Doctoral Dissertation Research: Resumptive Relative Clause Dependencies in the Processing of Second Language English

对第二语言（L2）学习的研究告诉我们很多关于人类思维/大脑的基本特性。本文研究的是二语口语和写作中的一个显著特征——“警察逮捕了他的那个人”。在某些语言（包括英语）中，rrc是不符合语法的，但在其他语言（如普通话）中则是可能的。令人惊讶的是，即使在母语和第二语言中都不可能出现，但在第二语言的口语和写作中也经常观察到rrc。这些既不能追溯到说话者的第一语言也不能追溯到第二语言的“中介语”特征提供了对人类语言系统的本质及其独立于个别语言特性的发展的洞察。在日益全球化的世界中，第二语言学习变得越来越重要，了解第二语言学习过程以及中介语特征是如何出现的，对语言教学方法的发展至关重要。利用最近心理语言学文献中关于母语人士的方法论创新，本项目研究英语中的rrc是否代表了第二语言学习者发展语言系统的真正语法选择和/或在实时句子处理过程中管理认知负荷的潜意识策略。除了以英语为母语的对照组外，母语有或没有rrc的第二语言英语学习者承担了一系列实验任务，探讨英语恢复性和非恢复性关系从句在三种日益复杂的句子类型中的产生、理解和可接受性。第二语言学习者完成了两个版本的可接受性任务——一个用英语，一个用母语——这样他们关于可接受性的知识就可以在两种语言中进行比较。这一系列的研究解决了与二语知识、二语使用及其发展相关的关键问题。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

The study of second language (L2) learning has much to tell us about the basic properties of the human mind/brain. This dissertation project investigates “resumptive relative clauses” or RRCs - phrases such as “the man that the police arrested him”, a conspicuous feature of L2 English speech and writing. RRCs are ungrammatical in some languages including English but are possible in other languages such as Mandarin Chinese. Surprisingly, RRCs are often observed in L2 speech and writing even when they are impossible in both the native language and the L2. These "interlanguage" features that cannot be traced to either the speaker's first or second language offer insight into the nature of the human language system and its development independent of the properties of individual languages. Second language learning is of growing importance in our increasingly globalized world, and an understanding of the L2 learning process and how interlanguage features emerge is critical to the development of language teaching methods.Drawing on recent methodological innovations in the psycholinguistics literature on native speakers, this project investigates whether RRCs in English represent a genuine grammatical option in the L2 learner’s developing language system and/or a subconscious strategy for managing cognitive load during real-time sentence processing. In addition to a control group of native English speakers, L2 learners of English whose native language either has or does not have RRCs undertake a series of experimental tasks probing the production, comprehension, and acceptability of English resumptive vs. non-resumptive relative clauses in three increasingly complex sentence types. The L2 learners complete two versions of the acceptability task - one in English and one in their native language- so that their knowledge with respect to the (im)possibility of RRCs can be compared across the two languages. This line of research addresses key questions related to L2 knowledge, L2 use, and the development of each.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.