Xinyue Wang
Thesis Title: Loanword Processing by Different-script Chinese-English Bilinguals
Cognates/loanwords are translation pairs that share form (orthography and/or phonology) and meaning across languages. Studies on bilingual lexical access have taken advantage of the unique characteristics of the cognates/loanwords and included cognates/loanwords in experiments requiring visual word recognition to examine bilingual mental lexicon. These studies have testified to the co-activation of both languages and the role of shared orthographical, phonological, and semantic representations in facilitating visual word processing. Such processing advantage due to the cognate/loanword status is termed the cognate facilitation effect which has also been found across languages that do not share a script.
The present study is an initial attempt to investigate different-script Chinese-English bilinguals’ visual word recognition performance as a function of the degree of cross-linguistic form and semantic similarity. Native English speakers and Chinese-English bilinguals will be asked to recognise words or read sentences. Their responses (e.g., response time and eye movements) will be recorded for analysis of word processing. The study hopefully will offer additional evidence for bilingual lexical access and shed light on the importance of cross-linguistic lexical overlap for word processing when the languages of bilinguals do not share the orthography.
Biography
I'm interested in bilingualism/multilingualism and especially the processes underlying word recognition by bilinguals. I hold a BA English from Guangxi University, an MA Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics from Southeast University, and an MA Social Science Research (Applied Linguistics) from the University of Nottingham.
Publications
Ma, D., Wang, X., & Gao, X. (2022). Effects of third-language learning on inhibitory control with consideration of task complexity and language proficiency. International Journal of Bilingualism, 26(3), 286-307.
Applied Linguistics
University of Nottingham
2021 Cohort, 1+3
Supervisory Team
Prof Kathy Conklin
Dr Walter van Heuven