SEMANTIC NETWORK ANALYSIS OF BILINGUAL STUDENTS ARABIC/FRENCH AND MONOLINGUAL FRENCH STUDENTS

Abstract

The study of semantic networks has already started with Hendrix (1979) and Fahlman (1979) in
their respective studies about partitioned networks and propagation markers networks. These
studies are directly related to the field of artificial intelligence for representing and storing in the
memory. The psychologists (Collins and Quillian, 1969, 1970) who proposed a hierarchical
structure for the study of memorization. This model has proven ordered hierarchy in their study
about the response time to the sentences: “A canary is it an animal? “A canary is it a bird? “ In
fact, the study of semantic networks could help us understand how semantic networks are
organized in the mental lexicon? What are the types of relations that these words among
themselves in the mental lexicon? To answer these questions, we want to make a comparison
between the semantic networks of Algerian students bilingual Arabic / French in Algeria and
French students in France to apply the technique of free association.