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MODELING ACTIVATION ROUTES IN MENTAL LEXICON OF TRILINGUAL SPEAKERS
Abstract
The current theory of multilingual mental lexicon interprets it as a multidimensional network that exists in human brain and integrates units of different languages into a complex holistic structure. The network is put into operation by the spreading activation mechanism that determines retrieval of the necessary information during speech activity. It is assumed that activation in multilingual mental lexicon is non-selective: nodes of all the languages known to an individual can receive the activation impulse simultaneously and compete for retrieval. In the present paper the authors describe an experimental research modeling activation routes in mental lexicon of trilingual speakers: native speakers of the Komi-Permyak and Russian languages who are learning English as their third language. The method of chained associative test with the equivalent stimuli words in the three languages was applied. The research results prove that, though the activation impulses sent by words of three different languages can vary in certain aspects (their direction, length of the activated word chain and the type of nodes it includes), they eventually provide access to the identical lexical-semantic network that exists in trilingual mental lexicon. The occurrence of non-selective activation within this network is ensured by a variety of inter-nodal connections that join words of different languages together and form a multitude of diverse spreading activation routes.
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