Proceedings Published by the LSA (Linguistic Society of America)
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Incremental processing of telicity in Italian children
Get PDFA sentence like \u27Lyn has peeled the apple\u27 triggers two types of inferences: a telicity inference that the event is telic; and a culmination inference that the event has reached its telos and has stopped. This results in the final interpretation of the sentence that Lyn has completely peeled the apple. We present an eye-tracking study to test children\u27s ability to predict the upcoming noun (e.g., the apple) during the incremental processing of sentences like \u27Look at the picture in which he/she has peeled the…\u27 in which the predicate is telic and the verb appears in the perfective form. By means of the Visual World Paradigm, we aimed to investigate children\u27s ability to use the lexical semantics and aspectual morphology of verbs during language processing. To test if children can predict the target (e.g., a completely peeled apple) by exploiting the lexical-semantic meaning of the verb, we contrasted the target picture with a picture of an object that cannot be peeled; to test if they can predict on the basis of the verb\u27s perfective morphology, we compared the target with the picture of a half-peeled apple. Our results show that Italian children can anticipate the upcoming noun in both cases, providing evidence that children can exploit the morphosyntactic cue on the verb (perfective aspect) to incrementally derive the culmination inference that the telos is reached and the event is completed. We also show that the integration of aspect requires some additional time compared to the integration of the basic lexical semantics of the verb
Or not Alternative Questions, Focus and Discourse Structure
Get PDFOr not alternative questions like Are you coming or not? give rise to so-called ‘cornering effects’ (Biezma 2009), consisting of two parts: (i) they cannot appear discourse-initially, and (ii) they do not allow for follow-up questions. Building on recent experimental data (Beltrama, Meertens & Romero 2020), the present paper raises problems for current analyses (Biezma 2009, Biezma & Rawlins 2012, 2018), reframes the second part of cornering as not specific to NAQs but as a general constraint on questions in general, and develops a novel proposal for the first part of cornering. The key ingredients of the new proposal are the intrinsic focus structure of or not questions and its effects on discourse trees
Bisexuality and /s/ production
Get PDFThe belief that there are systematic differences in speech production as a function of sexual orientation has inspired a vast body of linguistic research investigating the acoustic correlates of sounding queer. Although gay-sounding voices and to a lesser extent lesbian-sounding voices are well represented in this literature, bisexuality is conspicuously absent. The current study addresses this gap through an acoustic analysis of bisexual English speakers’ read speech vis-à-vis lesbian, gay, and straight speakers, specifically attending to three measures of the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/: center of gravity, skew, and duration. A qualitative analysis of post-test participant information surveys contextualizes the statistical results. The study finds that bisexual women and men do not pattern consistently with lesbian, gay, or straight speakers, or even with each other. The results call into question the common methodological practice of grouping bisexual speakers with lesbian and gay speakers a priori and underscore the importance of intersectionality, gender normativity, and ideology in sociophonetic studies of sexuality and the voice
Exhaustification, free-choice, and additivity: Evidence from Sakha da(γanɨ)
Get PDFThis paper discusses some unique semantic properties displayed by the Sakha quantifier particle daγanɨ (often reduced to da). It is shown that, despite significant similarity with well-studied additive TOO-particles such as Japanese -mo and Hungarian -is, da(γanɨ) never clearly serves the role of additive too/also/either, nor does it appear in free-choice items. Adopting an exhaustification-based approach wherein quantifier particles activate grammatical alternatives which are in turn interpreted by covert operators O(nly) or E(ven), it is proposed that da(γanɨ)-marked phrases are typically exhaustified non-recursively
Variable subject pronoun expression revisited: This is what the Paisas do
