Proceedings Published by the LSA (Linguistic Society of America)
Not a member yet
4323 research outputs found
Sort by
Ergativity as a natural manifestation of the v > EA base
Get PDFThis study proposes an analysis of ergativity based on the hypothesis that, contrary to the standardly assumed structure, the Case assigner v asymmetrically c-commands the base position of all the arguments of the verb, including the external argument. Simply assuming that an EPP feature attracts the closest NP it c-commands, and that a Case feature assigns structural Case to the closest NP it c-commands, we aim at a theory in which ergativity as well as accusativity is a natural manifestation of this universal base, while their differences reflect the parametric differences of the formal features of v
Children are more sensitive to the Recursive Set-Subset Ordering than to Adjective Ordering Restrictions
Get PDFThe current paper investigates experimentally whether, in a context requiring identifying green leaves out of a set of long leaves, Romanian 4-year-olds and adults choose to place the Color adjective closer to the noun than the Size adjectives in accordance with a more rigid adjective ordering depending on the (type of) semantic property, or whether they choose to place the Set adjective closer to the noun than the Subset adjective, irrespective of the semantic property specified by the adjective (Size or Color). We find that both Romanian adults and children are more sensitive to the Set-Subset distinction, preferring to refer to the subset of green leaves out of a set of long leaves through frunzele lungi verzi ‘the green long leaves’. We argue that adjectives are primarily ordered by a Recursive Set-Subset Ordering Constraint (RSSO), while orderings of adjectives in terms of properties such as Size and Color are cognitive
The development of vowel length as a subphonemic cue
Get PDFPrevious research has shown that English speakers use vowel length (VL) as a subphonemic cue to obstruent voicing. Many studies have demonstrated adults’ ability to make a voicing judgment based upon VL but studies with children have provided mixed results. In the present study, we sought to first determine whether adults would exhibit varying sensitivity to VL based upon whether it could serve as a strong subphonemic cue. Second, we sought to better understand children’s sensitivity to subphonemic VL from 4 to 6 years by removing top-down information and isolating the acoustic system. Adults (NN=73, MEAN AGE=5;5.6) treat subphonemic VL differently from adults in two ways. First, they fail to show sensitivity at the same level as adults. 5- and 6-year-olds require VL differences that are twice as large and 4-year-olds do not show sensitivity even at the larger lengths. Second, children do not reveal varying sensitivity based upon the vowel’s position as a potential subphonemic cue. This suggests that children have not fully developed their native phonology by the time they are 6-years-old
Accusative Licensing of Nouns in Turkish
Get PDFThe observation that some Turkish nouns license accusative marking of their complements has puzzled linguistics for the last three decades. The first and the most common hypothesis is that such nouns are part of light-verb compounds in their infinitive nominal form where the verbal part is dropped. In this paper, I argue that light-verb hypothesis is incorrect by providing several constructions where it fails to account for. I propose an alternative, two-part hypothesis. The first part is independent of the light-verb constructions and claims that in Turkish, the accusative case is licensed by verb stems rather than finite verbs. This is a natural corollary of a yet larger hypothesis about the structure of syntax trees for languages like Turkish which claims that the syntax trees go deeper than the word level. The leaves of such trees are morphemes or morpheme groups and the whole of infection/derivation is considered within a single morphosyntactic structure. The implication is that as far as the case-licensing is concerned, only the verb stems license accusative case. In constructions where a deverbal noun seems to be licensing accusative case, it is actually the verb stem in the noun’s derivation tree that licenses the accusative case. The second part of the hypothesis is the claim that the case-licensing nouns are actually lexicalizations involving multiple adjacent leaves in the morphosyntactic tree. The most common manifestations of this are the lexicalizations of verb stem-participle pairs through replacement with templatic surface forms borrowed from Arabic. The new proposal naturally explains the observation that accusative licensing is most common for a small set of words borrowed from Arabic. I illustrate that these words are the templatic forms of their multi-morpheme counterparts in Turkish which correspond to deverbal nouns, adjectives or adverbs
Variable Conjunct Agreement in Qaraqalpaq
