Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T22:09:53.758Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bilingualism and the semantic-conceptual interface: the influence of language on categorization*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2016

NESTOR VIÑAS-GUASCH Open the ORCID record for NESTOR VIÑAS-GUASCH [Opens in a new window] ,
VIRGINIA C. MUELLER GATHERCOLE  and
HANS STADTHAGEN-GONZALEZ
NESTOR VIÑAS-GUASCH*
Affiliation:
The State Key Laboratory for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
VIRGINIA C. MUELLER GATHERCOLE
Affiliation:
Linguistics Program, Florida International University, Miami, U.S.A.
HANS STADTHAGEN-GONZALEZ
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The University of Southern Mississippi, Mississippi, U.S.A.
*
Address for correspondence: Nestor Viñas-Guasch, The Jockey Club Building for Interdisciplinary Research, Sassoon Road 5, Rm 409Hong Kong[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

These studies address monolinguals' and bilinguals' processing of categories, in order to examine the relationship between concepts and linguistically encoded classes. We focus on languages that differ in their conceptual lexicalization and breadth of application, where one language has a single word (e.g., dedo in Spanish) that corresponds to two words in another language (e.g., English finger and toe). Categories differed across types of semantics-concept mappings, from ‘classical’ cases, involving members close in the conceptual space, to ‘homonyms’, involving conceptually distant items. Bilingual Catalan speakers, and English and Spanish monolinguals judged whether objects were ‘like’ an initial referent presented either with or without a label. Scores were highest in classical categories, lowest in homonyms; higher in narrow than wide categories; and better in labeled than unlabeled cases. Bilinguals outperformed monolinguals in judgments that conformed with their language, especially in wide categories. We discuss implications for the semantics-cognition interface and bilingualism.

Keywords

categorizationcross-linguistic influencesemantic-conceptual interfaceexecutive functionbilingual advantage
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 20 , Issue 5 , November 2017 , pp. 965 - 979
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Supplementary material can be found online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1366728916000754

*

Many thanks to Carme Mas, Daniel Adrover and Eugenia Sebastián for their assistance in data collection. Thank you also to M. Carmen Parafita Couto, Rocío Pérez-Tattam, Enlli M. Thomas, Debbie Mills, and Kathryn Sharp for valuable feedback on the design of the study.

