LESS - Linguistic Economy through transfer Source Selectivity (LESS): A neurocognitive investigation of linguistic transfer in multilingualism

To address the role of previous linguistic knowledge in language learning, LESS will study three groups of multilingual speakers of different types and different language combinations in Spain and Norway: Basque-Spanish, Catalan-Spanish and Sámi-Norwegian bilinguals. In series of tightly controlled longitudinal studies, these speakers will be exposed to novel languages carefully designed to contain both new and familiar features, which align differently with their background languages. Examining their learning trajectories and the evolution of their neural responses during this short but intensive language training, LESS will generate invaluable insights for long-standing debates in multilingualism studies. In particular, its results will inform questions on: (1) what specific properties of a background language lead to its selection as the source of transfer; (2) what amount of the grammar of a language is transferred once selected; (3) what do the neural correlates of this process tell us about the nature of linguistic knowledge in the brain, and how differentiated languages really are; and (4) how general cognition, through the intervention of basic processes such as attention and memory, is involved in linguistic transfer as in other aspects of language. The innovative methodology employed in LESS will, for the first time, make it possible to address these questions with large groups of multilinguals and with different types of data, accounting for both the observable behaviour of these learners and the implicit psycho- and neurolinguistic activity underlying that behaviour.

Funding Agency: Research Council of Norway

Project number: 326487 (Link to project page on RCN's project bank)

Call: Researcher Project for Early Career Scientists (FRIPRO)

Grant amount: 6.8MNOK