Modelling bottom-up and top-down linguistic knowledge across different contexts of bilingual development

在双语发展的不同背景下对自下而上和自上而下的语言知识进行建模

• 批准号: ES/X008266/1
• 负责人: Monika Susanne Schmid
• 金额: $ 47.65万
• 依托单位: University of York
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FX008266%2F1
• 关键词: Modelling; bottom; up; top; down

Although there are far more people in the world capable of using more than one language than there are monolinguals, idealized monolingual speakers remain the main source of evidence for our understanding of language knowledge, use, processing and acquisition. This project assumes that the ability to acquire, maintain and use more than one language is a key component of the human language faculty. We move bilingualism into the centre of linguistic inquiry and propose that this is the only approach capable of fully understanding the architecture of the human language learning capacity. By assessing the roles of frequency of the input and age of acquisition in lexical and grammatical development across different populations of bilinguals, we try to come to an integrated understanding of how language learning is similar to and how it is different from the learning of any other abstract skill.Using the acquisition and maintenance of grammatical gender in bilingual children and adults as a lens into the lexicon and the grammar, we compare how input frequency and age of second-language (L2) acquisition affect item-specific and rule-based aspects of lexical and grammatical development. We study interactions of frequency and age effects on rule application in an in-depth examination of lexical gender assignment and syntactic agreement among (i) simultaneous bilinguals (ii) early (child) L2 learners (iii) late (adult) L2 learners as well as (iv) child immigrants (early attriters) and (v) adult immigrants (late attriters). We focus on German as the target language among speakers with French or English as the other language, collecting data from a total of 480 participants. In a range of production and comprehension experiments, we test for differences in how these groups of bilinguals rely on phonological rules versus item frequency in identifying the lexical gender of words and how they recruit grammatical rules versus non-grammatical cues in the construction of syntactic gender agreement. In line with current approaches, we hypothesize that early L1 and L2 learners demonstrate rule-sensitivity with additive effects of input frequency, while late L2 acquisition is characterised by rule-sensitivity and input effects in the lexicon, yet underreliance on grammatical information in syntactic agreement. The analyses use mixed-effects regression models as well as structural equation modelling to model the contributions and interactions of frequency, age and background variables in lexical and grammatical acquisition and attrition. This project will yield a better understanding of how the language development interacts with factors such as the frequency of exposure and age of acquisition at different stages throughout the human lifespan, and provides novel insights into the question of whether language is learned by means of domain-general or domain-specific skills.

尽管世界上能够使用多种语言的人多于单语言，但理想化的单语言者仍然是我们对语言知识，使用，处理和获取的理解的主要证据来源。该项目假定获得，维护和使用多种语言的能力是人类语言教师的关键组成部分。我们将双语主义转移到语言探究的中心，并建议这是唯一能够充分理解人类语言学习能力建筑的方法。通过评估双语人群中的输入和获取年龄在词汇和语法发展中的频率的作用，我们试图对语言学习的相似性以及与任何其他抽象技能的学习有何不同的了解，从而融入了与任何其他抽象技能的学习不同。 （L2）获取会影响词汇和语法发展的特定于项目和规则的方面。我们研究了（i）同时双语者（II）早期（儿童）L2学习者（III）晚期（成人）L2学习者（成人）L2学习者以及（IV）儿童移民（IV）儿童移民（早期属性）（早期属性）和（v）成人移民（晚期属于（v）后期的成年人（晚期），我们研究了对词汇性别分配和句法协议的频率和年龄影响对规则应用的相互作用。我们将专注于德语作为具有法语或英语作为其他语言的说话者的目标语言，从总共480名参与者那里收集数据。在一系列的生产和理解实验中，我们测试了这些双语群体如何依赖语音规则与项目频率的差异，以识别单词的词汇性别，以及它们如何募集语法规则与语法性别一致性的非语法提示。与当前的方法一致，我们假设早期的L1和L2学习者表现出具有输入频率的加性效应的规则敏感性，而L2的后期采集的特征是词典中的规则敏感性和输入效应，但对语法协议中语法信息的不足。分析使用混合效应回归模型以及结构方程模型来模拟词汇和语法采集和损耗中频率，年龄和背景变量的贡献和相互作用。该项目将更好地理解语言发展如何与整个人类寿命的不同阶段的暴露频率和获取年龄相互作用，并为是否通过域中或领域特定技能学习语言学习的问题提供了新的见解。