A linguistic microvariation approach to complementizers and complementation

这个项目调查语言是如何在句子中表达句子的，比如“他认为她离开了”。特别令人感兴趣的是上面的“That”，称为“Complementizers”。大量的工作一直致力于完成者的作用。完形词在连接句子方面起着什么作用？这种作用在不同语言中有多大程度的不同？这个项目通过关注语言的子语系中的变化，扩大了对句子中句子的一般理解。在这些语言中，有各种各样的策略将一个句子嵌入到另一个句子中，包括在一种语言中使用多个(有时超过五个)不同的补足语。这个项目通过对母语人士的详细访谈，严格记录和分析了这些不同补足语的功能，从而增加了对这种复杂句型的更广泛的理解。这项研究为我们对人类语言如何工作的理论提供了经验基础，并为说话者群体开发了教学资源。大量的跨语言研究，主要是关于印欧语，揭示了一些不同的因素，影响嵌入从句和相关主句之间的关系。句法、语义和形态标准都是决定小句嵌入策略的重要因素。这些研究导致了跨语言的嵌入句的句法和语义的复杂，有时甚至是不一致的图景。该项目通过记录和分析密切相关语言之间的差异来解决这些问题。以前的描述性工作揭示了显著的中介语，在某些情况下，说话人之间的差异。这个项目的重点是变化，作为一种手段，以解决一些长期存在的困惑嵌入条款。它还为散居海外的人和边缘化的语言社区做出了贡献，创造了教学资源，并突出了一些说非官方“方言”的社区，这些社区以前几乎没有得到承认或文献。这一奖项反映了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 project investigates how languages express sentences within sentences, such as "He thinks that she left." Of particular interest are words like "that" above, called "complementizers." A great deal of work has been dedicated to the role of a complementizer. What function does a complementizer play in linking together sentences, and to what extent does this function vary across languages? This project expands the general understanding of sentences-within-sentences by focusing on variation within a subfamily of languages. Among these languages, there is a wide range of strategies for embedding a sentence in another sentence, including multiple (sometimes upwards of five) different complementizers in a single language. This project rigorously documents and analyzes the function of these different complementizers via detailed interviews with native speakers, and thereby increases the broader understanding of this complex sentence type. This research adds to the empirical basis for our theorizing about how human language works and develops pedagogical resources for the speaker community.Decades of cross-linguistic work, largely on Indo-European languages, has revealed a number of different factors affecting the relationship between an embedded clause and its associated main clause. Syntactic, semantic, and morphological criteria have all been implicated in determining the clausal embedding strategy. These investigations have resulted in a complex and sometimes inconsistent picture of the syntax and semantics of embedded clauses cross-linguistically. This project addresses these issues by documenting and analyzing variation across closely related languages. Previous descriptive work has revealed significant inter-language, and in some cases, inter-speaker variation. This project focuses on variation as a means to address some of the long-standing puzzles about embedded clauses. It also contributes to diaspora and marginalized language communities, creating pedagogical resources and highlighting some of the communities who speak unofficial "dialects" that have previously received little recognition or documentation.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.