Towards a localist-connectionist model of word translation

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ton Dijkstra ◽  
Steven Rekké
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Hierarchical Model ◽  
Connectionist Model ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Word Translation ◽  
Interactive Activation ◽  
Verbal Model

Word translation is among the most sophisticated skills that bilinguals can perform. Brysbaert and Duyck (2010) have argued that the Revised Hierarchical Model (RHM; Kroll & Stewart, 1994), a verbal model for word translation in beginning and proficient bilinguals, should be abandoned in favor of connectionist models such as the Bilingual Interactive Activation Plus model (BIA+; Dijkstra & Van Heuven, 2002). However, the partially implemented BIA+ model for bilingual word recognition has neither been applied to bilinguals of different proficiency levels nor extended to the complex process of word translation. After considering a number of aspects of the RHM, a new localist-connectionist model, called Multilink, is formulated to account for the performance of bilinguals differing in their L2 proficiency in different tasks: lexical decision, language decision, and word translation.

Multilink: a computational model for bilingual word recognition and word translation

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (04) ◽  
pp. 657-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
TON DIJKSTRA ◽  
ALEXANDER WAHL ◽  
FRANKA BUYTENHUIJS ◽  
NINO VAN HALEM ◽  
ZINA AL-JIBOURI ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Word Production ◽  
Connectionist Model ◽  
Word Comprehension ◽  
Reference Framework ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Lexical Similarity ◽  
Word Translation ◽  
Direction Model

The computational BIA+ model (Dijkstra & Van Heuven, 2002) has provided a useful account for bilingual word recognition, while the verbal (pre-quantitative) RHM (Kroll & Stewart, 1994) has often served as a reference framework for bilingual word production and translation. According to Brysbaert and Duyck (2010), a strong need is felt for a unified implemented account of bilingual word comprehension, lexical-semantic processing, and word production. With this goal in mind, we built a localist-connectionist model, called Multilink, which integrates basic assumptions of both BIA+ and RHM. It simulates the recognition and production of cognates (form-similar translation equivalents) and non-cognates of different lengths and frequencies in tasks like monolingual and bilingual lexical decision, word naming, and word translation production. It also considers effects of lexical similarity, cognate status, relative L2-proficiency, and translation direction. Model-to-model comparisons show that Multilink provides higher correlations with empirical data than both IA and BIA+ models.

Bilingual language representation and cognitive processes in translation

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNA HATZIDAKI ◽  
EMMANUEL M. POTHOS
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Hierarchical Model ◽  
First Language ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Lexical Memory ◽  
Language Representation ◽  
Word Translation ◽  
Semantic Errors ◽  
Lexical Errors

ABSTRACTAtext-translation task and a recognition task investigated the hypothesis thatsemantic memoryprincipally mediates translation from a bilingual's native first language (L1) to her second language (L2), whereaslexical memorymediates translation from L2 to L1. This has been held for word translation by the revised hierarchical model (RHM) of Kroll and Stewart. The results from Greek, English, and French fluent bilinguals showed semantic errors in L1–L2 direction and lexical errors in L2–L1 direction in the translation task as RHM would predict, but not semantic effects in L1–L2 direction in the word recognition task. These findings suggest a flexible use of conceptual and lexical connections that fluent bilinguals engage, depending upon the cognitive processes required by the task at hand.

Masked Translation Priming Effects With Highly Proficient Simultaneous Bilinguals

2010 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Andoni Duñabeitia ◽  
Manuel Perea ◽  
Manuel Carreiras
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Hierarchical Model ◽  
Priming Effect ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
The Other ◽  
Memory Organization ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Bilingual Memory ◽  
Translation Priming ◽  
Masked Translation Priming

One essential issue for models of bilingual memory organization is to what degree the representation from one of the languages is shared with the other language. In this study, we examine whether there is a symmetrical translation priming effect with highly proficient, simultaneous bilinguals. We conducted a masked priming lexical decision experiment with cognate and noncognate translation equivalents. Results showed a significant masked translation priming effect for both cognates and noncognates, with a greater priming effect for cognates. Furthermore, the magnitude of the translation priming was similar in the two directions. Thus, highly fluent bilinguals do develop symmetrical between-language links, as predicted by the Revised Hierarchical model and the BIA+ model. We examine the implications of these results for models of bilingual memory.

ELICITED IMITATION AS A MEASURE OF L2 PROFICIENCY

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Shu-Ling Wu ◽  
Yee Pin Tio ◽  
Lourdes Ortega
Keyword(s):  
High Reliability ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Elicited Imitation ◽  
External Criterion ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
The Third ◽  
Communicative Abilities

Abstract Elicited imitation (EI), a short-cut measure of global proficiency in second language (L2) research, requires participants to listen to sentences and repeat them as closely as possible. To support instrument sharing and assessment of L2 proficiency for longitudinal and crosslinguistic research, we created a parallel form of an EI task (EIT) for L2 English originally developed by the third author and colleagues and investigated the reliability and validity of the original and new forms. Eighty-two participants completed the two EITs, an oral narrative task, and a self-diagnostic survey. Both forms exhibited high reliability and good alignment with external criterion measures. Both distinguished well among four proficiency levels in the sample. Further, participants’ perception of EI difficulty aligned well with their EI scores. We suggest some improvements to boost forms equivalence and discuss new insights about the nature of EI as reconstructive, integrative, modality independent, and with indirect links to communicative abilities. Our study seeks to make this English EIT instrument widely useful to the L2 research community.

