Doctoral Dissertation Research: Ergativity in an Endangered Language

语言在标记主语和宾语等语法关系时有着截然不同的方式，包括词序的差异，名词和动词的标记，以及完全使用不同的句子结构。这个项目的目标是调查语法关系如何在不同的语言之间存在差异，并随着时间的推移而变化，特别关注濒危语言。通过记录句子，故事和与说话者的对话，该项目将记录和分析一种不寻常的语法标记系统，该系统由于与其他语言的接触而正在发生快速变化。由此产生的语言文档不仅对语言学家有用，而且对有兴趣维护语言的社区成员也有用。被调查的语言显示出作格对齐，其中及物主语与不及物主语和及物宾语被区别对待;然而，与许多作格语言不同的是，这种模式仅在关系从句的形成中明显，而不是从词序或名词和动词上的标记。这种模式以前被认为是不可能的，并提出了一些挑战，最近的工作在理论句法。本研究将探讨这一不寻常模式的性质及其对我们更广泛地理解小句结构的意义，包括小句结构如何受到语言接触的影响。为了解决这个问题，该研究将基于对广泛的发言者样本的采访，这些发言者的语言使用可能因年龄，教育和居住地而异。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估而被认为值得支持。

Languages have vastly different ways of marking grammatical relations like subject and object, including differences in word order, marking on nouns and verbs, and employing different sentence structures altogether. The goal of this project is to investigate how grammatical relations can differ across languages and change over time, with a particular focus on an endangered language. By recording sentences, stories, and conversations with speakers, this project will document and analyze an unusual system of grammatical marking, which is undergoing rapid change due to contact with other languages. The resulting language documentation will be useful not only to linguists, but also to community members interested in maintaining the language.The language being investigated shows an ergative alignment, where transitive subjects are treated differently from intransitive subjects and transitive objects; unlike many ergative languages, however, this pattern is only apparent in the formation of relative clauses, not from word order or marking on nouns and verbs. This pattern was previously thought to be impossible and presents some challenges for recent work in theoretical syntax. This research will explore the properties of this unusual pattern and its implications for our understanding of clause structure more broadly, including how clause structure is affected by language contact. To address this question, the study will be based on interviews with a broad sample of speakers, whose language use may differ according to age, education, and place of residence.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.