Workshop on New Frontiers in Psycholinguistic Studies of Chinese, Santa Barbara, CA, July 13-15, 2001

在过去的五十年里，语言学家和心理语言学家在成人的语言处理和儿童的语言学习方面发表了大量的研究成果。我们在这一领域的大部分知识都来自于对印欧语言的研究，特别是英语。这样的结果通常被解释为语言的普遍属性，并相应地推广。然而，近年来，人们对非印欧语言的研究兴趣激增。这种兴趣在一定程度上反映了一种“范式转变”，即对跨语言变异作用的重新概念化，而不是对语言共性的强调。汉语的心理语言学研究是朝这个方向迈出的非常重要的一步。汉语的语音、正字法、词汇和语法结构与主要语言学和心理语言学理论所依据的印欧语有很大的不同。一方面，汉语对试图理解语言加工和语言习得动态的心理语言学家提出了重大挑战；另一方面，它也为认知过程提供了新的窗口，为心理语言学分析提供了新的机会。在过去的二十年里，研究人员使用了各种理论和实验范式来考察汉语的加工及其习得。最近，他们将汉语作为一个关键的测试案例，应用神经和计算方法来研究心理语言学的核心问题。这些新的研究方法不仅考察了汉语的心理语言学过程，而且试图对语言处理和语言习得提供新的认识。本项目的具体目的是通过举办一个研讨会来加深我们对汉语语言处理和语言习得的心理语言学过程和机制的理解。研讨会汇集了在中国心理语言学方面做出开创性工作的著名学者。它为研究人员提供了一个理想的论坛，让他们传播和整合他们令人兴奋的新想法，并分享他们对未来方向的渴望。

In the last fifty years, linguists and psycholinguists have produced a large body of work on language processing in adults and language learning in children. Most of our knowledge in this domain has come from studies of Indo-European languages, in particular, English. Such results are usually interpreted as universal properties of language, and generalized accordingly. In recent years, however, there has been a surge of interest in the study of non-Indo-European languages. This interest to a certain degree reflects a 'paradigm shift', a reconceptualization of the role of cross-linguistic variation, in place of an emphasis on linguistic universals. The psycholinguistic study of Chinese represents one very important step in this direction. The phonological, orthographic, lexical, and grammatical structures of the Chinese language differ significantly from those of Indo-European languages on which major theories of linguistics and psycholinguistics are based. One the one hand, Chinese presents a major challenge to psycholinguists who attempt to understand the dynamics of language processing and language acquisition; on the other hand, it also presents new windows on cognitive processes and new opportunities for psycholinguistic analyses. In the last two decades, researchers have used a variety of theoretical and experimental paradigms to examine Chinese language processing and its acquisition. More recently, they have used Chinese as a crucial test case, applying neural and computational approaches to examine core problems in psycholinguistics. These new approaches have not only examined the psycholinguistic processes of Chinese, but also attempted to shed new light on language processing and language acquisition in general.The specific aim of this project is to advance our understanding of the psycholinguistic processes and mechanisms in Chinese language processing and language acquisition by organizing a workshop as part of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) Summer Linguistic Institute 2001 (to be held at the University of California, Santa Barbara, July 13-15, 2001). The workshop draws together eminent scholars who have done pioneering work in Chinese psycholinguistics. It provides an ideal forum for researchers to disseminate and integrate their exciting new ideas and share their aspirations for future directions.