Doctoral Dissertation Research: The constraints of dual morphological systems on visual word processing in Maltese

博士论文研究：双形态系统对马耳他语视觉文字处理的限制

• 批准号: 1918143
• 负责人: Heidi Harley
• 金额: $ 1.8万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-08-01 至 2021-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1918143&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; constraints; dual

All languages have strategies for combining independently meaningful linguistic units, called morphemes, to build words. Most languages, like English, primarily combine these units by linearly appending them to one another (e.g. re- + write - rewrite); such languages are said to have linear morphology. Semitic languages, like Arabic, are famous for having nonlinear morphology: discontinuous units which express meaning and grammatical information are combined non-linearly (e.g. Arabic k-t-b 'writing' + aa-i 'doer, NOUN' - kaatib 'author'). Maltese is particularly unusual in its morphological characteristics: as a Semitic language, Maltese has primarily used non-linear morphology historically. However, for the past millennium it has been in close contact with a series of languages that use linear morphology (Sicilian, Italian, French, and English), and speakers have heavily borrowed words and adopted linear morphological strategies from these languages. Today, Maltese comprises a "mixed" language: at least half of all words are borrowed from non-Semitic languages (and so do not exhibit non-linear morphology), and speakers use both linear and non-linear word-building strategies extensively. This project investigates how the presence of distinct morphological systems in Maltese affects word processing, exploring differences in how Maltese readers recognize Semitic words vs. non-Semitic borrowings. It explores the impact of historical language mixing on the processes underlying daily language use, and so has implications for the study of languages in similar contact situations. The results of a series of experiments will comprise the data analyzed in the Co-PI's dissertation. The project will also produce a database of Maltese word recognition data, the first such database for a language with non-linear morphology, which other researchers may use to study language processing.The Co-PI, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona, will conduct a series of psycholinguistic experiments investigating how the existence of distinct lexicons exhibiting unique morphological characteristics (native Semitic words vs. non-Semitic borrowings) affects visual word recognition in Maltese. Previous research has found (1) that Maltese readers are faster to recognize Semitic words than non-Semitic borrowings and (2) that, when primed by letter strings consisting of a subset of a word?s consonants (e.g. frx primes FIREX 'to spread'), they are faster to recognize Semitic words (for which such strings comprise a morpheme) but not non-Semitic ones (for which such strings are non-morphemic). The latter finding conflicts with the "subset priming" effect found in non-Semitic languages, namely that exposure to such letter strings typically facilitates word recognition (e.g. 'csn' primes CASINO), owing to the role of consonant letters in constraining lexical candidates, and suggests that language-specific morphological properties such as Semitic nonconcatenative morphology may further shape the role of consonant letters in lexical processing. The proposed research includes (1) a Maltese visual lexical decision megastudy which explores processing differences between Semitic and non-Semitic words across a wide range of items when potential confounding factors like orthographic neighborhood density and morphological structure are controlled for (and which will result in the publication of a database of Maltese lexical decision responses) (Experiment 1); and (2) a series of visual masked priming studies which test for subset priming effects in non-Semitic Maltese words when confounding factors, namely the morphemic status of the prime, are controlled for (Experiments 2-3).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

所有语言都有组合独立有意义的语言单位（称为词素）来构建单词的策略。大多数语言，如英语，主要是通过线性地将这些单位彼此附加（例如re- + write - rewrite）来组合联合收割机;这样的语言被称为具有线性形态。闪米特语言，如阿拉伯语，以其非线性形态而闻名：表达意义和语法信息的不连续单元以非线性方式组合（例如阿拉伯语k-t-B 'writing' + aa-i 'doer，NOUN' -kaati B 'author'）。马耳他语在其形态特征上特别不寻常：作为一种闪米特语言，马耳他语在历史上主要使用非线性形态。然而，在过去的一千年里，它一直与一系列使用线性形态的语言（西西里语，意大利语，法语和英语）密切接触，说话者大量借用这些语言的单词并采用线性形态策略。今天，马耳他语是一种“混合”语言：至少有一半的单词是从非闪米特语言借来的（因此不表现出非线性形态），说话者广泛使用线性和非线性构词策略。该项目研究了马耳他语中不同形态系统的存在如何影响文字处理，探索马耳他读者如何识别闪族词与非闪族词的差异。它探讨了历史上的语言混合对日常语言使用过程的影响，因此对类似接触情况下的语言研究具有启示意义。一系列实验的结果将包括Co-PI论文中分析的数据。该项目还将产生一个马耳他语单词识别数据的数据库，这是第一个针对具有非线性形态的语言的数据库，其他研究人员可能会使用该数据库来研究语言处理。我将进行一系列的心理语言学实验，研究不同的词汇如何表现出独特的形态特征（本土闪米特语词汇与非闪米特语词汇）影响马耳他语的视觉词汇识别。先前的研究发现：（1）马耳他读者识别闪米特语单词的速度比识别非闪米特语单词的速度快;（2）当由一个单词的子集组成的字母串启动时，的辅音（例如，frx启动FIREX '传播'），他们更快地识别闪族语单词（对于这些字符串包含语素），但不是非闪族语单词（对于这些字符串是非语素）。后者的发现与“子集启动”在非犹太语言中发现的效果相冲突，即接触到这样的字母串通常有利于单词识别（例如“csn”启动CASINO），由于辅音字母在约束词汇候选人的作用，并建议特定于语言的形态属性，如犹太语的非连接形态可能会进一步塑造辅音字母在词汇处理中的作用。拟议的研究包括：（1）马耳他视觉词汇决策megastudy，探讨了在控制了诸如正字法邻域密度和形态结构等潜在混淆因素的情况下，在广泛的项目中闪族语和非闪族语单词之间的加工差异。（这将导致马耳他词汇决策响应数据库的出版）（实验1）;以及（2）一系列视觉掩蔽启动研究，当混杂因素，即启动的语素状态，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。