The Influence of Grammatical Class on Bilinguals' Resolution of
Tip-of-the-Tongue States
Giovanna Morini
University of Florida
Spanish-English bilinguals saw general knowledge questions presented in English corresponding to English target words. Following
tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) responses, participants heard Spanish primes whose English translations contained the target's first syllable or
were phonologically unrelated to the target. Primes also shared or did not share part of speech with the target. General knowledge
questions were presented again, and participants attempted target retrieval. Results showed that mediated priming occurred across
languages, where participants resolved more TOTs following phonologically-related primes than unrelated words, independent of the
primes' part-of-speech. These findings offer a new perspective into the processes by which bilinguals process words and their differences from monolinguals.
Introduction
The frustrating feeling of knowing a word, but not being
able to retrieve it at a certain point in time, is a feeling with
which most people are familiar. This feeling has been defined as a tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) state, and for decades,
scientists have devoted considerable effort to understanding factors that influence the occurrence (Brown &
McNeill, 1966) as well as resolution of TOT states
(Abrams & Rodriguez, 2005; Abrams, White & Eitel,
2003; James & Burke, 2000). TOT states offer important
insight into language production and the cognitive processes involved in properly acquiring, analyzing, and producing linguistic information. By studying TOT states, it is
possible to obtain information about the influences of syntax and phonology during word retrieval and the organization of the lexicon. The present experiment examined the
effects of phonologically-related words and their grammatical class (i.e., part of speech) on the resolution of TOT
states in Spanish-English bilinguals.
Previous studies have compared the performance of
bilinguals and monolinguals on the frequency of occurrence of TOTs, the language most likely to generate TOTs,
and the success of speakers in resolving their TOT states
(Ecke, 2004; Gollan, Montoya, Fennema-Notestine &
Morris, 2005). These studies have found that bilinguals
experience TOT states more often than monolinguals, and
bilinguals are less successful at accessing the target words
and resolving the TOT states when the words are in a
language other than their native language. The implications
of these results are that even though bilinguals appear to
have equally good speaking skills during everyday
conversations, they have more word-finding problems
during lexical production tasks, even for highly fluent
bilinguals. These differences in word retrieval have been
attributed to a reduction in bilinguals' recency (the amount
of time since a word was used) and frequency (the number
of times a word has been used) of word use in a particular
language.
Phonologically-related priming of TOT resolution.
TOT states are believed to be the result of weakened connections between a word and the sounds or phonology that
the word represents, according to the Transmission Deficit
(TD) model (Burke, MacKay, Worthley & Wade, 1991)
and interactive activation theories of language production
(Dell, 1986). These views predict that TOT resolution can
be achieved by strengthening the weakened phonological
connections, enabling retrieval of the TOT word. Support
for this prediction comes from previous TOT studies with
monolinguals. James and Burke (2000) found that when
participants were in a TOT state, they resolved them more
often following prime words that contained the phonology
of the TOT word, relative to phonologically-unrelated
words. Abrams et al. (2003) and White and Abrams (2002)
established that the first syllable was the only phonological
component needed to increase TOT resolution. More recent
findings (Abrams & Rodriguez, 2005; Abrams, Trunk &
Merrill, 2007) have suggested that a phonological relation
itself is insufficient to facilitate TOT resolution and that the
phonologically-related word’s part of speech is critical:
Phonologically-related words that differ in part of speech
from the TOT word help resolve TOT states, while phonologically-related words that share part of speech do not.
With respect to bilinguals, no published studies have investigated how phonologically related words influence
their ability to resolve TOT states. However, priming
across languages has been demonstrated in other production tasks, i.e., cross-linguistic syntactic priming, where
processing the grammatical form for one language affects
the grammatical form for the other language (e.g., Hartsuiker, Pickering & Veltkamp, 2004). For example, if a
Spanish-English bilingual heard a passive Spanish sentence
and was asked to reply with a sentence in English, he or
she would more likely produce a passive English sentence,
rather than an active one (Hartsuiker et al., 2004). Priming
in bilinguals can also occur even when the prime and target
are only indirectly related, which is called mediated priming (e.g., Grainger & Frenck-Mestre, 1998). One example
University of Florida | Journal of Undergraduate Research | Volume 9, Issue 4 | Summer 2008
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GIOVANNA MORINI
of mediated priming is when pasture facilitates responding
to milk. Although these words are not directly related, they
are both semantically related (in meaning) to the word cow,
which mediates between them.
