Doctoral Dissertation Research: Language Socialization and the Acquisition of Evidentiality in Amdo Tibetan

幼儿如何学习在母语的语法框架内表达知识模式？儿童这种认知和语言能力的发展如何与社会和文化规范联系在一起？本文通过对青海安多藏语（ISO 639-3代码adx）幼儿（2-5岁）15个月以上的发育时间的研究，探讨了这些问题。像其他藏语一样，安多展示了一个精心设计的证据标记系统-说话者用来表达他们与知识获取的关系（即通过道听途说与直接感知）的语法形式。安多证据标记在自发互动中的作用以及儿童对这一语法系统的纵向习得都有待研究。 这项调查遵循被称为语言社会化的民族志方法。研究人员通过记录和分析六个焦点儿童的日常社交互动，绘制了他们的发展图表。研究人员通过15个月的发展轨迹，确定了儿童及其对话者使用的证据的语用学（社会和互动功能）模式。民族志检查语言意识形态和规范的社会性，塑造儿童和社区成员之间的口头交流将补充发展变化的分析，在使用的证据。本研究的结果将对社会交往与儿童认知和语言发展之间的关系提供重要的见解。研究结果的影响将不仅限于一个语言社区，并可以通过比较分析，以丰富目前的理解生活在美国的幼儿的社会，认知和语言发展。该论文项目还支持语言人类学家的专业培训。

How do young children learn to express modes of knowledge within the grammatical framework of their first language(s)? How is children's development of this cognitive and linguistic capability linked to social and cultural norms? This dissertation investigates these questions by studying young child speakers (aged 2-5) of Amdo Tibetan (ISO 639-3 code adx) living in Qinghai, China, over 15 months of developmental time. Like other Tibetan languages, Amdo demonstrates an elaborate system of evidential markers--grammatical forms that speakers use to express their relation to the acquisition of knowledge (i.e. knowing something via hearsay vs. direct perception). Both the role that Amdo evidential markers play in spontaneous interaction, and children's longitudinal acquisition of this grammatical system, have yet to be studied. This investigation follows the ethnographic approach known as language socialization. The researchers chart the development of six focal children, by recording and analyzing their everyday social interactions. Looking across a 15-month developmental trajectory, the researchers identify patterns in the pragmatics (the social and interactive functions) of evidentiality used by children and their interlocutors. Ethnographic examination of language ideologies and the norms of sociality that shape verbal exchanges between children and community members will complement the analysis of developmental changes in the use of evidentiality. The results of this study will provide critical insight into the relations between social interaction and children's cognitive and linguistic development. The implications of the findings will not be limited to one language community, and can be applied through comparative analysis to enrich present understandings of the social, cognitive, and linguistic development of young children living in the United States. The dissertation project also supports the professional training of a Linguistic Anthropologist.