The role of cognates in bilingual aphasia: Implications for assessment andtreatment

Citation
E. Lalor et K. Kirsner, The role of cognates in bilingual aphasia: Implications for assessment andtreatment, APHASIOLOGY, 15(10-11), 2001, pp. 1047-1056
Citations number
21
Categorie Soggetti
Neurology
Journal title
APHASIOLOGY
ISSN journal
02687038 → ACNP
Volume
15
Issue
10-11
Year of publication
2001
Pages
1047 - 1056
Database
ISI
SICI code
0268-7038(200110/11)15:10-11<1047:TROCIB>2.0.ZU;2-
Abstract
A morphological description of the bilingual lexical system suggests that b ilingual lexical organisation is similar to that in monolinguals and is gov erned by the morphological relationships between words. According to this t heory, lexical items are stored in clusters according to their morphology a nd regardless of language. Cognates (words that are similar across language s) are stored together in the same lexical cluster, whereas non-cognates (w ords that are dissimilar across languages) are stored separately. This pape r presents the results of a study that examined performance on word recogni tion tasks for cognates and non-cognates in an Italian/English aphasic subj ect. The subject completed naming and lexical decision tasks involving cogn ates and non-cognates. Performance was better on cognates in both languages , and low-frequency cognates in the more impaired language benefited from t heir high-frequency translations. These results have implications for curre nt theories of bilingual lexical organisation and the assessment and treatm ent of bilingual aphasia.