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Linguistic Adaptation: Typological and Sociolinguistic Perspectives to Language Variation

Description du projet

Diversité linguistique: les langues changent-elles systématiquement dans différents environnements?

Il existe plus de 7 000 langues parlées dans le monde, ce qui représente une riche diversité linguistique. Le projet GramAdapt, financé par l’UE, entend mieux comprendre cette diversité, en particulier la manière dont la structure de la langue peut s’adapter aux contextes sociaux dans lesquels les langues sont apprises et utilisées. Pour ce faire, le projet développera de nouvelles méthodes pour comparer les environnements sociolinguistiques et les structures linguistiques d’une langue à l’autre. Il proposera également une nouvelle analyse visant à examiner l’adaptation linguistique de manière conforme aux principes.

Objectif

The GramAdapt project researches linguistic adaptation by developing a synthesis of typological and sociolinguistic approaches to language variation. This novel framework enables combining typological data with rich sociolinguistic data into the same model and evaluating their relationship statistically. The main research question is: Can I prove with typological data that language structure adapts to sociolinguistic context?

The project has 4 objectives:
- to develop a methodological approach that makes it possible to combine typological and sociolinguistic data into the same model and to statistically research their relationship,
- to understand the degree and nature of linguistic adaptation in the world's languages and whether it is independent of language-internal structural tendencies,
- to analyze 3-4 sociolinguistic factors that are likely to drive changes in linguistic structures (language contact vs. isolation, multilingualism, community size, and prestige) via a sample 150 languages,
- to analyze 3-4 broad linguistic categories that are prone to respond to changes in sociolinguistic environment (case, gender, and number) in the same set of 150 languages to support assessing linguistic adaptations.

Three key methodological innovations will be created: (i) language structures will be analyzed typologically from the perspective of how difficult they are for adult second language learners, (ii) sociolinguistic environments will be analyzed across societies via using the idea of comparative concepts from typology, (iii) a new sampling strategy will be developed to draw conclusions from both large families and language isolates. This framework enables researching linguistic adaptations typologically in a principled way and it has the potential to forge a deeper relationship between typology and sociolinguistics and thus open new domains of inquiry. The results will create a strong argument for treating language as part of the general adaptive human behavior.

Régime de financement

ERC-STG - Starting Grant

Institution d’accueil

HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 1 491 493,00
Adresse
YLIOPISTONKATU 3
00014 Helsingin Yliopisto
Finlande

Voir sur la carte

Région
Manner-Suomi Helsinki-Uusimaa Helsinki-Uusimaa
Type d’activité
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Liens
Coût total
€ 1 491 493,00

Bénéficiaires (1)