Presentation Type
Poster
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Danielle Fahey
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Linguistics
Abstract / Artist's Statement
In this research, we are testing the overlap of bilingual processing using French and English cognates. Bilinguals have acquired two or more languages. Cognates, words of similar or the same definition, are a way to categorize distinct groups of words in the mind of a bilingual, more specifically located in the lexicon. The mental lexicon stores all the words a person knows, connecting the different words for different languages. Cognates have been recognized by bilinguals a significant amount faster than other lexical items. Because of the similarity of cognates in different languages, the processing time of cognates is inherently quicker, making a great testing model for the processing of words used by bilinguals. We will test to see how similarities or differences in the grammar of verbs (the type of object they take) will affect their processing if they’re cognates. The participants will be given three tasks: language identification (ID), self-paced listening (SPL), and sentence completion task (SCT). The study participants will be expected to use auditory (hearing) and visual (sight) tasks in French and English to show processing and distinguishing times. This data will show us how subtypes of cognates are organized in the lexicon. I expect to find data showing different processing times for different subtypes of cognates, and it is different in diverse groups of bilinguals. The data I have collected will help establish how lexical items interact with cognates and if other lexical items help increase or decrease the processing time for a bilingual.
Category
Life Sciences
Bilingual Lexical processing study using French and English Cognates
UC South Ballroom
In this research, we are testing the overlap of bilingual processing using French and English cognates. Bilinguals have acquired two or more languages. Cognates, words of similar or the same definition, are a way to categorize distinct groups of words in the mind of a bilingual, more specifically located in the lexicon. The mental lexicon stores all the words a person knows, connecting the different words for different languages. Cognates have been recognized by bilinguals a significant amount faster than other lexical items. Because of the similarity of cognates in different languages, the processing time of cognates is inherently quicker, making a great testing model for the processing of words used by bilinguals. We will test to see how similarities or differences in the grammar of verbs (the type of object they take) will affect their processing if they’re cognates. The participants will be given three tasks: language identification (ID), self-paced listening (SPL), and sentence completion task (SCT). The study participants will be expected to use auditory (hearing) and visual (sight) tasks in French and English to show processing and distinguishing times. This data will show us how subtypes of cognates are organized in the lexicon. I expect to find data showing different processing times for different subtypes of cognates, and it is different in diverse groups of bilinguals. The data I have collected will help establish how lexical items interact with cognates and if other lexical items help increase or decrease the processing time for a bilingual.