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Construction of a Tongan language corpus and examination of the role of minority language corpora in comprehensive linguistic research

Research Project

Project/Area Number 19H01260
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section一般
Review Section Basic Section 02060:Linguistics-related
Research InstitutionSophia University

Principal Investigator

Otsuka Yuko  上智大学, 外国語学部, 教授 (30794474)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) 小野 創  津田塾大学, 学芸学部, 教授 (90510561)
Project Period (FY) 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2024)
Budget Amount *help
¥11,180,000 (Direct Cost: ¥8,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,580,000)
Fiscal Year 2023: ¥2,080,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥480,000)
Fiscal Year 2022: ¥2,080,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥480,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥2,210,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥510,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥2,210,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥510,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥2,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥600,000)
Keywordsトンガ語 / 書き言葉 / コーパス / テキスト / 少数言語 / 言語維持 / ポリネシア諸語 / オーストロネシア諸語 / 言語保持 / 言語学 / コーパス言語学 / 危機・少数言語 / 心理言語学 / 統語論
Outline of Research at the Start

本研究はトンガ語のコーパス(約十万語からなるデータベース)を作成し、得られたデータを統語論や心理言語学の研究に活用することで、これまでコーパスがあまり活用されてこなかった分野においてコーパスの果たす役割を検証し、その効果的な活用を提案する。研究計画は、①コーパスの構築、②コーパスを使った専門分野での研究、③話しことばコーパス構築に向けた予備研究の三段階に分けられる。コーパスは少数言語の希少データを提供することで、今後の言語学領域の研究に広く役立つことは勿論、世界的な取り組みである少数言語の記録・保持活動の一例としての意義、共同作業を通じた現地協力機関に対する教育面での貢献が期待される。

Outline of Final Research Achievements

As many as 230,000 words of Tongan texts were collected to build a corpus of written Tongan. The samples were collected from various sources of diverse genres and formatted into text files. We also developed a web interface to facilitate the data entry process, whereby data including Tongan text, sentence-level English translation as well as word-level glosses can be entered manually or by uploading a text file. So far, the corpus consists of approximately 50,000 words with sentence-level translation and it can be easily expanded in terms of the size and the amount of annotation.This interface makes it possible for anyone without special knowledge or training to build a corpus and can easily apply to other minority languages.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

トンガ語で書かれたテキストの電子コーパスは世界に未だ例を見ない。学術的には、他言語と比較し類型的にも珍しい特徴を持つトンガ語という少数言語の希少データを提供することで、統語論や心理言語学分野の既存の仮説を発展、精緻化し、より普遍的な理論の構築に貢献する。社会的には、本研究の構築するコーパスは少数危機言語の記録・保持という世界的な取り組みの一端を担う。特にトンガ語は話者数が約10万人と少ない上に近年グローバル化の影響で社会全体で英語への言語移行の傾向が顕著に見られるため、現時点で話されているトンガ語の記録としてのコーパスは文化の維持という観点からも重要な役割を果たすことが期待される。

Report

(6 results)
  • 2024 Final Research Report ( PDF )
  • 2023 Annual Research Report
  • 2022 Annual Research Report
  • 2021 Annual Research Report
  • 2020 Annual Research Report
  • 2019 Annual Research Report
  • Research Products

    (6 results)

All 2025 2024 2023

All Presentation (6 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 6 results,  Invited: 5 results)

  • [Presentation] How do language corpora help Tongan continue to thrive?2025

    • Author(s)
      Yuko Otsuka
    • Organizer
      Lunch Time Seminar, University of the South Pacific, Tonga campus
    • Related Report
      2023 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
  • [Presentation] Ko ho'omou koloa mahu'inga lahi taha, ko e lea faka-Tonga: Ensuring the future wellbeing of the Tongan language2025

    • Author(s)
      Yuko Otsuka
    • Organizer
      Potatala Public Lecture Series, Tonga National University
    • Related Report
      2023 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
  • [Presentation] Tauhi Lea: Keeping Pasifika languages alive in diaspora2024

    • Author(s)
      Yuko Otsuka
    • Organizer
      Pacific Studies Seminar, University of Auckland
    • Related Report
      2023 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
  • [Presentation] Against the WEIRD bias: Keeping the Tongan language alive2024

    • Author(s)
      Yuko Otsuka
    • Organizer
      NZILBB Research Seminar, University of Canterbury
    • Related Report
      2023 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
  • [Presentation] Linguists’ contribution to pukepuke fonua: Tongan Language Corpus Projects2023

    • Author(s)
      Yuko Otsuka
    • Organizer
      the 19th Bi-Annual Tonga Research Association Conference Pukepuke Fonua 2023
    • Related Report
      2023 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
  • [Presentation] Linguists’ Contribution to Pukepuke Fonua: Tongan Language Corpus Projects2023

    • Author(s)
      Yuko Otsuka
    • Organizer
      the 19th Bi-Annual Tonga Research Association Conference Pukepuke Fonua 2023
    • Related Report
      2022 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research

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Published: 2019-04-18   Modified: 2026-01-16  

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