Doctoral Dissertation Research: Information Structure and Dative Word-Order Alternations in English and Korean: L1 Children, L2 Children, and L2 Adults

本论文的研究目的是考察信息结构对语序变化的影响，在第一语言和第二语言中都是如此。以前的研究表明，成年母语人士倾向于将已知/旧信息放在新信息之前；这被称为先给后新原则。例如，在“馅饼”是讨论话题的情况下，成年说话者更有可能说“桑迪把馅饼带给了一些朋友”，而不是“桑迪给了一些朋友馅饼”。在母语习得中，一些研究人员指出，幼儿未能遵守先于新给的原则，因为他们无法区分自己知道/相信的东西和其他人知道/相信的东西。这种被称为心理理论(Tom)的说法还没有经过实验验证。本论文项目将对英语和韩语两种语言的儿童进行研究，考察对他人知道/相信的事物表现出敏感的儿童是否也遵守先给后新的原则。此外，本研究还将调查在说英语的韩语学习者和说英语的韩语学习者中，先给后新原则的知识是否会自动从第一语言迁移到第二语言。数据将通过以下方式收集：(I)一项新颖的“口语语境化偏好任务”，参与者听故事后的句子对并选择自己的偏好；(Ii)口语可接受性判断任务，在该任务中，参与者听两个人物之间的简短对话，并决定测试句子的可接受性；(Iii)一项错误信念任务，以评估儿童对Tom的掌握情况；这是第一次在第一语言和第二语言中使用相同的创新方法，在不同的年龄组中，对词序偏好与信息状况的关系进行的双向研究。这也是韩国语中先给后新原则的首次实验研究。因此，英语和韩语、语言发展和语言教育学的学者应该立即对这一结果感兴趣。另一个影响是有可能将一种新的实验范式扩展到其他语言领域。该项目将加强国际研究的基础设施，并将在语言研究的许多方面为学生提供广泛的培训。

The goal of this dissertation research is to investigate effects of information structure on word-order alternations as language develops, in both first language (L1) and second language (L2). Previous research has shown that adult native speakers tend to place given/old information before new information; this is called the "Given-before-New" principle. For example, in a situation where "the pie" is the topic of discussion, adult speakers are more likely to say "Sandy brought the pie to some friends" than "Sandy brought some friends the pie."In L1 acquisition, some researchers have suggested that young children fail to comply with the Given-before-New principle because they are unable to distinguish what they know/believe from what others know/believe. This account, called the Theory of Mind (ToM) account, has not been tested experimentally. This dissertation project will investigate, for both English and Korean, whether children who show sensitivity to what others know/believe also obey the Given-before-New principle. In addition, this project will investigate, in both Korean-speaking learners of English and English-speaking learners of Korean, whether knowledge of the Given-before-New principle automatically transfers from L1 to L2.Data will be collected via: (i) a novel "Oral Contextualized Preference task," in which participants listen to pairs of sentences following stories and choose their preference; (ii) an Oral Acceptability-Judgment task, in which participants listen to short dialogues between two characters and decide the acceptability of test sentences; (iii) a False-Belief task to assess children's mastery of ToM; and (iv) a Picture-Description task to measure L2 proficiency.This is the first bidirectional study on word-order preference in association with information status, across different age groups using the same innovative methods, in both L1 and L2. It is also the first experimental study of the Given-before-New principle in Korean. The results should therefore be of immediate interest to scholars of English and Korean, language development, and language pedagogy. Another impact is the potential to extend a new experimental paradigm to other language domains. The project will enhance the infrastructure for international research, and will provide the student co-PI with extensive training in many aspects of language research.