Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T18:20:24.515Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Interlanguage dynamics and lexical networks in nonnative L2 signers of ASL: cross-modal rhyme priming*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2015

JOSHUA WILLIAMS*
Affiliation:
Psychological and Brain Science, Cognitive Science, Speech and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University
SHARLENE NEWMAN
Affiliation:
Psychological and Brain Science, Cognitive Science
*
Address for correspondence: Joshua Williams, Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory, Indiana University, 1101 E. 10th Street, Bloomington IN, 47405[email protected]

Abstract

This study investigated the structure of the bimodal bilingual lexicon. In the cross-modal priming task nonnative sign language learners heard an English word (e.g., keys) and responded to the lexicality of a signed target: an underlying rhyme (e.g., cheese) or a sign neighbor of that word (e.g., paper). The results indicated that rhyme words were retrieved more quickly and the L2 neighbors were faster for beginner learners. An item analysis also indicated that semantics did not facilitate neighbor retrieval and high frequency signs were retrieved more quickly. The AX discrimination task showed that learners focus on handshape and movement parameters and discriminate equally. The interlanguage dynamics play an important role in which phonological parameters are used and the spread of activation over time. A nonselective, integrated model of the bimodal bilingual lexicon is proposed such that lateral connections are weakened over time and handshape parameter feeds most of the activation to neighboring signs as a function of system dynamics.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation Integrative Education and Research Training Program in the Dynamics of Brain-Body-Environment Systems at Indiana University (JTW). The authors would like to extend thanks to the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, specifically Amy Cornwell, for their help with subject recruitment. A special thanks is due to Dr. Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig and Dr. Laura Murray for comments and suggestions on previous drafts.

