Implementing a linguistic database for analysis of an endangered language

Endangered Language Fund, Inc., New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

Modern technology allows for new ways of constructing infrastructure for linguistic analysis. The essential elements that constitute the minimal scientific documentation of a language include a reference grammar, a dictionary, and transcribed narratives with translations and linguistic analysis, and this project undertakes this by developing an interactive database of an endangered language. The project builds on a database that includes records of words, stories, and songs of the last fluent speakers of the language as well as language information derived from archival records. Using newer technology, proper morphological and syntactic analysis is now possible, identifying the parts of words, the semantic contribution of each, and how they can (and cannot) be put together to make words. This is crucial for documenting this language (thereby making it available for future analysis) because most words, and all verbs, are complex, and the translations given for them are more specific and limited to the given context than is warranted by the meanings of their several parts. This research provides insights into how a language puts emphasis on what is easy or difficult or obligatory to communicate, and on how the structure of a language provides a scaffold upon which perceptions and goals are organized. This gives a window into different ways of thinking. The project will be invaluable to anyone examining relationships between languages in an area where many languages came into contact with each other, and also will highlight the linguistically unusual features of this language. For instance, morphemes are a challenge to identify in the language, and word formation is complex, with little formal understanding of how it works; with challenges for theories of word formation. The database will allow for the construction of new words, and the database will allow for better analysis. The lexicon will specify the constituent morphemes as well as words that are analyzable only etymologically or not at all, and the grammar will provide insight into how to construct complex verb stems as well as syntax in the familiar sense of combining words into phrases and sentences. 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.