Gender-Congruency and Cognate Effect in Bulgarian-English Bilinguals: Evidence from a Word-Translation Task

Gender Congruency and Cognate Effect in Bulgarian-English Bilinguals: Evidence from a Word-Translation Task Armina Janyan (ajanyan@cogs.nbu.bg) Central and East European Center for Cognitive Science, New Bulgarian University 21 Montevideo St., 1618 Sofia, Bulgaria Marina Hristova (mhristova@nbu.bg) Central and East European Center for Cognitive Science, New Bulgarian University 21 Montevideo St., 1618 Sofia, Bulgaria Abstract The present study aims to investigate the cognate and gender congruency effects in Bulgarian-English proficient bilinguals using a visual word translation task. The results of two experiments confirm the pattern generally observed in the area: we have found a strong cognate effect present in both translation directions (from the dominant L1 into non- dominant L2 and vice versa). In addition, we have obtained a gender congruency effect which suggests that bilinguals use gender information of their native language during translation. Keywords: bilingualism, word translation, cognates, gender congruency, reaction time. Introduction Most researchers agree on two basic assumptions concerning bilingual language organization: first, that the concepts are shared between the languages and second, that lexical representations are segregated to a great extent. One such model of bilingual language representation is the revised hierarchical model (RHM) which assumes that lexical representations are language specific whereas conceptual representations are shared among the languages (Kroll & Stewart, 1994; Kroll & de Groot, 1997). The model specifies that language-dominant (L1) and language-non-dominant (L2) word forms are associated with each other and to a common concept to different degrees. The strength of these associations is a function of language proficiency. The RHM proposes that both L1 and L2 word forms activate common concepts but that L1 words activate concepts more strongly than L2 words. In addition, the RHM posits that L1 and L2 words can activate each other at the lexical level through translation. However, according to the model, the lexical links are stronger in the L2-L1 direction than in the opposite one. Thus, the RHM predicts facilitated translation from L2 to L1 which is confirmed by experimental research (e.g., Kroll & Stewart, 1994; Francis, Augustini, & Saenz, 2003). To address the issue of bilingual language representation, many studies compare processing of cognates and non- cognates in bilinguals. Cognates are words that have similar form and meaning in both languages (L1 & L2) such as English lamp and Bulgarian лампа [lampa]. Non-cognates have different forms in L1 and L2 but similar meaning such as elephant in English and слон [slon] in Bulgarian. The general finding is that cognates are produced, recognized and translated faster than non-cognates (e.g., Kroll & Stewart, 1994; Dijkstra, Grainger, & van Heuven, 1999; Costa, Caramazza, & Sebastian-Galles, 2000; Costa, Santesteban, & Cano, 2005). The faster production, recognition and translation of cognates are usually attributed to a common set of form-based representations (e.g. orthographic, phonological, morphological) that are used to process them in both languages. Another consideration in the model is that the advantage magnitude of cognates is also dependent on the language proficiency of an individual – the less proficient the bilingual is in his/her non-dominant language, the larger the magnitude (Kroll & de Groot, 1997) - which suggests that less proficient bilinguals may rely more on lexical translation strategy bypassing concept mediation. However, in addition to various lexical and conceptual properties a word also has grammatical ones. One of these grammatical features widely researched in the area of lexical access is grammatical gender. Among the questions asked are where and when in the course of (monolingual) lexical access grammatical information is selected and what are the factors that influence that selection (e.g., Bates, Devescovi, Pizzamiglio, D’Amico, & Hernandez, 1995; Miozzo, Costa & Caramazza, 2002; Costa, Kovacic, Fedorenko, & Caramazza, 2003; Schiller & Caramazza, 2003). A model that tries to take into account syntactic and grammatical features representation in the bilingual mind is the distributed feature model (Kroll & de Groot, 1997). First, the model assumes that lexical forms and meanings are integrated within unitary lexical and conceptual systems; moreover, it assumes varying degrees of overlap of conceptual and lexical features between L1 and L2 meanings. Thus, for example, the model predicts faster cognate translation not necessarily because the translation processing might be restricted to the lexical level but because cognates have a higher level of feature overlap on both the lexical and the conceptual levels (Kroll & de Groot, 1997). That is, the level of processing facilitation or interference is a function of the degree of form-meaning mapping consistency within and across languages. The model also takes into account the language proficiency level assuming weaker form-meaning mapping with less L2