PSY 369: Psycholinguistics Second Language Acquisition: Bilingualism

Activity As a native speaker of English we can use many cues: Determine who or what is the one performing the action. The waitress pushes the cowboys. The telephones pushes the cowboys. Kisses the table the apple. The baskets the teacher kicks. As a native speaker of English we can use many cues: Word order Animacy Verb agreement Not all languages use the same cues to the same extent e.g., German doesn’t rely as much on word order, but relies more on agreement processes Sentence 1: waitress doing the pushing (even though the semantics/real world knowledge is strange). Both word order and agreement support this view. Sentence 2: very strange, position favors telephone, but verb and animacy suggest cowboys Sentence 3: English word order suggests object follows the verb Sentence 4: animacy and agreement suggest teacher as actor

Bilinguals & Polyglots Many people speak more than one language Tucker (1999) - multilinguals outnumber monolinguals What is the impact of knowing/using more than one language? How does acquisition look? What does the lexicon look like? How does performance look? And more…

Second language acquisition Contexts of childhood bilingualism Simultaneous Both languages are acquired at the same time Vocabulary growth of bilinguals is similar to that of monolinguals Some aspects of acquisition may be slowed, but by age of 4 typically caught up Doesn’t seem to matter whether languages are “related” or not (e.g., English - French versus English Japanese) Can achieve “fluency” in both languages Sequential acquisition The second language is learned after a first language When the second language (L2) is acquired is important Initially adults speak L2 faster, but children typically catch up and surpass the adults

Second language acquisition Johnson and Newport (1989) Native Chinese/Korean speakers moving to US Task: Listen to sentences and judge whether grammatically correct Types of sentences used Past tense Plural Third person singular Present progressive Determiners Pronominalization Particle movement Subcategorization Auxillaries Yes/no questions Wh-questions Word order

Second language acquisition Contexts of childhood bilingualism Frequency of usage of both languages How often and in what contexts do you use the two languages “Use it or lose it” - language attrition Mode of acquisition Native bilingualism - growing up in a two language environment Immersion - schooling provided in a non-native language Submersion - one learner surrounded by non-native speakers Language dominance effects Relative fluency of L1 and L2 may impact processing

Bilingual Representations How do we represent linguistic information in a bilingual lexicon? Probably depends on many of the factors just discussed Let’s look at some models and research focusing on the situation where L1 is dominant relative to L2

Models of the bilingual lexicons Potter et al (1984) L1 L2 IMAGES CONCEPTS Word Association Model L1 L2 IMAGES CONCEPTS Concept Mediation Model L1=First Language L2=Second Language

Bilingual Representations Potter et al. (1984) Compared bilingual translation performance with picture naming Logic: picture naming requires conceptual access Predictions: Word assoc. model - translation from L1 to L2 faster than picture naming in L2 (bypassing conceptual access) Concept mediation model - translation into L2 similar to naming in L2 because both require conceptual access Results supported concept mediation model

Bilingual Representations Caramazza and Brones (1980) Task: Spanish-English bilinguals decide whether a presented word (e.g., gun) was a member of a more general category (e.g., weapon) Results: It turned out not to matter whether language of the presented word matched or mismatched the language of the presented category name This suggests a general representation of the concept is being activated; Such activation facilitates the form of the concept in either language

Revised Hierarchical Model Kroll & Stewart (1994) Proposed that the fluency of L2 needs to be considered in the processing model L1 L2 concepts lexical links conceptual

Interesting effects in bilinguals Interference Code switching Cognitive advantages Types of sentences used Past tense Plural Third person singular Present progressive Determiners Pronominalization Particle movement Subcategorization Auxillaries Yes/no questions Wh-questions Word order

Interesting effects in bilinguals Interference Does knowing two languages lead to interference? When found, interference is at multiple levels Phonological - least amount of interference Lexical - mixing words from different languages Initially, appear to use a one word per thing strategy But as they realize there that they’re speaking two language, then they’ll use words from both languages simultaneously Syntactic Until year two, may use only one syntactic system which is common to both languages Then a brief period with two sets of lexical items, but still a common syntax Finally, two lexicons and two sets of syntax Types of sentences used Past tense Plural Third person singular Present progressive Determiners Pronominalization Particle movement Subcategorization Auxillaries Yes/no questions Wh-questions Word order

