2.

Language processing

This unit deals mostly with the abstract representations in our mind, for the way we store words
and the way we process them in speech production. The unit is focused on language processing,
and mental lexicon as the central point of the process of speech production.

Language attrition

Language attrition refers to the loss of speech capacity. If someone doesn't use the first language
for a long time, he can lose the ability to speak. This can happen when, for example, young
people change the linguistic context. So he automatically loses fluency and accessible
vocabulary.

Speech errors

Speech errors are made occasionally when speaking fast or not paying attention. Speech errors
are common and interesting to analyse because they are made for a reason.

Classification of speech errors

Selection errors are those which involve choosing a lexical word which has similar meaning to
the one that you had to choose

Assemblage errors are those which are produced at the time of producing the word (maybe due
to speaking fast)

Selection errors Assemblage errors

Semantic errors Transpositions

Ex: Do you have artichokes? I’m sorry, I Ex: Don’t buy a car with its tail in the engine.
mean aubergines (both are vegetables)

Malapropisms Anticipations
Ex: …. pineapple of politeness Ex: ...of Peester Ustinov

Blends Repetitions
Ex: It didn’t bother me in the sleast Chomsky and Challe
Selection errors

Semantic errors: have clear meaning connection because they are similar.

Malapropisms: there is connection between the two errors, however is a phonetic

connection more than meaning connection. They are similar in form.

Blends: involves merging two different words

Assemblage errors

Transpositions: are two words transposed, also it can be transposition of sounds.

Anticipations: when a sound that should appear later, comes up first.

Repetitions: when a sound that has already been produced, it comes up again when it
shouldn’t.

Oral production

What are the processes we go through when we want to convey a message?

First, we think what we are going to say: the concept we want to share, the syntax construction
and who we are talking to) in order to select the correct words.
Second, we transform the thought into oral language by articulating the words.

The oral production consists in 5 main steps which are:

➔ Conceptualisation

➔ Formulation

➔ Articulation

➔ Comprehension

➔ Monitoring
 ➔ Conceptualisation
Conceptualisation not only involves thinking on the word we want to produce, but also
thinking on sociolinguistic issues to select the correct word.

➔ Formulation
Formulation involves changing the concepts into words and when selecting words we
need to build a syntactic framework putting the order correctly

➔ Articulation
Articulation is moving speech organs to produce understandable speech.

➔ Comprehension and monitoring

After producing speech sounds, we have to hear and monitor what we have actually said,
so in case of speech errors, the speaker realises he has made a mistake and he corrects it.

The mental lexicon

The mental lexicon is the mental state of knowledge about words and is one of the most
important steps involved in speech production.The mental lexicon specifies how a word is
spelled, how it is pronounced, its part of speech and what it means.

It could also be defined as a mental dictionary which contains information regarding a word’s
meaning, pronunciation, syntactic characteristics, etc.

What is the difference between lexical representation (word recognition) and lexical
access?

The lexical representation refers to how words are represented in our mind.

Perso
n

Man
Woman

Child
The word “man” is connected, in terms of meaning, with other words such as “person”,
“woman” and “child”. So when we try to access particular words, since there are few others
connected, sometimes word selection doesn’t happen successfully.

When trying to access the word “man”, it is connected to many others so in the process of
accessing the word, others are activated.

Lexical representation is how words are represented in the mental lexicon.

Lexical access is the action of activating the target word and inhibiting the other words which
get activated at the same time as the targeted one in order to produce the correct word.

Selection, activation and inhibition

When trying to select a target word, the words which are connected to this word get activated as
well. To access the target word it is important to inhibit the words which are not the one we
need.

If you select the word properly you have inhibited the other words properly. If you haven’t
selected the target word, you have inhibited the other words wrongly.

Inhibition has to succeed in order to choose the right word.

Storing words

There are 3 ways of storing words:

➔ Vocabulary size
Reading and education are important sources to have a large vocabulary size, which is the
amount of words we store in general.

➔ Word associations
Word associations refers to the connections created between words.

➔ Content are function words

Words can be stored depending on whether they are function or content words.
 In front of These are examples of words that tend to
Inside out appear together (content and function words)
The day after
tomorrow
Heavy smoker These are content words that also
Spent time appear together frequently
Drive a car

Are these words stored in one same unit? Or are stored separated in blocks?

The first block of words would be stored together and the second block would be stored in
different units.

When we deal with items inflected from the base form, the most
Walking efficient form to store them is storing them together with one
lexical entry (the base form).
Walk
When we deal with words which have irregular forms, the most
efficient way to store them is not to store them together but in
Walked
different blocks.

Speech errors

Classification of speech errors suggest how words are semantically related and stored together so
to produce the target word you have to inhibit some others. In lexical access there are words
which are connected in meaning and others that are connected in form.

