Doctoral Dissertation Research: Syntactic Description of a Language with Unique Patterns of Symmetrical Voice Alternations

“玛丽踢了球”（主动语态）和“球被玛丽踢了”（被动语态）之间的区别对说话者和语言学理论都是重要的。在主动语态中，重点是玛丽作为踢的煽动者。在被动语态中，焦点在球上，甚至可以省略对玛丽的提及，如“球被踢了。“主动和被动区别的一个关键特征是它的不对称性：主动是说某事的典型方式，而被动则与众不同，将焦点从发起行动的人身上移开，并在被动句中添加“was”和“by”。主动-被动的区别在世界上数百种语言中都有记载，这使得许多人认为这种结构是普遍存在的。然而，最近学者们开始挑战这一假设，指出来自以前没有记录的语言的新数据表明存在对称的语音差异。换句话说，主动或被动形式都不是更基本的。这个项目将研究对称的声音在一个文献不足的语言，西方Subanon（ISO 639-3），这使得主动语态的类型之间的更精细的区别。这种区别在主动语态类型的对称性和层次性上都不同于英语。更广泛的影响包括建立一个录音和转录的公共资料库，供社区成员使用的材料，以及促进该地区的语言可持续性和现代语言文献技术。其他成果包括培养一名博士生。CoPI是夏威夷大学的一名博士生，他将记录和分析Western Subanon，这是一种在菲律宾南部使用的濒危和未得到充分研究的土著少数民族南岛语。虽然菲律宾语经常被视为对称语音语言的原型，但大多数研究都集中在少数几个较大的语言上，如Tagabas，忽略了大菲律宾中部地区的多样性，这是一个近一百种语言的家族。Subanon在区分多种形式的主动语态方面是独一无二的，其标记以复杂的方式与数字，时态和语气相互作用。为了更好地了解促使选择语音的因素，CoPI将汇编一个全面的自然语言使用录音集。这些录音将构成语音语法描述的基础，同时也满足研究相关语法主题的研究人员的需求。 由于缺乏Subanon的现有文献，对称语音的描述将嵌入参考语法中，从而确保这项工作最大限度地为其他研究人员所用。此外，为了更好地了解激励选择语音形式的因素，本研究将汇编一个自然语言注释录音语料库，该语料库将被存档，供研究人员和社区成员访问。因此，该项目的成果将为一种研究甚少的菲律宾语言提供新的数据，同时也为正在进行的关于对称语音性质的辩论提供信息。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。

The distinction between "Mary kicked the ball" (active voice) and "The ball was kicked by Mary" (passive voice) is an important one for both speakers and linguistic theory. In the active voice the focus is on Mary as the instigator of the kicking. In the passive voice the focus is on the ball, and reference to Mary can even be omitted, as in "The ball was kicked. " A key feature of the active-passive distinction is its asymmetry: the active is the typical way of saying something, while the passive stands out as different, moving the focus away from the person initiating the action and adding "was" and "by" in the passive sentence. Active-passive distinctions have been documented in hundreds of the world's languages, leading many to assume the universality of this construction. However, recently scholars have begun to challenge this assumption, pointing to new data from previously undocumented languages suggesting that symmetrical voice distinctions exist. In other words, neither the active nor passive form is more basic. This project will investigate symmetrical voice in an underdocumented language, Western Subanon (ISO 639-3 suc), which makes even finer distinctions between types of active voice. Such distinctions are different from English in both the symmetry and the gradation of types of active voice. Broader impacts include a public repository of recordings and transcriptions, materials for use by community members and promotion of linguistic sustainability and modern language documentation techniques in the region. Other outcomes include the training of a doctoral student.The CoPI, a doctoral candidate at the University of Hawaii, will document and analyze Western Subanon, an endangered and understudied indigenous minority Austronesian language spoken in the southern Philippines. While Philippine languages are often taken as prototype examples of symmetrical voice languages, most research has focused on just of a few of the larger languages, such as Tagalog, ignoring the diversity which exists within Greater Central Philippines, a family of nearly one hundred languages. Subanon is unique in distinguishing multiple forms of active voice, the marking of which interacts in complex ways with number, tense, and mood. In order to better understand the factors motivating choice of voice the CoPI will compile a comprehensive collection of recordings of natural language use. These recordings will form the basis for a grammatical description of voice, while also serving the needs of researchers working on related grammatical topics. Given the lack of existing documentation of Subanon, the description of symmetrical voice will be embedded within a reference grammar, thus ensuring that this work is maximally accessible to other researchers. Moreover, in order to better understand the factors motivating choice of voice forms this research will compile a corpus of annotated recordings of natural language, which will be archived and accessible for both researchers and community members. The outcomes of this project will thus provide new data on a little-studied Philippine language while also informing ongoing debates about the nature of symmetrical voice.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.