Proceedings Published by the LSA (Linguistic Society of America)
Not a member yet
4323 research outputs found
Sort by
From temporal to concessive meanings: a semantic analysis of \u27still\u27
No full textWe develop a new proposal about the historical connection between the durative and concessive readings of English still and Hebrew ʕadain, a connection that shows striking parallels in the two languages. Building on a corpus study of Hebrew (Rubinstein forthcoming), we argue that durative \u27still\u27 precedes the concessive \u27still\u27 and that the latter first arises in bridging contexts (and earlier than previously thought). In contrast to previous literature, our proposal places the temporal-to-concessive development squarely in the semantics. We argue that concessive \u27still\u27 emerges when an originally durative \u27still\u27 gets "infected" with a concessive meaning that is expressed explicitly in the rest of the sentence
Hebrew nonverbal sentences wear reconstruction on their sleeve
Get PDFIn this paper, I discuss a particle in Hebrew which has been termed Pron by Doron (1983). While its surface form is that of a pronoun, its distribution resembles that of a copula – it appears between the subject and the predicate in nonverbal present-tensed sentences. However, its distribution is limited in unexpected ways for a copula, which gained it some attention in the literature. Contra the standard line of analysis, I argue that Pron is in fact a resumptive pronoun left by the subject as it raises to a higher position. I show that this analysis ties together many of Pron’s prima facie-surprising distribution patterns
Uyghur palatal harmony as bi-directional harmony
Get PDFThis paper discusses a small set of motion verb constructions in Uyghur and presents evidence from historical documents and modern written corpora showing that the constructions have undergone grammaticalization and univerbation. The paper argues that the resulting forms consist of a root plus a prefix that participates in vowel harmony, matching the root vowel in backness. Based on this analysis, it can be said that in terms of the cross-linguistic typology of vowel harmony, Uyghur palatal harmony is root-controlled, i.e., bi-directional
Revisiting Complex Predicate Formation in Turkish
Get PDFThis study aims to provide a novel analysis for light verb constructions in Turkish that are built by combining a nominal with the verbal element et. Building on the earlier insight that et can both be a light verb and a ‘heavy’ verb in the language, we provide a formally explicit Distributed Morphology analysis that substantiates the idea that the nominal that combines with et is variably either an uncategorized root or an NP. Our evidence for this split comes from the behavior of nominals in the case calculus and with respect to referentiality. Nevertheless, we propose a uniform analysis of et where it realizes an agentive verbalizer head, taking the locus of variation to be in the complexity of the verbalizer’s complement.
/e/ lowering in Turkish
Get PDFDescriptions of the phonological system of Turkish concur that Turkish /e/ is lowered in closed syllables ending in a sonorant consonant. Nevertheless, despite the consensus on the general traits of this lowering process, there is some disagreement about certain aspects of it, and these conflicting claims are generally unsupported by instrumental data. Furthermore, lexical exceptions to the rule exist, but discussions of them are extremely limited. Here we investigate acoustically this vowel lowering process and examine some of its lexical exceptions, focusing on cases of unexpected lowering before /z/ codas. We argue that this lowering process is no longer purely allophonic, and exhibits properties typical of an incipient phonological split, with early signs of phonologization of a marginal /e/ ∼ /æ/ contrast
On the meaning of intonational contours: a view from scalar inference
Get PDFThis paper investigates the meaning of intonational contours by experimentally testing how they affect the likelihood of scalar inference (SI) calculation. Our main test case is the rise-fall-rise contour (RFR) which, based on prior theoretical work, is predicted to either increase or decrease the likelihood of SI. We conducted two experiments using an inference task: one where participants first produce a target sentence with their choice of contour and one where participants listen to a pre-recorded target sentence with a particular contour. The experiments converged in showing that the RFR increases SI rate relative to a neutral fall. Additionally, production data revealed the frequent use of another contour that resembles the Contradiction Contour, which we label Concession Contour. This contour also led to an increase in SI rate, although to a lesser extent than the RFR. In addition to informing the theoretical literature on RFR, our results also highlight the methodological importance of controlling for intonation in the study of SI