What kind of information comes first in lexical access?

When we write, we first think what we want to say and then we think about the form.
When we speak, we first think in meaning and then in form.

Sleep of the tongue is a phenomenon that happens when you say something you didn’t want to
say. Tip of the tongue is a phenomenon that happens when you want to say a word but you
cannot find it in the word store.
Differences between lexical representation and lexical access to the mental lexicon

In both Levelt’s and Kormos’ model, the mental lexicon has a crucial role because this is where
we store the words we know in a language. The bilingual mental lexicon refers to how words are
organized (lexical representation) and how words are accessed in production.

Access is a more dynamic process that we engage when we produce speech so we have to look
for the words and access them in our mental lexicon. Lexical representation refers to how words
are stored.

Thanks to speech errors and thanks to other experiments in psycholinguistics, some experts can
propose how words are organized and accessed. Lexical representation for bilinguals can have
different models.

➔ Compound model: proposes a single concept and 2 different lexical words.

➔ Coordinate model: presupposes the existence of two different concepts and both
are lexicalised in 2 different words.

➔ Subordinate model: there is only one concept associated with the L1 word and
when the L2 word is learned, this L2 word is attached to the L1 word and is to
that word that the concept is accessed.
There are different factors that affect how words are represented. For words that are very similar
in form and in meaning (tomato / tomate / tomàquet) is easier to propose a single concept.

Depending on the type of word or depending on how the word was learned; if it was directly by
translation we are more likely to have the subordinate representation, than if the word was
learned just by pictorial representation or by experiencing the word in context, it is more likely to
have a coordinate representation.

There might be a certain degree of overlap between concepts. In the coordinate model we have
two separate concepts but this is not as simple as this, because in the concept of “fall” there are
probably some ideas that are also present in the concept of “otoño” so there is a certain degree of
overlap. Depending on how much they overlap they are more or less integrated.

The developmental model

The developmental model supposes that when speakers start learning a second language and the
L1 is already established, late bilinguals would move on from the subordinate model to the
compound model.

Because at first there is a lot of support from the L1 and L2 learners (especially older people)
tend to rely on L1 when learning L2 but after a lot of experience and spending some time abroad
and using L2 for a long time, is more likely to have a direct access to the conceptual area as the
compound model is proposed.

Lexical access and lexical representation

Lexical representation refers to how the words are organised and lexical access refers to the
processes we go through when we want to produce a word. Obviously, depending on how words
are organised you might access not just one word but a series of words, and the words you access
when trying to look for one is related to how they are organised.

The way words are represented or organised is probably related to the degree of activation that
they receive when you want to access a word.

Lexical access is a more active mental process and lexical representation is a more static process
as it just consists in the representation of words.

In monolingual speakers words are represented in terms of semantic networks.

How lexical processing works in bilinguals?

(selective language processing) (non-selective language processing)

In these two images there are two possible ways in which lexical access can take place for
bilinguals. The first one there is a kind of switch that when you click the switch and turn it to the
red circle symbol you have access to english vocabulary whereas when you click the green line
you have access to the spanish words (mental lexicon).

In the conceptualisation stage, bilingual or multilingual speakers decide which language to use.
According to the model of the first image, you select your language in a shift in your
conceptualisation and you have only access to the words of the language you have selected.

In the second model, the second image tries to represent all the words together so when you try
to access english language, those words will receive more activation, but you are accessing at the
same time the words in spanish.

According to this second model, when you are speaking in one language, all of the words in our
general bilingual mental lexicon are accessed. In the other model, by switching on the language,
you can only access words that are relevant for the message and for the selection in the
conceptualisation stage.

The second model seems more accurate and appropriate. However, the first model was first
proposed because of the fact that in general when bilingual speakers are speaking with
monolingual speakers, bilinguals try to keep selecting words in one exclusively language
(although few mistakes can be made).
So maybe the first model was proposed because it was thought that we do not have access to
other words of L2 languages as it would confuse bilingual speakers all the time.

In psycholinguistic experiments, when speakers are accessed to process words in one language,
there might be 10 words in language A and then there’s a switch to language B, the difference in
processing between words of the first block is shorter than when switching languages

In the second model, there can be situations in bilingual speakers in which a word in a non-target
language is more active even being in a monolingual situation, so you can access words in
another language while speaking.

If you are talking to a monolingual speaker, you have to inhibit the words of other languages and
this requires effort at the time. But there are many experiments that have shown, for many
different reasons, that the two languages are active during bilingual language processing. Also,
during lexical access, bilinguals access the words in the two languages.

Attention switching

Attention switching is one of the aspects investigated in psycholinguistics experiments. A lot of

the experiments done in the phonetics laboratory are about psycholinguistics. Typically, in those
experiments based on lexical access, we ask participants to process (either pictures or words) in
one language and we analyze how fast they are making a decision. This is the type of experiment
that has been used to support the second model.

