Doctoral Dissertation Research: Kiowa Switch-Reference and the Nature of Topichood

语言中“主题”的语法概念直观地很清楚：主题是一个句子的内容。然而，这个概念及其在语法中的作用已被证明是难以形式化的。关于主题的意义或结构的理论都没有完整的经验覆盖，因为它们假设了一些统一的主题概念，而且它们倾向于关注少数几种欧洲语言。这项研究放弃了这种假设，并探索了俄克拉何马州的一种美洲原住民语言基奥瓦语的语法。在这样做的过程中，它将建立一个更细致入微的主题理论。在塞思·凯布尔博士的指导下，安德鲁·麦肯齐将研究基奥瓦语中的参考策略。Kiowa使用句子标记来跟踪句子中的某些论点，这种现象被称为“切换引用”。本文的假设是，这些争论是一类话题。因此，它们是句子的论点，而不是句子中动词的论点。它们的语义和句法特性也与其他类型的主题有系统的区别。这项研究的结果要么会导致基奥瓦语和其他语言中话题现象的类型学，要么会导致放弃任何关于“话题”的理论概念。在国家科学基金会的支持下，麦肯齐先生将三次前往俄克拉何马州，通过与基奥瓦语母语人士进行实地考察来验证这一假设。他将通过引出话语和语法判断来收集数据。为了提供更自然的数据，说话者也可以背诵段落和进行对话。此外，发言者将被要求听或读基奥瓦语的段落，并讨论其中的语言使用。本研究将促进我们对话题现象的理解，阐明话题在句子结构和意义中的作用。此外，本研究将有助于促进基奥瓦语的生存和维护。基奥瓦语和绝大多数美洲土著语言一样，严重濒危。幸运的是，有几个地方正在教授这门课。然而，一个完整的语言课程是阻碍缺乏充分了解的各方面的基奥瓦语法有关话题。这项研究将填补我们知识上的空白，并帮助基奥瓦的学生学习流利的会话技巧。它还将作为研究未被充分研究的语言的主题的意义和结构的一个例子，并提供大量的数据集，可能证明对基奥瓦的学生和语言学家是有价值的。

The grammatical notion of 'topic' in language is intuitively clear: A topic is what a sentence is about. However, this notion and its role in the grammar has proven difficult to formalize. No theory of the meaning or structure of topics has complete empirical coverage, because they assume some unified notion of topichood, and they tend to focus on a handful of European languages. This research drops that assumption and explores the grammar of Kiowa, a Native American language spoken in Oklahoma. In doing so, it will build towards a more nuanced theory of topichood. Working under Dr. Seth Cable, Andrew McKenzie will examine referential strategies in the Kiowa language. Kiowa employs sentence markers that track certain arguments across sentences--- a phenomenon called 'switch-reference'. The hypothesis of this dissertation is that these arguments are one kind of topic. As such, they are arguments of the sentence, rather than of the verb in the sentence. Also, their semantic and syntactic properties systematically differ from those of other types of topics. The results of this research should lead either towards a typology of topic phenomena in Kiowa and other languages, or to the abandonment of any theoretical notion of `topic'. With support from the NSF, Mr. McKenzie will make three trips to Oklahoma to test this hypothesis by conducting fieldwork with native speakers of Kiowa. He will collect data by eliciting utterances and grammaticality judgments. Speakers may also recite passages and conduct conversations, in order to provide more naturalistic data. In addition, speakers will be asked to listen to or read passages in Kiowa and discuss the use of language therein. This research will advance our understanding of topic phenomena and clarify the role topics play in the structure and meaning of sentences. In addition, this research will help promote the survival and maintenance of the Kiowa language. Kiowa, like the vast majority of Native American languages, is gravely endangered. Fortunately, it is being taught in several places. However, a complete language curriculum is hampered by the lack of a full understanding of the aspects of Kiowa grammar concerning topichood. This research will fill this gap in our knowledge, and help students of Kiowa learn fluent conversation techniques. It will also serve as an example of investigation into the meaning and structure of topics in understudied languages, and provide substantial sets of data that may prove valuable to students of Kiowa and to linguists.