Data_Sheet_1_English Adjectives and Estonian Nouns: Looking for Agreement?.pdf

This study investigated how speakers of Estonian as L1 with varying degree of proficiency in English judge grammaticality of bilingual constructions English adjective + Estonian noun from the point of view of adjective agreement. Estonian is rich in inflectional morphology, and adjectives agree with nouns in case and number. The empirical evidence from English-Estonian bilingual speech shows that agreement is not always the case even when an English adjective fits into Estonian declension system. It is hypothesized that the higher proficiency in/exposure to English is, the higher is the acceptability of bilingual adjective phrases, and (non-)agreement does not play a role. To test this, an experiment was designed where the test corpus of 108 sentences consisted of real and constructed examples, both in agreement and non-agreement condition. Real sentences came from fashion and beauty blogs and vlogs. The test was administered online and the participants were asked to rate adjective acceptability. The hypothesis was confirmed: increased proficiency in English, together with younger age, had a positive correlation with acceptability of all adjective types, independent of adjective (non-)agreement. Residence and birthplace had a small effect on acceptability of some adjective types. Whether sentences were real or constructed, had only a minor effect. Male participants tended to assess real sentences lower, probably because of the topics typical for female blogs. Monosyllabic consonant-ending adjectives were exceptional, as their assessment did not depend on any factor. All in all, the study demonstrated that grammaticality judgment among the native speakers of the same L1 differs because of different degrees of bilingualism, and structural factors, such as compatibility with Estonian declension system, are not decisive. Thus, it is not clear what an ideal native speaker is.

本研究以第一语言（L1）为爱沙尼亚语（Estonian）、英语熟练度各异的使用者为研究对象，探讨其对「英语形容词+爱沙尼亚语名词」这类双语构式的语法可接受性判断，研究视角聚焦形容词一致现象。爱沙尼亚语拥有丰富的屈折形态学（inflectional morphology）系统，形容词需在格与数范畴上与名词保持一致。英爱沙尼亚双语语料的实证证据显示，即便英语形容词适配爱沙尼亚语变格系统（declension system），形容词一致现象也并非总能得到严格遵守。本研究提出如下假设：使用者的英语熟练度或接触量越高，对该类双语形容词短语的可接受性评分便越高，而形容词的（不）一致情况不会对评分产生影响。为验证该假设，本研究设计了一项实验，实验所用测试语料库包含108个句子，涵盖符合一致规则与不符合一致规则的真实例句与人工构建例句，其中真实例句取自时尚与美妆类博客及视频博客（vlog）。该测试以线上形式开展，要求参与者对形容词的可接受性进行评分。实验结果证实了前述假设：英语熟练度提升与更年轻的年龄，均与各类形容词短语的可接受性评分呈显著正相关，且该相关性不受形容词（不）一致情况的影响。居住地与出生地仅对部分类型形容词的可接受性评分存在微弱影响；例句为真实例句还是人工构建例句，对评分的影响同样微乎其微。男性参与者倾向于对真实例句给出更低评分，这或许与时尚美妆类博客的典型受众性别偏向女性有关。以单音节辅音结尾的形容词属于特例，其评分未受任何因素影响。总体而言，本研究表明，同一第一语言母语者之间的语法可接受性判断会因双语熟练度的差异而存在分歧，而诸如适配爱沙尼亚语变格系统这类结构因素并非决定性因素。由此可见，所谓“理想母语者”的概念尚无明确定义。