Doctoral Dissertation Research: The History of the Sogeram Language Family

这个项目调查了巴布亚新几内亚几乎完全未知的语言区域。语言学家们看到了记录这些类型学上有趣的语言的紧迫性，因为许多语言正处于灭绝的边缘，因为使用者正以惊人的速度从他们的传统语言转向通用语——Tok Pisin。通过这一雄心勃勃的项目，将记录巴布亚新几内亚马当省Sogeram家族九种语言中的六种。这个项目包括在三次旅行中进行十个月的实地考察。最终的文档将包括六种语言中每种语言的详细语法描述。通过运用严谨的比较历史语言学方法，对描述的比较将导致对假定的母语形态的重建。这项研究将允许调查不同的主题，如历史音系，漂移，代词参考和比较亲属术语。该项目将提高当地大学对索格拉语的认识，并将编制语言文件材料，供讲索格拉语的人用于教学。该项目还将支持一名有前途的初级学者的研究生培养。

This project investigates the almost completely uncharted linguistic area of Papua New Guinea. Linguists see the urgency in documenting these typologically interesting languages since many are on the verge of extinction as speakers are switching at an alarming rate from their traditional languages to the lingua franca, Tok Pisin. Through this ambitious project, six of the nine languages of the Sogeram family spoken in the Madang Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) will be documented. The project involves ten months of fieldwork over the course of three trips. The resulting documentation will include detailed grammatical descriptions of each of the six languages. By applying rigorous comparative historical linguistic methods, comparison between the descriptions will lead to a reconstruction of the morphology of a postulated parent language. This study will allow for investigation into topics as diverse as historical phonology, drift, pronominal reference, and comparative kinship terminology. The project will increase the profile of Sogeram languages at local universities and will create language documentation materials for use pedagogical use by speakers. This project will also support the graduate training of a promising junior scholar.