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.

该博士学位论文项目是理解语言获取的核心：青春期后语法的灵活性和可延展性是多么灵活和延展性？在语言获取文献中，长期以来已经讨论了年龄效应。有人认为，如果收购在生活中开始（青春期之后），那么以母语为母语的人就无法获得一种语言。关于遗产语言获取的研究为这场辩论提供了新的观点。在社区中使用多数语言的情况下，遗产演讲者从出生时就在家中获得了少数族裔语言。由于社会成长中多数语言的广泛使用，遗产演讲者通常比在祖国典型开发的单语言扬声器中，与少数族裔（遗产）语言互动并在遗产语言中获得总体语言输入的机会更少。结果，在其遗产语言的几种属性中，非本地的成就很普遍。这被视为证据表明，收购的幼年是必要但不是足够的类似土著成就的因素，因为早期的语言输入也发挥了作用。这项研究研究了年龄和输入因素如何在语言获取过程和最终成就中相互作用。研究人员将两个不同移民环境的传统说话者与在青春期或成人年份回到其原籍国的回归者进行了比较。将返回者以前的传统语言的语言能力与东道国的传统演讲者的语言能力进行比较，告知在青春期之前的收购中断，如果遗产演讲者完全沉浸在遗产之后，是否会导致诸如此类的成就。我们还调查了情况因素（例如，与以前多数语言的状态和接触，社会经济地位，教育形象）是否在传统语言的发展程度和发展速度中起作用。为此，该研究获得了参与者的生产和语言判断数据。该项目的结果有助于有限的文献关于儿童和成人说话者的语言身份和语言自尊的文献，并在其母语和文化中重新插入。这些发现还为遗产语言教学和遗产演讲者设计的教学干预提供了依据。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为值得通过评估来获得支持。