MRPG: Word Domains in Athabaskan

这项计划拨款的目的是为阿萨巴斯卡语言的长期研究提供基础设施，重点是不列颠哥伦比亚省西北部的塔尔坦语，一种极度濒危的语言。为了研究动词的结构，我们提出了一系列的数据收集、组织和分析活动。动词形式是阿萨巴斯语研究的基础，因为它们提供了有关句子结构和解释(即句法和语义)的重要信息。它们在描述声音结构(或音系学)时也很重要，因为阿萨巴斯语动词中的不同领域代表不同的语音系统。因此，动词是塔尔坦后续文献的基础，即词典、文本、语法和理论假设检验，所有这些都属于这一长期研究计划的范围。阿萨巴斯加语中的动词由一个词干和两类前缀组成，即析取和合取前缀。析取前缀是一个词干类，因为它们是词项，具有完整的音系结构。这些性质区分了析取前缀和源于合取前缀，这些前缀不是词汇项，具有高度受限的语音结构集。一个主要目的是自然地解释这两个形态类别之间的差异，既有词汇/非词汇的区别，也有不同的语音。优选论中提出了一系列假设，用不同语素类型对其基本表征的依附性来解释这种相关性。研究计划从纳瓦霍语动词的研究开始，既是为了评估阿萨巴斯坎语言中的最优化理论分析，也是为了为塔尔坦的原始语言文献提供一个框架。塔尔坦现有的录音将被数字化，与之相关的实地笔记和词表将被纳入一个可通过电子方式搜索的大型语料库数据库。该数据库将澄清具体的研究问题，并为更多的数据收集提供指导。计划进行三次实地考察，以确认先前工作的数据和概括，并补充动词形式的研究。由此产生的关系数据库和语法草图将提供第一个完整的动词描述和材料，用于测试关于动词形式的形态和语音结构的特定假设。此外，词汇数据库将使超出动词结构范围的各种其他研究和教学活动成为可能。

The purpose of this planning grant is to provide infrastructure for long-term research on Athabaskan languages, with a focus on Tahltan, a critically endangered language of northwest British Columbia. A set of data collection, organization and analysis activities are proposed to study the structure of verbs. Verb forms are fundamental in the study of Athabaskan languages because they provide crucial information about the structure and interpretation of sentences (i.e., the syntax and semantics). They are also important in the description of sound structure (or the phonology) because the different domains in an Athabaskan verb represent different sound systems. Verbs are thus fundamental to subsequent documentation of Tahltan, i.e., dictionaries, texts, grammars, and theoretical hypothesis testing, all of which fall within the scope of this long-term research program.Verbs in Athabaskan languages are made up of a stem, which contributes the principal meaning of the word, and two classes of prefixes, namely the disjunct and conjunct prefixes. The disjunct prefixes form a class with stems because they are lexical items and have the full range of phonological structures. These properties distinguish disjunct prefixes and stems from the conjunct prefixes, which are not lexical items and have a highly restricted set of phonological structures. One chief aim is to give a natural account of the differences between these two morphological classes, for both the lexical/non-lexical distinction and their different phonologies. A set of hypotheses are developed in Optimality Theory that explain this correlation in terms the adherence of different morpheme types to their underlying representation. A host of predictions are made concerning the range of possible phonological structures and the types of processes expected in each word domain.The research plan begins with the study of Navajo verbs, both to evaluate the optimality theoretic analysis in a well-documented Athabaskan language, and as a way to provide a framework for primary linguistic documentation of Tahltan. Existing sound recordings of Tahltan will be digitized, and the fieldnotes and word lists associated with them will be incorporated in a database of large corpora that can be searched electronically. This database will clarify specific research questions and provide a guideline for additional data collection. Three trips in the field are planned to confirm the data and generalizations of previous work and to supplement the study of verb forms. The resulting relational database and grammatical sketches will provide the first complete description of verbs and materials for testing specific hypotheses about the morphological and phonological structures of verb forms. In addition, the lexical database will make possible a variety of other research and teaching activities that extend beyond the scope of verb structure.