Emanuel Bylund Spångberg

My research is within the field of psycholinguistics, and covers two main strands: 1) How does the mind enable us to acquire language, and 2) How does language, once acquired, influence our minds? I have approched the first question by studying the influence of biological age on L2 acquisition and L1 attrition, in bilingual and monolingual (interntional adoptees) populations with different linguistic trajectories. I have approached the second question using the experimental paradigms afforded by neo-Whorfian research, to examine how language and cognition interact in the multilingual mind. Languages studied here include Afrikaans, British and South African English, German, isiXhosa, Spanish, and Swedish.

 

Publications

Articles (peer-reviewed journals):

Samuel, S., Bylund, E., Cooper, R. & Athanasopoulos, P. (in press). Illuminating ATOM: Taking time across the colour category border. Acta Psychologica.

Bylund, E., Abrahamsson, N., Hyltenstam, K. & Norrman, G. (2019). Revisiting the bilingual lexical deficit: The impact of age of acquisition. Cognition, 182, 45–49.

Bylund, E. (2017). Interpreting age effects in language acquisition and attrition. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 7, 182–186

Bylund, E. & Athanasopoulos, P. (2017). The Whorfian time warp: Representing duration through the language hourglass. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146, 911–916.

Montero-Melis, G. & Bylund, E. (2017). Getting the ball rolling: The cross-linguistic conceptualization of caused motion. Language and Cognition, 9, 446–472.

Bylund, E. & Ramírez, P. (2016). Language aptitude in first language attrition: A study on late Spanish–Swedish bilinguals. Applied Linguistics, 37, 621–638.

Athanasopoulos, P., Bylund, E. & Casasanto, D. (2016). New and interdisciplinary approaches to linguistic relativity. Language Learning, 66, 482–486.

Montero-Melis, G., Jaeger, F. & Bylund, E. (2016). Thinking is modulated by recent linguistic experience: Second language priming affects perceived event similarity. Language Learning, 66, 636–665.

Norrman, G. & Bylund, E. (2016). The irreversibility of sensitive period effects in language development: Evidence from second language acquisition in international adoptees. Developmental Science, 19, 513–520.

Bylund, E., Landin, B. & Åkesson, M. (2015). Bakåt i framtiden: Tidskognition hos inlärare av svenska som andraspråk. Nordisk tidsskrift för andrespråksforskning, 10, 7–24.

Bylund, E. & Athanasopoulos, P. (2015). Motion event categorisation in a nativised variety of South African English. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 18, 588–601.

Athanasopoulos, P., Bylund, E., Montero-Melis, G., Damjanovic, L., Schartner, A., Kibbe, A., Riches, N. & Thierry, G. (2015). Two languages, two minds: Flexible cognitive processing driven by language of operation. Psychological Science, 26, 518–526.

Athanasopoulos, P., Damjanovic, L., Burnand, J. & Bylund, E. (2015). Learning to think in a second language: Effects of proficiency and length of exposure in English learners of German. Modern Language Journal, 99, 138–153.

Bylund, E. & Athanasopoulos, P. (2015). Televised Whorf: Cognitive restructuring in foreign language learners as a function of audio-visual media exposure. Modern Language Journal, 99, 123–137.

Bylund, E. & Athanasopoulos, P. (2015). Cognition, motion events, and SLA. Modern Language Journal, 99, 1–13.

Bylund, E. & Athanasopoulos, P. (2014). Linguistic relativity in SLA: Towards a new research programme. Language Learning, 64, 952–985.

Bylund, E. (2014). Unomathotholo or i-radio? Factors predicting the use of English loanwords among L1 isiXhosa - L2 English bilinguals. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 35, 105-120.

Bylund, E. & Athanasopoulos, P. (2014). Language and thought in a multilingual context: The case of isiXhosa. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17, 431-441.

Athanasopoulos, P. & Bylund, E. (2013a). The ‘thinking’ in thinking-for-speaking: Where is it? Language, Interaction, and Acquisition, 4, 91-100.

Bylund, E., Athanasopoulos, P. & Oostendorp, M. (2013). Motion event cognition and grammatical aspect. Evidence from Afrikaans. Linguistics, 51, 929-955.

Vesterinen, R. & Bylund, E. (2013). Towards a unified account of the Spanish subjunctive mood: Epistemic dominion and dominion of effective control. Lingua, 131, 179–198.

Athanasopoulos, P. & Bylund, E. (2013b). Does grammatical aspect affect motion event cognition? A cross-linguistic comparison of English and Swedish speakers. Cognitive Science, 37, 286-309.

Oostendorp, M. & Bylund, E. (2012). Emotions and HIV/AIDS in South Africa: A multilingual perspective. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, 41, 77-89.

Bylund, E. & Díaz, M. (2012). The effects of heritage language instruction on first language proficiency. A psycholinguistic perspective. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 15, 593-609.

Bylund, E., Abrahamsson, N. & Hyltenstam, K. (2012). Does L1 maintenance hamper L2 nativelikeness? A study of L2 ultimate attainment in early Spanish-Swedish bilinguals. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 34, 215-241.

Bylund, E. (2011a). Segmentation and temporal structuring of events in early Spanish-Swedish bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingualism, 15, 86-54.

