Doctoral Dissertation Research: Language-Specific Constraints on Scope Interpretation in First Language Acquisition

博士论文研究：第一语言习得范围解释的语言特定限制

• 批准号: 0617350
• 负责人: Colin Phillips
• 金额: $ 1.15万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-07-15 至 2008-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0617350&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Language; Specific

A central problem for a theory of language acquisition is to determine how children learn both what is possible and what is not possible. This problem is especially acute for phenomena residing at the boundary between syntax and semantics, where (a) the mapping from surface form to meaning is often complex and (b) languages vary in how form and meaning align. This project aims to use the acquisition of language-specific constraints on scope interpretation as a probe into the character of the syntax-semantics mapping and the learning of this mapping. Several constructions in Japanese do not show scope ambiguities that the corresponding English sentences exhibit. Under the direction of Dr. Colin Phillips and Dr. Jeffrey Lidz, Mr. Takuya Goro will investigate Japanese preschool children's interpretations of those constructions, using the Truth Value Judgment Task. The results from the project will expand the empirical coverage of studies on the acquisition of scope. Much previous research in this domain has investigated the pragmatic and processing constraints that might underlie children's bias for surface scope interpretations of scopally ambiguous sentences. In contrast, this project focuses on children's mastery of constraints that exclude certain scope interpretations. The project will also contribute to an improved understanding of the mechanism that is involved in the acquisition of language-specific constraints on scope interpretations Furthermore, the project will determine whether children have initial biases towards particular kinds of interpretations, and will therefore contribute to an understanding of the initial state of language learning. One broader impact of the study is that the research project will help to establish new partnerships for language acquisition research on Japanese, based on developing institutional connections with preschools, and training Japanese researchers in state-of-the-art research methods in the study of language development. Partnerships with preschools are common in the US, but relatively rare in Japan. The new relationships developed in this way will benefit not only this research project, but also future international collaborations on comparative language acquisition studies on Japanese and English.

语言习得理论的核心问题是确定儿童如何学习什么是可能的，什么是不可能的。这个问题对于句法和语义之间的边界现象尤为严重，因为（a）从表面形式到意义的映射往往很复杂，（B）语言在形式和意义的匹配方面各不相同。本计画旨在借由习得语言特定的作用域解释限制，来探讨句法-语义映射的特性与学习。日语中有几个构式不像英语句子那样表现出范围歧义。在Colin菲利普斯博士和Jeffrey Lidz博士的指导下，Takuya Goro先生将使用真值判断任务调查日本学龄前儿童对这些结构的解释。该项目的结果将扩大关于范围获取的研究的经验覆盖面。许多先前的研究在这一领域已经调查了语用和加工的限制，可能是儿童的偏见，表面范围的解释范围歧义句。相反，这个项目的重点是儿童掌握的限制，排除某些范围的解释。该项目还将有助于更好地理解在范围解释上获得特定语言限制的机制。此外，该项目将确定儿童是否对特定类型的解释有初始偏见，因此将有助于理解语言学习的初始状态。该研究的一个更广泛的影响是，该研究项目将有助于建立新的合作伙伴关系，在发展与学前教育机构的联系，并在语言发展研究中培养日本研究人员的最先进的研究方法的基础上，对日语的语言习得研究。与幼儿园合作在美国很常见，但在日本相对较少。这种新的关系不仅有利于本研究项目，而且有利于今后的日语和英语比较语言习得研究的国际合作。