Interesting effects in bilinguals Determine who or what is the one performing the action. The waitress pushes the cowboys. The telephones pushes the cowboys. Kisses the table the apple. The baskets the teacher kicks. Kilborn (1989, 1994) Found that bilinguals (English as second language) typically carry over the dominant processing strategies from their native languages. This interacts with their level of fluency in the second language Sentence 1: waitress doing the pushing (even though the semantics/real world knowledge is strange). Both word order and agreement support this view. Sentence 2: very strnage, position favors telephone, but verb and animacy suggest cowboys Sentence 3: English word order suggests object follows the verb Sentence 4: animacy and agreement suggest teacher as actor

“I want a motorcycle VERDE” Code switching When bilinguals substitute a word or phrase from one language with a phrase or word from another language “I want a motorcycle VERDE” Switching is systematic

Code switching When bilinguals substitute a word or phrase from one language with a phrase or word from another language “I want a motorcycle VERDE” The Spanish adjective “verde” follows a grammatical rule that is observed by most bilingual speakers that code-switch “I want a VERDE motorcycle” Would be incorrect because language switching can occur only if the adjective is placed according to the rules of the language of the adjective In this case, the adjective is in Spanish; therefore, the adjective must follow the Spanish grammatical rule that states that the noun must precede the adjective

Code switching Traditionally viewed (semi-lingualism) as a strategy to compensate for diminished language proficiency. Bilinguals code-switch because they do not know either language completely Problem: Focus typically on written/reading rather than spoken performance Early researchers viewed code-switching as evidence that the bilinguals’ two languages were organized in separate and distinct mental dictionaries.

Code switching Generally, bilinguals take longer to read and comprehend sentences containing code-switched words This is due to a “mental switch mechanism” that determines which of the bilingual’s two mental dictionaries are “on” or “off” during language comprehension. This mental switch is responsible for selecting the appropriate mental dictionary to be employed during the comprehension of a sentence. E.g., if reading an English, a Spanish code-switched word is encountered, the mental switch must disable the English linguistic system, and enable the Spanish linguistic system.

Code switching This time difference depends on similarity of the languages Chinese-English bilinguals take longer to recognize English code-switched words in Chinese sentences only if the English words contain initial consonant-consonant (e.g., flight) clusters, simply because the Chinese language lacks this phonotactic structure. Another current view suggests that language dominance (i.e., which language is used more frequently) plays an important role in code-switching

Cognitive advantages Some evidence suggest that being bilingual can have an impact on cognition outside of language Bialystok and colleagues Bilinguals are very proficient at switching between languages Bilinguals also have to be good at suppressing the contextually inappropriate language

Cognitive advantages Some evidence suggest that being bilingual can have an impact on cognition outside of language Joshi (2008) (Master’s thesis here at ISU) Bilingual participants were faster to see both the first and second interpretation of the ambiguous pictures

Cognitive advantages Some evidence suggest that being bilingual can have an impact on cognition outside of language Joshi (2008) (Master’s thesis here at ISU) see hear Bilingual participants were faster to see both the first and second interpretation of the ambiguous pictures 6 “one” 7 “nine” 4 “three” Bilinguals showed higher levels of performance in a digit span task 2 “eight”

Lanuage and thought Can two people who speak different languages communicate? Two approaches Translation is possible linguistic realism Translation is essentially impossible linguistic determinism linguistic relativism Sometimes called “Whorfian hypothesis” or “Sapir-Whorf hypothesis”

Benjamin Lee Whorf “Every language is a vast pattern system, different from others, in which are culturally ordained the forms and categories by which the personality not only communicates, but also analyzes nature, notices or neglects types of relationships and phenomena, channels his reasoning, and builds the house of his consciousness.” —Whorf (1956: 252)

Language, behavior, and our perception of the world What aspects of an image does my language lead me to attend to? How will the categories of my language affect the way in which I sort objects? How will the categories of my language affect the distinctions I can perceive, e.g., on the color spectrum? The world We often talk about a linguistic system ‘carving up reality’. This implies that languages differ only with respect to the ways in which they describe physical reality. But language is also used to express concepts that humans create—concepts that might only exist within a single speech community.

