Tracking lexical processing in bimodal bilingualism: evidence from Catalan sign language

Abstract

A central topic in understanding how the brain processes language is to characterise the dynamics underlying lexical access. In bimodal bilinguals, individuals who use sign languages and oral languages, lexical processing entails handling information in two different language modalities. This dissertation focuses on the study of bimodal bilingual lexical processing in two different populations, deaf signers and hearing early sign language learners. We report evidence that iconicity influences sign retrieval when deaf signers produce signs. In addition, our results show that the effects of iconicity were not pervasive but modulated by the task at hand. We also present results showing that sign production is influenced by word processing. This effect was observed both when the oral language was explicit in the task and when it was not included. Covert language activation is also reported in the early stages of sign learning. More specifically, we show that word processing in hearing learners is influenced by covert activation of the corresponding sign translations. Furthermore, we report evidence of how novel sign lexical entries are integrated in the mental lexicon in this population. Altogether, these results extend previous knowledge on the nature of lexical access in bimodal bilingualism and on general bilingual language processing.