Proceedings Published by the LSA (Linguistic Society of America)
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Prosodic boundary processing is language-dependent
Full text linkThis paper provides empirical data to support the claim that prosodic boundary processing is language-dependent. Prosody plays an important role in determining the meaning of the utterance. Despite their importance in speech recognition, prosodic boundaries in spontaneous speech are understudied, and the finding that syntactic and prosodic boundaries are not isomorphic complicates automatic speech recognition. This paper considers how prosodic boundaries are perceived in spontaneous speech via perception experiments.
We will consider Japanese first. It is a mora-timed pitch language and typologically different from stress languages like English. Japanese prosody is complex; it is compositionally formed by the lexical pitch accents H*L, phrasal tones, and boundary tones (L%, H%, LH%, HL%). Though Japanese literature has a long history of prosodic studies on the word-level and the phrase-level, prosody above the φ-level is understudied and no standard view for phrasal patterns has ever been established. We conducted perception experiments on spontaneous Japanese via Rapid Prosody Transcription (RPT) and conducted multiple regression analyses between boundary marking and cue candidates. Our findings are that the primary cue for boundary perception in Japanese is post-boundary pause, followed by syntactic higher categories.
On the other hand, prosody of stress languages is well-studied, and the studies claim that the prosodic boundary cues in such languages are either acoustic (e.g. French, etc.) or syntactic (e.g. American English, Estonian, etc.). If boundary cues vary between Japanese and American English, it is expected that Japanese learners of English process prosodic boundaries differently from native American English listeners. We did a comparative study and analyzed how native listeners and learners would perceive the same English natural speech. We reanalyzed the RPT data in Cole et al. 2010 and Mizuguchi et al. 2016 and found that native listeners and learners use different perception cues
Neural and behavioural correlates of syntactic and semantic processing in Yoruba-English bilinguals
Full text linkThis study investigates the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying syntactic and semantic processing in Yoruba-English bilinguals, emphasizing how bilingual proficiency modulates these processes. Drawing on two complementary approaches—an electrophysiological examination of sentence comprehension and a behavioral analysis of sentence production—the research explores the interplay between language experience, real-time processing, and cross-linguistic influence. EEG data collected during sentence comprehension tasks reveal proficiency-related differences in event-related potentials (ERPs), particularly the N400 and P600 components. Meanwhile, behavioral data from sentence production tasks highlight variation in syntactic restructuring and cross-linguistic transfer based on bilingual proficiency. The findings contribute to our understanding of the dynamic and multi-layered nature of bilingual language processing, with implications for theories of second language acquisition, cognitive control, and neural plasticity.
Orthographic effects on vowel contrast in language acquisition
Full text linkThis study measures whether differing letter shapes affect the production of /ɯ/ for L1-English learners of Turkish or Korean, which use a Latin-based and featural alphabetic orthography, respectively. Native speakers and L1 English learners of Turkish and Korean were recorded reading word lists and performing a picture-naming task in their target languages to compare whether read speech is significantly different from more naturalistic speech. Acoustic analysis of the high vowels /i, ɯ, u/ (n=1056) reveals that visual similarity between Turkish <ı> and <i> causes /ɯ/ to move towards the front of the vowel space, suggesting these letters’ vertical line shape is interpreted as [+front]. The visual similarity of Korean /ɯ/~<으>, /u/~<우> and /o/~<오> results in learners analyzing /ɯ/ as having an intermediary vowel height between /u/ and /o/ rather than being contrastive via the [±round] feature. These findings demonstrate that speech production models must account for visual input, highlighting the need for further multimodal linguistic research in language acquisition
French speakers\u27 use of sound symbolic patterns to assign gender to French and English nonce names
Full text linkGender-based sound symbolic patterns have been documented in corpora of given names in several languages. Name-gendering experiments show that native speakers use many, but not all, of these patterns to assign gender to nonce names in their native and non-native languages, suggesting that some patterns may be productive in speakers’ minds. This study extends this experimental work to a new language, French, by examining how French speakers assign gender to English and French nonce names and comparing their results to those of English speakers. It finds that, like speakers of other languages, French speakers use some, but not all, factors to assign gender to names in both their native and non-native languages. Furthermore, English and French speakers use the patterns in the study in the same way, in contrast to Sullivan (2020)\u27s study of English and Korean speakers, suggesting that familiarity is an important factor in extending the use of gender-based sound symbolism beyond one\u27s native language
Space and attention in the Kyrgyz demonstrative system
Full text linkBased on novel empirical work on the Kyrgyz (Turkic) nine-term demonstrative system, this paper investigates the spatial uses of demonstratives and the relationship between demonstratives\u27 attention-drawing and spatial denotations, which has been a fundamental question for the study of demonstrative semantic content (Skilton 2019, Levinson 2018). While Kyrgyz, similarly to Turkish (Küntay & Özyürek 2002, 2006), appears to have a specialized attention-drawing demonstrative indicating that attention-drawing and spatial denotations can be entirely distinct, careful elicitations reveal that attention drawing is derived from a (joint-attention) sociocentric distal meaning.
