THE EFFECT OF ACQUISITION ORDER AND WORD RELATEDNESS ON CODE-SWITCHING COSTS IN BALANCED BILNGUAL SPEAKERS

Yi-Hsuan Huang & Janice Fon
Graduate Institute of Linguistics, National Taiwan University

ID 1381
[full paper]

This paper aims to explore the effect of acquisition order and word-relatedness on code-switching costs in bilingual speakers. 38 Mandarin-Min bilinguals performed a picture-naming task, in which hand-drawn pictures were color-coded for the two languages, Mandarin and Min, and switching points were pre-determined but variable. Results showed that naming latencies of cognates were in general shorter than non-cognates, and Mandarin stimuli were also shorter than Min. Min non-cognates were especially difficult for subjects. Code-switched trials incurred longer latencies in subjects, but only in those who acquired both languages at the same time, contrary to what was predicted by the Inhibitory Control Model.