CAREER: Analyzing Determinants in Shaping Language Restoration and Development

Language development research often focuses on how communities investigate an ancestral or heritage language in their community. Less theorized within this field are the processes and mechanisms that influence the trajectory efforts over time. The paucity of detailed data and analysis has implications that directly affect ongoing discussions on the nature of language and cognition, and theoretical arguments about the relationship between language and culture. Analysis of the practices associated with the initial stages of language development, therefore, will provide generalizable, empirical data that can test current hypotheses and theoretical discussions on the emergence and formalization of language vis-a-vis their grammatical forms and structures and language as a medium of communication. In this multi-year study, the researcher studies the linguistic practices associated with the early stages of understanding language infrastructure, focusing on how these initial determinants shape future trajectories. The project utilizes a combination of methods that include linguistic analyses, observation and interviews, participatory methods, and digital-network analysis, to track how language is introduced as a mode of communication within the community. The findings from this CAREER project inform predictive models on the potential outcomes from language processes. Findings also enable a detailed account of practices that lead to the emergence of new languages and linguistic varieties. This project is jointly funded by Cultural Anthropology, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and the Dynamic Language Infrastructure Program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.