From ‘Daar’ to ‘There’ and Back Again: About the Mechanisms underlying Word Translation.
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2015-07-24
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en
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Bilingual processing models differ in the roles they assign to lexical variables in the process of word translation. We collected vocal translation latencies for target words, as a function of translation direction (English to Dutch or vice versa), cognate status, word frequency, and L2 experience in Dutch-English bilinguals. Overall, facilitatory effects for both cognates (words that show form-overlap with their translations in another language) and high-frequency words were found. People more experienced in English were generally faster in translating words then the less experienced. Contrary to principles by the Revised Hierarchical Model (RHM), a translation asymmetry was found in the shape of forward facilitation: Translation from L1 to L2 was generally faster than from L2 to L1. This effect was contingent on a word’s cognate status, but not on word frequency or one’s L2 experience. The findings are largely in ! line with Christoffels, De Groot, and Kroll (2006) who reported a forward facilitation effect as well, but in their study, the effect was independent of cognate status. Findings are discussed in terms of current bilingual processing models and theories, such as RHM, BIA+, and Multilink. Some directions for future research are suggested.
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Faculteit der Letteren