Proceedings Published by the LSA (Linguistic Society of America)
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Paradoxes of MaxEnt markedness
Get PDFOver the past two decades, theoretical linguistics has taken a probabilistic turn. Maximum entropy (ME) has been endorsed as a model of probabilistic phonology because of its classical guarantees for grammatical inference. Yet, little is known about the basic organizing principles of ME phonology beyond circumstantial evidence of ME’s ability to fit specific patterns of empirical frequencies. The study of ME typologies is difficult because they consist of infinitely many grammars that cannot be exhaustively listed and directly inspected. Uniform Probability Inequalities (Anttila and Magri 2018) are a new tool that solves the problem: they characterize cases where one phonological mapping has a probability smaller than another mapping and this probability inequality holds uniformly for every grammar in the typology. In other words, uniform probability inequalities are universals of probabilistic grammars. We present a new generalization about ME uniform probability inequalities and argue that they are phonologically paradoxical and prune the set of ME universals down to almost nothing. This suggests that ME is not a suitable model of phonology
A\u27ingae reduplication is phonologically optimizing
No full textIn this paper, I describe and analyze reduplication in A’ingae (ISO 639-3: con), an understudied and endangered Amazonian isolate. The reduplicant is a suffix -ʔσ, where ʔ is a fixed segment and σ is a syllable copied from the right edge of the word. Only disyllabic roots can be reduplicated, and the disyllabic root is parsed as a trochaic foot in the surface form. If the second syllable of the root is a diphthong, it undergoes monophthongization in the base. I model these properties with a reduplicant-specific cophonology (e.g. Orgun, 1996), which consists of a ranking of constraints motivated elsewhere in the language’s grammar. Thus, I demonstrate that A’ingae reduplication is phonologically optimizing. All the data were collected by the author
Laurentian French Affrication in External Sandhi: The Facts, and a CVCV Analysis
Get PDFAffrication (also known as Assibilation) is recognized as one of the strongest and most reliable accent markers of Laurentian French, yet its behavior in external sandhi has received little attention. It is described in the literature as variable, optional, and even prohibited. In this article, we demonstrate that affrication between two words is mandatory, prohibited, or optional depending on the syntactic relationship between the words involved. Data comes from a pilot study of 35 native speakers of Laurentian French. We offer an analysis of these effects that considers both the syntactic (phases) and phonological (CVCV Phonology) modules of each derivation
The ordering of obliques and adpositional elements
Get PDFThe order of verbs (V) and their object (O) has been of great interest among researchers. However, few studies have examined the order of obliques (X) with respect to V and O. Dryer (with Gensler) (2013) find the asymmetry between VO and OV languages in terms of the position of X: unlike VO languages, all three types of OV languages (XOV, OXV, and OVX) are widely attested. Hawkins (2008) tries to explain this asymmetry by the interaction of three patterns, (i) Verb & Object Adjacency, (ii) Object & X on Same Side of Verb, and (iii) Object before X. Although his analysis is successful in explaining the word order data in the world’s languages, there are still some problems. In this paper, we argue that we can predict the possible word orders using only Hawkins’s (2004, 2008) Minimize Domains (MiD). We also argue that compared to the prepositional counterparts, postpositions, postpositional clitics, and case suffixes are more likely to be connected to their noun (phrase) complement phonologically and morpho-syntactically. In other words, the juncture between noun and adposition/clitic/affix in head-final languages is tighter than that in head-initial languages. Assuming that adjuncts (X) consist of noun and adposition/clitic/affix, the domain of constituent recognition is different in the possible word orders of O, X and V. We assume that postpositions/postpositional clitics/suffixes need only half of a word (^ = 0.5) for domain recognition because they are closely attached to the adjacent noun (phrase). We conclude that any ordering of O, X and V is possible if the domain size is less than 4. This analysis has advantages over Hawkins’s (2008) analysis because it is simpler and does not need to assume Hawkins’s principle of Argument Precedence
Preverbs: Their syntax and semantics in West Africa
Get PDFPreverbs are positionally-delimited grammatical forms that remain understudied. We examine their semantic classes in West Benue Congo (WBC) and its minor language Emai, which until recently was undocumented. Preverb classes in Emai display a subset of semantic categories identified in Dixon (1991, 2006, 2010) and Nuyts (2001, 2005, 2006, 2016). There are eight semantic classes for 30 odd preverb forms. They are apportioned according to their qualitative or quantitative character. Preverbs do not include traditional auxiliary categories of aspect, tense, and modality, which exhibit distinct diachronic and synchronic character. Common to preverbs is their orientation to grammatical subject, rather than utterance speaker. Members of each class ascribe a property to clausal subject. Preliminary evidence suggests that preverbs of similar semantic character exist in other West African languages
