This project will document the Hupa, Yurok, and Karok languages of Northwest California, producing a cross linguistic dictionary containing (1) grammatical analysis of word forms and (2) examples of words in sentences. This dictionary will be used to investigate cross linguistic variation in the conceptual content of words, grammatical categories, and sentences. Methodology will consist of (1) documenting vocabulary, grammatical units, and narrative by working with native speakers; and (2) consolidating existing materials in each of the languages within a unified computerized database. The project will contribute to (1 ) the descriptive knowledge of the Hupa, Yurok. and Karok lanugages, all of which are endangered; and (2) the theoretical understanding of the role grammatical categories play in the conceptual organization of human language, including linguistic concepts of space, time, metaphor, taxonomic classes, and other distinctions between basic concepts of'object'/'event' and 'subject'/'object'.
