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一种以上语言的人远多于单语者，但理想化的单语使用者仍然是我们理解语言知识、使用、处理和习得的主要证据来源。该项目假设获取、维持和使用多种语言的能力是人类语言能力的关键组成部分。我们将双语置于语言探究的中心，并提出这是能够充分理解人类语言学习能力架构的唯一方法。通过评估输入频率和习得年龄在不同双语群体词汇和语法发展中的作用，我们试图全面了解语言学习与任何其他语言学习的相似之处和不同之处。使用双语儿童和成人语法性别的习得和维持作为词汇和语法的镜头，我们比较了第二语言（L2）习得的输入频率和年龄如何影响项目特定和语法性别。词汇和语法发展的基于规则的方面。我们深入研究（i）同时双语者（ii）早期（儿童）二语学习者（iii）晚期（成人）二语学习者之间的词汇性别分配和句法一致性，研究频率和年龄对规则应用的相互作用。如 (iv) 儿童移民（早期流失者）和 (v) 成年移民（晚期流失者）。我们重点关注以法语或英语为其他语言的目标语言为德语的人，总共收集了 480 名参与者的数据。在一系列生产和理解实验中，我们测试了这些双语群体在识别单词的词汇性别时如何依赖语音规则与项目频率的差异，以及他们在构建句法性别时如何吸收语法规则与非语法线索的差异协议。根据目前的方法，我们假设早期的 L1 和 L2 学习者表现出规则敏感性和输入频率的附加效​​应，而晚期 L2 习得的特点是规则敏感性和词典中的输入效应，但对句法一致性中的语法信息的依赖不足。这些分析使用混合效应回归模型以及结构方程模型来模拟频率、年龄和背景变量在词汇和语法习得和消耗中的贡献和相互作用。该项目将更好地理解语言发展如何与人类生命周期不同阶段的接触频率和习得年龄等因素相互作用，并为语言是否是通过领域学习的问题提供新的见解。一般或特定领域的技能。