Doctoral Dissertation Research: Electrophysiological responses to violations of verb argument structure in Spanish-English bilinguals' first language

博士论文研究：西班牙语-英语双语者第一语言中动词参数结构违规的电生理反应

• 批准号: 1528458
• 负责人: Loraine Obler
• 金额: $ 1.63万
• 依托单位: CUNY Graduate School University Center
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-06-01 至 2017-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1528458&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Electrophysiological; responses

Bilingual speakers make up a large portion of the population, both in the U.S. and abroad. Their two languages are not completely compartmentalized in the bilingual brain and mind, but rather the languages interact in dynamic ways. It is still unclear, however, whether learning a second language can affect one's native language, and if so, to what extent. Previous research has shown that certain grammatical constructions are strongly linked in the two languages of bilingual speakers. What about grammatical constructions that exist in only one of the two languages? Evidence that a construction which exists only in the second-learned language can be used to interpret sentences in the native language would provide strong support for an integrated grammatical system in bilinguals and one that is affected by new experiences. This project takes advantage of a grammatical difference between Spanish and English. In English, manner-of-motion verbs such as 'run' and 'jump' can be used to describe an event in which someone causes another person (or being) to carry out the action. For example, in the sentence "The trainer jumped the horse over the fence," the trainer causes the action to occur, but it is the horse that performs the action of jumping. In Spanish, these same verbs ('correr' [run] and 'saltar' [jump]) cannot be used to describe causative actions; constructions of this type are ungrammatical (and uninterpretable in a causative sense). The study will investigate whether native Spanish speakers who have learned English can interpret these ungrammatical sentences in Spanish due to their knowledge of English. To investigate whether age of second language acquisition or language dominance are important factors, early versus late acquirers of English will be compared, as well as speakers who are more proficient in Spanish versus those more proficient in English. Finally, to determine whether processing of these structures occurs automatically or only after conscious application of linguistic rules, the study includes electrophysiological measures (event-related potentials) and judgments of sentence acceptability.

无论是在美国还是在国外，说双语的人占人口的很大一部分。他们的两种语言在双语者的大脑和思想中并没有完全划分，而是以动态的方式相互作用。然而，目前尚不清楚学习第二语言是否会影响一个人的母语，如果会，影响到什么程度。先前的研究表明，双语者使用两种语言时，某些语法结构是紧密相连的。如果语法结构只存在于两种语言中的一种呢？只有在第二语言中才存在的结构可以用来解释母语句子的证据，将为双语者的综合语法系统和受新经历影响的语法系统提供强有力的支持。这个项目利用了西班牙语和英语的语法差异。在英语中，像“run”和“jump”这样的动作方式动词可以用来描述某人导致另一个人（或存在）执行动作的事件。例如，在句子“the trainer jumping the horse over the fence”中，训练者导致动作发生，但执行跳跃动作的是马。在西班牙语中，这些相同的动词（'correr‘[跑]和’saltar'[跳]）不能用来描述使役行为；这种类型的结构是不合语法的（并且在使役意义上是不可解释的）。这项研究将调查母语为西班牙语的人是否会因为他们的英语知识而用西班牙语解释这些不符合语法的句子。为了调查第二语言习得的年龄或语言优势是否是重要因素，将比较早期和晚期英语习得者，以及更精通西班牙语的人与更精通英语的人。最后，为了确定这些结构的加工是自动发生的还是有意识地应用语言规则后才发生的，研究包括电生理测量（事件相关电位）和句子可接受性判断。