Between-language repetition priming in antonym generation: evidence that translation-equivalent adjectives have shared conceptual representations across languages

Abstract

Previous literature has demonstrated conceptual repetition priming across languages in bilinguals. This between-language priming effect is taken as evidence that translation equivalents have shared conceptual representations across languages. However, the vast majority of this research has been conducted using only concrete nouns as stimuli. The present experiment examined conceptual repetition priming within and between languages in adjectives, a part of speech not previously investigated in studies of bilingual conceptual representation. The participants were 100 Spanish-English bilinguals who had regular exposure to both languages. At encoding, participants performed a shallow processing task and a deep-processing task on English and Spanish adjectives. At test, they performed an antonym-generation task in English, in which the target responses were either adjectives presented at encoding or control adjectives not previously presented. The measure of priming was the response time advantage for producing repeated adjectives relative to control adjectives. Significant repetition priming was observed both within and between languages under deep, but not shallow, encoding conditions. The results indicate that the conceptual representations of adjective translation equivalents are shared across languages.

The effects of bilingual language proficiency on recall accuracy and semantic clustering in free recall output: evidence for shared semantic associations across languages

“…A third perspective arises from evidence that translation equivalents share conceptual representations and that the two languages of a bilingual access a common amodal semantic or conceptual system (for reviews, see Francis, 1999, 2005). Most relevant to reasoning about long-standing semantic associations among category exemplars, studies of conceptual repetition priming between languages have shown evidence that three types of semantic associations (i.e., category-exemplar, noun-verb action, and antonym relationships) have shared representations across languages in bilinguals (de la Riva López, Francis, & García, 2012; Francis, Fernandez, & Bjork, 2010; Seger, Rabin, Desmond, & Gabrieli, 1999; Taylor & Francis, 2017). If semantic associations are in fact language-general, that is, independent of any particular language, then there should be no effects of language on their utilization and therefore no difference between L1 and L2 in the degree of semantic clustering in recall output.…”

“…Second, repetition priming in verb generation (generating an appropriate verb to a noun cue) transferred across languages in bilinguals (de la Riva López et al, 2012; Seger et al, 1999), indicating that object-action associations are shared across languages. Third, semantic processing of adjectives in one language at encoding elicited priming when generating the words as antonyms in the other language at test (Taylor & Francis, 2017), indicating that antonym relationships are shared across languages. These results taken together with the present results provide evidence that long-standing semantic associations are stored in a language-general form in the language-general conceptual system of semantic memory.…”

Shared core meanings and shared associations in bilingual semantic memory: Evidence from research on implicit memory

“…There must be a comparison to a within-language repetition condition. In most studies of conceptual repetition priming, priming effects in between-language conditions were attenuated relative to priming in within-language conditions (de la Riva López et al, 2012; Francis & Goldmann, 2011; Francis et al, 2010; Smith 1991; Taylor & Francis, 2017). This phenomenon naturally leads researchers to ask whether the reduction in priming that occurs when the language changes from encoding to test is evidence for the existence of non-overlapping features at the semantic or conceptual level.…”

“…The measure of priming is the reduction in response times for antonyms encountered at encoding relative to new antonyms. Repetition priming between languages in antonym generation was substantial in a study that used adjectives as stimulus words (Taylor & Francis, 2017). For example, rating the word grande on pleasantness at encoding speeded the generation of its translation equivalent large as an antonym to small at test.…”

“…This result indicates that object–action associations are shared across languages. Finally, priming in antonym generation transferred across languages in one experiment when word meanings were processed at encoding (Taylor & Francis, 2017). For example, rating the pleasantness of the word grande speeded the generation of its translation equivalent large as an antonym to small .…”