In their keynote contribution, Poplack, Zentz & Dion (henceforth PZD; Poplack, Zentz & Dion, 2011, this issue) propose an interesting “scientific test of convergence” (under section heading: “Introduction”) which contains criteria to check whether a particular feature in a given language in contact with another one is due to language contact or not. This is a valiant endeavor with a laudable goal. It is valiant because the answer to this question requires a complex investigation of the languages at issue. It is laudable since it is commonly believed that a given feature of a language in contact with another one is the result of convergence. This belief however is, in general, only a mere conjecture due to superficial similarities of the features at issue, for which no empirical evidence is provided. Yet, there is no doubt that PZD accomplish their endeavor in an outstanding manner. Based on a thorough study of substantial data from Canadian French and Canadian English, they demonstrate in a convincing way how it is possible to reveal whether a given feature is contact-induced or not.

The question of how much language a child can learn by modelling the patterns she is exposed to in the environment represents an age-old and persistent controversy in language-acquisition research. On a number of occasions researchers felt confident enough to claim that the controversy had been resolved, in favour of their own viewpoint, of course. One such attempt was Skinner's (1957) behaviourist view of language development, which gave a prominent if not exclusive role to input and experience. After Chomsky's (1959) landmark review, however, Skinner's account was left in pieces and was not further pursued by many. A more recent attempt comes from usage-based accounts according to which children directly build linguistic categories and rules from the language they hear around them. Some believe that these accounts have resolved the controversy for good and have ‘overturned’ alternative less experience-driven approaches (e.g., Ibbotson & Tomasello, 2016; Dabrowska, 2015). Yet, casual inspection of recent research articles reveals that this announcement may be somewhat premature; see, for example, Everaert, Huybregts, Chomsky, Berwick and Bolhuis (2015), Boxell's (2016) rebuttal of Dabrowska (2015), and many acquisition studies published in the journal Language Acquisition.

Bilingualism is a multifaceted experience that researchers have examined using various questionnaires to gain insights and characterize the experience. However, there are several issues related to questionnaire choice. To address this, we applied Content Overlap Analysis to seven prevalent bilingualism questionnaires, assessing their affinity. We found little overlap in these questionnaires; most had fewer than 15% of items in common, suggesting they capture different aspects of the bilingual experience and provide complementary rather than redundant data for researchers. Our investigation highlights the importance of choosing a bilingualism assessment tool to carefully fit research questions and sample language experiences.

This study examined cross-linguistic transfer in oral language skills in a sample of 50 native Hebrew speakers who learned English as a second language. The ability to retrieve phonological forms of words in naming, as manifested by the tendency to experience tip-of-the-tongue states, was correlated across languages. We also found within and across language correlations between this ability and grammatical accuracy, lexical diversity, and syntactic complexity in second language narratives. These findings are consistent with the transfer across languages in oral language skills and provide insights into the processes linking phonological and higher level encoding in production of connected speech.

These studies address monolinguals' and bilinguals' processing of categories, in order to examine the relationship between concepts and linguistically encoded classes. We focus on languages that differ in their conceptual lexicalization and breadth of application, where one language has a single word (e.g., dedo in Spanish) that corresponds to two words in another language (e.g., English finger and toe). Categories differed across types of semantics-concept mappings, from ‘classical’ cases, involving members close in the conceptual space, to ‘homonyms’, involving conceptually distant items. Bilingual Catalan speakers, and English and Spanish monolinguals judged whether objects were ‘like’ an initial referent presented either with or without a label. Scores were highest in classical categories, lowest in homonyms; higher in narrow than wide categories; and better in labeled than unlabeled cases. Bilinguals outperformed monolinguals in judgments that conformed with their language, especially in wide categories. We discuss implications for the semantics-cognition interface and bilingualism.

To date, the evidence regarding the effect of bilingualism/multilingualism on short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) capacity is inconclusive. This study investigates whether multilingualism has a positive effect on the verbal STM and WM capacity of neurotypical middle-aged and older individuals. Eighty-two L1-Norwegian sequential bilingual/multilingual academics were tested with tasks measuring verbal STM/WM capacity. Degree of bilingualism/multilingualism for each participant was estimated based on a comprehensive questionnaire. Different measures of bilingualism/multilingualism were used. Data on potentially influencing non-linguistic factors were also collected. Correlation and regression analyses showed that multilingualism impacts both verbal STM and verbal WM. In particular, all analyses showed that number of known foreign languages was the strongest predictor of verbal STM and WM capacity. The results are discussed in light of recent studies on the impact of bilingualism on STM/WM and on recent proposals regarding the mechanism underlying so-called bilingual advantage.

