Hostname: page-component-8678677fb7-dgq2d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-10-07T11:21:41.138Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Characterizing the social diversity of bilingualism using language entropy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2019

Jason W. Gullifer Open the ORCID record for Jason W. Gullifer [Opens in a new window]  and
Debra Titone
Jason W. Gullifer*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, McGill University Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill University
Debra Titone
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, McGill University Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill University
*
Address for correspondence: Jason W. Gullifer, E-mail: jason.gullifer@mail.mcgill.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Bilingual and multilingual individuals exhibit variation in everyday language experience. Studies on bilingualism account for individual differences with measures such as L2 age of acquisition, exposure, or language proficiency, but recent theoretical perspectives posit that the relative balance between the two or more languages throughout daily life (i.e., interactional context) is a crucial determinant for language representation, access, and control. We propose an innovative measure to characterize this construct by using entropy to estimate the social diversity of language use. Language entropy is computed from commonly-collected language history data and generalizes to multilingual communicative contexts. We show how language entropy relates to other indices of bilingual experience and that it predicts self-report L2 outcome measures over and above classic measures of language experience. Thus, we proffer language entropy as a means to characterize individual differences in bilingual (and multilingual) language experience related to the social diversity of language use.

Keywords

bilingualismlanguage entropysocial diversityindividual differencesinteractional context

