Modelling the bilingual lexicon as a multiplex phonological network.

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Computational Linguistics

Background:

• Phonological word form networks are crucial for understanding lexical access efficiency in the mental lexicon.
• Research increasingly indicates the significance of second language phonological networks for lexical processes.
• Bilingual language processing likely involves integrated first and second language networks, with activation spreading between similar word forms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To model the interactive complexity of the bilingual mental lexicon using multiplex network analysis.
• To investigate cross-linguistic phonological effects in German learners of English.
• To analyze how phonological neighbors in both languages influence lexical processing.

Main Methods:

• Constructed a multiplex network analysis for the bilingual mental lexicon of German-English speakers.
• Employed a word recognition task using English stimuli.
• Analyzed activation of phonological neighbors in both German and English.

Main Results:

• German speakers processing English words activated phonological neighbors from their native German.
• Bilinguals demonstrated awareness of the interconnectedness between German and English phonological neighbors.
• Evidence supports interactive activation spreading between languages within the phonological neighborhood.

Conclusions:

• Findings contribute to the debate on the integration level of the bilingual mental lexicon.
• Phonological networks play a significant role in modeling bilingual lexical processing.
• Cross-linguistic activation and interconnectedness are key features of bilingual lexical access.