Proceedings Published by the LSA (Linguistic Society of America)
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Italian dialects at the phonology-syntax interface: The case of propagination
Get PDFIn southern Italian dialects propagination, a phonological phenomenon involving vowel alteration via assimilation, is re‑interpreted as a manifestation of the phonology‑syntax interface. Cases of optional occurrence of propagination are linked to distinctive (morpho)syntactic configurations of the Determiner Phrase and, ultimately, to the semantic‑syntactic category of Number. Propagination parallels metaphony in conveying unexpected morphological patterns. More than one phonological phenomenon play a determining role in the grammar of some Italo‑Romance varieties: this calls for an approach that accounts for both the phonological outcomes and the structural configurations
Arguments for top-down derivations in syntax
Get PDFThis paper argues for a top-down approach to syntactic structure building, instead of the more popularly assumed bottom-up approach. We present phenomena where properties of a higher structure condition elements or operations in a lower domain. The opposite pattern is, we claim, much rarer and more restricted. This follows from a top-down approach, given the relative time at which elements are integrated into the structure. Bottom-up derivations, in contrast, would naturally lead to opposite predictions. Our goal is not to show that bottom-up theories cannot explain the facts, but rather that a top-down account is more natural and less stipulative
Consonant acquisition in Lio
Get PDFLio is an understudied Austronesian language spoken in Central Flores, Indonesia by 220,000 speakers (Ethnologue, 2019), for which no acquisition research has yet been completed. In this case study, the speech of two female bilingual speakers, ages 7 and 9, were transcribed, to determine which consonants were produced in an adult-like manner by each speaker; all consonants that the children attempted were produced in an adult-like manner, excepting [ɰ] and [r]. [ɰ] is of note, as it was replaced by [j], a phoneme in the speakers’ other language, Indonesian, implying a potential influence of bilingualism.
The effect of the verb on pronominal expression: A reanalysis
Get PDFThe verb is a known constraint on subject pronoun expression that has been explored using several different predictor/factor configurations. This paper expands on recent investigations of how verbs condition this phenomenom by analyzing 17,500 tokens from five locales: Barranquilla, Cali, Medellín, New York, and Xalapa. We hypothesized that verb groups do not constitute natural functional subject pronoun constraining categories. We analyze the effect of the verb with multivariate regressions testing – as random effects factors – verbs and pronominal subject+verb collocations. Results uncover – within each corpus – significant opposite tendencies between (a) verbs in the same category and (b) finite forms of a single verb. Findings support our hypothesis revealing that pronominal subject+verb collocations provide a more definitive account of how verbs condition subject pronoun expression. Findings also suggest that pragmatic/cognitive dynamics govern verb effects and provide mounting evidence that despite four decades of research, we have not found the real effects of the verb on subject pronoun expression. This research expands our analytical scope and improves the accountability of findings on this phenomenon by offering new perspectives on the lexical effect of the verb
Hypothetical Comparison in Turkish
Get PDFIn this paper, we present a preliminary investigation of the complex formative -mışcasına in Turkish, used for hypothetical comparison. We observe that -mışcasına differs from its counterparts in previously studied hypothetical comparison constructions in one key aspect: It can naturally target non-eventive nominal predicates. Furthermore, we find that -mışcasına is primarily licensed in linguistic contexts that make a gradable property available. Building on these initial empirical observations, we flesh out a novel account of hypothetical comparison that makes use of a well-established formalism of degree semantics and semantics of equatives, eschewing the intricate notion of event similarity which is central to previous accounts. In particular, we argue that -mışcasına compares an actual degree against hypothetical degrees, asserting that the actual degree is greater than or equal to any of the hypothetical degrees
L1 vs. L2 vs. L3 transfer: Evidence contra wholesale transfer models and privileged languages from grammatical gender and definiteness acquisition in sequential quardilinguals
No full textThe acquisition of the fourth language (L4A) is an underinvestigated field, and this study of acquisition of grammatical gender and determiners in sequential quadrilinguals (RUS-UKR-ENG-FRA) of CEFR A0 to A2 levels of French (n=22) aims at testing the hypothesis that all three languages are available as a source of transfer to (L4). The results were found to be significant by ANOVAs and MANOVA, thus the study presents evidence to support the hypothesis that language learning is cumulative, as well as to scrutinize the existing models of L3A on how they could be extended to the research in L4A and what the boundaries of "linguistic proximity" used so widely in L3A theories are
Exclamations and their discourse effects in Japanese
Get PDFThis paper discusses two kinds of sentences with nante that can express exclamations in Japanese. I show that these two nante exclamations show the contrast observed between sentence exclamations and wh-exclamatives in English (Rett 2011). Based on the data, I propose that nante in the two types of sentences can be analyzed in a unified way: nante is like what in English in that it can range over a variety of categories. The semantic composition shows that the two nante sentences have different sentence types and hence different discourse effects (Farkas & Roelofsen 2017). One type is a marked assertion, and the other is a bonafide exclamative. I show the contrast using the discourse model in Farkas & Bruce (2010): the exclamative updates the speaker’s commitment, not the potential future common ground
Bidirectionality of language contact: Spanish and Catalan vowels
Get PDFThe disproportionate number of studies in Barcelona and the Balearic Islands observing Spanish contact effects in Catalan production, rather than Catalan contact effects in Spanish production, is an oversight of bidirectionality and the probabilistic nature of social factors in situations of language contact. Accordingly, the present study analyzes both Catalan and Spanish mid front vowel production data from Barcelona to investigate whether Catalan contact effects occur in Spanish via a process of dissimilation, and whether such effects are strengthened in younger speakers due to the relatively recent implementation of Catalan linguistic policy in the educational and public spheres. The results are suggestive of dissimilation, where phonetic distinctions are maintained between Spanish /e/ and the two Catalan mid front vowels across both F1 and F2. Additionally, analyses of variance across F1 and F2 reveal that Spanish /e/ productions across F1 are more diffuse in younger speakers and Catalan mid front vowels across F2 are less diffuse, providing evidence of reciprocity in contact effects. These results underscore the bidirectional nature of language contact and advocate for the use of variance of F1 and F2 as a metric of phonological contact effects
Japanese subject-oriented adverbs in a scope-based theory of adverbs
Get PDFWhile English exhibits a clausal-manner alternation that is sensitive to where adverbs occur in clausal structure (e.g., Rudely, John left vs. John left rudely), it has not been clear to what extent Japanese behaves the same way. The present study argues, in the spirit of a scope-based theory of adverb licensing, that there is evidence that the Japanese adverbial system is scope-based similarly to its English counterpart. Focusing on mental attitude adverbs, the paper argues that Ernst’s (2002) generalization holds for Japanese: that subject-oriented adverbs lose their otherwise available clausal readings when pure manner adverbs c-command them in the same clause. The paper also claims that clausal mental attitude adverbs must be clause-mates of Tense, which is not reduced to the scope-based theory
D-linking and the semantics of wh-in-situ
Get PDFTheories of pair-list readings of multiple wh-questions commonly posit an interpretive asymmetry between the fronted and in-situ wh-phrases, where the fronted wh-phrase is argued to function as the sortal key, have a requirement to be interpreted exhaustively, or be obligatorily D-linked. To clarify the empirical landscape of such debate, I present three experiments which tease apart the effects of these often-confounded discourse factors on the order and interpretation of multiple wh-questions. They are found to have either inconsistent or insignificant effects, arguing against a unique discourse-sensitivity of the fronted wh-phrase. Theories of questions which encode such an asymmetry should accordingly be revised