Focus and Change in Polynesian Languages

This monograph is a collection of selected papers on Oceanic languages. For the first time, aspects of the morphology and syntax of Oceanic languages such as the encoding of sentence types, the structure of the noun phrase, noun incorporation, constituent order, and ergative vs. accusative alignment are discussed from a comparative point of view, thus drawing attention to genetic, areal and language-specific features. The individual papers are based on the field work of the authors on lesser-described and endangered languages and are basically descriptive studies. At the same time they also explore the theoretical implications of the data presented and analyzed, as well as the historical development of certain morpho-syntactic phenomena, without basing these explorations on a single theoretical framework. The book provides new insights into the morphosyntactic structures of Oceanic languages andis of interest primarily for linguists working on Austronesian, in particular Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian languages, but also for typologists and linguists working on language change.

This research paper investigates the syntax of idiomatic expressions consisting of the verb and the object/accompanying adjunct (VP idiomatic expressions, henceforth) in two Arabic varieties: Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Jordanian Arabic (JA). It shows that in order for VP idiomatic expressions to obtain their idiomatic reading, the predominate pattern of the word order in each variety (i.e., the VSO word order in MSA, but the SVO word order in JA) should be used; otherwise idiomaticity is not possible (with few exceptional cases discussed in the paper). We offer evidence that this restriction on the idiomaticity of VP idiomatic expressions in Arabic varieties follows from a proposed condition that the subject (even if it is not part of the idiomatic expression) and the verb (in addition to the object) should maintain a structurally local relation with each other in the narrow syntax, i.e. they should be included in the vP phase before the spell-out point. The paper shows that the movement of the verb to T0 in MSA and JA or lack thereof does not break idiomaticity, nor does the movement of the subject to Spec,TP in JA. These facts are taken as an indication that a distinction between narrow-syntax and post-spellout movements should be made. This provides evidence for proposals that distinguish between pre- and post-spellout movements (cf. Chomsky 2001, among others).

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Malayalam, an SOV language, moves its wh-phrases to a Focus position immediately to the left of V (linearly speaking). Multiple wh-phrases are “stacked” in this position. Wh-extraction from an embedded clause is not possible. When a wh-phrase in an embedded clause has matrix scope, scope-marking is done by two movements: the wh-phrase moves to the Focus position in the embedded clause, and the embedded clause is pied-piped to the Focus position in the matrix clause. It is shown that the device of “Attract” by EPP is inadequate (by itself) to describe these movements (or multiple wh-fronting). We suggest a supplementary device. “Association with focus”, the algorithm by which the question operator accesses question words, is (we suggest) a kind of ‘probe’. In languages which employ strong focusing devices, the question operator’s probe “looks at” only Focus positions. In these languages, wh-phrases must cluster in Focus positions in order to be interpreted.

Reviewed by: Perspectives on Arabic linguistics: Papers from the annual symposia on Arabic linguistics, vol. XXII–XXIII: College Park, Maryland, 2008 and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2009 Janet C. E. Watson Perspectives on Arabic linguistics: Papers from the annual symposia on Arabic linguistics, vol. XXII–XXIII: College Park, Maryland, 2008 and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2009. Ed. by Ellen Broselow and Hamid Ouali. (Current issues in linguistic theory 317.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2011. Pp. xxviii, 295. $165 (Hb). Within the series of peer-reviewed proceedings resulting from the Arabic Linguistics Society meetings, this volume brings together papers on Arabic phonetics and phonology, morphology and syntax, and language acquisition, learning, and contact. Part of its aim is also to showcase the contribution of Arabic linguistics to research on linguistics in general. Facts from Arabic and traditional approaches to Arabic linguistics have played an increasingly significant role in the testing and development of linguistic theory: the index of the Handbook of phonological theory (Goldsmith et al. 2011), for example, lists forty-two references to Arabic as opposed to twenty-nine for French, twenty-two for German, and twenty-eight for American English. Arabic data have contributed significantly to theoretical work in all major areas of linguistics: within phonology and phonetics, the rich set of postvelar consonants raised issues of local and long-distance harmony domains, and the articulatory, acoustic, and auditory correlates of what has traditionally been known as ‘emphasis’; Arabic nonconcatenative word formation has been crucial in the development of templatic morphology, and in recent years raised the question of whether the apparent root-and-pattern morphology of Arabic (and other Semitic languages) is really so different from (more standard) linear morphology; verbless nominal clauses, word order, and the sensitivity of agreement in Standard Arabic to the relative position of the subject and verb have prompted many solutions within generative and functionalist syntax; the interplay within the Arab world of different language registers has stimulated research on the effects of diglossia, language contact, and language change; and the degree of variation exhibited particularly within phonological systems across the Arab world has led to considerable research on the patterns and typology of word stress and syllabification within various phonological paradigms. The volume begins with a state-of-the-art introduction to the compilation, the role of Arabic within linguistic theory, and current trends in Arabic linguistics. The papers on phonetics and phonology in Part 1 deal with word stress and language processing (Rajaa Aquil), voicing assimilation (Rawiah S. Kabrah), the phonology-syntax interface and phrasal syncope (Mahasen Hasan Abu-Mansour), and intonation (Dina El Zarka). The papers on morphology and syntax in Part 2 examine mood (Tommi Leung), agreement, ‘Pro drop’ and reciprocal expressions (Abdelkader [End Page 896] Fassi Fehri), Palestinian comparatives (Yaron McNabb and Christopher Kennedy), the analysis of kan in Moroccan Arabic (Nizha Chater-Moumni), and the split-CP hypothesis (Murtadha J. Bakir). The papers on language acquisition, learning, and contact in Part 3 focus on aspects of language contact (Mary Ann Walter), voice onset time (VOT) production in Arabic-English bilingual children (Eman Saadah), phonological processing in a diglossic environment (Elinor Saiegh-Haddad), and the acquisition of SVO and VSO word order (Reem Khamis-Dakwar). I consider a selection of these papers here. In Part 1, Rajaa Aquil’s paper describes an empirical ‘word spotting’ study used to test the claim that Cairene Arabic (CA) is a stress-timed language. This paper examines the extent to which native speakers of CA are able to spot attested CA words within nonsense words. In the experiment, CA words of the structure CVCC were embedded in nonsense words followed by weak syllable (SW), followed by stressed syllable (SS), and followed by epenthetic vowel then stressed syllable (SwS). The CA word occupies the stressed syllable of the nonsense word only in the case of SW. The results show processing is significantly quicker when a CA word is followed by a weak syllable than when followed by a stressed syllable...

