부산대학교 도서관

Background: One of the major interests in bilingualism research has been the extent to which the two lexicons of a bilingual speaker are directly linked and the role that this hypothetical link plays during language production. Up to now, most of the research on this issue has focused on either low or high proficient late-bilingual people, whereas little information has been provided on the functionality of this hypothesised link in highly proficient bilinguals who acquired their two languages early in life. Aims: The aim of the present study is to provide information on the functionality of the direct link between the two lexicons of early and highly proficient bilingual people. Methods & Procedures: In this report we assess the functionality of lexical links between translation words in an early and highly proficient Catalan-Spanish bilingual patient (JFF) who suffers from a semantic deficit as a consequence of Alzheimer's disease. The integrity of JFF's conceptual and lexical representations is examined by means of semantic, picture-naming, and translation tasks. We pay special attention to JFF's translation performance to assess whether such performance is affected by his semantic deficit. Outcomes & Results: We argue that if lexical links between translation words are functional, then such links would guarantee error-free production in translation. Contrary to this prediction, errors observed in JFF's translation performance indicated that the semantic system was involved in JFF's forward and backward translation. Conclusions: On the basis of this result, we suggest that lexical links in early and highly proficient bilingual people are not functional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]