The mechanisms and the scope of bilingual language production
Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: When bilinguals plan to speak even one word, lexicalization processes of the two languages becomes concurrently activated. Surprisingly, bilingual speech production is not dramatically affected. This observation raises the questions about the control mechanisms that ensure lexicalization in the intended language and their representational scope. The aim of this dissertation was to increment the general knowledge on these two aspects of bilingual language control. To do so, we measured behavioral, electrophysiological, and neural responses in language switching tasks to investigate the mechanisms and the scope of bilingual language control. Moreover, we measured behavioral and neural responses in linguistic and non-linguistic switching tasks to explore the overlap between bilingual language control and domain-general executive control. The most consistent findings of this dissertation suggest that the mechanisms of bilingual language control are different from domain-general inhibitory control and that they are applied globally on the dominant language and likely also locally on the non-dominant language. The evidence presented in the current dissertation not only extends previous knowledge on bilingual language control, but it also provides a clearer understanding of the role of inhibitory control in switching tasks, an information relevant for any model of bilingual language control.
Author: Francesca M. Branzi
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2259661624