Slide 1Who is a bilingual?Who is a bilingual?Who is a bilingual?Who is a bilingual?Who is a bilingual?Who is a bilingual?Bilinguals vary a lotBilinguals vary a lotWhy do we care about bilingualism?Why do we care about bilingualism?A few central questions about bilingualsDelays in bilingual acquisition?Petitto et al. (2001)Petitto et al. (2001) ResultsPetitto et al. (2001)How do the two languages of bilinguals interact?How do the two languages of bilinguals interact?Experimental ApproachesSlide 20Storage and retrieval of wordsvan Hell & Dijkstra (2002)van Hell & Dijkstra (2002)Marian & Spivey (1999)Marian & Spivey (1999): ResultsMarian & Spivey (1999): ResultsMarian & Spivey (1999): ResultsApplication of grammatical rulesApplication of grammatical rulesWhat happens if you speak both??A bilingual linguistic skillCode-switchingInter-sentential code-switchingSlide 34Why do bilinguals code-switch?Where and when to code-switchNegative connotations of code-switchingSlide 38Take-home messageGrammatical rules of code-switchingGrammaticality in code-switchingVideosSlide 43Slide 44Slide 45Slide 46Slide 47Slide 48Slide 49Slide 50Slide 51Slide 52Slide 53Slide 54Slide 55Slide 56Slide 57Slide 58BILINGUALISMLing 100Who is a bilingual?Bilinguals are any individuals who handle two languagesWho is a bilingual?or...juggle with two languages?Who is a bilingual?BBC news, Friday, October 31 2008Who is a bilingual?•Most people in the world speak more than one language.•Until recently, this has been largely ignored in studies on language and cognition.•According to a 2007 U.S. Census Bureau Report, –Out of all people over the age of 5; 55,000,000 indicated that they spoke another language besides English at home.–Out of this group, 42,000,000 of them rated themselves as speaking English “well” or “very well.”–This suggests that roughly 14.92% of the total U.S. population over the age of 5 are proficient or highly proficient bilinguals.Who is a bilingual?•"A bilingual is not the sum of two complete or incomplete monolinguals; rather, he or she has a unique and specific linguistic configuration."•Grosjean (1989)•Two myths:1) “Semi-lingualism”2) Bilingual = two monolingualsWho is a bilingual?•Any individual who uses 2 languages is a bilingual to some degree•There are lots of different types of•Bilinguals•Second language (L2) learnersSocial and political influencesProficiencyAge of acquisitionSources of language inputLanguage pairsBilinguals vary a lot•Depending on•Language learning history•2 languages from birth? •Learn Spanish in high school?•Adopted into a different country at age 5?•One way to categorize bilinguals•Simultaneous•Exposed to two languages from birth•Successive•Learned one language before the other•Further subdivided into early and late learnersBilinguals vary a lot•Depending on•Languages they speak•Different spoken languages•e.g., same script bilinguals•French and English•different script bilinguals•Chinese and English•Level of second language (L2) fluency•early L2 learner•balanced bilingualWhy do we care about bilingualism?•Isn't bilingualism just like monolingualism times 2?•No!•Is (psycho)linguistics truly a representative inquiry•Many theories consider only monolingualism•Cannot capture what bilinguals do when they do those things.Why do we care about bilingualism?•Isn't bilingualism just like monolingualism times 2?•Additionally, bilinguals must solve a number of other language-related problems that monolinguals do not, such as•How do I choose when to speak in each language?•How can I recognize which language is being spoken to me?•How do bilingual children learn that they "speak" two languages?•As well as many other interesting and difficult questions…A few central questions about bilinguals•Are there delays in bilingual acquisition compared to monolingual acquisition?•How do the two languages of the bilingual interact?•Selective vs. non-selective activation•Lexicon•Syntax•How do bilinguals control their two languages (keep their two languages apart)?•What are the consequences of this?Delays in bilingual acquisition?•Petitto et al. (2001)•Well-controlled study of multiple children.•Questions: •Is learning 2 languages more difficult than learning 1?•Are there delays or disadvantages associated with early bilingualism?•If the brain is set for one language, the bigger the difference between the languages the harder acquisition should be•signed & spoken (2 modalities, or bimodal bilinguals)•spoken & spoken (1 modality, or unimodal bilinguals)Petitto et al. (2001)•Subjects•French-English bilinguals•LSQ (Quebec Sign Language)-French bilinguals•Data collection•spontaneous speech with parents & siblings•one parent at a time•'monolingual' experimenter (language 1, language 2)•competition condition: 2 adults, each using one of the two languagesPetitto et al. (2001) Results1st Word 1st 2-word Combination 50 Words05101520Ch1 FrenchCh1 EngCh2 LSQCh2 FrenchMono AveMont hsPetitto et al. (2001)•Conclusion•Major linguistic milestones hit at the same time as monolingual children•1st word•1st 2-word combination•1st 50 words•No differences between the 1- and 2-modality bilinguals•Bilingual children appear to have 2 distinct languages from the start•Early bilingualism is NOT bad for childrenHow do the two languages of bilinguals interact?•Two hypotheses•Language selective activation•Able to "turn-off" the language you aren't using•also called a "mental firewall“•Language non-selective activation•You can never "turn-off" the language you aren't using•Words from both languages compete for selection•Even when you are only using one languageHow do the two languages of bilinguals interact?•Two hypotheses•Language selective activation•Able to "turn-off" the language you aren't using•also called a "mental firewall"•Language non-selective activation•You can never "turn-off" the language you aren't using•Words from both languages compete for selection•Even when you are only using one language•Psycholinguists come up with clever ways to “trick” participants when they are conducting language studies. •In particular, they manipulate cross-linguistic differences and similarities to test the consequence of knowing 2 languages.•These differences can vary among a lot of different dimensions.Experimental