References

Abutalebi, J., & Green, D. (2007). Bilingual language production: The neurocognition of language representation and control. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 20 (3), 242275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abutalebi, J., Annoni, J. M., Zimine, I., Pegna, A. J., Seghier, M. L., Lee-Jahnke, H., Lazeyras, F., Cappa, S.F., & Khateb, A. (2008). Language control and lexical competition in bilinguals: an event-related fMRI study. Cerebral Cortex, 18 (7), 14961505.Google Scholar
Best, C. T., & Tyler, M. D. (2007). Nonnative and second-language speech perception: Commonalities and complementarities. Language experience in second language speech learning: In honor of James Emil Flege, 13–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bochner, J. H., Christie, K., Hauser, P. C., & Searls, J. M. (2011). When is a difference really different? Learners’ discrimination of linguistic contrasts in American Sign Language. Language Learning, 61, 13021327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brentari, D. (1998). A prosodic model of sign language phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Brentari, D., Nadolske, M. A., & Wolford, G. (2012). Can experience with co-speech gesture influence the prosody of a sign language? Sign language prosodic cues in bimodal bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 402412.Google Scholar
Carreiras, M., Gutiérrez-Sigut, E., Baquero, S., & Corina, D. (2008). Lexical processing in Spanish Sign Language (LSE). Journal of Memory and Language, 58, 100122.Google Scholar
Caselli, N. K., & Cohen-Goldberg, A. M. (2014). Lexical access in sign language: A computational model. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 111.Google Scholar
Colin, C., Zuinen, T., Bayard, C., & Leybaert, J. (2013). Phonological processing of rhyme in spoken language and location in sign language by deaf and hearing participants: A neurophysiological study. Neurophysiologie Clinique/Clinical Neurophysiology.Google Scholar
Corina, D. P., & Knapp, H. P. (2006). Lexical retrieval in American Sign Language production. Papers in laboratory phonology, 8, 213240.Google Scholar
Costa, A. (2005). Lexical access in bilingual production. In Kroll, J. F. & De Groot, A. M. B. (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches, 308325. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Costa, A., & Santesteban, M. (2004). Lexical access in bilingual speech production: Evidence from language switching in highly proficient bilinguals and L2 learners. Journal of Memory and Language, 50, 491511.Google Scholar
De Bot, K., Lowie, W., & Verspoor, M. (2007). A dynamic systems theory approach to second language acquisition. Bilingualism language and cognition, 10, 7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dijkstra, T., & Van Heuven, W. J. (1998). The BIA model and bilingual word recognition. Localist connectionist approaches to human cognition, 189–225.Google Scholar
Dijkstra, T., Grainger, J., & Van Heuven, W. J. (1999). Recognition of cognates and interlingual homographs: The neglected role of phonology. Journal of Memory and Language, 41 (4), 496518.Google Scholar
Dijkstra, T., & Van Heuven, W. J. (2002). The architecture of the bilingual word recognition system: From identification to decision. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 5 (03), 175197.Google Scholar
Emmorey, K., Borinstein, H. B., Thompson, R., & Gollan, T. H. (2008). Bimodal bilingualism. Bilingualism, 11, 43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Emmorey, K., & Corina, D. (1990). Lexical recognition in sign language: Effects of phonetic structure and morphology. Perceptual and motor skills, 71, 12271252.Google Scholar
Emmorey, K., McCullough, S., & Brentari, D. (2003). Categorical perception in American Sign Language. Language and Cognitive Processes, 18, 2145.Google Scholar
Gass, S. M. (2013). Second language acquisition: An introductory course. Routledge.Google Scholar
Gerard, L. D., & Scarborough, D. L. (1989). Language-specific lexical access of homographs by bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15, 305.Google Scholar
Granena, G., & Long, M. (Eds.). (2013). Sensitive periods, language aptitude, and ultimate L2 attainment (Vol. 35). John Benjamins Publishing.Google Scholar
Green, D. W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1, 6781.Google Scholar
Hayes, B. (2011). Introductory phonology (Vol. 36). Oxford, U.K.: Wiley.Google Scholar
Herdina, P., & Jessner, U. (2002). A dynamic model of multilingualism: Perspectives of change in psycholinguistics (Vol. 121). Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Hildebrandt, U., & Corina, D. (2002). Phonological similarity in American Sign Language. Language and Cognitive Processes, 17, 593612.Google Scholar
Jared, D., & Kroll, J. F. (2001). Do bilinguals activate phonological representations in one or both of their languages when naming words?. Journal of Memory and Language, 44 (1), 231.Google Scholar
Jescheniak, J. D., & Levelt, W. J. (1994). Word frequency effects in speech production: Retrieval of syntactic information and of phonological form. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20, 824.Google Scholar
Kroll, J. F., Bobb, S. C., & Wodniecka, Z. (2006). Language selectivity is the exception, not the rule: Arguments against a fixed locus of language selection in bilingual speech. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 9, 119135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kroll, J. F., & De Groot, A. (2005). Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Luce, P. A., & Pisoni, D. B. (1998). Recognizing spoken words: The neighborhood activation model. Ear and Hearing, 19, 1.Google Scholar
Macnamara, J., & Kushnir, S. L. (1971). Linguistic independence of bilinguals: The input switch. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 10, 480487.Google Scholar
Marian, V., & Spivey, M. (2003). Competing activation in bilingual language processing: Within-and between-language competition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 6, 97115.Google Scholar
Marshall, C. R., Rowley, K., Mason, K., Herman, R., & Morgan, G. (2013). Lexical organization in deaf children who use British Sign Language: Evidence from a semantic fluency task. Journal of Child Language, 40, 193220.Google Scholar
Marslen-Wilson, W. D. (1987). Functional parallelism in spoken word-recognition. Cognition, 25, 71102.Google Scholar
Mayberry, R. I., Hall, M. L., & Zvaigzne, M. (2013). Subjective frequency ratings for 432 ASL signs. Behavior Research Methods, 114.Google Scholar
Morford, J. P., & Carlson, M. L. (2011). Sign perception and recognition in non-native signers of ASL. Language Learning and Development, 7, 149168.Google Scholar
Morford, J. P., Grieve-Smith, A. B., MacFarlane, J., Staley, J., & Waters, G. (2008). Effects of language experience on the perception of American Sign Language. Cognition, 109, 4153.Google Scholar
Morford, J. P., Wilkinson, E., Villwock, A., Piñar, P., & Kroll, J. F. (2011). When deaf signers read English: Do written words activate their sign translations?. Cognition, 118, 286292.Google Scholar
Peirce, J.W. (2007) PsychoPy - Psychophysics software in Python. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 162, 813.Google Scholar
Rice, M. L., Oetting, J. B., Marquis, J., Bode, J., & Pae, S. (1994). Frequency of input effects on word comprehension of children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 37, 106.Google Scholar
Scarborough, D. L., Gerard, L., & Cortese, C. (1984). Independence of lexical access in bilingual word recognition. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 23, 8499.Google Scholar
Shook, A., & Marian, V. (2012). Bimodal bilinguals co-activate both languages during spoken comprehension. Cognition, 124 (3), 314324.Google Scholar
Soares, C., & Grosjean, F. (1984). Bilinguals in a monolingual and a bilingual speech mode: The effect on lexical access. Memory & Cognition, 12, 380386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spivey, M. J., & Marian, V. (1999). Cross talk between native and second languages: Partial activation of an irrelevant lexicon. Psychological Science, 10, 281284.Google Scholar
Thierry, G., & Wu, Y. J. (2004). Electrophysiological evidence for language interference in late bilinguals. NeuroReport, 15, 15551558.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thierry, G., & Wu, Y. J. (2007). Brain potentials reveal unconscious translation during foreign-language comprehension. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104 (30), 1253012535.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Hell, J. G., Ormel, E., Van der Loop, J., & Hermans, D. (2009). Cross-Language interaction in unimodal and bimodal bilinguals. In Paper presented at the 16th conference of the European society for cognitive psychology. Krakow, Poland, September, 2–5.Google Scholar
Van Heuven, W. J., Dijkstra, T., & Grainger, J. (1998). Orthographic neighborhood effects in bilingual word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 39, 458483.Google Scholar
Vitevitch, M. S. (2002). The influence of phonological similarity neighborhoods on speech production. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28, 735.Google ScholarPubMed
Vitevitch, M. S., Chan, K. Y., & Goldstein, R. (2014). Insights into failed lexical retrieval from network science. Cognitive Psychology, 68, 132.Google Scholar
White, L. (2000). Second language acquisition: From initial to final state. In Archibald (ed.), Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theory, 130–155.Google Scholar
Wise, R., Chollet, F., Hadar, U. R. I., Friston, K., Hoffner, E., & Frackowiak, R. (1991). Distribution of cortical neural networks involved in word comprehension and word retrieval. Brain, 114, 18031817.Google Scholar
Wu, Y. J., & Thierry, G. (2010). Chinese–English bilinguals reading English hear Chinese. Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 76467651.Google Scholar
Zhou, H., Chen, B., Yang, M., & Dunlap, S. (2010). Language nonselective access to phonological representations: Evidence from Chinese–English bilinguals. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63, 20512066.Google Scholar
Zou, L., Ding, G., Abutalebi, J., Shu, H., & Peng, D. (2012). Structural plasticity of the left caudate in bimodal bilinguals. Cortex, 48 (9), 11971206.Google Scholar