Doctoral Dissertation Research: A reference grammar of Potawatomi, A Native American language

博士论文研究：美洲原住民语言波塔瓦托米语的参考语法

• 批准号: 1562774
• 负责人: Monica Macaulay
• 金额: $ 1.5万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-06-01 至 2018-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1562774&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; reference; grammar

The essential elements that constitute the minimal scientific documentation of a language include a reference grammar, a dictionary, and transcribed narratives with translations and linguistic analysis. Reference grammars constitute a more comprehensive, highly detailed set of explanations and involve extensive linguistic analysis, so often the initial preliminary attempts at describing a language's patterns result in a short description known as a "sketch," with a later publication of a reference grammar following subsequent scientific research. In some cases, linguists develop the sketch but never circle back to publish that reference grammar, creating a large gap in the documentation. This is the case for numerous languages that were described and analyzed in the first half of the twentieth century, including Potawatomi (also called Bodéwadmimwen or Bodwéwadmimwen), a critically endangered Algonquian language. The Native American Languages Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1990, enacted into policy the recognition of the unique status and importance of Native American languages. It is estimated that there are less than 10 fluent native speakers of Potawatomi today, all elderly. Considerable effort is being made towards language revitalization, but materials for training advanced speakers are in short supply. This project will fund dissertation research that will produce a reference grammar for Potawatomi. Broader impacts of the project include making the planned documentation will be useful to both linguists and community members, by producing an example-driven, digital presentation version of the grammar for language teachers and students.In this dissertation project, doctoral student Hunter Lockwood will research and produce the first grammar of Potawatomi since Charles Hockett's 1939 sketch of the language in his own dissertation. Data from Hockett are often cited in theoretical linguistics; this dissertation will add depth and breadth to the contribution the language can make to linguistic science. For example, almost no work has been done on Potawatomi syntax or semantics; this dissertation will fill those gaps in the documentary record. This reflects the continued collaboration between the Forest County Potawatomi Community and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Previous collaboration between these two institutions, also with funding from the National Science Foundation's Documenting Endangered Languages Program, has resulted in a bilingual dictionary and a corpus of transcribed stories and natural speech. As a result, the dissertation research will utilize methods relying on modern digital tools for building and analyzing large sets of language data collected in a corpus, integrating data from the corpus and dictionary in the analysis.

构成一种语言的最低限度科学文献的基本要素包括参考语法、词典和带有翻译和语言分析的转录叙述。 参考语法是一套更全面、更详细的解释，并涉及广泛的语言分析，所以通常最初的初步尝试描述一种语言的模式，结果是一个简短的描述称为“草图”，后来出版的参考语法之后，随后的科学研究。 在某些情况下，语言学家开发了草图，但从未回过头来发布参考语法，从而在文档中造成了很大的空白。 在20世纪上半叶被描述和分析的许多语言都是这种情况，包括Potawatomi（也称为Bodéwadimwen或Bodwéwadimwen），一种严重濒危的阿尔冈琴语。美国国会于1990年通过的《美洲原住民语言法》承认了美洲原住民语言的独特地位和重要性。据估计，今天只有不到10人能流利地说Potawatomi语，而且都是老年人。目前正在为振兴语言作出相当大的努力，但缺乏培训高级语言者的材料。该项目将资助论文研究，为Potawatomi提供参考语法。该项目更广泛的影响包括，通过为语言教师和学生制作一个示例驱动的语法数字演示版本，使计划中的文档对语言学家和社区成员都有用。在这个论文项目中，博士生亨特洛克伍德将研究和制作自查尔斯·霍克特1939年在自己的论文中绘制的Potawatomi语言草图以来的第一个Potawatomi语法。Hockett的数据在理论语言学中经常被引用，本文将增加语言对语言科学的贡献的深度和广度。例如，几乎没有工作已经做了Potawatomi语法或语义，这篇论文将填补这些空白的文献记录。这反映了森林县Potawatomi社区和威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校之间的持续合作。这两个机构之前的合作，也是在国家科学基金会的濒危语言记录计划的资助下，已经产生了一本双语词典和一个转录故事和自然语音的语料库。 因此，本论文的研究将采用依托现代数字化工具的方法来构建和分析语料库中收集的大量语言数据集，并在分析中整合语料库和词典中的数据。