Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT) States in Norwegian-English Bilinguals : Effects of Word Frequency, Cognate Status, Noun Type, and Bilingual Profiles

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of language, word frequency, cognate status, noun type, and different bilingual profiles on tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states in Norwegian-English bilinguals. Furthermore, the study aimed to establish whether the weaker links hypothesis or the competition hypothesis could better account for the TOT phenomenon. TOTs were induced by using a word-finding experiment in which the participants were asked to read a definition and then report whether they knew the target word. According to the results, the participants knew more words in Norwegian and reported more TOTs in English. Frequency effects revealed that the participants knew more high-frequency than low-frequency words and that more TOTs were reported for low-frequency words. In addition, the participants who were more proficient in English knew more words and reported fewer TOTs. Surprisingly, more TOTs were reported for cognates and there was a significant correlation between the participants’ increased age of English acquisition and increased vocabulary knowledge. Although the competition hypothesis cannot account for the frequency effects, both hypotheses predict more TOTs and lower vocabulary scores in the non-dominant language, in addition to lower TOT rates and higher vocabulary scores due to higher language proficiency. The results suggest that the weaker links hypothesis and the competition hypothesis are not mutually exclusive and that TOTs might occur due to a combination of the two.