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Emotion and emotion-laden words in the bilingual lexicon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2008

ANETA PAVLENKO
ANETA PAVLENKO*
Affiliation:
Temple University
*
Address for correspondence: CITE Department, College of Education, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA[email protected]
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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to draw on recent studies of bilingualism and emotions to argue for three types of modifications to the current models of the bilingual lexicon. The first modification involves word categories: I will show that emotion words need to be considered as a separate class of words in the mental lexicon, represented and processed differently from abstract and concrete words. The second modification involves conceptual representations: I will demonstrate that emotion concepts vary across languages and that bilinguals' concepts may, in some cases, be distinct from those of monolingual speakers. The third modification involves emotionality: I will argue that emotionality is an important feature of the bilingual lexicon, where different languages and word types display different levels of emotionality. I will also show how differential emotionality affects code-switching and language choice in bi- and multilinguals.

Type
Keynote
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , July 2008 , pp. 147 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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