EAPSI: Investigating the Chinese Bei Construction using Cross Linguistic Priming

该奖项支持有助于发展对双语习得理解的研究？随着全球化的加剧，这一现象正在加剧。它扩展了一种相对较新的技术(跨语言启动)的使用，以解决一个棘手的理论问题。这项研究将有助于解决汉语句法中一个长期存在的问题？被字句的结构。许多研究者认为被字句的抽象结构与英语被动句是相同的，也有人认为它是一个独立的结构。理解这一结构的本质有助于我们理解双语语言习得，并可能改进语言教学方法。这项研究将在国立台湾师范大学进行，由著名的启动方法论专家徐东波教授指导。以前的研究表明，有争议的普通话被字句是以英语被动句为基元的，这表明这两种句式具有抽象的结构表征。然而，这种启动效应可能是由于非规范语序的启动(主位先于施事而不是施事在主位之前)。本研究将检验以非规范语序启动的英汉两种语言使用者是否会因为语序的影响而产生被动结构或被字句。如果实验结果显示没有启动，那么我们可以得出结论，先前关于被动句和被动句的启动的结果确实表明这两个结构之间存在共同的抽象句法结构。该项目将测试60名3至5岁的中英双语儿童，以及类似数量的成年人。参与者将看到一幅图画，这幅图画将使用一个主动句来描述，或者在其上的论元顺序是非规范的(例如，主题化或分裂)。然后，参与者将描述随后的图片。参与者将接受普通话主语-英语目标和英语主语-普通话目标的测试。如果受试者对非规范句子产生更多的被动反应(而不是对主动句的反应)，我们可以得出结论，前人的研究中发现的启动效应确实是由于共享的抽象表征的启动--汉语被字句确实与英语被动结构共享抽象结构表征。这些结果有助于通过新的心理语言学实验方法来解决一个长期存在的争论。这项NSF EAPSI奖是与台湾科技部合作资助的。

This award supports research that helps develop understanding of bilingual language acquisition ? a phenomenon that is growing as globalization increases. It extends the use of a relatively new technique (cross-language priming) to solve a troublesome theoretical problem. This research will help solve a long-lasting problem in Chinese syntax ? the structure of the bei construction. Many researchers believe that the abstract structure of the bei construction is the same as the English passive, while others believe it is a separate structure. Understanding the nature of this construction will aid in our understanding of bilingual language acquisition, and may improve language teaching methods. This research will be conducted at National Taiwan Normal University under the guidance of Professor Dong-Bo Hsu, a noted expert on priming methodology. Previous research has shown that the disputed Mandarin bei construction primes, and is primed by English passives; suggesting that the two patterns share an abstract structural representation. However, it is possible that this priming effect is due to priming of noncanonical word order (theme-before-agent instead of agent-before-theme). This research will test whether speakers of English and Chinese who are primed by sentences with noncanonical word order produce passives or bei constructions because of the effect of that word order. If the results of this experiment show no priming, then we can conclude that previous results showing priming of bei of and by the English passive do indeed indicate a shared abstract syntactic structure between the two constructions. This project will test 60 Mandarin-English bilingual children between the ages of three and five years, and a similar number of adults. Participants will be shown a picture which will be described using either an active sentence or on in which the argument order is noncanonical (e.g., topicalization or clefting). Participants will then describe a subsequent picture. Participants will be tested on both Mandarin prime-English target, and English prime-Mandarin target. If participants produce more passives in response to noncanonical sentences (rather than in response to actives), we can conclude that the priming effect found in previous work was indeed due to priming of a shared abstract representation - the Mandarin bei construction does indeed share an abstract structural representation with the English passive. These results can help to settle a long-standing debate by way of new psycholinguistic experimental methods. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan.