Word order variations and information structure in Ket: A corpus-based study

Ket是一种高度濒危的语言，在西伯利亚中部使用，是叶尼塞语族中最后幸存的成员。众所周知，它与所有其他西伯利亚语言都有很大的不同，也很难将其归入单一的类型学描述中。本计划的主要目标是在电子中文语料库的基础上，提供中文语序变化和信息结构的详细分析和描述。到目前为止，这一特定的语法领域在现有的关于Ket的文献中很少受到关注。此外，尽管在过去50年里有相当数量的可获得的Ket文本材料，但其中绝大多数缺乏任何注释，也没有任何电子形式，更不用说可以帮助进行这种研究的电子、机器可搜索的语料库了。这个项目试图通过创建第一个电子语料库来改变这种状况，该语料库包含了丰富的各种信息（形态学、句法、社会语言学等）。语料库将整合从20世纪30年代后期到现在的已发表和未发表的Ket文本数据。结合实地考察，将有助于对语言中的语序和信息结构提供全面的描述和分析。然而，当务之急是尽快开展这些活动，同时仍有能干的吉特语发言人可以帮助完成这些任务。因此，提议的项目不仅是为了填补Ket语法描述的现有空白，而且还以开放获取语料库的形式为语言和学术界提供重要资产。在这种独特的语言完全消失之前，它肯定有助于鼓励和极大地促进对Ket的未来研究。

Ket is a highly endangered language spoken in Central Siberia, the last surviving member of the Yeniseian language family. It is known to be rather radically different from all the other Siberian languages as well as hard to pigeonhole within a single typological account. The main goal of the proposed project is to provide a detailed analysis and description of word order variations and information structure in Ket, based on an electronic corpus of the language. As of yet, this particular area of grammar has received little attention in the existing literature on Ket. Moreover, despite a considerable number of available Ket text materials accommodated over the last 50 years, the absolute majority of them lack any glossing and are not available in any electronic form, let alone in the form of an electronic, machine-searchable corpus that could help perform this kind of research. This project seeks to change the situation by creating the first electronic corpus of Ket, richly annotated with various kinds of information (morphological, syntactic, sociolinguistic, etc.). The corpus will integrate both published and unpublished Ket text data spanning the period from the late 30s of the 20th century to the present day. Coupled with fieldwork, it will help to provide a comprehensive description and analysis of word order and information structure in the language. It is, however, urgent to carry out these activities as soon as possible, while there are still competent speakers of Ket who can help to complete these tasks.Therefore, the proposed project is meant not only to fill the existing gaps in the description of Ket grammar, but also to benefit both the language and academic communities with an important asset in the form of an open-access corpus. It is sure to help encourage and greatly facilitate future studies of Ket, before this unique language disappears completely.