The bilingual as a competent but specific speaker‐hearer

Abstract A particular view of bilingualism — the monolingual (or fractional) view — has been given far too much importance in the study of bilinguals. According to it, the bilingual is (or should be) two monolinguals in one person. In this paper, the monolingual view is spelled out, and the negative consequences it has had on various areas of bilingual research are discussed. A bilingual (or wholistic) view is then proposed. According to it, the bilingual is not the sum of two complete or incomplete monolinguals; rather, he or she has a unique and specific linguistic configuration. This view is described and four areas, of research are discussed in its light: comparing monolinguals and bilinguals, language learning and language forgetting, the bilingual's speech modes, the bilingual child and ‘semilingualism’.