Cover not available

In:Bilingualism, Executive Function, and Beyond: Questions and insights
Edited by Irina A. Sekerina, Lauren Spradlin and Virginia Valian
[Studies in Bilingualism 57] 2019
► pp. 131–146

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

Chapter 9
Referring expressions and executive functions in bilingualism

 | University of Edinburgh
Published online: 12 June 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.57.09sor
Abstract
Recent research has shown that the bilingual experience has positive effects on non-linguistic cognition (Bialystok, 2009; Costa & Sebastian-Gallés, 2014) but also negative effects on language, for example on vocabulary size and lexical fluency (Pearson et al., 1993). While most of the linguistic ‘disadvantages’ of bilingualism have been discussed in the lexical domain, this question is scaled up here to the sentence level and a novel theoretical framework is proposed which explicitly connects psychological and linguistic research. It is suggested that the bilingual experience may (a) affect the reciprocal interactions between language and general cognition, and (b) modulate the relation between components of executive functions. These effects may in turn influence the processing of particular linguistic structures, such as anaphoric expressions, and lead to bilingual-monolingual differences that could be regarded as ‘disadvantages’ but are in fact the result of normal adaptive changes due to the bilingual experience. Future experimental research validating this proposal may benefit both linguistic models of anaphora resolution and psychological models of cognitive control in monolinguals and bilinguals.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Anaphoric expressions in bilinguals
  • 3.Potential explanations
  • 4.Conclusion
  • References
References (67)
References
Arnold, J., Bennetto, L. & Diehl, J. (2009). Reference production in young speakers with and without autism: Effects of discourse status and processing constraints. Cognition 110: 131–146. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bak, T., Vega-Mendoza, M. and Sorace, A. (2014). Never too late? An advantage on tests of auditory attention extends to late bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology, volume 5, article 485.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baum, S. and Titone, D. (2014). Moving towards a neuroplasticity view of bilingualism, executive control, and aging. Applied Psycholinguistics, 35, 857–894. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Belletti, A., Bennati, E. & Sorace, A. (2007). Theoretical and developmental issues in the syntax of subjects: evidence from near-native Italian. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 25: 657–689. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2002). Acquisition of literacy in bilingual children: a framework for research. Language Learning 52: 159–199. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2009). Bilingualism: the good, the bad, and the indifferent. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 12: 3–11. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015). Bilingualism and the development of executive function: the role of attention. Child Development Perspectives 9: 117–121. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bialystok, E. & Martin, M. (2004). Attention and inhibition in bilingual children: evidence from the dimensional change card sort task. Developmental Science 7: 325–339. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F., Green, D. & Gollan, T. (2009). Bilingual minds. Psychological Science in the Public Interest 10: 89–129. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bini, M. (1993). La adquisicíon del italiano: mas allá de las propiedades sintácticas del parámetro pro-drop. In J. Liceras (ed.) La linguistica y el analisis de los sistemas no nativos, 126–139. Ottawa: Doverhouse.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blumenfeld, H. & Marian, V. (2011). Bilingualism influences inhibitory control in auditory comprehension. Cognition 118: 245–257. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Braver, T. (2012). The variable nature of cognitive control: a dual mechanism framework. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 16: 106–113. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown-Schmidt, S. (2009). The role of executive function in perspective taking during online language comprehension. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 16: 893–900. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Calabria, M. Hernández, M., Branzi, F. and Costa, A. (2012). Qualitative differences between bilingual language control and executive control: evidence from task-switching. Frontiers in Psychology 2 Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carminati, M. N. (2002) The Processing of Italian Subject Pronouns, PhD Thesis, University of Massachusetts Amherst.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2005) Processing reflexes of the Feature Hierarchy (Person > Number > Gender) and implications for linguistic theory. Lingua 115: 259–285. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chamorro, G., Sorace, A. and Sturt, P. (2015). What is the source of L1 attrition? The effects of recent re-exposure on Spanish speakers under L1 attrition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A., Hernández, M., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2008). Bilingualism aids conflict resolution: Evidence from the ANT task. Cognition 106: 59–86. 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., and Ivanova, I. (2006). How do highly 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
