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Bilingual and multilingual individuals exhibit variation in everyday language experience. Studies on bilingualism account for individual differences with measures such as L2 age of acquisition, exposure, or language proficiency, but recent theoretical perspectives posit that the relative balance between the two or more languages throughout daily life (i.e., interactional context ) is a crucial determinant for language representation, access, and control. We propose an innovative measure to characterize this construct by using entropy to estimate the social diversity of language use. Language entropy is computed from commonly-collected language history data and generalizes to multilingual communicative contexts. We show how language entropy relates to other indices of bilingual experience and that it predicts self-report L2 outcome measures over and above classic measures of language experience. Thus, we proffer language entropy as a means to characterize individual differences in bilingual (and multilingual) language experience related to the social diversity of language use.

Bilinguals have distinct linguistic experiences relative to monolinguals, stemming from interactions with the environment and the individuals therein. Theories of language control hypothesize that these experiences play a role in adapting the neurocognitive systems responsible for control. Here we posit a potential mechanism for these adaptations, namely that bilinguals face additional language-related uncertainties on top of other ambiguities that regularly occur in language, such as lexical and syntactic competition. When faced with uncertainty in the environment, people adapt internal representations to lessen these uncertainties, which can aid in executive control and decision-making. We overview a cognitive framework on uncertainty, which we extend to language and bilingualism. We then review two “case studies,” assessing language-related uncertainty for bilingual contexts using language entropy and network scientific approaches. Overall, we find that there is substantial individual variability in the extent to which people experience language-related uncertainties in their environments, but also regularity across some contexts. This information, in turn, predicts cognitive adaptations associated with language fluency and engagement in proactive cognitive control strategies. These findings suggest that bilinguals adapt to the cumulative language-related uncertainties in the environment. We conclude by suggesting avenues for future research and links with other research domains. Ultimately, a focus on uncertainty will help bridge traditionally separate scientific domains, such as language processing, bilingualism, and decision-making.

Despite the multifactorial space of language experience in which people continuously vary, bilinguals are often dichotomized into ostensibly homogeneous groups. The timing of language exposure (age of acquisition) to a second language (L2) is one well-studied construct that is known to impact language processing, cognitive processing, and brain organization, but recent work shows that current language exposure is also a crucial determinant in these domains. Critically, many indices of bilingual experience are inherently subjective and based on self-report questionnaires. Such measures have been criticized in favor of objective measures of language ability (e.g., naming ability or verbal fluency). Here, we estimate the bilingual experience jointly as a function of multiple continuous aspects of experience, including the timing of language exposure, the amount of L2 exposure across communicative contexts, and language entropy (a flexible measure of language balance) across communicative contexts. The results suggest that current language exposure exhibits distinct but interrelated patterns depending on the socio-experiential context of language usage. They also suggest that, counterintuitively, our sample more accurately self-assesses L2 proficiency than native language proficiency. A precise quantification of the multidimensional nature of bilingualism will enhance the ability of future research to assess language processing, acquisition, and control.

We affirm the utility of integrative modeling, according to which it is advantageous to move beyond “one-at-a-time binary paradigms” through studies that position themselves within realistic multidimensional design spaces. We extend the integrative modeling approach to a target domain with which we are familiar, the consequences of bilingualism on mind and brain, often referred to as the “bilingual advantage.” In doing so, we highlight work from our group consistent with integrative modeling.

Idioms are semantically non-compositional multiword units whose meanings often go beyond literal interpretations of their component words (e.g., break the ice, kick the bucket, spill the beans ). According to hybrid models of idiom processing, idioms are subject to both direct retrieval from the lexicon in early stages of processing, and word-by-word compositional reanalysis in later stages of comprehension. However, a less clear aspect is how disrupting an idiom’s canonical form, and thus its direct retrieval, impacts the time course of comprehension. In this eye-tracking reading study, healthy English-French bilingual adults with English as their dominant language read sentences containing English idioms in their canonical form (e.g., break the ice ), or in a switched form where the phrase-final noun was translated into French (e.g., break the glace ). Thus, within this manipulation, momentary language switches modified the canonical form of idioms, while at the same time minimally altering the semantics of their component words, thus nudging readers towards a compositional processing route. Analyses of eye-movement data revealed switching costs in longer reading times at early (but not late) processing stages for idioms compared to matched literal phrases. Interestingly, the cost of language switching was attenuated by the availability of a translationally equivalent idiom in the non-target language (French, e.g., briser la glace ). Taken together, these results suggest that direct retrieval is the preferential route in the comprehension of idioms’ canonical forms, which acts as an effective repair strategy by the language-processing system when recovering the underlying form of modified idioms.

