• Search Research Projects
  • Search Researchers
  • How to Use
  1. Back to previous page

Building a Tongan child language corpus: its use in first language acquisition research and implications for maintenance of minority languages

Research Project

Project/Area Number 19K21634
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Review Section Medium-sized Section 2:Literature, linguistics, and related fields
Research InstitutionSophia University

Principal Investigator

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

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) 大滝 宏一  中京大学, 国際学部, 准教授 (50616042)
木戸 康人  九州国際大学, 現代ビジネス学部, 准教授 (30800841)
Project Period (FY) 2019-06-28 – 2025-03-31
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2024)
Budget Amount *help
¥6,240,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,440,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥3,120,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥720,000)
Keywords自然発話コーパス / 第一言語獲得 / トンガ語 / 少数言語 / 継承言語 / CHILDES / 継承語 / コーパス / 言語維持 / ポリネシア諸語 / 能格言語 / 母語獲得 / オーストロネシア諸語 / VSO言語 / 言語学
Outline of Research at the Start

トンガ語(オーストロネシア諸語)の幼児発話コーパスを構築し、得られたデータの分析を通じて、言語類型的に希少な特徴を持つ言語の獲得研究に貢献するとともに、少数言語の保存における幼児発話データの重要性を考察する。対象はモノリンガルのトンガ語話者を両親に持つ子供二名とし、一歳六か月から四歳六か月の三年間、二週間に一回の頻度で六十分、母子のやりとりをビデオカメラで録画する。本研究で構築するコーパスは、言語獲得理論の進展に大きく貢献する希少データであるのみならず、危機言語過渡期の特徴を示すトンガ語の言語継承の記録として、少数言語保持の観点からも重要な価値を持つ資料となる。

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The primary data collected in this research is 17.5 hours of video recording of the child-adult interaction in the Tongan language between three children (ages 1.5 to 2.5 years old at the beginning of the project) and their grandmother over 2 years. This rich record of naturalistic speech data helps us investigate the process of language acquisition and development in Tongan-speaking children as well as the nature of input they receive during the process of first language acquisition. The data ontributes to the diversification of language data used in acquisition research by adding data from a less commonly studied language. The data is available to researchers all over the world and will be used in research to further develop the theory of language acquisition.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

トンガ語は他の言語と比較して珍しい文法上の特徴を持つ。従来、子供の第一言語獲得に関する研究には同様の特徴を持つ言語を対象とした先行研究は数少ないため、本研究は希少データの提供という点で言語獲得論の分野に大きく貢献するものである。また、トンガ語は話者数10万人の少数言語で消滅危機言語の過渡期に見られる特徴を示しており、本研究で作成する幼児発話コーパスは言語継承の記録として、少数言語保持の観点からも重要な価値を持つ資料となる。

Report

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

    (9 results)

All 2025 2024 2023 2022

All Journal Article (2 results) (of which Peer Reviewed: 2 results,  Open Access: 2 results) Presentation (7 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 6 results,  Invited: 7 results)

  • [Journal Article] Tongan Child Language Corpus Project2023

    • Author(s)
      Yuko Otsuka
    • Journal Title

      Studies in Language Sciences

      Volume: 21 Issue: 2 Pages: 23-30

    • DOI

      10.34609/sls.21.2_23

    • ISSN
      2435-9955
    • Year and Date
      2023-10-05
    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
  • [Journal Article] Future Outlook of CHILDES and Acquisition of Syntactic Verb-Verb Compounds in Child Japanese2023

    • Author(s)
      木戸康人
    • Journal Title

      Studies in Language Sciences

      Volume: 21 Issue: 2 Pages: 1-14

    • DOI

      10.34609/sls.21.2_1

    • ISSN
      2435-9955
    • Year and Date
      2023-10-05
    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
  • [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
      2024 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 language.2025

    • Author(s)
      Yuko Otsuka
    • Organizer
      Potatala Public Lecture Series, Tonga National University
    • Related Report
      2024 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
      2024 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. 26 September, 2024. University of Canterbury
    • Related Report
      2024 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
  • [Presentation] Tongan Child Language Corpus: Prospects and Challenges2023

    • Author(s)
      大塚祐子
    • Organizer
      University of Hawaii Linguistics Tuesday Seminar
    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
  • [Presentation] Developing a Tongan child language corpus: Challenges and prospects2023

    • Author(s)
      Otsuka, Yuko
    • Organizer
      University of Hawai'i Linguistics Department Tuesday Seminar
    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] The Tongan Child Language Corpus Project2022

    • Author(s)
      Otsuka, Yuko
    • Organizer
      The 23rd Annual International Conference of the Japanese Society for Language Sciences
    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research / Invited

URL: 

Published: 2019-07-04   Modified: 2026-01-16  

Information User Guide FAQ News Terms of Use Attribution of KAKENHI

Powered by NII kakenhi