Doctoral Dissertation Research: Kiowa Switch-Reference and the Nature of Topichood

语言中的“主题”的语法概念直观上很清楚：主题就是句子的内容。然而，这个概念和它在语法中的作用已经被证明是难以形式化的。 没有一种关于主题的意义或结构的理论具有完整的经验覆盖，因为它们假设了一些统一的主题概念，并且它们倾向于关注少数几种欧洲语言。这项研究放弃了这一假设，并探讨了基奥瓦，在俄克拉荷马州的美国土著语言的语法。在这样做的过程中，它将建立一个更微妙的主题理论。在赛斯·凯布尔博士的指导下，安德鲁·麦肯齐将研究基奥瓦语言中的指称策略。 基奥瓦使用句子标记来跟踪句子之间的某些论点-一种称为"转换参考"的现象。本文的假设是，这些争论是一种主题。 因此，它们是句子的论元，而不是句子中的动词。 此外，它们的语义和句法属性系统地不同于其他类型的主题。 这项研究的结果应该导致要么走向一个类型学的主题现象在基奥瓦和其他语言，或放弃任何理论概念的"主题"。 在国家科学基金会的支持下，麦肯齐先生将三次前往俄克拉荷马州，通过与基奥瓦的母语者进行实地考察来验证这一假设。他将通过引出话语和语法判断来收集数据。说话者也可以背诵段落和进行对话，以提供更多的自然主义数据。此外，演讲者将被要求听或读基奥瓦的段落，并讨论其中的语言使用。 这一研究将有助于我们进一步理解话题现象，并阐明话题在句子结构和意义中所起的作用。此外，这项研究将有助于促进基奥瓦语的生存和维护。基奥瓦语和绝大多数美洲原住民语言一样，正处于严重濒危状态。幸运的是，它在几个地方被教授。 然而，由于对基奥瓦语语法中有关话题的方面缺乏充分的了解，一个完整的语言课程受到了阻碍。这项研究将填补我们知识中的这一空白，并帮助基奥瓦的学生学习流利的会话技巧。它也将作为一个例子，调查的意义和结构的主题在欠研究的语言，并提供大量的数据集，可能证明有价值的基奥瓦的学生和语言学家。

The grammatical notion of 'topic' in language is intuitively clear: A topic is what a sentence is about. However, this notion and its role in the grammar has proven difficult to formalize. No theory of the meaning or structure of topics has complete empirical coverage, because they assume some unified notion of topichood, and they tend to focus on a handful of European languages. This research drops that assumption and explores the grammar of Kiowa, a Native American language spoken in Oklahoma. In doing so, it will build towards a more nuanced theory of topichood. Working under Dr. Seth Cable, Andrew McKenzie will examine referential strategies in the Kiowa language. Kiowa employs sentence markers that track certain arguments across sentences--- a phenomenon called 'switch-reference'. The hypothesis of this dissertation is that these arguments are one kind of topic. As such, they are arguments of the sentence, rather than of the verb in the sentence. Also, their semantic and syntactic properties systematically differ from those of other types of topics. The results of this research should lead either towards a typology of topic phenomena in Kiowa and other languages, or to the abandonment of any theoretical notion of `topic'. With support from the NSF, Mr. McKenzie will make three trips to Oklahoma to test this hypothesis by conducting fieldwork with native speakers of Kiowa. He will collect data by eliciting utterances and grammaticality judgments. Speakers may also recite passages and conduct conversations, in order to provide more naturalistic data. In addition, speakers will be asked to listen to or read passages in Kiowa and discuss the use of language therein. This research will advance our understanding of topic phenomena and clarify the role topics play in the structure and meaning of sentences. In addition, this research will help promote the survival and maintenance of the Kiowa language. Kiowa, like the vast majority of Native American languages, is gravely endangered. Fortunately, it is being taught in several places. However, a complete language curriculum is hampered by the lack of a full understanding of the aspects of Kiowa grammar concerning topichood. This research will fill this gap in our knowledge, and help students of Kiowa learn fluent conversation techniques. It will also serve as an example of investigation into the meaning and structure of topics in understudied languages, and provide substantial sets of data that may prove valuable to students of Kiowa and to linguists.