Research Group: Systems of Nominal Determination in Contact

The SyNoDe Research Group investigated the syntax and semantics of nominal determiners, pronouns, and noun phrases, particularly focusing on indefinites, partitives, and weak definites. The group aimed to understand how these structures functioned in terms of syntactic distribution, referential properties (such as mass/count distinctions and island sensitivity), and how they evolved as a result of language contact.

Research Approach:

Study of Nominal Phrases (NP) Structures:

The group analyzed NP structures as an ideal focus for areal and diachronic research due to their prevalence in ancient, endangered languages and short, fragmentary texts. Complex NPs often appear in short or damaged inscriptions, making them valuable for study. Items of particular interest included bare nouns and noun phrases with special case-marking possibilities (e.g., Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Latin American Spanish and Portuguese, and partitive determiners in various languages).

Dialectal and Contact Varieties:

The research extended beyond standard languages to investigate dialectal varieties, particularly those in close horizontal contact with other Indo-European languages and vertical contact with their standard counterparts. New data was gathered, such as databases for Latin American Spanish (DOM) and Francoprovençal, Northern Italian, and French (partitive determiners), complemented by fieldwork in endangered languages and varieties.

Collaboration and Networking:

SyNoDe collaborated with various research networks (PARTE, DiFuPaRo) and organized international workshops and conferences, promoting the exchange of findings and methodologies.

Key Findings:

Language Contact and NP Structures:

The group’s research revealed how nominal structures evolved through language contact, particularly in geographically adjacent varieties. This involved fine-grained syntactic and semantic analyses, ensuring accurate recognition of factual parallels between similar phenomena in different languages or dialects.

Data and Methodology:

The team relied on both new and existing databases, such as ALAVAL for Francoprovençal, and employed a diachronic perspective to understand changes in NP structures over time.

Through detailed analysis and interdisciplinary collaboration, the SyNoDe Research Group contributed significant insights into how nominal determination structures develop and spread through language contact, with a particular focus on Indo-European languages and endangered varieties.