%0 Journal Article %A Brien, Christie %A Sabourin, Laura L. %T Second language effects on ambiguity resolution in the first language %D 2012 %J EUROSLA Yearbook %V 12 %N 1 %P 191-217 %@ 1568-1491 %R https://doi.org/10.1075/eurosla.12.10bri %I John Benjamins %X The processing of homonyms is complex considering homonyms have many lexical properties. For instance, train contains semantic (a locomotive/to instruct) and syntactic (noun/verb) properties, each affecting interpretation. Previous studies find homonym processing influenced by lexical frequency (Duffy et al. 1988) as well as syntactic and semantic context (Folk & Morris 2003; Swinney 1979; Tanenhaus et al. 1979). This cross-modal lexical-decision study investigates second language (L2) effects on homonym processing in the first language (L1). Participants were monolingual English speakers and Canadian English/French bilinguals who acquired L2 French at distinct periods. The early bilinguals revealed no significant differences compared to monolinguals (p = .219) supporting the Reordered Access Model (Duffy et al. 1988). However, the late bilinguals revealed longer reaction times, syntactic priming effects (p < .001), and lexical frequency effects (p < .001), suggesting a heightened sensitivity to surface cues influencing homonym processing in the L1 due to a newly-acquired L2 (Cook 2003). %U https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/eurosla.12.10bri