Doctoral Dissertation Research: Semantics of Nez Perce Verbal Inflection

北美许多本土语言的一个共同特征是使用单个单词来表达意义，而在英语等语言中需要多个单词的句子。这些词通常有丰富的内部结构，前缀和后缀连接到一个核心，通常是一个动词，并为整个词的意义贡献特定的意义。本博士论文研究项目的重点是内兹珀斯，在爱达荷州，华盛顿和俄勒冈州高度濒危语言的复杂动词的片段所进行的意义。特别感兴趣的片段形成了一个后缀系统，编码情态的区别，即句子所描述的事态是可能性、必然性还是在现实世界中发生的事情。这个系统还包括标记时态，事件在时间上的位置，以及标记事件的空间位置，这看起来是一个罕见的“空间时态”系统。这个项目的目标是了解这些后缀的个别含义，以及它们联合收割机产生复杂单词并最终产生整个句子，话语和话语的更详细含义的方式。 这项研究的数据将由Amy Rose Deal与内兹珀斯人合作收集。由于感兴趣的后缀不是独立的词，它们的语义只能通过演绎来研究，通过检查包括所讨论的后缀的各种复杂动词的含义，并抽象出共享部分的共享含义。这项任务是可能的输入母语者，谁提供判断的真理和适当的话语在不同的情况下。在绘制出内兹珀斯人的一些细微差别的意义，这个项目将保存目前的发言者的语义知识，为后代的内兹珀斯部落成员。

A feature common to many native languages of North America is the use of single words to convey meanings that in languages like English would require a multi-word sentence. These words generally have a rich internal structure, where prefixes and suffixes attach to a core, often a verb, and contribute specific pieces of meaning to the meaning of the overall word. This doctoral dissertation research project focuses on the meanings that are carried by the pieces of complex verbs in Nez Perce, a highly endangered language spoken in Idaho, Washington and Oregon. The pieces that are of special interest form a system of suffixes encoding distinctions of modality, i.e. whether the state of affairs described by the sentence is a possibility, a necessity, or something that transpires in the actual world. This system also includes marking for tense, the location of an event in time, as well as marking for the spatial location of events in what looks to be a rare system of "spatial tenses". The goal of this project is to understand the individual meanings of these suffixes and the ways that they combine to produce more elaborate meanings for complex words and ultimately for entire sentences, utterances and discourses. Data for this study will be collected by Amy Rose Deal in collaboration with Nez Perce speakers. Since the suffixes of interest are not independent words, their semantics can only be studied deductively, by examining the meanings of a variety of complex verbs which include the suffixes in question and abstracting out shared meanings for the shared parts. This task is made possible by the input of native speakers, who provide judgments of the truth and appropriateness of utterances in different contexts. In drawing out some of the nuances of meaning in Nez Perce, this project will preserve the semantic knowledge of present speakers for future generations of Nez Perce tribal members.