DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The Syntax of Passamaquoddy

东阿尔冈琴语是北美各地使用的美洲土著语言家族的成员，在文化、历史和语言上都占有重要地位。它们是欧洲人最早遇到的语言之一，也是第一批不幸地屈服于该大陆随后广泛传播的语言消失模式的语言之一（今天只有四种东阿尔冈琴语仍在使用）。它们也属于类型学上意义重大的“多合成”语言，目前正受到理论语言学的密切关注。多合成语言在构建复杂的动词干和名词干时广泛使用了粘合词法；表现出同样广泛地使用一致词法和伴随的空代词；并且拥有相对自由的语序，包括使用不连续成分。该项目将通过仔细研究Passamaquoddy的语法来调查这些特性，Passamaquoddy是一种东部阿尔冈琴语，目前在缅因州和新不伦瑞克省有大约500人使用。本文将试图通过对Passamaquoddy中双宾结构和及物性变化的研究来阐明由多合成现象引起的理论问题。此外，本研究将有两个描述性的目标：系统地描述在以前的研究中没有涉及的广泛的句法结构；在这个项目的整个过程中，以数字形式记录下尽可能多的口语样本。这项工作将直接有助于当前记录和振兴汉语的工作，如基于网络的词典项目和正在进行的双语教育项目。

The Eastern Algonquian languages, members of a family of Native American languages spoken across North America, occupy a culturally, historically, and linguistically significant position. They were among the first languages to be encountered by the Europeans, and among the first to succumb to the unfortunately widespread subsequent pattern of language loss on this continent (only four Eastern Algonquian languages are still spoken today). They also fall into the typologically significant class of 'polysynthetic' languages currently under intense scrutiny in theoretical linguistics. Polysynthetic languages make extensive use of agglutinative morphology in the construction of complex verbal and nominal stems; exhibit a similarly extensive use of agreement morphology and accompanying null pronominals; and possess relatively free word order, including the use of discontinuous constituents.This project will investigate these properties by carefully exploring the syntax of Passamaquoddy, an Eastern Algonquian language currently spoken by approximately 500 people in Maine and New Brunswick. The dissertation will attempt to illuminate theoretical issues raised by polysynthetic phenomena through a study of double-object constructions and transitivity alternations in Passamaquoddy.In addition, the study will have two descriptive goals: the systematic description of a broad range of syntactic constructions, not touched on in previous studies; and the recording, in digital form, of as large a sample of the spoken language as possible over the term of the project. The work will directly contribute to current efforts to document and revitalize the language, such as a web-based dictionary project and ongoing bilingual education programs.