EAPSI: Wugs, Words, and Memory: An Experimental Investigation into the Mental Representation of Sino-Japanese Roots

EAPSI：乌格、文字和记忆：中日根源心理表征的实验研究

• 批准号: 1714076
• 负责人: Jeffrey Adler
• 金额: $ 0.54万
• 依托单位: Adler Jeffrey
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-06-15 至 2018-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1714076&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAPSI; Wugs; Words; Memory; Experimental

A single word or morpheme - the building block of linguistic meaning - may be realized differently, depending on its linguistic environment. This variability begs the question: how are words represented in memory? A minimal theory holds that only the minimum amount of information necessary to identify a word is included in a representation, to conserve space in memory. Any variation in a word's utterance is understood as a result of independent cognitive mechanisms. A maximal theory holds that all variants of a given word are stored, to maximize contextual sensitivity. While the two theories are substantively different, they are difficult to tease apart: minimal representation with cognitive processes accounts for variation as well as maximal representation. Under the direction of Prof. Shigeto Kawahara at Keio University, in Tokyo, Japan, the researcher will experimentally investigate an empirical domain where the theories make distinct predictions. Sino-Japanese roots (root words from Chinese) appear in pairs, or "compounds". Roots have different realizations in different compounds. For instance, the root meaning {DIFFERENT} is realized as [bet]+tou and [betu]+noo. Under the minimal theory, the representation of {DIFFERENT} would be /bet/. The /u/ would be derived by cognitive process. Under the maximal theory though, the representation would be /betu/. Both theories account for the variation in common compounds. However, the theories make different predictions about what speakers would produce in unfamiliar contexts. Thus, the researcher will use wug-tests to probe the representation of Sino-Japanese roots. In a wug-test, speakers are presented with a novel object and a novel name for that object (e.g. "wug"). A speaker is then shown the wug in different situations, and asked how they would describe the situation in such a way as to manipulate linguistic context. The research will present speakers with novel Sino-Japanese root compounds, and see how they describe the situation. In this way, we can test if speakers' behavior reflects the representation of Sino-Japanese roots as minimal or maximal.This award, under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program, supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

一个单词或词素-语言意义的基石-可能会有不同的实现方式，这取决于它的语言环境。这种差异性引出了一个问题：单词在记忆中是如何表现的？最小理论认为，只有识别单词所需的最小量的信息才包含在表示中，以节省内存空间。一个词的发音中的任何变化都被理解为独立的认知机制的结果。最大化理论认为，一个给定单词的所有变体都被存储，以最大化上下文敏感性。虽然这两个理论有本质的不同，但它们很难区分开来：认知过程的最小表征和最大表征都能解释变异。在日本东京庆应义塾大学的Shigeto Kawahara教授的指导下，研究人员将通过实验研究一个理论做出不同预测的经验领域。中日词根（来自汉语的词根）成对出现，或称“复合词”。根在不同的化合物中有不同的实现。例如，词根意义{DIFFERENT}被实现为[bet]+tou和[betu]+诺奥。在最小理论下，{DIFFERENT}的表示是/bet/。这个/u/是由认知过程推导出来的。在极大值理论下，表示将是/betu/。这两种理论都解释了常见化合物的变异。然而，这些理论对说话者在不熟悉的语境中会产生什么做出了不同的预测。因此，研究者将使用wug测验来探讨中日词根的表征。在wug测试中，说话者被呈现一个新的物体和该物体的新名称（例如“wug”）。然后向说话者展示不同情况下的wug，并询问他们如何以操纵语言语境的方式描述情况。这项研究将向演讲者展示新颖的中日词根复合词，看看他们如何描述这种情况。通过这种方式，我们可以测试说话者的行为是否反映了中日根的最小或最大代表性。该奖项是由美国国家科学基金会（NSF）和日本科学促进会（Japan Society for the Promotion of Science）共同资助的东亚和太平洋暑期研究所（East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes）项目，旨在资助美国研究生的暑期研究。