Doctoral Dissertation Research: Negation strategies in an endangered language

可以表达的东西也可以否定，这是人类语言的一个共性。然而，语言对句子和小短语的否定的编码方式在不同的语言之间，甚至在同一种语言中不同类型的话语之间，都有很大的不同。本博士论文项目通过记录一种濒危且文献不足的语言中否定策略的使用，增强了语言学家对这种变化的理解。使用这个文档，共同负责人描述和分析了语言中各种类型的子句和短语是如何被否定的，并将其与世界上其他语言中存在的否定策略进行了比较。该项目帮助语言学家理解否定的变化，以及否定是如何与被记录的语言的其他方面相互作用的。这种对该语言语法中一个核心但却鲜为人知的不寻常方面的分析和记录，为社区保护其语言提供了重要的资源。该项目还培训社区成员掌握文件和数据处理技术，使他们能够学习自己的语言，使语言学领域多样化。使用既定的语言文献和实地调查方法，用目标语言记录自然语言和引导性语言。这些录音经过转录、翻译，并在与母语人士协商后进行分析。通过对相关语言和世界其他语言的数据进行比较分析，有助于否定策略的类型学研究。所研究的语言中存在与从句主语表示一致的小句否定构词，因此该研究促进了语言学家对同意与否定如何联系的理解。本博士论文项目是由美国国家科学基金会和美国国家人文基金会资助的国家科学基金会动态语言基础设施- NEH记录濒危语言项目的一部分。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。

It is a universal of human language that if something can be expressed, it can also be negated. Yet the ways that languages encode the negation of sentences and smaller phrases varies quite a lot between languages and even between different types of utterances in the same language. This doctoral dissertation project enhances linguists' understanding of this variation by documenting the use of negation strategies in an endangered and under-documented language. Using this documentation, the co-PI describes and analyzes how various types of clauses and phrases in the language are negated and compares this with other negative strategies that exist in the world's languages. The project helps linguists to understand variation in negation and how negation interacts with other aspects of the language being documented. This analysis and documentation of a central but poorly understood and unusual aspect of the language's grammar provides an important resource for the community to preserve its language. The project also trains community members in documentation and data processing techniques, empowering them to study their own language and diversifying the field of linguistics.Using established methods for language documentation and fieldwork, both naturalistic and elicited speech are recorded in the target language. These recordings are transcribed, translated, and analyzed in consultation with native speakers. Data from related languages as well as other languages from around the world are used for a comparative analysis, contributing to the typological study of negation strategies. The language under study has clausal negation makers that show agreement with the subject of the clause, so the research advances linguists' understanding of how agreement and negation are connected. This doctoral dissertation project is made as part of a funding partnership between the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities for the NSF Dynamic Language Infrastructure – NEH Documenting Endangered Languages Program.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.