Doctoral Dissertation Research: Aspect and Event Cognition in the Acquisition and Processing of a Second Language

在日常对话中，人们经常谈论随着时间或瞬间发生的事情。例如，有人可能会说“约翰正在建造一座房子”，这是一个随时间发生的事件，或者“约翰正在越过终点线”，这是一个瞬时事件。不同的语言以不同的方式表达事件中的时间。要在英语中谈论正在进行的事件，说话者在“John is盖房子”和“John is crossing the finish line”中使用相同的-ing形式。相比之下，在其他语言中，不同的语法标记表示正在进行的事件是随时间发生还是立即发生。对于学习这些语言的英语使用者来说，事件中时间表达方式的差异可能会很棘手。这个博士论文项目研究了母语为英语的人在学习如何用第二语言表达事件中的时间时可能遇到的困难，这种语言编码了语法上的差异。这项研究集中在两件事上：这些语法标记的语法和意义如何表达事件中的时间，以及这些标记的使用如何与现实世界的情况联系起来。除了培养研究生外，本研究可望为第二语言教师及教材提供参考。该项目提供了对说话者在学习和使用不同语法标记时面临的挑战的见解。三个实验研究调查知识，生产和理解语法方面的标记。研究1通过让二语学习者判断带有事件中时间标记的句子的自然程度，探讨二语学习者是否知道方面标记语言表达事件中时间的方式。研究2通过让这些参与者继续书写包含各种标记的句子的开头来观察他们如何表达事件中的时间。研究3考察了这些学习者如何将包含事件时间标记的口语句子与代表世界上事件的图片联系起来。通过比较这些研究的结果，该研究揭示了是什么让这些语法标记对第二语言使用者来说具有学习和使用的挑战性。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。

In everyday conversations, people often talk about things happening over time or in an instant. For example, one might say "John is building a house" for an event that happens over time" or "John is crossing the finish line" for an instantaneous event. Different languages express time in events differently. To talk about ongoing events in English, speakers use the same -ing form in "John is building a house" and "John is crossing the finish line". In other languages, by contrast, different grammatical markers indicate whether an ongoing event happens over time or instantly. Such differences in how time in events is expressed can be tricky for English speakers learning such languages. This doctoral dissertation project examines difficulties that native English speakers may have when learning how to express time in events in a second language that encodes such differences in the grammar. The study focuses on two things: how the grammar and meanings of such grammatical markers express time in events, and how use of these markers connects to real-world situations. In addition to the training of a graduate student, this research is expected to be beneficial to second-language teachers and inform textbooks. The project provides insights into the challenges speakers face in learning and using different grammatical markers.Three experimental studies investigate knowledge, production, and comprehension of grammatical aspect markers. Study 1 explores whether second language learners know the ways that an aspect-marking language expresses time in events by having them judge the naturalness of sentences with time-in-event markers. Study 2 looks at how these same participants express time in events by having them continue the beginning of written sentences that include a variety of such markers. Study 3 examines how these same learners link spoken sentences containing time-in-event markers to pictures representing events in the world. By comparing results from these studies, the study sheds light on what makes such grammatical markers challenging to learn and use for second language speakers.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.