Inter-word Connections in the Second Language Mental Lexicon
The present study investigates the nature of interword connections in the second language (L2) mental lexicon. The two main questions addressed in the study are; (1) How are L2 words interconnected; phonologically, morphologically or semantically?, and (2) what effect does L2 proficiency have on L2 interword connections? These questions also serve to test the predictions of the Revised Hierarchical Model (RHM), which assumes that the connections between L2 words and their concepts strengthen as a result of increasing L2 proficiency. The model thus postulates that less proficient bilinguals are more affected by form-related variables than highly proficient bilinguals whose behavior is much more dominated by semantico-pragmatic associations. To answer the study questions, 58 Arabic-speaking late bilinguals, half of whom are less proficient and the other half more proficient, were asked to complete a word-association task where they ranked the order of 3 words in a set according to how close they associate with the headword. The 3 options consisted of 1 phonological association and 2 semantic associations, one of which is mono-morphemic and the other multi-morphemic. The statistical analyses of the participants responses showed that highly proficient bilinguals are more influenced by semantic variables, followed by morphological and then phonological variables. Low proficient bilinguals, in contrast, demonstrated a different behavior. They were more affected by phonological, morphological and then semantic features. The results prove consistent with the predictions of the Revised Hierarchical Model and supports an independent place for morphology in the organization of the bilingual lexicon.
bilingual lexicon - Revised Hierarchical Model - inter-word connections -morphological processing
Hassan Taman Dina El-Dakhs
Qatar University Prince Sultan University
国际会议
2009 International Conference on Applied Linguistics & Language Teaching(2009应用语言学暨语言教学国际研讨会)
台湾
英文
435-442
2009-04-01（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）