2ND-LANGUAGE AUTONOMY

Development of the second-language lexicon was investigated in two on- line experiments. In both experiments, priming was examined within the second language under automatic conditions and for nonnative speakers of two different levels of performance. Experiment 1 showed second-la nguage priming for various lexical relationships for proficient nonnat ive speakers. Moreover, the results found for the proficient bilingual s were highly similar to those found for a group of native control sub jects. Experiment 2 examined priming of the dominant and subordinate m eanings of biased homographs such as ''seal.'' Priming was found for b oth meanings, for proficient bilinguals working in their second langua ge, and for native control subjects, but only for the dominant meaning s for a group of intermediate nonnative speakers. Again, the pattern o f results found for the proficient bilinguals and native controls was highly similar. The ensemble of these results provides evidence for se cond-language autonomy, which is determined, however, by both level of expertise and type of lexical relationship. The autonomy postulated h ere is limited, moreover, to exploiting the second-language lexicon fo r the purposes of recognition and cannot at present be said to extend to production. (C) 1997 Academic Press.