A Semantic Priming Test of Bilingual Language Storage and the Compound vs Coordinate Bilingual Distinction with Latvian-English Bilinguals

Abstract

The unified and separate storage models of bilingual language storage and the compound vs coordinate bilingual distinction were tested with a semantic priming test using 47 Latvian-English bilinguals, some of whom learned the two languages at the same time and in the same environment and some of whom learned the two languages at different times and in different environments. Subjects named target words in their two languages, preceded by related or unrelated words in the same or a different language. Analyses of naming latencies provided no evidence of the compound vs coordinate distinction; however, results provided evidence favoring the separate storage model and suggested that seeing a word in a one language prepared the person to say another word in the same language.