Linguistics at the Supreme Court: Current challenges and potential solutions
Full text linkAs the United States Supreme Court has become more textualist, it has become increasingly likely to rely on descriptive linguistic claims about mainstream American English in its interpretive decision-making processes. In this paper I discuss the role that linguists play at the Supreme Court through amicus briefing. I find that engagement with amicus briefs filed by linguists remains limited in most legal domains. I argue that limited understanding of linguistics, the nature of nongovernmental amicus filings, and the division of factual and legal issues contribute to this lack of engagement. As a means of improving engagement with linguists in the legal profession, I propose that linguists should turn toward partnerships with the legal academ
Benjamin Franklin and the language sciences
No full textBenjamin Franklin (1706–1790), founding father of the United States and general polymath, included language among his many interests as a scientist, educator, and publisher. A particularly significant work in this area is his phonetic alphabet for English, which he proposed in 1768 for a “reformed mode of spelling”. The basic principles upon which he based this alphabet are familiar to linguists, but his descriptions show a deeper understanding of the sounds of language and how they may be grouped according to articulatory principles. We report on this alphabet and his comments thereon, including his correspondence with Mary Stevenson and later with Noah Webster, and discuss other observations by Franklin on language in general, language learning, and language instruction
Tiered honorification in Eastern Indo-Aryan: A [HON]-less proposal
Full text linkLongstanding tradition in the literature uses a [HON] feature to analyze tiered honorification systems of Indo-Aryan. This work presents a stark opposition to that tradition, using Wang’s (2023) framework based on a pragmatic calculus, which crucially does not make use of [HON]. I adapt such a framework to show how it can explain both the diachronic and synchronic properties of tiered systems
Differential measure phrases with implicit comparatives in Gitksan
Full text linkIn most of the literature of degree semantics, whether gradable adjectives receive context-independent or -dependent denotations has been a correlate of whether a language is analyzed as having degrees as semantic primitives (Cresswell 1976; von Stechow 1984; Kennedy 1999) or not (Klein 1980, 1982, 1991). A third logical possibility is to postulate context-dependent yet degree-based denotations of gradable adjectives (Beck, Oda & Sugisaki 2004, Oda 2008 on Japanese; Breakstone 2012, Cariani, Santorio & Wellwood 2023b on English; see also Cariani, Santorio & Wellwood 2023a and Wellwood 2024). I argue that this third option predicts (i) availability of readings of implicit comparison (in Kennedy’s (2007a) sense) in positive constructions when the context provides a degree or entity to serve as the standard and that some implementations of this proposal (Beck et al. 2004; Oda 2008; Breakstone 2012) also predict (ii) compatibility of measure phrases with implicit comparatives. Both are wrong predictions for English, andwhile (ii) is documented in Japanese (e.g., Snyder, Wexler & Das 1995; Beck et al. 2004; Oda 2008), existing evidence for (i) in Japanese (Beck et al. 2004; Oda 2008) is somewhat theory-dependent. I demonstrate that Gitksan (Tsimshianic) exhibits both (i) and (ii), providing support for the idea that degree-based GA denotations can be inherently context-dependent. Being the first systematic description and formal analysis of degree semantics in the Tsimshianic language family, this paper also demonstrates that Gitksan lacks semantic distinction between comparatives and superlatives, and analyzes a degree operator k’aa as a superlative morpheme
Experientiality markers in memory reports: A semantics-pragmatics puzzle
Full text linkSome recent work in semantics and the philosophy of language suggests that the way we report events reflects whether we have personally experienced or witnessed these events (i.e. through linguistic elements dubbed \u27experientiality markers\u27). This paper provides experimental support for one such marker: German non-manner uses of wie [\u27how\u27]. We argue that when they are embedded under the memory predicates noch wissen [\u27still know\u27] and sich erinnern [\u27REFL-remind\u27], free relative wie-complements mark the remembering of a personally experienced event. We support this claim through a series of online studies based on scale judgements. The results of our main study raise questions about the semantics-pragmatics interface of the experientiality marking property of wie, and about the robustness of experientiality markers in general. A series of complementary studies address these questions