MRPG: Word Domains in Athabaskan

MRPG：阿萨巴斯卡语中的词域

• 批准号: 0104606
• 负责人: John Alderete
• 金额: $ 1.78万
• 依托单位: Swarthmore College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-01-01 至 2002-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0104606&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRPG; Word; Domains; Athabaskan

The purpose of this planning grant is to provide infrastructure for long-term research on Athabaskan languages, with a focus on Tahltan, a critically endangered language of northwest British Columbia. A set of data collection, organization and analysis activities are proposed to study the structure of verbs. Verb forms are fundamental in the study of Athabaskan languages because they provide crucial information about the structure and interpretation of sentences (i.e., the syntax and semantics). They are also important in the description of sound structure (or the phonology) because the different domains in an Athabaskan verb represent different sound systems. Verbs are thus fundamental to subsequent documentation of Tahltan, i.e., dictionaries, texts, grammars, and theoretical hypothesis testing, all of which fall within the scope of this long-term research program.Verbs in Athabaskan languages are made up of a stem, which contributes the principal meaning of the word, and two classes of prefixes, namely the disjunct and conjunct prefixes. The disjunct prefixes form a class with stems because they are lexical items and have the full range of phonological structures. These properties distinguish disjunct prefixes and stems from the conjunct prefixes, which are not lexical items and have a highly restricted set of phonological structures. One chief aim is to give a natural account of the differences between these two morphological classes, for both the lexical/non-lexical distinction and their different phonologies. A set of hypotheses are developed in Optimality Theory that explain this correlation in terms the adherence of different morpheme types to their underlying representation. A host of predictions are made concerning the range of possible phonological structures and the types of processes expected in each word domain.The research plan begins with the study of Navajo verbs, both to evaluate the optimality theoretic analysis in a well-documented Athabaskan language, and as a way to provide a framework for primary linguistic documentation of Tahltan. Existing sound recordings of Tahltan will be digitized, and the fieldnotes and word lists associated with them will be incorporated in a database of large corpora that can be searched electronically. This database will clarify specific research questions and provide a guideline for additional data collection. Three trips in the field are planned to confirm the data and generalizations of previous work and to supplement the study of verb forms. The resulting relational database and grammatical sketches will provide the first complete description of verbs and materials for testing specific hypotheses about the morphological and phonological structures of verb forms. In addition, the lexical database will make possible a variety of other research and teaching activities that extend beyond the scope of verb structure.

这项规划赠款的目的是为阿萨巴斯卡语言的长期研究提供基础设施，重点是塔尔坦语，这是不列颠哥伦比亚省西北部一种极度濒危的语言。提出了一套研究动词结构的数据收集、组织和分析活动。动词形式是研究阿萨巴斯卡语言的基础，因为它们提供了有关句子结构和解释的关键信息（即，语法和语义）。它们在描述语音结构（或音系）方面也很重要，因为阿萨巴斯卡语动词中的不同域代表不同的语音系统。因此，动词是塔尔坦随后文献的基础，即，词典、文本、语法和理论假设检验，所有这些都属于这个长期研究计划的范围。阿萨巴斯卡语中的动词由一个词干和两类前缀组成，词干提供了单词的主要含义，两类前缀分别是析取前缀和合取前缀。分离前缀与词干形成一个类，因为它们是词项，具有完整的音系结构。这些属性将分离前缀和词干与连接前缀区分开来，连接前缀不是词汇项目，具有高度限制的语音结构。一个主要的目的是给这两个形态类之间的差异，无论是词汇/非词汇的区别和不同的音韵自然帐户。优选论中提出了一系列假设，解释了不同语素类型对其潜在表征的依赖性。一个主机的预测作出有关的范围内可能的语音结构和类型的过程中预期的每个字domain.The研究计划开始与纳瓦霍动词的研究，既要评估的最优性理论分析，在一个有据可查的阿萨巴斯卡语言，并作为一种方式提供一个框架的主要语言文献的塔尔坦语。现有的塔尔坦录音将被数字化，与之相关的田野笔记和单词列表将被纳入一个可以电子搜索的大型语料库数据库。该数据库将澄清具体的研究问题，并为进一步的数据收集提供指导。计划进行三次实地考察，以确认以前工作的数据和概括，并补充动词形式的研究。由此产生的关系数据库和语法草图将提供第一个完整的描述动词和材料，用于测试特定的假设有关的形态和语音结构的动词形式。此外，词汇数据库将使各种其他研究和教学活动成为可能，这些活动超出了动词结构的范围。