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元（称为语素）来构建单词的策略。大多数语言（例如英语）主要通过将这些单元线性附加到彼此来组合它们（例如，重新 + 写入 - 重写）；据说这种语言具有线性形态。闪米特语言，如阿拉伯语，以非线性形态而闻名：表达含义和语法信息的不连续单位是非线性组合的（例如阿拉伯语 k-t-b“写作”+ aa-i“做者”，名词“- kaatib“作者”）。马耳他语的形态特征尤其不寻常：作为闪族语言，马耳他语历史上主要使用非线性形态。然而，在过去的千年里，它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）保持着密切的联系，并且说话者大量借用了这些语言的单词并采用了线性形态策略。如今，马耳他语是一种“混合”语言：至少有一半的单词是从非闪族语言借用的（因此不表现出非线性形态），并且说话者广泛使用线性和非线性单词构建策略。该项目研究马耳他语中不同形态系统的存在如何影响文字处理，探索马耳他读者识别闪米特语单词与非闪米特语借词的差异。它探讨了历史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重要意义。一系列实验的结果将构成 Co-PI 论文中分析的数据。该项目还将创建一个马耳他语单词识别数据数据库，这是第一个针对具有非线性形态的语言的数据库，其他研究人员可以使用该数据库来研究语言处理。共同首席研究员是亚利桑那大学的博士生，他将进行一系列心理语言学实验，研究表现出独特形态特征的不同词典的存在（闪族本土词与非闪族借用词）如何影响视觉词识别 马耳他语。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非闪米特语借用的速度快；（2）当由单词辅音子集组成的字母串启动时（例如 frx 启动 FIREX“传播”），他们识别闪米特语单词（此类字符串包含语素）的速度更快，但识别非闪米特语单词（此类字符串是非语素的）则不然。后者的发现与非闪米特语言中发现的“子集启动”效应相冲突，即由于辅音字母在限制词汇候选中的作用，接触此类字母串通常会促进单词识别（例如“csn”启动 CASINO），并表明语言特定的形态特性（例如闪米特非连接形态）可能会进一步塑造辅音字母在非闪米特语言中的作用。 词汇处理。拟议的研究包括（1）一项马耳他视觉词汇决策大型研究，当控制诸如拼写邻域密度和形态结构等潜在混杂因素时，探讨闪米特语和非闪米特语单词在各种项目中的处理差异（这将导致发布马耳他语词汇决策响应数据库）（实验1）； (2) 一系列视觉掩蔽启动研究，在控制混杂因素（即启动词的语素状态）时测试非闪族马耳他语单词的子集启动效应（实验 2-3）。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。