Cross-linguistic Interactions in Bilingual Mental Lexicon and Professional Linguistic Competence Formation: An Experimental Research with Native Speakers of the Komi-Permyak and Russian Languages

摘要

The paper presents an experimental research of cross-linguistic interactions in the mental lexicon of Komi-Permyak-Russian bilingual native speakers.?Cross-linguistic interactions were considered in the dynamic aspect: as depending on the participants’ professional linguistic competence formation in relation to both languages (connected with getting higher education as school teachers of the Komi-Permyak and Russian languages). The research included a sociolinguistic survey, and a free associative test with the separate Komi-Permyak and Russian stimuli lists. The test was carried out at the initial and final stages of university studies. The experimental results demonstrate that simultaneous progress in both languages’ proficiency leads to significant changes in the bilinguals’ speech behaviour, as well as in the nature of cross-linguistic interactions in their mental lexicon. The dynamics revealed concerns the 3 main factors: 1) usage frequency of both languages by bilingual speakers; 2) general frequency and direction of cross-linguistic interactions in their mental lexicon; 3) the ratio of translational and non-translational shares of cross-linguistic interactions.