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Bimodal bilingualism*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2008

KAREN EMMOREY ,
HELSA B. BORINSTEIN ,
ROBIN THOMPSON  and
TAMAR H. GOLLAN
KAREN EMMOREY*
Affiliation:
San Diego State University
HELSA B. BORINSTEIN
Affiliation:
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
ROBIN THOMPSON
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
TAMAR H. GOLLAN
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
*
Address for correspondence: Dr. Karen Emmorey, Laboratory for Language and Cognitive Neuroscience, San Diego State University, 6495 Alvarado Court, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92120, USA[email protected]
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Abstract

Speech–sign or “bimodal” bilingualism is exceptional because distinct modalities allow for simultaneous production of two languages. We investigated the ramifications of this phenomenon for models of language production by eliciting language mixing from eleven hearing native users of American Sign Language (ASL) and English. Instead of switching between languages, bilinguals frequently produced code-blends (simultaneously produced English words and ASL signs). Code-blends resembled co-speech gesture with respect to synchronous vocal–manual timing and semantic equivalence. When ASL was the Matrix Language, no single-word code-blends were observed, suggesting stronger inhibition of English than ASL for these proficient bilinguals. We propose a model that accounts for similarities between co-speech gesture and code-blending and assumes interactions between ASL and English Formulators. The findings constrain language production models by demonstrating the possibility of simultaneously selecting two lexical representations (but not two propositions) for linguistic expression and by suggesting that lexical suppression is computationally more costly than lexical selection.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 43 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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Footnotes

*

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Development (HD-047736) awarded to Karen Emmorey and San Diego State University. Tamar Gollan was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (K23 DC 001910). We thank Danielle Lucien, Rachel Morgan, Jamie Smith and Monica Soliongco for help with data coding and transcription. We thank David Green and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript. We also thank Rob Hills, Peggy Lott, and Daniel Renner for creating the ASL illustrations. We are especially grateful to all of our bilingual participants.

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