The Linearization of Affixes [microform]: Evidence from Nuu-chah-nulth (British Columbia)
Title | The Linearization of Affixes [microform]: Evidence from Nuu-chah-nulth (British Columbia) PDF eBook |
Author | Rachel Wojdak |
Publisher | Library and Archives Canada = Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
Pages | 241 |
Release | 2005 |
Genre | Nootka language |
ISBN | 9780494105887 |
This dissertation addresses the linearization of affixes, and argues for the particular model of the way in which syntax maps to phonology. According to the proposal, syntax is spelled-out to phonology in minimal cycles equivalent to a single application of syntactic Merge. I term this proposal the local spell-out hypothesis. The empirical grounds on which this hypothesis is assessed in Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka), a Southern Wakashan language spoken in British Columbia, Canada. Nuu-chah-nulth has a class of morphologically bound predicates termed affixal predicates which participate in a linearization strategy of suffixation. I claim that affixes in Nuu-chah-nulth are linearized at spell-out with respect of 'hosts' as a consequence of the PF requirement that utterances be sequentially ordered. Spell-out induces in Nuu-chah-nulth a relationship which I label PF Incorporation. The affixal predicate 'incorporates' its host in order to achieve a pronounceable form, that of a linearized affix. An affixal predicate in Nuu-chah-nulth consistently suffixes to a host chosen from its derivational sister, its complement. This suffixation pattern is subject to a string adjacency effect: an affixal predicate incorporates only the leftmost element from its complement, which happens to be contiguous with the affixal predicate. I present the argument that the local spell-out hypothesis elegantly captures this dual sensitivity to derivational sisterhood and linear adjacency. Although the spell-out mechanism which induces linearization of affixes is non-syntactic, syntactic sisterhood conditions linearization opportunities at PF via the composition of local spell-out domains. This dissertation presents a variety of diagnostics for Nuu-chah-nulth clausal structure, with a particular focus on the argument structure of affixal predicates. Amongst affixal predicates which take nominal complements, predicates range from unaccusative to extended unaccusative, transitive to ditransitive. Unergatives, however, are systematically absent from the inventory of affixal predicates in Nuu-chah-nulth. Amongst affixal predicates which take verbal complements, both modal and main predicates are found. A consequence of the analysis is that syntax is 'phonologized' over the course of the derivation, in minimal stages induced by application of Merge. Linearization is thus established in increments. This analysis has implications for the grammatical locus of head movement operations: head movement is not strictly phonological.
Dictionary of Upriver Halkomelem
Title | Dictionary of Upriver Halkomelem PDF eBook |
Author | Brent Douglas Galloway |
Publisher | Univ of California Press |
Pages | 1729 |
Release | 2009-09-01 |
Genre | Reference |
ISBN | 0520945182 |
An extensive dictionary (almost 1800 pages) of the Upriver dialects of Halkomelem, an Amerindian language of B.C.,giving information from almost 80 speakers gathered by the author over a period of 40 years. Entries include names and dates of citation, dialect information, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic information, domain memberships of each alloseme, examples of use in sentences, and much cultural information.
Information Highlighting in Advanced Learner English
Title | Information Highlighting in Advanced Learner English PDF eBook |
Author | Marcus Callies |
Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing |
Pages | 319 |
Release | 2009 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 9027254311 |
This book presents the first detailed and comprehensive study of information highlighting in advanced learner language, echoing the increasing interest in questions of near-native competence in SLA research and contributing to the description of advanced interlanguages. It examines the production and comprehension of specific means of information highlighting in English by native speakers and German learners of English as a foreign language, presenting triangulated experimental and learner corpus data as corroborating evidence. The study focuses on learners' use of discourse-pragmatically motivated variations of the basic word order such as inversion, preposing, and it- and wh-clefts, an underexplored field in SLA research to date.The book also provides a critical re-assessment of the study of pragmatics within SLA. It has largely been neglected to date that L2 pragmatic knowledge includes more than the sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic abilities for understanding and performing speech acts. Thus, the book argues for an extension of the scope of inquiry in interlanguage pragmatics beyond the cross-cultural investigation of speech acts. It also discusses pedagogical implications for foreign language teaching and will be of interest to applied linguists and SLA researchers, language teachers and curriculum designers.
Niuean
Title | Niuean PDF eBook |
Author | Diane Massam |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 352 |
Release | 2020-04-09 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 0192512110 |
This volume explores the grammar of Niuean, an endangered Polynesian language spoken on the island of Niue and in New Zealand, with a focus on the issue of predication. Since Aristotle, it has been claimed that a sentence consists of a subject and a predicate. Niuean constitutes the perfect testing ground for this claim: it displays verb-subject-object word order, in which the subject interrupts the predicate, and has an ergative case system, in which subjects are not clearly distinguished from objects in their marking for grammatical case. Diane Massam uses the framework of generative grammar to carry out a detailed analysis of the internal structure of Niuean predicates and arguments, as well as the relations between them, touching on many other topics including the nature of displacement, word formation, determiners, and thematic roles. The proposal is that Niuean complex predicates are formed via successive inversion, prior to the merge of all arguments (high argument merge), and that the predicate undergoes fronting to initial position across the arguments, with the same structure found also in nominal clauses. The conclusion is that Niuean does not have a subject in the usual sense, and this is related to the fact that the language has isolating morphology, lacking all tense and agreement inflection and nominative case. Instead, the language exhibits low absolutive predication, applicative ergative agents, and predicate fronting in lieu of subject extraction. The book extends our understanding of cross-linguistic sentence structure and grammatical case, and will be of interest to scholars in the fields of Austronesian linguistics, typology, and theoretical linguistics.
Approaches to Language
Title | Approaches to Language PDF eBook |
Author | William C. McCormack |
Publisher | Walter de Gruyter |
Pages | 689 |
Release | 2011-06-15 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 3110800039 |
Blackfoot Musical Thought
Title | Blackfoot Musical Thought PDF eBook |
Author | Bruno Nettl |
Publisher | |
Pages | 224 |
Release | 1989 |
Genre | Music |
ISBN |
Methodologies in Semantic Fieldwork
Title | Methodologies in Semantic Fieldwork PDF eBook |
Author | M. Ryan Bochnak |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 367 |
Release | 2015-01-02 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 0190212349 |
This volume discusses methodological issues in conducting elicitation on semantic topics in a fieldwork situation. In twelve chapters discussing 11 language families from four continents, authors draw on their own fieldwork experience, pairing explicit methodological proposals with concrete examples of their use in the field. Several chapters cover issues specific to semantic topics such as modality, comparison, tense and aspect, and definiteness, while others focus on elicitation techniques more generally, addressing methodological issues such as the creation of elicitation plans, the choice of language in which to conduct elicitation, and the status of translation tasks. Together, the chapters of this volume demonstrate that elicitation on semantic topics, when conducted following sound methodologies, can and does produce reliable results. Given the high number of languages currently classified as endangered, conducting one-on-one fieldwork with native speaker consultants is critical for gathering new empirical findings that bear on linguistic theory.