Dissertation: Morphosyntactic Interactions in the First Language Acquisition of Inuktitut

本论文项目将提供实验和自然的第一语言习得的儿童在三至六岁之间获得因纽特语（爱斯基摩-阿留申家族的语言）作为他们的第一语言在伊格卢利克，N.W.T，加拿大。这项研究将具有特别重要的意义，因为(i)它将有助于为具有高度复杂形态的语言的习得提供基础知识；（ii）它将检查语法和词法的同时习得，以及儿童对其中一种知识的发展可能对另一种知识的发展产生影响的方式；（iii）它将在一种语言（和一个语族）的背景下研究迄今为止很少研究的人类语言认知能力的各个方面；（iv）它将在一个目前存在严重语言流失问题的地区提供关于一种北美语言的重要描述性信息。

This dissertation project will provide experimental and naturalistic studies of the first language acquisition of children between the ages of three and six years of age acquiring Inuktitut (a language of the Eskimo-Aleut family) as their first language in Igloolik, N.W.T., Canada. This research will be particularly significant because (i) it will contribute to providing foundational knowledge on the acquisition of languages with highly complex morphology; (ii) it will examine the concurrent acquisition of syntax and morphology, and the ways in which the child's developing knowledge of one might contribute to knowledge of the other; (iii) it will investigate aspects of the human cognitive competence for language in the context of a language (and a language family) which has been little studied to date; and (iv) it will provide important descriptive information on a North American language in an area where there is current concern about severe language loss.