Feast and Famine: Confronting Overabundance and Defectivity in Language

每天，当我们使用语言时，我们都会不知不觉地选择那些我们想要说的话感觉“合适”的词语形式。然而，有时，多种形式可能会竞争一个位置，比如分词“Proven”(已经证明了？已经证明了？)；在这里，用户认为这两种形式都足够了，尽管我们每个人可能只使用其中一种。在其他地方，我们缺乏一个合适的形式来满足人们的期望：我们可能不愿形成动词‘Troublot’的过去时，我们有一个“槽”(某个特定单词的过去时)，但没有能充分填补它的形式(Troubleshot？这些“盛宴”(多个形式)和“饥荒”(没有形式)的例子表明，选择“正确的”单词形式并不是机械地从功能映射到形式的过程；相反，用户从我们可用的一篮子形式中权衡和选择形式，有时保留更多的形式而不是必要的形式，有时找不到适合我们的形式。语言学家将第一种不匹配称为“过剩”，将第二种不匹配称为“缺陷”。这些错位给传统的语言学理论带来了困难，这些理论假设我们使用的每个形式都有一个功能，每个功能都可以通过一个形式来完成。这在很大程度上是正确的：如果以英语为母语的成年人需要动词‘Choose’的过去时，他们会正确地使用‘Choose’，Never*Choose或*Chost。这导致了一种假设，即屈折变化(形式选择)是自动的、不受判断的、与生俱来的而不是后天习得的。然后，语言手册将这一假设付诸实践，描述的形式和特征与说话者实际使用它们的方式截然不同。缺陷和过剩传统上被视为不同的现象，出现在不同的情况下，解释了它们不同的结果。我们的项目突出了这些情况下的共性--是结果(多种形式或没有形式)标志着它们是不同的。使用形态复杂的语言--捷克语、克罗地亚语、爱沙尼亚语和PDRA选择的另一种语言--的数据，我们探索了一个基本问题：是什么因素推动用户和使用模式走上这条或另一条道路？我们通过考虑多个角度得出了一个一致的答案：-捷克国家语料库研究所将使用语料库数据，特别是来自更“自然”的字幕语料库，以揭示在文本的“真实世界”中识别竞争(过剩)和差距(缺陷)的新方法：它们的方法(搭配、关键词形分析、频率分布)将通过实验和计算方法在项目语言上得到改进、详细说明和测试。-谢菲尔德将使用来自以英语为母语的成年人的实验数据，通过在类似结构的测试中面对语言使用者，检查他们对过多和有缺陷的反应-这些测试显示了我们对这两种类型的反应有哪些(或没有)明显不同。这些数据还将有助于评估社会语言变异的各个方面，如教育和阅读技能。-约克将测试、完善和开发屈折形态的计算模型，以查看它们如何处理和预测过多和有缺陷的插槽。-萨格勒布和约克将在自然和实验环境中收集语言习得数据，以阐明学习者如何理解诸如在过多和有缺陷的插槽中发现的那些杂乱无章的数据。过剩和缺陷将被视为对不确定可预测性结构的潜在不同、临时反应。作为该项目不可或缺的一部分，萨格勒布和布拉格的工作人员将把我们的调查结果转化为语言用户的指南，直接提供面向公众的语言资源，如目标语言的在线词典和手册。与目前语言学家为他们设计的理想化系统不同，说话者将以一种清晰和用户友好的格式获得有关他们的语言如何使用的信息。

Every day, as we use language, we unconsciously select forms of words that feel "right" for what we want to say. Occasionally, however, multiple forms may compete for a slot, such as the participle of 'prove' (have proved? have proven?); here, users find both forms adequate, although each of us might only use one of them. Elsewhere, we lack a suitable form where one is expected: we may baulk at forming the past tense of the verb 'troubleshoot', where we have a "slot" (past tense of a particular word) but no form that can adequately fill it (troubleshot? troubleshooted?).These examples of "feast" (multiple forms) and "famine" (no forms) show that selecting the "right" word form is not a process of mechanically mapping from function to form; instead, users weigh and select forms from a basket of those available to us, sometimes keeping around more forms than necessary and sometimes failing to find a form that works for us. Linguists term the first sort of mismatch 'overabundance', and the second sort 'defectivity'. These mismatches cause difficulty for traditional linguistic theories, which assume that each form we use fulfils one function, and that each function can be fulfilled by one form. For the most part, this is true: if adult native speakers need a past tense of the verb 'choose', they head unerringly for 'chose', never *choosed or *chost. This results in an assumption that inflection (form-selection) is automatic, judgement-free, and innate rather than learned. Language handbooks then write this assumption into practice, describing forms and features very differently from how a speaker might actually use them. Defectivity and overabundance have traditionally been treated as separate phenomena, arising in different circumstances that explain their divergent outcomes. Our project highlights the commonalities in these circumstances - it is the outcomes (multiple forms or none) that mark them as distinct. Using data from morphologically complex languages - Czech, Croatian, Estonian and a further language chosen by the PDRA - we explore a fundamental question: which factors push users and models of use down one or the other path? We converge on an answer by considering multiple perspectives: - The Czech National Corpus Institute will use CORPUS DATA, particularly from more "naturalistic" subtitle corpora, to uncover new methods for identifying competition (overabundance) and gaps (defectivity) in the "real world" of texts: their methods (collocation, keymorph analysis, frequency distribution) will be refined, elaborated and tested on project languages via experimental and computational methods. - Sheffield will use EXPERIMENTAL DATA from adult native speakers to examine language users' reactions to overabundance and defectivity by confronting them in similarly structured tests - which show in what way our reactions are (or are not) measurably different to these two slot types. These data will also help assess aspects of SOCIOLINGUISTIC VARIATION, such as education and reading skills. - York will test, refine and develop COMPUTATIONAL MODELS OF INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY to see how they handle and predict overabundant and defective slots. - Zagreb and York will collect LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DATA in naturalistic and experimental settings to illuminate how learners make sense of "messy" data such as those found in overabundant and defective slots. Overabundance and defectivity will be examined as potentially differing, temporary responses to structures of uncertain predictability. As an integral part of the project, staff in Zagreb and Prague will translate our findings into GUIDELINES for language users, feeding directly into public-facing language resources such as online dictionaries and handbooks of the target languages. Instead of seeing idealised systems that linguists project for them, as at present, speakers will get information on how their language is used in a clear and user-friendly format.