Descriptive Linguistics
and Typology
Descriptive Linguistics is concerned with the documentation of all
aspects of individual languages, including their sound structure (phonetics
and phonology), word structure (morphology), phrase and sentence structure
(syntax), semantics, discourse patterns, and pragmatics of use.
Since its inception in 1978, the Department of Linguistics at
the University of Oregon has embraced descriptive linguistic work,
coupled with a long-standing commitment to lesser-studied and endangered
languages. While not intending to be exclusive, the Department has
historically had research strengths in Native American languages
(North, Central, and South America), Tibeto-Burman, Southeast Asian,
South Asian, African, Austronesian, and Slavic languages. The Oregon
program emphasizes language description within typological, functional,
and cognitive frameworks.
On the one hand, descriptive research on a wide variety of languages
is an essential foundation for attempts to explain why general properties
of the human linguistic capacity, and linguistic forms, meaning,
and use, are the way they are. That is, sound description is essential
to sound theory. On the other hand, descriptive research is an essential
part of the documentation of the cultures and cognitive worlds of
language communities around the world.
As new descriptive findings have come to light, they have shown
time and again that an adequate understanding of human language
and its organization ‚ i.e., the development of linguistic theory
‚ simply cannot be elaborated on the basis of just a few languages.
Many previously-proposed theoretical universals have had to be discarded
because they were made in ignorance of actual language variation.
At Oregon, we seek to understand how properties of individual languages
compare to those of other languages along multiple parameters (hence,
typology), and in this way to further scientific knowledge about
the limits of possible human language variation.
The Oregon research program also includes the broad hypothesis
that linguistic structures are the way they are for one (or more)
of three reasons: because of their function as "tools" for human
communication, because of their developmental history, or because
of the nature of human cognitive processing. Thus, an understanding
of human linguistic structures must be grounded in functional, historical,
and cognitive linguistic research.
Traditionally, descriptive research on specific languages has
been expressed in book-length grammars, dictionaries, and text collections.
Such materials have long-lasting importance both to subsequent scientific
studies and to language communities. Thus, the Oregon program places
high value on the elaboration of such materials, as well as on the
"classic" scientific article which may more pointedly focus on how
descriptive facts and patterns bear on theoretical concerns.
Akawaio (Guyana) (Gildea and Fox)
Lowland South America is one of the least studied linguistic areas
of the world, and in South America, the indigenous languages of
Guyana are among the least known. This three-year project will make
it possible to: (1) create--and publish on the web--an annotated,
computerized database of Desrey Fox's transcribed and glossed texts;
(2) begin co-writing a grammar of Akawaio (partly on the basis of
this database) before Fox leaves the U.S. to return to her academic
position in Guyana; (3) conduct joint field research in Guyana,
checking Fox's linguistic intuitions against those of a range of
Akawaio speakers (especially as regards sociolinguistic variation);
and (4) work jointly in the U.S. during later stages of the writing,
combining the benefits of an academic setting (library, computer
support) and native speaker intuition at crucial stages of the work.
The grammar of Akawaio offers typologists and theoreticians a previously
unattested type of split ergativity, a case of reflexive morphology
evolving into a middle voice and then apparently lexicalizing into
the majority of intransitive verbs, and interesting morphophonological
phenomena at the boundaries between verbs and person-marking morphology.
Also, due to the participation of a native speaker, this project
will be able to go farther than most in documenting the many varieties
of Akawaio speech, from the tremendous sociolinguistic variation
associated with the many communities of Akawaio speakers to the
more archaic variations seen in ritual speech.
Maa (Kenya and Tanzania) (Payne)
Maa is the language spoken by some 800,000 Maasai, Samburu, Camus,
and Okiek peoples, ranging from south of Lake Turkana in Kenya to
central Tanzania. Maa is an Eastern Nilotic language. The traditional
pastoralist life of most Maa speakers is increasingly impacted by
major cities like Nairobi, which are located in what was traditional
Maasai grazing land, and by tourists, western education, commerce,
modern entertainment, and national land policies. My linguistic
work on Maa includes a large lexicography and database project,
as well as work on morphosyntax and semantics.
Maa (Maasai) Lexicography and Text Databases (Payne)
The Maa (Maasai) language is currently spoken by some 800,000
Maasai, Samburu, Camus and Okiek peoples in Kenya and Tanzania.
In all cultures there is both basic and specialized vocabulary which
describes activities, traditions, cosmology, religion, and the myriad
ways of life specific to that culture. These features cannot be
thoroughly understood without an understanding of the vocabulary
that expresses the concepts comprising the traditions of the culture.
The extensive lexicographic and text database will be valuable documents
for preserving and transmitting the cultural knowledge of the Maa
people, who are being impacted by rapid cultural change at the turn
of the 21st century. Previously, however, no linguistically accurate
set of texts or dictionary of the language has existed.
The current project is producing computerized text and lexicography
databases, with a comprehensive set of fields, such that a variety
of dictionaries and text materials can eventually be published depending
on the needs of various audiences, including linguists, anthropologists,
historians, bilingual school teachers, non-governmental organizations,
and Maa speakers themselves. The project is also studying Maa tone,
vowel harmony, semantic and morphosyntactic properties of verbs,
and syntactic constructions.
Maa: Advanced Tongue Root in Maasai (Guion and Payne)
Dr. Guion, Dr. Payne and Mark Post are currently investigating
acoustic characteristics of advanced tongue root in Maasai, a Nilotic
language spoken in Africa. Formant frequencies as well as overall
spectral slope are being analyzed from the vowel productions of
several native speakers. In addition, research into the production
of the advanced tongue root vowels is planned using electroglottography.
Panare (Venezuela) (Payne and Payne)
The Panare (also known as EÃ’pa, ca. 2,500 speakers) live in the
central savanah-area of Venezuela, south of the Orinoco River. For
decades, the Panare have traded with Spanish-speaking mestizos,
but but appear to be tenaciously hanging on to their heritage language.
Panare is one of about 25 Cariban languages. My linguistic work
on Panare includes a grammar in-process with Tom Payne, as well
as other work on word order and "split" syntactic patterns.
Quichua (Ecuador) (Guion)
Recently, Dr. Guion investigated the effects of perceptual and
production constraints on bilingual systems in Quichua-Spanish bilinguals.
It was found that native Quichua speakers who had acquired Spanish
vowels had significantly different Quichua vowel systems than (near-)monolingual
Quichua speakers. The change in the Quichua vowels can be attributed
to a reorganization of the combined vowel systems in which the vowels
are dispersed in an adaptive process to maintain sufficient perceptual
distance between the vowels.
In other work carried out in Otavalo, Ecuador Dr. Guion, in collaboration
with Dr. Flege of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Jonathan
Loftin of the University of Texas, assessed the effect of first
language use on both first and second language production. The results
indicated that interaction of the first and second language systems
affect the success of second language acquisition.
Yagua (Peru) (Payne and Payne)
The Yagua people (ca. 3,000 speakers) live in the northern Peruvian
rainforest, in the vicinity of the Amazon, the Napo, and their tributaries.
Paul Rivet left written documentation of an obviously related language
Peba, but Yagua is now the only extant langauge of the Peba-Yaguan
family. My own research on Yagua, some of it co-authored with Tom
Payne, was greatly facilitated by the pioneering work of Paul Powlison.
My work on Yagua has focused on word order and morphosyntax.
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