MEJDS. 2019; 9:24. Published online 2019 Jun. Research Article Cognate Status on Kurdish–Persian Bilingual Individuals’ Ability to Retrieve Cognate and Non–Cognate Verbs Nariman Barani Zaghe 1 , *Azar Mehri 2 , Shohre Jalaie 3 , Ronak Moradi 4 Author Address: 1. MSc in Speech Therapy, Department of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 2. Assistant Professor in Speech Therapy, Department of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 3. Associate Professor in Biostatistics, Department of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 4. Assistant Professor in Linguistics, Payam Noor University, Iran. *Corresponding Author E–mail: mehri@tums.ac.ir Received: 2017 July25; Accepted: 2017 August 5 . Copyright © 2016, MEJDS. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background & Objective: In bilingual people, lexical selection, in addition to contending the competition between semantically related lexical representations, competing for word selections also occur between languages, which makes word retrieval a bit difficult. There are two views to explain how bilingual speakers select the correct words for the presented image in the intended language. First one assumes that lexical access in the target language is achieved by an imbalance in the activation levels of the two lexicons, but second view assumes that selection of the target word in the intended language is achieved by means of a lexical selection mechanism sensitive only to the activation of the lexical items of the intended language. Cognate status can influence recalling and retrieval of words from bilingual is lexical system. Cognates are word pairs with similar form and the same meaning in two languages; in contrast, non–cognate words have a common meaning and a different form. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether cognateness affects verbal recalling performance in balanced Kurdish–Persian bilinguals and ultimately to achieve a model or hypothesis that would explain the retrieval of vocabulary in bilingual individuals. Methods: This study was a cross–sectional and comparative study. The population of this study was all Kurdish–Persian bilinguals in Kurdistan province. The participants completed the language experience and proficiency questionnaire. They were also administered the original version of the Persian verbs picture naming test by using DMDX software in two Kurdish and Persian languages, with a 7–day interval. Paired t–test, Pearson and spearman correlations and independent t–test were used to analyze the data. Results: In comparing the cognate verbs with non–cognate verbs, the speed and accuracy of recalling of cognate verbs was higher than non– cognate verbs in both language. Whereas corresponding comparison of cognate and non–cognate verbs of the first language with cognate and non–cognate verbs of the second language indicate that the second language (Persian language) words in both verb type (cognate and non– cognate) are retrieved more easily. There was a significant difference between the accuracy of recalling the cognate and non–cognate verbs of the first language (p˂0.001) and the accuracy of recalling non–cognate verbs between the first and second languages (p˂0.001). In addition, there was a significant relationship between the level of education and the accuracy of recalling of non–cognate verbs (p=0.002). Comparing the speed and accuracy between male and female groups showed a significant difference between the two groups in accuracy of recalling non– cognate verbs in first (p=0.003) and second languages (p˂0.001). Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the cognate status and phonological similarities can effect on word retrieval and picture naming abilities in bilingual individuals. Based on the results “Cascade Activation Model” can explain the word retrieval in bilinguals was well. Keywords: Recalling speed, Recalling accuracy, Cognate verbs, Non–cognate verbs, Kurdish–Persian bilingual. Downloaded from jdisabilstud.ir at 14:18 +0330 on Sunday December 5th 2021