Proceedings Published by the LSA (Linguistic Society of America)
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Generalizing French Schwa Deletion: the Role of Indexed Constraints*
Get PDFIndexed constraints (like cophonologies) increase a grammar’s fit to seen data, but do they hurt the grammar’s ability to generalize to unseen data? We focus on French schwa deletion, an optional process whose rate of application is modulated by both phonological and lexical factors, and we propose three indexed constraint learners in the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) framework. Using data from Racine (2008), we test the ability of four learners to capture existing patterns and generalize to unseen data: three learners and a control MaxEnt learner without indexed constraint induction. The Indexed constraint learners indeed lead to better fit to the training data compared to the control. The resulting grammars are tested on a different schwa deletion dataset from Smith & Pater (2020). It is shown that indexed constraints do not lead to a drop in generalization to these data, and one of the indexation learners produces a grammar that predicts Smith & Pater’s data quite closely. We conclude that indexed constraints do not necessarily hurt a grammar’s ability to generalize to unseen data, while allowing the grammar to achieve a closer fit to training data
Ancient Greek Pitch Accent, Not Stress*
Get PDFAncient Greek accent involves both stress and tone (Allen 1973, Steriade 1988). We present here a new piece of evidence for the details of the tonal part, based on a lowering process whereby a H tone on the final TBU of a word lowers if the word is followed by another tonic word: H...H → L...H. This is essentially what is reported for Rimi, a Tanzanian Bantu language, where HH loses the first of its H tones (Olson 1964, ‘Anti-Meeussen’s Rule’). If correct, this motivates three tonal classes in Ancient Greek: HL* in words like basiléˈàà ‘king.acc’ (Sauzet 1989, Golston 1990) and two additional classes, H*L in basiˈléù ‘king.voc’ and H in basiˈleús ‘king.nom’.
Simplification principles and child language development in Armenian
Get PDFAt certain stages of their general cognitive development and language acquisition, children apparently employ their innately growing (cognitive) knowledge and skills to meet the challenges they face in L1 acquisition. Among other things, children use different sets of simplification strategies, such as cropping words, replacing or displacing syllables or syllabic constituents, omitting suffixes, and using simpler syntax. We catalog processes like fortition, reduplication, and the various stages of acquisition. This paper presents some language development data in Armenian children. Empirically, our study is one of the few (if only) known studies on the language acquisition of Armenian. The data provides valuable theoretical insight into the strategies that children pursue in communication, as well as in cognitive processing of speech
Locality in the Derivation of Cumulativity
Get PDFIt has been proposed that the part structures of denotations of plurals ‘project’ to the denotations of expressions including those plurals (e.g., Gawron & Kehler 2004, Kubota & Levine 2016, Schmitt 2019/2020). If such a plural projection is possible, not only plural DPs but also expressions including those plural DPs denote pluralities (e.g., saw the two recipes denotes a plurality {SAW(recipe1),SAW(recipe2)} instead of a singularity {SAW({recipe1,recipe2})}). One piece of support for plural projection comes from Schmitt’s (2020) observation about ‘non-local’ cumulativity. In this paper, I further examine when cumulativity is available non-locally, and show that a source of cumulativity in the literature (e.g., Krifka 1989, Kratzer 2007, Harada 2022b) can capture all the relevant non-local cumulativity data without plural projection while an analysis with plural projection can capture only a proper subset of those data. Therefore, this paper concludes that the relevant non-local cumulativity does not support the need of plural projection
Markedness can’t explain replacement patterns in suppletive paradigms
Get PDFClaims that markedness influences morphological change do not fit attested patterns of suppletive replacement in verb paradigms. Examination of all suppletion types and sources reveals that markedness considerations are weaker predictors of suppletion patterns than interparadigmatic relationships, intraparadigmatic relationships, and semantic connections
*ABA in Romeyka Verbal Paradigms
Get PDFIn this work, we analyze present-tense and past-tense paradigms in Romeyka, an understudied Indo-European language belonging to the Hellenic sub-branch, spoken mainly in the Trabzon province in Turkey. We argue for decomposing the endings in the plural forms based on the regularities across present and past tense paradigms. While the proposed decomposition is empirically motivated, it leads to a theoretical challenge known in the literature as *ABA pattern, which has been extensively argued to be non-existent in morphology (e.g., Caha, 2009; Bobaljik, 2012; Middleton, 2020). We demonstrate this challenge for Nanosyntax (Starke, 2009), which predicts that syncretism will only be possible for structurally contiguous features. In an attempt to address this puzzle, we develop an account which relies on the idea that languages may differ in whether they single out the Speaker or the Addressee features in building first and second-person structures. Accordingly, the *ABA in Romeyka dissolves into a predicted pattern where the syncretism is the non-offending AAB pattern
