Cross-linguistic phonetic differences affect lexical co-activation in second-language learners

Abstract

When listening to speech in one language, bilinguals have been shown to activate word candidates from both their languages, which then compete for recognition. Similarity between the auditory input and the mental representations is a crucial factor for activation of a candidate. However, similarity is usually defined in terms of phoneme overlap, which might not be fine-grained enough to capture the reality of lexical co-activation and subsequent competition. The present study investigates how subphonemic differences between phonemically identical German–English word pairs influence their co-activation. In a Lexical Decision (LD) experiment with cross-linguistic priming, L1-German learners of English heard an English prime word, followed after 500 ms by a written German target word or non-word on a computer screen and indicated whether the target was a German word or a nonword. Some trials featured phonemically identicalPrimes and targets showed either no phonemic overlap (Unrelated condition), partial overlap (Similar condition) or full phonemic overlap (Identical condition). In the critical Identical condition, English primes and German targets, were phonemically identical—either cognates (e.g., /nɛst/ 'nest') or Interlingual Homophones (ILHs; e.g., /gɪft/, English 'gift'/German 'poison'), which)—but varied in their phonetic similarity. Separate analyses were conducted due to explorephonetic differences between the languages. A comparison of reaction times (RTs) across all priming conditions revealed opposing effects of for cognates and ILHs on the phonemic vs. phonetic similarity. Results of the phonemic analysis showed facilitation for level: For cognate targets, there was facilitation the more phoneme overlap there was between prime and target, but while ILH targets were subject to inhibition of target ILHs with more phoneme overlap. Results of the between prime and target. A comparison