Collaborative Research: Perspective Taking and Reported Speech in an Evidentially-Rich Language

协作研究：以证据丰富的语言进行观点采择和报告演讲

• 批准号: 1911428
• 负责人: Wilson Silva
• 金额: $ 9.79万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1911428&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Perspective; Taking; Reported

Storytelling and conversation often require that speakers share something that has been said by someone else, known as "reported speech." Tremendous variation occurs cross-linguistically in terms of the different linguistic means by which speakers convey their own perspective on a segment of reported speech, including the extent to which speakers agree or disagree with it in content or tone. The notion of "perspective shift" is not only an area of linguistic significance, but is also important to theories of cognition, but considerable gaps in our knowledge of these processes exist. This project seeks to addresses some of those gaps to advance a better understanding of perspective in linguistic theory and cognition through analysis of an endangered language of Ecuador, A'ingae, which employs a typologically unique mechanism to signal perspective shift by producing a word that is unusually or unnaturally high, known as falsetto. The project will create a diverse collection of narratives useful for future scientific and cultural endeavors, as well as innovative methodological advances like digital animation and interactive board games to examine language use in context. Broader impacts also include the training of undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented groups at two US universities in scientific research methods, technical skills like digital animation, as well as hands-on experience working with diverse groups of stakeholders in an international collaboration. The study of perspective shift within discourse and sentences is one of the most important areas of semantics and pragmatics research, and it is one where the study of indigenous and endangered languages has proven especially crucial. This project explores these issues through the documentation of an understudied language whose grammar allows for the explicit expression of perspective shift of a sort which is implicit in English and other more well-studied languages. The perspective-shifting use of falsetto in A'ingae (CON), a linguistic isolate of Ecuador, can co-occur with other reported speech devices in the language including lexical verbs like "say" and "tell", as well as reportative and quotative clitics. To understand more precisely the kind of perspective shift that falsetto in A'ingae encodes, the project will analyze the broader domain of reported speech and perspective-taking through the collaborative creation of an annotated digital corpus of naturalistic speech and careful consideration of how these devices impact deictic and other perspective-sensitive elements with which they co-occur. Specifically, speakers produce a single syllable of falsetto in order to indicate shifts between different perspectives in discourse, a shift that is largely or entirely implicit in other languages, thereby shedding light on perspective-taking processes which are often quite difficult to observe in other languages. This project, in addition to creating important documentary materials and linguistic training opportunities, will provide important insights on the rich techniques that speakers use to signal perspective taking and perspective shifting. The issues impact many areas of semantics and pragmatics and this theoretical focus dove-tails naturally with broad coverage language documentation, as perspective-taking can be studied only in rich and diverse discourse contexts.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.

讲故事和对话通常要求演讲者分享别人说过的话，称为“报告演讲”。跨语言之间存在着巨大的差异，因为说话者通过不同的语言手段表达自己对所报道的演讲片段的看法，包括说话者在内容或语气上同意或不同意的程度。 “视角转变”的概念不仅是一个具有语言学意义的领域，而且对认知理论也很重要，但我们对这些过程的认识存在相当大的差距。该项目旨在通过分析厄瓜多尔的一种濒危语言 A'ingae 来解决其中一些差距，以促进对语言理论和认知的更好理解。A'ingae 采用类型学上独特的机制，通过产生异常或不自然的高音（称为假声）来表示观点转变。 该项目将创建对未来科学和文化事业有用的多样化叙述集合，以及数字动画和交互式棋盘游戏等创新方法的进步，以检查上下文中的语言使用。 更广泛的影响还包括对美国两所大学中代表性不足群体的本科生和研究生进行科学研究方法、数字动画等技术技能以及在国际合作中与不同利益相关者群体合作的实践经验的培训。话语和句子中的视角转变研究是语义学和语用学研究最重要的领域之一，对土著语言和濒危语言的研究已被证明尤其重要。该项目通过记录一种尚未被研究的语言来探讨这些问题，该语言的语法允许明确表达英语和其他研究更充分的语言中隐含的某种观点转变。在厄瓜多尔的一种孤立语言 A'ingae (CON) 中，假声的视角转换使用可以与该语言中其他报道的语音装置同时出现，包括“say”和“tell”等词汇动词，以及报告和引语附着词。为了更准确地理解 A'ingae 中的假音所编码的视角转变，该项目将通过协作创建自然主义语音的带注释数字语料库来分析更广泛的报告语音和观点采择领域，并仔细考虑这些设备如何影响指示语和其他与它们同时出现的视角敏感元素。具体来说，说话者会发出一个假声音节，以表明话语中不同观点之间的转变，这种转变在其他语言中很大程度上或完全隐含着，从而揭示了在其他语言中通常很难观察到的观点采择过程。该项目除了创建重要的文献材料和语言培训机会之外，还将提供有关演讲者用来表示观点采择和观点转变的丰富技术的重要见解。这些问题影响语义学和语用学的许多领域，并且这一理论焦点自然地与广泛覆盖的语言文档相吻合，因为观点采择只能在丰富多样的话语环境中进行研究。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。