Bilingual Lexical Representation: The Status of Spanish-English Cognates

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to determine the functional status of cognates. Two hypotheses were considered. According to the first hypothesis, language is a critical feature governing lexical organization, and cognates may therefore be equated with morphologically unrelated translations. According to a second hypothesis, however, language is not a critical feature governing lexical organization. Instead, the boundaries between perceptual categories are determined by morphological considerations, and cognates may therefore be equated with intra-lingual variations such as inflections and derivations. If the first hypothesis is correct, cognate performance should follow that observed for translations, but if the second hypothesis is correct, cognate performance should follow that observed for inflections and derivations.

The experiments used different procedures in order to discount taskspecific explanations. The first experiment involved repetition priming in a lexical decision task, and emphasis was placed on relative priming; that is, on the amount of facilitation which occurs when, for example, OBEDIENCIA primes OBEDIENCE, expressed as a fraction of the amount of facilitation that occurs when the same word is presented on each occasion (i.e., when OBEDIENCE is used to prime OBEDIENCE). The second experiment tested memory for language. Four types of cognates were tested. These were: orthographically identical cognates, regular cognates with cion/tion substitution, regular cognates with dad/ty substitution, and irregularly derived cognates.

The results were unequivocal. The priming values observed previously for cognates were qualitatively and quantitatively similar to those observed for inflections and derivations, and this classification was confirmed in the second experiment, involving memory for language. The results are consistent with the general proposition that morphology rather than language governs the boundaries between perceptual categories, and a number of specific explanations are reviewed.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Albert

M. L.

Obler

L. K.

(1978). The bilingual brain New York: Academic Press.

Anderson

J. R.

(1978). Arguments concerning representations for mental imagery. Psychological Review 85, (4) 249–277.

Baddeley

A. D.

(1978). The trouble with levels: A reexamination of Craik and Lockhart's framework for memory research. Psychological Review 85, (3) 139–152.

Barnett

G. A.

(1977). Bilingual semantic organisation: A multi-dimensional analysis. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 8, (3) 315–327.

Bradley

(1979). Lexical representation of derivational relations. Aranoff

Kean

M. L.

Juncture. Cambridge, Mass: M.I.T. Press.

Brown

H. L.

Kirsner

(1980). A within subjects analysis of the relationship between memory span and processing rate in short-term memory. Cognitive Psychology 12, 177–187.

Brown

H. L.

Sharma

N. K.

Kirsner

(1984). The role of script and phonology in lexical representation. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 36A, 491–505.

Caramazza

Brones

(1979). Lexical access in bilinguals. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 13, 212–214.

Craik

F. I. M.

Kirsner

(1974). The effect of speaker's voice on word recognition. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 26, 274–284.

10.

Craik

F. I. M.

Lockhart

R. S.

(1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 11, 671–684.

11.

Dannenbring

G. L.

Briand

(1982). Semantic priming and the word repetition effect in a lexical decision task. Canadian Journal of Psychology 36, 435–444.

12.

Downie

Milech

Kirsner

(1985). Unit definition in the mental lexicon. Australian Journal of Psychology 37, (2) 141–155.

13.

Evett

L. J.

Humphreys

G. W.

(1981). The use of abstract graphemic information in lexical access. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 33A, 325–350.

14.

Fisher

R. P.

Cuervo

(1983). Memory for physical features of discourse as a function of their relevance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition 9, (1) 130–138.

15.

Gerard

L. D.

(1983). Bilingual word recognition: Lexical access Philadelphia Paper presented to the April meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association.

16.

Gough

P. B.

Alford

J. A.

Holley-Wilcox

(1981). Words and contexts. Tzeng

O. J. L.

Singer

Perception of print. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

17.

Henderson

(1984). Writing systems and reading processes. Henderson

Orthographies and reading. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

18.

Henderson

(1985). Toward a psychology of morphemes. Ellis

A. W.

Progress in the psychology of language. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Vol. 1.

19.

Henderson

Wallis

Knight

(1984). Morphemic structure and lexical access. Bouma

Bouwhuis

Attention and performance X. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

20.

Jackson

Morton

(1984). Facilitation in auditory word recognition. Memory & Cognition 12, (6) 568–574.

21.

