Doctoral Dissertation Research: The constraints of dual morphological systems on visual word processing in Maltese

博士论文研究：双形态系统对马耳他语视觉文字处理的限制

• 批准号: 1918143
• 负责人: Heidi Harley
• 金额: $ 1.8万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 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: 2019-08-01 至 2021-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1918143&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; constraints; dual; Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; constraints; dual

All languages have strategies for combining independently meaningful linguistic units, called morphemes, to build words. Most languages, like English, primarily combine these units by linearly appending them to one another (e.g. re- + write - rewrite); such languages are said to have linear morphology. Semitic languages, like Arabic, are famous for having nonlinear morphology: discontinuous units which express meaning and grammatical information are combined non-linearly (e.g. Arabic k-t-b 'writing' + aa-i 'doer, NOUN' - kaatib 'author'). Maltese is particularly unusual in its morphological characteristics: as a Semitic language, Maltese has primarily used non-linear morphology historically. However, for the past millennium it has been in close contact with a series of languages that use linear morphology (Sicilian, Italian, French, and English), and speakers have heavily borrowed words and adopted linear morphological strategies from these languages. Today, Maltese comprises a "mixed" language: at least half of all words are borrowed from non-Semitic languages (and so do not exhibit non-linear morphology), and speakers use both linear and non-linear word-building strategies extensively. This project investigates how the presence of distinct morphological systems in Maltese affects word processing, exploring differences in how Maltese readers recognize Semitic words vs. non-Semitic borrowings. It explores the impact of historical language mixing on the processes underlying daily language use, and so has implications for the study of languages in similar contact situations. The results of a series of experiments will comprise the data analyzed in the Co-PI's dissertation. The project will also produce a database of Maltese word recognition data, the first such database for a language with non-linear morphology, which other researchers may use to study language processing.The Co-PI, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona, will conduct a series of psycholinguistic experiments investigating how the existence of distinct lexicons exhibiting unique morphological characteristics (native Semitic words vs. non-Semitic borrowings) affects visual word recognition in Maltese. Previous research has found (1) that Maltese readers are faster to recognize Semitic words than non-Semitic borrowings and (2) that, when primed by letter strings consisting of a subset of a word?s consonants (e.g. frx primes FIREX 'to spread'), they are faster to recognize Semitic words (for which such strings comprise a morpheme) but not non-Semitic ones (for which such strings are non-morphemic). The latter finding conflicts with the "subset priming" effect found in non-Semitic languages, namely that exposure to such letter strings typically facilitates word recognition (e.g. 'csn' primes CASINO), owing to the role of consonant letters in constraining lexical candidates, and suggests that language-specific morphological properties such as Semitic nonconcatenative morphology may further shape the role of consonant letters in lexical processing. The proposed research includes (1) a Maltese visual lexical decision megastudy which explores processing differences between Semitic and non-Semitic words across a wide range of items when potential confounding factors like orthographic neighborhood density and morphological structure are controlled for (and which will result in the publication of a database of Maltese lexical decision responses) (Experiment 1); and (2) a series of visual masked priming studies which test for subset priming effects in non-Semitic Maltese words when confounding factors, namely the morphemic status of the prime, are controlled for (Experiments 2-3).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.

所有语言都有将独立有意义的语言单元（称为词素）结合起来的策略，以构建单词。大多数语言（例如英语）主要通过线性加入彼此（例如re- + write -Rebrite）来结合这些单元；据说这种语言具有线性形态。像阿拉伯语一样，闪族语言以非线性形态而闻名：表达含义和语法信息的不连续单元是非线性的（例如阿拉伯语K-t-b'写作' + aa-i'doer，doer'doer，noun'' - kaatib'作者'）。马耳他的形态特征特别不寻常：作为一种闪族语言，马耳他人主要在历史上主要使用了非线性形态。但是，在过去的千年中，它一直与使用线性形态（西西里语，意大利语，法语和英语）的一系列语言密切接触，并且说话者大量借用了单词并采用了这些语言的线性形态策略。如今，马耳他的语言包括一种“混合”语言：至少有一半的单词是从非犹太语言借用的（因此不要表现出非线性形态），并且说话者可以广泛使用线性和非线性单词构建策略。该项目调查了马耳他人中不同形态系统的存在如何影响文字处理，从而探讨了马耳他读者识别闪族词与非犹太人借款的差异。它探讨了历史语言混合对日常语言使用的过程的影响，因此对在类似的接触情况下的语言研究产生了影响。一系列实验的结果将构成Co-Pi论文中分析的数据。该项目还将生成马耳他单词识别数据数据库，这是第一个具有非线性形态的语言的数据库，其他研究人员可能会用来研究语言处理。马耳他。先前的研究（1）发现，马耳他读者比非犹太人借贷更快地识别闪族词，并且（2）由单词辅音的子集组成的字母字符串启动时，例如，frx primes firex firex'firex'to spriz spribal'）更快地识别semitic词（对于哪些符号而不是sysements the sove the sove notemien nonsmore sifemersiensience）（不se）（不s）（不s）（不s）（s）（不s）（syme）（symore）（syme）（syme）（均不符合人）。 The latter finding conflicts with the "subset priming" effect found in non-Semitic languages, namely that exposure to such letter strings typically facilitates word recognition (e.g. 'csn' primes CASINO), owing to the role of consonant letters in constraining lexical candidates, and suggests that language-specific morphological properties such as Semitic nonconcatenative morphology may further shape the role of consonant letters in词汇处理。拟议的研究包括（1）马耳他视觉词汇决策Megastudy，探讨了在广泛的项目中闪米特语和非犹太人单词之间的处理差异，而当前的混杂因素（例如正交邻域密度和形态结构）受到控制（并且会导致Maltese词汇决策响应的数据库发表）（实验1）（实验1）； （2）一系列视觉掩盖的启动研究，这些研究在混淆因素时测试了子集启动效应，即在混淆因素时（即素数的形态状态）受到控制（实验2-3）。该奖项反映了NSF的立法任务，并被认为是通过基金会的智力优点和广阔的范围来评估的，并且值得通过评估来进行评估。