Experiment done in class

In this experiment we had to access to the word of each image in catalan as faster as possible:
Results of the experiment

In psycholinguistics experiments, the first words are usually discarded because those are the
words in which participants get used to the experiment. So in an average of a hundred words, the
first twenty are discarded. So the fact of being slower in the first word is because we get used to
the experiment.

➔ In the first image, there is a leaf (with an “N” below the image). In catalan we need to
access the word “fulla”, however, there is no “N” within the word “fulla”.

➔ In the second image, there is a bread (with a “P” below the image). In catalan we need to
access the word “pa” and there is a “P” within the word.

➔ In the third image, there is a chair (with an “S” below the image). In catalan we need to
access the word “cadira”, however there is no “S” in catalan but in spanish.

In the second image we were faster because “pa” starts with “P” in both catalan and spanish and
the letter below the word was “P”. This fact stimulates faster lexical access.

In the last image we were slower because here there is a clear activation of spanish. The fact of
having the letter “S” from “silla” in spanish, when you are supposed to say “cadira” is what
makes us select slowlier the word in catalan, because the word in spanish gets also activated.

This is what creates confusion in bilinguals, because of the activation subconsciously of another
language. This is a type of experiment used to support the non-selected lexical access.

There is a lot of evidence that suggests that there are many instances in which bilinguals take a
long time to make decisions about words because the two sets of words are activated in both
languages.

Two models of understanding speech

Non-selective language processing would be the idea that the speech that you hear is available
as input for all the languages that one knows. So even though right now your english may be
more active than one or two of your other languages, your other languages would never be fully
switched off, but they would be on a sort of stand by so that the words that you hear are available
for being processed with those other languages

Selective language processing corresponds to this idea of having a switch in your brain that
allows you to selectively switch on one language and switch off the others. So that the stuff that
you hear at any given moment is only going towards the language that it actually instantiates.

Language processing in bilinguals

Lexical access in bilinguals is generally agreed to be non-selective. If all the languages are
accessed at the same time, how can we tend to stick to the target language? What do you have to
do when all words are accessed? We have to inhibit the word of other languages in order to
produce the target word.

This is what bilinguals are claimed to be doing all the time and there is a lot of mental work. But
most of the time there is a word in a target language and receives the most activation, but
sometimes words are competing for activation and you have to inhibit the non-target language.

Green's model suggests that in the language bilinguals control, there are two languages which are
separated with different degrees of activation and bilinguals have to inhibit the activation of the
non-target language. Obviously L2 learners have fewer resources and more interference occurs.

Which language is more active when speaking the other?

The L1 is more active or dominant and tends to receive higher activation when using the L2, than
the other way around. When you start learning a second language and you still don’t have
enough vocabulary, your L1 is more active than your L2. However, fluent bilinguals are able to
inhibit the non-target language.

There could also be the case in which there is an english speaker who moves to spain and when
living there for 10 years, the L2 (spanish) becomes more fluent or more dominant. So it is the
dominant language (whether is the first language you acquire or the second language) the one
that is likely to be more active.

Monitoring
Monitoring is very important in L1 production because we always need to plan what we are
saying. If we talk to someone who is in a higher position, we monitor even more what we are
going to say so as to be pragmatically appropriate.

Also, monitoring is important when we make speech errors. For L2 production there is often the
case that we can monitor the performance. When the speaker of L2 is able to monitor its
production, the L2 speaker is based on the L2 declarative rules.

In the formulator the decision of which language to use is not made here. However, in the
formulator, the other languages are also active so even if you have already decided what
language you are going to use, there are still clear levels of activation of the non-target language.

What is the difference between monitoring in the case of monolinguals and non-proficient
language learners?

Language monitoring in general requires attention. In the L2 this attention is divided into many
different processes, so the L2 speaker is monitoring the conceptualisation, the formulation,
selecting the correct words in the mental lexicon and forming the syntactic encoding.

As there are many resources to monitor the performance, when the speech has been produced it
requires extra effort to localize if any error has been produced. Often monitoring is non-
successful because most of the time, the L2 users have to decide between fluency or accuracy. So
if they don’t want to speak two words per minute, they have to let go of some mistakes and if
they make mistakes it’s okay because the speaker doesn't have any more attentional resources to
monitor his speech.

Often, monitoring goes back to the L2 declarative rules that were learnt through instruction.
Sometimes, monitoring in L2 is not possible because they might lack the knowledge. So
sometimes they don’t monitor their performance because they might think that they cannot make
any judgement of what they are producing because they don’t know what is correct.

Exercise: explain the processes that would take place according to Levelt’s or Kormos’ models
in the production of the following utterances.

