Doctoral Dissertation Research: Aspect and Event Cognition in the Acquisition and Processing of a Second Language

在日常对话中，人们经常谈论随着时间或瞬间发生的事情。例如，对于随时间发生的事件，可以说“John is building a house”，或者对于瞬时事件，可以说“John is crossing the finish line”。不同的语言在事件中表达时间的方式不同。在英语中谈论正在发生的事件时，说话者在“John is building a house”和“John is crossing the finish line”中使用相同的-ing形式。相比之下，在其他语言中，不同的语法标记表示正在进行的事件是随着时间的推移发生还是立即发生。对于学习英语的人来说，在事件中时间的表达方式上的这种差异可能是棘手的。这个博士论文项目探讨了以英语为母语的人在学习如何用第二语言表达事件中的时间时可能遇到的困难，这种语言编码了语法上的差异。本文的研究主要集中在两个方面：语法标记的语法和意义如何在事件中表达时间，以及这些标记的使用如何与现实世界的情况相联系。除了研究生的培训，这项研究预计将有利于第二语言教师和通知教科书。该项目提供了对说话人在学习和使用不同的语法标记时所面临的挑战的见解。三个实验研究调查了语法体标记的知识，生产和理解。研究一通过让二语学习者判断带有事件中时间标记的句子的自然性，探讨了二语学习者是否知道体标记语言在事件中表达时间的方式。研究2通过让这些参与者继续书写包含各种此类标记的句子的开头，来观察他们如何表达事件中的时间。研究3考察了这些学习者如何将包含事件中时间标记的口语句子与代表世界上事件的图片联系起来。通过比较这些研究的结果，该研究揭示了是什么使得这些语法标记对第二语言使用者的学习和使用具有挑战性。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。

In everyday conversations, people often talk about things happening over time or in an instant. For example, one might say "John is building a house" for an event that happens over time" or "John is crossing the finish line" for an instantaneous event. Different languages express time in events differently. To talk about ongoing events in English, speakers use the same -ing form in "John is building a house" and "John is crossing the finish line". In other languages, by contrast, different grammatical markers indicate whether an ongoing event happens over time or instantly. Such differences in how time in events is expressed can be tricky for English speakers learning such languages. This doctoral dissertation project examines difficulties that native English speakers may have when learning how to express time in events in a second language that encodes such differences in the grammar. The study focuses on two things: how the grammar and meanings of such grammatical markers express time in events, and how use of these markers connects to real-world situations. In addition to the training of a graduate student, this research is expected to be beneficial to second-language teachers and inform textbooks. The project provides insights into the challenges speakers face in learning and using different grammatical markers.Three experimental studies investigate knowledge, production, and comprehension of grammatical aspect markers. Study 1 explores whether second language learners know the ways that an aspect-marking language expresses time in events by having them judge the naturalness of sentences with time-in-event markers. Study 2 looks at how these same participants express time in events by having them continue the beginning of written sentences that include a variety of such markers. Study 3 examines how these same learners link spoken sentences containing time-in-event markers to pictures representing events in the world. By comparing results from these studies, the study sheds light on what makes such grammatical markers challenging to learn and use for second language 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.