Cross-modal perspectives on grammaticalization: Aspect markers in creoles and sign languages

语法化的跨模式视角：克里奥尔语和手语中的体标记

• 批准号: AH/X002438/1
• 负责人: Nicholas Palfreyman
• 金额: $ 34.13万
• 依托单位: University of Central Lancashire
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FX002438%2F1
• 关键词: Cross; modal; perspectives; grammaticalization; Aspect

Our research compares two often overlooked types of languages: creoles, and sign languages. These languages work in different ways (they use different modalities) so we say that our research is 'cross-modal'.Creoles are a type of spoken language that emerged in the context of European colonial expansion, where the language varieties of small but dominant groups of traders or colonists were acquired and restructured to differing degrees by a large number of dominated people.Sign languages are not spoken languages at all, but are produced using the hands and other elements such as facial expressions and head movements. Most sign languages emerged naturally where a critical number of deaf people have had regular contact. Researchers have often noted similarities between creoles and sign languages in their social settings, for example in terms of how they emerge, how they are passed on to new generations of users. In the past, creoles and sign languages have also been stigmatised, and thought of as 'lesser' than languages such as English and German.Intriguing similarities have been noted, too, in how the grammars of these languages have developed. In particular, it is claimed that creole and sign language grammars have changed quickly - but that they do not have some of the more 'mature' features that other languages have (such as affixes and fixed positions for certain function words). However, these observed similarities have never been examined in a way that takes into account large numbers of languages.In the CrossMoGram Project, we compare creoles and sign languages systematically in a particular area of grammar: aspect. Aspect is to do with how events are presented (as a simple example, consider the differences in the way the English verbs 'eat' and 'arrive' appear in the following sentence 'I was eating when my friend arrived').We look to see how similar creoles and sign languages really are in how they use aspect - are they more similar to each other than to other spoken languages, for example, and is it true that creoles and sign languages don't have the more 'developed' features that other languages have? And when the parts of language that show aspect change, do they change in similar ways for creoles and for sign languages?To do this, we review large amounts of research on aspect in creoles, including sources that show us how words have changed over time. There is much less research on sign languages (which, in any case, cannot be written down) so we use a different method here: we look at seven corpora (collections of sign language data) to see how signers express aspect in those sign languages.As well as academic publications, we disseminate our findings in the form of a database of languages that can be used and added to by other researchers, and for other areas of grammar as well as aspect. We make this database as easy-to-use as possible, and link it to other language resources.The project is led by an unusual pairing of researchers - a specialist on creoles and language diversity, who is hearing; and a deaf researcher with experience of sign language research. Our backgrounds mean that we can work in parallel. We also take the time to look at each other's data, so that we learn more about our own language specialisms.Sign language users and creole speakers have both faced oppression in the past because of misunderstandings about their languages, and to share our findings, we bring together some of the people we have worked with before - speakers of Seychelles Creole and deaf Indonesian Sign Language users - for an online event. We invite them to share their experiences of language, and from this, we produce a 5-minute video that raises awareness about sign languages and creoles. This enables us to explain our findings in an easy-to-understand way, and gives signers and creole speakers the chance to correct some misconceptions that people have about their languages.

我们的研究比较了两种经常被忽视的语言类型：克里奥尔语和符号语言。这些语言以不同的方式工作（它们使用不同的方式），因此我们说我们的研究是“跨模式”。陶艺是一种在欧洲殖民地扩张的背景下出现的一种口语，在欧洲殖民地扩张的背景下出现，小而占主导地位的贸易商或殖民者的语言品种被赋予了大量的人，并不是在各种语言中进行了不同的语言。诸如面部表情和头部运动之类的元素。大多数符号语言自然出现在关键数量的聋哑人定期接触的地方。研究人员经常在社交环境中指出克里奥尔语和符号语言之间的相似之处，例如，关于它们的出现方式，如何传递给新一代用户。过去，克里奥尔语和符号语言也受到了污名化，并被认为是“比英语和德语之类的语言”。在这些语言的语法方面也指出了相似之处。特别是，据称克里奥尔语和手语语法已经很快改变了 - 但是它们没有其他语言具有的一些更“成熟”的功能（例如某些功能词的词缀和固定位置）。但是，这些观察到的相似之处从未以大量语言的方式进行检查。在CrossMogram项目中，我们在特定的语法领域中系统地比较了克里奥尔语和符号语言：方面。 Aspect is to do with how events are presented (as a simple example, consider the differences in the way the English verbs 'eat' and 'arrive' appear in the following sentence 'I was eating when my friend arrived').We look to see how similar creoles and sign languages really are in how they use aspect - are they more similar to each other than to other spoken languages, for example, and is it true that creoles and sign languages don't have the more 'developed' features that other languages have?当表现出方面的语言部分变化时，它们是否以相似的方式变化以换成克里奥尔语和标志语言？要做到这一点，我们会回顾有关克里奥尔语的方面的大量研究，包括向我们展示单词如何随着时间而变化的来源。关于符号语言的研究（无论如何都不能写下），因此我们在这里使用另一种方法：我们查看七个语料库（手语数据的集合），以查看签名者如何在这些符号语言中表达各个方面。及其学术出版物，我们以可以使用并添加到其他研究人员的语言数据库形式的学术出版物中，以及其他研究人员以及其他方面以及Grammar和Grammar以及Grammar and Grammar and Grammar and Grammar and grammar。我们使该数据库尽可能易于使用，并将其链接到其他语言资源。该项目由不寻常的研究人员配对（Creoles和语言多样性专家），他们正在听到；以及具有手语研究经验的聋哑研究人员。我们的背景意味着我们可以并行工作。我们还花时间查看彼此的数据，以便我们更多地了解我们自己的语言专业。语言用户和克里奥尔语扬声器过去既面临压迫，因为对他们的语言有误解，并分享了我们的发现，我们将我们与塞克内尔·克里奥尔（Seychelles Croneian Creoles Creoles Creole）和聋哑语言使用者合作的一些人汇集在一起​​，以便与Indeakian Indeanian语言使用者一起工作。我们邀请他们分享他们的语言经验，从中，我们制作了一个5分钟的视频，提高了对标志语言和克里奥尔语的认识。这使我们能够以一种易于理解的方式解释我们的发现，并为签名人和克里奥尔语演讲者提供了纠正人们对语言的一些误解的机会。