Some history Franz Boas, father of American Anthropology “grammatical meaning [can] only be understood in terms of the system of which it is part” Edward Sapir, student of Boas “the ‘real world’ is to a large extent unconsciously build up on the language habits of the group.” Benjamin Lee Whorf, student of Sapir (and insurance claims adjustor)

Does language affect thought? Whorfian hypothesis Strong version of the linguistic relativity hypothesis: Language determines thought. Speakers of different languages see the world in different, incompatible ways, because their languages impose different conceptual structures on their experiences. Weak version of the linguistic relativity hypothesis: Language influences thinking Which did Whorf believe? Hard to tell, depends which writings you look at

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Linguistic relativity Lexical and syntactic differences are accompanied by non-linguistic cognitive differences. Thus, cultural differences in thinking are accompanied by linguistic differences between cultures. Linguistic determinism One might argue that cultural differences in thinking lead to language differences or in a a cultural determinism for linguistic ability Linguistic determinism is the exact reverse of this. Whorf posited that cultural thinking differences were the direct result of differences in their languages

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis What evidence led Whorf to this conclusion? The bulk of his evidence was drawn from cross-cultural comparisons He studied several Native American cultures. But he also used examples drawn from his days as an insurance investigator

Does language affect thought? Whorf’s famous example “Empty gasoline drums” “Yet the ‘empty’ drums are perhaps more dangerous (in comparison to the full drums), since they contain explosive vapor. …The word ‘empty’ is used in two linguistic patterns: (1) as a virtual synonym for ‘null and void, negative, inert,’ (2) applied in analysis of physical situations without regard to, e.g., vapor, liquid vestiges, in the container. The situation is named in one pattern (2) and the name is then ‘acted out’ in another (1), this being the general formula for the linguistic conditioning of behavior into hazardous forms.” (Whorf, 1956, p. 135)

Does language affect thought? Whorf’s famous example “Empty gasoline drums” Linguistic form empty Container no longer contains intended contents null and void, negative, inert Linguistic meanings drum no longer contains gasoline drum is no longer dangerous; okay to smoke cigarettes Mental interpretations gasoline drum without gasoline worker smokes cigarettes Nonlinguistic observables

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Some of the evidence: Hopi Indians have only one word to describe everything that can fly but which is not a bird. Whorf claimed Inuit have several terms for snow Qanuk ‘snowflake’ Qanir ’to snow’ Qanunge ‘to snow’ Qanugglir ‘to snow’ Kaneq ‘frost’ Kaner ‘be frosty’ Kanevvluk ‘fine snow’ Natquik ‘drifting snow’ Natquigte ‘for snow to drift along the ground’ And more

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Some of the evidence: Hopi Indians have only one word to describe everything that can fly but which is not a bird. Whorf claimed Inuit have seven terms for snow However, there are many different Inuit languages and not all posses the same number of terms. Boas (1911) reported one group with four root terms. This number is probably matched or surpassed by skiers regardless of their language. See Pullum’s Great Eskimo Hoax (1991)

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Specialization based on experience Different groups within a culture vary in terms of the number of words they use for things Consider memory Most people are aware of two kinds of memory, short term and long term. As we discovered previously cognitive psychologists have many terms: Sensory registers, Iconic and echoic, short-term or working or primary memory, long-term, verbal and imagistic, declarative, procedural, and episodic. It would be fair to say that the layman and the cognitive psychologist think differently about memory.

Testing the theory Two major approaches have been employed to test the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Test the strong view – language determines thought by seeing if the cognitive system can make distinctions that are not linguistically represented Test a weaker view – that language influences thought.

