Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1366728909990472 How to cite this article: JANNIKA LAXÉN and JEAN-MARC LAVAUR (2010). The role of semantics in translation recognition: effects of number of translations, dominance of translations and semantic relatedness of multiple translations. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13, pp 157-183This study aims to examine the influence of multiple translations of a word on bilingual processing in three translation recognition experiments during which French-English bilinguals had to decide whether two words were translations of each other or not. In the first experiment, words with only one translation were recognized as translations faster than words with multiple translations. Furthermore, when words were presented with their dominant translation, the recognition process was faster than when words were presented with their non-dominant translation. In Experiment 2, these effects were replicated in both directions of translation (L1-L2 and L2-L1). In Experiment 3, we manipulated number-of-translations and the semantic relatedness between the different translations of a word. When the two translations of a word (i.e., bateau) were related in meaning (synonyms such as the English translations boat and ship), the translation recognition process was faster than when the two translations of a word (i.e., argent) were unrelated in meaning (the two translations money and silver). The consequences of translation ambiguities are discussed in the light of the distributed conceptual feature model of bilingual memory (De Groot, 1992b;Van Hell and De Groot, 1998b).

This study aims to examine language dominance and language switching effects in a series of monolingual and multilingual lexical decisions in which participants have to decide if the presented letter string is a word or not, regardless of language. Thirty participants (12 FrenchÁEnglish bilinguals and 18 FrenchÁEnglishÁSpanish trilinguals) were recruited for two different experiments. In Experiment 1, 12 bilinguals processed two monolingual lists (L1 and L2) followed by a bilingual list (with L1 and L2 words). The results indicate faster answers and better accuracy for L1 words compared to L2 words in both lists, and a general slowdown of processing in the bilingual list, highlighting language switching effects (switch from L2 to L1 faster than from L1 to L2). In Experiment 2, 18 trilinguals performed successively monolingual (L1, L2 and L3), bilingual (L1L2, L1L3 and L2L3) and trilingual (L1L2L3) lists. The results show a slowdown of word processing as a function of number of languages involved, even for the dominant language (L1). Moreover, a language switching effect was found for all multilingual lists, in larger proportions when the list involves the two weakest languages (L2 and L3). Results are discussed in the light of interactive models of bilingual visual word processing.

T his research aimed at studying the role of subtitling in film comprehension. It focused on the languages in which the subtitles are written and on the participants' fluency levels in the languages presented in the film. In a preliminary part of the study, the most salient visual and dialogue elements of a short sequence of an English film were extracted by the means of a free recall task after showing two versions of the film (first a silent, then a dubbed-into-French version) to native French speakers. This visual and dialogue information was used in the setting of a questionnaire concerning the understanding of the film presented in the main part of the study, in which other French native speakers with beginner, intermediate, or advanced fluency levels in English were shown one of three versions of the film used in the preliminary part. Respectively, these versions had no subtitles or they included either English or French subtitles. The results indicate a global interaction between all three factors in this study: For the beginners, visual processing dropped from the version without subtitles to that with English subtitles, and even more so if French subtitles were provided, whereas the effect of film version on dialogue comprehension was the reverse. The advanced participants achieved higher comprehension for both types of information with the version without subtitles, and dialogue information processing was always better than visual information processing. The intermediate group similarly processed dialogues in a better way than visual information, but was not affected by film version. These results imply that, depending on the viewers' fluency levels, the language of subtitles can have different effects on movie information processing. C ette recherche vise a`e´tudier le roˆle des sous-titres dans la compre´hension d'un film. Elle porte sur la langue dans laquelle les sous-titres sont e´crits et sur les niveaux de compre´hension des participants dans la langue parle´e dans le film. Dans une phase pre´liminaire de l'e´tude, les e´le´ments les plus saillants des images et des dialogues ont e´te´extraits, au moyen d'une taˆche de rappel libre, d'une se´quence de film anglophone, montre´e ad es francophones dans deux versions successives (d'abord une version silencieuse, puis une version double´e en franc¸ais). Ces informations visuelles et des dialogues ont e´te´utilise´es pour la construction d'un questionnaire portant sur la compre´hension du film pre´sente´dans la phase principale de l'e´tude. Pour cette seconde phase, d'autres francophones d'origine, ayant soit un niveau de´butant, interme´diaire ou avance´de compre´hension de l'anglais, ont visionne´une des trois versions du meˆme extrait de film que celui utilise´dans la phase pre´liminaire. Une version ne comportait pas de sous-titres, tandis que les deux autres incluaient soit des sous-titres en franc¸ais ou des sous-titres en anglais. Les re´sultats ont indique´une interaction globale entre les trois facteurs examine´s dans l'e´tude. Plus pre´cise...

Résumé Nous avons manipulé la fréquence du voisinage orthographique interlangue dans une tâche de décision lexicale monolingue et de décision de langue. Dans la décision lexicale, les bilingues français/espagnol traitent plus lentement des mots qui possèdent un voisin orthographique plus fréquent dans l'autre langue (voisins orthographiques interlangues) que des mots spécifiques à une seule langue, à la fois dans les listes françaises et espagnoles. Pour les deux langues, nous obtenons des ralentissements similaires pour les voisins orthographiques interlangues dans la tâche de décision de langue. Les résultats sont interprétés dans le cadre du modèle d'Activation Interactive Bilingue (BIA). Mots clés : bilinguisme, reconnaissance visuelle de mots, voisins orthographiques interlangues, mots spécifiques.

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