Reexamining Linguistic Relativity: What Adult Bilinguals Can Teach Us About Culture, Language, And Cognition

<p>Extending Whorf's popular notion of linguistic relativity (LR) to bilingual contexts, one would argue that a speaker's first language (L1) influences her thinking and behavior under second language (L2) conditions. According to one interpretation of LR, inter-language relativity, L1 instills in its speakers habitual ways of thinking and thus influences their perception and categorization in L2 contexts. Under intra-speaker relativity, bilinguals follow either L1 or L2 patterns of performance, depending on L2 proficiency. Finally, according to usage-based accounts of language, there is no qualitative difference between mono- and bilingual speakers, and a bilingual's performance under L2 conditions is best viewed in terms of their ongoing engagement with L2. </p> <p>To investigate how much each interpretation contributes to our understanding of cognition, language, and culture, two studies were conducted with a sample of 45 adult Russian-English bilinguals. Each study was based on a popular research paradigm and tested all three interpretations of LR for their explanatory value. Study one utilized a one-word association task conducted in both languages, a common way to examine the conceptual organization of the bilingual lexicon. Study two utilized a different kind of association task to investigate influences of L1 (grammatical gender) under L2 conditions. In both studies, there was no evidence in support of either inter-language or intra-speaker relativity. There was evidence in support of usage-based accounts of language: bilinguals' use of informal English appeared to moderate their performance under L2 conditions. </p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Psychology

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Petroff, Natalya

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Bruce D. Homer

• Educational Psychology
• bilingualism
• linguistic relativity

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/371

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-1370