Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/content/article/files/1781_gulab_chand__1.pdf

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/content/article/files/1785_breiss_1.pdf

When a wh-word refuses to stay in-situ
Arthur Stepanov, Ali Al Moussaoui
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004472
February 2019
This squib demonstrates that the syntactic behavior of prosodically weak wh-elements or ‘wh-clitics’ conforms quite well to theories of syntax-phonology mapping such as Richards (2010, 2016) which explore a tight relationship between syntactic and prosodic boundary/edge phenomena. Evidence comes from new data from Lebanese Arabic, as well as ‘wh-clitics’ in French and North Italian dialects.

A method for projecting features from observed sets of phonological classes
Connor Mayer, Robert Daland
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004466
February 2019
Given a set of phonological features, we can enumerate a set of phonological classes. Here we consider the inverse of this problem: given a set of phonological classes, can we derive a feature system? We show that this is indeed possible, using a collection of algorithms that assign features to a set of input classes and differ in terms of what types of features are permissible. This work bears on theories of both language-specific and universal features, provides testable predictions of the featurizations available to learners, and serves as a useful component in computational models of feature learning.

An algorithm for learning phonological classes from distributional similarity
Connor Mayer
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004465
September 2018
An outstanding question in phonology is to what degree the learner uses distributional information rather than substantive properties of speech sounds when learning phonological structure. This paper presents an algorithm that learns phonological classes from only distributional information: the contexts in which sounds occur. The input is a segmental corpus, and the output is a set of phonological classes. The algorithm is first tested on an artificial language with both overlapping and nested classes reflected in the distribution. It retrieves the expected classes, and performs well as distributional noise is added. It is then tested on four natural languages. It distinguishes between consonants and vowels in all cases, and finds more detailed, language-specific structure. These results improve on past approaches, and are encouraging given the paucity of the input. Further refined models may provide additional insight into which phonological classes are apparent in the distributions of sounds in natural languages.

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.

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.

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.

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.