Cover not available

Article published In: EUROSLA Yearbook: Volume 16 (2016)
Edited by Sarah Ann Liszka, Pascale Leclercq, Marion Tellier and Georges Daniel Véronique
[EUROSLA Yearbook 16] 2016
► pp. 25–58

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

The role of language proficiency in the perception of L2 taboo words by late bilingual speakers

Published online: 10 August 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/eurosla.16.02leo
Cognitive research has established that there exists a significant difference between L1 and L2 with regard to emotional speech processing. Harris, Ayçiçeĝi and Gleason (2003) and Dewaele (2004) have shown that L1 taboo words evoke greater emotional arousal than their L2 counterparts. According to Harris (2004), an L2 acquired early and in a naturalistic setting gains the features of L1 in terms of emotional interference. However, the data from one of the areas of emotional speech processing in bilinguals, i.e. the experimental data about late bilinguals, is still scarce. The present study aims to trace the effects of proficiency and language exposure on the perceived emotional charge of L2 taboo and curse words by late bilinguals. 106 highly proficient Polish-English bilinguals, who were students on an English Studies program at the time of testing, took part in the Emotional Stroop task (Williams, Mathews & MacLeod 1996) and their reaction times were measured. The results discussed with reference to previous findings in the literature suggest that the emotional input provided during second language acquisition is too weak to effectively form affective connotations to L2 utterances.
References (87)
Abutalebi, J. and Della Rosa, P.A. 2012. “How the brain acquires, processes, and controls a second language”. In The Handbook of the Neuropsychology of Language 21, Faust, M. (ed), 516–561. Chicester: John Wiley & Sons. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Adolphs, R. 2003. “Cognitive neuroscience of human social behaviour”. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 41: 165–178. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Altarriba, J. 2003. “Does cariño equal ‘liking’? A theoretical approach to conceptual nonequivalence between languages”. International Journal of Bilingualism 71: 305–322. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Altarriba, J., Bauer, L.M. and Benvenuto, C. 1999. “Concreteness, context availability and imageability ratings and word associations for abstract, concrete, and emotion words”. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers 31 (4): 578–602. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Altarriba, J. and Canary, T.M. 2004. “The influence of emotional arousal on affective priming in monolingual and bilingual speakers”. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 25 (2–3): 248–265. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Altarriba, J. and Basnight-Brown, D.M. 2012. “The acquisition of concrete, abstract, and emotion words in a second language”. International Journal of Bilingualism 161: 446–452. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anooshian, L.J. and Hertel, P.T. 1994. “Emotionality in free recall: Language specificity in bilingual memory”. Cognition and Emotion 81: 503–514. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ayçiçeği-Dinn, A. and Caldwell-Harris, C.L. 2009. “Emotion memory effects in bilingual speakers: A levels-of-processing approach”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 121: 291–303. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bar-Haim, Y., Lamy, D., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M.J. and van IJzendoorn, M.H. 2007. “Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: A meta-analytic study”. Psychological Bulletin 133 (1): 1–24. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beck, A.T., Steer, R.A. and Brown, G.K. 1996. BDI-II: Beck depression inventory manual (2nd ed.). Boston: Harcourt, Brace. ([URL]). Date of access: 12.10.2013Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bond, M.H. and Lai, T.M. 1986. “Embarrassment and code-switching into a second language”. Journal of Social Psychology 1261: 179–186.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bradley, M.M. and Lang, P.J. 1999. Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW): Stimuli, Instruction Manual and Affective Ratings (Tech. Rep. C-1). Gainesville: University of Florida, Center for Research in Psychophysiology.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cannon, W.B. 1927. “The James-Lange theory of emotion: A critical examination and an alternative theory”. American Journal of Psychology 391: 10–124. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cervantes, Christi A. 2002. “Explanatory emotion talk in Mexican immigrant and Mexican American families”, Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 24, 2: 138–163. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clachar, A. 1999. “It’s not just cognition: The effect of emotion on multiple-level discourse processing in second-language writing”. Language Sciences 211: 31–60. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cook, V. 2002. Portraits of the L2 User. Clevdon: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. “Introduction: The changing L1 in the L2 user’s mind”. In Effects of Second Language on the First, V. Cook (ed), 1–18. Clevdon: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A., Camarazza, A. and Sebatian-Galles, N. 2000. “The cognate facilitation effect: Implications for model of lexical access”. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 26 (5): 1283–1296. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crossley, S.A., Salsbury, T., McNamara, D.S. and Jarvis, S. 2011. “What is lexical proficiency? Some answers from computational models of speech data”. TESOL Quarterly 45, 1: 182–193. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Damasio, A.R. 1994. Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. New York: Putnam.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M. 2004. “The emotional force of swearwords and taboo words in the speech of multilinguals”. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 25 (2): 204–222. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. “The emotional weight of ‘I love you’ in multilinguals’ languages. Journal of Pragmatics 40 (10): 1753–1780. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010a. “Christ fucking shit merde! Language preferences for swearing among maximally proficient multilinguals”. Sociolinguistic Studies 4 (3): 595–614.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010b. Emotions in Multiple Languages. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. “The differences in self-reported use and perception of the L1 and L2 of maximally proficient bi- and multilinguals: A quantitative and qualitative investigation”. Special Issue of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2081: 25–51.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Emotions in Multiple Languages. 2nd edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M. and Pavlenko, A. 2001–2003. Web questionnaire bilingualism and emotions. University of London.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M. and Costa, B. 2013 “Multilingual clients’ experience of psychotherapy”. Language and Psychoanalysis, 2 (2): 31–50. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dresler T., Ehlis, A.C., Hindi Attar, C., Ernst, L.H., Tupak, S.V., Hahn, T., Warrings, B., Markulin, F., Spitzer, C., Löwe, B., Deckert, J. and Fallgatter, A.J. 2012. “Reliability of the emotional Stroop task: An investigation of patients with panic disorder”. Journal of Psychiatric Research 461: 1243–1248. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eilola, T.M., Havelka, J. and Sharma, D. 2007. “Emotional activation in the first and second language”, Cognition and Emotion 211: 1064–1076. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eilola, T.M. and Havelka, J. 2010. “Affective norms for 210 British English and Finnish nouns”. Behavior Research Methods 42 (1): 134–140. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. “Behavioural and physiological responses to the emotional and taboo Stroop tasks in native and non-native speakers of English”. International Journal of Bilingualism 15 (3): 353–369. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eisenberg, A.R. 1999. “Emotion talk among Mexican American and Anglo American mothers and children from two social classes”. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly 45 (2): 267–284.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ellis, N.C. 2005. “Introduction to part 1: Acquisition”. In Handbook of Bilingualism: Psycholinguistic Approaches, J.F. Kroll and A.M.B. DeGroot (eds), 3–7, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, S. 1964. “Language and TAT content in bilinguals”. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 681: 500–507. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harris, C.L. 2004. “Bilingual speakers in the lab: Psychophysiological measures of emotional reactivity”. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 21: 223–247. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harris, C.L., Ayçiçeĝi, A. and Gleason, J.B. 2003. “Taboo words and reprimands elicit greater autonomic reactivity in a first language than in a second language”. Applied Psycholinguistics 24 (4): 561–579. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ishihara, S. 1939. Tests for Colour-blindness. Tokyo: Kanehara.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jay, T. and Janschewitz, K. 2008. “The pragmatics of swearing”. Journal of Politeness Research 41: 267–288. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jay, Timothy. 2009. “The utility and ubiquity of taboo words”. Perspectives on Psychological Science 4 (2): 153–161. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Javier, R.A. and Marcos, R.L. 1989. “The role of stress on the language independence and code-switching phenomena”. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 18 (6): 449–472. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jung-Beeman, M. 2005. “Bilateral brain processes for comprehending natural language”. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 91: 512–518. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Justin, T., Campbell, C., Altareb, B. and Yousif, A. 2010. “Emotional Stroop interference for depression-related stimuli in a United Arab Emirates student population”. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal 38 (5): 597–603. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kosinski, R.J. 2012. A literature review on reaction time. ([URL]). Date of access: 07.04.2014
Koven, M. 2001. “Comparing bilinguals’ quoted performances of self and others in tellings of the same experience in two languages”. Language in Society 301: 513–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. “Getting ‘emotional’ in two languages: Bilinguals’ verbal performance of affect in narratives of personal experience”. Text 24 (4): 471–515. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroll, J.F. and Stewart, E. 1994. “Category interference in translation and picture naming: Evidence for asymmetric connections between bilingual memory representations”. Journal of Memory and Language 331: 149–174. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kučera, M. and Francis, W. 1967. Computational Analysis of Present-day American English. Providence: Brown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
LaBar, K. and Phelps, E. 1998. “Arousal-mediated memory consolidation: Role of the medial temporal lobe in humans”. Psychological Science 91: 490–493. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
LeDoux, J.E. 1996. The Emotional Brain. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lund, K. and Burgess, C. 1996. “Producing high-dimensional semantic spaces from lexical co-occurrence”. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers 281: 203–208. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mägiste, E. 1986. “Learning a third language: Selected issues in second and third language learning”. In Language processing in bilinguals: Psycholinguistic and neuropsychological perspectives, J. Vais (ed), 97–122. Hillsdale: Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marian, V., Blumenfeld, H.K. and Kaushanskaya, M. 2007. “The language experience and proficiency questionnaire (LEAP-Q): Assessing language profiles in bilinguals and multilinguals”. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research 501: 940–967. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meara, P. 2005. “Designing vocabulary tests for English, Spanish, and other languages”, In The Dynamics of Language Use, C.S. Butler, M.A. Gómez González and S.M. Doval-Suárez (eds), 271–285. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mowrer, O.H. 1960. Learning Theory and the Symbolic Process. New York: Wiley. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Osgood, C.E. 1963. “On understanding and creating sentences”. American Psychologist 181: 735–751. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Panksepp, Jaak. 1998. Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paradis, M. 1998. “Neurolinguistics of bilingualism and the teaching of languages”. [URL]Date of access: 16:05.2016