1.-We need a few laughs to break up the monogamy. (instead of monotony) L1

2.- People is always complaining. (instead of “are always”) L2
3.- Can you pass me the fork, please? Sorry, the knife. L1

In the first sentence there is a speech error made in the formulation. When putting together
words, there could be a case of mixing letters because both words are similar in form
(monogamy / monotony). So this part of the speech process would take place on the formulation
stage, where you select the formal aspects of the word.

In the second sentence, there is an error made in the syntactic encoding because we are using the
L1 syntactic rules. Syntactic encoding takes places in the formulator. In the formulator we have
lexical encoding and syntactic or morpho - phonological encoding. So it is on this formulation of
the message where we take a word from the english group and we attribute to this word the
syntactic properties of the L1 word.

This is similar to “enter into”. In english, the word enter does not require a preposition so it is
said “enter somewhere”. But in spanish, the word “enter” needs a preposition. The word
“people” in english needs a plural form whereas in spanish or catalan needs the singular form.

In the third sentence, there is evidence of successful monitoring. The error made in the sentence
is a lexical encoding problem which takes place in the formulator. Is an speech error (sleep of the
tongue) produced because “knife” and “fork” belong to the same semantic network and they are
represented very closely so they are closely connected. As a consequence of this connection, they
are activated because when we try to access one word, other words are activated as well.

Bilinguals active words in L1 and in L2 but monolinguals activate words that are similar to the
target word, so activation and inhibition happens in both monolinguals and bilinguals.

Spreading activation takes place when the activation goes through different stages.

Exercise:

1.- What’s another word for speech error?

Sleep of the tongue is a synonym of speech error. On the contrary, tip of the tongue it’s a
different phenomenon which happens when you have a word in the tip of the tongue but you
cannot produce it.

2.- How’s the mental lexicon organised?

The mental lexicon is organised in semantic networks.

3.- The lemma contains information about…

The lemma contains syntactic information as well as meaning, whereas pronunciation and
spelling are more part of the lexeme or formal representation of words.

4.- What is NOT one of the Levelt’s knowledge stores?

The L2 declarative rules are not part of Levelt’s knowledge stores but part of the Kormos’
model.

5.- What does the compound model propose?

The compound model proposes one concept and two lexical items. Two concepts and two lexical
items is the coordinate model and one concept and one lexical item connected to another is the
subordinate model.

6.- Colome’s experiment suggests that lexical access is…

According to Colome’s experiment, lexical access is non-selective because when processing in

catalan, those pictures that were associated with letters of spanish words were slower to access
the word in catalan. This proves that spanish was accessed and active while using catalan.

Selective and non-selective models

The Selective model suggests that speakers select one language and then the speaker only
accesses words in that language. So you switch to english and then you access only the words in
english, you switch into spanish and you access only words in spanish.

The Non-selective model suggests that in language processing bilinguals access the words in all
the languages they speak, so this process is explained through the activation and inhibition,
however all the words get activated. In the non-selective model the speaker cannot completely
select one language and then suddenly the other language disappears from your mental lexicon.

Transfer and code switching

Sometimes transfer and code switching are used simultaneously, but often code-switching can
have the connotation that is done intentionally whereas transfer might not be done intentionally.

So language transfer, if you consider it unintentional, is produced when the L2 speaker uses
properties of L1 or the other way around. So you select the non-target language often
involuntarily because of the lack of knowledge of L2 and you transfer properties from L1 to L2.

Code-switching is sometimes thought of as something done voluntarily. When talking about

lexical access in switching, is a switch that explains, or that tries to suggest, that when using one
language, only words from that language are active. Code-switching is also produced between
catalan and spanish as spanish / catalan speakers code-switch from one language to the other.

Kormos does not make a clear distinction between transfer and code-switching. He uses both as
synonyms. However, code switching is more associated with bilingual speech types in which
bilingual speakers can mix between different languages. Transfer is more typically used for L2
learners. Sometimes both transfer and code switching are used synonymously but in general code
switching has more of these voluntary connotations.

TO SUM UP THE THEORY

We have focused on monolingual speech production following Level’s speech production model
and we have talked about Kormos’ L2 speech production model. We have also discussed
bilingual lexical representation, in which way the different words are related in the L1 and in the
L2 and whether concepts are the same or different for bilinguals and in which way they are
related to the L1.

We have also talked about lexical access whether it was selective or non-selective, and
remember that the last thing we discussed was that most psycholinguists agree that lexical access
is non-selective in bilinguals.

Also, the 2 languages that bilinguals speak are active so in order to use one language and ignore
the other, they have the activation and inhibition that is also present in monolingual speech
processing (for words that are related that are also activated while speaking). So bilinguals also
do that but for the 2 languages, because both languages are active but they need to inhibit the
non-target language.