Bilinguals' Semantic Transfer Across Languages

Abstract

The present research study investigates the influence of first language transfer through semantically ill-formed sentences when speakers of multiple languages process their linguistic knowledge across different languages. The focus is on cases, where a polysemous word or an idiomatic expression in the fırst language is expressed by a semantically ill-formed lexicon or phrase transfer in the target language. The data, collected from multilingual participants of various first language origins, are explored to find out how and in what contexts cross-language transfer occurs among advanced language learners. Effective strategies to overcome the challenges of the negative cross-language transfer due to incorrect meaning interpretations are explored and discussed. The findings of this research study suggest that the language in which multilinguals mastered the ideas or concepts for the first time determines the way they unconsciously code-switch and borrow concepts and ideas through cross-language transfer during the meaning-making process.