The Development of Syntactic and Semantic Patterns in Child African American English

非裔美国儿童英语句法和语义模式的发展

• 批准号: 0214388
• 负责人: Lisa Green
• 金额: $ 26.29万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-08-15 至 2006-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0214388&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Development; Syntactic; Semantic; Patterns; Child

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Lisa Green will conduct three years of research on children's development of African American English (AAE). AAE differs from mainstream English in its syntax and semantics (e.g., tense/aspect and negation). For instance, AAE can indicate habitual meaning with the aspectual marker BE (e.g., "These printers be printing ten pages per minute" meaning that the printers usually print ten pages per minute). This project aims to: (1) identify such patterns in 3-5 year-old AAE-speakers; (2) analyze the patterns; and (3) compare them to those characterizing the speech of adolescents and adults in the same geographical area. The project will rely on several types of data. Naturalistic speech, elicited utterances, and grammaticality judgments will be used to test children's development of AAE grammar, with particular focus on tense/aspect, negation, existential marking, and question systems. In addition, children will show their understanding of relevant constructions by acting out the meanings of sentences. This research is significant because it identifies developmental patterns and the stages at which child AAE speakers make the subtle meaning distinctions that are associated with the adult grammar. The project's findings may apply to both communication disorders and education. Researchers in communication disorders have realized the importance of accurate descriptions of AAE as they design tools to assess language development. The descriptions in this research will be accessible to them. This research may also help in developing curricula in programs such as Head Start. It might also affect methods of language and literacy instruction in grade school. The data description and analyses resulting from this research will also be useful in devising psycholinguistic tests relating the use of AAE patterns and reading achievement.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，丽莎·格林博士将对儿童发展非裔美国人英语（AAE）进行三年研究。 AAE在其语法和语义上与主流英语不同（例如，时态/方面和否定）。例如，AAE可以用方面标记表示习惯性含义（例如，“这些打印机每分钟打印十页”，这意味着打印机通常打印每分钟十页）。该项目的目的是：（1）确定3-5岁的AAE扬声器中的此类模式； （2）分析模式； （3）将它们与那些在同一地理区域中的青少年和成年人讲话的人进行比较。该项目将依靠几种类型的数据。自然主义的言语，引起的话语和语法判断将用于测试儿童对AAE语法的发展，特别关注时态/方面，否定，存在标记和问题系统。此外，孩子们将通过表现出句子的含义来展示他们对相关结构的理解。这项研究很重要，因为它确定了发展模式以及儿童AAE扬声器使与成人语法相关的微妙含义区别的阶段。该项目的发现可能适用于沟通障碍和教育。沟通障碍研究人员在设计评估语言发展的工具时意识到了AAE准确描述的重要性。这项研究中的描述将由他们访问。这项研究还可能有助于在Head Start等课程中开发课程。这也可能影响小学的语言和扫盲教学方法。这项研究产生的数据描述和分析也将在设计AAE模式和阅读成就的心理语言测试方面非常有用。