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Understanding semantic accents in Japanese–English bilinguals: A feature-based approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2020

Eriko Matsuki ,
Yasushi Hino  and
Debra Jared
Eriko Matsuki
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The Brain and Mind Institute, Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7
Yasushi Hino
Affiliation:
Waseda University
Debra Jared*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The Brain and Mind Institute, Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7
*
Address for correspondence: Debra Jared, E-mail: djjared@uwo.ca
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Abstract

A bilingual exhibits a “semantic accent” when they comprehend or use a word in one language in a way that is influenced by its translation. Semantic accents are well-captured by feature-based models: however, few studies have specifically examined the processing of features that contribute to a semantic accent. Japanese–English bilinguals and monolinguals of each language completed three feature-based tasks focusing on culture-specific semantic features. Bilinguals exhibited semantic accents in L1 and L2 in that they had stronger associations than monolinguals between the features specific to one culture and words in the other language. Within bilinguals, culture-specific features were more strongly associated with the congruent language than the incongruent language. Finally, changes in the strengths of associations between culture-specific features and words depended more on L2 cultural immersion than L2 proficiency. Semantic accents lessened in L2 and increased in L1 after many years of exposure to the L2 culture.

Keywords

bilingualssemantic accentsemantic featuresconceptual representationsJapanese–English
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 137 - 153
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), [2020]. Published by Cambridge University Press

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