EAPSI: Investigating the Chinese Bei Construction using Cross Linguistic Priming

该奖项支持有助于发展对双语语言习得的理解的研究。这一现象随着全球化的发展而日益严重。它扩展了一个相对较新的技术（跨语言启动）的使用，以解决一个棘手的理论问题。这项研究将有助于解决一个长期存在的汉语句法问题。北建筑的结构。许多研究者认为“北”构式的抽象结构与英语被动语态相同，也有人认为它是一个独立的结构。理解这种结构的本质将有助于我们对双语语言习得的理解，并可能改进语言教学方法。本研究将在国立台湾师范大学进行，由著名的启动方法专家徐东波教授指导。先前的研究表明，有争议的普通话“北”结构启动，并被英语被动语态启动；表明这两个模式共享一个抽象的结构表示。然而，这种启动效应可能是由于非规范词序的启动（主题先于代理而不是代理先于主题）。本研究将测试英语和汉语的使用者在被非规范语序句子启动时，是否会因为语序的影响而产生被动语态或贝构。如果本实验的结果没有显示启动，那么我们可以得出结论，先前的结果显示了英语被动语态的“bei of”和“by”的启动确实表明这两个构式之间存在共同的抽象句法结构。该项目将测试60名3至5岁的中英双语儿童，以及类似数量的成年人。参与者将看到一张图片，该图片将使用一个主动句或一个参数顺序是非规范的（例如，话题化或分裂）来描述。然后参与者将描述随后的图片。参与者将接受普通话启动-英语目标和英语启动-普通话目标的测试。如果参与者对非规范句子的反应产生更多的被动语态（而不是对主动语态的反应），我们可以得出这样的结论：在之前的研究中发现的启动效应确实是由于一个共同的抽象表征的启动——普通话“bei”结构确实与英语被动语态共享一个抽象结构表征。这些结果有助于通过新的心理语言学实验方法解决一个长期存在的争论。该奖项由NSF与台湾科学技术部合作资助。

This award supports research that helps develop understanding of bilingual language acquisition ? a phenomenon that is growing as globalization increases. It extends the use of a relatively new technique (cross-language priming) to solve a troublesome theoretical problem. This research will help solve a long-lasting problem in Chinese syntax ? the structure of the bei construction. Many researchers believe that the abstract structure of the bei construction is the same as the English passive, while others believe it is a separate structure. Understanding the nature of this construction will aid in our understanding of bilingual language acquisition, and may improve language teaching methods. This research will be conducted at National Taiwan Normal University under the guidance of Professor Dong-Bo Hsu, a noted expert on priming methodology. Previous research has shown that the disputed Mandarin bei construction primes, and is primed by English passives; suggesting that the two patterns share an abstract structural representation. However, it is possible that this priming effect is due to priming of noncanonical word order (theme-before-agent instead of agent-before-theme). This research will test whether speakers of English and Chinese who are primed by sentences with noncanonical word order produce passives or bei constructions because of the effect of that word order. If the results of this experiment show no priming, then we can conclude that previous results showing priming of bei of and by the English passive do indeed indicate a shared abstract syntactic structure between the two constructions. This project will test 60 Mandarin-English bilingual children between the ages of three and five years, and a similar number of adults. Participants will be shown a picture which will be described using either an active sentence or on in which the argument order is noncanonical (e.g., topicalization or clefting). Participants will then describe a subsequent picture. Participants will be tested on both Mandarin prime-English target, and English prime-Mandarin target. If participants produce more passives in response to noncanonical sentences (rather than in response to actives), we can conclude that the priming effect found in previous work was indeed due to priming of a shared abstract representation - the Mandarin bei construction does indeed share an abstract structural representation with the English passive. These results can help to settle a long-standing debate by way of new psycholinguistic experimental methods. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan.