Categorisation of body parts in bilinguals
Recent categorisation studies have shown that languages segment parts of the body differently and that even if two languages have equivalent body part terms, they cover slightly different portions of the body. Although there are an increasing number of such studies across languages, only a few small...
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White Rose University Press
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of the European Second Language Association |
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| Online Access: | https://account.euroslajournal.org/index.php/wr-j-jesla/article/view/110 |
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| author | Miho Sasaki Yoshiko Murahata |
| author_facet | Miho Sasaki Yoshiko Murahata |
| author_sort | Miho Sasaki |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recent categorisation studies have shown that languages segment parts of the body differently and that even if two languages have equivalent body part terms, they cover slightly different portions of the body. Although there are an increasing number of such studies across languages, only a few small studies on categorisation of body parts in bilinguals have been conducted so far and the results are not straightforward (e.g., Kasai, et al. 2012). The current study improves on the body colouring tasks used in previous studies, in order to compare the equivalent body parts examined between Japanese and English and tested those bilinguals with a wider range of English proficiency. The qualitative analysis observes individual variation of colouring patterns including some unexpected patterns in bilinguals, suggesting conceptual integration. Statistical analyses show that the bilinguals categorise the areas such as arm, foot, leg, head, face, back and lower back in Japanese differently from the English L1 users but the differences do not always correspond to their English proficiency, which indicates dynamic language knowledge in the minds of bilinguals. As the multi-competence model claims, these results show Japanese users of L2 English slightly change their categorisation of body parts from L1 in the process of L2 acquisition. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-aa55b3f383cc4e64bc7ae62f29fa704b |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2399-9101 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | White Rose University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of the European Second Language Association |
| spelling | doaj-art-aa55b3f383cc4e64bc7ae62f29fa704b2025-01-08T07:58:56ZengWhite Rose University PressJournal of the European Second Language Association2399-91012024-12-0181192–208192–20810.22599/jesla.110110Categorisation of body parts in bilingualsMiho Sasaki0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6613-4683Yoshiko Murahata1https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1052-2219Keio UniversityKochi UniversityRecent categorisation studies have shown that languages segment parts of the body differently and that even if two languages have equivalent body part terms, they cover slightly different portions of the body. Although there are an increasing number of such studies across languages, only a few small studies on categorisation of body parts in bilinguals have been conducted so far and the results are not straightforward (e.g., Kasai, et al. 2012). The current study improves on the body colouring tasks used in previous studies, in order to compare the equivalent body parts examined between Japanese and English and tested those bilinguals with a wider range of English proficiency. The qualitative analysis observes individual variation of colouring patterns including some unexpected patterns in bilinguals, suggesting conceptual integration. Statistical analyses show that the bilinguals categorise the areas such as arm, foot, leg, head, face, back and lower back in Japanese differently from the English L1 users but the differences do not always correspond to their English proficiency, which indicates dynamic language knowledge in the minds of bilinguals. As the multi-competence model claims, these results show Japanese users of L2 English slightly change their categorisation of body parts from L1 in the process of L2 acquisition.https://account.euroslajournal.org/index.php/wr-j-jesla/article/view/110bilingual cognitionmulti-competencebody parts categorisationjapanese–english bilingualslanguage effect |
| spellingShingle | Miho Sasaki Yoshiko Murahata Categorisation of body parts in bilinguals Journal of the European Second Language Association bilingual cognition multi-competence body parts categorisation japanese–english bilinguals language effect |
| title | Categorisation of body parts in bilinguals |
| title_full | Categorisation of body parts in bilinguals |
| title_fullStr | Categorisation of body parts in bilinguals |
| title_full_unstemmed | Categorisation of body parts in bilinguals |
| title_short | Categorisation of body parts in bilinguals |
| title_sort | categorisation of body parts in bilinguals |
| topic | bilingual cognition multi-competence body parts categorisation japanese–english bilinguals language effect |
| url | https://account.euroslajournal.org/index.php/wr-j-jesla/article/view/110 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mihosasaki categorisationofbodypartsinbilinguals AT yoshikomurahata categorisationofbodypartsinbilinguals |