Cross-disciplinary Workshop on Information Structure

非洲语言对我们理解信息结构有很大的贡献，信息结构是人类语言的一个基本方面，决定了对话中的意义是如何传达的。为期三天的信息结构研讨会将于2022年7月在非洲语言学院（ALS）6结束时举行。它将包括教师和学生的一系列讲座，关于调查信息结构的方法的教程，以及小组讨论，以不同的语言和语言学的子学科为特色。将邀请与会者提交论文，以供出版一本开放获取的卷。ALS是一个为期两周的语言学研究生学院，来自美国和其他国家的教师在自愿的基础上教授课程和指导学生。与ALS一起举办研讨会让学生有机会参加除了课程之外的研究研讨会。参与的美国学者和学生将与非洲学者和学生互动，直接从语言学家那里学习非洲语言，促进合作项目，并培训下一代科学家研究语言的这一重要方面，不仅有可能为语言理论提供信息，而且还有语言教育，翻译，信息结构可以包括一个单词或短语被强调或突出。这可以通过语序、焦点词、特殊代词或韵律变化（例如，更高的音调，更长的持续时间）。非洲语言以复杂而复杂的方式使用所有这些方法，但它们在关于信息结构的科学文献中的代表性相对不足，限制了我们的理解。信息结构可以通过语言处理、社会语言使用、语言接触、手语和口语等透镜来研究。讲习班将介绍所有这些方法和研究领域，沿着许多其他领域，以扩大我们对信息结构的科学知识。对记录不足的非洲语言的关注将促进我们的理解，并将突出不同语言社区对科学调查的贡献。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

African languages have much to contribute to our understanding of information structure, a fundamental aspect of human language that determines how meaning is conveyed in a conversation. A three-day workshop on information structure will be held in July 2022 at the end of the African Linguistics School (ALS) 6. It will feature a series of talks by faculty and students, tutorials on methods of investigating information structure, and a panel discussion, featuring different languages and sub-disciplines of linguistics. Participants will be invited to contribute papers for publication in an open-access volume. ALS is a two-week institute for graduate students in linguistics, with faculty from the US and other countries teaching the courses and mentoring the students on a voluntary basis. Holding the workshop in conjunction with ALS gives students an opportunity to participate in a research workshop in addition to their courses. Participating American scholars and students will interact with African scholars and students, learning about African languages directly from speaker-linguists, spurring collaborative projects, and training the next generation of scientists to study this important aspect of language that has potential to inform not only linguistic theory but also language education, translation, and cross-cultural understanding.Information structure can involve a word or phrase being emphasized or made prominent. This can be conveyed through word order, focus words, special pronouns, or prosodic changes (e.g., higher pitch, longer duration). African languages use all of these methods in complex and intricate ways, but they have been relatively underrepresented in the scientific literature on information structure, limiting our understanding. Information structure can be investigated through the lens of language processing, social language use, language contact, and in signed languages as well as spoken languages. The workshop will feature all of these methodologies and domains of study, along with many others, in order to broaden our scientific knowledge of information structure. The focus on under-documented African languages will advance our understanding and will highlight the contributions of diverse language communities to scientific investigation.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.