US-Czechoslovakia Joint Fund Research on Semantics of English and Czech

这项美国-捷克斯洛伐克联合基金奖是为了表彰布拉格查尔斯大学正式与应用语言学研究所的Eva Hajicova博士与马萨诸塞大学阿姆赫斯特分校的Barbara H. Partee博士在“英语和捷克语语义”方面的研究。研究人员将重点研究英语和捷克语比较语义学的理论和描述问题，特别是形式语义结构和信息结构之间的关系。此次合作建立在Hajicova和她在布拉格的同事关于主题焦点发音和功能句视角的工作基础上，以及Partee和她在美国的同事关于量化的跨语言语义和形式语义学的相关问题的工作基础上。要研究的一个中心问题是，两国发展的语义学方法之间的理论差异在多大程度上可能部分反映了英语和捷克语语法化的意义和信息结构方面的差异。结果将对语义理论和语义类型学产生重要影响，并对翻译、教育学和信息检索领域的传统和计算应用产生实际好处。这项语言学研究通过使美国和捷克斯洛伐克的顶尖专家在共同感兴趣和能力强的领域结合互补的人才和集中研究资源，实现了推进科学的计划目标。

This U.S.-Czechoslovakia Joint Fund award is for research on "Semantics of English and Czech" by Dr. Eva Hajicova of the Institute for Formal & Applied Linguistics, Charles University, Prague, in cooperation with Dr. Barbara H. Partee of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The researchers will focus on theoretical and descriptive issues in the comparative semantics of English and Czech, particularly the relation between formal semantic structure and informational structure. The collaboration builds on prior work by Hajicova and her colleagues in Prague on topic-focus articulation and functional sentence perspective, and by Partee and her colleagues in the U.S. on cross-linguistic semantics of quantification and related issues in formal semantics. One central issue to be investigated is the extent to which theoretical differences between the approaches to semantics developed in the two countries may partially reflect differences in those aspects of meaning and information structure that are grammaticized in English and Czech. Results would have important consequences for semantic theory and semantic typology, as well as practical benefits for both traditional and computational applications in the domains of translation, pedagogy, and information retrieval. This research in linguistics fulfills the program objective of advancing science by enabling leading experts in the United States and Czechoslovakia to combine complementary talents and pool research resources in areas of strong mutual interest and competence.