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3 - Bilingual Lexical Access

from Part I - Theoretical and Methodological Considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2019

By
Eva van Assche ,
Marc Brysbaert  and
Wouter Duyck
Edited by
Roberto R. Heredia  and
Anna B. Cieślicka
Roberto R. Heredia
Affiliation:
Texas A & M University
Anna B. Cieślicka
Affiliation:
Texas A & M University
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Summary

Bilingual ambiguity can arise when a word form is shared across languages but the meanings are different in each language (e.g., the word pie means foot in Spanish). The way bilinguals process this ambiguity informs us about general bilingual language processing. Do bilinguals activate both meanings of an ambiguous word or is only the meaning in the contextually relevant language activated? The current review presents studies that have explored cross-language ambiguity and the factors influencing bilingual ambiguity resolution. It examines how interactions of language context, frequency, task demands, and/or individual differences such as proficiency and executive control influence cross-language ambiguity effects. The review concludes that the bilingual language system is organized in an integrated lexicon that is accessed language-nonselectively but that it is important to take into account all of the possibly interacting factors.

Keywords

bilingual ambiguity resolutioncoactivationcognatescross-language ambiguity effectscross-language interference effectshomophonesinterlingual homographslanguage-nonselective accesslexical ambiguity
Type
Chapter
Information
Bilingual Lexical Ambiguity Resolution , pp. 42 - 68
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

Further Reading

Degani, T., & Tokowicz, N. (2010). Semantic ambiguity resolution within and across languages: An integrative review. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63, 1266–1303.Google Scholar
De Groot, A. M. B. (2011). Language and cognition in bilinguals and multilinguals: An introduction. New York: Psychology Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dijkstra, T., & van Heuven, W. J. B. (2002). The architecture of the bilingual word recognition system: From identification to decision. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 5, 175–197.Google Scholar
Kroll, J. F., & De Groot, A. M. B. (2005). Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
van Assche, E., Duyck, W., & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2012). Bilingual word recognition in a sentence context. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 174.Google Scholar
van Hell, J. G., & Tanner, D. (2012). Second language proficiency and cross-language lexical activation. Language Learning, 62, 148–171.Google Scholar

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