Expressions in language like "everyone" and "no one" and their counterparts in other languages, like "tout le monde" and "ne...rien" in French, have particularly interesting properties. Much research in linguistics has explored two questions: First, how young children learn these properties, and second, how much different languages vary from one another in these expressions and how much they have in common. To answer the first question, researchers have designed clever experiments involving pictures, videos, and stories acted out with puppets; the results show interesting differences in how young children interpret these expressions as compared with adults. This research project aims to extend this methodology to answering the second question. These kinds of expressions are very difficult to investigate. For instance, "Someone likes everyone" can mean two different things, but people generally have to think about it and consider different contexts in order to see both meanings (try it). This fact becomes problematic in investigating an unfamiliar language, where the investigator cannot be sure exactly what language users mean or have in mind. This project will borrow pictures and videos from research on children and adapt them to investigating languages that are completely unlike English, starting with the Native American language Passamaquoddy, spoken by a small community in Maine. Although this language differs extensively from languages like English and French, preliminary investigations indicate that, in expressions like "everyone" and "no one," they have much in common. The project will figure out how Passamaquoddy is the same as English and French, and how it differs.
The project has numerous broader implications: First, it will result in a set of materials that can be used by other researchers to investigate similar issues in other languages; second, it includes the participation of a minority group that is underrepresented in scientific research; third, this participation will help to change language attitudes among the Passamaquoddy community and encourage the use and revitalization of the language, which is in danger of dying out; and fourth, it will help to document a little-known language, one of many in the human heritage that are in danger of disappearing forever.