Studying TOT resolution in bilinguals through cross-linguistic priming has important theoretical implications. Interactive activation theories suggest that TOT states occur
due to weakened connections between words and their
sounds. By attempting to prime TOT resolution from one
language to the other, it is possible to see whether bilinguals can offset these weakened phonological connections
by first relying on the existing semantic connections between words in their two languages. Furthermore, phonological priming across languages can support the sharedsyntax model (Green, 1986, 1998), which suggests that
bilinguals have two lexical nodes (one in each language)
that share a common semantic representation. According to
this model linguistic information for both languages is
stored in the same area of the brain and therefore can be
activated simultaneously. Once both linguistic forms have
been activated, bilinguals perform lexical selection through
inhibition. In other words, if a bilingual speaker wanted to
say “cat,” at first both cat and gato would be activated, but
then gato would be blocked, and cat would be produced.
If phonological priming of TOT resolution occurs in bilinguals, these findings would support the shared-syntax
model. First, activating words in both languages is necessary for priming from one language to the other to occur.
Second, to produce the target word in the desired language,
bilinguals must inhibit one of the word forms, supporting
the idea of lexical selection by inhibition. With respect to
grammatical class, one would expect to find the same partof-speech effects observed previously in monolinguals.
Assuming that each word form (one for English and one
for Spanish) contains a grammatical class, then syntax
would constrain which words are produced, similarly to
monolinguals. In the case of Spanish-English bilinguals,
the constraint might even be greater since words' grammatical classes are the same in both languages; this might
generate a reinforcement of grammatical class and therefore emphasize lexical competition.
Method
Participants. Participants were 60 college students (47
females and 13 males) aged 18 to 28 (M = 19.3, SD = 1.7)
recruited from the University of Florida. All participants
were bilinguals, with Spanish as their native language and
English as their strongest foreign language. They had high
fluency in both languages as measured by a short verbal
conversation with the experimenter using both languages
and by a Language History Questionnaire. According to
this questionnaire, participants had been instructed in English at least two years with all textbooks being in English.
They still maintained an active use of their native language
by using it at home, with peers, at work, or for educational
purposes for at least 5 hours a week. Means and standard
deviations of the participants’ linguistic background as reported in the Language History Questionnaire are shown in
Table 1.
Table 1: Participants’ Linguistic Background as Reported on the
Language History Questionnaire
Mean
SD
Age when Spanish was
Learned (in years)
0.8
1.3
Age when English was
Learned (in years)
5.8
3.4
Daily Use of Spanish
(in hours)
3.2
2.7
8.6
2.2
6.3
0.9
Daily Use of English
(in hours)
Rating of Proficiency Level
in English (from 1-7 where 1
= little to no knowledge & 7
= like a native speaker)
Materials
The experiment was conducted on a Pentium 4, 1.8 GHz
PC-compatible computer using a program written in Visual
Basic 5.0. The experimental stimuli were 74 general
knowledge questions presented in English, in the form of a
definition corresponding to a specific English target word
(e.g., rosary). The questions consisted of 38 modified versions of the stimuli used in experiments by Abrams and
colleagues (e.g., Abrams & Rodriguez, 2005; Abrams,
Trunk, & Merrill, 2007) and 36 new stimuli created specifically for this study. The target words (66 nouns, 6
verbs, and 2 adjectives) ranged from 1 and 6 syllables (M =
2.905, SD = 0.903), and the majority were low in Francis
and Kucera (1982) frequency (between 0 and 15 per million, M = 9.66, SD = 32.80). Outside of this range, four
targets had frequencies between 30 and 74, and two targets
were between 104 and 254). Each English target was
paired with two Spanish words (i.e., primes) whose English
translation was phonologically related to the target by
sharing its first syllable. With respect to grammatical class,
one prime was the same part of speech as the target, e.g.,
cuerda (a noun meaning rope), whereas the other prime
was a different part of speech, e.g., asar (a verb meaning to
roast). The primes that shared part of speech with the target ranged from 1 to 5 syllables (M = 2.87, SD = 0.8) and
had Davis (2006) frequency in Spanish (between 0 and
4017 per million (M = 619.39, SD = 1074.96). The primes
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TOT RESOLUTION THROUGH CROSS-LINGUISTIC PRIMING
that had a different part of speech from the target ranged
from 1 to 5 syllables (M = 2.82, SD = 0.88) and had Davis
(2006) frequency in Spanish between 0 and 12526 per million (M = 702, SD = 1863.85). In addition to the primes, a
control word was chosen for each target, e.g., soplar (a
verb meaning to blow), which was phonologically and semantically unrelated to either the primes or targets in either
language. Half of the control words matched the part of
speech of the target, while the other half was a different
part of speech from the target. The number of syllables of
the control words ranged from 1 to 5 (M = 2.97, SD = 0.85)
and matched the number of syllables of the Spanish prime
with which it shared part of speech. For each target, two
Spanish filler words were also created that had different
phonology and semantics from the target and primes.
