Doctoral Dissertation Research: Investigating Overt Definite Articles and Grammatical Variation

博士论文研究：调查显性定冠词和语法变异

• 批准号: 1852744
• 负责人: Sarah Murray
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-12-01 至 2022-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1852744&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Investigating; Overt

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.

问题是“医生在飞机上吗？”以及“飞机上有医生吗？”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，紧急情况下需要医生。这两个问句之间唯一的区别是“the”(定冠词)和“a”(不定冠词)。然而，许多语言没有显式定冠词和不定冠词。那么，说这两种语言的人如何区分这两种意思呢？区分的一种方法是根据背景：“医生在船上吗？”在没有公开冠词的语言中，说话者可以是确定的，也可以是不确定的，在上下文中说话者了解是否需要某个特定的医生或任何一个医生。某些语言学理论预测，如果一种语言有明确的冠词，那么某些语法结构就是被禁止的。其中一种被禁止的结构是，修饰语似乎与它们所修饰的名词脱节(“Friendly I Seed the Doctor”在英语中不符合语法，但在没有定冠词的语言中可能是符合语法的)。这个项目将调查两种方言的变异，这两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不同，比如不相连的修饰语结构。这个项目将促进我们对语言如何表达确定性和跟踪语篇中个体的跨语言变异的理解，这项研究将对自然语言处理、语音识别和计算语言学的其他分支领域产生影响。更广泛的影响包括建立一个公共录音和抄本储存库、供社区成员使用的材料、促进该区域的语言可持续性以及与当地大学生合作，使他们成为传统语言知识的积极贡献者。其他成果包括对博士生的培训。科比是康奈尔大学的博士生，她将在博士论文中记录和分析墨西哥南部濒危的玛雅语言CHU的两种方言。由于智利的两种方言(Tila和Tumbala)表达确定性的方式不同，COPI将把这项研究与预测如果一种语言有确定性冠词就禁止某些语法结构的理论联系起来。通巴拉方言允许各种修饰语与它们所修饰的名词断开连接。然而，提拉方言不允许许多修饰语出现在远离它们所修饰的名词的地方。这个项目的假设是，提拉方言比通巴拉方言有更多的限制，因为提拉方言有语法化的定冠词，而通巴拉方言没有。在田野调查期间，COPI将记录和转录叙述，并对演讲者进行采访。这些不同的数据来源将为论文和未来的工作创造一个可靠的经验基础。该项目的成果包括深入记录合唱团中的定冠词和名词性结构，以及关于定义性和不相连的名词性表达的方言变异，这两个方面都是该领域的新贡献。它还将在句法和语义的界面上推进语言模型，并在跨语言方面为确定性的标记工作提供信息。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。

项目成果

Left branch extraction, object shift, and freezing effects in Tumbalá Ch’ol

Tumbalá Châol 中的左分支提取、对象移动和冻结效果

• DOI: 10.5334/gjgl.988
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Glossa: a journal of general linguistics
• 作者: Little, Carol-Rose