Doctoral Dissertation Research: The grammar of counting and measuring. A view from Tupi languages

长期以来，语言学家和哲学家们一直着迷于所谓的“可数名词”（如狗）和“质量名词”（如血）之间的区别。在各种语言中，这两类名词往往表现出不同的形态和句法特征，这些特征主要出现在这些名词与数词和量词结合时。受质量/数量区分影响的语法现象包括数字标记、分类词和量词的使用。该项目将调查巴西两种未被充分研究且濒危的图皮语言：Yudja （Juruna家族）和Kawaiwete（图皮瓜拉尼家族）中计数和测量的语言表达。Yudja和Kawaiwete语言显然不符合已知的计数/质量区分类型，因此为我们理解自然语言如何编码基本概念类别提出了新的问题。计数和测量语法的三个方面将被研究：(i)数词结构的语义和句法特性，以及它们与表象上的“计数”或“质量”名词的相容性；（ii）度量结构的句法和语义，以及（iii）标称量词的语义。该项目将使用多种方法，包括实地考察启发，制作和理解任务，以及对叙述的检查。这个项目将有助于记录两种濒危语言。结果将提供给讲这两种语言的土著社区，并将在为当地学校的土著教师举办的讲习班上进行讨论。这项研究的理论组成部分有其受众语义学家、认知心理学家、语言类型学家、语言哲学家和图皮语专家。

Linguists and philosophers have long been fascinated with the distinction between so-called "count nouns" (e.g. dog) and "mass nouns" (e.g. blood). Across languages, these two classes of nouns tend to exhibit distinct morphological and syntactic properties that primarily show up when those nouns combine with numerals and quantifiers. Grammatical phenomena affected by the mass/count distinction include number marking and the use of classifiers and measure phrases. The project will investigate the linguistic expression of counting and measuring in two under-studied and endangered Tupi languages spoken in Brazil: Yudja (Juruna family) and Kawaiwete (Tupi Guarani family). Yudja and Kawaiwete are languages that do not obviously fit into known typologies of the count/mass distinction, and thus raise new questions for our understanding of how natural languages encode fundamental conceptual categories. Three aspects of the grammar of counting and measuring will be investigated: (i) the semantic and syntactic properties of numeral constructions and their compatibility with what appear to be notional "count" or "mass" nouns; (ii) the syntax and semantics of measure constructions, and (iii) the semantics of nominal quantifiers. The project will use a mix of methodologies, including fieldwork elicitation, production and comprehension tasks, and the examination of narratives. This project will contribute to the documentation of two endangered languages. The results will be made available to the indigenous communities who speak the two languages, and will be discussed in workshops for indigenous teachers in local schools. The theoretical component of this research has as its audience semanticists, cognitive psychologists, linguistic typologists, philosophers of language, and specialists on Tupi languages.