Doctoral Dissertation Research: The acquisition of anaphoric direct objects in a third language: A variationist perspective

当双语者学习第三语言时，在不同的语言和社会条件下，先前学过的两种语言可能会以各种方式影响这种学习。本博士论文探讨了第一语言和第二语言对第三语言习得的影响。通过承认多语种使用者语言使用的固有差异，这项研究促进了公众对正规教育中被认为是“非标准”的语言使用的理解，以增加对多语种使用者的理解。本研究的发现有助于语言教育工作者识别双语者和多语者在学习第二语言时的学习困难。本博士论文研究了第三语言学习者对第一、第二和第三语言中含有明示或省略回指直接宾语的句子的自然性的判断。在下面的对话中，“him”是指“John”的回指直接宾语：“-Did you see John？- 不，我没看见他“为了建立比较点，判断是由母语者，以及那些L1和L2分别是实验组的L2和L3的人对相同的句子做出的。研究设计允许研究人员梳理除了现有的几个假设的预测因素，影响第三语言习得。其中包括第一语言的影响力、第二语言的影响力、与第三语言类型相似的语言的影响力、日常生活中主要使用的语言的影响力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响力审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

When bilingual speakers are learning a third language, the two previously learned languages may influence this learning in various ways under different linguistic and social conditions. This doctoral dissertation investigates the influence of first and second language in third language acquisition. By acknowledging the inherent variability in language use by multilingual speakers, this study facilitates public understanding of language uses that are deemed "non-standard" in formal education, to increase understanding of multilingual speakers. This study further benefits language education in that findings help language educators identify learning difficulties specific to bilingual and multilingual speakers learning an additional language.This doctoral dissertation study elicits third language learners' judgments on the naturalness of sentences with either expressed or omitted anaphoric direct objects in each of the three languages L1, L2, and L3. In the following conversation, "him" is an anaphoric direct object referring to "John": "-Did you see John? -No, I didn't see him." To establish points of comparison, judgment is elicited for the same sentences by native speakers, as well as those whose L1 and L2 are the L2 and L3 of the experimental group, respectively. The research design allows the researchers to tease apart the predictions of several existing hypotheses about factors that influence L3 acquisition. These include influence from the first language, influence from the second language, influence from the language that is more typologically similar to the third language, and influence from the language primarily used in daily life.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.