Collaborative Research: Perspective Taking and Reported Speech in an Evidentially-Rich Language

讲故事和谈话通常需要说话者分享别人说过的话，这被称为“间接引语”。在不同的语言中，说话者表达自己对一段间接引语观点的不同语言手段，包括说话者在内容或语气上同意或不同意的程度，都存在着巨大的差异。“视角转换”的概念不仅是一个具有语言学意义的领域，而且对认知理论也很重要，但我们对这些过程的认识存在相当大的差距。本项目旨在通过对厄瓜多尔濒临灭绝的语言a 'ingae的分析，解决其中的一些空白，以更好地理解语言学理论和认知中的视角。a 'ingae使用一种类塑学上独特的机制，通过产生一个异常或不自然的高的词来表示视角的转变，称为假声。该项目将为未来的科学和文化努力创造一个多样化的叙事集合，以及创新的方法进步，如数字动画和互动棋盘游戏，以检查语境中的语言使用。更广泛的影响还包括在两所美国大学对来自代表性不足群体的本科生和研究生进行科学研究方法、数字动画等技术技能的培训，以及在国际合作中与不同利益相关者群体合作的实践经验。语篇和句子中的视角转换研究是语义学和语用学研究的重要领域之一，对土著语言和濒危语言的研究尤为重要。这个项目通过对一种未被充分研究的语言的记录来探讨这些问题，这种语言的语法允许明确表达视角转换，而这种转换在英语和其他更深入研究的语言中是隐含的。在厄瓜多尔的一种孤立的语言——阿英盖语中，假声的视角转换使用可以与语言中的其他引语装置同时出现，包括词汇动词“say”和“tell”，以及报告和引语。为了更准确地理解阿英盖语中假声编码的视角转换，该项目将通过协作创建一个带有注释的自然主义语音数字语料库来分析更广泛的转述语音和视角转换领域，并仔细考虑这些设备如何影响指示语和其他与之共同出现的视角敏感元素。具体来说，说话者产生一个单音节的假声是为了表明话语中不同观点之间的转变，这种转变在其他语言中很大程度上或完全是隐含的，从而揭示了在其他语言中通常很难观察到的观点转换过程。该项目除了提供重要的文献资料和语言培训机会外，还将提供重要的见解，以了解说话者使用的丰富技术来表示视角的采用和视角的转换。这些问题影响了语义学和语用学的许多领域，这一理论焦点自然地与广泛覆盖的语言文档相一致，因为换位思考只能在丰富多样的话语语境中进行研究。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Storytelling and conversation often require that speakers share something that has been said by someone else, known as "reported speech." Tremendous variation occurs cross-linguistically in terms of the different linguistic means by which speakers convey their own perspective on a segment of reported speech, including the extent to which speakers agree or disagree with it in content or tone. The notion of "perspective shift" is not only an area of linguistic significance, but is also important to theories of cognition, but considerable gaps in our knowledge of these processes exist. This project seeks to addresses some of those gaps to advance a better understanding of perspective in linguistic theory and cognition through analysis of an endangered language of Ecuador, A'ingae, which employs a typologically unique mechanism to signal perspective shift by producing a word that is unusually or unnaturally high, known as falsetto. The project will create a diverse collection of narratives useful for future scientific and cultural endeavors, as well as innovative methodological advances like digital animation and interactive board games to examine language use in context. Broader impacts also include the training of undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented groups at two US universities in scientific research methods, technical skills like digital animation, as well as hands-on experience working with diverse groups of stakeholders in an international collaboration. The study of perspective shift within discourse and sentences is one of the most important areas of semantics and pragmatics research, and it is one where the study of indigenous and endangered languages has proven especially crucial. This project explores these issues through the documentation of an understudied language whose grammar allows for the explicit expression of perspective shift of a sort which is implicit in English and other more well-studied languages. The perspective-shifting use of falsetto in A'ingae (CON), a linguistic isolate of Ecuador, can co-occur with other reported speech devices in the language including lexical verbs like "say" and "tell", as well as reportative and quotative clitics. To understand more precisely the kind of perspective shift that falsetto in A'ingae encodes, the project will analyze the broader domain of reported speech and perspective-taking through the collaborative creation of an annotated digital corpus of naturalistic speech and careful consideration of how these devices impact deictic and other perspective-sensitive elements with which they co-occur. Specifically, speakers produce a single syllable of falsetto in order to indicate shifts between different perspectives in discourse, a shift that is largely or entirely implicit in other languages, thereby shedding light on perspective-taking processes which are often quite difficult to observe in other languages. This project, in addition to creating important documentary materials and linguistic training opportunities, will provide important insights on the rich techniques that speakers use to signal perspective taking and perspective shifting. The issues impact many areas of semantics and pragmatics and this theoretical focus dove-tails naturally with broad coverage language documentation, as perspective-taking can be studied only in rich and diverse discourse contexts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.