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

语言最成功的形式是把人们联系在一起。通过交流，不同背景的人能够分享想法和经验，最终跨越文化的鸿沟。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，在这种环境中会产生误解。对于一般有文化的成年人来说，一个非常熟悉的习语，比如“打脸”或“踢桶”，一旦一个特定的单词顺序被识别出来，并且周围的上下文信息足够丰富，非字面意义就变得最有可能，而非字面意义很容易被检索出来。由于这些表达表达的不仅仅是明确表达的内容，所以对于说第二语言的人来说，掌握这些表达通常比较困难。此外，由于许多习语也有似是而非的字面解释，学习者很难确定是字面上的解释，还是非字面上的意思。“那个人踢了装满水的桶”)。虽然母语人士受益于他们每天在会话中接触到这些表达，但第二语言学习者由于缺乏接触而处于不利地位，并且经常从字面上解释习惯语言，或者试图翻译和使用母语中的习语。在博士的指导下。达伦·坦纳（Darren Tanner）和基尔·克里斯蒂安森（Kiel Christianson）、尼萨·布尔克斯（Nyssa Bulkes）将进行博士论文研究，其主要目标有两个：1)更详细地确定习语在阅读过程中是如何实时处理的；2)了解第二语言学习者是如何处理公式化的固定表达的。这项研究比较了习惯表达和字面搭配(例如：“看电影”或“遛狗”)，这两种语言对母语人士来说都是熟悉的，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，以及一种“块状”表达在大脑中的处理方式是否有任何不同。目前的项目将通过测量母语和非母语阅读时的眼球运动和实时神经活动来更好地比较这些人群是如何处理文字和非文字语言的。具体来说，理解非常熟悉的习惯表达（例如习语，“kick the bucket”）与非常熟悉的字面表达（例如搭配，“watch a movie”）相比，有可能说明习惯的、非字面的表达是如何在母语人士的头脑中表现出来的。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他们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实时理解语言时使用了哪些信息。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性和成功习得。

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.