Abstract:

Introduction Bilingual memory representation has received considerable attention from many researchers for several years. For less fluent bilinguals, semantic access is indirect via the first language words. For fluent bilinguals, semantic access is direct. How is the transformation processing from the indirect access to the direct access? The present study tested semantic access of differently familiar second language words of bilinguals by two experiments with the task of cross-language repetition priming. Method Participants were less proficient Chinese-English bilinguals in Experiment 1 and proficient Chinese-English bilinguals in Experiment 2. Both of two experiments were carried out on computers using E-Prime software. There were study phase and test phase during each experiment in this study. Participants were instructed to complete the animacy decision tasks in study phase in the English and lexical decision tasks in test phase in Chinese. The response time and accurate rates were recorded and SPSS 10.0 software was used to analyze the results data. Results The response time to the words studied was significantly faster than that to the words unstudied for the unfamiliar second language words both in experiment 1 and in experiment 2. Whereas for the familiar second language words, there was no significant difference between the response time to the words studied and that to the words unstudied. For the accurate rates, the results of the experiments were consistent with that on response time. Results of the two experiments showed that bilinguals can access to the conceptual representation of the familiar second language words directly and to the conceptual representation of the unfamiliar second language words indirectly. Conclusion Semantic access is regulated by second language words familiarity. All the results of recent experimental reports indicate that semantic access of second language in late bilinguals’ memory representation is basically experiential.

Key words: semantic access, familiarity, proficient bilinguals, less proficient bilinguals

摘要：

先前很多研究表明熟练双语者可以直接通达其二语词汇的概念意义，非熟练双语者需要借助一语词汇间接通达其二语词汇的概念意义，这很可能是双语者二语词汇的熟悉度在其中发挥了调节作用。本研究使用跨语言重复启动范式考察了双语者对不同熟悉程度的二语词汇的语义通达方式。实验１以非熟练中英双语者为被试，实验２以熟练中英双语者为被试。总的结果发现，无论非熟练双语者还是熟练双语者，其在通达二语词汇概念意义时采用哪一种方式受词汇熟悉度的调节，当词汇熟悉度较高时，选择直接通达，当词汇熟悉度较低时，选择间接通达。本研究进一步支持和丰富了晚期双语者双语记忆表征中的语义通达方式从本质上属于经验性变化的观点。

关键词: 语义通达, 熟悉度, 熟练双语者, 非熟练双语者