arXiv:2604.07067cs.CL2026-04

研究发现,双语模型的跨语言激活依赖词汇共享编码方式。

Is Cross-Lingual Transfer in Bilingual Models Human-Like? A Study with Overlapping Word Forms in Dutch and English

  • 通过共享或独立嵌入模拟词汇重叠,测试模型跨语言激活
  • 共享嵌入时,真朋友和假朋友均出现促进效应
  • 频率比形式-意义一致性更能影响跨语言激活

双语者阅读时,具有相同表面形式的词会引发跨语言激活:真朋友(如'friends')通常促进理解,而假朋友(如'false friends')则造成干扰或无影响。本研究考察双语语言模型是否表现出类似模式。在四种词汇共享条件下训练荷英因果变换器,评估其对来自双语阅读研究的心理语言学刺激的响应,使用预测意外度与嵌入相似性分析。结果显示,模型大多保持语言分离;跨语言效应仅在嵌入共享时出现。此时,真朋友与假朋友均较对照组呈现促进效应。回归分析表明,这些效应主要由词频驱动,而非形式-意义映射的一致性。仅当真朋友共享嵌入时,模型才重现人类双语者的定性模式。总体而言,双语模型捕捉了部分跨语言激活现象,但其与人类处理的契合程度关键取决于词汇重叠的编码方式,可能限制其作为双语阅读解释模型的充分性。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Bilingual speakers show cross-lingual activation during reading, especially for words with shared surface form. Cognates (friends) typically lead to facilitation, whereas interlingual homographs (false friends) cause interference or no effect. We examine whether cross-lingual activation in bilingual language models mirrors these patterns. We train Dutch-English causal Transformers under four vocabulary-sharing conditions that manipulate whether (false) friends receive shared or language-specific embeddings. Using psycholinguistic stimuli from bilingual reading studies, we evaluate the models through surprisal and embedding similarity analyses. The models largely maintain language separation, and cross-lingual effects arise primarily when embeddings are shared. In these cases, both friends and false friends show facilitation relative to controls. Regression analyses reveal that these effects are mainly driven by frequency rather than consistency in form-meaning mapping. Only when just friends share embeddings are the qualitative patterns of bilinguals reproduced. Overall, bilingual language models capture some cross-linguistic activation effects. However, their alignment with human processing seems to critically depend on how lexical overlap is encoded, possibly limiting their explanatory adequacy as models of bilingual reading.

双语模型跨语言激活词汇共享心理语言学

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