Doctoral Dissertation Research: Psycholinguistic and Neurocognitive Indices of Prediction in Processing Nonliteral and Fixed Expressions

语言以其最成功的形式将人们联系在一起。通过沟通，不同背景的人能够分享想法和经验，并最终弥合不同文化之间的差距。然而，当沟通不成功，无法理解语言造成障碍时，挑战就出现了。习语是一个很好的例子，说明误解可能出现的环境。对于一般有文化的成年人来说，一个非常熟悉的习语，如"一巴掌"或"踢桶"，是这样一个习语，一旦识别出单词的特定顺序，周围的上下文信息足够多，非字面意义就变得最有可能，而且非字面意义很容易被检索出来。由于这些表达比明确表达的内容更能传达信息，因此对于第二语言使用者来说，它们往往很难掌握。此外，由于许多习语也有一个合理的字面解释，它可以是相当模糊的学习者，以确定是否字面解释的意思，或是否非字面意义的意图（例如："该名男子踢桶是充满水"）。虽然母语者受益于他们日常接触这些表达在会话讲话，第二语言学习者处于不利地位，由于他们缺乏接触，往往解释成语字面意思，或试图翻译和使用成语从他们的母语。在Darren坦纳和基尔·克里斯蒂安森博士的指导下，尼萨·布克斯博士将进行博士论文研究，主要目标有两个：1）更详细地确定在阅读过程中习语是如何实时处理的，2）了解第二语言学习者如何处理公式化的固定表达。本研究将习语表达与字面搭配（如"watch a movie"或"walk the dog"）进行了比较，这两种语言都是母语人士熟悉的语言类型，因为它们经常同时出现。虽然更多的语言经验有助于母语人士识别这些类型的表达，但迄今为止还没有研究比较过这些表达在句子处理过程中的阅读方式，以及大脑是否以不同的方式处理一种类型的“类组块”表达。目前的项目将使用在本地和非本地阅读过程中的眼动和实时神经活动的措施，以更好地比较这些人群如何处理字面和非字面语言。具体来说，理解高度熟悉的习惯表达（例如习语，"kick the bucket"）与高度熟悉的字面表达（例如搭配，"watch a movie"）的比较有可能说明习惯表达，非字面表达在母语人士的头脑中是如何表现的。此外，了解第二语言学习者在自然阅读过程中如何处理这些不同类型的固定表达，有可能有助于为第二语言教学提供信息。通过将语言理解过程与支持语言理解的认知和神经机制联系起来，我们可以更深入地了解第二语言学习者在真实的理解语言时利用了哪些信息。这种理解最终将更好地支持制定有效的教学干预措施，努力促进第二语言课堂的流利和成功习得。

In its most successful form, language connects people. Through communication, people of different backgrounds are able to share ideas and experiences and ultimately bridge gaps across cultures. A challenge presents itself, however, when communication is not successful and the inability to understand language creates a barrier. Idioms are an excellent example of an environment where misinterpretations can arise. For the average literate adult speaker, a highly familiar idiom, such as "a slap in the face" or "kick the bucket," is one where, once a particular ordering of words is recognized and the surrounding context is informative enough, the nonliteral meaning becomes most probable, and the nonliteral meaning can easily be retrieved. As these expressions communicate more than what is explicitly said, they are often difficult for second-language speakers to master. Further, as many idioms also have a plausible literal interpretation, it can be rather ambiguous for a learner to determine whether the literal interpretation was meant, or whether a nonliteral meaning was intended (e.g. "The man kicked the bucket that was full of water"). While native speakers benefit from their daily exposure to these expressions in conversational speech, second-language learners are disadvantaged due to their lack of exposure, and often interpret idiomatic language literally, or attempt to translate and use idioms from their native language. Under the direction of Drs. Darren Tanner and Kiel Christianson, Nyssa Bulkes will conduct doctoral dissertation research with two primary goals: 1) to identify in closer detail how idioms are processed in real-time during reading, and 2) to understand how second-language learners process formulaic, fixed expressions. This research compares idiomatic expressions to literal collocations (e.g. "watch a movie" or "walk the dog"), both of which are familiar types of language to native speakers, due to their frequent co-occurrence. While more experience with the language facilitates recognition of these types of expressions in native speakers, no research to date has compared how these expressions are read during sentence processing, and whether one type of "chunk-like" expression is processed by the brain any differently. The current project will use measures of eye movements and real-time neural activity during native and nonnative reading in an effort to better compare how these populations process literal and nonliteral language. Specifically, understanding how highly familiar idiomatic expressions (e.g. idioms, "kick the bucket") compare to highly familiar literal expressions (e.g. collocations, "watch a movie") has the potential to illustrate how idiomatic, nonliteral expressions are represented in the minds of native speakers. Additionally, understanding how second-language learners process these different types of fixed expressions during natural reading has the potential to help to inform second-language instruction. By tying language comprehension processes to the cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting them, we are afforded a deeper understanding of what information second-language learners make use of as they comprehend language in real time. This understanding will ultimately better support the formulation of effective teaching interventions, working to promote fluency and successful acquisition in second-language classrooms.