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The research project “The Grammar of Discourse Particles in Uralic” (DiPU)

The project “The Grammar of Discourse Particles in Uralic” is a personal research grant project (PRG927 and PRG 1290) funded by the Estonian Research Council at the Finno-Ugric department of the University of Tartu. The project is aimed at the investigation and comparison of features of discourse particles in minor Uralic languages (Ingrian, Votic, Livonian, Erzya, Moksha, Udmurt, Komi, Kamas). Discourse particles have been studied intensively in languages with abundant documented written and spoken linguistic material. Considerably less has been done on the material of under-researched languages with limited linguistic resources, lack of long time written tradition and lack or limited size of spoken corpora. The main objective of the project is to discover linguistic patterns, variations and idiosyncrasies in the use of discourse particles in related indigenous languages in the situation of language contact. The workflow will include analysis of existing new corpora, compiling linguistic corpora, development of comparable experimental materials, and work with language consultants. The findings will be discussed in workshops, summarized in a volume, and become part of grammars and textbooks.