DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Aspects of Northern Paiute Grammar

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The NSF-supported research will be on the grammar of NorthernPaiute (Numic, Uto-Aztecan). The dissertation, Aspects of Northern PaiuteGrammar, will be an exploration of word-formation processes, syntax, anddiscourse-related topics surrounding referent-tracking and topicality andwill include a body of analyzed texts. The dissertation topic was chosento accomplish two interconnected aims: 1) present a thorough descriptionof the major aspects of Northern Paiute grammar and 2) provide thelinguistics community with information for theoretical and comparativepurposes on a language about which very little has ever been published.The project includes text collection and analysis as the basis forexploring various aspects of Northern Paiute grammar. Texts of variousgenres -- traditional, ethno-historical, and autobiographical narrative aswell as the recounting of daily experiences and conversation in thelanguage -- will be recorded, analyzed, and entered into a computerdatabase; this will ensure a variety of grammatical forms and styles incontext for this and future studies as well as provide the community withdocumentation of the language for the purpose of preservation. Members ofthe Burns Paiute community will assist in this project both in the role ofconsultants and, through training, in the process of transcription andtranslation. This will help to ensure that tribal members will be able tocontinue their involvement in documentation and preservation efforts.Besides using audio tape to record texts, video recordings willalso be made. From the point of view of text analysis, video providesinsight into the text in ways that audio cannot--most notably by includinggestural content. From the perspective of the community, video is oftenmore accessible, particularly to younger generations, and can be moreeasily utilized in language teaching situations. This project isspecifically designed to benefit two communities: 1) the scientificcommunity in linguistics, by providing important data on alittle-documented and endangered human language, and 2) the NorthernPaiute communities who wish to have more informationon their language of heritage.