Structured heterogeneity and transcultural shifting: Bilingual processing of spatial deixis by Chinese immigrants in metropolitan New York

This study was conducted within a research framework that has documented transcultural shifting as bilingual subjects respond to spatial tasks: (1) tasks eliciting a contrast between a projected perspective--the reference point is the location of the verbally established reference point--and a non-projected perspective--the reference point is the language user's spatial location; (2) tasks eliciting a contrast between in-tandem imagery--the verbally established reference point is viewed as oriented away from the language user--and mirror imagery--the verbally established reference point is viewed as oriented toward the language user; Various studies have documented that bilingual speakers of Asian languages (e.g., Chinese) and African languages (e.g., Hausa) make (1) greater use of a projected perspective and in-tandem imagery when responding in their indigenous language; (2) greater use of a non-projected perspective and mirror imagery when responding in a European language such as English. This transcultural shifting has been significantly correlated with independent variables such as gender and amount of formal education.; In this study of 320 Chinese immigrants in metropolitan New York, these tasks were used along with a new task that investigated whether language users initially use the left-right or front-back axis when performing a specified action. The independent variables were (1) language used; (2) gender; (3) amount of formal education; (4) length of residence in the United States.; The major findings of the study were that all four independent variables were related to transcultural shifting on all three tasks: the Chinese immigrants made greater use of projected perspective, in-tandem imagery, and the left-right axis when they were (1) using Chinese; (2) male; (3) less formally educated; (4) in the United States for a shorter time. With respect to individual responses, the choices of projected perspective, in-tandem imagery, and left-right axis were significantly correlated.; This study provides further evidence that spatial deixis constitutes a domain sensitive not only to language and language education but also to other variables related to cross-cultural communication and westernization.