Doctoral Dissertation Research: Article Contraction as a Reflex of Case Assignment

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Many languages of the world have elements known as clitics. Clitics are small words that attach to nearby words in different ways, depending on the language. Cross-linguistically, many kinds of elements can be clitics. For example, in English, the negative marker "n’t" is a clitic that attaches to a verb to form a negative sentence: "He isn’t a good student." This project investigates one type of clitic that has received some scientific analysis, but that has yet to be studied comprehensively yet offers interesting structural features. This clitic involves contraction of the definite article (words like "the" in English). The target definite article is intriguing because whether it attaches to nearby words depends both on phonology (speech sounds) and on syntax (the order of words in a sentence). Because of its complex nature, a rigorous analysis of the target definite article helps to broaden and deepen linguistic knowledge of clitics more generally and of how different parts of grammar (syntax and phonology) interact. A main goal of this doctoral dissertation project is to work with native speakers of three minoritized dialects of the target language to construct a large data set. The purpose of this data set is to document how the definite article behaves in a wide range of contexts, across different dialects and speakers. The researchers conduct a formal syntactic analysis of this assembled data set under the working hypothesis that contraction is a morphological reflex of structural Case assignment that only surfaces in certain phonological environments. A second goal of this project is to write a descriptive grammar of the definite article of the target language. Upon approval of native speakers collaborating on this project, the descriptive grammar is hosted on open access platforms, so that researchers and the general public can access the grammar of the target minority language, its definite article clitic, or about clitics overall. Finally, an overarching objective of this project is to call attention to a language that has been minoritized for hundreds of years as well as to help combat language loss of minoritized languages more generally. In addition, an exploration of a minoritized and understudied language such as the one under focus holds great potential to uncover phenomena not found in other languages and therefore to make a new contribution to linguistic theory. 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.