This article focuses on the relationship between ‘change from above’ and ‘change from below’ as intended in the purist tendencies of the Atticist lexicographers of the second century CE. The production of Atticist lexica in the second century CE – as a manifestation of the purist trend that characterized the Greco-Roman world since the first century BCE-sought to reproduce an alleged Classical Greek through the prescription of morphological, lexical and syntactic features. The purists’ attempt to promote a specific kind of language reflected a progressive tendency to use language to construct social categories. The community of educated speakers was defined by the selection of linguistic features that differed from those used by the masses and became distinctive signs of education and elitism. By analyzing examples from these lexica, I will examine the mechanisms purists use to cleanse contemporary language from the changes that have affected the Koine. In order to do this, I will use the frameworks of modern sociolinguistics and, in particular, I will refer to three semiotic processes proposed by Irvine and Gal. 1995. The boundaries of languages and disciplines: How ideologies construct difference. Social Research 62(4). 967–1001; Irvine and Gal. 2000. Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In Paul V. Kroskrity (ed.), Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities, 35–84. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press: 1) Iconization, which is expressed in the association that Atticist lexicographers make between supposedly pure/correct forms and certain social and ethnic groups (e.g., educated people/Attic writers/the ancients, etc.); 2) fractal recursivity, which is reflected in the Atticists’ projection of the opposition “Attic versus barbarian” onto the dualism “Attic versus non-Attic”; and 3) erasure, which is represented by the Atticists’ disregard for linguistic variation and their interpretation of Attic as a monolithic system. This analysis aims to describe the ideological factors that support linguistic purism and the mechanisms behind the prescription of a language consistently detached from contemporary usage.

This study investigates the effect of focal plane variation using vibration in a femtosecond laser hole drilling process on Invar alloy fabrication quality for the production of fine metal masks (FMMs). FMMs are used in the red, green, blue (RGB) evaporation process in Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode (AMOLED) manufacturing. The taper angle of the hole is adjusted by attaching the objective lens to a micro-vibrator and continuously changing the focal plane position. Eight laser pulses were used to examine how the hole characteristics vary with the first focal plane’s position, where the first pulse is focused at an initial position and the focal planes of subsequent pulses move downward. The results showed that the hole taper angle can be controlled by varying the amplitude of the continuously operating vibrator during femtosecond laser hole machining. The taper angles were changed between 31.8° and 43.9° by adjusting the vibrator amplitude at a frequency of 100 Hz. Femtosecond laser hole drilling with controllable taper angles is expected to be used in the precision micro-machining of various smart devices.

The present study sets out to investigate variation due to gender, F0, and/or prosodic position in Santa Ana del Valle Zapotec (Oto-Manguean), a language with phonemically breathy, modal and creaky vowels, each associated with a tone. Male and female speakers produced words in five prosodic positions: isolation (with focus, F0 higher than sentence-medial position), initial (focused, high F0), isolation (without focus, mid-range F0), medial (mid-range F0), final (lower F0). Two acoustic measures of phonation, H1-H2 and H1-A3, were made for each vowel. Results were inconclusive as to whether one gender was creakier or breathier than the other, though they did suggest that there was a difference in theproductionof phonation. In addition, there was also a strong effect of F0 on phonation, but not of position independently of F0. While the three-way phonation contrast was present in all five prosodic positions, it was not always well-defined. The contrast was minimized in isolation with focus (high F0) and initial position (high F0). The results obtained indicate that there is variation in phonation, even in a language with contrastive phonation.

In this paper we report the results of an exploratory experiment aiming to examine the division of labour between syntax, phonology, and information structure in linguistic change, in particular, Jespersen’s cycle. According to previous literature, new expressions of negation start out from narrow focus contexts and lose this restriction when they become reanalysed as neutral negators. This leads to the expectation that prosodic correlates of (narrow) focus should be lost in the syntactic reanalysis of emerging negative markers. Looking at a group of North Italian dialects that are currently at different stages of (incipient) Jespersen’s cycle, we show that in more advanced varieties, we find a reduction of the new negator in pitch, duration and spectral organization, confirming our hypothesis.

The volume presents new approaches to explaining word order variation and change in the Germanic languages and thus relates to one of the most prominent and widely discussed topics in the theory of language change and diachronic syntax. The novelty of our approach consists in three main points. First of all, we aim at describing functional variety in the field of word order and verb placement in the early Germanic languages not as a result of language contact, but rather as a language-internal phenomenon related to stylistic and grammatical conditions in information packaging. Second, given that information structure is not directly accessible in texts from historical corpora that are available only in written form and bear no or little information on prosody and intonation, it presents various methods of retrieving information-structural categories in such texts. Third, it presents empirical studies on the relation between word order and information structure of the four main texts of the Old High German period and embeds these results in the wider picture of word order change in Germanic. The volume will be of interest to students of German, English, and general linguistics as well as to researchers interested in diachronic syntax, philology of Older German, language change, information structure, discourse semantics, language typology, computational linguistics, and corpus studies.

Word order in Matengo (N13): Topicality and informational roles

The aim of our paper is twofold: firstly, we attempt to present Wittgenstein’s later philosophy as coherent with neuroscientific investigations of human linguistic abilities; secondly we sketch a picture of the current neuroscience in order to find the coherent solution to the problem of “hard” basis of the grammar. The central role in our presentation of Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language is played by the concept of the “form of life”. We describe two most common interpretations of this concept. At the first glance it seems to refer to the common but culture-related and conventional set of practices which serve as a ground for linguistic behaviour inside a community. However, the totally contingent base of the language cannot explain many obvious human abilities with the capability to learn the mother tongue in the first place. Neither this is Wittgenstein’s point, for certain occurances of the concept of “form of life” refer to something much more stable and cross-cultural than just a convention regarding practices. We bound this meaning of the concept to another key notion of a “primitive reaction”. The question concerning biological basis of human cognitive abilities in language formation and understanding is then addressed in order to explain some of the characteristics of the remarks presented by Wittgenstein. We address the problem of the nativity of general and particular language rules, trying to find common and indisputable ground for further discussion regarding syntactic and semantic features of language communication. The inconclusive results of modern research lead us to the cautious notion of compatibility of Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language and the cognitive theories of cross-culturally interchangeable grammar basis. In the summary we present the view of language as imperfect tool of communication hoping to develop more precise and adequate model of cognitive grammar consistent with the philosophy of the second Wittgenstein.

Collaborative writing tools and Natural language processing are plays a vital role in learning networks. These tools are involved with the dealings among computer systems and human languages. It processes the data through syntax analysis, parsing and lexical analysis, and etc. Syntax analysis is used for syntactic parsing deals with the syntactic structure of a sentence. The collaborative writing tools and natural language processing applications are used for verb tense prediction and it it encodes the temporal order of activities in a sentence. Recognizing the syntactic structure is beneficial in identifying the means of a sentence. The model in this paper is introduced to predict verb tense based on lexical and syntactic features. This model works on English articles, every article will be split to sentences using the tokenization process. Every token in sentences will be analyzed and model will parse the sentences the use of tenses algorithms that represent grammar rules of the English language. This model is given precise accuracy when it is examined on articles/ stories.

This study investigated the role of prosody and word order in identifying the focus of sentences in Japanese. Native Japanese speakers listened to sentences with different types of word order (subject–object–verb (SOV) vs. object–subject–verb (OSV)), prosody (whether the first noun phrase is stressed or not) and preceding contexts (object- vs. subject-wh questions), while processing costs were measured using pupillometry. Although syntactically non-basic OSV was more difficult to process than basic SOV, this processing difficulty was considerably reduced when the supportive context (the subject-wh question) required S to be focused. The time–course analysis of pupillometry revealed that the Japanese speakers immediately used prosodic cues to determine the focus of sentences, but the effect of word order cues for focus was delayed until the sentence-final verb was encountered. This study advances our understanding of the temporal dynamics of focus processing and the interplay between syntactic and information structures in sentence comprehension.

Linguistic research has been undergoing major shifts over the past few years. From thinking in terms of discrete categories and modules of language, as well as large discrete steps in change, the attention has shifted to variation, gradience, and interfaces between modules. In particular, language change is observed at the micro-level. This article introduces the rationale for the selection of topics in the Handbook, first what types of evidence can be used to access changes in English that are attested not only in past historical records but are also currently ongoing in British and American English, and English word-wide. It focuses on major trends in work aimed to rethink diachronic accounts of key factors, language external and internal, such as language contact, socio-cultural change, continua, and typological processes. The article also introduces the topic of relationships between information structure, syntax, and prosody. The overall message of the article is that recent rethinking of the field has led to new findings, connections, and prospects for future work.