Yearly Archives: 2019

Hara (2019) – Daroo ka”: The interplay of deictic modality, sentence type, prosody and tier of meaning

Daroo ka”: The interplay of deictic modality, sentence type, prosody and tier of meaning
Yurie Hara
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004457
February 2019
This study examines the interaction of the Japanese modal auxiliary /daroo/ with different sentence types and intonation. A detailed investigation of /daroo/ reveals an interesting paradigm with respect to parameters such as clause type, boundary tone, tier of meaning and pragmatic context. Two naturalness rating studies are conducted to support the predictions regarding the interpretations and felicity of the target sentences. I propose that /daroo/ is a root-level/expressive modal operator which expresses the epistemic knowledge of the speaker. The proposal is formally implemented in the framework of inquisitive epistemic logic. That is, /daroo/ is an entertain modality E. A rising intonation contour is analyzed as a prosodic morpheme that is paratactically associated to its host and functions as an expressive question operator that renders an at-issue declarative into an expressive interrogative. A new composition rule that instructs how to interpret paratactically associated expressives is also proposed.

Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/004457
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Published in: semanticsarchive
keywords: modal, questions, inquisitive semantics, sentence type, prosody, tier of meaning, bias, root phenomenon, semantics, phonology

Francis (2019) – International research on bilingualism: Cross-language and cross-cultural perspectives

International research on bilingualism: Cross-language and cross-cultural perspectives
Norbert Francis
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004452
January 2019
Linguistics and the science of Anthropology have much in common. In fact, to a large extent the two fields overlap. Field workers utilize research models of the ethnographic type as well as approaches that are experimental, methods that are qualitative as well as quantitative, for example. The study of language contact and bilingualism, topic of this paper, presents a good opportunity for drawing on contributions from the two overlapping fields. The focus of the following review of current research will be mainly from the cognitive science point of view, divided into four areas of recent work: (1) bilingual development, first and second language learning and language loss, (2) creolization and convergence, (3) codeswitching and borrowing, and (4) problems related to the distinction between language and dialect. A guiding concept in better understanding the findings of research in these four areas is the special status of the mother-tongue (child first language). In bilingual communities, children often develop mother-tongue, or native-language level, competence in two languages – the acquisition of two first languages. How is second language learning different, and in what ways will research show that it is similar, or the same? Linguistics in East Asia and in other multilingual regions around the world present us with common research problems in the study of language contact and bilingualism because of notable historical parallels. Some of these parallels can be traced to the movement and settlement of founding populations. The more recent immigration and settlement of newer arriving populations is also comparable in some ways from the point of view of cross-language and cross-cultural interaction. In this regard an especially interesting parallel is that between Taiwan and North and South America. The four sub-topics to be briefly reviewed are closely related. The creation of new languages in creolization and convergence is basically about first and second language learning (#1 and #2 above). Related to the questions in this field, we study codeswitching and borrowing (#3) as an aspect of language contact on different levels: internally between the two mental grammars of the bilingual, and externally in communication with other bilingual individuals. How does this kind of linguistic interaction affect learning, language loss, and possible convergence involving two languages or two dialects? Then, what do we mean when we ask: how is variation from one language to another different from variation within a language? This question (#4) is actually difficult to answer. But it is related to processes of learning and communication between speakers of one language, or dialect, and another. Finally, the comparisons centered on East Asia allow us to study the design features of the most divergent writing systems in use in the world today and how these contrasts might be related to the cross-language interaction issues.

Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/004452
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Published in: Ethnologia
keywords: bilingualism, latin america, china, taiwan, language acquisition, literacy, morphology, syntax, phonology

Desouvrey (2019) – The Syntax of Romanian Clitics

The Syntax of Romanian Clitics
Louis-H Desouvrey
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004447
February 2019
This paper presents a syntactic account of Romanian clitic doubling and clitic clusters. It is shown that depending on feature specification of the argument, the direct object marker pe can behave either as a preposition or a case marker. If it is a preposition, the NP must be doubled by a clitic in order to satisfy the argument structure of the verb. If it is a case marker to the NP, the latter absorbs the case of the verb and satisfies its argument structure as well, hence precluding clitic doubling. As for clitic clusters, a sequence of two clitics must be compounded to form a new edge-bound element that can move under the OCP, without overloading the derivation. There are three types of compound rules, each of which operates in tandem with a series of phonological rules that alter their shapes. Ultimately these sandhi rules obliterate the boundary between the clitics, yielding a new word-like element. This fine-grained account, which relies heavily on grammatical features such as case, reference, ? (tier-bound), ? (vector), and ? (a series of traits like animate, definite, specific), runs like a clockwork. It makes it possible to predict all known peculiarities of clitic combinations, including the rigid dative-accusative ordering, the special behavior of the third feminine singular clitic, the lack of PCC effect, etc.

Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/004447
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Published in: Draft
keywords: clitic doubling, clitic clusters, pe-marking, compound, ocp, features, movement, pcc, syntax, coreference, phonology, syntax

Mendivil-Giro (2018) – Nature and Culture in Language = Syntax and Lexicon in Languages: Trying to reconcile an old controversy in the theory of language

Nature and Culture in Language = Syntax and Lexicon in Languages: Trying to reconcile an old controversy in the theory of language
Jose-Luis Mendivil-Giro
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004433
December 2018
This contribution identifies a clue that might lead us towards a better understanding of how the weight of natural and cultural factors is distributed in the design of human languages. First, I propose a specific model of the relationship between lexicon and syntax in human language. This model allows us to use the strategy of correlating the general question of what is natural and what is cultural in language with the nature of the various components that make up a language. Thus, I propose the following correlation: the cultural dimension of language would be expressed essentially in the lexical component of languages, while the biological/natural dimension is expressed in the syntactic component. Such a strategy also makes it possible to better understand why different traditions in contemporary linguistic theory arrive at such different assessments of the role of natural factors in language design.

Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/004433
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Published in: Unpublished
keywords: biology of language, biolinguistics, lexicon, syntax, nature/nurture debate, syntax, phonology, semantics, morphology

Emonds (2019) – Where Do English Sibilant Plurals Come From?

Where Do English Sibilant Plurals Come From?
Joseph Emonds
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004427
January 2019
Very early in Middle English, texts especially in the North and East, tend to use an orthographic suffix –(e)s for noun plurals, in Southern and Western texts the plural suffix –(e)n of the Old English weak declension at first spreads, but then by 1300 also yields to –(e)s. This essay first shows that on phonological and phonetic grounds this –(e)s, which remains the productive plural in Modern English, must, as a vocabulary item, be lexically specified as +Voice; it is not voiced by any progressive assimilation process in synchronic derivations. The source of this underlying voiced sibilant –z, completely absent in Old English, is to be found in the genealogical ancestor of Middle English, Proto-Scandinavian, whose plural in all non-neuter declensions is precisely this segment (Haugen 1982). The present essay argues that this form was an integral part of the Norse brought to England by the earliest Scandinavian settlers in the 9th c. In all likelihood, the later change in Mainland Scandinavian of this –z to –r, completed in the 12th c., failed to establish itself in the Anglicized Norse of England, due to sociolinguistic factors akin to those set out in the classic paper of Labov (1963).

Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/004427
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Published in: Joseph Emonds, Markéta Janebová, and Ludmila Veselovská, eds. Language Use and Linguistic Structure. Proceedings of the Olomouc Linguistics Colloquium 2018. Olomouc: Palacký University, 2019
keywords: common scandinavian; english plurals; middle english inflection; old english plurals; proto-scandinavian; voicing assimilation; vowel syncope, morphology, phonology

Ulfsbjorninn & Lahrouchi (2016) – The Typology of the Distribution of Edge: the propensity for bipositionality

The Typology of the Distribution of Edge: the propensity for bipositionality
Shanti Ulfsbjorninn, Mohamed Lahrouchi
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004423
January 2016
We discuss the grammatical conditions that can be imposed between segmental content (features) and syllable structure (positions) and how a representational preference can influence diachronic development. The discussion centers on the co-distribution of two properties: occlusivity and bipositionality. The first is the phonological feature that induces occlusivity and reduces amplitude (Edge(*)), the second is the autosegmental structural property of belonging to multiple positions (C.C). Edge(*) and bipositionality have a universal affinity but they are not reducible to each other. Instead, the inherent diachronic tendency to preserve Edge(*) in bipositional structures becomes grammaticalised through licensing conditions that dictate the alignment of the two properties. This can be expressed bidirectionally forming two major language types. Type A has the condition stated from the featural perspective (Edge(*) must be found in C.C). While, Type B comes from the other direction (C.C must contain Edge(*)). Crucially, the same structure is diachronically stable: (Edge(*)- C.C). What varies is the distribution of those properties elsewhere (given the direction of licensing condition). Type A excludes Edge(*) from {#__,V_V}, while Type B excludes C.Cs without Edge(*). Although there is variation on this point, there is a UG component, because there are no anti-Type A/B languages where Edge(*) repels bipositionality.

Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/004423
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Published in: Papers in Historical Phonology 1
keywords: melodic level (elements), prosodic level, bipositionality, sharing, gadsup, berber, soninke, phonology

Lahrouchi (2019) – Not as you R: Adapting the French rhotic into Arabic and Berber

Not as you R: Adapting the French rhotic into Arabic and Berber
Mohamed Lahrouchi
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004422
January 2019
This article examines the adaptation of the French rhotic in Arabic and Berber. In loanwords borrowed from French, the uvular fricative is systematically interpreted as a coronal tap, despite the fact that Arabic and Berber have phonemic /?/ and /?/. We argue that this phenomenon is determined by phonological rather than phonetic factors. We show that Tashlhiyt Berber and Moroccan Arabic speakers, including monolinguals, are able to identify the French r as a sonorant, based on their native phonology, where many co-occurrence restrictions are analyzed in terms of sonority-sensitive dependency relations between the most sonorous segment and its neighboring segments.

Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/004422
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Published in: Under revision
keywords: rhotics, french, berber, arabic, loanwords, phonology

Lahrouchi (2018) – The Amazigh influence on Moroccan Arabic: Phonological and morphological borrowing

The Amazigh influence on Moroccan Arabic: Phonological and morphological borrowing
Mohamed Lahrouchi
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004421
January 2018
This paper outlines some of the main phonological and morphological features that Moroccan Arabic has developed in contact with Amazigh. Based on previous work, it is argued that Moroccan Arabic has lost the Classical Arabic short vowels and has developed a short central vowel, used break up illicit consonant clusters. It is shown that the distribution of this schwa-like vowel is better analysed within a strict CV model where ungoverned empty vocalic positions surface at the phonetic level. In the same vein, it is proposed that the Classical Arabic short [u] is kept in Moroccan Arabic as a labial feature when it occurs in the vicinity of a labial, velar or uvular consonant. Sibilant harmony is another feature that Moroccan Arabic shares with Amazigh. It is analysed as a long distance process which occurs within a specific domain, consisting of the stem template, plus an empty initial CV. This empty site allows for the Moroccan Arabic definite article and the Amazigh causative prefix to harmonize with the stem sibilant. The influence of Amazigh on Moroccan Arabic is also visible at the morphological level. We discuss the behaviour of the circumfix /ta…-t/, which Moroccan Arabic borrowed as an unanalysed complex, used to form abstract and profession nouns.

Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/004421
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Published in: International Journal of Arabic Linguistics 4(1)
keywords: berber (amazigh), arabic, loanwords, morphology, phonology

Lahrouchi (2017) – The left edge of the word in the Berber derivational morphology

The left edge of the word in the Berber derivational morphology
Mohamed Lahrouchi
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004420
January 2017
In many Berber varieties, causative and reciprocal verbs are built by means of monoconsonantal prefixes attached to a stem. These prefixes are realized as single or geminated depending on the properties of the stem. In this paper, it is argued that an initial templatic site is responsible for the length variation of the prefixes. Under specific licensing conditions, the initial site hosts the causative and the reciprocal prefixes by means of two distinct operations, namely movement and spreading. Moreover, complex combinations of those prefixes (causative + reciprocal, reciprocal + causative) feed apparently unrelated phenomena of selective harmony and dissimilation. They are argued to follow directly from the use of the initial site as part of the verb domain. Handled in syntactic structure, the initial site further allows accounting for the cooccurrence restrictions that the causative and the imperfective markers undergo: it is proposed that the causative takes precedence over the imperfective because it is generated lower in the structure under the vP. The same reasoning holds for the incompatibility of imperfective gemination with the reciprocal marker. It is precisely this type of restrictions that strictly phonological analyses fail to address.

Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/004420
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Published in: Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 3(1)
keywords: causative, reciprocal, sibilant harmony, berber, morphology, syntax, phonology

Lahrouchi & Ridouane (2015) – On diminutives and plurals in Moroccan Arabic

On diminutives and plurals in Moroccan Arabic
Mohamed Lahrouchi, Rachid Ridouane
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004419
January 2015
In Moroccan Arabic, like in many other Afroasiatic languages, a single noun may have more than one plural form. For instance, t??s?wera ‘photo’ has plurals t?s?aw?r and
t??s?werat. Morphologically speaking, these are genuine plurals referring to what Semitists commonly call broken and sound plurals or internal and external plurals. From
a semantic perspective, however, sound plurals indicate a definite number usually occurring with numerals, whereas the corresponding broken plurals have collective read
ings. This study presents an interface approach which aims to determine the structural location of number and capture the empirical contrast between broken and sound plu
rals. It is argued that the sound plurals are associated with the standard Num projection, whereas the broken plurals are associated lower in the structure with the n pr
ojection. External evidence for this analysis is drawn from the phenomenon of emphasis spread. The nP is presented as the maximal domain of emphasis spread in nouns.

Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/004419
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Published in: Morphology 26(3)</td >
keywords: moroccan arabic, plurals, diminutives, emphasis spread, morphology, syntax, phonology