Interpretation of Turkish reflexive anaphors: subjecthood vs semantic role
Get PDFThe current study investigates what factors control the interpretation of Turkish third person reflexive anaphors kendi and kendisi. Our results indicate that, in certain contexts, kendi and kendisi behave alike, which is a novel finding. We show that both kendi and kendisi have a slight subject-orientation, and they are sensitive to semantic roles, being perceiver-oriented. Lastly, our results show that word order affects the interpretation of kendi and kendisi, and that they prefer salient preceding DPs. Based on our findings as a whole, we suggest that both kendi and kendisi show some pronominal properties, and we suggest that Kornfilt’s (2001) proposal that kendisi can function as a pronoun might be extended to kendi as well
Non-local matching of adjectival modifiers in Mandarin stacked relative clauses
Get PDFBhatt (2002) argues for a head-raising analysis (HRA) of relative clauses based on the interpretation of certain adjectival modifiers on the head. This paper evaluates Bhatt’s argument in the configurations of stacked relative clauses (SRCs) in Mandarin and argues that the internal interpretation of adjectival modifiers on the head is not a sufficient argument for HRA. We show that adjectival modifiers on the external head of SRCs can receive an internal interpretation when reconstruction is not possible. We propose that the internal reading can instead be derived by non-local matching between the adjectival modifier and its internal representation
“It’s not real culture anyway”: Language ideologies of local and expatriate English teachers in rural South Korea
Get PDFIn South Korea (Korea), Park (2004) identifies three dominant English language ideologies: necessity (English as essential to compete in neoliberal markets), externalization (English as antithetical to Korean identity), and self-deprecation (English as unobtainable by Korean speakers). While studies have explored these ideologies among Korean English teachers in cosmopolitan settings like Seoul, few studies consider how teachers in rural areas negotiate these language ideologies. This study compares ideological stances from both expatriate guest English teachers (GETs) and local Korean English teachers (LETs). Participants working in the rural province of Jeollanamdo conducted semi-structured interviews about their perspectives and experiences regarding English education in Korea. Interviews underwent thematic analysis where initial codes identified Park’s three ideologies, and further coding produced subthemes through stance analysis. Findings indicate a diverse mix of stances between LETs and GETs that both affirm and resist dominant English language ideologies. LETs and GETs with experience working in both rural islands and coastal cities also report variation in students’ motivation and stress toward English education. By examining variation in teachers’ stancetaking toward dominant English language ideologies, this study challenges Bourdieu’s (1991) notion of a unified linguistic ideological marketplace
Linguistic illusions and misconceptions: The role of language variation in language development across three varieties of American English
Get PDFPrior research on the linguistic abilities of Southern English- (SE) and African-American English-speaking children (SAAE) revealed unexpectedly high rates of risk for a language disorder (Christodoulou & Tsimpli 2021; Moland & Oetting 2021). This study examines the performance of 139 SE-, 46 SAAE-, and 35 Mainstream American English-speaking children (MAE), aged 2-13, and analyzes their performance, through twelve sections, in four key linguistic domains: syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and phonology, using a standardized assessment test. Results revealed a parallel performance across the three groups in all linguistic domains. The highest means of accuracy were noted with phonology and the lowest with semantics. Analysis of the participants’ performance by age evidenced a virtually identical performance across the three groups after age 6 or 7, but considerable variations were noted with younger children. Results from the current study contradict results from previous work showing considerably high rates of risk for a language disorder for the SAAE-speaking children, as their performance is parallel to not only that of SE-speaking children but it also the performance of MAE-speaking children. Results from the current study could help guide educational policies, especially for early education programs, as well as diagnostic assessment and rehabilitation