The representation and processing of synonyms and translations: a masked priming study with European Portuguese-English bilinguals

Aims/Objectives: According to Multilink, words from the first (L1) and (L2) second languages share a common store and their access is non-selective. Thus, the presentation of a target word activates in parallel lexical candidates from both languages that share form and semantic overlap. The degree of words' activation also depends on their resting levels of activation (words that are more used have a higher resting levels of activation). Since non-cognate translations and synonyms share meaning, they may be seen as qualitatively similar lexical representations, and consequently subject to similar processing if their frequency levels are matched. However, whereas masked priming lexical decision studies with synonyms failed to find reliable masked priming effects, the majority of those with non-cognate translations (especially in the forward direction, i.e., from L1 to L2) showed significant effects. The present study extends those findings by directly comparing the processing of synonyms and translations in bilinguals.Design/methodology: A masked priming lexical decision task (targets were preceded by a related 50-ms word [an L1 translation or an L2 synonym] or by a 50-ms unrelated word) was conducted. Lexical frequency of usage was higher for primes than for targets.Data and analysis: Reaction times and accuracy from 24 sequential (highly proficient) European Portuguese-English bilinguals were analyzed with linear mixed effects models.Findings/conclusions: Results showed priming effects for translations, but not for synonyms, indicating a differential processing of synonyms and non-cognate translations.Originality: This is the first empirical work that directly compares the processing of synonyms and translations in bilinguals by using the same targets words for both prime types.Significance/implications: The findings contradict the Multilink model, since they index a differential representational nature of lexico-semantic links for translations and synonyms. Modifications in the model are needed to account the data.- The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (CIPsi), University of Minho, and supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the Portuguese State Budget (UID/01662/2020). It has also been supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) (Reference ANR-16-CE28-0009-01)

Les mécanismes de lecture chez les enfants dyslexiques : apport des études francophones à la littérature internationale .

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Troubles du langage oral et dyslexie du développement

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Derivational awareness in late bilinguals increases along with proficiency without a clear influence of the suffixes shared with L1

Morphological awareness contributes to vocabulary acquisition and reading in bilingual children who learned English after their native language. In line with these considerations, we further investigated L2 processing in late adult bilinguals where questions related to morphology need to be clarified. French-English speakers (N = 92) were assessed for three morphological awareness stages: lexical semantic knowledge, syntactic knowledge, and distributive knowledge. We investigated whether the evolution of morphological awareness was related to L2 proficiency and whether it was facilitated by the presence of suffixes shared in L1 and L2. Our results confirmed the influence of language proficiency at each stage of morphological awareness. However, the hypothesis of an advantage of suffixes shared between French and English was not confirmed as no clear advantage was found for those suffixes. Our findings are discussed in line with the morphological congruence hypothesis and compared with the previous results in the literature

Sensitivity to morpheme units in English as L2 word recognition

International audienceLittle is yet known about how L2 learners process morphology during visual word recognition. Two points of view may be contrasted: the first one suggests that L2 learners, as less proficient speakers, may be less sensitive to the computational aspects of word processing such as the morphological structure of complex words, relying more on lexical information; whereas, the second one suggests that word processing is constrained mainly by linguistic aspects, making L2 learners as sensitive to word structure as native speakers. While previous studies have mainly focused on proficient to highly proficient L2 speakers, the present study compared L2 learners of low proficiency with those of intermediate to high levels of proficiency. The role of morphological structure in word recognition and pseudoword processing was examined by manipulating the presence of embedded words and suffixes in items presented for L2 lexical decision. Contrasting patterns in L2 word recognition were observed between groups as the low-proficiency group was more sensitive to the presence of an embedded word than the higher proficiency group in both accuracy and speed. However, pseudowords made up of an embedded word and suffix were significantly more likely to be wrongly accepted as words than other pseudowords by both groups. Furthermore, correct rejection of these items as words induced longer latencies in both groups, indicating a morphological analysis of these pseudowords. Together, the results show that L2 learners, including those who are low in proficiency, are sensitive to the morphological structure of written L2 words

Exploring the role of bases and suffixes when reading familiar and unfamiliar words:evidence from French young readers

International audienceWe examined whether French third- and fifth-grade children rely on morphemes when recognizing words and whether this reliance depends on word familiarity. We manipulated the presence of bases and suffixes in words and pseudowords to compare their contribution in a lexical decision task. Both bases and suffixes facilitated word reading accuracy and speed across all grades, even though the co-occurrence of a base and a suffix reduced the benefit associated to the presence of morphemes in third-grade children. Speed of pseudoword (i.e., unfamiliar word) reading was also influenced by base and suffix, and the combination of these units leaded to a high rate of false alarms. These results bring new evidence of morphological analysis in the reading of French familiar and unfamiliar words

Cross-language transfer of orthographic processing skills:a study of French children who learn English at school

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Early metalinguistic awareness of derivational morphology:Observations from a comparison of English and French

International audienceThis cross-linguistic comparison of metalinguistic development in French and English examines early ability to manipulate derivational suffixes in oral language games as a function of chronological age, receptive vocabulary,and year of schooling. Data from judgment and production tasks are presented for children aged between 5 and 8 years in their first, second, or third school year in the United Kingdom and France. The results suggest that metamorphological development is accelerated in French relative to English. The French advantage encompasses knowledge of a broader range of suffixes and a markedly greater facility for generalizing morphological knowledge to novel contexts. These findings are interpreted in relation to the word formation systems of English and French, and the educational context in each country

Neuropsychological Profile on the WISC-IV of French Children With Dyslexia

International audienceThis study examined the pattern of results on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV; French version) for 60 French children with dyslexia, from 8 to 16 years of age. Although use of WISC-III failed to clearly identify typical profiles and cognitive deficits in dyslexia, WISC-IV offers an opportunity to reach these objectives with new indexes and subtests. The mean performance analysis showed a Working Memory Index (WMI) at a limit level, significantly lower compared to the three other indexes. The WMI was the lowest index for 68% of the population studied and was significantly weaker for children with phonological dyslexia compared to children with surface dyslexia. WISC-IV evidenced preserved language and reasoning abilities in contrast to limited verbal working memory efficiency. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed