Acceso usuarios
Irena Bogunović
, Bojana Ćoso, Dražen Domijan
Aims and Objectives:This study aims to investigate lexical access to unadapted English loanwords in Croatian speakers with different levels of English proficiency by exploring the effects of associative-semantic priming. It is expected that associative-semantic relatedness will have a facilitating effect on word recognition in all proficiency groups and in both language directions. Contrary to previous research on unadapted English loanwords, we expect that the effect of proficiency will also be significant.
Methodology:To find appropriate stimuli for the main study, three preparatory studies were conducted. The main study consisted of a proficiency test, a questionnaire on language use and exposure, and two cross-language (first language [L1] and second language [L2]) priming experiments (L2–L1/L1–L2).
Data and Analysis:Reaction times were analyzed by fitting linear mixed-effects model in R 3.6.1 environment for statistical computing.
Findings:The results showed that associative-semantic relatedness significantly facilitates lexical access to unadapted English loanwords in both language directions and all proficiency groups. The effect of proficiency on reaction times was also significant in both experiments.
Originality:Unadapted English loanwords provide a unique opportunity for the study of bilingual lexical access because of their specific nature—they occur in L1 and L2 in the same orthographic form, they often do not have adequate native equivalents, and are used by all proficiency groups. However, very little research has been done in that field.
Implications:While unadapted English loanwords are common in many languages, the cognitive processing of this specific group of loanwords is still relatively understudied. Thus, the results of this study not only add to the existing knowledge on bilingual lexical access, but also provide new insight into loanword processing.
