Proceedings Published by the LSA (Linguistic Society of America)
Not a member yet
4323 research outputs found
Sort by
The Calibrated Error-Driven Ranking Algorithm as a Solution to Oscillation in Antagonistic Constraints: A Necessary Bias for Algorithmic Learning of Kihnu Estonian
Get PDFThis paper investigates the learning of Kihnu Estonian, a minority dialect of Estonian (Balto-Finnic). I propose a set of constraints to account for Kihnu Estonian vowel harmony patterns, and show that they can be used to produce a restrictive grammar for Kihnu Estonian vowel harmony. With this constraint set, I model the acquisition of Kihnu Estonian vowel harmony via the application of the Gradual Learning Algorithm (Boersma and Hayes, 2001). Antagonistic constraints in the set I adopt pose obstacles to successful learning of the vowel patterns attested in the learning data. These obstacles can be circumvented via use of the update rule from the Calibrated Error-Driven Ranking Algorithm (Magri, 2012).This update rule has been argued to be detrimental to learning variation in stochastic OT. However, though it was originally proposed to address the Credit Problem (Dresher, 1999), I show that it is in fact an elegant solution to the learning problems caused by oscillating constraints when modeling acquisition of Kihnu Estonian vowel harmony
A prominence account of the Northern Mam weight hierarchy
Get PDFNorthern dialects of the Mayan language Mam have a ternary weight scale for assigning stress, with the added wrinkle that syllables with glottal codas are heavier than those with other coda types: VV > Vʔ > VC > V. This ranking is initially surprising under the currently accepted prominence theory of weight (Ryan 2019, 2020), where all codas are equally moraic in all contexts. However, a phonetic experiment undertaken by Kuo & Elkins (2022) on the Northern Todos Santos Mam variety shows that Vʔ (i.e. syllables with glottal codas) are realized as lengthened glottalized vowels without a [ʔ] release, with vowel length intermediate between that of V and VV. Consequently, the Mam hierarchy VV > Vʔ > VC falls out from the relative phonetic prominence of syllable types, consistent with Ryan’s account. In Ryan’s analysis, VV attracts stress away from VC because vocalic moras are more prominent than consonantal moras (enforced via the constraint VV→MAIN). We build on this analysis and propose that in Mam, Vʔ attracts stress away from VC because of its higher prominence. This result leads to a typological prediction, where differences in the phonological weight of Vʔ and other VC should fall out from language-specific phonetic realizations of Vʔ
Idiosyncratic Hiatus Resolution: An Argument for Gradient Harmonic Grammar
Get PDFThis paper discusses implications for generative theories of phonological idiosyncrasy, based on two vowel reduction patterns exhibited in Palauan. First, the process involves multiple degrees of idiosyncrasy; in cases of stress shift, vowels may surface faithfully, reduce to some unpredictable degree, or delete entirely. Second, the process involves unpredictability with respect to the patterning of tautomorphemic vowels with respect to hiatus resolution. We show that Palauan vowel reduction and hiatus resolution receive a parsimonious analysis in Gradient Harmonic Grammar (Smolensky & Goldrick 2016), a weighted constraint system in which individual segments and features are specified for non-integer degrees of activity (i.e. presence) in input forms. By proposing that vowels in Palauan may be specified for distinct input activity values, we are able to capture the idiosyncratic patterning of individual vowels within these two processes
Editor\u27s Note
No full textThe Ninth Annual Meeting on Phonology (AMP 2022) was hosted by the UCLA Department of Linguistics on October 21-23, 2022. This editor\u27s note to the Proceedings of AMP 2022 discusses abstract submission and acceptance, the review process, and the editors\u27 acknowledgements
Overt and Covert Subjects in Uyghur: Not the same thing
Get PDFOvert nominative-marked indexicals in Uyghur attitude reports are known to undergo obligatory shifting and trigger matching agreements. This paper challenges the prevailing view that the covert subject is parallel to its overt nominative counterpart. We evaluate several hypotheses that consider covert subjects to be true indexicals, but we find that none of them can fully explain all the observed readings. Drawing inspiration from previous studies on null subject licensing in Partial Null Subject languages, we suggest that the covert subject in Uyghur functions as an anaphor, while the overt subject is an indexical. The recognition of their differences opens up the possibility of associating Uyghur covert subjects with other non-indexical elements, thereby contributing to our understanding of indexical shift
