Junior Research Group in Language Acquisition, Georg Elias Müller Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2012 Dec;113(4):569-86. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2012.08.001. Epub 2012 Sep 11.
We examined how words from bilingual toddlers' second language (L2) primed recognition of related target words in their first language (L1). On critical trials, prime-target word pairs were either (a) phonologically related, with L2 primes overlapped phonologically with L1 target words [e.g., slide (L2 prime)-Kleid (L1 target, "dress")], or (b) phonologically related through translation, with L1 translations of L2 primes rhymed with the L1 target words [e.g., leg (L2 prime, L1 translation, "Bein")-Stein (L1 target, "stone"). Evidence of facilitated target recognition in the phonological priming condition suggests language nonselective access but not necessarily lexical access. However, a late interference effect on target recognition in the phonological priming through translation condition provides evidence for language nonselective lexical access: The L2 prime (leg) could influence L1 target recognition (Stein) in this condition only if both the L2 prime (leg) and its L1 translation ("Bein") were concurrently activated. In addition, age- and gender-matched monolingual toddler controls showed no difference between conditions, providing further evidence that the results with bilingual toddlers were driven by cross-language activation. The current study, therefore, presents the first-ever evidence of cross-talk between the two languages of bilinguals even as they begin to acquire fluency in their second language.
我们考察了双语幼儿的第二语言（L2）单词如何在他们的第一语言（L1）中引发对相关目标单词的识别。在关键试验中，启动词-目标词对要么是(a) 语音相关的，L2 启动词与 L1 目标词重叠[例如，slide（L2 启动词）-Kleid（L1 目标词，“dress”）]，要么是(b) 通过翻译而语音相关的，L2 启动词的 L1 翻译与 L1 目标词押韵[例如，leg（L2 启动词，L1 翻译，“Bein”）-Stein（L1 目标词，“stone”）]。语音启动条件下目标识别的促进证据表明存在非选择性的语言通达，但不一定是词汇通达。然而，在通过翻译的语音启动条件下对目标识别的后期干扰效应提供了语言非选择性词汇通达的证据：只有当 L2 启动词（leg）及其 L1 翻译（“Bein”）同时被激活时，L2 启动词（leg）才能影响 L1 目标词的识别（Stein）。此外，年龄和性别匹配的单语幼儿对照组在两种条件下没有差异，进一步证明了双语幼儿的结果是由跨语言激活驱动的。因此，本研究首次提供了双语者两种语言之间交叉对话的证据，即使他们开始流利地学习第二语言。