Get PDFThis paper examines a unique Variable Conjunct Agreement (VCA) pattern in Qaraqalpaq. In this language, the second or third person pronoun can undergo conjunct agreement with the verb from either the first or last conjunct. This agreement pattern is disrupted in the presence of any first person pronoun, regardless of whether the pronoun is within the ConjP. We use a multidominant structure to represent coordination in Qaraqalpaq. We propose that a \emph{Speaker} head is required to merge the ConjP with the rest of the structure. This Speaker head is also required to license the [+Speaker] feature of the first person pronoun. This competition prevents first person pronouns and VCA from co-occurring in the same sentence; the only possibility in the relevant cases is full subject agreement
Phonologically conditioned suppletive allomorphy in Haitian as morphological optimization
Get PDFPhonologically conditioned suppletive allomorphy (PCSA) may be phonologically optimizing: allomorph selection complies with the language phonotactics. However this is not always the case. A counterexample often discussed in the literature is Haitian determiner a/la. This paper further investigates Haitian by focusing on a PCSA pattern in Northern Haitian that has not yet been discussed in the theoretical literature: third person singular pronoun i/li. The paper argues that this pattern can be analyzed as morphologically optimizing: allomorph selection in this case can be understood as a way to facilitate morpheme identification in context. The pattern presents a further interesting property: allomorph selection interacts with a phonologically optimizing process (pronoun reduction from i to y [j] and from li to l). This interaction can be straightforwardly modeled in an analysis assuming parallel morphological and phonological optimizations, but not in a serial model where the morphology precedes the phonology and has no access to the output of phonological optimization
Unifying Initial Geminates and Fortis Consonants via Laryngeal Specification: Three case studies from Dunan, Pattani Malay, and Salentino
No full textInitial Geminates (IGs) are often assumed to differ from singletons mainly in duration, while fundamental frequency (f0) and intensity are described as secondary, variable cues. Accordingly, IGs are phonologically represented with a [+long] feature or by associating the consonant to two timing units. On the other hand, more recent work on IGs has suggested that the boundary between IGs and fortis stops is tenuous. To further support this claim, we present converging evidence from 3 understudied languages, Dunan (Japonic), Pattani Malay (PM, Austronesian), and Salentino (Indo-European), suggesting that IGs may also be reliably cued by intensity, possibly as a byproduct of longer closure duration, and f0 throughout the following vowel. Reliance on these acoustic cues is strongly reminiscent of fortis stops in, e.g., Korean. Accordingly, we propose that languages prototypically described as having IG contrasts should be phonologically represented with a distinct laryngeal specification that takes into account the constellation of acoustic cues at play
Might and might not: Children\u27s conceptual development and the acquisition of modal verbs
Get PDFWhen a child acquires her first modal verbs, is she learning how to map words in the language she is learning onto innate concepts of possibility, necessity, and impossibility? Or does she also have to construct modal concepts? If the concepts are constructed, does learning to talk about possibilities play a role in the construction process? Exploring this hypothesis space requires testing children\u27s acquisition of modal vocabulary alongside nonverbal tests of their modal concepts. Here we report a study with 103 children from 4;0 through 7;11 and 24 adults. We argue that the data fit best with the hypothesis that acquisition of modal language and development of modal concepts proceed hand-in-hand. However, more research is needed, especially with 3-year-olds
Comparative Anaphora: comparing alternatives
No full textA common assumption in degree semantics is that there is a functionargumentrelationship betwen the comparative morpheme er and the overt standard.Drawing on observations from comparatives without an overt standard, I argue forreconsiderations of this assumption and offer a reanalysis of er, where it directlycompares to the alternative in the second dimension of meaning
(Non-)specificity across languages: constancy, variation, v-variation
Get PDFIndefinites are known to give rise to different scopal (specific vs non-specific) and epistemic (known vs unknown) uses. Farkas & Brasoveanu (2020) explained these specificity distinctions in terms of stability vs. variability in value assignments of the variable introduced by the indefinite. Typological research (Haspelmath 1997) showed that indefinites have different functional distributions with respect to these uses. In this work, we present a formal framework where Farkas & Brasoveanu (2020)’s ideas are rigorously formalized. We develop a two-sorted team semantics which integrates both scope and epistemic effects. We apply the framework to explain typological variety of indefinites, their restricted distribution and licensing conditions, and some diachronic developments of indefinite forms