Cover not available

In:Cognitive Control and Consequences of Multilingualism
Edited by John W. Schwieter
[Bilingual Processing and Acquisition 2] 2016
► pp. 97–126

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 4. Are cognate words “special”?

On the role of cognate words in language switching performance

 | University of the Basque Country (UPV | EHU), Spain
 | ICREA | Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
Published online: 3 August 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/bpa.2.05san
One of the most remarkable abilities of bilingual speakers is that of keeping their two languages apart during speech production. Several researchers have argued that the attentional mechanisms responsible for this ability may vary depending on the L2-proficiency achieved by the bilinguals (Green, 1986; Costa & Santesteban, 2004). Here we use a language-switching task to further explore the extent to which these different attentional strategies depend on the cognate status of the words (Costa, Santesteban, & Caño, 2005). We also explore whether the production of cognates facilitates language-switching (Broersma & De Bot, 2006). Twenty-four low-proficient (L2-Learners) and twenty-four high-proficient (Bilinguals) Spanish-Catalan bilinguals performed a cued language-switching task including cognate and non-cognate words. Our results revealed the following: (a) responses to cognates were faster than to non-cognates; (b) the magnitude of the switching cost was similar regardless of the cognate status of either the preceding or the target word; (c) L2-Learners vs. Bilinguals showed different language switching cost patterns (replicating Costa & Santesteban, 2004). Overall, these findings suggest that the cognate status of words does not facilitate language switching and it does not alter the lexical selection mechanisms’ implicated during production.
References (46)
References
Baus, C., Branzi, F., & Costa, A. (2015). On the mechanism and scope of language control in bilingual speech production. In J.W. Schwieter (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingual Processing (pp. 508-526). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bobb, S., & Wodniecka, Z. (2013). Language switching in picture naming: What asymmetric switch costs (do not) tell us about inhibition in bilingual speech planning. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25, 568-585. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baayen, R., Davidson, D., & Bates, D. (2008). Mixed-effects modeling with crossed random effects for subjects and items. Journal of Memory and Language, 59, 390-412. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Broersma, M. (2009). Triggered codeswitching between cognate languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12, 447-462. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2011). Triggered code-switching: Evidence from picture naming experiments. In M.S. Schmid & W. Lowie (Eds.), Modeling Bilingualism From Structure to Chaos: In Honor of Kees de Bot (pp. 37-57). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Broersma, M., & De Bot, K. (2006). Triggered codeswitching: A corpus-based evaluation of the original triggering hypothesis and a new alternative. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 9, 1-13. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Broersma, M., Isurin, L., Bultena, S., & De Bot, K. (2009). Triggered code-switching: Evidence from Dutch-English and Russian-English bilinguals. In L. Isurin, D. Winford & K. De Bot (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Approaches to Code Switching (pp. 85-102). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bultena, S., Dijkstra, T., & Van Hell, J.G. (2015a). Language switch costs in sentence comprehension depend on language dominance: Evidence from self-paced reading. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18, 453–469. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2015b). Switch cost modulations in bilingual sentence processing: Evidence from shadowing. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 30, 586-605. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Christoffels, I.K., Firk, C., & Schiller, N.O. (2007). Bilingual language control: An event-related brain potential study. Brain Research, 1147, 192-208. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clyne, M. (1967). Transference and triggering: Observations on the language assimilation of postwar German-speaking migrants in Australia. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2003). Dynamics of language contact. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A. (2005). Lexical access in bilingual production. In J.F. Kroll & A.M.B. De Groot (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 308–325). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A., & Caramazza, A. (1999). Is lexical selection in bilingual speech production language-specific? Further evidence from Spanish-English and English-Spanish bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2, 231-244. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A., Caramazza, A., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2000). The cognate facilitation effect: Implications for the models of lexical access. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26, 1283-1296. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A., Miozzo, M., & Caramazza, A. (1999). Lexical selection in bilinguals: Do words in the bilingual’s two lexicons compete for selection? Journal of Memory and Language, 41, 365–397. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A., & Santesteban, M. (2004). Lexical access in bilingual speech production: Evidence from language switching in highly proficient bilinguals and L2 learners. Journal of Memory and Language, 50, 491-511. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A., Santesteban, M., & Caño, A. (2005). On the facilitatory effects of cognate words in bilingual speech production. Brain & Language, 94, 94-103. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A., Santesteban, M., & Ivanova, I. (2006). How do high-proficient bilinguals control their lexicalization process? Inhibitory and language-specific selection mechanisms are both functional. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 32, 1057–1074. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Bot, K., Broersma, M., & Isurin, L. (2009). Sources of triggering in codeswitching. In Isurin, L., Winford, D. & De Bot, K. (Eds.). Cross-disciplinary approaches to codeswitching (pp. 85-102). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Bleser, R., Dupont, P., Postler, J., Bormans, G., Speelman, D., Mortelmans, L., & Debrock, M. (2003). The organisation of the bilingual lexicon: A PET study. