Doctoral Dissertation Research: The History of the Sogeram Language Family

博士论文研究：索格拉姆语系的历史

• 批准号: 1264157
• 负责人: Marianne Mithun
• 金额: $ 1.51万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-06-15 至 2015-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1264157&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; History; Sogeram

This project investigates the almost completely uncharted linguistic area of Papua New Guinea. Linguists see the urgency in documenting these typologically interesting languages since many are on the verge of extinction as speakers are switching at an alarming rate from their traditional languages to the lingua franca, Tok Pisin. Through this ambitious project, six of the nine languages of the Sogeram family spoken in the Madang Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) will be documented. The project involves ten months of fieldwork over the course of three trips. The resulting documentation will include detailed grammatical descriptions of each of the six languages. By applying rigorous comparative historical linguistic methods, comparison between the descriptions will lead to a reconstruction of the morphology of a postulated parent language. This study will allow for investigation into topics as diverse as historical phonology, drift, pronominal reference, and comparative kinship terminology. The project will increase the profile of Sogeram languages at local universities and will create language documentation materials for use pedagogical use by speakers. This project will also support the graduate training of a promising junior scholar.

这个项目调查了巴布亚新几内亚几乎完全未知的语言领域。语言学家看到了记录这些类型有趣的语言的紧迫性，因为随着说话者以惊人的速度从他们的传统语言转向通用语Tok Pisin，许多语言正处于灭绝的边缘。通过这一雄心勃勃的项目，将记录巴布亚新几内亚马当省(PNG)所说的Sogeram家族九种语言中的六种。该项目包括为期十个月的实地考察，历时三次。所产生的文件将包括对这六种语言中每一种的详细语法说明。通过应用严格的比较历史语言学方法，这些描写之间的比较将导致对假设的母语的形态的重建。这项研究将允许对各种主题进行调查，如历史音系学、漂移、代词参照和比较亲属称谓。该项目将提高索格拉姆语言在当地大学的知名度，并将编制语言文件材料，供发言者在教学中使用。该项目还将支持一名有前途的初级学者的研究生培训。