Bilinguals often show evidence of cross language influences, such as facilitation in processing cognates. Here we use computational methods for analyzing spontaneous English texts written by hundreds of speakers of different L1s, at different levels of English proficiency, to investigate writers’ preference for using cognates over alternative word choices. We focus on English, since a majority of its lexicon is either of Romance or Germanic origin, allowing an investigation of the preference of speakers of Germanic and Romance L1s towards cognates between their L1 and English. Results show that L2 writers tend to prefer English cognates, and that this tendency is weaker as English proficiency level increases, suggesting diminishing effects of CLI. However, a comparison of the L2 writers with native English writers shows general overuse of cognates only for the Germanic, but not the Romance, L1 speakers, most likely due to the register of argumentative writing.

双语者经常表现出跨语言影响的证据，例如促进同源词的处理。在这里，我们使用计算方法来分析数百名不同母语、不同英语熟练程度的使用者所写的自发英语文本，以调查作者对使用同源词而不是替代词选择的偏好。我们关注英语，因为它的大部分词典都是源自罗曼语或日耳曼语，因此可以调查日耳曼语和罗曼语 L1 语言的使用者对其 L1 和英语之间的同源词的偏好。结果表明，第二语言作者倾向于更喜欢英语同源词，并且随着英语熟练程度的提高，这种趋势减弱，这表明 CLI 的影响逐渐减弱。然而，将第二语言作家与英语母语作家进行比较表明，只有日耳曼语系作家普遍过度使用同源词，而不是罗曼语系第一语言作家，这很可能是由于议论文的语域所致。