This paper investigates the knowledge of constructions with absent expletives by advanced and high-proficiency non-native speakers of German whose first language is Polish. German grammar is known to license null subjects due to the strength of AGRP but not to identify them. Therefore only expletive subjects can be absent in German, except for Topic-drop and, crucially, the expletive subjects have to be absent in certain cases due to the Projection Principle. The knowledge of this phenomenon by second language (L2) learners has been investigated by two methods, elicited written production task and grammaticality judgment tests. High-level non-native speakers of German differ significantly from native speakers in both types of tasks. The differences are clearly not the result of transfer. The results reported here reveal permanent optionality in L2 grammars suggesting a deficit in the grammatical representations of L2 learners.

This study investigated attention control in tasks involving the processing of relational terms (more highly grammaticized linguistic stimuli: spatial prepositions) and non-relational terms (less highly grammaticized lexical stimuli: nouns) in a first (L1) and second language (L2). Participants were adult bilinguals with greater proficiency in their L1 (English) than in their L2 (French) as determined by self-report and performance on a speeded word classification task. Attention control was operationalized in terms of shift costs obtained in an alternating runs experimental design (Rogers and Monsell, 1995). As hypothesized from consideration of the attention-directing functions of language, participants displayed significantly greater shift costs (lower attention control) for relational terms when performing in the L2 as compared to the L1, but no difference in shift costs for non-relational terms between the two languages. The results are discussed from a cognitive linguistic perspective and in relation to second language proficiency development.

How do interpreters manage to cope with the adverse effects of concurrent articulation while trying to comprehend the message in the source language? In Experiments 1–3, we explored three possible working memory (WM) functions that may underlie the ability to simultaneously comprehend and produce in the interpreters: WM storage capacity, coordination and word knowledge. In Experiments 1 and 2, interpreters, high span individuals and control participants performed free recall tasks under normal, articulatory suppression conditions (Experiment 1) or while performing a secondary task (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, professional interpreters free recalled nonwords or words in their first (L1) and second language (L2). The results indicated that the ability of the interpreters to simultaneously comprehend and produce is related to word knowledge rather than to an increased WM storage capacity or to an enhanced ability to coordinate processes and tasks.

This paper proposes a shared, distributed, asymmetrical model for the bilingual mental lexicon. To test the sharing of conceptual relations across translation equivalents, Experiment 1 used the classical priming paradigm with specific methodological innovations, trying to satisfy various constraints that had not been addressed in previous studies. The results suggest shared storage for the conceptual representations of the bilingual's two vocabularies and asymmetrical links between concepts and lexical names in the two languages. Experiment 2 examined the details of meaning separation by eliciting semantic closeness rankings for conceptual relations that are equivalent across language translations and those that are not. The results indicate that bilinguals tend to integrate conceptual differences between translation equivalents, but that they also display a “separatist” tendency to maintain the L1 conceptual system in the representation of L1 words and to adopt the L2 conceptual system in the representation of L2 words.

Predictions derived from the central processing and script dependent hypotheses were assessed by measuring the reading ability of 116 Grade 2–5 Herero–English bilingual children in Namibia ranging in age from 7 to 12 and investigating possible predictors of word reading among measures of cognitive/linguistic processes. Tasks included measures of word reading, decoding, phonological awareness, verbal and spatial memory, rapid naming, semantic fluency, sound discrimination, listening comprehension and non-verbal reasoning. Faster rates of improvement in literacy within the more transparent language (Herero) supported the predictions of the script dependent hypothesis. However, the central processing hypothesis was also supported by evidence indicating that common underlying cognitive-linguistic processing skills predicted literacy levels across the two languages. The results argue for the importance of phonological processing skills for the development of literacy skills across languages/scripts and show that phonological skills in the L2 can be reliable predictors of literacy in the L1.

This paper aims to contribute to elucidating the notion of congruence in code-switching with particular reference to Welsh–English data. It has been suggested that a sufficient degree of congruence or equivalence between the constituents of one language and another is necessary in order for code-switching to take place. We shall distinguish between paradigmatic and syntagmatic congruence in relation to the grammatical categories of the two languages, focusing on the insertion of English nouns and noun phrases, adjectives, verbs and participles in otherwise Welsh utterances. We shall demonstrate how differing degrees of congruence between grammatical categories in the two languages are reflected in different code-switching outcomes.

This comment responds to some of the criticisms that MacSwan (2005) presents of the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model of codeswitching (CS) in general and of Jake, Myers-Scotton and Gross (2002), in particular. The goal is to point out misunderstandings and misinterpretations that are the basis of MacSwan's critique. His attempt to show how the Minimalist Program can explain CS on its own fails. Theoretically, while either of the participating languages in CS could frame the bilingual CP, only one, the ML, does. That is, recognizing the construct of the ML as the source of the morpho-syntactic frame of each bilingual clause showing CS is necessary.

This research note presents reactions to Jake, Myers-Scotton and Gross's (2005) response to MacSwan (2005), the latter offered as a response to Jake, Myers-Scotton and Gross (2002) and as a general critique of the MLF model of Myers-Scotton and colleagues. The note responds to the authors' analysis of various linguistic examples and to their continued assertion that the MLF model (and “matrix language” concept in particular) is necessary to any successful analysis of codeswitching data. The authors' critique of MacSwan's (2005) analysis of some Spanish–English DP facts is shown to fail, demonstrating that there is no “matrix language”. The note advocates that researchers reject across-the-board constraints on codeswitching in favor of a research agenda which relies upon independently motivated principles of grammar for the analysis of bilingual language data, with no codeswitching-specific mechanisms permitted.