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

博士论文研究：第二语言英语处理中的恢复性关系从句依存关系

• 批准号: 2141214
• 负责人: Bonnie Schwartz
• 金额: $ 1.67万
• 依托单位: University of Hawaii
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-02-15 至 2024-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2141214&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Resumptive; Relative

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.

对第二语言(L2)学习的研究可以告诉我们许多关于人类思维/大脑的基本属性。本论文研究的是“恢复关系从句”或“恢复关系从句”--短语，如“警察逮捕了他的那个人”，这是二语英语演讲和写作的一个显著特征。RRC在包括英语在内的一些语言中是不合乎语法的，但在其他语言中也是可能的，比如普通话。令人惊讶的是，即使在母语和第二语言都不可能的情况下，二语口语和写作中也经常可以观察到RRC。这些既不能追溯到说话人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发展的洞察，而不依赖于个别语言的属性。在日益全球化的世界里，第二语言学习变得越来越重要，而对第二语言学习过程和中介语特征的理解对语言教学方法的发展至关重要。本项目借鉴最近关于本族语者的心理语言学文献中的方法论创新，调查英语中的RRC是否代表了第二语言学习者发展中的语言系统中的一种真正的语法选择和/或一种在实时句子处理过程中管理认知负荷的潜意识策略。除了一组以英语为母语的人外，母语为英语的第二语言学习者还进行了一系列实验任务，以探讨英语恢复关系从句和非恢复关系从句在三种日益复杂的句型中的产生、理解和可接受性。第二语言学习者完成两个版本的可接受性任务--一个用英语，一个用他们的母语--这样他们关于RRC(Im)可能性的知识就可以在两种语言中进行比较。这一研究方向解决了与第二语言知识、第二语言使用以及每一项的发展相关的关键问题。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。