Participants filled out several self-report measures, including: (1) a participant questionnaire assessing general
background information such as education and health, (2)
an activity questionnaire on time spent carrying out language-related activities such as reading and writing, and
(3) a language history questionnaire including information
regarding linguistic background and ages at which languages were acquired. Participants were also verbally administered a post-experiment questionnaire to assess any
awareness of the study that might have developed while
carrying out the experiment, such as figuring out the purpose of the prime words. Several cognitive tests, including
forward and backward digit span tests of measure working
memory and a 25-item multiple-choice English vocabulary
test, were also given.
Design and Procedure. The design used one withinparticipants factor, Prime Condition, with three levels
(Spanish primes whose English translation shared phonology and part of speech with the target, Spanish primes
whose translation shared phonology but differed in part of
speech from the target, and Spanish control words whose
translation was phonologically unrelated to the target).
Before starting the experiment, the experimenter carried
out a brief interview in Spanish to get an idea of the verbal
fluency of the participants. Participants were then given the
Informed Consent form to read and sign, along with the
questionnaires. After getting a brief explanation on TOTs
and how they differed from not knowing an answer, participants saw one general knowledge question at a time
presented in English and answered whether they knew the
answer, did not know the answer, or were experiencing a
TOT. Participants then heard a list of three Spanish words
presented one at a time, which they were told were for an
unrelated pronunciation task, and repeated each word
aloud. Following an “Unknown” or “TOT” response, the
second word in the list was either one of the two phonologically-related primes or the unrelated control, whereas
the first and third words were the filler words. The computer program randomly selected whether a prime or control appeared in the list. Following a "known" response,
they typed the answer in English on the computer keyboard, then saw the three-word list that always presented
the unrelated control, since priming was unnecessary once
the response was given.
After all three words in the list had been presented, the
previous general knowledge question reappeared on the
screen in situations where the participant had answered
“Unknown” or “TOT” the first time. Once again, participants responded whether they knew, did not know, or were
having a TOT. If they now knew the answer, they typed it
in English and proceeded to the next question. Otherwise,
they were given the opportunity to type any information
related to the target word in either language, such as the
number of syllables, the letter the word started with, or
simply another word that came to mind while they were
trying to answer the question. Then, a new general knowledge question was given until all questions had been presented.
All answers were entered by the participants themselves
using a standard keyboard, and the tasks were self-paced.
After completing the experiment, participants received a
verbal and written debriefing where the main points of the
study were discussed, and any questions were answered.
All session were tape recorded so that participants’ responses could be double-checked and clarified if necessary.
Results
Examination of the post-experiment questionnaire
showed that none of the participants were aware of the actual relationship between the Spanish primes and the English target words. This was determined by looking at the
answers given by participants when asked if they had noticed any relationship between the words that they repeated
in Spanish and the answers to the general knowledge questions. The majority of participants (N = 48) answered “no”
to this question, and of the participants who answered
“yes” (N = 12), none identified the actual relationship. Instead, most people suggested a nonexistent semantic relationship, such that the Spanish primes shared a similar
topic or category and that that category was then related in
meaning to the answer to the general knowledge question.
When asked about what they thought could be obtained
from analyzing different people's Spanish pronunciations,
the most common answers referred to measuring the level
of language fluency or figuring out where a person is from,
based on the Spanish accent that they have.
Responses to General Knowledge Questions.
When initially answering the general knowledge questions,
five responses were possible: (1) correct Known, (2) incorrect Known, (3) correct TOT, (4) incorrect TOT, and (5)
Unknown. Known responses were considered correct when
participants correctly provided the target, which occurred
36.6% of the time. Known responses were considered incorrect when participants provided an answer other than
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GIOVANNA MORINI
50
% Target Retrieval
the target, which occurred 18.8% of the time. TOT responses were categorized as correct when participants either gave the target following a “known” response after the
second presentation of the general knowledge question or
selected the target on the recognition test; otherwise, TOT
responses were considered incorrect. Participants experienced correct TOT states 13.1% of the time and incorrect
TOT states 3.4% of the time. Lastly, participants responded
“Unknown” on 28.1% of the trials.
40
30
20
10
0
Same Part-ofSpeech
Different Part-ofSpeech
Unrelated
Type of Prime
Resolution following “Unknown” Responses. To
examine whether the effects of prime condition were
unique to TOT responses, a Prime Condition repeatedmeasures ANOVA was carried out on the proportion of
targets correctly retrieved after an initial “Unknown” response. Figure 2 shows that unlike resolution following
TOT responses, the effect of prime condition was nonsignificant, F < 1.
Discussion
The results showed that there was cross-linguistic priming inducing the resolution of TOT states in Spanish-English bilinguals. When presented with Spanish primes that
had no direct phonological relationship to TOT targets,
participants still showed increased resolution of their TOTs
relative to unrelated words, presumably because they activated the English translations upon hearing the primes,
which were phonologically related to the targets. With re-
Figure 1: Target word retrieval (in %) following primes and unrelated
controls after an initial correct TOT.
spect to theories of how language is represented in bilinguals, the finding that priming for an English target occurs
through the use of Spanish primes is consistent with the
shared-syntax-account (Green, 1986, 1998), where there is
an initial simultaneous activation of words in the two lexicons.