‘Again’ separation in Italian
Get PDFIn Italian, ri- ‘again’ can be separated from the constituent it is semantically attached to and challenges the structural account for the ambiguity of ‘again’-type elements. To address this issue, this paper proposes a solution through aspectual agreement and suggests a movement and reconstruction analysis for the separation effect of ri-. It also provides supporting evidence for this analysis through Coordinate Structure Constraint and Relativized Minimality
Small complements of Ps and genitive case assignment
Get PDFThis paper deals with possessor case assignment in Samburg Izhma-Komi subjects and oblique nominals. The problem is that the case assigned to the possessor depends on the syntactic position of the enclosing nominal; possessors are genitive in subjects and nominative in obliques. This is not predicted by the current theories of case. Looking at morphosyntactic properties of P-complements in Samburg Komi such as possessive agreement within the complement, possessive agreement with the complement, and plural marking of the complement, I show that these complements are not full DPs. The possessor case-marking follows straightforwardly. Since P-complements are not DPs, as opposed to subjects, genitive cannot be assigned. Independently, I show that nominative is the case assigned in PPs. In absence of a D, the case associated with P is assigned to possessors in obliques. This analysis has several theoretical implications. First, I show that inherent cases are better analyzed as syntactic P-heads alongside free-standing postpositions. Second, I provide an argument in favor of DP-hypothesis. Finally, I show that not all arguments within a language must be full DPs
Bilingual phonological interaction: Cross-language process transfer in code-switching
Get PDFBilinguals challenge the boundaries of languages’ distinct grammars – including their phonological systems and phonological processes – but the impact of code-switching on the challenging of these boundaries is not fully understood. The current study explores the interaction between adult bilinguals’ two phonological systems by investigating the effects of code-switching on the cross-language transfer of phonological processes. I investigate two main questions: 1) Can a bilingual speaker cross-linguistically transfer phonological processes (promotion) or the lack of particular processes (inhibition) in a code-switching context?; and 2) Do code switches affect the degree and/or frequency of these cross-language influences? To answer these questions, I examine the /t/ → [ɾ] tapping process of English and /d/ → [ð] spirantization process of Spanish. Data was collected from the Miami Corpus (Bangor University). Results indicate that phonological processes and the lack of particular processes can transfer cross-linguistically in code-switching contexts, and these transfers can be realized through phonetically gradient and, occasionally, categorical effects. Results also indicate that code switches can indeed affect the nature of these cross-language phonological processes transfers. These results suggest that code-switching can motivate the interaction between a bilingual’s two phonological systems and offer insight into the nature of phonological systems’ boundaries
Vocalic segments and the phonetic basis of weight in Norwegian
Get PDFThis paper revisits and expands on previous analyses of Norwegian syllable weight (Lunden 2006, 2013) and different rime shapes’ ability to draw stress. A production study was run to examine the durationally-based weight categorization of all possible Norwegian rime shapes in non-final and word-final positions. Specific attention is given to the behavior of word-final long vowels in open syllables, which may occur in the language but are relatively uncommon. Evidence regarding different rime shapes’ ability to draw stress is shown through the results of a perception study which probed listeners’ preference for penultimate versus final stress with different rime shape combinations, including those which would result in a word-final long vowel if stressed. These preferences are compared to the results of a Maximum Entropy Model (Goldwater et al. 2003) of Norwegian stress assignment based on a corpus of loan words. We conclude that final long vowels are in fact phonologically heavy, and while they are relatively rare in the lexicon of Norwegian, native speakers tolerate them surprisingly well
Lio kinship terminology
Get PDFThis work focuses on kinship terms in Lio, an understudied Austronesian language spoken in Flores, Indonesia. We describe the Lio kinship terms and compare them to available data on other nearby Austronesian languages. Preliminary observations show examples of alternate generation terms which have not been discussed in previous literature. These alternate generation terms are also divided by gender, a quality that has not been discussed in the Central Flores languages literature