First- and second-language phonological representations in the mental lexicon

Performance-based studies on the psychological nature of linguistic competence can conceal significant differences in the brain processes that underlie native versus nonnative knowledge of language. Here we report results from the brain activity of very proficient early bilinguals making a lexical decision task that illustrates this point. Two groups of SpanishCatalan early bilinguals (Spanish-dominant and Catalan-dominant) were asked to decide whether a given form was a Catalan word or not. The nonwords were based on real words, with one vowel changed. In the experimental stimuli, the vowel change involved a Catalan-specific contrast that previous research had shown to be difficult for Spanish natives to perceive. In the control stimuli, the vowel switch involved contrasts common to Spanish and Catalan. The results indicated that the groups of bilinguals did not differ in their behavioral and event-related brain potential measurements for the control stimuli; both groups made very few errors and showed a larger N400 component for control nonwords than for control words. However, significant differences were observed for the experimental stimuli across groups: Specifically, Spanish-dominant bilinguals showed great difficulty in rejecting experimental nonwords. Indeed, these participants not only showed very high error rates for these stimuli, but also did not show an error-related negativity effect in their erroneous nonword decisions. However, both groups of bilinguals showed a larger correctrelated negativity when making correct decisions about the experimental nonwords. The results suggest that although some aspects of a second language system may show a remarkable lack of plasticity (like the acquisition of some foreign contrasts), first-language representations seem to be more dynamic in their capacity of adapting and incorporating new information. &

Morphological priming in Spanish verb forms: an ERP repetition priming study

The ERP repetition priming paradigm has been shown to be sensitive to the processing differences between regular and irregular verb forms in English and German. The purpose of the present study is to extend this research to a language with a different inflectional system, Spanish. The design (delayed visual repetition priming) was adopted from our previous study on English, and the specific linguistic phenomena we examined are priming relations between different kinds of stem (or root) forms. There were two experimental conditions: In the first condition, the prime and the target shared the same stem form, e.g., "ando-andar" [I walk-to walk], whereas in the second condition, the prime contained a marked (alternated) stem, e.g., "duermo-dormir" [I sleep-to sleep]. A reduced N400 was found for unmarked (nonalternated) stems in the primed condition, whereas marked stems showed no such effect. Moreover, control conditions demonstrated that the surface form properties (i.e., the different degree of phonetic and orthographic overlap between primes and targets) do not explain the observed priming difference. The ERP priming effect for verb forms with unmarked stems in Spanish is parallel to that found for regularly inflected verb forms in English and German. We argue that effective priming is possible because prime target pairs such as "ando-andar" access the same lexical entry for their stems. By contrast, verb forms with alternated stems (e.g., "duermo") constitute separate lexical entries, and are therefore less powerful primes for their corresponding base forms.

Els «criteris de visibilització de les dones» en català: límits sintacticosemàntics i discursius

L'objectiu d'aquest article és analitzar els principals criteris que les guies d'estil recomanen per visibilitzar les dones ¿o per fer un ús no sexista del llenguatge¿ des de dos punts de vista: el sintacticosemàntic i el discursiu. Des del punt de vista sintacticosemàntic, s'estudien bàsicament els fenòmens relacionats amb la coordinació, la concordança i la repetició o elisió d'elements (per exemple, especificadors del nom), i la manera com les diferents opcions afecten el significat oracional. Des del punt de vista discursiu, s'analitzen els fenòmens relacionats amb la coreferència; és a dir, la relació entre les diferents maneres d'expressar un mateix referent per mitjà d'elements nominals al llarg del text, i l'efecte que provoquen en el text en conjunt. Amb aquest objectiu, l'estudi analitza des d'un punt de vista qualitatiu les dades proporcionades per un corpus de textos procedents de tres àmbits (polític, administratiu i educatiu) en què s'apliquen sovint aquesta mena de criteris. Paraules clau: català, llenguatge no sexista, visibilització lingüística de les dones, sintaxi, cohesió, coreferència, llenguatge androcèntric, estil. The goal of this article is to analyse the main criteria recommended by style guides aimed at making women more visible or, in other words, to make a non-sexist use of language. I will concentrate on two main aspects: the syntactic-semantic and the discursive. From a syntactic-semantic point of view, the main elements being studied are those related to coordination, agreement and repetition or omission of elements (for instance, noun specifiers), and also the way the different options chosen affect the meaning of the sentence. From a discursive and stylistic point of view, the elements analysed are those related to coreference, that is, the relationship between the different ways of expressing a same referent through different elements in the text, and the effect they produce in the text as a whole. Having this as the main goal, the study analyses from a qualitative point of view the data from a corpus in three different areas (politics, administration and education), which often apply this kind of criteria. Keywords: Catalan, non-sexist language, female linguistic visibility, syntax, cohesion, co-reference, androcentric language, style

