Brownian dynamics for the vowel sounds of human language
James Burridge, Bert Vaux
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004898
November 2019
We present a model for the evolution of vowel sounds in human languages, in which words behave as Brownian particles diffusing in acoustic space, interacting via the vowel sounds they contain. Interaction forces, derived from a simple model of the language learning process, are attractive at short range and repulsive at long range. This generates sets of acoustic clusters, each representing a distinct sound, which form patterns with similar statistical properties to real vowel systems. Our formulation may be generalised to account for spontaneous self actuating shifts in system structure which are observed in real languages, and to combine in one model two previously distinct theories of vowel system structure: dispersion theory, which assumes that vowel systems maximize contrasts between sounds, and quantal theory, according to which non linear relationships between articulatory and acoustic parameters are the source of patterns in sound inventories. By formulating the dynamics of vowel sounds using inter-particle forces, we also provide a simple unified description of the linguistic notion of push and pull dynamics in vowel systems.

Do we pronounce quotation? An analysis of name-informing and non-name-informing contexts
Marcel Schlechtweg, Holden Härtl
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004897
November 2019
Quotation marks are a tool to refer to the linguistic form of an expression. For instance, in cases of so-called pure quotation as in “Hanover” has three syllables, they point to the syllabic characteristics of the name of the town of Hanover. Cases of this nature differ from sentences like Hanover is a town in New Hampshire, in which Hanover is used denotationally and, thus, refers to the town of Hanover itself. Apart from quotation marks, other means such as italics, bold, capitalization, or air quotes represent potential means to signal a non-stereotypical use of an item in the written or gestural mode. It is far less clear, however, whether acoustic correlates of quotation marks exist. The present contribution aims at investigating this issue by focusing on instances of quotation, in which the conventionalized name of a lexical concept is highlighted by means of quotation marks, either together with or without an additional lexical quotational marker, such as so-called, on the lexical level (cf. The so-called “vuvuzela” is an instrument from South Africa vs. The “vuvuzela” is an instrument from South Africa). The data clearly show that quotation marks are pronounced, primarily triggering a lengthening effect, independently of whether they appear together with or without a name-informing context. The results of the experiments are interpreted against the background of a pragmatic implementation of quotation marks in general as well as in spoken discourse in particular.

How to express evolution in English Pokémon names
Shigeto Kawahara, Jeff Moore
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004891
November 2019
This paper is a contribution to the studies of sound symbolism, systematic relationships between sounds and meanings. Specifically, we build on a series of studies conducted within a research paradigm called “Pokémonastics,” which uses the Pokémon universe to explore sound symbolic patterns in natural languages. Inspired by a study of existing English Pokémon names (Shih et al. 2018), two experiments were conducted in which native speakers of English were provided with pairs of pre-evolution and post-evolution Pokémon characters, the latter of which were always larger. The participants were given two name choices whose members are systematically different in some phonological properties. The results show the following sound symbolic patterns to be productive: the English-speaking participants tend to associate large post-evolution characters with (1) names with more segments, (2) names containing [a], (3) names containing [u], and (4) names containing coronals. Overall, the current results suggest that phonological considerations come into play when English speakers name new creatures. Implications of the current results for the theories of sound symbolism are discussed throughout the paper. [This paper supersedes lingbuzz/004143]

Representation of Yorùbá Tones by a Talking Drum: An Acoustic Analysis
Samuel Akinbo
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004884
November 2019
The present paper proposes an articulatory and acoustic study of the representation of Yorùbá tones in gángan (a talking drum). The video and spectrographic analyses of the data collected from five native drummers in Nigeria show the number of syllables in a word directly corresponds to the number of strikes on the drum membrane. As the talking drum resonates from the strikes, the drummers tightened and loosened the drum membrane to articulate the three tones in Yorùbá. Furthermore, tonal processes such as tone contour formation on the second tone in HL or LH sequences are musically rendered. Based on this evidence, this paper concludes that drummers are able to represent syllables, lexical tones and tonal processes of Yorùbá speech with a talking drum.

Considering the whole paradigm: Preschoolers’ comprehension of agreement is not uniformly late
Hannah Forsythe, Cristina Cristina Schmitt
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004883
August 2019
Picture-selection studies testing the comprehension of subject-verb agreement across a wide variety of languages have found that children fail to use these markers to infer the cardinality of a null or masked subject, even long after spontaneous production of agreement becomes adult-like (Johnson et al. 2005, Pérez-Leroux 2005, Gxilishe et al. 2009, Rastegar et al., 2010). This production/comprehension asymmetry has since been called into question by researchers using more sensitive comprehension measures (Brandt-Kobele and Höhle 2010, Legendre et al. 2014, Verhagen & Blom 2014, González-Gómez et al. 2017). Here, we continue to use a picture selection task but expand our focus to include 1st and 2nd person markers, which are more phonologically salient and less complex to interpret than 3rd person markers. We find that preschoolers comprehend Spanish 1st and 2nd person agreement markers early (2;3-2;11) and just as accurately as clitic pronouns, showing that comprehension of agreement is not uniformly difficult. In the 3rd person, accuracy was low not only for agreement but also for clitics, and both adults and children allowed these expressions to refer to a prominent referent from the immediately preceding discourse—even if that referent was the speaker or hearer. We argue that the production/comprehension asymmetry originally observed for 3rd person agreement was driven not just by task demands but also by children’s sensitivity to the discourse dependence of 3rd person referring expressions. Future experimental investigations of agreement markers should take their discourse properties into account.