Doctoral Dissertation Research: Architecture of the Palauan Verbal Complex

句法理论的目标之一是确定语言在多大程度上具有共同的、普遍的结构，以及它们的结构在多大程度上不同。例如，人们通常认为所有语言都有动词。但是，句子到底是如何由动词构成的呢？有没有一种由动词组成句子的单一、统一的方式，或者在这种情况下是否存在语言上的特殊差异？如果存在这样的差异，动词的词法又揭示了什么呢？为了研究这些问题，贾斯汀·努格将在桑德拉·钟博士的指导下，对帕劳语中动词的词法和句法进行研究。帕劳语是一种南岛语言，大约有1.5万帕劳人使用，并研究其对句法理论的影响。帕劳语动词在形态上异常复杂。关于时态、体态、语气、语态、主语和宾语的信息在这种语言中通过使用助动词、词缀和音位变化来表达。在国家科学基金会的支持下，Nuger将调查帕劳亚语动词的复杂形态在多大程度上为了解其句子的句法结构提供了一个窗口。在他的研究过程中，Nuger将分析各类帕劳语动词的特性，包括使役动词、补语动词、非宾格动词、非作格动词、及物动词和被动动词。Nuger将对帕劳的Koror进行两次实地考察，与帕劳社区学院、帕劳教育部、Belau(Palau)国家博物馆和Koror社区其他地方的母语人士进行咨询。数据将从录制的口头叙述、出版的文本和对个别演讲者的采访中收集。

One of the goals of syntactic theory is to determine to what extent languages have a shared, universal structure and to the extent their structures vary. For instance, it is commonly assumed that all languages have verbs. But how, exactly, are sentences constructed from verbs? Is there one single, uniform way in which sentences are built up from their verbs, or are there language particular differences in how this occurs? If there are such differences, what does the morphology of verbs reveal about them?To investigate these questions, Mr. Justin Nuger, under the supervision of Dr. Sandra Chung, will conduct research on the morphology and syntax of verbs in Palauan, an Austronesian language spoken by some 15,000 people in Palau, and examine its implications for syntactic theory. Palauan verbs are unusually morphologically complex. Information about tense, aspect, mood, voice, the subject, and the object is expressed in this language through the use of auxiliary verbs, affixes, and phonological alternations. With support from the National Science Foundation, Nuger will investigate the extent to which the complex morphology of Palauan verbs provides a window into the syntactic structure of its sentences. In the course of his research, Nuger will analyze the properties of various classes of Palauan verbs, including causatives, applicatives, unaccusatives, unergatives, transitives, and passives.Mr. Nuger will take two fieldtrips to Koror, Palau, to consult with native speakers at Palau Community College, the Palau Ministry of Education, the Belau (Palau) National Museum, and elsewhere in the community of Koror. Data will be collected from recorded oral narratives, published texts, and interviews with individual speakers.