Jacoby

L. L.

Brooks

L. R.

(1984). Nonanalytic cognition: Memory, perception and concept learning. Bower

G. H.

The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory. New York: Academic Press Vol. 18.

22.

Juilland

Chang-Rodriguez

(1964). The Romance languages and their structures. Frequency dictionary of Spanish words The Hague: Mouton Directed by A. Juilland, first series S1:.

23.

Kempley

S. T.

Morton

(1982). The effects of priming with regularly and irregularly related words in auditory word recognition. British Journal of Psychology 73, 441–454.

24.

Kintsch

(1970). Recognition memory in bilingual subjects. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 9, 405–409.

25.

Kirsner

(1973). An analysis of the visual component in recognition memory for verbal stimuli. Memory & Cognition 1, 449–453.

26.

Kirsner

Brown

H. L.

Abrol

Chaddha

N. N.

Sharma

N. K.

(1980). Bilingualism and lexical representation. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 32, 585–594.

27.

Kirsner

Dunn

J. C.

(1985). The perceptual record: A common factor in repetition priming and attribute retention. Posner

M. I.

Marin

O. S. M.

Mechanisms of attention: Attention and performance XI. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

28.

Kirsner

Smith

M. C.

Lockhart

R. S.

King

M-L.

Jain

(1984). The bilingual lexicon: Language-specific units in an integrated network. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. 23, 519–539.

29.

Kolers

P. A.

(1978). On the representations of experience. Gerver

Sinaiko

H. W.

Language interpretation and communication. New York: Plenum.

30.

Kolers

P. A.

(1979). Reading and knowing. Canadian Journal of Psychology 33, (2) 106–117.

31.

Kolers

P. A.

Roediger

H. L.

(1984). Procedures of mind. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 23, 425–449.

32.

Kucera

Francis

W. N.

(1967). Computational analysis of present-day American English Providence, R. I.: Brown University Press.

33.

McCormack

P. D.

(1976). Language as an attribute of memory. Canadian Journal of Psychology 30, (4) 238–248.

34.

McCormack

P. D.

(1977). Bilingual linguistic memory: The independence-interdependence issue revisited. Hornby

Bilingualism: Psychological, social and educational implications. New York: Academic Press.

35.

Meyer

D. E.

Ruddy

M. E.

(1974). Bilingual word recognition: Organization and retrieval of alternative lexical codes Philadelphia Paper presented to April meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association.

36.

Monsell

(1985). Repetition and the lexicon. Ellis

A. W.

Progress in the psychology of language. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Vol. 2.

37.

Murrell

G. A.

Morton

(1974). Word recognition and morphemic structure. Journal of Experimental Psychology 102, 963–968.

38.

Perecman

(1984). Spontaneous translation and language mixing in polyglotaphasia. Brain and Language 23, 43–63.

39.

Posner

(1969). Abstraction and the process of recognition. Spence

K. W.

Spence

J. T.

The psychology of learning and motivation. New York: Academic Press Vol. 3.

40.

Rose

R. G.

Carroll

J. F.

(1974). Free recall of a mixed language list. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 3, (4) 267–268.

41.

Saegert

Hamayan

Ahmar

(1975). Memory for language of input in polyglots. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 1, (5) 607–613.

42.

Scarborough

D. L.

Cortese

Scarborough

H. S.

(1977). Frequency and repetition effects in lexical memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 3, 1–17.

43.

Scarborough

D. L.

Gerard

Cortese

(1984). Independence of lexical access in bilingual word recognition. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 23, 84–99.

44.

Smith

Bermejo

M. M.

Chang-Rodriguez

(1971). Collins Spanish-English English-Spanish dictionary London: Collins.

45.

Stanners

R. F.

Neiser

J. J.

Hernon

W. P.

Hall

(1979). Memory representation for morphologically related words. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 18, 399–412.

46.

Taft

Forster

K. I.

Lexical storage and retrieval of prefixed words. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 14, 638–647.

47.

Tulving

(1983). Elements of episodic memory Oxford: Clarendon Press.

48.

Underwood

B. J.

(1969). Attributes of memory. Psychological Review 76, 559–573.

49.

Winograd

Cohen

Barresi

(1976). Memory for concrete and abstract words in bilingual speakers. Memory & Cognition 4, (3) 323–329.