scholarly journals Lexical correlates of comprehensibility versus accentedness in second language speech

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 597-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
KAZUYA SAITO ◽  
STUART WEBB ◽  
PAVEL TROFIMOVICH ◽  
TALIA ISAACS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Surface Level ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Lexical Content ◽  
Lexical Factors

The current project investigated the extent to which several lexical aspects of second language (L2) speech – appropriateness, fluency, variation, sophistication, abstractness, sense relations – interact to influence native speakers’ judgements of comprehensibility (ease of understanding) and accentedness (linguistic nativelikeness). Extemporaneous speech elicited from 40 French speakers of English with varied L2 proficiency levels was first evaluated by 10 native-speaking raters for comprehensibility and accentedness. Subsequently, the dataset was transcribed and analyzed for 12 lexical factors. Various lexical properties of L2 speech were found to be associated with L2 comprehensibility, and especially lexical accuracy (lemma appropriateness) and complexity (polysemy), indicating that these lexical variables are associated with successful L2 communication. In contrast, native speakers’ accent judgements seemed to be linked to surface-level details of lexical content (abstractness) and form (variation, morphological accuracy) rather than to its conceptual and contextual details (e.g., lemma appropriateness, polysemy).

scholarly journals Spoken word recognition with gender-marked context

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsa Spinelli ◽  
Fanny Meunier ◽  
Alix Seigneuric
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Priming Effect ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Spoken Word Recognition ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Phonological Priming ◽  
Phonological Information ◽  
Gender Information

In a cross-modal (auditory-visual) fragment priming study in French, we tested the hypothesis that gender information given by a gender-marked article (e.g. unmasculine or unefeminine) is used early in the recognition of the following word to discard gender-incongruent competitors. In four experiments, we compared lexical decision performances on targets primed by phonological information only (e.g. /kRa/-CRAPAUD /kRapo/; /to/-TOAD) or by phonological plus gender information given by a gender-marked article (e.g. unmasculine /kra/-CRAPAUD; a /to/-TOAD). In all experiments, we found a phonological priming effect that was not modulated by the presence of gender context, whether gender-marked articles were congruent (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) or incongruent (Experiment 4) with the target gender. Moreover, phonological facilitation was not modulated by the presence of gender context, whether gender-marked articles allowed exclusion of less frequent competitors (Experiment 1) or more frequent ones (Experiments 2 and 3). We concluded that gender information extracted from a preceding gender-marked determiner is not used early in the process of spoken word recognition and that it may be used in a later selection process.

Homography and Polysemy as Factors in Bilingual Word Recognition

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Klein ◽  
Estelle Ann Doctor
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Bilingual Memory ◽  
Lexical Decisions ◽  
Interlingual Homographs ◽  
Decision Times

This study reports an experiment which examines semantic representation in lexical decisions as a source of interconnection between words in bilingual memory. Lexical decision times were compared for interlingual polysemes such as HAND which share spelling and meaning in both languages, and interlingual homographs such as KIND which share spelling but not meaning. The main result was faster “response times for polysemes than for interlingual homographs. Current theories of monolingual word recognition and bilingual semantic representation are discussed, and the findings are accommodated within the model of bilingual word recognition proposed by Doctor and Klein.

Visual recognition of cognates and interlingual homographs in two non-native languages

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanjiao Zhu ◽  
Peggy Pik Ki Mok
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Response Time ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Recognition ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Asian Populations ◽  
Interlingual Homographs

Abstract Previous studies on bilingual visual word recognition have been mainly based on European participants, while less is understood about Asian populations. In this study, the recognition of German-English cognates and interlingual homographs in lexical decision tasks was examined in the two non-native languages of Cantonese-English-German trilinguals. In the L2 English task, cognates were reacted to faster and more accurately than their matched non-cognates, while in the equivalent L3 German task, no cognate facilitation effect was found. However, cognate facilitation effects on response time and accuracy were observed in another L3 German task including cognates and interlingual homographs. The study suggests that Asian trilinguals access L2 and L3 in a language non-selective manner, despite their low proficiency in the recently acquired L3. Meanwhile, lexical processing in a non-proficient L3 is to a great extent affected by multiple contextual factors.

scholarly journals The Emergence of Second Language Categorisation of the English Article Construction

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Helen Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Form Function ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Increased Sensitivity ◽  
English Articles

This study examines the emergent cognitive categorisation of the English article construction among second language (L2) learners. One hundred and fourteen Mandarin-L1 learners of English, divided into two L2 proficiency levels (low-to-intermediate and advanced), were measured by a computer-based cloze test for the accuracy and response time of appropriate use of English articles in sentential contexts. Results showed that when learners acquired the polysemous English article construction they demonstrated stronger competence in differentiating individual form-function mappings in the article construction. L2 learners’ patterns of article construction usage were shaped by semantic functions. Learners performed better on the definiteness category than on the non-definiteness categories, suggesting that learners were sensitive to the prototypicality of nominal grounding. Advanced learners demonstrated an increased sensitivity to semantic idiosyncrasy, but they lacked contextualised constructional knowledge. Competition among the functional categories and restructuring of functional categories are important ways of regularization that learners go through to acquire semantically complex systems such as articles.

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