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , March 2020 , pp. 283 - 294
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abutalebi, J and Green, DW (2016) Neuroimaging of language control in bilinguals: neural adaptation and reserve. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 19(4), 689–698. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728916000225CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, JA, Mak, L, Chahi, AK and Bialystok, E (2018) The language and social background questionnaire: Assessing degree of bilingualism in a diverse population. Behavior research methods 50(1), 250–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bahrick, HP, Hall, LK, Goggin, JP, Bahrick, LE and Berger, SA (1994) Fifty years of language maintenance and language dominance in bilingual hispanic immigrants. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 123(3), 264–283. http://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.123.3.264CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baum, S and Titone, D (2014) Moving toward a neuroplasticity view of bilingualism, executive control, and aging. Applied Psycholinguistics 35(5), 857–894. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716414000174CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beatty-Martínez, AL and Dussias, PE (2017) Bilingual experience shapes language processing: Evidence from codeswitching. Journal of Memory and Language 95, 173–189. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2017.04.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E, Craik, FIM, Klein, R and Viswanathan, M (2004) Bilingualism, aging, and cognitive control: evidence from the Simon task. Psychology and Aging 19(2), 290–303. http://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.19.2.290CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birdsong, D, Gertken, L.M. and Amengual, M (2012) Bilingual Language Profile: An Easy-to-Use Instrument to Assess Bilingualism. COERLL, University of Texas at Austin. Web. 20 Jan. 2012. <https://sites.la.utexas.edu/bilingual/>..>Google Scholar
de Bruin, A, Treccani, B and Sala, SD (2015) Cognitive advantage in bilingualism an example of publication bias? Psychological Science 1–9. http://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614557866Google ScholarPubMed
del Prado Martín, FM, Kostić, A, & Baayen, RH (2004) Putting the bits together: an information theoretical perspective on morphological processing. Cognition 94(1), 1–18. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2003.10.015CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dong, Y and Liu, Y (2016) Classes in translating and interpreting produce differential gains in switching and updating. Frontiers in Psychology 7(AUG) https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01297CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dong, Y and Zhong, F (2017) Interpreting experience enhances early attentional processing, conflict monitoring and interference suppression along the time course of processing. Neuropsychologia 95, 193–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, AL and Fox Tree, JE (2009) A quick, gradient bilingual dominance scale. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 12(3), 273–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flege, JE, Munro, MJ and MacKay, IRA (1995) Factors affecting strength of perceived foreign accent in a second language. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 97(5), 3125–3134. http://doi.org/10.1121/1.413041CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fricke, M, Zirnstein, M, Navarro-Torres, C and Kroll, JF (2019) Bilingualism reveals fundamental variation in language processing. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 22(1), 200–207.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldrick, M, Runnqvist, E and Costa, A (2014) Language switching makes pronunciation less nativelike. Psychological Science 25(4), 1031–1036.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gollan, TH, Weissberger, GH, Runnqvist, E, Montoya, RI and Cera, CM (2012) Self-ratings of spoken language dominance: A Multilingual Naming Test (MINT) and preliminary norms for young and aging Spanish–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 15(3), 594–615. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728911000332CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, DW and Abutalebi, J (2013) Language control in bilinguals: The adaptive control hypothesis. Journal of Cognitive Psychology 25(5), 515–530. http://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2013.796377CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, DW and Wei, L (2014) A control process model of code-switching. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 29(4), 499–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grosjean, F (1997) The bilingual individual. Interpreting 2(1), 163–187. http://doi.org/10.1075/intp.2.1-2.07groCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grosjean, F (2001) The bilingual's language modes. In Nichol, J (ed), One Mind, Two Languages Bilingual Language Processing. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1–22.Google Scholar
Gullifer, JW, Chai, XJ, Whitford, V, Pivneva, I, Baum, S, Klein, D and Titone, D (2018) Bilingual experience and resting-state brain connectivity: Impacts of L2 age of acquisition and social diversity of language use on control networks. Neuropsychologia. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.04.037CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gullifer, JW and Titone, D (2018) Compute language entropy with {languageEntropy}. Retrieved from https://github.com/jasongullifer/languageEntropy. doi:10.5281/zenodo.1406201CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hale, J (2003) The information conveyed by words in sentences. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 32(2), 101–123. http://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022492123056CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hartanto, A and Yang, H (2016) Disparate bilingual experiences modulate task-switching advantages: A diffusion-model analysis of the effects of interactional context on switch costs, 150, 10–19. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2016.01.016CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heller, M (1982) Language, Ethnicity and Politics in Quebec. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Higgins, R (2004) French, English, and the idea of gay language in Montreal. In Leap, W and Boellstorff, T (eds), Speaking in Queer Tongues. University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Hofweber, J, Marinis, T and Treffers-Daller, J (2016) Effects of dense code-switching on executive control. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 6(5), 648–668. http://doi.org/10.1075/lab.15052.hofCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jylkkä, J, Soveri, A, Wahlström, J, Lehtonen, M, Rodriguez-Fornells, A and Laine, M (2017) Relationship between language switching experience and executive functions in bilinguals: an Internet-based study. Journal of Cognitive Psychology 29(4), 404–419. http://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2017.1282489CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kousaie, S, Chai, XJ, Sander, KM and Klein, D (2017) Simultaneous learning of two languages from birth positively impacts intrinsic functional connectivity and cognitive control. Brain and Cognition 117, 49–56. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2017.06.003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kroll, JF, Dussias, PE and Bajo, MT (2018) Language Use Across International Contexts: Shaping the Minds of L2 Speakers. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 38, 60–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamarre, P (2002) Multilingual Montreal: Listening in on the language practices of young Montrealers. Canadian Ethnic Studies 34(3).Google Scholar
