Lexical representation of cognates and noncognates in compound bilinguals

• Published in: Journal of memory and language 1991-02, Vol.30 (1), p.90-123
• Main Authors: de Groot, Annette M.B, Nas, Gerard L.J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bilingualism. Multilingualism; Biological and medical sciences; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Language; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology
• ISSN: 0749-596X; 1096-0821
• DOI: 10.1016/0749-596X(91)90012-9

In four experiments the representation of words in a Dutch-English bilingual lexicon was examined. Within- and between-language repetition-priming and associative (semantic)-priming effects were compared. In Experiments 1 and 2 only cognate words were presented, whereas in Experiments 3 and 4 also noncognates served as stimuli. In Experiment 1 the primes were presented unmasked; in Experiments 2 and 4 they were masked by means of a forward/backward masking technique; in Experiment 3 they occurred under both masked and unmasked presentation conditions. Within- and between-language repetition-priming and associative-priming effects were obtained, both under masked and unmasked presentation conditions, but in the masking condition the between-language associative priming effect for noncognates disappeared. The results suggest separate but connected lexical representations for Dutch-English translation equivalents, both for cognates and noncognates, shared conceptual representations for Dutch-English cognate translations, and separate conceptual representations for noncognate translations.