Doctoral Dissertation Research: How flexible are grammars past puberty? Evidence from heritage language returnees

博士论文研究：青春期过后语法的灵活性如何？

• 批准号: 2234698
• 负责人: Silvina Montrul
• 金额: $ 1.9万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-03-01 至 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2234698&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; How; flexible

This doctoral dissertation project addresses a fundamental issue at the heart of understanding language acquisition: how flexible and malleable are grammars after puberty? Age effects have long been discussed in the language acquisition literature. Some have argued that native speaker attainment of a language is impossible if acquisition starts later in life (after puberty). Research on heritage language acquisition provides a new perspective on this debate. Heritage speakers acquire a minority language at home from birth in a setting where the majority language is spoken in the community. Due to the extensive use of the majority language in the society growing up, heritage speakers often have fewer opportunities to interact with their minority (heritage) language and receive overall less linguistic input in the heritage language than a typically developing monolingual speaker in the home country. As a result, non-native-like attainment in several properties of their heritage language is common. This has been taken as evidence that early age of acquisition is a necessary but not a sufficient factor for native-like attainment because linguistic input received in the heritage language in early years plays a role as well. This study examines how age and input factors interact in language acquisition processes and in ultimate attainment.The investigators compare heritage speakers across two different immigrant contexts to returnees who have returned to their country of origin in their adolescence or adult years. Comparing the linguistic abilities of returnees in their former heritage language to that of heritage speakers in the host country informs whether interrupted acquisition before puberty can result in nativelike attainment if heritage speakers become fully immersed in the heritage language after returning to the home country. We also investigate whether the situational factors (e.g., status of and contact with the former majority language, socio-economic status, educational profile) play a role in the degree and speed of development of the heritage language in returnees. To this end, the study obtains production and linguistic judgment data from participants. The results of this project contributes to the limited literature on language identity and linguistic self-esteem in child and adult speakers of a minority language and their reinsertion in their native language and culture. The findings also inform pedagogical interventions in heritage language teaching and the design of teaching materials for heritage speakers.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.

这个博士论文项目解决了理解语言习得的核心问题：青春期后语法的灵活性和可塑性如何？年龄效应在语言习得文献中讨论已久。有些人认为，如果习得开始于生命的后期（青春期后），母语者就不可能获得一种语言。传统语言习得研究为这一争论提供了新的视角。讲传统语言的人从出生起就在社区中讲多数人语言的环境中学习少数民族语言。由于在成长过程中社会上广泛使用多数民族语言，传统语言使用者与其少数民族（传统）语言互动的机会往往更少，并且在传统语言中获得的语言输入总体上少于母国典型的发展中单语使用者。因此，他们在传统语言的几个属性上取得非母语般的成就是很常见的。这已被视为证据，早期的收购是一个必要的，但不是一个足够的因素，为母语一样的成绩，因为语言输入收到的遗产语言在早年发挥作用。本研究探讨了年龄和输入因素在语言习得过程中的相互作用以及最终的语言习得成就。研究人员比较了两种不同移民背景下的传统语言使用者和在青少年或成年后返回原籍国的归国人员。比较语言能力的回归者在他们以前的遗产语言的遗产扬声器在东道国通知是否中断收购青春期前可能会导致类似的成就，如果遗产扬声器成为完全沉浸在遗产语言返回祖国后。我们还调查了情境因素（例如，前多数民族语言的地位和接触情况、社会经济地位、教育状况）对回归者传统语言的发展程度和速度起着作用。为此，研究从参与者那里获得了生产和语言判断数据。这一项目的成果有助于补充关于讲少数民族语言的儿童和成人的语言特性和语言自尊以及他们重新融入本族语言和文化的有限文献。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。