Doctoral Dissertation Research: Expressing attitudes of belief and other mental states in Navajo

尽管对美洲本土语言的研究不足，长期以来形成了关于声音、构词法和句子结构的语言学理论，但形式语义理论——即意义理论——直到最近才开始受到这些语言的推动。未被充分研究的语言表明，哪些单词，以及用单个单词构建有意义的句子的策略，是所有人类语言的普遍和固有的，哪些不是。这个研究项目考察了纳瓦霍语中诸如信仰和欲望等精神状态的表达，纳瓦霍语是美国西南部一种未被充分研究的语言。检查未被充分研究的语言的语义在两个方面是有价值的。首先，语义研究的成果很容易用于文献和教学材料，这将有助于语言的复兴。语言学研究与语言复兴的努力相协调是至关重要的，因为美洲的许多语言，包括纳瓦霍语，都没有得到充分的记录，也不再被大量儿童作为第一语言学习。其次，这些工作丰富了语言学家对某些语言在复杂意义的结构和表达方面的不同方式的理解。以前所有关于信念和欲望的正式语义研究都集中在与英语相关的语言上，其中使用诸如think或want之类的特殊动词分别表达信念或欲望。然而，如果研究只考虑英语及其亲戚，语言学家可能（也许是错误的）得出结论，认为这是人类语言在语法上表达与信念和欲望相对应的精神状态的唯一方式。纳瓦霍语是一种理想的学习语言，因为它表达信仰和愿望的方法似乎与英语非常不同。纳瓦霍语缺乏与英语中的think和want等动词相对应的专门的态度动词：同一个动词既出现在表达信念的句子中，也出现在表达愿望的句子中。该项目的第一个理论目标是确定在这样的句子中使用了哪些其他语法资源来消除信念和愿望之间的歧义。试点研究表明，说话者根据他们想要表达的态度使用不同的时态（时态、时态）和情态形态。该项目的第二个理论目标是研究纳瓦霍态度句的真实和幸福条件——在什么条件下句子是真实和“听起来自然”的？——并将其与英文翻译进行对比。关于纳瓦霍人表达信仰和欲望的现有文献提供了纳瓦霍句子的英语翻译，但没有提供进一步的线索来说明它们的真实性和幸福条件：翻译只是部分的意义线索，可能会使英语和纳瓦霍人的态度之间更加模糊。采访将在纳瓦霍语言学院（NLA）与纳瓦霍语者进行，这是一个由纳瓦霍语者和语言教师参加的年度研讨会，在纳瓦霍国家或附近举行。联合研究小组将把研究结果纳入国家语言学院的语言学理论和研究方法课程，旨在使纳瓦霍语使用者能够对自己的语言进行研究。此外，研究结果将以一种易于理解的、理论中立的方式进行总结，并将提供给从事语言复兴和教育项目的纳瓦霍人。

Although understudied languages native to the Americas have long shaped linguistic theories of sounds, word formation, and sentence structure, formal semantic theory - the theory of meaning - has only recently started to be driven by these languages. Understudied languages demonstrate what words, and which strategies for constructing meaningful sentences out of individual words, are universal and innate to all human languages, and which are not. This research project examines the expression of mental states such as beliefs and desires in Navajo, an understudied language spoken in the southwest of the United States. Examining the semantics of an understudied language is valuable in two ways. First, the products of semantic research readily lend themselves to use in documentary and pedagogical materials which will aid in language revitalization. It is crucial that linguistic research coordinate with language revitalization efforts since many languages of the Americas, including Navajo, are underdocumented and no longer acquired as a first language by a significant number of children. Second, such work enriches linguists' understanding of the ways in which certain languages can vary in their construction and expression of complex meaning. All previous formal semantic research on beliefs and desires focused on languages related to English, where special verbs like think or want are used to express either belief or desire, respectively: if research only considers English and its relatives, however, linguists might - perhaps incorrectly - conclude that this is the only way that human languages can grammatically express the mental states corresponding to beliefs and desires.Navajo is an ideal language of study since its method of expressing beliefs and desires appears to be very different from what is found in English. Navajo lacks specialized attitude verbs corresponding to English verbs like think and want: the same verb appears both in sentences expressing beliefs and in sentences expressing desires. The project's first theoretical goal is to determine what other grammatical resources are used in such sentences to disambiguate between beliefs and desires. Pilot work shows that speakers use different temporal (tense, aspect) and modal morphology depending on the kind of attitude they intend to express. The project's second theoretical goal is to study the truth and felicity conditions of Navajo attitude sentences - under what conditions is a sentence true and 'natural-sounding'? - and contrast them with their English translations. Existing documentation of Navajo expressions of belief and desire provide English translations of Navajo sentences but give no further clues to their truth and felicity conditions: translations are only partial clues to meaning and may obscure deeper between attitudes in English and Navajo. Interviews will be conducted with Navajo speakers at the Navajo Language Academy (NLA), an annual workshop attended by Navajo speakers and language teachers and held in, or near, the Navajo Nation. The co-PI will incorporate findings into an NLA course in linguistic theory and research methodology designed to enable Navajo speakers to conduct research on their own language. In addition, research findings will be summarized in an accessible, theory-neutral way and will be made available to Navajo speakers engaged in projects of language revitalization and education.