Morphologically Complex Data Collection and Analysis for Improving Lexicographic Models

分析性词典提供了在个别语言中可能的和不可能的声音组合、单词和子句结构的信息。语言学家和认知科学家挖掘分析词典，以揭示词语的含义和地点、事物和行为的文化意义，以及说话者是如何指称这些知识的。这些字典对于发现普遍可预测的或新发现的语法模式也很有用。这个项目收集数据来创建一个具有异常复杂动词形态的语言的分析字典。为了这个项目，与年长的母语者一起进行的原始田野调查增加了关于语言结构的重要信息，这反过来又为语言学的各个子领域提供了信息，如历史语言学、比较语言学、形态学和句法。该项目支持教育和多样性，让美国原住民长老、教师和学习者参与创建高质量、全面和持久的语言资源。该项目扩展了当前的词典编纂模型，以处理复杂的动词形态。该项目审查现有的词汇数据库，查找条目中的空白，并通过采访濒危语言的老年人收集的信息进行分析和填补空白。这些长者掌握着其他地方没有记载的词汇和语法知识的关键部分。研究者将这些新收集的信息以一种数据格式添加到现有的数据中，这种格式很容易在获得新数据时进行修改和扩充。在本项目下进行的研究采用了一种语言文档方法，确保当前和未来的学习者和研究人员有机会访问新记录的词汇项目，为开发科学语言材料提供必要的数据。这些材料可以被非学术团体用于语言和文化的振兴。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Analytic dictionaries provide information on the possible and impossible sound combinations and words and clause structures found in individual languages. Linguists and cognitive scientists mine analytic dictionaries to uncover knowledge about word meaning and cultural significance of places, things, and actions and how these are referred to by speakers. These dictionaries are also useful for discovery of universally predictable or newly discovered grammatical patterns. This project collects data to create an analytic dictionary of a language with unusually complex verb morphology. The original fieldwork conducted with elder birth speakers for this project adds crucial information on the structure of the language, which in turn informs various subfields of linguistics such as historical linguistics, comparative linguistics, morphology, and syntax. This project supports education and diversity, engaging the Native American elders, teachers, and learners in creating a high-quality, comprehensive, and enduring language resource. The project expands current lexicographic models to deal with complex verb morphology. The project reviews existing lexical databases to locate gaps in entries and analyzes and fills gaps through information collected via interviews of elder speakers of endangered languages. These elders hold key pieces of lexical and grammatical knowledge that have not been documented elsewhere. The investigator adds this newly collected information to the existing in a data format that is easily revised and augmented as new data becomes available. Research conducted under this project implements a language documentation method that ensures that current and future learners and researchers have the opportunity to access newly documented lexical items, which provide the necessary data for the development of scientific language materials. These materials can be used by the nonacademic community for language and culture revitalization.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.