Doctoral Dissertation Research: Recovering Ergativity in Heritage Samoan

人类语言可以根据它们在句子中标记语法主语和宾语的方式分为两类。英语、西班牙语和日语等宾格语言将主体与客体区分开来；像卡奇克尔语、因纽特语和萨摩亚语这样的否定性语言，用与不及物动词主语相同的方式标记及物动词的直接宾语。作格性被认为是语言的一个脆弱特征，因为否定语言可能失去其否定标记而成为宾格语言，但宾格语言很少成为作格性。这种转变的发生是因为儿童在童年时期获得ergergability很晚，因此ergergability很容易丧失。第二语言（L2）学习者在这方面有很大的困难，如果主导社会语言是宾格，那么童年母语为否定语的传统说话者在这方面就会有特别的困难。因此，许多否定性语言正处于失去这一定义特征的危险之中。这个论文项目调查了如何在传统萨摩亚人的思想中加强负性，向他们展示了一个旨在增加他们对负性知识的有针对性的协议。这个项目有助于我们理解人类语言的一个重要但尚未得到充分研究的特性，即ergativity，以及一个庞大的（尚未得到充分研究的）学习人群，即传统的说话者。它还增进了我们对太平洋地区一种重要语言：萨摩亚语的了解。研究方案和结果将对语言教育学具有重要意义，因为语言具有脆弱的语法特征，如作格性。实验将由Grant Muagututi&amp；#699；她将让三组学习者（母语学习者、传统学习者和第二语言学习者）进行一系列实验，研究形态及句法的构格性（格）和句法的构格性（关系分句、wh疑问句）在理解和表达中的作用。通过增加教学和测试之间的时间长度来测试恢复能力的持久性。比较二语和传统语者的结果，探讨了构格性的提高是否归因于作为（传统）儿童获得的知识，而测试用例、相对化和wh-疑问句则探讨了形态构格性是否向句法构格性转移。

Human languages can be split into two groups based upon how they mark the grammatical subject and object in a sentence. Accusative languages like English, Spanish and Japanese mark subjects distinctly from objects; ergative languages like Kaqchikel, Inuktitut and Samoan mark the direct object of a transitive verb in the same way as the subject of an intransitive verb. Ergativity is thought to be a fragile feature of language since ergative languages may lose their ergative marking and become accusative languages, but accusative languages rarely become ergative. This shift occurs because children acquire ergativity quite late in childhood, making ergativity susceptible to loss. Second language (L2) learners have great difficulty with it, and heritage speakers whose childhood home language is ergative have particular difficulty with ergativity if the dominant societal language is accusative. Thus many ergative languages are in danger of losing this defining characteristic. This dissertation project investigates how ergativity might be strengthened in the minds of heritage Samoan speakers by presenting them with a targeted protocol designed to increase their knowledge of ergativity. This project contributes to our understanding of an important though understudied property of human language, ergativity, as well as a large (and understudied) learning population, namely heritage speakers. It also furthers our understanding of an important language of the Pacific: Samoan. The research protocol and results will have important implications for language pedagogy that target languages with fragile grammatical features such as ergativity.The experiments will be conducted by Grant Muagututiʻa, a doctoral student at the University of Hawaii, and will involve three groups of learners (native, heritage, L2) in a series of experiments targeting morphological ergativity (case) and syntactic ergativity (relative clauses, wh-questions) in both comprehension and production. The durability of the recovered ergativity is tested by increasing the length of time between instruction and testing. Comparing L2 speakers and heritage speakers addresses whether the increase in ergativity is attributable to knowledge gained as (heritage) children, while testing case, relativization and wh-questions addresses whether morphological ergativity transfers to syntactic ergativity.