Cognate facilitation in sentence context – translation production by interpreting trainees and non-interpreting trilinguals

Abstract

Conference interpreters form a special case of language users because the simultaneous interpretation practice requires very specific lexical processing. Word comprehension and production in respective languages is performed under strict time constraints and requires constant activation of the involved languages. The present experiment aimed at shedding more light on the effects of conference interpreting training on word production in the process of translation in sentence context. In the study we tested trilingual interpreting trainees and matched non-interpreting trilinguals. Both groups were required to verbally produce L1 and L2 translation equivalents in response to L3 target words (L2–L3 cognates and non-cognates) presented in two context constraints – high sentence context constraint and low sentence context constraint. This enabled us to investigate whether expertise developed during interpreting training in translation between L1 and L2 (extensively practised) is transferable to translation from L3 to L2 (not practised at all). The study provided evidence for cognate facilitation and context effects on naming latencies. However, we found no significant evidence of enhanced semantic processing of interpreting trainees compared to trilingual non-interpreters.

Keywords:

• cognate facilitation
• sentence context
• mental lexicon
• trilinguals
• interpreting
• multilingualism