Constructional patterns in child bilingual code-mixing: A usage-based corpus approach

儿童双语代码混合中的构造模式：基于使用的语料库方法

• 批准号: 504095269
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Stefan Hartmann
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Deutsch als Fremdsprache
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/504095269?language=en
• 关键词: Constructional; patterns; child; bilingual; code

This project addresses the question of how code-mixing utterances in bilingual language acquisition can be accounted for in terms of constructional patterns in the sense of usage-based construction grammar. This approach has proven highly successful in research on monolingual language acquisition but has only recently been adopted in research on multilingualism as well. In the context of the proposed project, code-mixing is defined as the use of multiple question in one utterance, e.g. der moon kann fly ‘the moon can fly’. We argue that a usage-based approach can add important insights to our understanding of multilingual language acquisition in general and children’s code-mixing utterances in particular. To this end, we systematically analyze data of German-English bilingual children and their caregivers using quantitative methods to identify linguistic patterns. Our main hypothesis is that the children’s utterances can be accounted for with the help of constructional patterns – fixed multi-word chunks such as What’s this? and frame-and-slot patterns like [What’s X] – that are abstracted away from the (monolingual) input, and that the children’s code-mixing can be accounted for using such patterns as well. Our database are three corpora of German-English bilingual children aged between 2 and 4 years growing up in different input situations. The corpora we use are unique in terms of size and density: They cover a period of more than one and a half years, with the children being recorded on average two hours per week. A major goal of the project is to add linguistic annotations to these corpora and to make them available to the public. To analyze the data, we use two complementary methods from the recent literature. Using McCauley & Christiansen’s (e.g. 2017, 2019) Chunk-Based Learner, we model the development of the constructional patterns over the course of acquisition on the basis of our longitudinal corpus data. To do so, simple frequency measures are combined with psychologically inspired learning mechanisms in order to develop a (predictive) grammar of a language learner. This method is complemented by a dynamic network approach as proposed by Ibbotson et al. (2019), which models the development of the language learners’ linguistic knowledge on the basis of co-occurrence frequencies and transitional probabilities. All in all, our project can thus contribute significantly to a better understanding of multilingual language acquisition in general and the complex relationship between the input that children receive and their use of code-mixing in particular.

本课题研究的问题是，双语习得中的语码混合话语如何在基于用法的构式语法意义上用构式模式来解释。这一方法在单语习得研究中已被证明是非常成功的，但也只是最近才被用于多语言习得的研究。在拟议项目的背景下，语码混合被定义为在一个话语中使用多个疑问句，例如DER MOUNN KANN Fly‘The Moon Can Fly’。我们认为，基于用法的方法可以增加我们对多语种语言习得的理解，特别是对儿童代码混合话语的理解。为此，我们使用定量方法对德英双语儿童及其照顾者的数据进行了系统的分析，以确定语言模式。我们的主要假设是，儿童的话语可以通过构式模式来解释--固定的多词块，如这是什么？以及像[What‘s X]这样的帧和槽模式--这些模式是从(单语)输入中抽象出来的，儿童的代码混合也可以使用这些模式来解释。我们的数据库是三个德语-英语双语儿童的语料库，这些儿童年龄在2到4岁之间，在不同的输入情景下成长。我们使用的语料库在大小和密度方面都是独一无二的：它们涵盖了一年半以上的时间，儿童每周平均记录两个小时。该项目的一个主要目标是为这些语料库添加语言注释，并向公众提供这些注释。为了分析数据，我们使用了最近文献中的两种互补方法。利用McCauley和Christian(如2017,2019)的基于语块的学习者，我们基于我们的纵向语料库数据，对结构模式在习得过程中的发展进行了建模。要做到这一点，简单的频率测量与心理启发的学习机制相结合，以开发语言学习者的(预测性)语法。这种方法得到了Ibbotson等人提出的动态网络方法的补充。(2019)，该模型基于共现频率和过渡概率对语言学习者的语言知识的发展进行了建模。总而言之，我们的项目可以大大有助于更好地了解一般的多语种语言习得，以及儿童接受的输入和他们对代码混合的使用之间的复杂关系。