Linguistic complexity in the marking of new information

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Arnhold, Anja

• SSHRC IG awarded 2023: This project will investigate the limits imposed by the cognitive system on how three languages spanning the pectrum of linguistic diversity --- English, Mandarin and Kalaallisut --- perform a basic communicative function: drawing the listener's attention to new information. These languages differ vastly in the relative complexity of the components of their grammars, such as prosody (the melody and rhythm of speech) and morpho-syntax (word and sentence formation).The project will address this knowledge gap by comparing English, Mandarin and Kalaallisut through experimental research and statistical analysis. In addition to analyzing these representative languages with uniform methods, the project will take an innovative step and manipulate the flexibility of different grammatical components experimentally within each language. Thiswill allow us to directly assess the assumed interplay of different components of grammar and overall limits on linguistic complexity.

• Date created

  2022-10-23

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Insight Grant
  • IG
  • SSHRC
  • Linguistics
  • Linguistic Typology
  • Structure of Grammar
  • Prosody
  • Morpho Syntax Interactions
  • Information Structure
  • Pragmatics
  • Experimental Linguistics
  • English
  • Mandarin
  • Kalaallisut
  • West Greenlandic
  • Canada
  • Greenland
  • China
  • East Asia
  • North America

• Type of Item

  Research Material

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-caw2-ww55

• License

  ©️Arnhold, Anja. All rights reserved other than by permission. This document embargoed to those without UAlberta CCID until 2031.