A linguistic microvariation approach to complementizers and complementation

这个项目研究语言如何在句子中表达句子，比如“他认为她离开了”。特别有趣的是像上面的“that”这样的词，称为“补语”。关于补充者的作用已经做了大量的工作。补语在连接句子中起什么作用？这种作用在不同语言中有什么不同？该项目通过关注语言亚族中的变化，扩展了对句中句的一般理解。在这些语言中，有很多将一个句子嵌入另一个句子的策略，包括在一种语言中使用多个（有时多达五个）不同的补语。本项目通过对英语母语者的详细访谈，严格记录和分析了这些不同补语的功能，从而增加了对这种复杂句子类型的更广泛的理解。这项研究增加了我们关于人类语言如何运作的理论的经验基础，并为说话者社区开发了教学资源。几十年来的跨语言研究，主要是关于印欧语言的研究，揭示了影响嵌入分句和相关主分句之间关系的许多不同因素。句法、语义和形态标准都涉及到确定小句嵌入策略。这些调查导致了一个复杂的，有时不一致的图像嵌入子句的语法和语义的跨语言。本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。先前的描述工作揭示了显著的语言间差异，在某些情况下，说话者之间的差异。这个项目的重点是变异性作为一种手段来解决一些关于嵌入条款的长期困惑。它还为散居海外和边缘化的语言社区做出贡献，创造教学资源，并突出一些说非官方“方言”的社区，这些社区以前很少得到承认或文献记录。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。

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.