Get PDFWe explore subject pronoun expression (SPE) in Medellín, Colombia using 4,623 tokens to test eight predictors. The 28% overall pronominal rate found is significantly higher than those in other mainland communities. Grammatical person exerts the greatest conditioning effect, with uno ‘one’ strongly favoring overt subjects. Findings for verb class reveal that speech and cognitive verbs promote overt subjects. However, our in-depth analysis unveils opposing tendencies between different pronominal subject + verb collocations for the same verb. E.g., whereas (yo) soy ‘I am’ strongly favors overt subjects, (ellos) son ‘they are’ favors null subjects. These findings suggest that analyses focusing on infinitives do not constitute the most accurate way to explore verb effects on SPE. Moreover, the effect of age reveals a low pronominal rate among the youngest speakers, a finding that appears to have cognitive and acquisitional implications, as younger speakers would be expected to have higher pronominal rates. In general, this study contributes to expand our knowledge of SPE. Further, the findings regarding age and the lexical effect of the verb open promising research paths
On the syntax of \u27why\u27-like \u27how\u27 in Korean
No full textThe wh-phrase ettehkey \u27how\u27 in Korean is forced to be interpreted as a reason wh-adverbial corresponding to way \u27why\u27 when it occurs with a causative-key toy-construction with past tense. In this paper, I try to answer a simple but fundamental question of whether or not reason ettehkey is base-generated in the same position as the \u27high\u27 wh-adjunct way (Ko 2005, 2006). I argue that reason ettehkey in an interrogative clause is externally merged in its checking position, Spec-CIntP, just like way (Ko 2006), whereas manner/instrumental ettehkey originates below NegP
A unified account of inquisitive and assertive rising declaratives
Get PDFPrevious work on rising declaratives has argued that some have an inquisitive interpretation similar to polar questions, and that this meaning is intonationally distinguished by a steep final rise to a high boundary tone, while others have an assertive interpretation, similar to assertions of falling declaratives, that has a shallower final rise to a lower, high boundary tone. I demonstrate that this strict form-meaning correlation does not hold because there are inquisitive rising declaratives that have a shallow final rise. I argue for a unified theory of rising declaratives with enough interpretational flexibility to explain these crosscutting patterns
Interpretation of Korean null pronouns in subject and object position: Comparing native and non-native speakers
Get PDFWe report an experiment that investigates how native and non-native Korean speakers’ interpretation of null pronouns in subject and object position is influenced by structural and discourse-level factors. We compare native Korean speakers to L2 Korean learners whose L1, Spanish, only has null pronouns in subject position. We find that native Korean speakers’ interpretation of subject and object null pronouns is guided by structural factors as well as discourse-level coherence relations, with subject nulls being more sensitive to coherence relations than object nulls. In contrast, our results suggest that L2 speakers’ interpretation of null pronouns in Korean is less influenced by coherence relations. Our results support claims that interface phenomena are challenging in L2 acquisition and provide new evidence that this occurs with null pronouns in L2 even when the L1 has null pronouns
Rethinking extra credit: How gamification can reduce grade inflation and strengthen soft skills
No full textGamification, the use of game-based principles to promote learning (Kapp 2012), allows instructors a pathway through which they can maintain curricular rigor while simultaneously fostering strong work habits and soft skill development. In this paper I describe my own experience of gamifying an online linguistics undergraduate course as I sought to combat engagement challenges such as spotty attendance and assignment procrastination. By implementing a gamified bonus level in the course, I was able to reimagine the traditional notion of extra credit in a way that incentivized self-regulation and engagement without creating a high amount of grade inflation in the process. Unlike traditional extra credit which advantages high-performing students, the bonus level sought to provide equity to the lower-performing students at a regional university with a predominant first-generation population
Using a class wiki to facilitate community and linguistic inclusivity
Get PDFI describe the implementation of a class wiki in an introductory linguistics class. There were two pedagogical goals: (1) facilitate asynchronous student engagement and collaborative learning; (2) provide opportunities for students to engage with various linguistic issues having to do with justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Assessment for the wiki was done using a version of specifications grading (Nilson 2015), so that students could choose their level of engagement with the wiki. A full description of the wiki is available at https://cbjorndahl.github.io/CMUNoLWiki/, which includes detailed descriptions, learning objectives, and prompts given to students for each wiki category. The present paper focusses primarily on the pedagogical motivations, design of the pedagogical intervention, and a reflection of its effectiveness