Focus on demonstratives: Experiments in English and Turkish
Get PDFThis paper deals with an unexpected contrast between demonstrative descriptions and definite descriptions on their anaphoric uses. If two (or more) discourse referents are introduced in the preceding sentence, it is perfectly natural to refer to one of them in the following sentence using a definite description. Use of demonstrative descriptions in the same context, however, is degraded, with existing accounts of anaphoric demonstratives and definites providing no explanation for this contrast. We present experimental evidence from two languages, one with definite determiners (English) and one without (Turkish), and show that the acceptability of demonstratives depends independently both on (i) whether one or two NPs are introduced in the initial sentence, and (ii) whether the follow-up sentence introduces a new situation or not. We propose a focus-driven information structural approach to demonstratives to account for this pattern. Following Dayal & Jiang (2021) (building on Schwarz 2009) in assuming that definite and demonstrative expressions in anaphoric contexts are similar in including an anaphoric index argument, we argue that demonstratives essentially differ in evoking focus alternatives on the index argument
Partial plurality inferences of plural pronouns and dynamic pragmatic enrichment
Get PDFI explore the semantics/pragmatics of plural pronouns by discussing the partial plurality inference that arises under quantificational subordination. I propose an anti-presupposition account coupled with Sudo’s (2023) dynamic implicature approach to plurality inferences based on plural information states, i.e. sets of variable assignments (van den Berg 1996). I further discuss the implications of the proposed analysis to the locality of anti-presupposition calculation and difference between animate instances and inanimate instances of plural pronouns in English
Clustering and declustering things: The meaning of collective and singulative morphology in Ukrainian
Get PDFMany languages have systems of collective and singulative derivational morphology (e.g., de Vries 2021; Dali & Mathieu 2021b). Recent research on Slavic collectives (Grimm & Dočekal 2021; Wągiel 2021a) and singulatives (Kagan & Nurmio to appear; Kagan, Geist & Erschler to appear) shows the significance of these data for the study of linguistic mechanisms of individuation. In this paper,we contribute by investigating the semantics of two derivational morphemes in Ukrainian: the collective suffix -j- and the singulative suffix -yn-, and the interaction between the two in secondary singulatives, e.g., pero ‘a feather’⇒pirja ‘clustered feathers’⇒pirjina ‘a (small) feather’, and secondary collectives, e.g., popil ‘ash’ ⇒ popelyna ‘a speck of ash’ ⇒ popelynnja ‘clustered specks of ash’. Building on the theory of Grimm (2012), we propose a mereotopological account that explains the Ukrainian data in terms of the ontological distinction between integrated objects and clusters: -j- turns properties of integrated objects into properties of clusters, whereas -yn- takes properties of clusters and yields properties of integrated objects
Cross-linguistic comparisons on distributive universal quantification: Each vs. every vs. mei
Get PDFThis paper discusses differences between each and every with regard to (a) pair-list readings; (b) subject/object asymmetries seen with every but not with each; and (c) the long-held intuition that each is more individualistic whereas every is friendlier to groups. We propose that these phenomena can be captured by prior accounts of the Mandarin Chinese distributive universal quantifier mei. In particular, we consider the Double Variable Hypothesis (the idea that in DUQ, for every x, there must be a y) (S.-Z. Huang 1995; 1996), and the Skolemized Topicality Hypothesis (the idea that topical quantifiers are Skolemized, resulting in the required x-y pairings) (S.-Z. Huang 2022b). We argue that (a’) pair-list answers to questions with quantifiers are derivable from the Double Variable Hypothesis; (b’) the subject/object asymmetry seen in every is due to its positionally-varied association with the Double Variable Hypothesis, while each is always subject to Skolemized Topicality due to its inherent topicality; and (c’) the individualistic interpretation of each can be described as stemming from its intrinsically Skolemized topicality as well. Results from experimental works will be brought to bear on the theoretical proposals.