The N400 Latency for Language Emotionality Differences of First and Second Language: Inquiring Turkish-Persian Bilinguals

Based on the results of recent studies, it has been suggested that bilingual speakers feel different emotionality for their first (L1) and second (L2) language and L2 is emotionally distant. The goal of the present study was to examine the different sense of anger emotionality in Turkish-Persian bilinguals’ first and second language.

In this respect, 18 Turkish-Persian sequential bilinguals (with an average age of26) who were students of Tehran universities were selected using targeted sampling, and participated in this experimental research. At first, participants filled out language history, General Health, Positive and Negative affect schedule, and handedness questionnaires. Then, they participated in an auditory task with anger inducing and neutral words of two languages as the stimuli and their electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were recorded from 64 channels simultaneously. After extracting event-related potential (ERP) components, N400 component was analyzed using Friedman statistical test.

According to the findings, the mean N400 latency at some channels was significantly less (Ps<0.05) for Turkish anger words comparing to Persian anger words.

Turkish anger words’ faster processing revealed that participants’ L1 attracted their attention faster and led to easier emotional lexical processing. Altogether, first language induces more emotionality followed by easier lexical access and semantic processing, whereas second language processing is less automatic. Finally, it can be stated that L1 emotional words are more deeply coded and have deeper emotional associations.