Doctoral Dissertation Research: Expressing attitudes of belief and other mental states in Navajo

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

Although understudied languages native to the Americas have long shaped linguistic theories of sounds, word formation, and sentence structure, formal semantic theory - the theory of meaning - has only recently started to be driven by these languages. Understudied languages demonstrate what words, and which strategies for constructing meaningful sentences out of individual words, are universal and innate to all human languages, and which are not. This research project examines the expression of mental states such as beliefs and desires in Navajo, an understudied language spoken in the southwest of the United States. Examining the semantics of an understudied language is valuable in two ways. First, the products of semantic research readily lend themselves to use in documentary and pedagogical materials which will aid in language revitalization. It is crucial that linguistic research coordinate with language revitalization efforts since many languages of the Americas, including Navajo, are underdocumented and no longer acquired as a first language by a significant number of children. Second, such work enriches linguists' understanding of the ways in which certain languages can vary in their construction and expression of complex meaning. All previous formal semantic research on beliefs and desires focused on languages related to English, where special verbs like think or want are used to express either belief or desire, respectively: if research only considers English and its relatives, however, linguists might - perhaps incorrectly - conclude that this is the only way that human languages can grammatically express the mental states corresponding to beliefs and desires. Navajo is an ideal language of study since its method of expressing beliefs and desires appears to be very different from what is found in English. Navajo lacks specialized attitude verbs corresponding to English verbs like think and want: the same verb appears both in sentences expressing beliefs and in sentences expressing desires. The project's first theoretical goal is to determine what other grammatical resources are used in such sentences to disambiguate between beliefs and desires. Pilot work shows that speakers use different temporal (tense, aspect) and modal morphology depending on the kind of attitude they intend to express. The project's second theoretical goal is to study the truth and felicity conditions of Navajo attitude sentences - under what conditions is a sentence true and 'natural-sounding'? - and contrast them with their English translations. Existing documentation of Navajo expressions of belief and desire provide English translations of Navajo sentences but give no further clues to their truth and felicity conditions: translations are only partial clues to meaning and may obscure deeper between attitudes in English and Navajo. Interviews will be conducted with Navajo speakers at the Navajo Language Academy (NLA), an annual workshop attended by Navajo speakers and language teachers and held in, or near, the Navajo Nation. The co-PI will incorporate findings into an NLA course in linguistic theory and research methodology designed to enable Navajo speakers to conduct research on their own language. In addition, research findings will be summarized in an accessible, theory-neutral way and will be made available to Navajo speakers engaged in projects of language revitalization and education.