Bylund, E. (2011b). Ultimate attainment of event construal patterns in speakers of L2 Swedish. Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8, 29-53.

Bylund, E. & Jarvis, S. (2011). L2 effects on L1 event conceptualization. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14, 47-59.

Bylund, E., Abrahamsson, N. & Hyltenstam, K. (2010). The role of language aptitude in first language attrition: The case of prepubescent attriters. Applied Linguistics, 31, 443-464.

Bylund, E. (2009a). Effects of age of L2 acquisition on L1 event conceptualization principles. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12, 305–322.

Bylund, E. (2009b). Maturational constraints and first language attrition. Language Learning, 59, 687–715.

Hyltenstam, K., Bylund, E., Abrahamsson, N. & Park, H.-S. (2009). Dominant language replacement: The case of international adoptees. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12, 121-140.

Bylund, E. (2008a). Procesos de conceptualización de eventos en sueco y en español: diferencias translingüísticas [Event conceptualization processes in Swedish and Spanish: Crosslinguistic differences]. Revue Romane, 43 (1), 1–24.

 

Chapters (peer-reviewed volumes):

Athanasopoulos, P., Samuel, S. & Bylund, E. (2017). The psychological reality of spatio-temporal metaphors. In A. Athanasiadou (Ed.), Figurative language and thought (pp. 296–321). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Norrman, G., Hyltenstam, K. & Bylund, E. (2016). Long-term language development in international adoptees. In F. Genesee & A. Delcenserie (Eds.), Starting over – Language development in internationally adopted children (pp. 125–146). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Bylund, E. & Andersson, L. (2015). Las metáforas espacio-temporales y la percepción del tiempo. Un estudio comparativo sobre el español y el sueco [Spatio-temporal metaphors and time perception: a crosslinguistic study on Spanish and Swedish]. In G. Engwall & L. Fant (Eds.), Festival Romanística (pp. 113–130). Stockholm: Stockholm University Press.

Donoso, A. & Bylund, E. (2015). The construal of goal-oriented motion events by Swedish speakers of L2 Spanish. In J. Tiffany & S. Perpiñán (eds.) The acquisition of Spanish in adult and child bilingualism: Data from understudied language pairings (pp. 234–254) Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Bylund, E., Hyltenstam, K. & Abrahamsson, N. (2013). Age of acquisition effects or effects of bilingualism in second language ultimate attainment? In G. Grañena & M. Long (eds.) Sensitive periods, language aptitude, and ultimate L2 attainment (pp. 69–101). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Abrahamsson, N. & Bylund, E. (2013). Utveckling av andraspråk och utveckling av modersmål i minoritetskontext [Second language and heritage language development]. In M. Axelsson, K. Hyltenstam, I. Lindberg (ed.), Flerspråkighet. En forskningsöversikt [Multilingualism. A research overview] (pp. 153–245). Stockholm: Swedish Research Council.

Bylund, E. (2011c). Language-specific patterns in event conceptualization: Insights from bilingualism. In A. Pavlenko (ed.), Thinking and speaking in two languages (pp. 108-142). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

 

Edited volumes/special issues:

Bylund, E. & Athanasopoulos, P. (Eds.) (2015). The language and thought of motion in second language speakers. Special issue of The Modern Language Journal (99).

Athanasopoulos, P., Bylund, E. & Casasanto, D. (Eds.) (2016). New and interdisciplinary perspectives on linguistic relativity. Special issue of Language Learning (66).

 

Other publications:

Bylund, E. (2012). ‘Language Attrition’ by Monika S. Schmid [invited book review]. Language, 88, 923-926.

Bylund, E. (2016). Förändrar inlärningen av ett nytt språk vår verklighetsuppfattning? Lingua: Språklärarnas tidning, 4, 17–22.

 

Doctoral dissertations:

Bylund, E. (2009c). Conceptualización de eventos en español y en sueco. Estudios sobre hablantes monolingües y bilingües [Event conceptualization in Spanish and Swedish. Studies on monolingual and bilingual speakers]. Doctoral dissertation in Spanish Linguistics, Stockholm University. Stockholm.

Bylund, E. (2008b). Age differences in first language attrition. A maturational constraints perspective. Doctoral dissertation in Bilingualism Research, Stockholm University. Stockholm.

 

Externally funded research projects:

2017-2019: “A Compensatory Role for Explicit/Declarative Memory in Grammatical Processing: A Combined Latency, ERP, and tDCS Study of Nativelike Second Language Acquisition”. Co-investigator. (PI: N Abrahamsson.) Funded by the Swedish Research Council

2016-2018: “Motion in mind: The role of language in motion event cognition”. Principal investigator. (co-investigator: G Montero-Melis). Research project funded by the Swedish Research Council.

2011-2013: “Temporal Language and Thought: Language-Specific Spatial Interference in Time Estimations”. Principal investigator. (co-investigator: P Athanasopoulos). Research project funded by the Swedish Research Council.

2010-2012: “Ultimate Attainment in Bilingual and Monolingual Second Language Speakers”. Co-investigator. (PI: N Abrahamsson.) Research project within the programme “Advanced Second Language Use”, funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Fund.

2009-2011:”Language Diversity and Thought: Motion Events in Language, Memory, and Cognition. Co-investigator. (PI: P Athanasopoulos). Bangor University, UK. Research Development Grant.