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9 - Behavioral and Neural Correlates of Bilingual Lexical Ambiguity

from Part IV - Neuroscience of Bilingual Lexical Access

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2019

By
Veronica Whitford  and
Erika L. Guedea
Edited by
Roberto R. Heredia  and
Anna B. Cieślicka
Roberto R. Heredia
Affiliation:
Texas A & M University
Anna B. Cieślicka
Affiliation:
Texas A & M University
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Summary

This chapter elucidates the behavioral and neural underpinnings of bilingual lexical ambiguity processing during both first language (L1) and second language (L2) reading. It provides an overview of the eye-tracking and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research on bilingual nonselective lexical access, as assessed through cognates, interlingual homographs, and cross-language orthographic neighbors (i.e., words that are lexically ambiguous across languages). Ultimately, the chapter demonstrates that eye movement patterns vary as a function of the nature and amount of cross-language overlap, as well as individual differences in L2 background and executive control capacity. It also demonstrates that left hemisphere brain regions implicated in executive functions (e.g., inferior frontal gyrus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia) are also implicated in resolving cross-language lexical ambiguity.

Keywords

bilingual language control networkbilingualismeye-trackingfunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)lexical ambiguity processingnonselective lexical access
Type
Chapter
Information
Bilingual Lexical Ambiguity Resolution , pp. 231 - 249
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

Further Reading

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Lauro, J., & Schwartz, A. I. (2018). Cognate effects on anaphor processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20, 747–769.Google Scholar

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