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

儿童语言习得研究中的一个基本问题是儿童接受的输入与儿童基于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，凯伦米勒女士将调查智利和墨西哥城西班牙语中可变输入对获得多元化的作用。这项调查解决了两个主要的研究问题：（一）模糊的输入引起的变化会影响理解，而留下类似于成人的表面生产模式？(ii)输入中有多少模糊性会导致儿童错误分析成人的输入？智利西班牙语的成年人有一种倾向，即送气（[h]）和/或省略（[zero]）最后的/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受了模糊的输入。换句话说，孩子既听到了支持复数形态（[s]或[h]发音）的证据，也听到了反对复数形态（[zero]发音）的证据。另一方面，在墨西哥城的西班牙语中，没有这样的减少或省略发生，因此墨西哥儿童接收到复数语素的明确输入;它总是产生（[s]发音）。因此，这种变化允许一个测试的假设，即儿童的早期语法的影响，在他们收到的输入歧义。本研究使用自由言语样本，重复和命名任务和各种理解任务来测试儿童（i）反映成年人的语言变化和（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社会差异或其对学习的影响。

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.