Doctoral Dissertation Research: Linking comprehension costs to production patterns during the processing of mixed language

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Codeswitching, defined as the alternation of two languages within bilingual discourse, is ubiquitous in many bilingual communities, including Spanish-English bilingual communities in the U.S. The motivation for this project derives from the fact that bilinguals' ability to codeswitch reveals important aspects of language and human cognition that would not be readily apparent by studying individuals who speak one language alone. Most codeswitching studies have focused on spoken production by means of naturalistic data collection; however, the way in which bilinguals comprehend switches has been largely unexplored. This is a significant gap because codeswitching is not only a production phenomenon: when a speaker produces a codeswitched sentence, the recipient of the message must also engage interpretive mechanisms that can accommodate the mixing of two languages. Given this gap, Rosa Guzzardo Tamargo, under the direction of Drs. Paola Dussias and Chip Gerfen, will investigate the constraints that guide the comprehension of codeswitched sentences. The hypothesis being tested, which derives from current models of language comprehension, predicts that frequent switches in production are easier for individuals to comprehend than less frequent switches. The comprehension of two types of codeswitches will be examined: frequently occurring codeswitches involving estar + verb (e.g., los niños están playing) and infrequent codeswitches involving haber + verb (e.g., los niños habían played). The approach to be used integrates reading comprehension tasks with production tasks. Eye movements will be recorded while Spanish-English bilinguals read codeswitched sentences. Production data from the same bilinguals will also be collected to test the link between ease of comprehension and production frequency. Results from these experiments will inform current debates about the architecture of the human sentence processing mechanism and the link between the production and comprehension systems. The planned studies will also enhance the infrastructure for research by establishing opportunities for collaboration between faculty members and students at two U.S. institutions.