Doctoral Dissertation Research: Investigating Overt Definite Articles and Grammatical Variation

问题是“医生在船上吗？”和“船上有医生吗？“可以表示非常不同的情况。对于第一个问题，丈夫可能只是在寻找他的妻子，而对于第二个问题，医生需要紧急情况。这两个问题之间的唯一区别是“the”（定冠词）和“a”（不定冠词）。然而，许多语言没有明显的定冠词和不定冠词。那么，这些语言的使用者是如何区分这两种意思的呢？区分的一种方法是根据上下文：“医生在船上吗？“在没有明显冠词的语言中，可以是定冠词，也可以是不定冠词，在上下文中，说话者可以理解是否需要某个医生或任何医生。某些语言学理论预测，如果一种语言有明显的定冠词，那么某些语法结构是禁止的。其中一个被禁止的结构是修饰语与它们所修饰的名词不相连的地方（“Friendly I saw the doctor”在英语中不符合语法，但在没有定冠词的语言中可能符合语法）。这个项目将调查两种方言的差异，每种方言都有不同的表达确定性的方式。这些方言虽然可以相互理解，但在可能的语法结构方面也有所不同，比如不连续的修饰语结构。该项目将促进我们对语言如何表达确定性的跨语言变化的理解，并在话语中跟踪个人，研究自然语言处理，语音识别和计算语言学的其他分支领域的影响。更广泛的影响包括建立一个公共录音和录音资料库，供社区成员使用的材料，促进该地区的语言可持续性，以及与当地大学生合作，积极贡献关于其遗产语言的知识。其他成果包括培养一名博士生。CoPI是康奈尔大学的一名博士生，她将在博士论文中记录和分析墨西哥南部濒临灭绝的玛雅语言Ch'ol（CTU）的两种方言。由于Ch'ol的两种方言（Tila和Tumbala）有不同的表达确定性的方式，CoPI将把这项研究与预测如果一种语言有定冠词，某些语法结构将被禁止的理论联系起来。Tumbala方言允许各种修饰语与它们所修饰的名词分离。然而，提拉方言不允许许多修饰语出现在它们所修饰的名词的远处。这个项目的假设是，蒂拉方言比通巴拉方言有更多的限制，因为蒂拉方言有语法化的定冠词，而通巴拉方言没有。在实地考察期间，CoPI将记录和转录叙述，并与发言者进行访谈。这些不同的数据来源将为论文和未来的工作创造一个经验上健全的基础。该项目的成果包括深入记录Ch'ol中的定冠词和名词性结构，以及关于定冠词和断开的名词性表达的方言变化，这两个方面都是对该领域的新贡献。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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 questions "Is the doctor on board?" and "Is a doctor on board?" can signify very different situations. With the first question, a husband may simply be looking for his wife, whereas with the second, a doctor is needed for an emergency. The only difference between these two questions is "the" (the definite article) and "a" (the indefinite article). Many languages, however, do not have overt definite and indefinite articles. How, then, do speakers of these languages differentiate between these two meanings? One way to differentiate is by context: "Is doctor on board?" in languages without overt articles can be either definite or indefinite, and in context speakers understand whether a particular doctor is needed or any doctor. Certain linguistic theories predict that if a language has an overt definite article, then certain grammatical constructions are prohibited. One such prohibited construction is where modifiers appear disconnected from the noun they modify ("Friendly I saw the doctor" is not grammatical in English, but possibly grammatical in languages without definite articles). This project will investigate variation in two dialects of an underdocumented language, each of which have different ways of expressing definiteness. These dialects, while mutually understandable, also differ with respect to possible grammatical constructions, like the disconnected modifier construction. This project will advance our understanding of crosslinguistic variation in how languages express definiteness and keep track of individuals in discourse, research with implications for the fields of natural language processing, speech recognition and other branches of computational linguistics. Broader impacts include a public repository of recordings and transcriptions, materials for use by community members, promotion of linguistic sustainability in the region and collaboration with local university students as active contributors to knowledge on their heritage language. Other outcomes include the training of a doctoral student.The CoPI, a doctoral candidate at Cornell University, will document and analyze two dialects of Ch'ol (CTU), an endangered Mayan language of southern Mexico, for her doctoral dissertation. As the two dialects of Ch'ol (Tila and Tumbala) have different ways to express definiteness, the CoPI will connect this research to theories that predict that certain grammatical constructions are prohibited if a language has a definite article. The Tumbala dialect allows for a variety of modifiers to be disconnected from the nouns they modify. The Tila dialect, however, does not allow many modifiers to appear far away to the noun they modify. The hypothesis of this project is that the Tila dialect has more restrictions than the Tumbala dialect because the Tila dialect has a grammaticalized definite article, whereas the Tumbala dialect does not. During fieldwork, the CoPI will record and transcribe narratives, and conduct interviews with speakers. These varied sources of data will create an empirically sound foundation for the dissertation and future work. The outcomes of this project include in-depth documentation of definite articles and nominal constructions in Ch'ol as well as dialectal variation with respect to definiteness and disconnected nominal expressions, both novel contributions to the field. It will also advance linguistic models at the interface of syntax and semantics and inform work on the marking of definiteness crosslinguistically.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.