Doctoral Dissertation Research: Documenting contact and shift in a demonstrative system

博士论文研究：记录示范系统中的接触和转变

• 批准号: 2004015
• 负责人: Lenore Grenoble
• 金额: $ 3.81万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2004015&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Documenting; contact

Urbanization, globalization, and environmental variability are working together to transform the Arctic region's geophysical environment, economies, and societies. Language use, particularly that by Indigenous peoples, is also profoundly affected; urbanization, for instance, brings with it considerable social and cultural change, as well as assimilation to a majority language. Environmental variability and urbanization are altering both the geophysical environment itself and the way people engage with it, as people increasingly live in urban settings and traditional ways of life are deeply altered. Language is following suit; this is particularly clear in the language used to describe the environment which is linked to subsistence activities within the traditional landscape. All languages have words for referring to aspects of the context surrounding the speech event, which may include the spatial context (e.g. here/there, this/that), the temporal context (e.g. now), speech participants (e.g. I, you, we), or other aspects. There is significant linguistic variation in which contextual aspects are encoded. Demonstratives are "pointers," or deictic words that serve to locate or point out a specific referent within the context. English makes a two-way distinction, contrasting "here/there" or "this/that." Other languages distinguish more deictic categories. Three-way distinctions (here/there/over there) are not uncommon, while others have considerably more. Some of the larger systems use demonstratives in ways that invoke aspects of the geophysical context for locating referents. However, in line with the broader geophysical changes in the real world, the linguistic systems are currently undergoing significant change and reduction. This project will document and analyze ongoing change in one such demonstrative system, documenting use and variation across different groups of speakers, in order to understand its trajectory of change and unpack the factors influencing the system. Contact with the majority, national language plays an important role, as does contact with globally dominant languages. As demonstratives are anchored to the environment, this research further speaks to the relationship between language and environment, especially within the context of rapid environmental change and evolving human-environment interactions as seen across the region.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.

城市化、全球化和环境多变性正在共同改变北极地区的地球物理环境、经济和社会。语言使用，特别是土著人民的语言使用也受到深刻影响；例如，城市化带来了相当大的社会和文化变化，以及对多数语言的同化。环境的多变性和城市化正在改变地球物理环境本身和人们参与其中的方式，因为人们越来越多地生活在城市环境中，传统生活方式也被深刻改变。语言也在效仿；这一点在用于描述与传统景观内的生存活动相联系的环境的语言中尤为明显。所有语言都有用于指代围绕言语事件的语境的各个方面的词，其可以包括空间语境(例如，这里/那里、这个/那个)、时间语境(例如，现在)、言语参与者(例如，我、你、我们)或其他方面。在对语境方面进行编码时，存在着显著的语言差异。指示语是“指针”，或指示词，用来定位或指出上下文中的特定指称。英语有双向的区别，对比的是“here/here”或“this/that”。其他语言区分更多的指示语范畴。三向区分(这里/那里/那里)并不少见，而其他人的区别则要多得多。一些较大的系统使用指示词的方式调用地球物理上下文的各个方面来定位参照物。然而，随着现实世界中更广泛的地球物理变化，语言系统目前正在经历重大变化和缩减。该项目将记录和分析一个这样的示范系统中正在进行的变化，记录不同发言者群体的使用和变化，以了解其变化轨迹并揭示影响该系统的因素。与大多数人接触，民族语言发挥着重要作用，与全球主导语言的接触也是如此。由于示意词与环境息息相关，这项研究进一步探讨了语言与环境之间的关系，特别是在整个地区快速环境变化和不断演变的人与环境相互作用的背景下。这一奖项反映了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。