An investigation of the relationship between the development of bilingual semantic organisation and interactive connectivity across languages

Abstract

This thesis explores the eorrelation between second language (L2) semantic development and interactive semantic connectivity across languages. Given that bilinguals’ lexical access is language-non-selective at the initial stage of processing, the following two questions are investigated. If L2 acquisition is at an early stage and L2 semantics is dependent on first language (L1) semantics, is the bilingual semantic link from L2 to L1 very tight? On the other hand, as L2 ability develops and L2 semantics becomes independent of L1 semantics, does this weaken the bilingual semantic link from L2 to L1? Answers to these questions are attempted on the basis of the results of empirical study.