Understanding jokes may differ between mono- and bilinguals because of differences in lexical access; fluency and sense of humor may also be relevant. Three experiments examined English-language joke comprehension in monolingual (n = 91) and bilingual (n = 111) undergraduates, Russian–English bilinguals (n = 39), and MTurk monolinguals (n = 77). Participants rated jokes and non-jokes in English as funny or not funny. We assessed the effects of bilingualism, language dominance, fluency, sense of humor, experience, and motivation on response time (RT) and sensitivity (d′) in identifying jokes. Bilingualism predicted neither RT nor d′ in mono- and English-dominant bilingual undergraduates; English fluency predicted d′. Russians were slower than English-dominant bilinguals but were more not less sensitive to humor. MTurk monolinguals were faster than undergraduates and equally sensitive; sense of humor predicted sensitivity. Overall, humor processing is alternately affected by fluency, sense of humor, and motivation, depending on the population. Bilingualism per se is not a factor.

The keynote article (Goldrick, Putnam & Schwartz, 2016) discusses doubling phenomena occasionally found in code-switching corpora. Their analysis focuses on an English–Tamil sentence in which an SVO sequence in English is followed by a verb in Tamil, resulting in an apparent VOV structure:

1. (1)

Cunnings (Cunnings) offers an interpretation of L2-L1 sentence processing differences in terms of memory principles. We applaud such cross-domain approaches, which seem likely to significantly elucidate the neurocognition of language. Cunnings attributes sentence processing differences between (adult) high proficiency L2 and L1 speakers to an increased susceptibility to similarity-based retrieval interference, rather than to qualitative L2-L1 processing differences (cf. Clahsen & Felser, 2006). On his account, both L1 and L2 sentence processing depend upon a ‘bipartite’ working memory, which involves maintaining items active by focusing attention on long-term memory representations (Cowan, 2001).

Aneta Pavlenko (henceforth A.P.) is a pioneer in the study of “languages and emotion” in general and “emotions and bilingualism” in particular. If I voice in this commentary some disagreements, I do so in order to engage in a constructive discussion, conscious of how much she has done in this area, and also, of how much we share in our respective perspectives on emotion, languages, and bilingual lives.

To investigate cross-linguistic interactions in bimodal bilingual production, behavioural and electrophysiological measures (ERPs) were recorded from 24 deaf bimodal bilinguals while naming pictures in Catalan Sign Language (LSC). Two tasks were employed, a picture-word interference and a picture-picture interference task. Cross-linguistic effects were explored via distractors that were either semantically related to the target picture, to the phonology/orthography of the Spanish name of the target picture, or were unrelated. No semantic effects were observed in sign latencies, but ERPs differed between semantically related and unrelated distractors. For the form-related manipulation, a facilitation effect was observed both behaviourally and at the ERP level. Importantly, these effects were not influenced by the type of distractor (word/picture) presented providing the first piece of evidence that deaf bimodal bilinguals are sensitive to oral language in sign production. Implications for models of cross-linguistic interactions in bimodal bilinguals are discussed.

Research on the development of interpreting competence could be a window to the issue of how L2 learners develop complex language skills. The present study conducted a longitudinal experiment with beginning interpreting students, exploring the change of relationship between consecutive interpreting (CI) competence and two related capacities (i.e., language competence and memory capacity). Two major results were revealed. First, in general, more language skills and working memory (WM) spans got correlated with CI performance at the later stage of CI training. Second, a fit structural equation model of CI competence could only be reported in the post-test. We may therefore conclude that the development of interpreting competence is at least partly a result of the self-organization of the interpreting competence system, in which relevant components get mobilized, and a better coordinated structure emerges. Implications for the development of complex language skills and for the concept of self-organization are discussed.

Prepositions can be found with and without adjacent complements in many forms of popular spoken French. The alternation appears in main clauses (il veut pas payer pour ça ~ il veut pas payer pour “he doesn't want to pay for [it]”) and, though with a more restricted social and geographic distribution, in relative clauses (j'avais pas personne avec qui parler ~ j'avais pas personne à parler avec “I had no one to whom to talk ~ I had no one to talk to”). In main clauses, the variant lacking the adjacent complement is said to have an orphaned preposition (il veut pas payer pour); in relatives, it is said to have a stranded preposition (j'avais pas personne à parler avec). In popular spoken French in Canada, stranding appears to be much more frequent than in other Francophone areas. Because so many French speakers in Canada are bilingual, because of the high frequency of stranding, and no doubt also because stranding violates prescriptive norms, stranded prepositions in French in Canada are widely believed to be instances of English influence (e.g. j'avais pas personne à parler avec is regarded as modeled on I had no one to talk to). But in a masterly variationist treatment, Poplack, Zentz and Dion (2011, this issue) argue that Canadian stranding is not of English origin. Stranded Canadian prepositions represent, instead, the expansion to relative clauses of the ordinary main-clause orphans. The historical source for Canadian stranding is thus analogy-induced and internal (French orphans), not contact-induced and external (not English stranding).

