Lexical access to unadapted English loanwords in Croatian: evidence from translation priming
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2022/13/0036/000578Keywords:
bilingualism, lexical access, English loanwords, translation priming, lexical decision taskAbstract
The influence of English as a lingua franca has resulted in an influx of unadapted English words into numerous languages, including Croatian. However, the cognitive processing of such words has not yet been thoroughly investigated. A translation priming experiment was designed to examine the processing of 64 unadapted English loanwords in Croatian. Native speakers of Croatian with varying levels of English proficiency participated in the study. A significant translation priming effect was observed in both language directions, while language direction and proficiency did not significantly affect participants’ reaction times. These findings suggest that the most frequent unadapted English loanwords are well integrated into Croatian despite their unadapted forms and are processed efficiently by Croatian speakers across different levels of English proficiency.
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