A functional analysis of the verb-noun in Welsh

威尔士语动名词的功能分析

• 批准号: 2884414
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 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=studentship-2884414
• 关键词: functional; analysis; verb; noun; Welsh

AIM: To propose a description of the 'berfenw' (English: verb-noun, VN) in Welsh, using the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) framework. It will draw on corpus-driven approaches to produce a description that is empirically-based and reproducible.BACKGROUND: When conducting linguistic research, we are concerned with answering some fundamental questions: 'What is language? How does language work? How are languages different?'. If we are to take the SFG view that language is a meaning-making resource, analysing syntax in context could reveal patterns that might otherwise have gone undetected. There is, however, no expectation that all languages will be patterned in the same way: if a linguistic theory is to be robust and flexible, it must include as many language varieties as possible. Welsh is a Celtic language with 538,300 resident speakers according to the 2021 Census. It poses several challenges: firstly, Welsh has Verb-Subject-Object order, which is unusual in the context of European languages. Secondly, Welsh has a word class that does not exist in most others: the VN, and there is some disagreement in the literature as to whether the VN contains more semantically verbal or nominal content. THE ARGUMENT FOR AN SFG ANALYSIS: Existing analyses of the VN pose two issues: firstly, they only analyse the structure of formal elements, e.g. word classes. SFG posits that words are simply realisations of lexicogrammatical choices at a higher level in the language system, e.g. the Mood and Transitivity systems, so it is important that we analyse the role of the VN in the wider clause. Secondly, generative approaches rarely employ the use of authentic data. Text is presented detached from context thus any patterns identified cannot be probabilistically mapped or tested on a larger scale. There have been calls for linguists to hold themselves to the same rigorous standards expected of other social science disciplines, citing examples of when the introspective approach has in fact led to inaccurate conclusions.OBJECTIVES: Where no functional description exists, as is the case with Welsh, it must be gradually developed based on the analysis of a representative sample of texts. I began this process during my MA project, designing a small-scale, corpus-driven analysis of the Subject in Welsh to propose a functional description of Nominal Groups. This project will continue this work, focusing next on answering the following questions: What is the experiential contribution of the verbal system in Welsh? What is the function of the VN in Welsh? How are these patterns shaped by the context in which they are observed?METHODS: I will use corpora to identify, extract and analyse verbs and verbal elements in the clause. Existing corpora are rarely coded for SFG functions, so my approach will need to adapt data coded for other purposes. The National Corpus of Contemporary Welsh (CorCenCC) contains over 11 million tokens across a range of registers and dialects. Tokens are POS-tagged which will allow for the extraction of a sample relevant word classes, the size of which will be determined following a closer review of the literature. IMPACT: The Welsh Government has launched an ambitious strategy to reach one million speakers by 2050, citing investment in education and digital technologies amongst its primary enablers. Language descriptions in SFG have had far reaching impacts on these fields, therefore introducing minority languages such as Welsh into this framework is imperative to progress advancement in these key strategic areas. Furthermore, this project will respond to calls for a more quantitative and reproducible approach to language description, moving away from traditionally introspective and prescriptive approaches of the past.

目的：运用系统功能语法对威尔士语动词-名词结构进行描述。它将利用语料库驱动的方法来产生一个描述是基于语义和可重复的。背景：在进行语言学研究时，我们关心的是回答一些基本问题：“什么是语言？语言是如何工作的？语言有什么不同？'.如果我们接受系统功能语法的观点，即语言是一种意义创造资源，那么在语境中分析句法就可以揭示一些模式，否则这些模式可能会被忽视。然而，我们并不期望所有的语言都以同样的方式形成模式：如果一个语言学理论要强大而灵活，它必须包括尽可能多的语言变体。威尔士语是一种凯尔特语，根据2021年人口普查，有538，300名居民使用。它提出了几个挑战：首先，威尔士语有动词-主语-宾语顺序，这在欧洲语言中是不寻常的。其次，威尔士语有一个在大多数其他语言中不存在的词类：VN，文献中关于VN是否包含更多语义上的动词或名词性内容存在一些分歧。对系统功能语法分析的争论：现有的VN分析提出了两个问题：首先，它们只分析了形式元素的结构，例如词类。系统功能语法认为，词只是语言系统中更高层次的词汇语法选择的实现，如语气系统和及物性系统，因此，分析VN在较宽小句中的作用是很重要的。其次，生成方法很少使用真实数据。文本是从上下文中分离出来的，因此任何识别的模式都不能在更大范围内进行概率映射或测试。有人呼吁语言学家要像其他社会科学学科一样严格地要求自己，并举例说明内省的方法实际上会导致不准确的结论。注意：如果没有功能描述，例如威尔士语，它必须在对有代表性的文本样本进行分析的基础上逐步发展。我在我的硕士项目期间开始了这个过程，设计了一个小规模的，语料库驱动的威尔士语主题分析，提出了一个名词性团体的功能描述。这个项目将继续这项工作，重点回答以下问题：什么是威尔士语的口头系统的经验贡献？在威尔士，VN的功能是什么？这些模式是如何被观察到的背景所塑造的？方法：利用语料库对小句中的动词和动词成分进行识别、提取和分析。现有的语料库很少针对SFG函数进行编码，因此我的方法需要调整为其他目的编码的数据。国家当代威尔士语语料库（CorCenCC）包含超过1100万个令牌，涉及一系列寄存器和方言。标记是POS标记的，这将允许提取样本相关的词类，其大小将在对文献进行更仔细的审查后确定。影响：威尔士政府已经启动了一项雄心勃勃的战略，到2050年达到100万人，并将教育和数字技术投资列为其主要推动因素。SFG中的语言描述对这些领域产生了深远的影响，因此将威尔士语等少数民族语言引入该框架对于这些关键战略领域的进展至关重要。此外，该项目将响应对语言描述的更定量和可重复的方法的呼吁，远离过去传统的内省和规定性方法。