Collaborative Research: Cross-Language Lexical Interaction

语言的不同在于它们如何通过对物体和事件的标记来划分世界。例如，与英文单词“sofa”最接近的中文单词包括一个人的软垫座椅，而与英文单词“chair”最接近的中文单词仅限于由硬质材料（如木材）制成的无软垫座椅。学习两种语言的人如何处理这种差异？他们是在每种语言中发展出不同的方式来将单词与世界联系起来，还是他们学习了一种单一而独特的方式，这种方式与任何一种语言中的单语者都不完全匹配？在这个项目中，研究人员试图了解，在更广泛的背景下，语言互动的双语头脑，如何在一个人的第一语言（L1）的单词使用模式可以影响，在第二语言（L2），如何L1知识本身可以改变L2知识的增加，以及如何波动的经验和知识的一种语言可以创造条件，语言互动发生。该项目将使用行为研究和计算模型来探索一组认知变量（接触每种语言的年龄、每种语言的熟练程度和接触每种语言的类型）对双语词汇知识的独特和联合贡献。随着全球化的发展，越来越多的人正在成为双语或多语者。个人的语言互动的研究有意义的理解双语的人的口头交流，社会融合，以及随之而来的职业机会，并可能产生有用的信息，设计学习干预措施，以提高语言能力。拟议的工作将整合两个合作网站（宾夕法尼亚州立大学和利哈伊大学）的研究和教育。该研究还涉及美国，欧洲和中国科学家之间的国际合作。该项目的跨学科性质应吸引来自心理学，语言学，认知和计算科学的学生，特别是来自双语和双文化背景的学生提供机会。

Languages differ in how they carve up the world by their labeling of objects and events. For example, the Chinese word closest to the English word "sofa" includes padded, upholstered seats for one person, while the Chinese word closest to the English word "chair" is limited to unpadded seating made of hard materials, such as wood. How do people learning two languages handle such differences? Do they develop separate ways of connecting words to the world in each language or do they learn a single and unique way that does not fully match monolinguals in either language? In this project, the investigators attempt to understand, within the broader context of language interaction in the bilingual mind, how the pattern of word use in one's first language (L1) can influence that in the second language (L2), how L1 knowledge itself can change as L2 knowledge increases, and how the fluctuating experience and knowledge of one language can create the conditions for language interactions to occur. The project will use both behavioral studies and computational modeling to explore the unique and joint contributions of a set of cognitive variables (age of exposure to each language, proficiency in each, and the type of exposure to each) to bilingual lexical knowledge.As globalization advances, more peopleare becoming bilingual or multilingual. The study of language interaction in individuals has implications for understanding the bilingual person's verbal communication, social integration, and consequent career opportunities and may yield information useful for designing learning interventions to improve language proficiency. The proposed work will integrate research and education across the two collaborative sites (Pennsylvania State University and Lehigh University). The research also involves international collaborations between scientists in the US, Europe, and China. The cross-disciplinary nature of the project should attract students from psychology, linguistics, and cognitive and computational sciences, providing opportunities particularly to students from bilingual and bi-cultural backgrounds.