Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: Space in Language, Cognition, and Sociality among Central Quechua Speakers

密歇根大学的博士生约书亚·沙佩罗将在布鲁斯·曼海姆博士的指导下，研究语言、思维和空间之间的联系。Shapero将研究语言和认知层面的空间概念如何塑造--以及被塑造--谈论、穿行和在秘鲁安第斯山脉中部说盖丘亚语的社区内工作的社会行为。这项研究的目标是发现空间概念可以在多大程度上与特定社会背景下的个人、环境和刻板印象因素相分离，而不是在所有背景下保持不变。调查采用了三种方法：1)农业、牧业和仪式活动的空间组织的民族志研究；2)记录和分析参与这些活动的说话者之间的互动；3)空间语言和行为的对照实验研究。这三种方法的结合将产生丰富的数据，因为通过人种学调查的洞察力使当前的实验方法活跃起来，该项目指向了在复杂的社会环境中测试空间概念化的方法。这项研究将提供的形式描述，以及它在概念层面上对空间的关注，对于理解语言在人与他们居住的空间之间的亲密关系中所起的作用至关重要。对变异的关注给予了对社会、语言和认知差异的分析性购买，这些差异体现在互动的层面上，而不是跨语言层面。这项研究将有助于记录濒临灭绝的安卡什·盖丘亚语。沙佩罗将在安卡什·克丘亚地区学院和圣地亚哥·安图内斯·德马约洛国立大学的跨文化教育方案中举办语言和人种学方法讲习班，并将帮助编制安卡什·克丘亚语的教学材料。他还将传播他的发现，并向当地社区成员提供他的专业知识。该项目还将有助于培养一名研究生。

University of Michigan doctoral student Joshua Shapero, supervised by Dr. Bruce Mannheim, will investigate the connections among language, thought, and space. Shapero will study how spatial concepts at linguistic and cognitive levels shape -- and are shaped by -- the social actions of talking about, walking through, and working within the landscape of a Quechua-speaking community in the central Peruvian Andes. The goal of the research is to discover the degree to which spatial concepts can be separated from the individual, environmental, and stereotypical factors of particular social contexts as opposed to remaining constant across all contexts. The investigation uses three methodological approaches: 1) ethnographic study of the spatial organization of agricultural, pastoral and ritual activities; 2) recording and analysis of interactions among speakers engaged in these activities; and 3) controlled experimental studies of spatial language and behavior. The combination of these three approaches will yield rich data, because by enlivening current experimental methods through the insights of ethnographic investigation, the project points toward ways of testing spatial conceptualization in complex social settings. The formal description this research will provide, and its focus on space at a conceptual level, is crucial to understanding the role of language in the intimate relationship between people and the space they inhabit. The focus on variation gives analytic purchase to social, linguistic, and cognitive differences manifest at an interactional rather than cross-linguistic level. This research will contribute to the documentation of Ancash Quechua, which is an endangered language. Shapero will conduct workshops in linguistic and ethnographic methods at the Regional Academy of Ancash Quechua and at the program in intercultural education at the National University Santiago Antunez de Mayolo, and will help to develop pedagogical materials in Ancash Quechua. He will also disseminate his findings and offer his expertise to local community members. The project will also contribute to the training of a graduate student.