Doctoral Dissertation Research: Electrophysiological responses to violations of verb argument structure in Spanish-English bilinguals' first language

双语者占人口的很大一部分，无论是在美国还是国外。他们的两种语言在双语者的大脑和头脑中并没有完全划分，而是以动态的方式相互作用。然而，学习第二语言是否会影响一个人的母语，以及如果是的话，影响的程度如何，目前还不清楚。以往的研究表明，某些语法结构在双语使用者的两种语言中有很强的联系。如果语法结构只存在于两种语言中的一种语言中，又该怎么办呢？只有在第二语言中才存在的结构可以用来解释母语中的句子，这一证据将为双语者的综合语法系统和受新经验影响的语法系统提供强有力的支持。 这个项目利用了西班牙语和英语之间的语法差异。在英语中，运动方式动词如“跑”和“跳”可以用来描述一个事件，其中某人导致另一个人（或存在）执行该动作。例如，在句子“The trainer jumped the horse over the fence”中，训练者使动作发生，但执行跳跃动作的是马。在西班牙语中，这些动词（'correr' [跑]和'saltar' [跳]）不能用来描述使役动作;这种类型的结构是不合语法的（并且在使役意义上是不可解释的）。 这项研究将调查是否母语为西班牙语的人谁学过英语可以解释这些不合语法的句子在西班牙语，由于他们的英语知识。为了调查第二语言习得的年龄或语言优势是否是重要因素，将比较早期与晚期英语习得者，以及更精通西班牙语的人与更精通英语的人。最后，为了确定这些结构的处理是自动发生的，还是只有在有意识地应用语言规则后才发生的，这项研究包括电生理措施（事件相关电位）和句子可接受性的判断。

Bilingual speakers make up a large portion of the population, both in the U.S. and abroad. Their two languages are not completely compartmentalized in the bilingual brain and mind, but rather the languages interact in dynamic ways. It is still unclear, however, whether learning a second language can affect one's native language, and if so, to what extent. Previous research has shown that certain grammatical constructions are strongly linked in the two languages of bilingual speakers. What about grammatical constructions that exist in only one of the two languages? Evidence that a construction which exists only in the second-learned language can be used to interpret sentences in the native language would provide strong support for an integrated grammatical system in bilinguals and one that is affected by new experiences. This project takes advantage of a grammatical difference between Spanish and English. In English, manner-of-motion verbs such as 'run' and 'jump' can be used to describe an event in which someone causes another person (or being) to carry out the action. For example, in the sentence "The trainer jumped the horse over the fence," the trainer causes the action to occur, but it is the horse that performs the action of jumping. In Spanish, these same verbs ('correr' [run] and 'saltar' [jump]) cannot be used to describe causative actions; constructions of this type are ungrammatical (and uninterpretable in a causative sense). The study will investigate whether native Spanish speakers who have learned English can interpret these ungrammatical sentences in Spanish due to their knowledge of English. To investigate whether age of second language acquisition or language dominance are important factors, early versus late acquirers of English will be compared, as well as speakers who are more proficient in Spanish versus those more proficient in English. Finally, to determine whether processing of these structures occurs automatically or only after conscious application of linguistic rules, the study includes electrophysiological measures (event-related potentials) and judgments of sentence acceptability.