Words, phrases, and sentences at the interface of phonology and morphosyntax

Living Tongues Institute For Endangered Languages, Salem OR

Investigators

Abstract

This project is designed to determine how the basic linguistic units of language such as word, phrase, sentence can be characterized in terms of sound patterns and phenomena such as intonation or stress placement. Preliminary investigations have revealed significant mismatches between the combinatorial patterns of parts of words, i.e., what defines morphological or grammatical words, and the prosodic or phonological patterns and phenomena that are associated with such strings. This project identifies sets of prosodic and phonological features, the processes that define their domains, and how these do (or do not) interface with grammatical (morphosyntactic) and syntactic structures, as well as the role of intonation in marking focus in words, phrases, and sentences. We can then confidently hypothesize what the characteristic phonological properties of words, phrases, sentences (or any other unit) are and how these are integrated. The findings form the basis of a large searchable database serving as a resource to facilitate significant cross-linguistic comparison that opens new prospects for examining the phonology-morphosyntax interface. This project offers major opportunities for primary research in science by speakers of minority languages who are vastly underrepresented communities of scientists and thus this activity helps decolonize linguistics as a discipline. The research analyzes how basic units like word, phrase or sentence are defined phono-prosodically (distribution of sound co-occurrences and alternations, intonational patterns, etc.), based on quantitatively valid samples supported by instrumental acoustic data and incorporating potential phonetic variation across different demographic subgroups of speakers (male vs. female, young vs. middle aged vs. elderly, speakers of different regional varieties, actively bilingual speakers or not, speakers of endangered languages vs. speakers of healthy languages, etc.). The project sets the foundation for modeling the various processes of change that may have operated at different historical periods or which may be currently ongoing, whether these are due to language contact or not, thus significantly advancing typological linguistics and contact linguistics. In addition to producing the comprehensive, searchable online database, research findings are to be disseminated through publications on individual languages as well as in comparative studies. 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.