Language and thought in a multilingual context : the case of isiXhosa

Bylund, Emanuel and Athanasopoulos, Panos (2014) Language and thought in a multilingual context : the case of isiXhosa. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17 (2). pp. 431-441. ISSN 1366-7289

Abstract

Situated within the grammatical aspect approach to motion event cognition, this study takes a first step in investigating language and thought in functional multilinguals by studying L1 isiXhosa speakers living in South Africa. IsiXhosa being a non-aspect language, the study investigates how the knowledge and use of additional languages with grammatical aspect influence cognition of endpoint-oriented motion events among L1 isiXhosa speakers. Results from a triads-matching task show that participants who often used aspect languages and had greater exposure to English in primary education were less prone to rely on endpoints when categorising motion events.