Doctoral Dissertation Research: Process of Language Production in Tunisian Arabic

该论文奖将支持突尼斯阿拉伯语语音错误的心理语言学实验。阿拉伯语的构词法与更常见的语言的构词法不同。跨语言研究的错误现象，使用一种语言与不寻常的形态语音学特性允许一个新的和更尖锐的测试索赔的句子加工和生产。核心问题围绕着所谓的“交换错误”（例如，“我把公文包忘在雪茄里了”）。这些错误不仅会使整个单词的顺序发生错误，也会使较小的语法元素发生错误。例如，在英语中，这样的错误可能会使词缀（例如，“它等待支付”和“你必须正视它”）。 以往的实验测试的性质，在英语，德语和罗曼语的言语错误发挥了重要作用，心理语言学帐户的语言生产。 这个研究项目谈到语音错误现象的替代帐户，解决生产理论的一个重要领域，在语法，形态学和音韵学的接口，利用现有的阿拉伯语语音错误数据库的实验方法。该研究代表了促进博士培养的既定和创新范式的结合。学生，同时以原创的方式对一个重要的科学问题做出贡献。论文作者是亚利桑那大学第二语言习得和教学项目的突尼斯女性，她对将心理语言学研究与应用领域联系起来感兴趣。对她的研究的支持扩大了代表性不足的群体的参与。这项研究有可能有助于为阿拉伯语学习者开发更有效的教学材料。现代语言协会最近关于美国学院和大学外语课程入学情况的报告发现，2002年至2006年，学习阿拉伯语的学生增加了127%。因此，这项研究是及时的，这一潜在的关键。该研究小组还致力于以与阿拉伯语国家的学者联系的方式传播研究结果，这些学者可能无法随时访问美国学者通常喜欢的会议和期刊。该项目将是突尼斯阿拉伯语语言产生过程的第一个研究。这也将是第一个实验研究，利用语音错误数据，以促进理论评估的闪语词结构。在某种程度上，这项工作出现在突尼斯和更广泛的阿拉伯学术界可以访问的场所，它也将提高该地区心理语言学研究的知名度。

This dissertation award will support psycholinguistic experiments on speech errors in Tunisian Arabic. Word formation in Arabic differs from that in more commonly studied languages. The cross-language study of error phenomena using a language with unusual morpho-phonological properties permits a new and sharper test of claims about sentence processing and production. The central questions revolve around so-called 'exchange errors' (e.g., "I left my briefcase in the cigar"). These errors can mis-order not just whole words but smaller grammatical elements as well. In English, for example, such errors may strand affixes (e.g., "it waits to pay" and "you have to square it facely"). Previous experimental tests of the properties of speech errors in English, German, and Romance languages have played an important role in psycholinguistic accounts of language production. This research project speaks to alternative accounts of speech error phenomena, addressing a vital area of production theory at the interface of syntax, morphology, and phonology with an experimental method that utilizes an existing speech error database in Arabic. The research represents a combination of established and innovative paradigms that promote the training of a Ph.D. student while contributing in an original way to a significant scientific problem. The dissertator is a Tunisian woman in the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Program at the University of Arizona, with an interest in linking psycholinguistic research to applied domains. Support of her research broadens the participation of underrepresented groups. The research has the potential to help develop more effective pedagogical materials for Arabic language-learners. The Modern Language Association's recent report on enrollment in foreign-language courses in American colleges and universities found a 127% increase in students studying Arabic between 2002 and 2006. The research is therefore timely and this potential critical. The research team is also committed to disseminating the results in ways that connect with scholars from Arabic-speaking countries who may not have ready access to the conferences and journals that American scholars typically enjoy. This project will be the first study of language production processes in Tunisian Arabic. It will also be the first experimental study to exploit speech error data to contribute to the theoretical evaluation of Semitic word structure. To the extent that this work appears in venues that are accessible to the Tunisian and broader Arabic academic communities, it will also raise the visibility of psycholinguistic research in that region.