Truscott and Sharwood Smith (henceforth T&SS) attempt to show how second language acquisition can occur without any learning. In their APT model, change depends only on the tuning of innate principles through the normal course of processing of L2. There are some features of their model that I find attractive. Specifically, their acceptance of the concepts of competition and activation strength brings them in line with standard processing accounts like the Competition Model (Bates and MacWhinney, 1982; MacWhinney, 1987, in press). At the same time, their reliance on parameters as the core constructs guiding learning leaves this model squarely within the framework of Chomsky's theory of Principles and Parameters (P&P). As such, it stipulates that the specific functional categories of Universal Grammar serve as the fundamental guide to both first and second language acquisition. Like other accounts in the P&P framework, this model attempts to view second language acquisition as involving no real learning beyond the deductive process of parameter-setting based on the detection of certain triggers. The specific innovation of the APT model is that changes in activation strength during processing function as the trigger to the setting of parameters. Unlike other P&P models, APT does not set parameters in an absolute fashion, allowing their activation weight to change by the processing of new input over time. The use of the concept of activation in APT is far more restricted than its use in connectionist models that allow for Hebbian learning, self-organizing features maps, or back-propagation.

Cross-linguistic structural priming effects suggest that bilinguals have shared or connected memory representations for similar syntactic structures. This predicts an influence of the production preferences of one language in the other language (Bernolet & Hartsuiker, 2018). We hypothesized that shared structures will lead to a facilitatory effect on production frequencies, whereas connected structures may sometimes lead to an inhibitory effect due to competition between structures. We compared the production preferences and priming effects in Dutch for the frequent by-phrase-final and the uncommon by-phrase-medial passive between Arabic/Berber–Dutch and Turkish–Dutch heritage speakers and native speakers of Dutch. Arabic/Berber–Dutch speakers produced more agentless passives –that is, the alternative shared between their two languages. In contrast, Turkish–Dutch speakers produced less by-phrase-medial passives, although these are less uncommon in Turkish. This inhibition effect suggests that syntactic structures may sometimes be connected rather than shared, although the exact mechanisms behind the inhibitory effects require further research.

Subcortical structures implicated in language control and processing adapt structurally with increasing language experience. However, the adaptation patterns across different subcortical structures remain unclear. Previous findings from bilinguals and multilinguals reveal renormalisation patterns, lending support to the Dynamic Restructuring Model (Pliatsikas, 2020). These patterns are composed of increasing volumes during the initial stages of language learning, and subsequent reductions as experience increases. T1-weighted images from 14 English monolinguals, 14 bilinguals, 14 trilinguals, and 14 quadrilinguals were obtained. The volumes of five subcortical regions implicated in language control and processing were compared amongst the groups. The findings showed group differences for every structure – caudate nucleus, nucleus accumbens, putamen, globus pallidus and thalamus. Complex patterns were unveiled for each structure, suggesting expansions and renormalisations that differ in trajectory for each group. These findings highlight the dynamic progression of subcortical adaptations, and support the notion of structural renormalisation as language experience grows.

Drawing on naturally-occurring bilingual speech from a well-defined codeswitching community in Southern Arizona, this study examined the influence of semantic gender (a.k.a. biological gender), analogical gender, and other-language phonemic cues in modulating gender assignment in Spanish–English codeswitched speech. Thirty-four Spanish–English early bilinguals completed a forced-choice elicitation task involving two codeswitching environments: Spanish determiner–English noun switches (Task 1) and English–Spanish switched copula constructions (Task 2). The results revealed that for human-denoting nouns, bilinguals assigned grammatical gender based on the presupposed sex of a noun's referent in both syntactic environments tested. As for inanimate nouns, bilinguals were more likely to assign masculine over feminine gender to such nouns in determiner–noun switches, but not in switched copula constructions. Other-language phonemic cues did not influence the assignment mechanism. A methodological implication is that the study replicated the codeswitching patterns observed in naturally-occurring bilingual speech from the same bilingual community.

We investigated the extent to which language tests developed for native speakers (L1) can be used with advanced speakers of a second language (L2). We compared the performance of Dutch–English bilinguals with that of native English speakers on a series of English language tests, looking at vocabulary knowledge, crystallized intelligence, reading comprehension, and reading speed. It was found that advanced L2 speakers know fewer L2 words than native speakers and take longer to read texts but perform equally well on text comprehension. Tests optimized for native English-speakers predicted text comprehension less well than tests better adapted to the skill level of the bilinguals (which include the Lextale test). An exploratory graphical analysis suggested that L2 users’ performance on challenging vocabulary tests, along with performance on an English author recognition test, forms a distinct cluster – arguably also measuring interest in English language and culture besides knowledge in general (also called crystallized intelligence).