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

讲故事和谈话通常要求说话者分享别人说过的话，这被称为“转述言语”。“在不同的语言中，说话者通过不同的语言手段来表达他们对一段被报道的言论的看法，包括说话者在内容或语气上同意或不同意的程度，这方面存在巨大的差异。“视角转换”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。该项目旨在解决其中的一些差距，以通过分析厄瓜多尔濒危语言A'ingae，更好地理解语言理论和认知中的视角，A'ingae采用了一种类型学上独特的机制，通过产生一个异常或不自然的高，称为假声的词来表示视角的转变。 该项目将创建一个对未来科学和文化事业有用的叙述的多样化集合，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来自美国两所大学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的培训，以及与国际合作中的不同利益相关者群体合作的实践经验。语篇和句子中的视角转换研究是语义学和语用学研究的重要领域之一，对土著语言和濒危语言的研究尤为重要。本项目通过一种未充分研究的语言的文档来探讨这些问题，这种语言的语法允许明确表达一种在英语和其他更深入研究的语言中隐含的视角转换。A'ingae（CON）是厄瓜多尔的一个语言隔离区，假声的视角转换使用可以与语言中其他报告的语音设备共同出现，包括词汇动词，如“说”和“告诉”，以及陈述和引用的clitics。为了更准确地理解A'ingae中假声编码的视角转变，该项目将通过协作创建一个自然主义语音的注释数字语料库，并仔细考虑这些设备如何影响指示语和其他视角敏感元素，来分析报告语音和观点采择的更广泛领域。具体来说，说话者发出一个单音节的假声，以表示话语中不同观点之间的转换，这种转换在其他语言中基本上或完全是隐含的，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。这个项目，除了创造重要的文献资料和语言培训机会，将提供重要的见解丰富的技术，扬声器使用信号的观点采择和观点转变。这些问题影响了语义学和语用学的许多领域，而这一理论焦点自然与广泛的语言文献覆盖面相吻合，因为观点采择只能在丰富多样的话语语境中进行研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

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.