References

Ameel, E., Malt, B., & Storms, G. (2009). Object naming and later lexical development: from baby bottle to beer bottle. Journal of Memory and Language, 58, 262–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ameel, E., Malt, B., Storms, G., & Assche, F. (2009). Semantic convergence in the bilingual lexicon. Journal of Memory and Language, 60, 270–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Athanasopoulos, P. (2009). Cognitive representation of colour in bilinguals: The case of Greek blues. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12, 83–95 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barsalou, L. W. (2003). Abstraction in perceptual symbol systems. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London: Biological Sciences, 358, 1177–1187.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Cognitive and neural contributions to understanding the conceptual system. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 91–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berlin, B., & Kay, P. (1969). Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E. (1993). Metalinguistic awareness: The development of children's representations of language. In Pratt, C. & Garton, A. (eds.), Systems of representation in children: Development and use, pp. 211–233. London: Wiley.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism In Development: Language, Literacy, And Cognition. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E., Poarch, G., Luo, L., & Craik, F. I. M. (2014). Effects of bilingualism and aging on executive function and working memory. Psychology and Aging, 29, 696–705.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boutonnet, S., Dering, B., Viñas-Guasch, N., & Thierry, G. (2013). Seeing objects through the language glass. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 25, 1702–1710 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowerman, M. (1996). The origins of children's spatial semantic categories: cognitive versus linguistic determinants. In Gumperz, J. J. & Levinson, S. C. (eds.), Rethinking Linguistic Relativity, pp. 145–176. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Choi, S. (2006). Influence of language-specific input on spatial cognition: Categories of containment. First Language, 26, 207–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Choi, S. (2009). Typological differences in syntactic expressions of path and causation. In Gathercole, V. C. M. (ed.), Routes to Language: Studies in Honor of Melissa Bowerman, pp. 169–194. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Colomé, A. (2000). Lexical activation in bilinguals’ speech production: Language-specific or language independent? Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 721–736.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa, A., Hernández, M., & Sebastián-Gallés, N., (2008). Bilingualism aids conflict resolution: evidence from the ANT task. Cognition 106, 59–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costa, A., Miozzo, M., & Caramazza, A. (1999). Lexical selection in bilinguals: Do words in the bilinguals’ two lexicons compete for selection?. Journal of Memory and Language, 41, 365–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dromi, E. (2009). Old data – new eyes: Theories of word meaning acquisition. In Gathercole, V. C. M. (ed.), Routes to Language: Studies in Honor of Melissa Bowerman, pp. 39–59. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Duñabeitia, J.A., Hernández, J. A., Antón, E., Macizo, P., Estévez, A., Fuentes, L. J., & Carreiras, M. (2014). The inhibitory advantage in bilingual children revisited: Myth or reality? Experimental Psychology, 61 (3), 234–251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gathercole, V. C. M., & Moawad, R. A. (2010). Semantic interaction in early and late bilinguals: all words are not created equal. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13, 385–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathercole, V. C. M., Stadthagen-González, H., Pérez-Tattam, R., & Yavaș, F. (in press). Semantic and conceptual factors in Spanish-English bilinguals' processing of lexical categories in their two languages. Second Language Research.Google Scholar
Gathercole, V. C. M., Thomas, E. M., Jones, L., Viñas-Guasch, N., Young, N., & Hughes, E. K. (2010). Cognitive effects of bilingualism: digging deeper for the contributions of language dominance, linguistic knowledge, socio-economic status and cognitive abilities. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 13, 617–664.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathercole, V. C. M., Thomas, E. M., Kennedy, I., Prys, C., Young, N., Viñas Guasch, N., Roberts, E. J., Hughes, E. K., & Jones, L. (2014). Does language dominance affect cognitive performance in Bilinguals? Lifespan evidence from preschoolers through older adults on Card Sorting, Simon, and Metalinguistic Tasks. Special issue on the Development of Executive Function in Children, Frontiers in Psychology: Developmental Psychology, 5, article 11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gärdenfors, P. (1996). Conceptual spaces as a basis for cognitive semantics. In Clark, A., (ed.), Philosophy and Cognitive Science, pp. 159–180. Kluwer, Dordrecht.Google Scholar
Hernández, M., Costa, A., Fuentes, L. J., Vivas, A. B., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2010). The impact of bilingualism on the executive control and orienting networks of attention. Bilingualism Language and Cognition, 13, 315–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilchey, M. D., & Klein, R. M. (2011). Are there bilingual advantages on nonlinguistic interference tasks? Implications for the plasticity of executive control processes. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 18, 625–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jarvis, S., & Pavlenko, A. (2008). Cross-linguistic influence in language and cognition. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jiang, N. (1999). Lexical representation and development in a second language. Applied Linguistics, 21, 47–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jiang, N. (2000). Testing processing explanations for the asymmetry in masked cross-language priming. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2, 59–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kapa, L., & Colombo, J. (2013). Attentional control in early and later bilingual children. Cognitive Development, 28, 233–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kroll, J. F., & Stewart, E. (1994). Category interference in translation and picture naming: Evidence for asymmetric connections between bilingual memory representations. Journal of Memory and Language, 33, 149–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, S. C. (1997). From outer to inner space: linguistic categories and non-linguistic thinking. In Nuyts, J. & Pederson, E. (eds.), Language And Conceptualization, pp. 13–45. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, S. C. (2001). Covariation between spatial language and cognition. In Bowerman, M., & Levinson, S. C. (eds.), Language Acquisition And Conceptual Development, pp. 566–588. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucy, J. A. (1992). Grammatical Categories And Cognition: A Case Study Of The Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luk, G., De Sa, E., & Bialystok, E. (2011). Is there a relation between onset age of bilingualism and enhancement of cognitive control? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14, 588–595.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Majid, A., Bowerman, M., Kita, S., Haun, D. B. M., & Levinson, S. C. (2004). Can language restructure cognition? The case for space. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 108–114.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Merriman, W. E., Schuster, J. M., & Hager, L. (1991). Are names ever mapped onto preexisting categories?. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 120, 288–300.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paap, K. R., & Greenberg, Z. I. (2013). There is no coherent evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive processing. Cognitive Psychology, 66, 232–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paap, K. R., Johnson, H. A., & Sawi, O. (2015). Bilingual advantages in executive functioning either do not exist or are restricted to very specific and undetermined circumstances. Cortex, 69, 265–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paradis, M. (1997). The cognitive neuropsychology of bilingualism. In De Groot, A. M. B. & Kroll, J. F. (eds.), Tutorials in bilingualism: Psycholinguistic perspectives, pp. 331–354. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Perfetti, C. A., Bell, L., & Delaney, S. (1988). Automatic phonetic activation in silent word reading: evidence from backward masking. Journal of Memory and Language, 27, 59–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosch, E. (1973). On the internal structure of perceptual and semantic categories. In Moore, T. E. (ed.), Cognitive Development and the Acquisition of Language, 111–44. New York: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosch, E., & Mervis, C. B. (1975). Family resemblance. Studies in the internal structure of categories. Cognitive Psychology, 7, 573–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, B. (1905). On denoting. Mind, 14, 479–493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (1996). From “thought and language” to “thinking for speaking”. In Gumperz, J. J. & Levinson, S. C. (eds.), Rethinking Linguistic Relativity, pp. 70–96. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tao, L., Marzecová, A., Taft, M., Asanowicz, D., & Wodniecka, Z. (2011). The efficiency of attentional networks in early and late bilinguals: The role of age of acquisition. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thierry, G., & Wu, Y. J. (2007). Brain potentials reveal unconscious translation during foreign language comprehension. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. 104, 12535–12539.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Valian, V. (2015). Bilingualism and cognition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18 (1), 2015, 3–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Hell, J. G., & De Groot, A. M. B (1998). Conceptual representation in bilingual memory: Effects of concreteness and cognate status in word association. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1, 193–211. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical investigations. In Anscombe, G. E. M. (ed.), The American Journal Of Bioethics (Vol. 34), pp. 48–52. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Zelazo, P. D., & Müller, U. (2002). Executive function in typical and atypical development, in Goswami, U. (ed). Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development, pp. 445–469. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, S., & Schmitt, B. (1998). Language-Dependent Classification: The Role of Classifiers, Cognition, Memory and Ad Evaluation, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. 4, 375–85.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Viñas-Guasch supplementary material

Appendix A

Download Viñas-Guasch supplementary material(File)
File 2.3 MB
Supplementary material: File

Viñas-Guasch supplementary material

Appendix B

Download Viñas-Guasch supplementary material(File)
File 151.2 KB
Supplementary material: File

Viñas-Guasch supplementary material

Appendix C

Download Viñas-Guasch supplementary material(File)
File 73 KB