Optimal Typology of Determiner Phrases

在两年的项目中，研究小组将在12种基因多样化的语言样本中对所有格和分格结构进行几种实证和理论研究。所有格和分格结构是考虑跨语言在形态语法、语义和语用方面的差异以及它们之间的相互作用的重要但相对较少研究的领域。在进行描述性基础工作的过程中，该团队将为12种语言中的每一种语言构建可比较的在线语料库，并辅以与母语人士进行启发工作的结果。这些实证研究的结果将在最优性理论（OT）的框架内进行正式分析。这些对个别语言的翻译分析将受到进一步的理论考虑，为一套跨语言的概括提供坚实的基础。从这个项目中得出的所有格和分格结构的类型学可以为语言类型学家提供一套基于可靠的经验工作和严格的理论框架的假设，这些假设可以通过对其他语言的分析进行检验。最后，这个项目的结果将为语言学家提供大量的材料，以寻找小句级和名义级形态句法、语义和语用现象之间的相似之处。因此，项目成果将有几种类型。研究小组的实证工作将产生(a)一套跨语言多样化的电子语料库，该语料库将提供给其他研究人员（待适当许可）；(b)一套关于不同语言中所有格和分格短语的结构、语义和语用特性的描述性陈述。研究小组的理论工作将以学术论文、书籍和会议报告的形式提供，结果将详细说明ot型普遍约束及其在特定语言中的相对排名。这些分析将促进关于语言维度的知识，这些维度在跨语言概括中对这些结构很重要，以及关于OT框架的类型学力量和预测。分析还将允许在一些维度上与跨语言研究的子句进行比较。该项目将为波士顿大学和布兰代斯大学语言学研究生的培训能力建设，而经验成果——语料库——将在项目期间和项目结束后作为高级人员的教学材料。要研究的语言样本包括广东话、捷克语、英语、芬兰语、德语、冰岛语、韩语、马拉雅拉姆语、北波莫语、西班牙语、瑞典语和沃洛夫语。基本的描述基础将包括与母语人士的引出结果和语料库中的例子。OT理论分析将集中在：(1)在我们的样本中，人/动物标记等级（Silverstein 1976, Aissen 1999）对语言内部和跨语言的各种类型的所有格结构的影响；(2)限定词的语义及其对“分词约束”的贡献；(3)影响这些结构中格和相关现象分布的各种因素，以及它们与分句级格模式的关系。

Over the two years of the project, the research team will carry out several kinds of empirical and theoretical studies of possessive and partitive constructions in a sample of twelve genetically diverse languages. Possessive and partitive constructions are important but relatively unexamined sites for the consideration of crosslinguistic variation in morphosyntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and interactions among these. In the process of carrying out the descriptive groundwork, the team will construct comparable on-line corpora for each of the twelve languages, supplemented by the results of elicitation work with native speakers. The results of these empirical studies will be subjected to formal analyses conducted within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT). These OT analyses of individual languages will then be subjected to further theoretical consideration, providing a sound basis for a set of crosslinguistic generalizations. The typology of possessive and partitive constructions derived from this project can then provide linguistic typologists with a set of hypotheses, based on sound empirical work and a rigorous theoretical framework, that can be tested against analyses of other languages. Finally, the results of this project will provide substantial material for consideration by linguists concerned with finding parallels between clause-level and nominal-level morphosyntactic, semantic, and pragmatic phenomena.The project outcomes will thus be of several types. The research team's empirical work will result in (a) a cross-linguistically diverse set of electronic corpora which will be made available to other researchers (pending appropriate permissions) and (b) a set of descriptive statements about the structural, semantic and pragmatic properties of possessive and partitive phrases in a diverse set of languages. The research team's theoretical work, made available in scholarly papers, a book and conference presentations, will result in detailed accounts of OT-type universal constraints and their relative rankings in specific languages. These analyses will advance knowledge both about the linguistic dimensions that are important in crosslinguistic generalizations concerning these structures, and about the typological power and predictions of the OT framework. The analyses will also allow comparisons with crosslinguistic work on the clause along a number of dimensions. The project will build capacity for the training of graduate students in linguistics at Boston University and Brandeis University, and the empirical products-the corpora-will be used as teaching materials by the senior personnel during and after the project.The sample of languages to be studied includes Cantonese, Czech, English, Finnish, German, Icelandic, Korean, Malayalam, Northern Pomo, Spanish, Swedish, and Wolof. Basic descriptive groundwork will contain results of elicitations with native speakers and examples from corpora. OT theoretical analyses will center on (1) effects of person/animacy markedness hierarchies (Silverstein 1976, Aissen 1999) in possessive constructions of various types within and across languages in our sample; (2) the semantics of determiners and their contribution to the "Partitive Constraint," and (3) the various factors contributing to the distribution of case and related phenomena within these constructions, and their relationship to clause-level case patterns.