Doctoral Dissertation Research: Ergativity and Constituent Order in Chol

语言学的一个中心目标是发现所有人类语言共有的哪些特性，以及语言在哪些方面可能有所不同。为了实现这一目标，杰西卡·库恩女士将在大卫·佩塞茨基博士和诺文·理查兹博士的指导下，对语言学院的单词结构和句法进行语言学实地考察。Chol是墨西哥恰帕斯州约15万土著居民使用的一种文献不足的玛雅语言。本研究通过对Chol的分裂协议模式的研究，解决了小句参与者的语法标记中的语言变异问题。虽然大多数被研究得最好的语言都表现出“主格-宾格”的人称标记系统，但世界上许多语言都表现出“肯定-绝对”的模式。在否定-绝对系统中，及物动词的宾语与不及物动词的主语标记相似。玛雅语系的大多数成员都表现出否定-绝对模式。而Chol则显示了一个分裂的系统：完成分句是否定-绝对，而不完成分句是主格-宾格。初步研究结果表明，这种分裂可能与非完成分句的名词化有关。尽管其独特的协议系统，与许多玛雅语言相比，Chol得到的描述或分析相对较少，并且没有全面的语法。这项研究的重要意义在于，既能促进我们对人类语言中词序和协议系统之间可能的变异点的理解，也有助于进一步记录和维护Chol语言。这项调查的数据将来自与母语人士的启发会议，以及库恩在三次恰帕斯旅行中收集的记录和转录的文本。库恩将于2008年秋季作为访问学生在圣Cristóbal de las Casas的跨学科社会科学研究机构Antropología社会研究中心（CIESAS）学习。这项研究将有重要的影响，不仅在理论语言学，而且在关注的领域，当地社区，更普遍的土著社区。在CIESAS期间，库恩将积极参与印度美洲语言学硕士项目的学生工作，该项目培训土著语言的使用者，包括语言文献、复兴和语言学理论。

A central aim of linguistics is to discover which properties are shared by all human languages, and in which respects languages may vary. To further this goal, Ms. Jessica Coon, under the supervision of Dr. David Pesetsky and Dr. Norvin Richards, will conduct linguistic fieldwork on the word-structure and syntax of the language Chol. Chol is an under-documented Mayan language spoken by approximately 150,000 indigenous inhabitants of Chiapas, Mexico. This study addresses the question of linguistic variation in the grammatical marking of clausal participants through the study of Chol's split-agreement pattern. While most of the best-studied languages exhibit "nominative-accusative" systems of person marking, many of the world's languages show "ergative-absolutive" patterns. In an ergative-absolutive system, the object of a transitive verb is marked similarly to the subject of an intransitive verb. Most members of the Mayan language family exhibit an ergative-absoulutive pattern. Chol, however, shows a split system: perfective clauses are ergative-absolutive, but imperfective clauses are nominative-accusative. Initial findings suggest that this split may be connected to nominalization of non-perfective clauses. Despite its unique system of agreement, Chol has received relatively little description or analysis compared to many Mayan languages, and there is no comprehensive grammar. The significance of this study will be to both advance our understanding of the possible points of variation among word order and agreement systems in human language, as well as aid in efforts to further document and maintain the Chol language.Data for this investigation will come from elicitation sessions with native speakers, as well as from texts recorded and transcribed by Coon, collected during three trips to Chiapas. Coon will spend the fall of 2008 as a visiting student at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS), an interdisciplinary social sciences research institution in San Cristóbal de las Casas. This study will have an important impact not only within theoretical linguistics, but also in areas of concern to the local community, and to indigenous communities more generally. While at CIESAS, Coon will be actively involved in working with students in the Masters in Indo-American Linguistics program, which trains speakers of indigenous languages in language documentation, revitalization, and linguistic theory.