Uncovering the dynamics of person marking: A construction-based approach in historical microtypology

“人称”这一范畴是一种语法系统，它使我们能够指代“说话者”角色（第一人称）、“收信人”角色（第二人称）、“他人”、非言语行为参与者角色（第三人称），通常也包括这些基本角色的组合（例如，复数人称形式）。传统上，人的形态被认为异常稳定。相当多的文献研究了这一语法范畴的共时类型学，特别是关于各种范式类型。我们对不同类型的人标记是如何起作用的有了很好的理解，即束缚标记与自由标记；不同句法角色的人称标记（S， A， O）；等。我们还了解了人格型的历时发展，例如不同的范式集是如何历时相关的。但是，尽管对“人”的研究有着悠久的传统，但有一条重要的调查路线仍然完全没有得到探索：特定人物标记的历时动态。也就是说，特定的人标记（而不是整个范式）是如何变化的，更具体地说，是如何在特定的结构中发生的。这个项目提供了第一个系统的方法来理解人的标记可以并且确实随时间变化的具体方式。汉藏语系的中南部（Kuki-Chin）分支是跟踪人标记动态的优秀语言“样本”。先前的研究表明，这个大约50种语言的分支在人标记领域表现出非常高的变化率。与此同时，密切的系统发育关系创造了最接近实验室条件的东西：一系列变量可以保持不变，从总体类型学概况到语音设置，再到特定结构和特定语法形式的清单。此外，SC丰富的词性形态明显编码了不同的人称结构，这使得特定的通路可追踪。这包括，例如，包括（1+2）和第二人称之间明显的双向转换；从复数标记到包含标记的变化；从第二到言语行为参与者客体标记；或者逆标记的进化。在中南部（SC）中明显的许多变化显然发生在世界各地的语言中，尽管不太常见。因此，这个项目将确定特定的人在特定的建筑中所经历的变化的一般压力。以SC为重点，该项目将能够检查相关语言之间的历时变化以及单个语言语料库中的同步变化。这为我们提供了一个新的角度来研究时态/体、及物性、句子极性或（社会）语用学等因素的影响。这反过来又会使我们对人称范畴和其他语法范畴之间的一般相互作用有更深入的了解。

The category of ‘person’ is the grammatical system that lets us refer to the ‘speaker’ role (first person), the ‘addressee’ role (second person), the ‘other’, non-speech act participant role (third person), and commonly also groups of these basic roles (e.g., plural person forms). Traditionally, person forms are thought to be unusually stable. A considerable body of literature has examined the synchronic typology of this grammatical category, in particular regarding various paradigm types. We have a fairly good understanding of how different types of person markers function, i.e., bound vs. free markers; person markers of different syntactic roles (S, A, O); etc. We also know something about the diachronic developments of person forms, for example how different paradigmatic sets are diachronically related. But despite the long tradition of research on ‘person’, one important line of investigation remains entirely underexplored: the diachronic dynamics of particular person markers. That is, how particular person markers (rather than entire paradigms) change, and more specifically, how this happens in particular constructions. This project offers the first systematic approach to understanding the specific ways in which person markers can and do change over time. The South-Central (‘Kuki-Chin’) branch of Sino-Tibetan serves as an excellent language ‘sample’ to track the dynamics of person markers. Prior research shows that this branch of around 50 languages displays a remarkably high rate of changes in the domain of person marking. At the same time, the close phylogenetic relationship creates what comes closest to laboratory conditions: A range of variables can be held constant, from overall typological profile to phonological setting to inventories of particular constructions and specific grammatical forms. Moreover, the rich verbal morphology in SC overtly codes distinct person constructions, which makes specific pathways trackable. This includes, e.g., apparently bidirectional shifts between the inclusive (1+2) and 2nd person; changes from plural to inclusive marking; from 2nd to speech-act participant object marking; or the evolution of inverse markers. Many of the changes evident in South-Central (SC) apparently occur in languages around the world although less commonly. Thus, this project will identify general pressures for change experienced by particular person markers in particular constructions. Focusing on SC, the project will be able to examine variation both diachronically across related languages as well as synchronically in corpora of individual languages. This gives us a new angle to examine the impact of factors such as tense/aspect, transitivity, sentence polarity, or (socio-)pragmatics, among others. This in turn will provide us with a much deeper understanding of the general interactions between the category of person and other grammatical categories.