Abstract:
Thesis Title: A Phenomenological Study of Multilingual Memory and Lexical Access
Bilingual memory has been a subject of psycholinguistic experimental studies for last 6 decades,
whereas, the study of multilingual memory has so far largely been excluded. Moreover, the
psycholinguistic studies, though proven highly insightful, have always excessively relied on the
experimental tasks used in them to the extent that subjects as language users were overshadowed.
These were the two concerns that led the present study to examine two of the psycholinguistic
phenomena, multilingual memory and lexical access, phenomenologically without disregarding
the insight gained from psycholinguistic studies. Under the phenomenological framework, lived
experiences of Punjabi-Urdu-English (P-U-E) trilinguals were explored in order to find out the
processes these trilinguals employed for learning the three languages and making them work.
Three of the phenomenological methods: semi-structured lifeworld interviews, focus group
discussions and essay writing, were used for eliciting the experiences of 40 P-U-E trilingual
participants, chosen from three different age groups (18-23 years, 30-40 years, and 50-60 years
or above) to observe developmental changes in the learning and use of the three languages over a
long period of time. Data explicitation was carried out using Hycner’s (1985) 15-step process,
especially formulated for keeping the essence of the participants’ experiences of the phenomena
intact. Major findings were: (1) the effect of the age of acquisition on the learning of new
languages, L2 as well as L3, (2) Dependence on Urdu for using English and translation
asymmetry at lower L3 proficiency levels, (3) Developmental aspect, (4) The need to exert
conscious control for stopping interference from the other two languages in order to speak one
language consistently, and (5) Proficiency as the most significant factor in lexical selection. The
findings of this phenomenological study when compared with the results of psycholinguistic
experimental studies, a phenomenological model emerged that attempts to capture the trilingual
memory structure of a P-U-E trilingual, i.e., how the three lexicons are organized, how they
interact with each other, and how lexical access is accomplished.