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Sentence context effects in bilingual word recognition: Cognate status, sentence language, and semantic constraint*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2014

TON DIJKSTRA ,
JANET G. VAN HELL  and
PASCAL BRENDERS
TON DIJKSTRA*
Affiliation:
Radboud University Nijmegen, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, The Netherlands
JANET G. VAN HELL
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University, Department of Psychology, USA & Radboud University Nijmegen, Behavioural Science Institute, The Netherlands
PASCAL BRENDERS
Affiliation:
Radboud University Nijmegen, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, The Netherlands & VU University Amsterdam, Department of Methods, The Netherlands
*
Address for correspondence: Ton Dijkstra, Radboud University Nijmegen, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour – DCC, P.O. Box 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands[email protected]
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Abstract

In two lexical decision experiments, we investigated how sentence language affects the bilingual's recognition of target words from the same or a different language. Dutch–English bilinguals read Dutch (L1) or English (L2) sentences, presented word by word, followed by English (Experiment 1) or Dutch (Experiment 2) target words. Targets were Dutch–English cognates or non-cognates in isolation or preceded by sentences providing a high or a low semantic constraint. English cognates were facilitated irrespective of whether they were preceded by high or low constraining English sentences (no language switch) or Dutch sentences (switch). For Dutch cognates, inhibition effects arose in low constraining sentences (irrespective of Dutch or English) and in English (switch) sentences (irrespective of semantic constraint). Thus, under mixed language conditions, sentence constraint modulates target word processing but does not always completely eliminate cross-linguistic effects. The results are interpreted in a BIA+ model that extends monolingual views on sentence comprehension.

Keywords

sentence processingsemantic constraintcognatebilingualword recognition
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 597 - 613
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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Footnotes

*

We thank Henriette Raudszus for her help in data collection and her significant comments on Experiment 2. We are also grateful to Ana Schwartz, Wouter Duyck, and an anonymous reviewer for their informative feedback on an earlier version of the text.

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