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

玛丽踢球(主动语态)和球被玛丽踢(被动语态)之间的区别对于说话人和语言学理论都是一个重要的区别。在主动语态中，焦点放在玛丽身上，她是踢脚的煽动者。在被动语态中，焦点放在球上，甚至可以省略对Mary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：主动式是说话的典型方式，而被动式则是不同的，它把焦点从发起动作的人身上移开，并在被动句中增加了“曾经”和“被”。主动和被动的区别在世界上数百种语言中都有记载，这导致许多人认为这一结构具有普遍性。然而，最近，学者们开始挑战这一假设，指出来自以前未记录的语言的新数据表明，对称的声音差异存在。换句话说，无论是主动形式还是被动形式都不是更基本的形式。本项目将研究未有文献记载的西苏巴农语(ISO 639-3 suc)中的对称语态，它对主动语态的类型进行了更细微的区分。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公共录音和抄本储存库、供社区成员使用的材料以及在该区域促进语言可持续性和现代语言文件技术。其他成果包括培训一名博士生。夏威夷大学的博士生柯比将记录和分析西苏巴农语，这是一种濒危的、未得到充分研究的菲律宾南部土著少数民族语言。尽管菲律宾语言经常被视为对称语音语言的原型，但大多数研究只关注较大的几种语言中的一种，如他加洛语，而忽略了大菲律宾这个近百种语言大家庭中存在的多样性。Subanon在区分主动语态的多种形式方面是独一无二的，其标记与数字、时态和语气以复杂的方式相互作用。为了更好地了解促使选择发声的因素，COPI将汇编一份关于自然语言使用情况的全面录音资料。这些录音将构成语态语法描述的基础，同时也为研究相关语法主题的研究人员提供服务。鉴于苏巴农现有文献的缺乏，对称语态的描述将被嵌入到参考语法中，从而确保这项工作最大限度地为其他研究人员所理解。此外，为了更好地理解选择语音形式的动机因素，本研究将编制一个自然语言注释录音语料库，该语料库将存档，供研究人员和社区成员使用。因此，该项目的结果将提供关于一种鲜有研究的菲律宾语言的新数据，同时也为正在进行的关于对称声音性质的辩论提供信息。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。

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.