CAREER: Theory, Fieldwork, and Typology: A Semantic/Pragmatic Triad in Underrepresented Linguistic Systems

职业：理论、实地考察和类型学：代表性不足的语言系统中的语义/语用三元组

• 批准号: 2143740
• 负责人: Diti Bhadra
• 金额: $ 50.16万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2027-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2143740&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Theory; Fieldwork; Typology; Semantic

This CAREER project investigates the interaction between the logical reasoning machinery inside the human brain (semantics) and the linguistic context of conversation (pragmatics). The project involves detailed fieldwork on four diverse, understudied languages that will uncover theoretical and typological universals in semantics and pragmatics and their interaction. The investigation focuses on the usage and interpretation of "discourse particles," which are linguistic units (often small function words in a sentence) that track and convey various contextual aspects of interpersonal conversations. This is an underexplored area of research with great potential to address fundamental questions about how human languages express reasoning, inferences, beliefs, and knowledge.This project promotes a data-theory-typology triad by studying the empirical, theoretical, and typological underpinnings of discourse competence through the lens of discourse particles with a three-pronged focus: modal discourse particles and their complements; interaction of discourse particles with tense, aspect, mood; discourse particles and non-canonical speech acts. In addition to research output, results will include the creation of standardized open-source materials for theory-oriented semantic/pragmatic fieldwork that can be used for any language; training of graduate and undergraduate students in modern methodologies informed by empirical and theoretical diversity in a fieldwork lab; and recruitment and involvement of native speaker and community/heritage linguists from groups historically minoritized in academia.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.

这个职业项目调查了人脑中的逻辑推理机制(语义学)和对话的语言语境(语用学)之间的相互作用。该项目涉及四种不同的、未被研究的语言的详细实地工作，这些语言将揭示语义学和语用学的理论和类型学共性及其相互作用。调查的重点是语篇助词的使用和解释，语篇助词是追踪和传达人际对话的各种语境方面的语言单位(通常是句子中的小虚词)。这是一个有待探索的研究领域，具有很大的潜力来解决关于人类语言如何表达推理、推理、信念和知识的基本问题。本项目通过语篇助词及其补语、语篇助词与时态、体、语气的互动；语篇助词和非规范言语行为，通过研究语篇能力的经验、理论和类型学基础，促进了数据-理论-类型学三位一体的研究。除了研究成果，成果还将包括为可用于任何语言的面向理论的语义/语用田野工作创建标准化的开源材料；在田野工作实验室对研究生和本科生进行现代方法培训，了解经验和理论的多样性；从学术历史上被边缘化的团体招募和参与母语为母语的人和社区/传统语言学家。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。