Abstract
M.A. (Applied Linguistics)
With this dissertation the researcher investigates the phenomenon of the activation of the mental lexicon of three types of bilinguals, namely the general bilingual person, the professional translator and the professional interpreter. It specifically focuses on whether this activation is language selective (under normal conditions, only the mental lexicon of the language in use is activated, while that of the other language is completely deactivated) or language nonselective (both languages are active, but the one not in use only to a lesser extent). A review of previous research into the activation of the mental lexicon of the bilingual person reveals that more recent studies support language-nonselective activation, although earlier studies point to language-selective activation.
Previous research contexts were, as far as the current researcher could ascertain, restricted to single words (mostly interlingual homographs and cognates) embedded in sentences. With this study, the researcher aims to contribute to the current body of research into the activation of the mental lexicon by enriching the context from word (lemma) level to sentence level: Complete English/Afrikaans homographic and cognate sentences are used in this study as opposed to isolated words embedded within sentences. An additional aim is to compare the extent of language-nonselective mental lexicon activation in general (nonprofessional) bilinguals to that of professional translators and professional interpreters.
The researcher aims to test three hypotheses, namely 1) that language-nonselective activation will occur when the research context is enriched from word level to sentence level; 2) that professional translators will show a higher level of language-nonselective activation compared to general bilinguals; and 3) that professional interpreters will show a higher level of language-nonselective activation than professional translators.
The researcher follows a convergent parallel mixed method approach that combines qualitative as well as quantitative methods. Data collection tools include questionnaires for each of the three respondent groups and a custom-designed practical test to be administered during one-on-one interviews.
During the experimental task respondents were required to read sentences aloud that were displayed one after the other on a screen. The order of presentation prompted respondents to activate at least one of their languages (Afrikaans or English) through the use of unilingual sentences. These unilingual sentences were then followed by focus sentences, which were presented in the opposite language. The focus sentences were either unilingual or imperfect...