Costa, A., and Sebastian-Galles, N. (2014). How does the bilingual experience sculpt the brain? Nature Reviews Neuroscience 15: 336–345. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Bruin, A., Treccani, B. and Della Sala, S. (2015). Cognitive advantage in bilingualism: An example of publication bias? Psychological Science 26: 99–107. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Prada Pérez, A. (2009). Subject expression in Minorcan Spanish: Consequences of contact with Catalan. Unpublished PhD dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duñabeitia, J. A., Hernández, J. A., Antón, E., Macizo, P., Estévez, A., Fuentes, L. J., and Carreiras, M. (2014). The inhibitory advantage in bilingual children revisited: myth or reality? Experimental Psychology 61: 234–251. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goschke, T. and Dreisbach, G. (2008). Conflict-triggered goal shielding: response conflicts attenuate background monitoring for prospective memory cues. Psychological Science 19: 25–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Green, D. W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 1: 67–81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grimshaw, J. and Samek-Lodovici, V. (1998). Optimal subjects and subject universals. In Barbosa, P., Fox, D., Hagstrom, P., McGinnis, M., Pesetsky, D. (eds.) Is the Best Good Enough? Optimality and Competition in Syntax, 193–219. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1998). Studying bilinguals: methodological and conceptual issues. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 1: 131–149. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grundy, J. G., and Shedden, J. M. (2014). A role for recency of response conflict in producing the bivalency effect. Psychological Research 78: 679–691. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hendriks, P., Koster, K. and Hoeks, J. (2014). Referential choices across the lifespan: why children and elderly adults produce ambiguous pronouns. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 29: 391–407. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keysar, B., Lin, S. & Barr, D. (2003). Limits of theory of mind use in adults. Cognition 89: 25–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kraš, T., Sturt, P. and Sorace, A. (2014). Native and non-native processing of Italian subject pronouns: Evidence from eye-tracking. Paper presented at Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP) 20, Edinburgh.
Kroll, J. and Bialystok, E. (2013). Understanding the consequences of bilingualism for language processing and cognition. Journal of Cognitive Psychology 25: 497–514. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lozano, C. (2006). The development of the syntax-discourse interface: Greek learners of Spanish. In Torrens, V. and Escobar, L. (eds). The Acquisition of Syntax in Romance Languages, 371–399. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Malgaza, P. & Bel, A. (2006). Null subjects at the syntax-pragmatics interface: Evidence from Spanish interlanguage of Greek speakers. In M. G. O’Brien, C. Shea, and J. Archibald (eds.), Proceedings of GASLA 2006, 88–97. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mendes, C. & Iribarren, I. C. (2007). Fixação do parâmetro do sujeito nulo na aquisição do português europeu por hispanofalantes. In M. Lobo and M. A. Coutinho (eds.), XXII Encontro Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística: Textos seleccionados, 483–498. Lisbon: Associação Portuguesa de Linguística.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meuter, R. & Allport, A. (1999). Bilingual language switching in naming: asymmetric costs of language selection. Journal of Memory and Language 40: 25–40. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mishra, R., Hilchey, M., Singh, N., and Klein, R. (2012). On the time course of exogenous cueing effects in bilinguals: higher proficiency in a second language is associated with more rapid endogenous disengagement. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 65: 1502–1510. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Montrul, S., Dias, R., & Thomé-Williams, A. (2008). Subject expression in the non-native acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese. In A. Pires and J. Rotman (eds.) Minimalist Eneuiqries into Child and Adult Language Acquisition: Case Studies Across Portuguese. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nieuwland, M. and van Berkum, J. (2006). Individual differences and contextual biases in pronoun resolution: evidence from ERPs. Brain Research 1118: 155–167. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Novick, J., Hussey, E., Teubner-Rhodes, S., Harbison, J., and Bunting, M. (2014). Clearing the garden path: improving sentence processing through cognitive control training. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 29: 186–217. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paap, K. R. and Greenberg, Z. L. (2013). There is no coherent evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive processing. Cognitive Psychology 66: 232–258. