The Research Of Abstract Words Semantic Representation And Brain Mechanism For Tibetan-Chinese Bilinguals

In the context of economic globalization,more and more people master two or more languages,and bilingualism or multilingualism has been paid more and more attention by researchers.How are bilinguals stored in the mind in two or more languages? Up to now,researchers generally believe that bilinguals' vocabulary is stored independently and semantics is stored together.However,the above research results are mainly from the perspective of specific words,rarely involved in abstract words.In this study,the representation of bilinguals' abstract words and their brain activation mechanism were investigated,and then the bilinguals' abstract word representation was deeply and systematically understood.At the same time,the influence of second language proficiency on the representation of bilinguals' abstract words is investigated,and the brain activation mechanism of bilinguals' abstract words is revealed by fNIRS technology.In this study,Tibetan-Chinese bilinguals were selected as subjects.according to the results of Tibetan and Chinese proficiency self-assessment and the results of listening,speaking,reading and writing ability,the subjects were divided into second language proficient Tibetan-Chinese bilinguals and unskilled Tibetan-Chinese bilinguals.Firstly,the semantic representation of abstract words of Tibetan-Chinese bilinguals is investigated from different angles through three experiments.On this basis,functional near infrared brain imaging was used to investigate the activation of brain regions in Tibetan-Chinese bilinguals when they completed the semantic judgment of abstract words.When investigating the semantic representation of abstract words in bilinguals' second language from the perspective of metaphorical consistency,two questions need to be considered: one is whether the abstract words have materiality,and the other is whether the abstract words also have divinity in the second language.Therefore,in experiment 1,we intend to select moral words for investigation.Firstly,the spatial metaphorical representation of moral words in Tibetan-Chinese bilinguals is investigated.the results show that there is also a spatial metaphorical consistency effect in moral words in the second language,which is consistent with the metaphorical effect of native Tibetan words.That is,"morality is above,immorality is below".Then,by using the cross-language long-term repeated primingparadigm,the semantic representation of moral words in Tibetan-Chinese bilinguals is further investigated.the results show that the semantics of moral words in Tibetan-Chinese bilinguals are stored together.And is not affected by second language proficiency.In experiment 2,we further selected kinship words to verify the results of experiment1.The results show that the metaphorical effects of kinship words in mother tongue and second language are the same,that is,"higher generation is higher and lower generation is lower".After that,the cross-language long-term repeated priming paradigm is further used to investigate the semantic representation of abstract words in bilinguals.The results show that the semantics of generation kinship words of skilled and unskilled subjects are stored together.In experiment 3,the consistency of metaphorical effects of kinship words inside and outside the family was verified,and it was found that the metaphorical effects of kinship words inside and outside the family in mother tongue and second language were not consistent.By using the cross-language long-term repeated priming paradigm,it was found that the semantic representation of kinship words inside and outside the family was the same between skilled and unskilled subjects,and both of them were stored together.The results of brain region analysis showed that the brain regions activated by abstract word semantic representation were the same in skilled and unskilled Tibetan-Chinese bilinguals,which were left inferior frontal gyrus,superior temporal gyrus,middle temporal gyrus and so on.Through the analysis of the above experimental studies,the following conclusions are drawn: the abstract word semantics of bilinguals is stored together,and the second language proficiency has no significant effect on the semantic representation of abstract words of bilinguals;The semantic representation of abstract words in mother tongue and second language is basically the same as that in the activated brain region.