Investigating the interaction of tone and syntax in the Bagime and the Dogon languages of Mali and Burkina Faso

拟议在马里和布基纳法索进行的实地研究将完成一个记录多贡语(马里)所有语言的多年期项目。这些语言尤其令人感兴趣的是它们的声调句法系统，其中某些词控制着语调覆盖在相邻的词上。令人感兴趣的第二个特征是，动作动词如“Eat”和“Carry”被一致地表达为包括行动的方式或过程的指示，而不是如英语中的行动的功能或结果的指示。该项目还将完成班吉语(马里)的工作，这是一种孤立的语言。在邻国布基纳法索建立了第二个基地后，该项目还将对另外两种濒危语言Jalkunan(曼德语)和Tiefo(古尔语)进行初步记录，并将开始记录第三种语言：Seeku(曼德语)。除了参考语法(和副刊文章)、词典和课文外，该项目还制作了许多实际活动和文化事件的简单纪录片，绘制了马里多贡/邦吉和邻近地区约1000个村庄的地图，并编制了当地动植物指南，包括科学标识、几种语言的土著名称和民族动物学信息。精选的语法将通过传统场所出版，收集的大部分材料将在项目网站上传播。该奖项由美国国家科学基金会国际科学与工程办公室和记录濒危语言计划共同资助。

The proposed field research in Mali and Burkina Faso will complete a multi-year project documenting all languages of the Dogon family (Mali). These languages are especially interesting for their tonosyntactic systems, where certain words control tone overlays on adjacent words. A second feature of interest is that action verbs such as 'eat' and 'carry' are consistently expressed to include indication of manner or process of acting rather than, as in English, the function or result of acting. The project will also complete work on Bangime (Mali), a language isolate. Having established a second base in neighboring Burkina Faso, the project will also carry out primary documentation of two more endangered language, Jalkunan (Mande family) and Tiefo (Gur family), and will begin documentation of a third, Seeku (Mande). In addition to reference grammars (and spin-off journal articles), lexicons, and texts, the project is producing simple documentary videos of many practical activities and cultural events, is mapping the 1000 or so villages of the Dogon/Bangime and adjoining areas in Mali, and is developing guides to local flora-fauna including scientific identifications, native names in several languages, and ethnozoological information. Select grammars are being published through traditional venues and most of the materials collected will be disseminated on a project website.This award is co-funded by NSF's International Science and Engineering Office and the Documenting Endangered Langauges Program.