Words, phrases, and sentences at the interface of phonology and morphosyntax

该项目旨在确定语言的基本语言单位，如单词、短语、句子，如何根据语音模式和语调或重音位置等现象来表征。初步调查发现，单词部分的组合模式（即定义形态或语法单词的模式）与与这些字符串相关的韵律或语音模式和现象之间存在显著的不匹配。该项目确定了韵律和语音特征，定义其领域的过程，以及这些特征如何与语法（形态句法）和句法结构相连接（或不相连接），以及语调在单词、短语和句子中标记焦点的作用。然后，我们可以自信地假设单词、短语、句子（或任何其他单位）的音系特征是什么，以及这些特征是如何整合的。这些发现构成了一个大型可搜索数据库的基础，作为促进重要的跨语言比较的资源，为检查语音-形态语法界面开辟了新的前景。这个项目为少数民族语言使用者在科学方面的初级研究提供了重要的机会，这些少数民族语言的科学家群体的代表人数远远不足，因此这项活动有助于语言学作为一门学科的非殖民化。该研究基于仪器声学数据支持的定量有效样本，并结合不同人口统计亚群（男性与女性、青年与中年与老年人、不同地区的说话者、是否积极使用双语者）的潜在语音变化，分析了单词、短语或句子等基本单位是如何在语音韵律上定义的（声音共现和交替的分布、语调模式等）。濒危语言的使用者vs.健康语言的使用者，等等)。该项目为建模各种变化过程奠定了基础，这些变化过程可能发生在不同的历史时期，也可能正在进行中，无论这些过程是否由于语言接触，因此显著地推进了类型学语言学和接触语言学。除了制作全面、可搜索的联机数据库外，研究结果还将通过个别语文的出版物以及比较研究来传播。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。

This project is designed to determine how the basic linguistic units of language such as word, phrase, sentence can be characterized in terms of sound patterns and phenomena such as intonation or stress placement. Preliminary investigations have revealed significant mismatches between the combinatorial patterns of parts of words, i.e., what defines morphological or grammatical words, and the prosodic or phonological patterns and phenomena that are associated with such strings. This project identifies sets of prosodic and phonological features, the processes that define their domains, and how these do (or do not) interface with grammatical (morphosyntactic) and syntactic structures, as well as the role of intonation in marking focus in words, phrases, and sentences. We can then confidently hypothesize what the characteristic phonological properties of words, phrases, sentences (or any other unit) are and how these are integrated. The findings form the basis of a large searchable database serving as a resource to facilitate significant cross-linguistic comparison that opens new prospects for examining the phonology-morphosyntax interface. This project offers major opportunities for primary research in science by speakers of minority languages who are vastly underrepresented communities of scientists and thus this activity helps decolonize linguistics as a discipline.The research analyzes how basic units like word, phrase or sentence are defined phono-prosodically (distribution of sound co-occurrences and alternations, intonational patterns, etc.), based on quantitatively valid samples supported by instrumental acoustic data and incorporating potential phonetic variation across different demographic subgroups of speakers (male vs. female, young vs. middle aged vs. elderly, speakers of different regional varieties, actively bilingual speakers or not, speakers of endangered languages vs. speakers of healthy languages, etc.). The project sets the foundation for modeling the various processes of change that may have operated at different historical periods or which may be currently ongoing, whether these are due to language contact or not, thus significantly advancing typological linguistics and contact linguistics. In addition to producing the comprehensive, searchable online database, research findings are to be disseminated through publications on individual languages as well as in comparative studies.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.