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VERB PROCESSING BY BILINGUALS IN SENTENCE CONTEXTS

The Effect of Cognate Status and Verb Tense

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 June 2013

Eva Van Assche*
Affiliation:
Ghent University
Wouter Duyck
Affiliation:
Ghent University
Marc Brysbaert
Affiliation:
Ghent University
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Eva Van Assche, Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. E-mail: eva.vanassche@ugent.be

Abstract

Many studies on bilingual language processing have shown that lexical access is not selective with respect to language. These studies typically used nouns as word stimuli. The aim of the present study was to extend the previous findings on noun processing to verb processing. In the first experiment, Dutch-English bilinguals performed a lexical decision task in their second language and were faster to recognize cognate verbs (e.g., Dutch-English geven-give) presented out of context than control words. This verb cognate facilitation effect was not modulated by verb tense. In a second experiment, cognates and controls were presented in sentence contexts while eye movements were recorded. In contrast to the strong cognate facilitation effects on early and later reading time measures for nouns found in earlier studies, cognate facilitation was only observed on a later reading time measure (i.e., go-past time). An interpretation of the results within current models of bilingual language processing and lexical organization is provided.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

This research was made possible by the Research Foundation-Flanders of which Eva Van Assche is a postdoctoral fellow.

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