The economic value of reciprocal bilingualism

Some bilingual societies exhibit a distribution of language skills that can- not be explained by economic theories that portray languages as pure commu- nication devices. Such distribution of skills are typically the result of public policies that promote bilingualism among members of both speech commu- nities (reciprocal bilingualism). In this paper I argue that these policies are likely to increase social welfare by diminishing economic and social segmenta- tion between the two communities. However, these gains tend to be unequally distributed over the two communities. As a result, in a large range of circum- stances these policies might not draw su¢ cient support. The model is built upon the communicative value of languages, but also emphasizes the role of linguistic preferences in the behavior of bilingual individuals.

Acerca de las relaciones entre escuela e inmigración

El artículo repasa algunos aspectos sobre la relación entre educación escolar e inmigración. Así, al inicio se analizande manera descriptiva las características de la inmigración ligada a la sociedad de la información y sus repercusiones educativas. Igualmente, se repasan algunos trabajos sobreel rendimiento académico de la infancia y la adolescencia extranjera, y se enfatiza el factor lingüístico como una de lasfuentes explicativas de dicho rendimiento. En este sentido, se muestran varias investigaciones dedicadas a conocerlos factores que inciden en el aprendizaje por el alumnado extranjero de la lengua de la escuela y, finalmente, se ofrecen varios criterios para encarar con éxito la relación entre escolarización e inmigración

El carácter fronterizo de las identidades contemporáneas: el caso de Chiapas

The thesis or hypothesis of this paper is that the multiple connections of explicit andimplicit life styles foster the construction of hybrid, multiple or complex identities. Wemean by hybrid identities the confluence of multiple identifications in the personalbiography. If the globalization and cultural diversity are the fundamental forms ofglobal life, the mobility is its principal ingredient. We describe different cultural traitsin Chiapas. Internet, migration to United States, or the North American Free TradeAgreement (NAFTA), between North America, Canada, and Mexico, were hybridizedwith the heterogeneity of identity (ethnic, linguistic, and religious). It is discussed thesocial and political consequences of the hybrid contemporary societies

La adquisición de la interrogación: las interrogativas parciales en catalán y castellano = The acquisition of interrogatives:Wh-questions in Catalan and Spanish

En este trabajo se describe la naturaleza y secuencia de adquisición de las preguntas interrogativas parcialesen niños de habla catalana y/o castellana dentro de un marco de análisis según el cual la adquisición de lasestructuras lingüísticas se construye gradualmente desde estructuras concretas hasta estructuras más abstractas.La muestra utilizada se compone de 10 niños y niñas procedentes de corpus longitudinales cuyas edades van delos 17 meses a los 3 años. El análisis se ha realizado atendiendo a la estructura sintáctica de la oración, loserrores, los pronombres y adverbios interrogativos, y la tipología verbal. Los resultados muestran que la secuenciade adquisición pasa por un momento inicial caracterizado por producciones estereotipadas o fórmulas,durante el cual sólo aparecen algunas partículas interrogativas en estructuras muy concretas. Posteriormente lainterrogación aparece con otros pronombres y adverbios y se diversifica a otros verbos, además, no se observanerrores en la construcción sintáctica. Estos resultados suponen un hecho diferencial respecto de estudios previos enlengua inglesa