CAREER: Grammatical change and reconstruction

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Understanding the abstract, cognitive principles that underlie language change has long been a topic of linguistic research. However, the bulk of work on language change has focused on major world languages--in large part because they tend to have long written histories. In addition, studies employing comparative reconstruction have concentrated on identifying and recreating the words and sounds of undocumented proto-languages. This project broadens the empirical basis for theories of language change by examining change in less studied languages and language families, thereby taking on the challenge posed by languages that lack written records and, in some cases, that have previously remained understudied or entirely undocumented. It also shifts attention from identifying the words and sounds of proto-languages by developing methods for reconstructing grammar, and it applies those methods to less-described languages in order to further broaden our understanding of language change.The project’s primary methodological contribution to theories of language change is to develop research practices for reconstructing distributional restrictions. The project focuses on the distributional properties of cross-linguistically rare structures, including flexible word classes; suppletive roots for verbs of transfer that index the person and number of the recipient argument; and a focus construction that marks tense on nominal constituents. In the pursuit of these goals, the project engages team members to document previously undocumented languages. The project also provides training opportunities for indigenous researchers to prepare them for documenting understudied and endangered languages. All of the language documentation resulting directly from this project are to be stored securely in a language archive, and made freely available to community members, linguists, and any other interested parties.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.