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 16, 439-456. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Groot, A.M.B., & Nas, G.L. (1991). Lexical representation of cognates and noncognates in compound bilinguals. Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 90–123. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fink, A., & Goldrick, M. (2015). Pervasive benefits of preparation in language switching. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 22, 808-814. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Finkbeiner, M., Almeida, J., Janssen, N., & Caramazza, A. (2006). Lexical selection in bilingual speech production does not involve language suppression. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32, 1075-1089. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldrick, M. (2014). Phonological processing: The retrieval and encoding of word form information in speech production. In M. Goldrick, V. Ferreira, & M. Miozzo (Eds.) The Oxford handbook of language production (pp. 228-244). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gollan, T.H., & Ferreira, V.S. (2009). Should I stay or should I switch? A cost-benefit analysis of voluntary language switching in young and aging bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 640-665. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Green, D.W. (1986). Control, activation and resource. Brain and Language, 27, 210–223. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1, 67–81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guasch, M., Boada, R., Ferré, P., & Sánchez-Casas, R. (2013). NIM: A Web-based Swiss Army knife to select stimuli for psycholinguistic studies. Behavior Research Methods, 45, 765-771. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaeger, T.F. (2008). Categorical data analysis: Away from ANOVAs (transformation or not) and towards logit mixed models. Journal of Memory and Language, 59, 434–446. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kirsner, K., Lalor, E., & Hird, K. (1993). The bilingual lexicon: Exercise, meaning and morphology. In R. Schreuder & B. Weltens (Eds.), The bilingual lexiconThe bilingual lexicon (pp. 215–246). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kootstra, G.J., Van Hell, J.G., & Dijkstra, T. (2012). Priming of code-switches in sentences: The role of lexical repetition, cognates, and language proficiency. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 797–819. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroll, J.F., Bobb, S.C., Misra, M.M., & Guo, T. (2008). Language selection in bilingual speech: Evidence for inhibitory processes. Acta Psychologica, 128, 416-430. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroll, J.F., & Gollan, T.H. (2014). Speech planning in two languages: What bilinguals tell us about language production. In M. Goldrick, V. Ferreira, & M. Miozzo (Eds.) The Oxford handbook of language production (pp. 165-181). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lotto, L., & De Groot, A.M.B. (1998). Effects of learning method and word type on acquiring vocabulary in an unfamiliar language. Language Learning, 48, 31-69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, C.D., Strijkers, K., Santesteban, M., Escera, C., Hartsuiker, R.J., & Costa, A. (2013). The impact of early bilingualism on controlling a lately learnt language: An ERP study. Frontiers in Psychology, 4: 815. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meuter, R.F.I, & Allport, A (1999). Bilingual language switching in naming: Asymmetrical costs of language selection. Journal of Memory and Language, 40, 25-40. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peeters, D., Dijkstra, T., & Grainger, J. (2013). The representation and processing of identical cognates by late bilinguals: RT and ERP effects. Journal of Memory and Language, 68, 315–332. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Philipp, A.M., Gade, M., & Koch, I. (2007). Inhibitory processes in language switching? Evidence from switching language-defined response sets. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 19, 395-416. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Runnqvist, E., Strijkers, K., & Costa, A. (2014). Bilingual word access. In M. Goldrick, V. Ferreira, & M. Miozzo (Eds.) The Oxford handbook of language production (pp. 182-198). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sánchez-Casas, R.M., & García-Albea, J.E. (2005). The representation of cognate and noncognate words in bilingual memory: Can cognate status be characterized as a special kind of morphological relation? In J.F., Kroll & A.M.B. De Groot (Eds.), Handbook of Bilingualism: Psycholinguistic Approaches. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sánchez-Casas, R.M., Davis, C.W., & García-Albea, J.E. (1992). Bilingual lexical processing: Exploring the cognate/non-cognate distinction. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 4, 293–310. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Strijkers, K., Costa, A., & Thierry, G. (2010). Tracking lexical access in speech production: electrophysiological correlates of word frequency and cognate effects. Cerebral Cortex, 20, 912–928. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tarłowski, A., Wodniecka, Z., & Marzecova, A. (2013). Language switching in the production of phrases. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 42, 103-118. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Hell, J.G., & De Groot, A.M.B. (1998) Conceptual representation in bilingual memory: Effects of concreteness and cognate status in word association. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1, 193-211. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Verhoef, K., Roelofs, A., & Chwilla, D.J. (2009). Role of inhibition in language switching: Evidence from event-related brain potentials in overt picture naming. Cognition, 110, 84-99. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Philipp, Andrea M., Marc Syndicus & Mathieu Declerck
2024. Reversed asymmetrical switch costs in voluntary language switching: Evidence from typed responses. International Journal of Bilingualism 28:5 ► pp. 1053 ff. DOI logo
Declerck, Mathieu
2020. What about proactive language control?. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 27:1 ► pp. 24 ff. DOI logo
Santesteban, Mikel & John W. Schwieter
2020. Lexical Selection and Competition in Bilinguals. In Bilingual Lexical Ambiguity Resolution, ► pp. 126 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2022. Bilingualism, Language Development and Processing across the Lifespan [Bilingual Processing and Acquisition, 15], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue