2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Completion of a Descriptive Grammar of Eskimo
| Project/Area Number |
11610556
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
言語学・音声学
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| Research Institution | OSAKA GAKUIN UNIVERSITY (2000-2002)
Kyoto University (1999) |
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Principal Investigator |
MIYAOKA Osahito Osaka Gakuin University, Faculty of Informatics, Professor, 情報学部, 教授 (60002979)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1999 – 2002
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| Keywords | Eskimo Grammar / Yup'ik Eskimo / phonology / morphology / syntax / polysynthesis / exhaustive description / fieldwork |
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| Research Abstract |
The ultimate objective of this linguistic research is to prepare an "exhaustive" (as much as possible) grammatical description of Yup'ik Eskimo spoken in Southwestern Alaska by thoroughly analyzing the audio data and field notes the researcher has accumulated in the field for more than 30 years and by rechecking his own published articles as well.
Given that, as is generally admitted, a full elucidation of grammatical structure of one language will not be achieved even by one hundred students working for one century and, moreover, that the language the researcher happened to begin working on is one which had seen hardly any reliable research accumulation, it would be hardly possible to attain "exhaustiveness", in its strict sense, of the description.
The grammar of more than 800 pages in the manuscript, far from 'completed' in any sense, which he managed to prepare during the four-year period of this research, is nevertheless a detailed one in the whole areas of phonology, morphology, and syntax. It may reasonably claimed to be one of rather uncommon grammatical descriptions of this size done about unlettered minorities' languages in the world and, moreover, the language concerned is a polysynthetic language which is not only documented hardly but also shows a rather unique type of polysynthesis, the researcher is confident that the description, albeit still a modest one, may possibly be some contribution in general linguistics.
Fully aware of 'residues' in description, interpretations and manners of descriptions to be reexamined, and so on, he intends to publish it very soon as it is, hoping to make a more satisfying version by incorporating comments of other specialists in the field as well as by continued fieldwork and research.
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Research Products
(6 results)
