Doctoral Dissertation Research: Documenting the Semantics of Verbal and Nominal Tense in an Endangered Language

本论文项目涉及详细的实地考察和音频和视频文件的Mvskoke（又名。马斯科吉语（英语：Muskogee，Creek，Seminole），是美国东南部的一种严重濒危语言，目前在俄克拉荷马州和佛罗里达约有500人使用。这个项目的重点是这种语言表达时间的独特方式。语言学家使用“时态”一词来指与时间有关的词或词缀，特别是过去、现在和将来的时间。传统上认为时态（i）传达这三个值之一，（ii）仅指时间间隔，（iii）仅出现在动词上。然而，近年来，语言学家发现了一些事实和现象，对这三个假设提出了挑战。首先，许多语言都有所谓的“分级”时态，它传达了事情发生在过去或未来的多远。其次，在某些语言中，只有当说话者目睹了事件时才能使用某些时态。最后，在一些语言中，时态可以出现在名词和动词上。值得注意的是，所有这三种现象都存在于这种语言中，这种语言有四种过去时态，出现在名词和动词上;此外，时态的选择取决于说话者是否目睹了事件以及发生了多久。以往的语言学研究只局限于表现这三种现象之一的语言。本研究将探讨语言时态系统中的所有三种现象，包括它们可能的相互作用。这项研究将基于与流利的长者的访谈，博士生将汇编长者之间以及长者与学生之间的对话的多个录音（音频和视频）。该项目的成果将进一步加深对时态的理解，并通过提供日常对话中使用的时态文件，直接有利于社区语言复兴工作。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。

This dissertation project involves detailed fieldwork and audio and video documentation of Mvskoke (a.k.a. Muskogee, Creek, Seminole), a severely endangered language indigenous to the Southeastern United States, currently spoken by about 500 individuals in Oklahoma and Florida. This project focuses on the unique ways that this language expresses time. Linguists use the term ‘tense’ to refer to words or affixes that reference time – specifically past, present, and future time. It has classically been assumed that tense (i) communicates one of those three values, (ii) refers only to intervals of time, and (iii) only appears on verbs. However, in recent years, linguists have uncovered facts and phenomena that challenge these three assumptions. First, a number of languages have so-called ‘graded’ tenses, which communicate how far into the past or future something happens. Secondly, in some languages certain tenses can only be used if the speaker witnessed the event. Finally, in a few languages, tenses can appear on nouns as well as verbs. Remarkably, all three of these phenomena are present in this language, which has four past tenses that appear on both nouns and verbs; moreover, the choice of tense depends on whether the speaker witnessed the event and how long ago it occurred. Previous linguistic research on tense has been limited to languages exhibiting just one of these three phenomena. This study will examine all three phenomena in the tense system of the language, including their possible interactions. The research will be based on interviews with fluent elders and the doctoral student will compile multiple recordings (audio and video) of conversations between elders and between elders and students. The results of this project will further the understanding of tense and will directly benefit the community language revitalization efforts by providing documentation of the tenses as used in everyday conversation.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.