15.3286, Diss: Psycholinguistics: Shidrokh Namei: Swedish

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LINGUIST List: Vol-15-3286. Mon Nov 22 2004. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 15.3286, Diss: Psycholinguistics: Shidrokh Namei: Swedish                                                                                                                                                              

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1)
Date: 18-Nov-2004
From: Shidrokh Namei < Shidrokh.Namei at lingfil.uu.se >
Subject: The Bilingual Lexicon from a Developmental Perspective: A Word Association Study of Persian-Swedish Bilinguals 
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 21:28:17
From: Shidrokh Namei < Shidrokh.Namei at lingfil.uu.se >
Subject: The Bilingual Lexicon from a Developmental Perspective: A Word Association Study of Persian-Swedish Bilinguals  
 

Institution: Stockholm University 
Program: Centre for Research on Bilingualism 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2002 

Author: Shidrokh Namei

Dissertation Title: The Bilingual Lexicon from a Developmental Perspective: A
Word Association Study of Persian-Swedish Bilinguals 

Linguistic Field(s): Psycholinguistics 

Subject Language(s):
Swedish (Language Code: SWD) 


Dissertation Director(s):
Åke Viberg

Dissertation Abstract:

Some studies have shown that the L1 mental lexicon is organized mainly on a
semantic basis, while the organization of the L2 mental lexicon in the
early stages of development is phonologically based, that is non-semantic,
indicating a less profound lexical knowledge and eliciting a higher degree
of nonnative-like associations. This study examines whether or not this is
the case. The subjects of the study are 100 Persian-Swedish bilinguals
between the ages of 6 and 22 who are students in the Swedish comprehensive
and upper secondary schools. There are also 50 native speakers of each
language, Swedish and Persian, who make up the comparison groups. The
elicitation instrument is a word association test that contains 100
relatively common nouns and adjectives. The subjects' task is to associate
freely, giving a single-word response to each stimulus word.
The results of this study show that phonologically-based associations occur
in both the first and the second language as a function of the degree of
word knowledge. It is contended that phonologically-based organization of
the mental lexicon is not a characteristic of the stage of language
proficiency as has been claimed, but is a primary acquisition feature of
every individual word, whether in the L1 or the L2.
The results of the study also show that there are great similarities
between the L1 and the L2 in terms of developmental stages in word
acquisition. It is contended that the mode of organization of the words at
different stages of development may differ. Words that are barely known may
elicit phonologically-based associations. Those that are partially known
may have a strong syntactic organization, and finally, well-known words are
connected to other words mainly on a semantic basis.
A four-level model is also adopted to study the notion of native and
nonnative-likeness in the L1 and the L2. The results show that there are
variations in the responses of all groups, meaning that groups are
characterized by both typicality and atypicality in their responses, but
bilinguals are more idiosyncratic in both of their languages than native
speakers. In all of the groups, subjects at the upper grade levels are more
typical in their responses than those at the lower grade levels. These
results indicate that the typicality of responses is a function of the
degree of word knowledge.





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