Melinger, A.
School of Psychology, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK
Bilinguals face the extraordinary challenge of keeping their two languages separate when speaking. Another population that likewise needs to control lexical selection processes across two lexica are speakers of distinct regional dialects. Recent research has identified initial similarities in how bilinguals and bi-dialectal speakers control the selection of the appropriate language/dialect. Here, we investigate the scope of these parallels.
Studies using the language switching paradigm to investigate language control mechanisms find that less proficient bilinguals produce asymmetric switching costs, i.e., switching into their L1 incurs greater costs than switching into their L2, whereas highly proficient bilinguals produce symmetrical switching costs, even when switching into a third, less proficient language (e.g., Meuter & Allport, 1999; Costa & Santesteban, 2004). While asymmetrical switching costs can be explained by inhibiting the non-target lexicon proportional to its level of activation, the symmetrical switching costs displayed by bilinguals implicate a wholly different control mechanism. In past work, bi-dialectal Scottish participants also displayed symmetrical switching costs when switching between their 2 dialects while mono-dialectal English participants who learned the Scottish words displayed asymmetrical switching costs (Melinger & Kalucka, 2009). Here, we test whether this initial result is best explained by a proportional inhibition account or by language-general differences in the control mechanism.
We conducted two register switching experiments using Scottish (Exp 1) and English (Exp 2) participants. Speakers named pictures alternatively in either a formal register or an informal register, e.g., pound - quid, toilet - loo, cigarette - fag. Results revealed that Scottish speakers produced symmetrical switching costs while English speakers produced asymmetrical switching costs despite both groups having similar familiarity with the two registers. This result is inconsistent with a proportional inhibition account and suggests that bi-dialectal Scots may develop a unique mechanism to control the selection of the appropriate lexical subsection.