Hiaki Grammar: Documentation and Analysis

这个三管齐下的项目侧重于Hiaki（Yaqui）的语法，Hiaki是一种濒危的Uto-Aztecan语言，在亚利桑那州南部和北方墨西哥使用。调查像Hiaki这样未被充分研究的语言为研究人员提供了一个机会，可以发现人类语言表达能力中迄今未被记录的多样性，从而测试和改进人类语言和认知模型。将对广泛的语法领域进行基本的描述性研究，以便起草关于Hiaki语法的预计三卷系列的第二卷。我们将制作一系列的带字幕的视频，这些视频不仅对语言教学有用，而且还可以作为纪录片。Hiaki的两个特别有趣的方面将是本研究理论部分的重点。希亚克的名词短语的语法与德语或俄语的语法相似，在冠词、名词和形容词的数和格标记上具有一致性。相比之下，Hiaki的动词短语类似于日语，在许多情况下需要复杂的后缀过程而不是补充子句。令人惊讶的是，当名词短语提到一个拥有者时，名词短语concord就变得分离了，比如“舞者的珠子”，这样，文章上的数字标记就跟踪了拥有者的数字，但整个名词短语的情况。这种分离模式在许多当前的语法一致模型中是不被期望的。动词短语还表现出一个不寻常的特性：它们允许已经不主动的动词被动化。Hiaki的这两个非常不寻常的特征将在与母语人士的协商中详细研究，并开发出这些语法模式的模型。对我们理解人类语言结构的影响将包括对何时以及为什么会出现这种变化的新把握，以及潜在的协议和被动化的新理论。

This three-pronged project focuses on the grammar of Hiaki (Yaqui), an endangered Uto-Aztecan language spoken in southern Arizona and northern Mexico. Investigating understudied languages like Hiaki provides researchers the opportunity to discover hitherto undocumented diversity in the human capacity for linguistic expression, and hence to test and improve upon models of human language and cognition. Basic descriptive research on a broad array of grammatical areas will be conducted, enabling the drafting of the second volume of a projected three-volume series on the grammar of Hiaki. A series of subtitled videos, useful in language teaching as well as serving documentary purposes, will be produced.Two particularly intriguing aspects of Hiaki will be the focus of the theoretical component of this research. The grammar of Hiak''s noun phrases is like that of German or Russian, with concord for number and case marking on articles, nouns and adjectives. In contrast, Hiaki's verb phrases resemble those of Japanese, requiring complex suffixation processes instead of complement clauses in many contexts. Surprisingly, noun phrase concord becomes dissociated when the noun phrase mentions a possessor, like 'The dancer's beads', such that number marking on the article tracks the number of the possessor but the case of the whole noun phrase. This pattern of dissociation is not expected in many current models of grammatical agreement. Verb phrases also exhibit an unusual property: They permit passivization of already non-active verbs. These two very unusual features of Hiaki will be investigated in detail in consultation with native speakers of the language, and a model of these grammatical patterns developed. The implications for our understanding of the structure of human language will include a new grasp of when and why such variation can arise, and, potentially, new theories of agreement and passivization, respectively.