When bilinguals switch between their two languages, they often alternate between words whose formation rules in one language are different from the other (e.g., a noun-verb compound in one language may be a verb-noun compound in another language). In this study, we analyze behavioral performance and electrophysiological activity to examine the effects of morphological configuration on language control during production and comprehension. Chinese–English bilinguals completed a joint naming-listening task involving cued language switching. The findings showed differential effects of morphological configuration on language production and comprehension. In production, morphological configuration was processed sequentially, suggesting that bilingual production may be a combination of sequential processing and inhibition of morphological levels and language interference. In comprehension, however, bottom-up control processes appear to mask the influence of sequential processing on language switching. Together, these findings underscore differential functionalities of language control in speaking and listening.

当双语者在两种语言之间切换时，他们经常会交替使用一种语言中的构成规则与另一种语言中的构成规则不同的单词（例如，一种语言中的名词-动词复合词可能是另一种语言中的动词-名词复合词）。在本研究中，我们分析行为表现和电生理活动，以检查形态配置对产生和理解过程中语言控制的影响。汉英双语者完成了一项涉及提示语言切换的联合命名-聆听任务。研究结果表明形态结构对语言产生和理解的不同影响。在生产中，形态结构是顺序处理的，这表明双语生产可能是顺序处理与形态水平抑制和语言干扰的结合。然而，在理解过程中，自下而上的控制过程似乎掩盖了顺序处理对语言切换的影响。总之，这些发现强调了语言控制在口语和听力方面的不同功能。