Department of English and German Studies, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
Department of Experimental Psychology, Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
PLoS One. 2024 Feb 27;19(2):e0298648. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298648. eCollection 2024.
Bilingual adaptations remain a subject of ongoing debate, with varying results reported across cognitive domains. A possible way to disentangle the apparent inconsistency of results is to focus on the domain of language processing, which is what the bilingual experience boils down to. This study delves into the role of the bilingual experience on the processing of agreement mismatches. Given the underrepresentation of minority bilingual speakers of non-standard varieties, we advance a unique comparative perspective that includes monolinguals, standard language bilinguals, and different groups of minority language bilinguals, taking advantage of the rich linguistic diversity of the Italian peninsula. This comparative approach can reveal the impact of various sociolinguistic aspects of the bilingual experience across different bilingual trajectories. We developed an auditory acceptability judgement task in Italian, featuring Subject-Verb agreement mismatches. Participants evaluated the stimuli on a 5-point Likert scale and reaction times were recorded. The results do not reveal significant differences between the speakers of standard languages: Italian monolinguals and Italian-Spanish bilinguals. Instead, significant differences are found between monolinguals and the two groups of minority language bidialectals, as well as between the bidialectal groups themselves: Italian-Pavese bidialectals were faster than both Italian-Agrigentino bidialectals and Italian monolinguals, while Italian-Agrigentino bidialectals were less accurate than both Italian-Pavese bidialectals and Italian monolinguals. This intricate picture is explained through variables associated with second language use and language switching. Our findings suggest that if bilingualism is viewed as a yes/no phenotype, it is unavoidable that the bilingual experience will remain a mystery linked to intensely debated results. If, however, one accepts that bilingual adaptations are shaped by the environmental ecology of each trajectory, variation across bilingual processing outcomes is unsurprising. Overall, we argue that specific sociolinguistic factors behind each bilingual experience can reveal where bilingual adaptations on language and cognition stem from.
双语适应仍然是一个持续争论的话题，不同的认知领域报告了不同的结果。一种可能的方法是将注意力集中在语言处理领域，这是双语经验的核心，从而解决结果明显不一致的问题。本研究探讨了双语经验在处理一致性不匹配方面的作用。鉴于非标准变体的少数民族双语者代表性不足，我们提出了一个独特的比较视角，包括单语者、标准语言双语者和不同的少数民族语言双语者群体，利用了意大利半岛丰富的语言多样性。这种比较方法可以揭示不同双语轨迹中各种社会语言方面对双语经验的影响。我们在意大利语中开发了一个听觉可接受性判断任务，其中涉及主语-动词一致性不匹配。参与者在 5 点李克特量表上对刺激进行评估，并记录反应时间。结果并未显示出标准语言使用者之间的显著差异：意大利单语者和意大利-西班牙语双语者。相反，在单语者和两组少数民族双语者之间以及两组双语者之间存在显著差异：意大利-帕维亚双语者比意大利-阿格里琴托双语者和意大利单语者都快，而意大利-阿格里琴托双语者的准确性不如意大利-帕维亚双语者和意大利单语者。通过与第二语言使用和语言切换相关的变量可以解释这种复杂的情况。我们的研究结果表明，如果将双语主义视为一种是/否表型，那么双语经验将与激烈争论的结果联系在一起，这是不可避免的。然而，如果人们接受双语适应是由每个轨迹的环境生态塑造的，那么双语处理结果的变化就不足为奇了。总的来说，我们认为，每种双语经验背后的具体社会语言因素可以揭示双语适应在语言和认知方面的来源。
