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ERIC Number: EJ880900
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0169-0965
EISSN: N/A
On a Different "Plane": Cross-Language Effects on the Conceptual Representations of Within-Language Homonyms
Areas Da Luz Fontes, Ana B.; Schwartz, Ana I.
Language and Cognitive Processes, v25 n4 p508-532 2010
We examined whether bilinguals' conceptual representation of homonyms in one language are influenced by meanings in the other. One hundred and seventeen Spanish-English bilinguals generated sentences for 62 English homonyms that were also cognates with Spanish and which shared at least one meaning with Spanish (e.g., plane/"plano"). Production probabilities for each meaning were calculated. A stepwise multiple regression revealed that whether a meaning was shared with Spanish or not accounted for a significant portion of the variance, even after entering production probabilities from published monolingual norms (Twilley et al., 1994). Homonyms classified as highly biased based on monolingual responses became less biased if the less frequent meaning was shared whereas balanced homonyms increased in polarisation if the dominant meaning was shared. Results are discussed in terms of models of bilingual conceptual and lexical representation as well as theories of ambiguity resolution. (Contains 2 footnotes and 4 tables.)
Psychology Press. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A