Linguistic Missing Links.
Gerard Cheshire
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003737
May 2017
Linguistic missing links: instruction in decrypting, translating and transliterating the only document known to use both proto-Romance language and proto-Italic symbols for its writing system. This paper provides the solution to understanding the hitherto unknown writing system used for the manuscript listed as MS 408 at the Beinecke Library, Yale University. The writing system uses symbols, punctuation, grammar and language that are each unique. The manuscript is not encrypted, in the sense that its author made an effort to conceal the contents of the manuscript, as has been presumed by some scholars. Instead, it is code only in the sense that the modern reader needs to be versed in the calligraphic and linguistic rules to be able to translate and read the texts. Furthermore, in discovering its writing system, it became apparent that the manuscript is of invaluable importance to the study of the evolution of the Romance languages and the scheme of Italic letters and associated punctuation marks now commonplace in those and other modern languages. In short; it is revealed to be the only known document both written in Vulgar Latin, or proto-Romance, and using proto-Italic symbols. The original title for the manuscript, given by its female author, is: What one needs to be sure to acquire for the evils set in one’s fate. It is a book offering homeopathic advice and instruction to women of court on matters of the heart, of sexual congress, of reproduction, of motherhood and of the physical and emotional complications that can arise along the way through life.

Linguistic knowledge by descent: an evolutionary approach to stress typology
Bridget Samuels, Pedro Tiago Martins, Cedric Boeckx
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003727
April 2017
We consider here several properties of phonological stress systems, including the midpoint pathology, an unattested pattern in which stress is confined to a word-medial syllable in short words but reverts to an edge-based window in longer words. Previous attempts have been made to rule out midpoint systems by eliminating the phonological constraints that yield them, or by alluding to difficulties in learning them. We suggest that a preference for representing word edges in memory and limits on subitization—evolutionarily older “fossil” abilities which are neither specific to humans nor to language — are sufficient to rule out the midpoint pathology. We take the same approach to motivate accentual window size and some left-right asymmetries observed in the typology of attested stress systems. This approach highlights the relevance of descent in accounting for human cognition, as well as the benefits that evolutionary thinking can bring to the study of language.

Contrast is irrelevant in phonology: A simple account of Russian /v/ as /V/
Charles Reiss
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003734
January 2017
Halle’s (1959) argument against a distinction between morphophonemic and phonemic rules can be understood as an argument against the relevance of contrast to phonology. After adducing further arguments against a role for contrast, the paper provides a simple contrast-free analysis of the classic problem of the voicing behavior of Russian /v/. This segment undergoes voicing assimilation (like other obstruents), but does not trigger it (thus acting like the sonorants). In contrast to a long history of treating /v/ as a covert sonorant, the paper attributes the behavior of Russian /v/, which surfaces always as an obstruent, to underspecification with respect to the feature Voice.

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/content/article/files/1713_hayes_1.pdf

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/content/article/files/1712_hayes_1.pdf

Bits, bytes, and Unicode: Digital text for linguists
James Crippen
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003567
January 2016
A linguistically-oriented review of digital text and the representation of text with the Unicode charater set and encoding system. Presents basic terminology and concepts of writing systems, and of digital representation of information with binary (and hexadecimal) numbers. Details characters, character encodings, processes of encoding conversion, and file formats. The Unicode character set is discussed in extensive detail, distinguishing code points, character names, meta-structure such as planes and blocks, meta-data such as character types and properties, and basic principles of representation normalization and sorting. Ends with a review of Unicode encoding formats (e.g. UTF-8, UTF-16) and some practical issues for using Unicode in linguistics.

Prosody-Driven Scrambling in Italian
Vieri Samek-Lodovici
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003564
July 2017
Italian displays a scrambling pattern where the structure of the constituent following a postverbal focus affects which of its components can scramble before the focus . The actual governing factor is the prosodic phrasing pro-jected by the postfocal constituent. Scrambling is only possible when it im-proves the stress alignment with the right boundary of the intonational phrase wrapping the sentence. This study provides further evidence that the classic T-model where syntax feeds prosody needs to be replaced by a new model where prosody and syntax interact. As this study shows, OT provides a possi-ble model for such interaction that entirely dispenses with interface-related stipulations.

Towards Eradicating Class Driven Allomorphy: Nominal Suffixes in Afar
Shanti Ulfsbjorninn
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003533
May 2016
I propose that much of the ‘allomorphy’ associated with the three noun classes of Afar can be derived phonologically. In fact, it is not (properly speaking) allomorphy at all – in the sense that there is no selection between different morphs. This forms part of a program that attempts to remove class features from generative grammar. Eradicating noun class features, as is done for this data, allows for a more elegant and minimalist analysis with a clear demarcation between the features of semantic interpretation (e.g. [+fem]) and the features of phonological form (e.g. [+high]). In this way it upholds the architecture of grammar made popular by distributed morphology. In this problematic case study, we see that Afar nominal paradigms are characterized by both the introduction of features/melody and paradigm-specific stress shifts. The proposed re-analysis relies heavily on the notion of catalexis. Using a Strict CV representational model, I propose that nouns in Afar are always trochaic. The tripartite difference in the shape of nominal roots is reduced to what part of the trochee’s dependent CV is filled by melody: both C and V (V-Masc) [?bara] ‘night’, only C (C-Masc) [ma?tuk] ‘butter’ or neither (Fem) [?a?do] ‘meat’. The shape of these roots juxtaposed with the shape of the Afar affixes regularly predicts the ‘allomorphy’. The underlying form of the proposed affixes have an unusual structural condition, though one that is predicted by foundational autosegmental principles. These come with both features and skeletal structure unassociated to each other. Consequently, following my proposal, affixation can simultaneously introduce features and induce stress shift in a DM-compatible item-and-arrangement analysis, all the while without recourse to class features.

When Accent Preservation Leads to Clash
Quentin Dabouis
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003530
August 2017
In English, some complex words can display exceptional accent preservation (EAP): they can preserve an accent from their base even when this would violate a general restriction against adjacent accents (e.g. retúrn ? retùrnée). This paper analyses EAP both empirically and theoretically. The analysis of a set of 291 derivatives from Wells (2008) shows that this phenomenon can be partially attributed to the relative frequency of the base and its derivative and partially also to syllable structure, and that these two factors have a cumulative effect. It is also shown that the existence of a more deeply embedded base (e.g. colléct ? colléctive ? còllectívity ~ collèctívity) can increase the likelihood for a derivative to display EAP. A formal account of the phenomenon is proposed building on Collie’s (2007, 2008) “fake cycicity” analysis, using weighted constraints (Pater 2009, 2016) and Max-Ent-OT (Goldwater & Johnson 2003). Finally, a model of lexical access building on Hay’s (2001, 2003) model and integrating more deeply embedded bases is proposed.