Collaborative Research: Socio-linguistic analysis of cross-cultural encounters and their outcomes

该奖项支持的研究将调查多元文化背景下的“语言触发因素”。对语言和非语言互动的研究表明，即使人们说同一种语言，他们也可能有不同的语言习惯和先入之见，这可能会无意中阻碍相互理解。在民族、种族和语言多样性最大的地方，错误假设、误解和误判的可能性也最大。本研究将通过对400多个此类互动记录的数据集的检查来解决这个问题，以更好地了解发生了什么：互动何时产生冲突，何时不产生冲突，以及为什么？研究结果将支持社会和法律政策和程序的发展，以帮助预防冲突，确保公共福利和安全。这项研究将由纽约大学的语言人类学家索尼娅·n·达斯博士和南卡罗来纳大学哥伦比亚分校的谢琳娜·费利西亚诺-桑托斯博士进行。2015年，南卡罗来纳州成为第一个通过法律要求警察佩戴随身摄像机的州。研究人员将分析前三年这些随身摄像头和行车记录仪录像的一部分，以记录执法人员和受试者在酒后驾驶（DUI）停车期间的交流模式，这些录像的面部经过模糊处理以保护隐私。研究人员和他们的团队将转录和编码视频档案，并注意传记、人口统计、上下文以及语言因素。录音将与他们的书面案件档案联系起来，将其与法律结果联系起来。这项技术分析将辅以在南卡罗莱纳进行的访谈和人种学田野调查，以进一步将有关权利、语言和意图解释的潜在假设置于背景中。该研究将模拟使用定性研究方法对民族志和语料库数据进行联合分析。通过询问受试者和警察的标准沟通实践的情境解释如何在影响警察或针对警察的暴力发生率方面发挥微妙但至关重要的作用，他的研究还将提供数据，以协助制定和实施执法培训和多元文化教育，以防止不必要的武力升级和无意识的偏见再现。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。

The research supported by this award will investigate "linguistic triggers" in multi-cultural contexts. Research on verbal and non-verbal interactions has shown that even when people speak the same language, they may have different linguistic practices and preconceptions that can inadvertently inhibit mutual understanding. Where ethnic, racial, and linguistic diversity is greatest, so is the potential for incorrect assumptions, misunderstandings, and misjudgments. This research will address this issue through the examination of a data set of over 400 recordings of such interactions to better understand what transpires: when do the interactions produce conflict, when do they not, and why? Findings from the research will support the development of social and legal policies and procedures to help prevent conflict and ensure public welfare and safety. The research will be conducted by linguistic anthropologist, Dr. Sonia N. Das of New York University and Dr. Sherina Feliciano-Santos of the University of South Carolinsa at Columbia. In 2015, South Carolina became the first state to pass a law requiring police officers to wear body cameras. The researchers will analyze a subset of the first three years of these body-cam and dash-cam video recordings, faces blurred to protect privacy, to document communication patterns between law enforcement officials and subjects during Driving Under the Influence (DUI) stops. The researchers and their team will transcribe and code the video archive, with attention biographical, demographic, and contextual as well as linguistic factors. Recordings will be linked to their written case files to associate them with legal outcomes. This technical analysis will be supplemented with interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in South Carolina to further contextualize underlying assumptions about rights, language, and the interpretation of intent. The research will model the use of qualitative research methods for the joint analysis of ethnographic and corpus data. By asking how situational interpretations of subjects' and police officers' standard communicative practices may play a subtle yet crucial role in impacting rates of occurrences of force by or against police, he research will also provide data to assist in the development and implementation of law enforcement training and multicultural education to prevent the unnecessary escalation of force and the unintentional reproduction of biases.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.