Introducing arguments beyond the thematic domain
Get PDFExtensive research has focused on how VoiceP (Kratzer 1996), ApplP (Pylkkänen 2008), and i* (Wood & Marantz 2017), an overarching term for Voice and Appl, establish argument structure inside the thematic domain (below TP). A question arises as to whether argument structure can be established outside the thematic domain (above TP). This work provides empirical evidence from Korean in suggesting that an argument can be introduced by Voice/Appl (i*) in the left periphery. Specifically, it lends support to the claim that the discourse participant ‘addressee’ is represented in syntax (Haegeman & Hill 2013; Miyagawa 2017; 2022; Portner et al. 2019 among others). In this regard, this work draws parallels between the thematic domain and the speech act domain, which have been considered to be two separate domains
Random bisexual forests: Intersections between gender, sexuality, and race in /s/ production
Get PDFThe ideology of “the gay lisp” has inspired numerous quantitative studies examining the relationship between /s/ production and sexuality in American English (e.g. Linville 1998; Munson et al. 2006a; Zimman 2013). There are two key gaps in this literature. First, research in this area typically focuses on monosexual (i.e. lesbian, gay, and straight) speakers to the exclusion of bisexuality. Second, work in this area rarely considers the intersection of sexuality with factors outside of gender or sex, and to a lesser extent geographic location (e.g. Campbell-Kibler 2011; Podesva & Hofwegen 2014). This article addresses these disparities by (1) centralizing bisexual speakers and (2) attending to social factors such as race, place, age, and their intersections in the analysis. To that end, we build upon previous work by Willis (forthcoming) and apply a random forest (Breiman 2001) to /s/ center of gravity measurements. In doing so, we follow Tagliamonte and Baayen (2012) in demonstrating the utility of random forests as an approach to quantitative sociolinguistic analysis. Ultimately, the analysis underscores the need to attend to power structures and biases within research practice: the monosexist ideologies of sexuality and gender normativity that obfuscate bisexuality, and the privileging of whiteness that permeates quantitative studies of sexuality and the voice
What\u27s the point? Examining indices in American Sign Language nominals
No full textIn American Sign Language, nominal phrases contain various pointing signs, referred to as \u27indices\u27, which establish specific referential loci in the signing space. These indices can occur pre- and/or post-nominally or can function as an independent pronoun. Traditionally, these indices have been treated as separate lexical items, but I argue that they are instead realizations of the same functional category, namely idx. Here, I extend part of an analysis of Washo nominal phrases (Hanink 2021) to nominals in ASL
Modeling Mandarin rhotacization with Recursive Schemes
Get PDFThis paper pursues a novel analysis of Mandarin rhotacization using Sonority Scale and characterizes this phonological process computationally with BOOLEAN MONADIC RECURSIVE SCHEMES (BMRSs, Chandlee & Jardine 2021). Mandarin rhotacization shows an asymmetry between high front vowels (i.e. [i, y] and high back vowels [u] vowels. Diverging from previous phonetics-based accounts to explain this asymmetry (Chao 1968; Duanmu 2007; a. o.), I propose that adjacent segments compete in terms of sonority in order to surface and present a refined, detailed sonority ranking in Mandarin. Finally, the if...then...else syntax in BMRSs elegantly formalizes the sonority competition between segments
Honorific titles are D
Get PDFThis study proposes a hypothesis that honorific titles such as English Mr and Japanese san occupy the D head position and discusses its consequences to the syntax and semantics of nominals. Seven pieces of supporting evidence are presented using data from various languages. If the proposed hypothesis is correct, (i) nominals in languages without articles are not NP but DP, (ii) proper names cannot be D but N, and (iii) a semantic parameter concerning the basic denotation of common nouns such as Chierchia\u27s (1998) Nominal Mapping Parameter is unnecessary