Recent research on multilingualism highlights the role of language diversity in modulating the cognitive capacities of communication and suggests a gap in available measures for quantifying socially realistic language experience. One questionnaire-based measure that potentially fills this gap is Language Entropy (e.g., Gullifer & Titone, 2018, 2020), which quantifies the balance between compartmentalised and integrated language use. However, an open question is whether questionnaire-based Language Entropy is a valid reflection of socially realistic language behaviours. To address this question, we grounded questionnaire-based Language Entropy using personal social network data for a linguistically diverse sample of speakers of French and English in the city of Montréal (n = 95). Specifically, we used exploratory factor analysis to characterise the factor structures resulting from questionnaire-based and social network-based Entropy. In addition, we examined the generalisability and stability of the relationship between both entropies across three bilingual groups with different social network compositions: simultaneous, English-dominant, and French-dominant. Our findings indicated that both questionnaire-based and social network-based entropies loaded onto the same factors and that the relationship between them was not affected by group differences in social network composition or by context. This suggests that questionnaire-based Language Entropy aligns well with social network-based Entropy and that this relationship is stable across different sociolinguistic realities, validating Language Entropy as a useful tool for quantifying language diversity. Des recherches récentes sur le multilinguisme mettent en évidence le rôle de la diversité linguistique dans la modulation des capacités cognitives de la communication et semblent indiquer la présence d'une lacune dans les mesures disponibles pour quantifier l'expérience linguistique socialement réaliste. L'entropie du langage (par exemple, Gullifer & Titone, 2018, 2020), qui quantifie l'équilibre entre l'utilisation compartimentée et intégrée des langues, est une mesure basée sur un questionnaire qui pourrait combler cette lacune. Toutefois, la question de savoir si l'entropie du langage basée sur les questionnaires est un reflet valable des comportements langagiers socialement réalistes reste ouverte. Pour répondre à cette question, nous avons mesuré l'entropie du langage basée sur les questionnaires en utilisant des données personnelles des réseaux sociaux pour un échantillon linguistiquement diversifié de locuteurs du français et de l'anglais dans la ville de Montréal (n = 95). Plus précisément, nous avons utilisé l'analyse factorielle exploratoire pour caractériser les structures factorielles résultant de l'entropie basée sur le questionnaire et de l'entropie basée sur les réseaux sociaux. En outre, nous avons examiné la généralisation et la stabilité de la relation entre les deux entropies au sein de trois groupes bilingues présentant des compositions de réseaux sociaux différentes : simultané, à dominance anglaise et à dominance française. Nos résultats indiquent que les entropies basées sur les questionnaires et les entropies basées sur les réseaux sociaux se chargent sur les mêmes facteurs et que la relation entre elles n'est pas affectée par les différences de groupe dans la composition des réseaux sociaux ou par le contexte. Cela suggère que l'entropie du langage basée sur les questionnaires s'aligne bien avec l'entropie basée sur les réseaux sociaux et que cette relation est stable dans différentes réalités sociolinguistiques, validant l'entropie du langage comme un outil utile pour quantifier la diversité linguistique. Public Significance Statement A recent development in multilingualism is the introduction of Language Entropy as a psychometric approach to understanding realistic language experiences. Our study confirmed that Language Entropy, which is a questionnaire-based measure, accurately reflects real-world language behaviour. Questionnaire-based Language Entropy aligns well with social network-based Entropy and that this relationship is stable across different sociolinguistic realities, showing that entropy is a reliable tool for understanding language diversity in various communities, helping to improve theories and methods in language research.

Recent studies have shown that when bilinguals or multilinguals read written words, listen to spoken words, or plan words that they intend to speak in one language alone, information in all of the languages that they know is momentarily active. That activation produces cross-language competition that sometimes converges to facilitate performance and sometimes diverges to create costs to performance. The presence of parallel activation across languages has been documented in comprehension, in studies of word recognition, and also in production, in studies of lexical speech planning. The observation that one of the two or more languages cannot be switched off at will is particularly surprising in production, where the intention to express a thought should be guided by conceptually driven processes. Likewise, in comprehension, recent studies show that placing words in sentence context in one language alone is insufficient to restrict processing to that language. The focus of current research on the multilingual lexicon is therefore to understand the basis of language nonselectivity, to consider how the language in use is ultimately selected, and to identify the cognitive consequences of having a lexical system that is open to influence by the languages not in use. In this article, we review the recent cognitive and neural evidence on each of these issues, with special consideration to the question of how the nature of the evidence itself shapes the conclusions drawn about the organization and access to the lexicon in individuals who speak more than one language.

Des recherches récentes sur le multilinguisme mettent en évidence le róle de la diversité linguistique dans la modulation des capacités cognitives de la communication et semblent indiquer la présence d'une lacune dans les mesures disponibles pour quantifier l'expérience linguistique socialement réaliste. L\" entropie du langage (par exemple, Gullifer & Titone, 2018, 2020), qui quantifie l'équilibre entre l'utilisation compartimentée et intégrée des langues, est une mesure basée sur un questionnaire qui pourrait combler cette lacune. Toutefois, la question de savoir si l'entropie du langage basée sur les questionnaires est un reflet valable des comportements langagiers socialement réalistes reste ouverte. Pour répondre à cette question, nous avons mesuré l'entropie du langage basée sur les questionnaires en utilisant des données personnelles des réseaux sociaux pour un échantillon linguistiquement diversifié de locuteurs du français et de l'anglais dans la ville de Montréal (n = 95). Plus précisément, nous avons utilisé l'analyse factorielle exploratoire pour caractériser les structures factorielles résultant de l'entropie basée sur le questionnaire et de l'entropie basée sur les réseaux sociaux. En outre, nous avons examiné la généralisation et la stabilité de la relation entre les deux entropies au sein de trois groupes bilingues présentant des compositions de réseaux sociaux différentes : simultané, à dominance anglaise et à dominance française. Nos résultats indiquent que les entropies basées sur les questionnaires et les entropies basées sur les réseaux sociaux se chargent sur les mêmes facteurs et que la relation entre elles n'est pas affectée par les différences de groupe dans la composition des réseaux sociaux ou par le contexte. Cela suggère que l'entropie du langage basée sur les questionnaires s'aligne bien avec l'entropie basée sur les réseaux sociaux et que cette relation est stable dans différentes réalités sociolinguistiques, validant l'entropie du langage comme un outil utile pour quantifier la diversité linguistique.