Les variétés régionales non-méridionales de France: nivellement; dédialectalisation; supralocalisation
Tim Pooley, Jonathan Kasstan
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004092
January 2016
For some time now, studies on Hexagonal French have evidenced a particularly extreme kind of linguistic levelling, which has largely been attributed to the hypercephalic nature of French demographics, with an enormous capital city dwarfing all other major centres in France (see Armstrong 2001). This focus on ‘inexorable homogeneisation’ (Jones & Hornsy 2013) has meant that far less attention has been paid to emerging vernacular forms and urban-centred cases of linguistic divergence. In this article we summarise observations from a wide range of production/percetion studies, with a particular focus on non-meridional varieties, to show that while extreme levelling continues to be symptomatic of variation in northern France, certain features are retained or recycled, and in some contexts even imbued with new social meaning. This evidence lends support to the call made elsewhere (Jones & Hornsy 2013) that further research should be undertaken on multi-ethnic urban centres

Prosody, focus, and ellipsis in Irish
Ryan Bennett, Emily Elfner, Jim Mccloskey
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004091
July 2018
This paper analyzes a certain class of misalignments found in contemporary Irish in the relation between syntactic and phonological representations. The mismatches analyzed turn on the phonological requirements of focus (Verum Focus in particular) and of ellipsis and on how the two sets of requirements interact. It argues that the phonological mechanisms of ellipsis can be overridden when the phonological requirements of F-marking need to be satisfied. The analysis requires a theoretical framework in which the postsyntactic computation is characterized by parallel and simultaneous optimization. In particular, it is argued that certain facets of ellipsis, morphophonology, and prosody are computed in parallel, as in classic Optimality Theory. The analysis also relies crucially on a kind of head movement (from specifier to a commanding head position) whose existence is predicted by current conceptions of phrase structure but which seems to be little documented.

The interaction of reduplication and segmental mutation: A phonological account
Ludger Paschen
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004090
July 2018
This dissertation explores the interaction of reduplication and segmental mutation. Previous studies have shown that both mutation and reduplication can be understood as purely phonological operations in response to defective segmental and prosodic material. Cases of over- and underapplication in reduplicated structures, however, pose a serious challenge to phonological accounts and are apparently better handled by non-modular approaches that invoke morpheme-specific constraints or construction-specific cophonologies. The main goal of this dissertation is to show that a phonological account of over- and underapplication of segmental mutation is not only feasible but that seemingly opaque interactions are in fact predicted by mixed representational-serial approaches. Following the broad research program of Generalized Non-Linear Affixation, and assuming a modular feed-forward architecture of grammar, I demonstrate how apparent cases of overapplication (including “backcopying”) follow from the interplay of markedness conspiracies, copying of non-minimal prosodic domains, and phonological stratification. Underapplication, on the other hand, emerges from a shortage of mutation triggers, either due to excessive underspecification or as a direct consequence of minimal copying. In addition, I offer reanalyses of purported cases of suppletive allomorphy in reduplication in terms of complex, yet fully transparent segmental phonological alternations. The dissertation thus strengthens the general argument for item-based approaches to non-concatenative morphology and advocates a strictly modular architecture as an alternative to lexical indexation.

The phonology of handshape distribution in Maxakalí sign
Diane Stoianov, Andrew Ira Nevins
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004089
January 2018
We provide an analysis of the distribution of handshapes on the dominant and non-dominant hand in the incipient village sign language found in the Maxakalí community in Brazil. The most frequent handshapes reflect tendencies in choosing from the crosslinguistically unmarked set of handshapes, and are particularly well-suited to quantitative analyses of handshape complexity found in models such as Ann (2006) and Brentari (2003), in addition to favouring a core set chosen from the most maximally dispersed handshapes.

Phonetic lapse in American English –ative
Juliet Stanton
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004074
June 2018
This paper argues that constraints regulating the distribution of metrical prominence must be able to reference fine-grained durational information. Evidence comes from an apparent segmental effect on stress in American English –ative: stress on –at- is more likely when it is preceded by an obstruent or cluster (as in irrigative, integrative) than when preceded by a vowel or a sonorant (as in palliative, speculative; see Nanni 1977). I propose that this pattern should be understood as an effect of phonetically evaluated *Lapse: longer lapses are penalized more severely than shorter ones. Results from a nonce word rating task support this proposal.