Doctoral Dissertation Research: Resumptive Relative Clause Dependencies in the Processing of Second Language English

博士论文研究：第二语言英语处理中的恢复性关系从句依存关系

• 批准号: 2141214
• 负责人: Bonnie Schwartz
• 金额: $ 1.67万
• 依托单位: University of Hawaii
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-02-15 至 2024-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2141214&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Resumptive; Relative

The study of second language (L2) learning has much to tell us about the basic properties of the human mind/brain. This dissertation project investigates “resumptive relative clauses” or RRCs - phrases such as “the man that the police arrested him”, a conspicuous feature of L2 English speech and writing. RRCs are ungrammatical in some languages including English but are possible in other languages such as Mandarin Chinese. Surprisingly, RRCs are often observed in L2 speech and writing even when they are impossible in both the native language and the L2. These "interlanguage" features that cannot be traced to either the speaker's first or second language offer insight into the nature of the human language system and its development independent of the properties of individual languages. Second language learning is of growing importance in our increasingly globalized world, and an understanding of the L2 learning process and how interlanguage features emerge is critical to the development of language teaching methods.Drawing on recent methodological innovations in the psycholinguistics literature on native speakers, this project investigates whether RRCs in English represent a genuine grammatical option in the L2 learner’s developing language system and/or a subconscious strategy for managing cognitive load during real-time sentence processing. In addition to a control group of native English speakers, L2 learners of English whose native language either has or does not have RRCs undertake a series of experimental tasks probing the production, comprehension, and acceptability of English resumptive vs. non-resumptive relative clauses in three increasingly complex sentence types. The L2 learners complete two versions of the acceptability task - one in English and one in their native language- so that their knowledge with respect to the (im)possibility of RRCs can be compared across the two languages. This line of research addresses key questions related to L2 knowledge, L2 use, and the development of each.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.

第二语言（L2）学习的研究可以告诉我们很多关于人类思想/大脑的基本属性的信息。本论文项目研究了“延续性关系从句”或 RRC——诸如“警察逮捕了他的人”之类的短语。 L2 英语语音和写作的一个显着特征是，RRC 在包括英语在内的某些语言中是不符合语法的，但在其他语言（例如普通话）中却是可能的。令人惊讶的是，RRC 甚至在 L2 语音和写作中也经常出现。当它们在母语和第二语言中都是不可能的时，这些无法追溯到说话者的第一语言或第二语言的“中介语”特征提供了对人类语言系统的本质及其发展的洞察力，而独立于个别语言的属性。在我们日益全球化的世界中，第二语言学习变得越来越重要，了解第二语言学习过程以及中介语特征如何出现对于语言教学方法的发展至关重要。项目研究英语中的 RRC 是否代表了第二语言学习者正在发展的语言系统中的真正语法选择和/或在实时句子处理过程中管理认知负荷的潜意识策略。母语有或没有 RRC 承担一系列实验任务，探索三种日益复杂的句子类型中英语延续式与非延续式关系从句的产生、理解和可接受性。 L2 学习者完成了两种。可接受性任务的版本 - 一个是英语，一个是他们的母语 - 以便可以在两种语言之间比较他们关于 RRC（不）可能性的知识，这一系列研究解决了与 L2 知识相关的关键问题， L2 的使用以及各自的发展。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。