According to the Collocational Priming Theory, every word is primed to co-occur with
particular other related words and priming could be regarded as the source of our creative
language system. Previous research has shown evidence of collocational priming in both L1
and L2 users of English and has indicated that L2 processing is ...
According to the Collocational Priming Theory, every word is primed to co-occur with
particular other related words and priming could be regarded as the source of our creative
language system. Previous research has shown evidence of collocational priming in both L1
and L2 users of English and has indicated that L2 processing is influenced by L1 collocations.
Thisstudy attemptsto further our understanding of the relationship between first and second
language collocations through the paradigm of cross-linguistic priming. That is, it will test the
extent to which individual wordsin one language prime recognition of those words' collocates
in the other language. Results suggest a complex picture of both cross-linguistic priming and
cross-linguistic inhibition, operating differently across different part of speech combinations.
They also suggest important methodological influences which future research will need to
investigate. Findings are discussed in the light of the current bilingual mental lexicon models
and some implications are drawn based on the observed collocational networks in the L1
Turkish-L2 English bilingual mental lexicon.
