Doctoral Dissertation Research: Grammar and Interaction in Kula [tpg], a non-Austronesian Language of Eastern Indonesia

库拉语（Kula）是一种濒临灭绝的非南岛语族语言，在印度尼西亚亚洛的东部高地有大约5,000人使用。阿洛和邻近的潘塔尔是大约20种非南岛语族（或巴布亚语）语言的家园。在过去的十年里，这群“巴布亚离群者”因其独特的类型学特征和对巴布亚史前史的研究而引起了语言学家越来越多的兴趣。尽管这种兴趣增加，库拉仍然几乎完全没有证件。此外，持续的语言转变威胁着库拉语，许多儿童现在学习当地的马来语作为他们的第一语言。这项赠款将支持急需的库拉语文献和尼古拉斯威廉姆斯关于库拉地方参考的博士论文的相关研究。这项研究促进了一种新的语言文档模式，其核心重点是日常会话中的语言使用。该文件项目的主要目标是制作一个广泛的库拉自发对话视频记录语料库。这些录音将被转录，注释，注释和翻译，以备存档，进一步研究和库拉社区使用。利用语料库，尼古拉斯将探讨库拉语使用者的空间语言和其他符号学实践（例如指向），以实现在社会交往过程中的地方参考。本研究探讨了语法实践如何在社会交往过程中产生的重要问题，并聚焦于指称领域。这项研究将为语言文献学领域引入新的方法，为干扰语言学领域引入新的数据和分析。这些文件材料也将成为库拉社区今后任何语言维护活动的重要资源。作为此类项目中的第一个，这项工作将对当地语言态度产生积极影响，有可能提高语言的相对声望，减缓语言转变的进展。该项目通过培训母语者掌握语言文件和当地档案材料的基本技术，将确保社区能够获得这些材料。

Kula is an endangered and undocumented non-Austronesian language spoken by approximately 5,000 people in the eastern highlands of Alor, Indonesia. Alor and neighboring Pantar are home to around 20 non-Austronesian (or 'Papuan') languages. This group of 'Papuan outliers' has become of increased interest to linguists in the past decade for their typologically unique features and for the light they shed on the topic of Papuan prehistory. Despite this increased interest, Kula remains almost entirely undocumented. Furthermore, ongoing language shift threatens the Kula language with many children now learning the local variety of Malay as their first language.This grant from will support both urgently needed documentation of Kula and related research for Nicholas Williams's doctoral dissertation on place reference in Kula. This research promotes a new model of language documentation which takes as its central focus the use of language in everyday conversation. The primary goal of the documentation project will be to produce an extensive corpus of video recorded spontaneous conversation in Kula. These recordings will be transcribed, annotated, glossed and translated in preparation for archiving, further research and use by the Kula community. Using the corpus, Nicholas will explore Kula speakers' use of spatial language and other semiotic practices (e.g. pointing) for achieving reference to places in the course of social interaction. This research asks the important question of how grammatical practices emerge in the course of social interaction, focusing on the domain of reference. This research will introduce new methods to the field of language documentation and new data and analyses to the field of interactional linguistics. The documentation materials will also become an important resource for the Kula community in any future language maintenance activities. As the first project of its kind, this work will have a positive effect on local language attitudes, potentially increasing the relative prestige of the language and mitigating the progress of language shift. By training native speakers in the basic techniques of language documentation and archiving materials locally, the project will ensure community access to the materials.