One of the goals of syntactic theory is to determine to what extent languages have a shared, universal structure and to the extent their structures vary. For instance, it is commonly assumed that all languages have verbs. But how, exactly, are sentences constructed from verbs? Is there one single, uniform way in which sentences are built up from their verbs, or are there language particular differences in how this occurs? If there are such differences, what does the morphology of verbs reveal about them?
To investigate these questions, Mr. Justin Nuger, under the supervision of Dr. Sandra Chung, will conduct research on the morphology and syntax of verbs in Palauan, an Austronesian language spoken by some 15,000 people in Palau, and examine its implications for syntactic theory. Palauan verbs are unusually morphologically complex. Information about tense, aspect, mood, voice, the subject, and the object is expressed in this language through the use of auxiliary verbs, affixes, and phonological alternations. With support from the National Science Foundation, Nuger will investigate the extent to which the complex morphology of Palauan verbs provides a window into the syntactic structure of its sentences. In the course of his research, Nuger will analyze the properties of various classes of Palauan verbs, including causatives, applicatives, unaccusatives, unergatives, transitives, and passives.
Mr. Nuger will take two fieldtrips to Koror, Palau, to consult with native speakers at Palau Community College, the Palau Ministry of Education, the Belau (Palau) National Museum, and elsewhere in the community of Koror. Data will be collected from recorded oral narratives, published texts, and interviews with individual speakers.
