Investigating language contact and shift through experimentally-oriented documentation

众所周知，当说不同语言的人彼此接触时，这些语言的结构可以而且确实会发生变化。单词甚至语法结构都可以从一种语言借用到另一种语言中，语言的结构也可以融合成新的东西。接触的一个潜在结果是语言转移：当说话者停止说他们的祖先语言，转而使用一种新的（通常在经济或政治上更有利的）语言。众所周知，语言转移是语言濒危和丧失的主要驱动因素，但从语言接触（持续的双语或多语使用）到语言丧失（放弃其中一种语言）的过渡尚未得到很好的理解。目前的项目旨在通过将传统的记录方法与从实验室心理语言学中借鉴的新问题和方法相结合，记录正在进行的语言接触，以便更好地了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丧失的语言和心理过程，并有助于制定促进健康语言接触的策略。这对正在经历并试图阻止语言和文化损失的边缘化社区尤其具有巨大价值。这个项目研究了俄罗斯东北部一组濒危语言在城市和乡村环境中发生的变化。由于在萨哈共和国和楚科奇自治区发现了多种语言和不同的接触生态，该地区提供了一个很好的试验场。城市化是语言转变的一个众所周知的因素，在这里正在迅速发生，首都雅库茨克是发展最快的北方城市。该地区为研究认知和社会因素的不同作用提供了极好的条件，因为它有两种主要语言，一种是民族语言（俄语），一种是地区语言（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、萨哈语和三种濒临灭绝的少数民族语言之间的语言接触：Even和Evenki（都是通古斯语）、Chukchi（楚科奇-堪察加语）和Yukaghir（可能是乌拉尔语），这三种语言在结构上是不同的，可以说明语言模式如何影响变化。尽管这些语言濒临灭绝，急需文献记录，但它们的使用者数量仍然足够强大，可以为严格的统计分析提供足够的样本，并记录不同的转变阶段。将进行控制良好的生产和理解实验，重点关注三个语言参数：词序（及其与格标记的相互作用），格标记和对齐，以及从属策略，特别关注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，以记录这些接触生态中的动态多语言实践。所有数据都将经过严格的统计建模。该项目包括年度培训讲习班和实地经验，使当地学生和语言学家在语文文献和心理语言学方面做好准备。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.