategy.

This retrospective cohort study examined the relationship between a continuous measurement of bilingual engagement (operationalized as language entropy) and cognitive aging in regional minority language speakers. We drew Frisian–Dutch bilinguals (n = 7,448) and Low Saxon–Dutch bilinguals (n = 10,114) from the Lifelines Cohort Study and included participants aged 20–80, enabling an adult lifespan perspective. Cognitive functioning was measured using the Cogstate Brief Battery, which assesses processing speed, attention, working memory and recognition memory. We did not observe a robust relationship between bilingual engagement and cognitive functioning. Our results suggest that bilingual engagement does not play a key role in processing speed, attention, working memory and recognition memory performance in Frisian–Dutch and Low Saxon–Dutch bilinguals. Implications for the bilingual engagement measurement and potential investigations into regional minority language bilingualism and cognition are discussed.

Learning to map novel words onto their intended referents is a complex challenge, and one that becomes even harder when acquiring multiple languages. We investigated how label mixing affected learning novel words in one versus two languages. In a cross-situational word learning study, 80 adult participants learned either one-to-one word–object mappings, or two-to-one mappings, reflecting different challenges in learning one or two languages. We manipulated whether mappings co-occurred locally, where repetitions were prevalent, or whether co-occurrences were more distributed throughout exposure. Learners acquired two-to-one mappings better when they did not occur in local co-occurrences, but there was no effect of learning conditions for one-to-one mappings. Whether participants were proficient or not in an additional language did not have an observable effect on the learning. We suggest that local co-occurrences of multiple labels, as in language mixing environments, increase the challenge of learning words, though this effect may be only short-lived.

Embodied cognition theory posits that language comprehension is grounded in sensorimotor experience. For instance, abstract concepts such as perceived power are metaphorically associated with spatial information such as physical size. Here, using a size judgement task, we investigated whether perceived power embodiment differs between languages in Chinese–English bilinguals. Asked to make judgements regarding the physical size of words, participants responded faster and made fewer errors to high-power words (e.g., king) presented in bold and large font than in thin and small font, while no such effect was found for low-power words. Furthermore, this congruency effect was stronger in bilinguals’ L1 (Chinese) than in their L2 (English). Thus, while embodiment of perceived power is detectable in both languages of bilinguals, it appears weaker in the L2. This study highlights cross-linguistic similarities and differences in the embodiment of abstract concepts and contributes to our understanding of conceptual knowledge grounding in bilinguals.