Doctoral Dissertation Research: Variable Input and the Acquisition of Plurality in Two Varieties of Spanish

博士论文研究：变量输入与两种西班牙语变体的复数习得

• 批准号: 0446769
• 负责人: Cristina Schmitt
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Michigan State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-01-01 至 2006-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0446769&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Variable; Input

A fundamental question in the study of child language acquisition is that of the relationship between the input the child receives and the mental grammar that the child constructs based on that input. With National Science Foundation support, and under the direction of Dr. Cristina Schmitt, Ms. Karen Miller will investigate the role of variable input on the acquisition of plurality in the Spanish of Chile and of Mexico City. This investigation addresses two main research questions: (i) Can ambiguous input caused by variation affect comprehension while leaving surface production patterns similar to the adult? (ii) How much ambiguity in the input will cause a child to misanalyze the adult input? Adult speakers of Chilean Spanish have a tendency to aspirate ([h]) and/or omit ([zero]) final /s/. For this reason, the plural morpheme is realized sometimes as [zero] and sometimes as [s] or [h], which implies that the Chilean child receives ambiguous input. In other words, the child hears evidence both for plural morphology (the [s] or [h] pronunciations) and against plural morphology (the [zero] pronunciation). On the other hand, in the Spanish of Mexico City, no such reduction or omission occurs and hence the Mexican child receives unambiguous input for a plural morpheme; it is always produced (the [s] pronunciation). This variation therefore allows one to test the hypothesis that children's early grammars are affected by ambiguity in the input they receive. This study uses free speech samples, repetition and naming tasks and various comprehension tasks to test the degree to which children (i) mirror the linguistic variation of the adult population and (ii) understand plural morphology. The results of this research will have an important social impact on matters concerning education and language testing in children from socially disadvantaged groups, since many tests of early children's language abilities do not adequately take social variation or its effects on learning into consideration.

儿童语言习得研究中的一个基本问题是儿童接受的输入和儿童根据输入构建的心理语法之间的关系。在国家科学基金会的支持下，在克里斯蒂娜·施密特博士的指导下，卡伦·米勒女士将调查变量投入在智利和墨西哥城西班牙语多元化习得中的作用。这项调查解决了两个主要的研究问题：(i)由变异引起的模糊输入是否会影响理解，同时留下与成人相似的表面生产模式？（ii）输入中有多少歧义会导致孩子错误分析成人的输入？说智利西班牙语的成年人倾向于送音（[h]）和/或省略（[zero]）尾音/s/。由于这个原因，复数语素有时被实现为[zero]，有时被实现为[s]或[h]，这意味着智利儿童接收到的输入是模糊的。换句话说，孩子听到的证据既支持复数形态（[s]或[h]发音），也反对复数形态（[0]发音）。另一方面，在墨西哥城的西班牙语中，没有这样的还原或省略发生，因此墨西哥儿童接受到复数语素的明确输入；它总是发出[s]的发音。因此，这种变化允许人们测试儿童早期语法受到他们接收的输入的模糊性影响的假设。本研究使用自由言论样本、重复和命名任务以及各种理解任务来测试儿童(i)反映成人群体语言变化的程度以及（ii）理解复数形态的程度。这项研究的结果将对社会弱势群体儿童的教育和语言测试问题产生重要的社会影响，因为许多早期儿童语言能力的测试没有充分考虑到社会差异及其对学习的影响。