Thinking-for-speaking in early and late bilinguals

Lai, Vicky T.; Rodriguez, Gabriela Garrido; Narasimhan, Bhuvana

doi:10.1017/s1366728913000151

Cited by 60 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…That is, there are influences of the first language on conceptualizing time in the second language, and of the second language on conceptualizing time in the first language (see also Brown and Gullberg, 2008, 2010; Lai et al, in press). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consciousness, brain, neuroplasticity

Lai¹,

Boroditsky²

2013

Front. Psychol.

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In this paper we examine whether experience with spatial metaphors for time has an influence on people’s representation of time. In particular we ask whether spatio-temporal metaphors can have both chronic and immediate effects on temporal thinking. In Study 1, we examine the prevalence of ego-moving representations for time in Mandarin speakers, English speakers, and Mandarin-English (ME) bilinguals. As predicted by observations in linguistic analyses, we find that Mandarin speakers are less likely to take an ego-moving perspective than are English speakers. Further, we find that ME bilinguals tested in English are less likely to take an ego-moving perspective than are English monolinguals (an effect of L1 on meaning-making in L2), and also that ME bilinguals tested in Mandarin are more likely to take an ego-moving perspective than are Mandarin monolinguals (an effect of L2 on meaning-making in L1). These findings demonstrate that habits of metaphor use in one language can influence temporal reasoning in another language, suggesting the metaphors can have a chronic effect on patterns in thought. In Study 2 we test Mandarin speakers using either horizontal or vertical metaphors in the immediate context of the task. We find that Mandarin speakers are more likely to construct front-back representations of time when understanding front-back metaphors, and more likely to construct up-down representations of time when understanding up-down metaphors. These findings demonstrate that spatio-temporal metaphors can also have an immediate influence on temporal reasoning. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that the metaphors we use to talk about time have both immediate and long-term consequences for how we conceptualize and reason about this fundamental domain of experience.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consciousness, brain, neuroplasticity

Lai¹,

Boroditsky²

2013

Front. Psychol.

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“…Finally, Lai, Rodriguez, and Narasimhan () tested categorization preferences of motion events by Spanish and English monolinguals and by Spanish‐English bilinguals. In each trial, participants first heard a description of the target animation, then watched the animation and had to repeat the description.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thinking Is Modulated by Recent Linguistic Experience: Second Language Priming Affects Perceived Event Similarity

Montero-Melis

Bylund

2016

Language Learning

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Can recent second language (L2) exposure affect what we judge to be similar events? Using a priming paradigm, we manipulated whether native Swedish adult learners of L2 Spanish were primed to use path or manner during L2 descriptions of scenes depicting caused motion events (encoding phase). Subsequently, participants engaged in a nonverbal task, arranging events on the screen according to similarity (test phase). Path versus manner priming affected how participants judged event similarity during the test phase. The effects we find support the hypotheses that (a) speakers create or select ad hoc conceptual categories that are based on linguistic knowledge to carry out nonverbal tasks, and that (b) short-term, recent L2 experience can affect this ad hoc process. These findings further suggest that cognition can flexibly draw on linguistic categories that have been implicitly highlighted during recent exposure.

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“…The linguistic classifications of bilingualism are early and late bilinguals. Early bilinguals are those who attained proficiency in a second language during early childhood, and late bilinguals are those who are exposed to a second language later than childhood (Fiszer, 2008;Lai, Rodriguez, & Narasimhan, 2014). People who speak another language often have some type of association with immigrants.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%