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pearson, B. Z., & Fernandez, S. C. & Oller, D. K. (1993). Lexical development in bilingual infants and toddlers: comparison to monolingual norms. Language Learning 43: 93–120. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Phillips, W. & Silverstein, S. (2003). Convergence of biological and psychological perspectives on cognitive coordination in schizophrenia. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 26: 65–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rizzi, L. (1982). Issues in Italian Syntax. Dordrecht: Foris. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Robertson, I. H., Ward, T., Ridgeway, V., & Nimmo-Smith, I. (1994). Test of Everyday Attention. Cambridge: Thames Valley Test Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Serratrice, L., Sorace, A., Filiaci, F. and Baldo, M. (2009). Bilingual children’s sensitivity to specificity and genericity: evidence from metalinguistic awareness. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 12: 239–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Serratrice, L. Sorace, A. Filiaci, F. and Baldo, M. (2012). Pronominal objects in English-Italian and Spanish-Italian bilingual children. Applied Psycholinguistics 33: 725–751. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorace, A. (2003). Near-nativeness. In M. Long and C. Doughty (eds.), Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, 130–152. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2005). Selective optionality in language development. In L. Cornips and K. P. Corrigan (eds.) Syntax and Variation. Reconciling the Biological and the Social, 55–80. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2006a). Possible manifestations of shallow processing in advanced second language speakers. Applied Psycholinguistics 27: 88–91.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2006b). Gradience and optionality in mature and developing grammars. In G. Fanselow, C. Fery, M. Schlesewsky and R. Vogel (eds.) Gradience in Grammars: Generative Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorace, A. & Filiaci, F. (2006). Anaphora resolution in near-native speakers of Italian. Second Language Research 22: 339–368. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorace, A. & Serratrice, L. (2009). Internal and external interfaces in bilingual language development: Beyond structural overlap. International Journal of Bilingualism 13: 195–210. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorace, A., Serratrice, L. Filiaci, F. & Baldo, M. (2009). Discourse conditions on subject pronoun realization: testing the linguistic intuitions of older bilingual children. Lingua 119: 460–477. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Teubner-Rhodes, S., Mishler, A., Corbett, R., Andreu, L., Sanz-Torrent, M., Trueswell, J., and Novick, J. (2016). The effects of bilingualism on conflict monitoring, cognitive control, and garden-path recovery. Cognition 150: 213–231. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tipper, S. P. (1985). The negative priming effect: Inhibitory priming by ignored objects. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 37: 571–590. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Titone, D., Prentice, K. & Wingfield, A. (2000). Resource allocation during spoken discourse processing: Effects of age and passage difficulty as revealed by self-paced listening. Memory & Cognition 28 (6): 1029–1040. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Treccani, B., Argyri, E., Sorace, A. & Della Sala, S. (2009). Spatial negative priming in bilingualism. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 16: 320–327. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsimpli, I. M. & Sorace, A. (2006). Differentiating interfaces: L2 performance in syntax-semantics and syntax-discourse phenomena. Proceedings of BUCLD 30.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsimpli, T., Sorace, A., Heycock, C. & Filiaci, F. (2004). First language attrition and syntactic subjects: a study of Greek and Italian near-native speakers of English. International Journal of Bilingualism 8: 257–277. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valian, V. (2015). Bilingualism and cognition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 18: 3–24. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vega-Mendoza, M., West, H., Sorace, A. and Bak, T. (2015). The impact of late, non-balanced bilingualism on cognitive performance. Cognition 137: 40–46. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vuong, L. and Martin, R. (2014). Domain-specific executive control and the revision of misinterpretations in sentence comprehension. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 29: 312–325. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Watson, A., Defterali, C., Bak, T., Sorace, A., McIntosh, A., Owens, D., Johnstone, E. and Lawrie, S. (2012). Use of second person pronouns and schizophrenia. The British Journal of Psychiatry 200: 342–343. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Chondrogianni, Vicky
2023. Cross-linguistic influences in bilingual morphosyntactic acquisition. In Cross-language Influences in Bilingual Processing and Second Language Acquisition [Bilingual Processing and Acquisition, 16], ► pp. 294 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 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