Doctoral Dissertation Research: Language Processing in Heritage Language Speakers: Evidence from Vietnamese-English Bilinguals

博士论文研究：传统语言使用者的语言处理：来自越英双语者的证据

• 批准号: 1844810
• 负责人: Naoko Witzel
• 金额: $ 1.67万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Arlington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-03-15 至 2021-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1844810&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Language; Processing

This dissertation examines heritage language processing. A Heritage Language (HL) is a first language (L1) that has become a non-dominant language for its speakers because of its minority status. The question asked in this project is whether a heritage language (HL) behaves like a first language (L1) because an HL is learned as a native language, or if a heritage language (HL) behaves like a second language (L2) because it is underdeveloped like an L2. In order to test this, this study investigates the grammatical and lexical processing in Vietnamese-English bilinguals. Vietnamese, a heritage and minority language in the United States, is the fourth most spoken language outside of English (U. S. Census Bureau, 2015). This shows how prevalent HL speakers are in this country, and yet, there is a limited amount of research conducted on HL processing. Many bilingual language processing models, such as the Bilingual Interactive Activation model (Dijkstra & van Heuven, 2002; van Heuven, Dijkstra, & Grainger, 1998) and the episodic L2 hypothesis (Jiang & Forster, 2001; Witzel & Forster, 2012), were proposed based on evidence from bilinguals with a dominant L1 and less-dominant L2. Little is known about the processing of a non-dominant L1. The first portion of this study examines grammatical processing in HL speakers. A preliminary study compared grammatical processing in HL Vietnamese speakers to L1 Vietnamese-dominant speakers. Findings from this study suggest that HL speakers and L1-dominant speakers decompose L1 Vietnamese compound words in a very similar manner. To further investigate whether an HL is processed like an L1 or an L2, a follow-up study testing morphological decomposition in L2 English is proposed. The second portion of this study examines lexical processing in these speakers. L1 dominant bilinguals have reliably shown that L1 words automatically activate their respective L2 translations. However, it is unclear what happens to bilinguals whose dominant language has switched from their L1 to their L2.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.

本论文研究了遗产语言处理。遗产语言（HL）是一种母语（L1），由于其少数群体的地位，它已成为其说话者的非主导语言。该项目中询问的问题是，遗产语言（HL）的行为是否像母语（L1），因为HL是作为母语学习的，还是遗产语言（HL）的行为像第二语言（L2），因为它像L2一样不发达。为了测试这一点，本研究研究了越南 - 英语双语者的语法和词汇处理。越南语是美国的一种遗产和少数族裔语言，是英语以外的第四种口语（美国人口普查局，2015年）。这表明了这个国家的HL扬声器的流行程度，但是，HL处理的研究数量有限。 Many bilingual language processing models, such as the Bilingual Interactive Activation model (Dijkstra & van Heuven, 2002; van Heuven, Dijkstra, & Grainger, 1998) and the episodic L2 hypothesis (Jiang & Forster, 2001; Witzel & Forster, 2012), were proposed based on evidence from bilinguals with a dominant L1 and less-dominant L2.关于非主要L1的处理知之甚少。这项研究的第一部分检查了HL扬声器中的语法处理。一项初步研究将越南语扬声器中的语法处理与L1越南主导者进行了比较。这项研究的发现表明，HL扬声器和L1占主导地位的说话者以非常相似的方式分解L1越南复合词。为了进一步研究HL是否像L1或L2一样处理，提出了在L2英语中测试形态分解的后续研究。这项研究的第二部分研究了这些说话者中的词汇处理。 L1主导的双语者可靠地表明，L1单词会自动激活其各自的L2翻译。但是，目前尚不清楚双语者的主导语言已从其L1转换为L1的双语会发生什么。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估标准来评估的。