Levy, R (2008) Expectation-based syntactic comprehension. Cognition 106(3), 1126–1177. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2007.05.006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, P, Sepanski, S and Zhao, X (2006) Language history questionnaire: A Web-based interface for bilingual research. Behavior Research Methods 38(2), 202–210. http://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192770CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, P, Zhang, F, Tsai, E and Puls, B (2014) Language history questionnaire (LHQ 2.0): A new dynamic web-based research tool. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 17(3), 673–680. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728913000606CrossRefGoogle Scholar
López, BG and Vaid, J (2018) Fácil or A piece of cake: Does variability in bilingual language brokering experience affect idiom comprehension? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 21(2), 340–354. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728917000086CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luk, G, De Sa, E and Bialystok, E (2011) Is there a relation between onset age of bilingualism and enhancement of cognitive control? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.Google Scholar
MacCallum, RC, Zhang, S, Preacher, KJ and Rucker, DD (2002) On the practice of dichotomization of quantitative variables. Psychological Methods 7(1), 19–40. http://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.7.1.19CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marian, V, Blumenfeld, HK and Kaushanskaya, M (2007) The Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q): Assessing language profiles in bilinguals and multilinguals. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 50(4), 940–967. http://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2007/067)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McLaughlin, B (1977) Second-language learning in children. Psychological Bulletin 84(3), 438–459. http://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.84.3.438CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paap, KR, Johnson, HA and Sawi, O (2015) Bilingual advantages in executive functioning either do not exist or are restricted to very specific and undetermined circumstances. Cortex 69, 265–278. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2015.04.014CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pardo, JS (2006) On phonetic convergence during conversational interaction. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 119(4), 2382–2393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piske, T, MacKay, I and Flege, JE (2001) Factors affecting degree of foreign accent in an L2: A review. Journal of Phonetics 29, 191–215. http://doi.org/10.006/jpho.2001.0134CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pivneva, I, Mercier, J and Titone, D (2014) Executive control modulates cross-language lexical activation during L2 reading: evidence from eye movements. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 40(3), 787–796. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0035583Google ScholarPubMed
Poarch, GJ, Vanhove, J and Berthele, R (2018) The effect of bidialectalism on executive function. International Journal of Bilingualism. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/1367006918763132Google Scholar
Prior, A and Gollan, TH (2011) Good language-switchers are good task-switchers: Evidence from Spanish-English and Mandarin-English bilinguals. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS 17(4), 682–691. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617711000580CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
R Core Team. (2017) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria.Google Scholar
Shannon, CE (1948) The mathematical theory of communication. The Bell System Technical Journal 27, 379–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Statistics Canada. (2017) Montréal, V [Census subdivision], Quebec and Canada [Country] (table). Census Profile. 2016 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 98-316-X2016001. Retrieved from https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/index.cfm?Lang=EGoogle Scholar
Subramaniapillai, S, Rajah, MN, Pasvanis, S and Titone, D (2018) Bilingual experience and executive control over the adult lifespan: The role of biological sex. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 8, 1–19. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728918000317Google Scholar
Surrain, S and Luk, G (2017) Describing bilinguals: A systematic review of labels and descriptions used in the literature between 2005–2015*. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 11, 1–15. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728917000682Google Scholar
Takahesu Tabori, AA, Mech, EN and Atagi, N (2018) Exploiting Language Variation to Better Understand the Cognitive Consequences of Bilingualism. Frontiers in Psychology 9. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01686CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Titone, D, Gullifer, J, Subramaniapillai, S, Rajah, N and Baum, S (2017) History-inspired reflections on the bilingual advantages hypothesis. In Bialystok, E (ed), Growing Old with Two Languages Effects of Bilingualism on Cognitive Aging. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Titone, D, Libben, M, Mercier, J, Whitford, V and Pivneva, I (2011) Bilingual lexical access during L1 sentence reading: The effects of L2 knowledge, semantic constraint, and L1-L2 intermixing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 37(6), 1412–1431. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0024492Google ScholarPubMed
Tomoschuk, B, Ferreira, VS and Gollan, TH (2018) When a seven is not a seven: Self-ratings of bilingual language proficiency differ between and within language populations. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 15, 1–21. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728918000421Google Scholar
Wickham, H (2017) tidyverse: Easily install and load “tidyverse” packages. http://tidyverse.tidyverse.orgGoogle Scholar
Yang, H, Hartanto, A and Yang, S (2016) The complex nature of bilinguals' language usage modulates task-switching outcomes. Frontiers in Psychology 7(APR). http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00560CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Gullifer and Titone supplementary material

Figure S1

Download Gullifer and Titone supplementary material(File)
File 649.7 KB