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The complexity-cost factor in bilingualism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2013

Julia Festman*
Affiliation:
University of Potsdam, Potsdam Research Institute for Multilingualism, 14476 Potsdam, Germany. [email protected]://www.uni-potsdam.de/prim/staff/festman.html

Abstract

Language processing changes with the knowledge and use of two languages. The advantage of being bilingual comes at the expense of increased processing demands and processing costs. I suggest considering bilingual complexity including these demands and costs. The proposed model claims effortless monolingual processing. By integrating individual and situational variability, the model would lose its idealistic touch, even for monolinguals.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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