Doctoral dissertation research: Linguistic avoidance and social relations

语言在我们如何管理与他人的关系中扮演了什么角色？本论文从一种名为Datooga的坦桑尼亚语的角度来研究这一问题，这种语言有一种仅供女性使用的特殊敬语词汇。出于对丈夫家人的尊重，已婚女性会避免说出姻亲的名字，也不会说任何听起来像这些名字的普通单词。为了能够在遵守禁忌的同时自由交谈，Datooga女性开发了完全不同于普通语言的附加词汇。这些特殊词汇被称为“回避寄存器”，在世界上的语言中很少见，但在非洲的几个地区以及蒙古和澳大利亚都独立出现了。不幸的是，我们目前还不完全了解这些回避记录是如何起作用的，因为之前的大多数研究都依赖于对说话者的采访，而不是对实际言语的观察。本论文项目将提供第一个关于日常使用的避税寄存器的全面记录。回避语域对语言的研究非常重要，因为它们清楚地说明了语言的社会功能；它们的动机完全是与性别、亲属关系和社会地位有关的人际关系。为了探索Datooga回避登记册的社会动态，该项目涉及收集、转录和分析Datooga宅基地自发互动的视听记录，以及编制一个回避词汇数据库。将在坦桑尼亚的曼亚拉地区进行实地考察，并将从该地区的几个家庭收集数据。这个项目将极大地促进我们对语言回避及其在社会生活中的作用的理解，同时也建立在我们对一种研究不足的语言的知识的基础上，并为记录世界语言的多样性做出独特的贡献。

What is the role of language in how we manage our relationships with other people? This dissertation project investigates this question from the perspective of a Tanzanian language called Datooga, which has a special respect vocabulary used only by women. Out of respect for their husbands' families, married women avoid saying the names of their in-laws, as well as any ordinary words in the language that sound like these names. To be able to talk freely while still observing the taboo, Datooga women have developed an entire additional vocabulary, distinct from that of the ordinary language. "Avoidance registers," as these special vocabularies are known, are rare across the world's languages, but have arisen independently in several parts of Africa, as well as in Mongolia and Australia. Unfortunately, we currently have an incomplete picture of how these avoidance registers work, because most previous research has relied on interviews with speakers rather than observation of actual speech. This dissertation project will provide the first comprehensive documentation of an avoidance register in everyday use. Avoidance registers are important for the study of language because they illustrate strikingly the social function of language; they are motivated solely by interpersonal concerns relating to gender, kinship, and social status. To explore the social dynamics of the Datooga avoidance register, this project involves collecting, transcribing, and analysing audio-visual recordings of spontaneous interaction in Datooga homesteads, as well as compiling a database of avoidance vocabulary. Fieldwork will be conducted in Manyara Region, Tanzania, and data will be collected from several families across the region. This project will significantly advance our understanding of linguistic avoidance and its role in social life, while also building on our knowledge of an understudied language and making a unique contribution to the documentation of the world's linguistic diversity.