Proceedings Published by the LSA (Linguistic Society of America)
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Perspectival biscuits
Get PDFThis paper describes a novel class of biscuit conditional, the \u27perspectival biscuit\u27, which arises when an if-clause containing a generic pronoun (e.g., generic you) is used to shift perspective for the interpretation of a perspective-sensitive item in the consequent: e.g., fixing the directionality of behind in "If you\u27re at the door, the cat is behind the desk." This sentence is like a biscuit conditional in that it entails a fully-specified, propositionally stable consequent describing the spatial configuration of cat and desk, but this reading vanishes in favor of a conditional dependence reading when the antecedent contains any non-generic DP, a prediction that is not straightforwardly accounted for by existing theories of biscuit conditionals. An analysis is given demonstrating that biscuithood for perspectival biscuits arises due to generic quantification exclusively over individuals, not worlds
Are there “weak” definites in bare classifier languages?
Get PDFThis paper motivates a new view on the typology of definiteness that integrates (quasi-)names. The primary data is drawn from Cantonese and Bangla, where both bare classifier constructions and bare nominals are recruited for definite expressions. We argue that these bare nominals, while often analyzed as the so-called “weak”/unique definites in other languages, are indeed name-like expressions akin to the quasi-name Mom in English, in contrast with the definite descriptions denoted by bare classifier constructions. We propose that quasi-names, as well as proper names, are derived by a definite determiner that encodes a functional relation between the discourse participants and the referent. We further discuss cases where quasi-names compete with definite descriptions and proper names. The findings not only suggest that names should be brought into the picture, but also shed light on how pragmatic principles interact and determine the choice of referring expressions
Acts, occasions and multiplicatives: A mereotopological account
Get PDFIn this paper, I argue for the relevance of structured part-whole configurations in the domain of events. The evidence comes from the well-known event-internal/external distinction, which concerns mutliplicative adverbials quantifying either over separate occasions or occasion-internal acts, respectively (e.g., Cusic 1981, Andrews 1983, Cinque 1999, Zhang 2017). In order to capture this distinction, I postulate that the relationship between the two categories is based on a part-whole relation. In particular, inspired by proposals advocating the role of eventive higher-order units (Landman 2006, Henderson 2017) and building on the theories of (Grimm 2012) and (Mazzola 2019), I propose to extend mereotopology to the domain of events. I argue that this allows for capturing acts as simplex events conceptualized as bounded integrated MSSC wholes, whereas occasions as clusters, i.e., temporally structured configurations, of such simplex events
Kinds, properties and atelicity
Get PDFSince at least Vendler 1967, one of the most widely discussed data points, often viewed as the ultimate test for (a)telicity, is the behavior of durative modifiers with respect to different VP types as in John killed mosquitos/*a mosquito for an hour. In the present paper, I explore a new blend of the two most widespread approaches to this issue, namely (i) the view of durative modifiers as universal quantifiers (e.g., Dowty 1979, a.o.) and (ii) their view as aspect sensitive measure adverbials (e.g., Krifka 1998, a.o.). The blend explored here is based on an economy constraint specific to the scope of adverbial quantification (‘do not weaken’ cf. Bassa Vanrell 2017) combined with the identification of the special role that kinds and properties may play as direct bearers of thematic relations in an event-based semantics
Acoustic properties of bilabial trills in Medumba
Get PDFOlson (2022) claims that all bilabial trills in phonemic systems are releases of stops. They are either part of complex phonemes that involve stop-trill sequences, e.g. /pᴮ, bᴮ, ᵐbᴮ, tᴾ/, or they pattern as allophones of a compressed or fricative vowel following a stop, e.g. [pʙ̩, bʙ̩, tʙ̩]. Olson notes that the stop-trill phonemes behave as obstruents. I provide acoustic evidence for this claim. Previous studies indicate that the closure of /b/ is shorter than that of /p, ᵐb/ and that the oral portion of the closure of /ᵐb/ is very short (~30–40 ms). Likewise, it has been shown that the stop closure of /bᴮ/ is shorter than that of /pᴮ, ᵐbᴮ/ and that the oral portion of the stop closure of /ᵐbᴮ/ is very short (e.g. Olson 2023). For Medumba (Cameroon), we find similar patterning. The mean stop closure durations of /bᴮ, ᵐbᴮ/ are 137 ms (s.d. = 28, n = 58) and 192 ms (s.d. = 47, n = 28), respectively. The difference is very highly significant: t(37) = 5.79, p < 0.001 (one-tailed). The mean oral stop closure duration of /ᵐbᴮ/ is 26.6 ms (s.d. = 6.2, n = 28). The finding that stops with bilabial trill releases behave as obstruents is important, because elsewhere they have been categorized with /r/ assuming that they are sonorants
