The Effect Of The Representation Quality Of Core-concept-shared English Words On The Corresponding C-E Word Selection

This study aims to investigate the effect of representation quality of core-concept-shared words on their corresponding word selection in translation. As it is an empirical study, two experiments were carried out. The first is a reaction time experiment testing the representation quality of core-concept-shared words, and based on the results of the first experiments, 60 subjects were selected and divided into two groups, the higher level group and the lower level group. The second experiment was a paper-and-pencil translation test looking at the word selection performance of both the two groups. Finally, the results of the two experiments were analyzed and the major findings are stated as follows:1. The representation quality of the core-concept-shared words has a positive effect on the corresponding word selection in translation. To put it specifically, in both the higher and lower level groups:a. High frequency members in the core-concept-shared group of words enjoy higher level of representation quality than those low frequency ones. In other words, high frequency words have stronger connection with the core concept within the representation network of mental lexicon. The high quality of high frequency words, to a large extent, facilitates their word selection in translation, while such facilitating effect is indiscernible in low frequency words, mainly due to the weak connection of low frequency words with the core concept.b. Word with high imageability is the other type that witnesses higher representation quality than those with low imageability. And the subjects in both groups performed better with high imageable words in word selection task, which reflects EFL learners'reliance on the mediation of concept in the representation network. 2. The effect of the representation quality on word selection is found to take on some dynamic characteristics:a. The word type effect is more conspicuous in the representation and translation quality of core-concept-shared words as EFL learners'language proficiency grows higher, that is, learners with higher language proficiency are able to achieve a better result in accessing and selecting high frequency words than the lower level group. This indicates that both the representation network and the selection mechanism of the core-concept-shared words develop more mature as learners'language proficiency improves.b. In contrast, the word imageability effect tends to diminish as learners'language proficiency grows higher, that is, the lower level group's performance on high imageable words surpasses higher level group, which indicates that the development of the representation network itself lessens learners'reliance on concept in lexical accessing and selecting.