The Origins of Udi Syntax

Udi 语法的起源

• 批准号: 9710085
• 负责人: Alice Harris
• 金额: $ 13.33万
• 依托单位: Vanderbilt University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1997-07-01 至 2000-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9710085&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Origins; Udi; Syntax

The Origins of Udi Syntax Udi is an endangered language which belongs to the North East Caucasian language family. It has been selected as an object of study because (a) the structures of the languages of this family are different in many ways from those of more familiar languages and therefore can contribute significantly to our understanding of language universals, (b) Udi has a complex morphology, which supplies ready evidence of syntactic relations, and (c) Udi has undergone significant syntactic and morphological change. The project centers on the development of a construction for marking the focus of attention and on the development of moveable agreement (which occurs on a host of any one of many types, including verbs, nouns, pronouns, and adverbs). The project involves study of both syntax and the morphology that is most relevant to that syntax, including agreement and case marking. The objectives of the project include the description and explanation of (a) agreement and complex verb formation as they function in Udi today, (b) the origins of moveable agreement in Udi, (c) origins of complex verbs in Udi and North East Caucasian languages generally, (d) development of the focus construction in Udi and other North East Caucasian languages, (e) origins of changes in case marking patterns. The significance of the project is not limited to the explanation of phenomena particular to Udi and other languages of the North East Caucasian family; rather, these changes will be related to the universals of syntactic change. It is expected that the project will provide (a) an explanation of how word-internal agreement originates, (b) an increased understanding of how case system undergo change, (c) testing of claims made in the recent literature on syntactic change regarding the simplification complex constructions and regarding changes in case marking and agreement patterns, (d) testing of claims regarding the use in syntax of historical methods originally design ed for use in reconstructing phonology.

乌地语是一种濒临灭绝的语言，属于东北高加索语系。之所以选择乌地语作为研究对象，是因为：(a)乌地语家族的语言结构在许多方面与我们更熟悉的语言结构不同，因此可以对我们理解语言共性做出重大贡献；(b)乌地语具有复杂的形态学，这为句法关系提供了现成的证据；(c)乌地语经历了重大的句法和形态学变化。该项目的重点是开发一种用于标记注意力焦点的结构，以及开发可移动协议（可移动协议发生在许多类型中的任何一种，包括动词、名词、代词和副词）。该项目涉及语法和与该语法最相关的形态学的研究，包括一致性和大小写标记。该项目的目标包括描述和解释(a)今天在乌迪语中使用的一致性和复杂动词形式，(b)乌迪语中可动一致性的起源，(c)乌迪语和东北高加索语言中复杂动词的起源，(d)乌迪语和其他东北高加索语言中焦点结构的发展，(e)格标记模式变化的起源。该项目的意义不仅限于解释乌地语和东北高加索语系的其他语言特有的现象；相反，这些变化将与句法变化的共性有关。预计该项目将提供(a)解释单词内部一致性是如何产生的，(b)加深对格系统如何经历变化的理解，(c)对最近关于简化复杂结构的句法变化以及关于格标记和一致模式变化的文献中的主张进行测试，(d)对最初设计用于重建音韵学的历史方法在句法中的使用的主张进行测试。