Current norms and best practices for collecting and representing sex/gender in linguistics: Towards ethical and inclusive methodologies
Get PDFAmid changing ideas about sex and gender, there is a growing need to reexamine norms around their operationalization and theorization. This talk presents results from a survey exploring linguists’ practices for collecting information about research participants’ sex/gender. Based on 157 complete responses to date, we explore the popularity of different methods for gathering information about sex/gender and the methodological and theoretical implications of those choices. We closely analyze the way questions around sex/gender are formulated and differences among linguists by subfield, training, identities, and gender politics, and offer best practices for ethical and inclusive approaches
The simultaneous production of two grammars: Evidence from bimodal bilinguals
Get PDFA debated issue in psycholinguistics is whether both languages are active in the bilingual mind that hosts them. We examined this issue in bimodal bilinguals, i.e., individuals competent in one spoken language and one sign language. Signed productions and story-telling data pertaining to declaratives, wh-questions, and negatives from Iranian bilingual speakers of Khuzestani Arabic and Sadat Tawaher Sign Language confirm that they produce two different grammars simultaneously, one via their vocal tract and the other on their hands. This finding provides support for these bilinguals’ double active representation of languages, suspension of articulatory constraints, lack of inhibition, and processing costs.
The Missionary Voice: Perceptions of an emerging register
Get PDFIn this paper, we report on what we are calling “Missionary Voice,” or a particular way of speaking characteristic to missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first study elicits perceptions of Missionary Voice by Latter-day Saints in the Intermountain West without reference to any particular recording or person. We find a complex, multifaceted indexical field as well as potential linguistic features, uses for Missionary Voice, and speculative origins. In the second study, we play audio clips and ask listeners to identify the missionaries among them. While people did no better than chance, we zero in on certain speakers and compile a tentative list of acoustic correlates of Missionary Voice. As this is the first study on the language of Latter-day Saint missionaries, we open more questions than we answer, but we hope to show that Missionary Voice is very much a part of Latter-day Saint culture
Processing Turkish case markers: Implications for the case containment hypothesis
Get PDFWe investigate the processing of accusative-marked NPs in Turkish, compared to genitive- and locative-marked NPs. We use psycholinguistic methods (a lexical decision task) to test competing predictions derived from frequency effects in lexical processing on the one hand, and morphosyntactic theories of case containment on the other hand. Our experimental outcomes support a case containment approach to Turkish morphology
The bear wants a small green apple and a big one: Insights into anaphoric reconstruction in child Romanian
Get PDFWe investigate how 4-year-old children reconstruct the anaphoric pronoun unul ‘one’ when modified by Color or Size adjectives in Romanian, an understudied Noun-Adjective language. In a Truth Value Judgment Task, both adults and children accept unul ‘one’ to refer to apple or small apple in Ursuleţul vrea un măr verde mic şi unul galben ‘The bear wants a small green apple and a yellow one’. In Ursuleţul vrea un măr verde mic şi unul mare ‘The bear wants a small green apple and a big one’, children take unul ‘one’ to refer to apple or green apple, while adults only accept green apple. Based on these findings, we argue that while adults seem to be sensitive to hierarchical nesting in anaphoric reconstruction, children seem to operate on the basis of other reconstruction preferences at this developmental stage