Getting your wires crossed: evidence for fast processing of L1 idioms in an L2

Monolingual speakers show priming for idiomatic sequences (e.g. a pain in the neck) relative to matched controls (e.g. a pain in the foot); single word translation equivalents show cross-language activation (e.g. dog–chien) for bilinguals. If the lexicon is heteromorphic (Wray, 2002), larger units m...

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Main Authors: Carrol, Gareth, Conklin, Kathy
Format: Article
Published: Cambridge University Press 2014
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Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28432/
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author Carrol, Gareth
Conklin, Kathy
author_facet Carrol, Gareth
Conklin, Kathy
author_sort Carrol, Gareth
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Monolingual speakers show priming for idiomatic sequences (e.g. a pain in the neck) relative to matched controls (e.g. a pain in the foot); single word translation equivalents show cross-language activation (e.g. dog–chien) for bilinguals. If the lexicon is heteromorphic (Wray, 2002), larger units may show cross-language priming in the same way as single words. We used the initial words of English idioms (e.g. to spill the . . . beans) and transliterated Chinese idioms (e.g. draw a snake and add . . . feet) as primes for the final words in a lexical decision task with high proficiency Chinese–English bilinguals and English monolinguals. Bilinguals responded to targets significantly faster when they completed a Chinese idiom (e.g. feet) than when they were presented with a matched control word (e.g. hair). The results are discussed in terms of conceptual activation and lexical translation processes, and are also incorporated into a dual route model of formulaic and novel language processing.
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spelling nottingham-284322020-05-04T20:13:09Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28432/ Getting your wires crossed: evidence for fast processing of L1 idioms in an L2 Carrol, Gareth Conklin, Kathy Monolingual speakers show priming for idiomatic sequences (e.g. a pain in the neck) relative to matched controls (e.g. a pain in the foot); single word translation equivalents show cross-language activation (e.g. dog–chien) for bilinguals. If the lexicon is heteromorphic (Wray, 2002), larger units may show cross-language priming in the same way as single words. We used the initial words of English idioms (e.g. to spill the . . . beans) and transliterated Chinese idioms (e.g. draw a snake and add . . . feet) as primes for the final words in a lexical decision task with high proficiency Chinese–English bilinguals and English monolinguals. Bilinguals responded to targets significantly faster when they completed a Chinese idiom (e.g. feet) than when they were presented with a matched control word (e.g. hair). The results are discussed in terms of conceptual activation and lexical translation processes, and are also incorporated into a dual route model of formulaic and novel language processing. Cambridge University Press 2014-10 Article PeerReviewed Carrol, Gareth and Conklin, Kathy (2014) Getting your wires crossed: evidence for fast processing of L1 idioms in an L2. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17 (4). pp. 784-797. ISSN 1366-7289 Bilingualism Dual route processing Fast automatic translation Formulaic language Idioms http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9342803&fileId=S1366728913000795 doi:10.1017/S1366728913000795 doi:10.1017/S1366728913000795
spellingShingle Bilingualism
Dual route processing
Fast automatic translation
Formulaic language
Idioms
Carrol, Gareth
Conklin, Kathy
Getting your wires crossed: evidence for fast processing of L1 idioms in an L2
title Getting your wires crossed: evidence for fast processing of L1 idioms in an L2
title_full Getting your wires crossed: evidence for fast processing of L1 idioms in an L2
title_fullStr Getting your wires crossed: evidence for fast processing of L1 idioms in an L2
title_full_unstemmed Getting your wires crossed: evidence for fast processing of L1 idioms in an L2
title_short Getting your wires crossed: evidence for fast processing of L1 idioms in an L2
title_sort getting your wires crossed: evidence for fast processing of l1 idioms in an l2
topic Bilingualism
Dual route processing
Fast automatic translation
Formulaic language
Idioms
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28432/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28432/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28432/