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Word Associations in a Minoritised Language: The Case of Cymraeg (Welsh)

Tess Fitzpatrick, Steve Morris Orcid Logo, Theo Mills

International Journal of Applied Linguistics

Swansea University Authors: Tess Fitzpatrick, Steve Morris Orcid Logo, Theo Mills

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DOI (Published version): 10.1111/ijal.70183

Abstract

As with many research strands in linguistics, word association (WA) literature is dominated by English language data. This paper (i) explores the extent to which methodologies developed to date are applicable to other languages – specifically, Welsh (Cymraeg) – and (ii) investigates what WA analysis...

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Published in: International Journal of Applied Linguistics
ISSN: 0802-6106 1473-4192
Published: Wiley 2026
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71688
Abstract: As with many research strands in linguistics, word association (WA) literature is dominated by English language data. This paper (i) explores the extent to which methodologies developed to date are applicable to other languages – specifically, Welsh (Cymraeg) – and (ii) investigates what WA analysis can reveal about lexical organisation and retrieval in bilinguals’ two languages; its minoritised language context means that Welsh speakers are bilingual with English. Two complementary datasets are used. The first comprises responses to 900 Welsh cues from 85 expert users of Welsh, and forms the basis of the first Welsh language WA norms list. The second is bilingual, comprising responses from 85 Welsh speakers and learners to two lists of 100 cue words, one in Welsh and one in English. Language-specific methodological challenges emerge, including management of mutated word forms, diacritics and orthographic variation. Decisions relating to these as the first dataset was converted into a norms list (now informing Welsh language teaching materials), are documented. Language-specific features that facilitate understanding of WA processes, such as grammatical mutation and inflection, are also reported. Bilingual data associations were categorised to obtain “profiles” for each dataset. Systematic differences between the profiles for each task (Welsh and English) were identified. A pairwise comparison of profiles revealed that while individuals’ profiles are distinct from each other, their own profiles are similar across each of their two languages; this closeness is most pronounced in expert users of Welsh.
Keywords: bilingual lexicon; mental lexicon; minoritised languages; Welsh; word associationCymraeg; cysylltu geiriau; geirfa’r meddwl; ieithoedd lleiafrifoledig; lecsicon dwyieithog
College: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Funders: This research was supported by AHRC Research Grant AH/Y003020/1.Data collection was supported by WJEC/CBAC and by Swansea Univer-sity’s SPIN programme.

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