Doctoral Dissertation Research: Article Contraction as a Reflex of Case Assignment

世界上许多语言都有被称为词缀的元素。关键字是一些小词，根据语言的不同，它们以不同的方式附着在附近的词上。跨语言，许多类型的元素都可以成为关键字。例如，在英语中，否定标记“n 't”是一个附加在动词上形成否定句的陈词滥调：“他不是一个好学生。”这个项目调查了一种已经接受了一些科学分析的阴蒂，但它还没有被全面研究，但提供了有趣的结构特征。这个陈词滥调涉及定冠词的缩写（英语中的“the”等词）。目标定冠词很有趣，因为它是否与附近的单词相连既取决于音系（语音），也取决于句法（句子中单词的顺序）。由于其复杂的性质，对目的定冠词的严格分析有助于拓宽和加深对政治的语言学知识，以及对语法不同部分（句法和音系）如何相互作用的认识。这个博士论文项目的主要目标是与目标语言的三种少数民族方言的母语人士一起构建一个大型数据集。这个数据集的目的是记录定冠词在不同的方言和说话人的语境中是如何表现的。研究人员在工作假设下对这些数据集进行了正式的句法分析，该假设认为收缩是结构格分配的形态反射，仅在某些语音环境中出现。这个项目的第二个目标是编写目标语言定冠词的描述性语法。在征得母语人士参与本项目的同意后，描述性语法将被托管在开放获取平台上，这样研究人员和公众就可以访问目标少数民族语言的语法、其定冠词或关于词的整体语法。最后，这个项目的首要目标是唤起人们对一种数百年来一直被边缘化的语言的关注，并帮助更普遍地防止少数语言的语言流失。此外，对少数语言和未被充分研究的语言进行探索，如本文所关注的语言，具有揭示其他语言中没有发现的现象的巨大潜力，从而为语言学理论做出新的贡献。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。

Many languages of the world have elements known as clitics. Clitics are small words that attach to nearby words in different ways, depending on the language. Cross-linguistically, many kinds of elements can be clitics. For example, in English, the negative marker "n’t" is a clitic that attaches to a verb to form a negative sentence: "He isn’t a good student." This project investigates one type of clitic that has received some scientific analysis, but that has yet to be studied comprehensively yet offers interesting structural features. This clitic involves contraction of the definite article (words like "the" in English). The target definite article is intriguing because whether it attaches to nearby words depends both on phonology (speech sounds) and on syntax (the order of words in a sentence). Because of its complex nature, a rigorous analysis of the target definite article helps to broaden and deepen linguistic knowledge of clitics more generally and of how different parts of grammar (syntax and phonology) interact. A main goal of this doctoral dissertation project is to work with native speakers of three minoritized dialects of the target language to construct a large data set. The purpose of this data set is to document how the definite article behaves in a wide range of contexts, across different dialects and speakers. The researchers conduct a formal syntactic analysis of this assembled data set under the working hypothesis that contraction is a morphological reflex of structural Case assignment that only surfaces in certain phonological environments. A second goal of this project is to write a descriptive grammar of the definite article of the target language. Upon approval of native speakers collaborating on this project, the descriptive grammar is hosted on open access platforms, so that researchers and the general public can access the grammar of the target minority language, its definite article clitic, or about clitics overall. Finally, an overarching objective of this project is to call attention to a language that has been minoritized for hundreds of years as well as to help combat language loss of minoritized languages more generally. In addition, an exploration of a minoritized and understudied language such as the one under focus holds great potential to uncover phenomena not found in other languages and therefore to make a new contribution to linguistic theory.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.