SBE-RCUK: Experimental and Descriptive Investigations of Welsh (cym) Consonant Mutation

SBE-RCUK：威尔士语 (cym) 辅音突变的实验和描述性研究

• 批准号: 1453724
• 负责人: Michael Hammond
• 金额: $ 36.24万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-15 至 2021-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1453724&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBE; RCUK; Experimental; Descriptive; Investigations

Most human languages are conveyed through the medium of sound, and thus understanding the way language sound works is central to understanding human language. This project addresses an unusual language sound phenomenon, initial consonant mutation: the initial consonant of a word varies to express grammatical information about that word, for example the possessives in Welsh, e.g. cath 'cat', fy nghath 'my cat', dy gath 'your cat', ei chath 'her cat'. In order to address big questions like "How do such systems evolve historically?", "How can children learn initial mutation?", and "Why does this not occur in a language like English?", it is important to first fully understand the properties of the mutating consonants for speakers of a language with initial consonant mutation. This is the research goal, with respect to Welsh, a language with a rich and productive system of initial consonant mutation. In addition, many Americans are of Welsh descent. The primary heritage language of this community is Welsh, a medium for a rich culture of literature, song, poetry, history, etc. It also provides an important window into the world-view and culture of the ancestors of the Welsh-American community. Sadly, the Welsh language is endangered. There are no monolingual speakers. In Wales, the number of speakers is now less than 20% of the population and there is a real danger that the language will decline below critical mass and no longer be viable. The potential loss to the understanding of the culture and background of so many Welsh and Welsh-Americans is tragic. The research to be conducted here will both help document extraordinary aspects of the grammatical system and provide resources for pedagogical materials essential in the revival of the language. The interdisciplinary and international team will apply a diversity of investigative tools: perceptual studies using masked priming, production studies using acoustic analysis and ultrasound for articulatory study, traditional field work involving elicitation, judgment tasks, statistical corpus work, and two acquisition studies (one with adults; one with children). These heterogeneous methodologies allow the team to approach the investigation of consonant mutation from a variety of directions, thus providing a uniquely comprehensive view of the phenomenon. The sub-projects are diverse, but focus on two central questions: i) whether mutations are best viewed as lexical or phonological phenomena; and ii) what the precise phonological properties of mutations are. These studies will also impact linguistic theory, including our understanding of lexical access in a language where a lot of morphological information is concentrated in the beginning of the word and in our understanding of the organization of phonological systems and alternations. The core of the team has done similar work on Scottish Gaelic and done logistical and descriptive advance work on Welsh, and so is uniquely positioned for this project. This award was made possible by the SBE-RCUK Lead Agency Agreement.

大多数人类语言都是通过声音来传达的，因此，理解语言声音的工作方式是理解人类语言的核心。这个项目解决了一种不寻常的语言发音现象，即声母突变：一个单词的声母变化，以表达与该单词有关的语法信息，例如威尔士语中的所有格，如cath‘cat’，fy nghath‘my cat’，dy gath‘Your cat’，ei chath‘her cat’。为了解决“这样的系统是如何在历史上进化的？”，“孩子们如何学习初始突变？”，以及“为什么这在像英语这样的语言中没有发生？”，重要的是首先要充分了解具有初始辅音突变的语言使用者的突变辅音的性质。这是关于威尔士语的研究目标，威尔士语是一种拥有丰富而多产的声母突变系统的语言。此外，许多美国人都有威尔士血统。这个社区的主要传统语言是威尔士语，它是文学、歌曲、诗歌、历史等丰富文化的媒介，也是了解威尔士裔美国人社区祖先的世界观和文化的重要窗口。遗憾的是，威尔士语正濒临灭绝。没有只会说一种语言的人。在威尔士，讲英语的人数现在不到总人口的20%，存在着这种语言将下降到临界数量以下并不再可行的真正危险。对这么多威尔士人和威尔士裔美国人的文化和背景了解的潜在损失是可悲的。将在这里进行的研究将有助于记录语法系统的特殊方面，并为语言复兴所必需的教学材料提供资源。跨学科和国际小组将应用各种调查工具：使用蒙面启动的知觉研究，使用声学分析和超声波进行发音研究的成果研究，涉及启发、判断任务、统计语料库工作的传统实地工作，以及两项习得研究(一项针对成人，一项针对儿童)。这些不同的方法使团队能够从不同的方向研究辅音突变，从而提供了对这一现象的独特的全面看法。这些子项目是不同的，但集中在两个核心问题上：i)突变最好被视为词汇现象还是语音现象；ii)突变的确切语音特性是什么。这些研究也将影响语言学理论，包括我们对词汇通达的理解，以及我们对语音系统和交替的组织的理解。该团队的核心已经完成了关于苏格兰盖尔语的类似工作，并完成了关于威尔士语的后勤和描述性前期工作，因此对于这个项目来说是独一无二的。这一奖项是通过SBE-RCUK牵头代理协议实现的。