ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Lang. Sci.
Sec. Bilingualism
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/flang.2025.1601352
The Semantic Depth of Japanese-English Bilingual Children
Provisionally accepted
- University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, United States
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This study examined semantic organization in Japanese-English bilingual children, focusing on the syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift, cross-linguistic relationships between syntagmatic and paradigmatic associations, and the influence of lexical diversity on semantic organization. Participants were 30 Japanese-English bilingual children aged 2 to 8 (M = 70.8, SD = 22.14). A word association task (WAT) assessed semantic knowledge in both languages, with responses coded for type, errors, and code switching. Lexical diversity (Number of different words) was measured using the Multilingual Assessment Instrument of Narratives (MAIN), and language input was measured using a questionnaire. Regression models revealed: No evidence of a syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift, but a gradual increase in both syntagmatic/paradigmatic responses with age and lexical diversity; and proficiency in generating paradigmatic and syntagmatic responses in one language predicted proficiency in the other, controlling for age and language input. This study highlights cross-linguistic influences in Japanese-English bilingual children's semantic organization, with implications for educators emphasizing the beneficial impact of language instruction in one language on the other.
Keywords: bilingual1, Japanese2, paradigmatic3, word association task4, semantic depth5, multilingual assessment instrument of narratives6, heritage language7
Received: 27 Mar 2025; Accepted: 14 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hayes and Kan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Richy Lewis Hayes, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, United States
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