Three languages in mind

How does a trilingual manage to speak only one from§among the three languages s/he masters? This§accessible book examines the psycholinguistic§underpinnings of trilingualism and describes the§mechanisms (activation, inhibition and§control) taken from cognitive psychology as well as§the impact of language proficiency and processing load.§Introductory chapters focus on the description of§trilinguals and trilingual processing. After§reviewing models of language production, the first§model for trilingualism is presented. Four stages of§language production (access, search, competition, and§selection) and a number of lexical phenomena are§examined in detail in four experimental studies with§different methodologies on spontaneous language§production in three languages. A language background§questionnaire is also included. §This book is especially useful for students and§researchers interested in psycholinguistics and its§methods, in multilingualism, and for all§multilinguals who always wanted to understand why§they sometimes say something in the wrong language.