Doctoral Dissertation Research: Degree semantics in Washo and cross-linguistic variation

博士论文研究：和商中的程度语义和跨语言变异

• 批准号: 1155196
• 负责人: Christopher Kennedy
• 金额: $ 1.19万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-03-01 至 2014-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1155196&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Degree; semantics

Washo is a Native American language spoken in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada. It is highly endangered, with only a handful of elderly native speakers left. Washo makes use of two strategies for expressing comparison of objects (cf. English: John is taller than Mary): conjoined comparison, where two independent clauses containing antonyms are juxtaposed; and locative comparison, where the standard of comparison is marked with a locative postposition or suffix. While both strategies for comparison are typologically quite common in the world's languages, these constructions remain under-studied in formal linguistics. Under the direction of Dr. Christopher Kennedy, Mr. Ryan Bochnak will conduct primary fieldwork in the Washo community with some of the remaining speakers to investigate the semantic properties of the two comparison constructions in the language. Data will be collected through elicitation sessions where Mr. Bochnak will collect translations, narratives, and judgements on constructed examples to arrive at a more complete picture of comparisons and degree-related constructions in Washo. Of particular interest is the interpretation of scalar properties in comparison constructions, as well as their (un)acceptability with modifiers and measure terms. All data collected will be digitally recorded and transcribed by Mr. Bochnak. The analysis of the Washo data will inform the question of to what extent there exists a common semantics for comparison across languages, despite divergences in morphology and syntax.This research follows a recent and growing trend of using data from under-studied languages to test semantic theories against a broader range of languages. In addition, this project will make a significant contribution to the permanent record of a highly endangered language, with the materials collected being made available to the Washo community in the form of annotated recordings of elicitation sessions in an online database.

和绍语是一种美洲原住民语言，在加利福尼亚州和内华达州的太浩湖地区使用。它高度濒临灭绝，只剩下少数年长的母语人士。和商使用两种策略来表达对象的比较（参见英语：约翰比玛丽高）： 连体比较，其中两个包含反义词的独立子句并置；处所比较，比较的标准用处所后置词或后缀标记。虽然这两种比较策略在类型学上在世界语言中都很常见，但这些结构在形式语言学中仍然没有得到充分研究。在 Christopher Kennedy 博士的指导下，Ryan Bochnak 先生将与一些剩余的使用者一起在和商社区进行初步实地考察，以调查该语言中两种比较结构的语义属性。数据将通过启发会议收集，博赫纳克先生将收集翻译、叙述和对构造示例的判断，以更全面地了解和商中的比较和程度相关的构造。特别令人感兴趣的是比较结构中标量属性的解释，以及它们对修饰符和测量项的（不）可接受性。收集到的所有数据都将由 Bochnak 先生以数字方式记录和转录。对和商数据的分析将揭示以下问题：尽管形态和语法存在差异，但不同语言之间存在多大程度的共同语义比较。这项研究遵循了最近不断增长的趋势，即使用来自未充分研究的语言的数据来针对更广泛的语言来测试语义理论。此外，该项目将为高度濒危语言的永久记录做出重大贡献，收集到的材料将以在线数据库中的启发会话注释记录的形式提供给和商社区。