Effects of the second language on syntactic processing in the first language

描述（由申请人提供）：心理语言学家最近才认真对待双语者比单语者更有代表性的语言使用者这一观点。其结果是双语者和第二语言学习者的语言处理研究急剧增加。在某种程度上，这项最近的研究集中在理解和说一种以上语言的人如何谈判两种语言系统的边界，这两种语言系统可能有或没有共同的特征。比较双语和单语表现的一个重要方面是考虑双语者的两种语言是如何独立处理的。到目前为止，大多数研究都考察了双语者两种词汇之间的相互作用，研究结果表明， 很大程度上是跨语言界限的渗透。一个重要的问题是，这种渗透性是否延伸到句法处理的水平。本文所描述的研究项目考察了双语者在对他们所读或所听的单词进行结构性决策时两种语言的相互作用。虽然有大量的研究从第一语言对第二语言的作用的角度来探讨这一问题，但很少有研究从相反的方向来探讨跨语言的相互作用，而那些研究的是第二语言的作用 对母语使用者或对母语持否定态度的双语者来说，母语使用者的母语使用率是非常低的（Cook，2003）。据我们所知，迄今为止，还没有研究调查的影响，L2的双语者积极使用他们的两种语言在各种正式和非正式的背景下，每天的L1的维护价值。研究这个问题不仅对我们理解双语者如何处理他们的两种语言具有重要意义，而且对现有的关于认知和神经表征可塑性的假设具有更重要的意义。三项研究提出涉及西班牙语，英语双语。研究一旨在考察双语者在分析母语中句法歧义关系从句时是否存在跨语言交互。重点是语言沉浸在第二语言是否可以引起根本的变化，句子的处理方式，随着语言的时间展开。研究2调查是否可以触发在L1的变化，在实验室设置的双语者过度暴露于特定的结构，使熟练的双语者谁经历了他们的L1的变化“搬回来”。研究三探讨了双语者在母语中转换加工偏好的可塑性是否延伸到其他语言结构。在这里，我们提出了一系列的实验，询问母语为西班牙语的沉浸在英语环境中利用他们的知识存在的语法性别在西班牙语解释名词短语的讲话展开。总之，这些研究的结果有可能导致两种语言思维的概念化以及当前关于第一语言系统渗透性的观点发生重大变化。 公共卫生相关性：计划中的实验的结果有可能提供一个基础，开发一个更精细的理论框架，用于表征双语大脑中跨语言互动的动态和后果。研究结果表明，母语的句法处理受到第二语言的影响，这表明根深蒂固的第一语言系统的可塑性水平远远高于以前的想法。这些结果可能对人类的学习和行为以及公共卫生产生深远的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Psycholinguists have only recently taken seriously the idea that bilinguals are more representative language users than their monolingual counterparts. The consequence has been a dramatic increase in research on language processing in bilinguals and second language learners. In part, this recent research has focused on how individuals who understand and speak more than a single language negotiate the boundaries of two language systems that may or may not share common features. An important aspect of the comparison of bilingual and monolingual performance is to consider how independently the bilingual's two languages are processed. To date, most research has examined the interactions that exist between a bilingual's two lexicons, with findings indicating a great deal of permeability across language boundaries. One important question that remains is whether this permeability extends to the level of syntactic processing. The research program described here examines the interactions of the bilingual's two languages when bilinguals are making structural decisions about the words they read or hear. Although there is voluminous research examining this question from the perspective of the role of the first language (L1) on the processing of the second language (L2), few studies have examined cross-linguistic interactions in the opposite direction and those that have, have investigated the effects of the L2 on the L1 in bilinguals who have maintained little if any contact with speakers of the L1 or in bilinguals who have negative attitudes toward their L1 (Cook, 2003). To our knowledge, no study to date has investigated the influence of the L2 on the L1 in bilinguals who actively use their two languages daily in a variety of formal and informal contexts, and who value maintenance of the L1. Examining this question has important implications not only for our understanding of how bilinguals manage to negotiate their two languages, but more critically for existing assumptions about the plasticity of cognitive and neural representations. Three studies are proposed involving Spanish-English bilinguals. Study 1 aims at examining the presence of cross-language interactions when bilinguals parse syntactically ambiguous relative clauses in their L1. The focus is on whether language immersion in the L2 can induce fundamental changes in the way that sentences are processed as language unfolds in time. Study 2 investigates whether changes in the L1 can be triggered in a laboratory setting by overexposing bilinguals to particular structures so that proficient bilinguals who have undergone change in their L1 'move back'. Study 3 investigates whether the purported plasticity that allows bilinguals to switch processing preferences in their L1 extends to other linguistic structures. Here, we propose a series of experiments that ask whether native speakers of Spanish immersed in an English environment exploit their knowledge of presence of grammatical gender in Spanish to interpret noun phrases as speech unfolds. Together, the results of these studies have the potential to lead to significant changes in the conceptualization of the mind with two languages and in current views about the permeability of the first language system. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The outcomes of the planned experiments have the potential to provide a basis for developing a more refined theoretical framework for characterizing the dynamics and the consequences of cross-language interaction in the bilingual brain. Findings indicating that syntactic processing in the native language is affected by the presence of a second language would suggest a level of plasticity of the entrenched first language system that is far greater than previously thought. These results could have profound implications for human learning and behavior, and as such, for public health.