Cultural Variations Much of the initial research focused on an aspect of language which varies widely across cultures Color Terms There are a few languages which have only two color terms, and some with three. Most languages draw their color names from 11 specific colors.

Color Terms Berlin and Kay (1969): Color hierarchy In 2 color term languages the terms correspond to Black & White In 3 color term languages they correspond to Black, White & Red Languages with additional terms items are added as follows: yellow, green, blue then brown, then purple, pink, orange, and gray. This data runs contrary to Whorf’s hypotheses They suggest a universal physiological basis for color naming

Color Terms So do naming practices influence our ability to distinguish or remember colors? Brown & Lenneberg, 1954 The process of naming in this manner is known as codability. Codability = how easily a concept can be described in a language, related to the length of the word. Describe the study and findings (pg 383)

Color Terms Hieder (1972) (Rosch, 1973[same person]) Dani tribe of New Guinea use only two color names They had no difficulty in recognizing color chips that were from an initial presentation from among distractors even though they had no names for the colors. Additionally, they were better at recognizing focal colors (e.g., the best example of blue) than non-focal colors (just as we English speakers are) This data does not support the strong view of Whorf’s hypothesis.

Color Terms Comparative judgements among colors are affected by color naming practices Kay & Kempton, (1984) Investigated English and Tarahumara In Tarahumara there are no separate terms for blue and green The task was see 3 chips pick the one least similar in color Some trials had chips English speakers would call C1 green, C2 blue and C3 was a focal example of green but farther away in light spectrum from C1 than was the case for C1 vs. C2

Color Terms Kay & Kempton, (1984) Results Predictions: Visual stimuli as only basis pick C3 as odd Naming practices influence pick C2 as odd Tarahumara speakers pick C3 English speakers tended to pick the chip they would label blue (C2) even though in the spectrum it was closer to C1 than was C3 Support for a weak version of the Whorfian hypothesis

Higher Cognitive Processes Color naming is not a very complex cognitive process: What about more complex mental processes? Counting and other Arithmetic processes Reasoning Probably will run out of time here, skip to a short summary slide for these and the conclusions

Counting & Arithmetic Greenberg (1978) has identified some cultures where the only number terms correspond to one, two, many. In such cultures there is obviously a limit to counting progression and comparing the size of different sets of items Different languages terms for numbers also has effects on arithmetic

Counting & Arithmetic The greater regularity of number names in Chinese, Japanese and Korean as compared to English or French facilitates the learning of counting behavior beyond 10 in those languages. Another advantage is earlier mastery of ‘place value’ (understanding that in # 23 there are 2 tens and 3 ones)

Reasoning In attempts to determine ability of counter-factual reasoning different researchers have reached different conclusions. The basis for their differing conclusions is centered on the equivalence of the statements translation from one language to another This problem was avoided by Hoffman, Lau & Johnson(1986) in a study of codability of personality descriptions

Reasoning In English the term artistic also conveys the notion that a person is intense, moody, and unconventional In Chinese the term Shi Gu conveys that a person is worldly, reserved, social adept, and devoted to family Neither language has a corresponding term for artistic or Shi gu

Reasoning In the study the terms and their the list of traits were presented for both terms in Chinese or in English They then wrote an impression of the person and answered questions requiring inferences of character and behavior

Reasoning The interesting result is that in both languages when a global term was available they tended to elaborate on the term with stereotypical traits. When the global term was not available descriptions adhered more closely to listed traits. These results hold for bilingual speakers (Hoffman et. al., 1986) This indicates we are most likely to judge people in term of a category or stereotype if that category is easily coded in our language

Conclusions At this point it is apparent that the strong view of Whorf’s hypothesis is not supported. The data from areas of investigation concerning color naming, counting & arithmetic, reasoning, visual memory, and other areas (e.g., social inference) indicate that the use of certain specific terms can influence how we think The question that remains is how much of the differences are because of the language and how much due to the culture?