Dissertation Research: Coeur d'Alene Grammatical Relations

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

ABSTRACT The research will involve one six-week trip to the Coeur d'Alene Reservation in northern Idaho, where the student researcher will conduct linguistic field work focusing on grammatical relations in Coeur d'Alene Salish, a North American Indian language. Grammatical relations (subject, object) are indicated as elements of both word formation and sentence structure; their roles are dependent on factors of control and transitivity inherent in the root, and transitivity and incorporation indicated in the word stem; and the relations are often interpretable only with an understanding of discourse structure. This investigation will contribute to the completion of the student's University of Texas doctoral dissertation in linguistics. The study will add significantly to the limited body of descriptive information available on Coeur d'Alene and to the understanding of the morphology and syntax of Interior Salishan languages in general, and will eventually serve as a basis for comparative Salish syntax studies. Major topics will include the morphological and syntactic structures used to indicate grammatical relations; the function of (preposition) incorporation and lexical suffixation to alter or specify grammatical relations; the use of clitics and adjuncts to cross- reference relations indicated by subject and object pronouns on the stem; and the roles of these relations in syntax and discourse.