Doctoral Dissertation Research: The constraints of dual morphological systems on visual word processing in Maltese

所有语言都有将独立的有意义的语言单位（称为语素）组合在一起来构建单词的策略。大多数语言，如英语，主要是通过线性地将这些单位相互附加（例如re- + write - rewrite）来组合这些单位；这种语言被认为具有线性词法。像阿拉伯语这样的闪族语言以其非线性形态而闻名：表达意义和语法信息的不连续单位是非线性组合的（例如阿拉伯语的k-t-b“写作”+ aa-i“实干者”，名词“- kaatib“作者”）。马耳他语在其形态特征上特别不寻常：作为一种闪族语言，马耳他语在历史上主要使用非线性形态。然而，在过去的一千年里，它一直与一系列使用线性词法的语言（西西里语、意大利语、法语和英语）密切接触，使用者从这些语言中大量借用词汇并采用线性词法策略。今天，马耳他语是一种“混合”语言：至少有一半的单词是从非闪族语言中借来的（因此没有表现出非线性的形态），说话者广泛使用线性和非线性的构词策略。本项目研究马耳他语中不同形态系统的存在如何影响文字处理，探索马耳他语读者如何识别闪米特词与非闪米特借词的差异。它探讨了历史语言混合对日常语言使用过程的影响，因此对类似接触情况下的语言研究具有启示意义。一系列实验的结果将包括Co-PI论文中分析的数据。该项目还将建立马耳他语单词识别数据数据库，这是首个针对非线性形态学语言的数据库，其他研究人员可能会用它来研究语言处理。该项目共同负责人是亚利桑那大学的一名博士生，他将进行一系列的心理语言学实验，研究显示出独特形态特征的不同词汇（本土闪米特词与非闪米特词的借用）的存在如何影响马耳他语的视觉词识别。先前的研究发现：(1)马耳他语读者比非闪米特语的外来词更快地识别闪米特语单词；(2)当由单词子集组成的字母串作为引子时？例如，frx启动FIREX 'to spread')，它们可以更快地识别闪米特词（这些字符串包含一个语素），但不能识别非闪米特词（这些字符串是非语素）。后者的发现与在非闪族语言中发现的“子集启动”效应相冲突，即暴露于这些字母字符串通常有助于单词识别(例如：“csn”启动CASINO)，由于辅音字母在限制词汇候选者中的作用，并表明语言特定的形态学特性，如闪族非连接形态学，可能进一步塑造辅音字母在词汇加工中的作用。该研究包括：(1)马耳他语视觉词汇决策大研究，在控制了诸如正字法邻域密度和形态结构等潜在混淆因素的情况下，探索闪族和非闪族词汇在大范围项目上的加工差异（这将导致马耳他语词汇决策反应数据库的出版）（实验1）；(2)一系列视觉掩盖启动研究，测试非闪族马耳他语单词在混杂因素（即启动词的语素状态）控制下的子集启动效应（实验2-3）。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

All languages have strategies for combining independently meaningful linguistic units, called morphemes, to build words. Most languages, like English, primarily combine these units by linearly appending them to one another (e.g. re- + write - rewrite); such languages are said to have linear morphology. Semitic languages, like Arabic, are famous for having nonlinear morphology: discontinuous units which express meaning and grammatical information are combined non-linearly (e.g. Arabic k-t-b 'writing' + aa-i 'doer, NOUN' - kaatib 'author'). Maltese is particularly unusual in its morphological characteristics: as a Semitic language, Maltese has primarily used non-linear morphology historically. However, for the past millennium it has been in close contact with a series of languages that use linear morphology (Sicilian, Italian, French, and English), and speakers have heavily borrowed words and adopted linear morphological strategies from these languages. Today, Maltese comprises a "mixed" language: at least half of all words are borrowed from non-Semitic languages (and so do not exhibit non-linear morphology), and speakers use both linear and non-linear word-building strategies extensively. This project investigates how the presence of distinct morphological systems in Maltese affects word processing, exploring differences in how Maltese readers recognize Semitic words vs. non-Semitic borrowings. It explores the impact of historical language mixing on the processes underlying daily language use, and so has implications for the study of languages in similar contact situations. The results of a series of experiments will comprise the data analyzed in the Co-PI's dissertation. The project will also produce a database of Maltese word recognition data, the first such database for a language with non-linear morphology, which other researchers may use to study language processing.The Co-PI, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona, will conduct a series of psycholinguistic experiments investigating how the existence of distinct lexicons exhibiting unique morphological characteristics (native Semitic words vs. non-Semitic borrowings) affects visual word recognition in Maltese. Previous research has found (1) that Maltese readers are faster to recognize Semitic words than non-Semitic borrowings and (2) that, when primed by letter strings consisting of a subset of a word?s consonants (e.g. frx primes FIREX 'to spread'), they are faster to recognize Semitic words (for which such strings comprise a morpheme) but not non-Semitic ones (for which such strings are non-morphemic). The latter finding conflicts with the "subset priming" effect found in non-Semitic languages, namely that exposure to such letter strings typically facilitates word recognition (e.g. 'csn' primes CASINO), owing to the role of consonant letters in constraining lexical candidates, and suggests that language-specific morphological properties such as Semitic nonconcatenative morphology may further shape the role of consonant letters in lexical processing. The proposed research includes (1) a Maltese visual lexical decision megastudy which explores processing differences between Semitic and non-Semitic words across a wide range of items when potential confounding factors like orthographic neighborhood density and morphological structure are controlled for (and which will result in the publication of a database of Maltese lexical decision responses) (Experiment 1); and (2) a series of visual masked priming studies which test for subset priming effects in non-Semitic Maltese words when confounding factors, namely the morphemic status of the prime, are controlled for (Experiments 2-3).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.