Retrotransposon L1 is a mobile genetic element of the LINE family that is extremely widespread in the mammalian genome. It encodes a dicistronic mRNA, which is exceptionally rare among eukaryotic cellular mRNAs. The extremely long and GC-rich L1 5' untranslated region (5'UTR) directs synthesis of numerous copies of RNA-binding protein ORF1p per mRNA. One could suggest that the 5'UTR of L1 mRNA ...

This paper reports on a study of metaphor comprehension and production in a multi-lingual setting using a translation task. Subjects were asked to translate sentences to and from their native language (Turkish) and their second language (English). The proportion of metaphors transferred between the languages during translation was examined. The results do not support forward transfer between L1...

Learning a new L2/L3 will undoubtedly be affected by the L1/L2 knowledge of the language learners. The present study examined the lexical interplay among L1, L2 and L3. Two different types of L3 (German and Japanese) were used to evaluate how the bilingual learners’ knowledge of L1 (Chinese) and L2 (English) would impact on the learning of L3 in terms of their different types of lexical relatio...

Research on the processing of translations offers important insights on how bilinguals negotiate the representation of words from two languages in one mind and one brain. Evidence so far has shown that translation equivalents effectively activate each other as well as their shared concept even when translations lack of any formal overlap (i.e., non-cognates) and even when one of them is present...

In a previous study of native-English speaking university learners of a second language (Spanish) we observed an asymmetric pattern of ERP translation priming effects in L1 and L2 (Alvarez et al., 2003, Brain & Language, 87, 290-304) with larger and earlier priming on the N400 component in the L2 to L1, compared with the L1 to L2 direction. In the current study 20 native-Russian speakers who we...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mental representation of cognate and noncognate translation pairs in languages with different scripts to test the prediction of dual lexicon model (Gollan, Forster, & Frost, 1997). Two groups of Persian-speaking English language learners were tested on cognate and noncognate translation pairs in Persian-English and English-Persian directions with...

Adult second language (L2) learners are faced with a particular challenge relative to child L2 learners—adults arrive at the language learning situation with a fully-formed and ingrained first language (L1) system in place. As a result, adult learners are particularly influenced by the transfer of information from L1 to L2 (e.g., MacWhinney, 2005). Although transfer assists learning in some dom...

It has been well documented in the literature that translation equivalents have special status in bilinguals’ lexical system and can be treated as synonymy across languages. It has been claimed that translation equivalents are overlapped at the conceptual level across languages with different orthographic and phonological forms. Evidence to support this claim comes from cross-language priming s...

     This project investigates the relationship between lexical semantics and causative morphology in the acquisition of causative/inchoative-related verbs in English as a foreign language by Iranian speakers. Results of translation and picture judgment task show although L2 learners have largely acquired the correct lexico-syntactic classification of verbs in English, they were constrained by ...

During the last two decades, bilingual research has adopted the masked translation priming paradigm as a tool to investigate the architecture of the bilingual language system. Although there is now a consensus about the existence of forward translation priming (from native language primes [L1] to second language [L2] translation equivalent targets), the backward translation priming effect (from...