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  • One mind, two languages: Bilingual language processing ed. by Janet L. Nicol
  • Pieter Muysken
One mind, two languages: Bilingual language processing. Ed. by Janet L. Nicol. (Explaining linguistics.) Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001. Pp. xii, 219. ISBN 0631220984. $37.95.

This volume contains nine papers on bilingual language processing. Five have first authors connected with the University of Arizona; four papers are written by outsiders. The volume intends to present ‘a survey of current research in the area of language processing in the second language learner and the bilingual’ (xi), part of a series ‘designed to introduce and explain major [End Page 271] research areas in linguistic theory and practice’ (inside front cover). The papers cover a wide variety of topics in processing. A central question in evaluating the individual articles, as well as the book as a whole, is how they serve to present an overview of the field, as well as yield new research results. Language pairs discussed include Spanish-English (six articles), French- English (one), Chinese-English (one), and ASL-English (one).

Françis Grosjean (1–22) provides a clear overview of his work on the language modes that a bilingual has at his or her disposal, how they are regulated, and the available evidence for the existence of language modes. The article ends with the methodological implications of the language mode for bilingualism research and with the question of how language modes can be assessed.

In their very illuminating paper, Mary L. Zampini and Kerry P. Green (23–48) study how the voicing contrast between Spanish and English is perceived and produced. Phonetically, the contrast between English /p t k/ and /b d g/ is one of the duration of the lag between release burst and the onset of vocal fold vibration (VOT) during production. In Spanish, voiced /b d g/ are produced with vocal fold vibration preceding the stop release (prevoice closure). In addition, there are differences with respect to the duration of the voiceless closure interval before the stop’s release. It turns out that early, fluent bilinguals can produce, once Grosjean’s language modes are controlled for, the same VOT values in both of their languages as monolinguals in either of these languages. However, for voiceless closure interval, bilinguals show absolute differences from monolinguals, even though the relative proportions of the difference between /b d g/ and /p t k/ in both languages are maintained. Second language learners of Spanish have difficulty in producing the prevoiced closure of Spanish voiced stops and in other respects show complex results. In another series of experiments, Zampini and Green show that there is no clear evidence for either the perception-leads-production nor the production-leads-perception hypotheses in L2 phonetic acquisition. The way bilinguals use perception clues in both of their languages suggests that bilinguals have highly complex representations and are flexible in using perception clues with either language.

Judith F. Kroll and Natasha Tokowicz (49–71) focus on the development of conceptual representations for words in a second language (French and Spanish). After summarizing the evidence that beginning L2 learners access the concepts of the L2 words though L1 words, Kroll and Tokowicz present the revised hierarchical model, which opens up a more dynamic perspective on L2 conceptual development. In relation to this model a whole series of different issues is discussed, culminating in an interesting proposal about individual differences in L2 learning. These may have to do, it is argued, with the degree of control learners have over the way the two languages are operative or not at a given moment.

In the densely argued paper by Kenneth I. Forster and Nan Jiang (72–83), evidence about the nature of the bilingual lexicon from masked priming experiments is presented, leading to the conclusion that the different lexicons of a bilingual are stored separately, the L2 lexicon being stored primarily in episodic memory, particularly with early L2 learners.

Carol Myers-Scotton and Janice L. Jake (84–117) present an interesting exposition of the recent developments in their work on codeswitching and language contact. They...

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