Investigating language contact and shift through experimentally-oriented documentation

众所周知，当说不同语言的人相互接触时，这些语言的结构可以而且确实会改变。单词甚至语法结构可以从一种语言借用到另一种语言中，语言的结构也可以汇聚成新的东西。接触的一个潜在结果是语言的转变：当说话者不再说他们祖先的语言，转而使用一种新的(通常更经济或政治上更有利的)语言。语言转换是语言濒危和丧失的主要驱动因素，但从语言接触(持续的双语或多种语言)到语言丧失(放弃其中一种语言)的转变并未得到很好的理解。目前的项目旨在通过将传统的记录方法与借用实验室心理语言学的新问题和方法相结合来记录正在进行的语言接触，以便更好地理解推动转变的社会和认知因素。定性方法，包括访谈和启发，与定量和实验方法相结合，对影响语言接触和转换的因素进行了系统的调查。该项目有助于了解语言缺失的语言和心理语言学过程，并有助于制定促进健康语言接触的策略。这对于经历并试图防止语言和文化损失的边缘化社区具有巨大的价值。该项目研究了目前在俄罗斯东北部地区使用的一组濒危语言在城市和乡村环境中发生的变化。该地区提供了一个极好的试验场，因为在萨哈共和国和楚科特卡自治区发现了各种语言和不同的接触生态。城市化是语言变化的一个众所周知的因素，这里正在迅速发生，首府雅库茨克是增长最快的北部城市。该区域为研究认知和社会因素的不同作用提供了极好的条件，因为它有两种多数语言，一种民族语言(俄语)和一种区域语言(萨哈语，突厥语)，用于教育、政府和所有地方领域。这项研究的重点是俄语、萨哈和三种少数民族濒危语言之间的语言接触：Even和Evenki(都是通古斯语)、楚科奇语(楚科特科-堪察干语)和尤卡吉尔语(可能是乌拉里语)，这些语言在结构上不同，可以说明语言模式是如何影响变化的。尽管这些语言濒临灭绝，需要紧急记录，但其使用者人数仍然足够强大，足以为严格的统计分析提供足够的样本，并记录转变的不同阶段。我们将进行受控良好的产出和理解实验，重点放在三个语言参数上：词序(及其与格标记的相互作用)、格标记和排列以及从属策略，并特别注意空间关系的语言编码。为了补充从对照实验中收集的数据，将从自发对话中收集数据，以便记录这些接触生态系统中动态的多语言实践。所有数据都将经过严格的统计建模。该项目包括一年一度的培训研讨会和实地体验，以帮助当地学生和语言学家在语言文献和心理语言学方面做好准备。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

It is well-known that when speakers of different languages are in contact with one another, the structures of these languages can and do change. Words and even grammatical structures can be borrowed from one language into another, and the structures of the languages can also converge into something new. One potential outcome of contact is language shift: when speakers cease to speak their ancestral language in favor of a new (generally more economically or politically advantageous) one. Language shift is known to be a major driver behind language endangerment and loss, but the transition from language contact (sustained bi- or multilingualism) to language loss (the abandonment of one of the languages) is not well-understood. The current project aims to document language contact in progress by combining traditional documentation methods with new questions and approaches borrowed from laboratory psycholinguistics, in order to better understand the social and cognitive factors that drive shift. Qualitative methodology, including interviews and elicitation, are combined with quantitative and experimental methods for a systematic investigation of the factors that influence language contact and shift. This project helps understand the linguistic and psycholinguistic processes at work in language loss and can aid in developing strategies to promote healthy language contact. This is of enormous value especially to marginalized communities experiencing and attempting to forestall linguistic and, in turn, cultural loss.This project studies the changes that are currently taking place in urban versus village settings for a set of endangered languages spoken in the northeastern part of Russia. The region provides an excellent testing ground because of the variety of languages and different contact ecologies found in the Sakha Republic and the Chukotka Autonomous Region. Urbanization, a known factor in language shift, is occurring rapidly here, and the capital Yakutsk is the fastest growing northern city. The region provides excellent conditions to study the varying roles of cognitive and social factors because it has two majority languages, one national (Russian) and one regional (Sakha, a Turkic language) used in education, government and all local domains. The study focuses on language contact between Russian, Sakha and three minority endangered languages: Even and Evenki (both Tungusic), Chukchi (Chukotko-Kamchatkan) and Yukaghir (possibly Uralic), which are structurally different and can illustrate how linguistic patterns affect change. Although these languages are endangered and in need of urgent documentation, their speaker populations are still robust enough to provide a sufficient sample for rigorous statistical analysis, and to document different stages of shift. Well-controlled production and comprehension experiments will be conducted, focusing on three linguistic parameters: word order (and its interaction with case marking), case marking and alignment, and subordination strategies, with particular attention to the linguistic encoding of spatial relations. To complement data collected from controlled experiments, data will be collected from spontaneous conversation in order to document the dynamic multilingual practices in these contact ecologies. All data will be subject to rigorous statistical modeling. The project includes yearly training workshops and in-field experience to prepare local students and linguists in language documentation and psycholinguistics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.