. 2007. “The neurofunctional components of the bilingual cognitive system”. In Cognitive aspects of bilingualism, I. Kecskes and L. Albertazzi (eds), 3–28. Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pavlenko, A. 1998. “Second language learning by adults: Testimonies of bilingual writers”. Issues in Applied Linguistics 9 (1): 3–19.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. “Bilingualism and emotions”. Multilingua 21 (1): 45–78. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. Emotions and Multilingualism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. “Emotion and emotion-laden words in the bilingual lexicon”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 11 (2): 147–164. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. “Affective processing in bilingual speakers: Disembodied cognition?” International Journal of Psychology 471: 405–428. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pinker, S. 2007. The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature. New York: Viking Adult.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Potts, C. 2007. “The expressive dimension”. Theoretical Linguistics 331: 165–198. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pratto, F. and John, O.P. 1991. “Automatic vigilance: The attention-grabbing power of negative social information”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 61 (3): 380–391. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Read, J. 1998. “Validating a test to measure depth of vocabulary knowledge”. In Validation in Language Assessment, A.J. Kunnan (ed.), 41–60. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rintell, E. 1984. “But how did you feel about that? The learner’s perception of emotion in speech”. Applied Linguistics 5 (3): 255–264. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1990. That’s incredible: Stories of emotion told by second language learners and native speakers. In Developing communicative competence in a second language, R. –Scarcella, E.Â. Andersen, and S. Krashen (eds), 75–94. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rubin, D.C. and Friendly, M. 1986. “Predicting which words get recalled: Measures of free recall, availability, goodness, emotionality, and pronounciability for 925 nouns”. Memory and Cognition 141: 79–94. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schrauf, R. 2000. “Bilingual autobiographical memory: Experimental studies and clinical cases”. Culture and Psychology 6 (4): 387–417. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schrauf, R.W., Durazo-Arvizu, R. 2006. „Bilingual autobiographical memory and emotion: theory and methods”. In Bilingual minds: Emotional Experience, Expression, and Representation, A. Pavlenko (ed), 284–311. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sharma, D. and McKenna, F.P. 2001. “The role of time pressure on the emotional Stroop task”. British Journal of Psychology 921: 471–481. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sherkina-Lieber, M. 2004. “The cognate facilitation effect in bilingual speech processing: The case of Russian-English bilingualism”. Proceedings of the Special Session on Slavic Psycholinguistics at the 12th Workshop on Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics , Cahiers Linguistiques d’Ottawa 321: 108–121.
Schumann, J.H. and Wood, L.A. 2004. “The neurobiology of motivation”, In The Neuropsychology of Learning: Perspectives from Second Language Acquisition, J.H. Schumann, S.E. Crowell, N.E. Jones, N. Lee, S.A. Schuchert and L.A. Wood (eds), 23–42. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Staats, A.M. 1971. “Linguistic-mentalistic theory versus an explanatory S-R learning theory of language development”, In The Ontogenesis of Grammar, D.I. Slobin (ed), 103–150. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stroop, J.R. 1935. “Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions”. Journal of Experimental Psychology 181: 643–662. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sutton, T.M., Altarriba, J., Gianico, J.L. and Basnight-Brow, D.M. 2007. “The automatic access of emotion: Emotional Stroop effects in Spanish English bilingual speakers”. Cognition and Emotion 21 (5): 1077–1090. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toya, M. and Kodis, M. 1996. “But I don’t want to be rude: On learning how to express anger in the L2”. JALT Journal 18 (2): 279–295.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Lancker, D. 1997. “Rags to riches: Our increasing appreciation of cognitive and communicative abilities of the human right cerebral hemisphere”. Brain and Language 571: 1–11. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, J.M.G., Mathews, A. and MacLeod, C.M. 1996. “The emotional Stroop task and psychopathology”. Psychological Bulletin 120 (1): 3–24. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Winskel, H. 2013. “The emotional Stroop task and emotionality rating of negative and neutral words in late Thai–English bilinguals”, International Journal of Psychology 48 (6): 1090–1098. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zimbardo, Philip George. 1980. Essentials of Psychology and Life. Glenview: Scott Foresman and Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Wang, Xian, Congjun Mu, Huixian Li, Alison Noble & Qingyi Wang
2022. Product-Centered Language Style in Chinese Women Online Reviews. Frontiers in Psychology 13 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 december 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