Another sighting of differential language laterality in multilinguals, this time in Loch Tok Pisin: comments on Wuillemin, Richardson, and Lynch (1994).
Wuillemin, Richardson, and Lynch (1994) claim to have determined that languages learned after the age of 8 are less lateralized than those learned earlier. The authors fail to specify the nature of what it is that is differentially lateralized. It cannot be implicit linguistic competence (the language system), since that has been clinically demonstrated to be false. It cannot be pragmatic and paralinguistic aspects of language use, since, to the extent that these are right-hemisphere based functions, they could not be reflected in results obtained with a technique assumed to selectively tap left-hemisphere functions. Either way, the visual half-field technique used proves to be an invalid measure of language laterality in individuals or subgroups.
Paradis
M
M
Department of Linguistics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
D000367:Age Factors; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language