The results also extend previous claims that phonology
plays a significant role in TOT resolution (e.g., James &
Burke, 2000) to Spanish-English bilinguals, showing that
indirect exposure to the phonology of the first syllable of
the target word (from one language to the other, without
producing the phonology directly) helps to resolve TOT
states. This effect can be described as type of mediated
priming, where the prime and target are only indirectly related. Assuming that lexical information is represented by
nodes for each language that are stored together, when bilinguals are in a TOT state and they hear the word apio
(which is celery in English), they would simultaneously
activate the forms apio and celery, which would then help
them come up with the target word celibacy. Based on the
fact that individuals are able to spontaneously resolve TOT
states in everyday life, and that in a lot of cases they do so
without directly hearing a phonologically-related word, it
seems very likely that mediated priming could be responsible for this phenomenon.
It is important to note that in the present study, this
cross-linguistic priming effect was only present after TOT
responses. The presentation of phonologically-related
12
% Target Retrieval
Resolution following Correct TOT Responses. A
Prime Condition (Spanish primes whose English translation shared phonology and part of speech with the target,
Spanish primes whose translation shared phonology but
differed in part of speech from the target, and Spanish
control words whose translation was phonologically unrelated to the target) repeated-measures ANOVA was conducted on the proportion of targets that were correctly
retrieved following an initial correct TOT response. Ten
participants could not be included in the analysis because
they did not have any correct TOT responses in all three
prime conditions. As shown in Figure 1, the effect of prime
condition was significant, F (2, 98) = 3.94, MSE = .07, p <
.02. Follow-up tests showed that priming occurred for both
types of primes: TOT resolution following same part-ofspeech primes was greater than resolution following unrelated controls, p < .01, as was TOT resolution following
different part-of-part speech primes, p < .05. TOT resolution was equivalent following same and different part-ofspeech primes, p > .47.
10
8
6
4
2
0
Same Part-of-Speech
Different Part-ofSpeech
Unrelated
Type of Prime
Figure 2: Target word retrieval (in %) following primes and unrelated
controls after an unknown response.
University of Florida | Journal of Undergraduate Research | Volume 9, Issue 4 | Summer 2008
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TOT RESOLUTION THROUGH CROSS-LINGUISTIC PRIMING
primes following “Unknown” responses did not offer any
benefit in the retrieval of target words, consistent with previous studies (James & Burke, 2000; White & Abrams,
2002). The lack of priming following Unknown responses
supports the idea that lexical selection must have occurred
for priming to facilitate target retrieval. Following TOT
responses (but not Unknown responses), lexical selection
has occurred, so transmission of bottom-up priming to the
target’s lexical node can help strengthen connections related to the target.
Unlike studies with monolinguals, the results showed
that grammatical class did not influence the resolution of
TOT states, as phonological priming occurred equivalently
for both same part-of-speech primes and different part-ofspeech primes. As suggested in monolingual studies, such
as Abrams and Rodriguez (2005), word candidates for production are activated by part-of-speech, so words that share
phonology and belong to the same grammatical class compete with each other, whereas words that share phonology
but differ in grammatical class facilitate word retrieval.
The lack of grammatical class effects on bilinguals' TOT
resolution shows that grammatical class did not serve this
same function in constraining which words can be produced across languages.
The exact reason behind the lack of part-of-speech effect
displayed by bilinguals in this study is unclear. One possibility is that mediated priming takes away the impact of
grammatical class on production. It is possible that because
the linguistic information is being indirectly transferred
through mediated cross-linguistic priming, the competition
between words with the same part-of-speech weakens or
disappears. Another possibility is that this finding reflects
how bilinguals process and retrieve words. Based on the
idea that words in both languages are being activated simultaneously, it is possible that bilinguals process words at
a more general level (e.g., meaning) rather than processing
specific details (e.g., part-of-speech), since they have more
information to process at once.
In sum, the present experiment offers new information
about the resolution of TOT states in bilinguals, showing
the existence of mediated priming across languages and
introducing the notion that bilinguals may process linguistic information differently from monolinguals. The lack of
part-of-speech effects on bilinguals' TOT resolution generates a number of questions for further study concerning the
role of grammatical class in bilinguals' speech production.
Overall, these findings offer a new perspective into the
processes by which bilinguals process words and their differences from monolinguals, which will be useful in refining existing theories of bilingual speech processing.
Abrams, L., Trunk, D. L., & Merrill, L. A. (2007). Why superman cannot help a
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