Doctoral Dissertation Research: The grammar of number, countability and measurement

博士论文研究：数的语法、可数性和测量

• 批准号: 2315167
• 负责人: Alexis Wellwood
• 金额: $ 1.84万
• 依托单位: University of Southern California
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-15 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2315167&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; grammar; number

The sentence 'Max wrote books' can only signify that there are two or more books that Max wrote. The presence of the marker '-s' on 'book' seems to induce a non-singular interpretation. However, 'Max didn’t write books' signifies that there is not even one book that Max wrote. Evidently, plural nouns such as 'books' can sometimes refer to a plurality (i.e., 2 or more) or a singleton (i.e., 1). When are such mismatches between the form of a noun and its meaning possible? In some languages, unlike in English, there is optional plural marking on nouns; in those languages, even if the plural marker is absent, the noun may freely apply to either singulars or plurals. This doctoral dissertation project investigates an understudied language variety that exhibits this particular property, using interviews with speakers and the recording and transcription of narratives as the basis for an analysis of the properties of the linguistic expression of number in this language and cross-linguistically. This project also contributes to the training and diversification of the next generation of language researchers, inviting undergraduate students from under­represented groups in STEM to participate in scientific research with an emphasis on developing both academic and industry-­relevant skills related to data collection techniques, data analysis, project management, and project presentation. This project documents and analyzes linguistic data from a language that marks the grammatical distinction between singular and plural rather like English, at a first pass level of description: singular nouns are unmarked and plural nouns are marked. However, there is an important difference: unmarked nouns that apply to inanimate things are interpreted as number neutral (i.e., can be understood to apply to one thing, or to more than one) while unmarked animate nouns, in contrast, are strictly singular, so only plural marked expressions apply to pluralities of two or more. The same pattern is found when the nouns combine with measure expressions like 'many' which require that the noun apply to pluralities, but it is not found when the noun is modified by a numeral like 'seventeen'. Numerals in this language require that the noun they modify be unmarked and understood to be semantically singular. This project connects these patterns of number marking to the 'mass-count' distinction, and the language of measurement and counting. The project thereby connects different research traditions and grows the field's collective understanding of how number and related categories are expressed cross-linguistically, to reveal deep properties of human language and cognition. The research therefore informs fields adjacent to syntax and semantics wherein notions of number and countability play an important role, including philosophy, language acquisition, and cognitive psychology. Within linguistics, this work contributes to best methodological practices for theoretically-driven fieldwork concerned with eliciting morpho-syntactic and semantic data.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.

“Max wrote books”这个句子只能表示有两本或更多的书是Max写的。在“book”上出现标记“-s”似乎会导致非单数解释。然而，“马克斯没有写过书”意味着马克斯甚至没有写过一本书。显然，复数名词如“书”有时可以指复数（即，2个或更多个）或单例（即，1）。什么时候名词的形式和它的意义之间可能出现这种不匹配？在某些语言中，与英语不同，名词上有可选的复数标记;在这些语言中，即使没有复数标记，名词也可以自由地应用于单数或复数。这个博士论文项目调查了一种未充分研究的语言品种，表现出这种特殊的属性，使用与扬声器的采访和录音和转录的叙述作为分析的基础上，在这种语言和跨语言的数量的语言表达的属性。该项目还有助于下一代语言研究人员的培训和多样化，邀请STEM中未被广泛代表的本科生参与科学研究，重点是发展与数据收集技术，数据分析，项目管理和项目演示相关的学术和行业相关技能。该项目记录并分析了一种语言的语言数据，该语言在描述的第一遍级别上标记了单数和复数之间的语法区别，而不是像英语：单数名词是无标记的，复数名词是有标记的。然而，有一个重要的区别：适用于无生命事物的无标记名词被解释为数字中性（即，可以被理解为适用于一个事物，或不止一个），而无标记的动物名词，相反，严格地说，是单数，所以只有复数的有标记的表达适用于两个或更多的复数。当名词联合收割机与“many”等需要名词表示复数的量词组合时，也会出现同样的模式，但当名词被“seventeen”等数词修饰时，就没有这种模式了。这种语言中的数字要求它们所修饰的名词是无标记的，并且被理解为语义上的单数。该项目将这些数字标记模式与“质量计数”区别以及测量和计数的语言联系起来。因此，该项目连接了不同的研究传统，并增加了该领域对数字和相关类别如何跨语言表达的集体理解，以揭示人类语言和认知的深层特性。因此，这项研究通知领域相邻的句法和语义，其中数量和可数性的概念发挥了重要作用，包括哲学，语言习得和认知心理学。在语言学领域，这项工作为理论驱动的实地考察提供了最佳方法实践，这些实地考察涉及引出形态句法和语义数据。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。