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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
'You' Will Always Have 'Me': A Compositional Theory Of Person, Kaden T. Holladay
'You' Will Always Have 'Me': A Compositional Theory Of Person, Kaden T. Holladay
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation investigates the morpho-syntactic makeup of personful expressions
in natural language; special focus is given to referential uses of personal pronouns. The central thesis guiding the inquiry is that utterance contexts, which serve to fix the semantic values of person indexicals, are specifically a kind of centered situation. This treatment of contexts puts restrictions on what kinds of person features are definable, and the resulting inventory of such features (in conjunction with independently-motivated pragmatic constraints on the use of referential expressions) provides a novel explanation for the typology of person systems.
Between Verb And Preposition: Diachronic Stages Of Coverbs In Mandarin Chinese, Glynis Jones
Between Verb And Preposition: Diachronic Stages Of Coverbs In Mandarin Chinese, Glynis Jones
Masters Theses
Mandarin Chinese has long been known to possess a category of words known as ‘coverbs’ in the literature, which sit in the gray area between verb and preposition. Li and Thompson (1974) describe the historical origins of Mandarin coverbs to be full transitive verbs, despite their modern state being decidedly less verbal. They also note that coverbs are a non-homogenous class. This thesis works to establish categories of coverbs in Mandarin Chinese and their distance from true verbhood in order to understand the diachronic shift that coverbs are currently undergoing before our very eyes. I will draw on the work …
The Syntactic And Semantic Atoms Of The Spray/Load Alternation, Michael A. Wilson
The Syntactic And Semantic Atoms Of The Spray/Load Alternation, Michael A. Wilson
Doctoral Dissertations
What is the relationship between the word spray in the sentence John sprayed the paint onto the wall and its identically pronounced counterpart in John sprayed the wall with the paint? At some level, we recognize these two uses of spray as the same word. But the fact that they combine with their arguments in different ways means they cannot be identical. The relationship between these two uses of spray—called the spray/load alternation—is productive in a way that a descriptively adequate grammar of English should capture. Other verbs show the same pattern, adults and children extend …
Person-Based Prominence In Ojibwe, Christopher Hammerly
Person-Based Prominence In Ojibwe, Christopher Hammerly
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation develops a formal and psycholinguistic theory of person-based prominence effects, the finding that certain categories of person such as "first" and "second" (the "local" persons) are privileged by the grammar. The thesis takes on three questions: (i) What are the possible categories related to person? (ii) What are the possible prominence relationships between these categories? And (iii) how is prominence information used to parse and interpret linguistic input in real time? The empirical through-line is understanding obviation — a “spotlighting” system, found most prominently in the Algonquian family of languages, that splits the (ani- mate) third persons into …
Computing Agreement In A Mixed System, Sakshi Bhatia
Computing Agreement In A Mixed System, Sakshi Bhatia
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation develops a comprehensive response to the question of how agreement is computed in Hindi-Urdu – a language with a mixed agreement system where the verb can agree with a subject or an object depending on the structural context. This dissertation covers new empirical and theoretical ground in two domains. First, I identify three kinds of atypical agreement patterns which are not accounted for under traditional approaches Hindi-Urdu agreement -- verb agreement with the nominal component of Noun-Verb complex predicates, long distance agreement of embedding Adjective-Verb predicates with embedded infinitive clause objects, and copular agreement in identity copula structures. …
Verbal -S Productions In The Structured Writing Samples Of Variable Aae-Speaking Fourth-Grade Students With And Without Language Impairment, Jacklyn High Felton
Verbal -S Productions In The Structured Writing Samples Of Variable Aae-Speaking Fourth-Grade Students With And Without Language Impairment, Jacklyn High Felton
Doctoral Dissertations
Researchers in speech-language pathology and ethnolinguistics have worked to gain knowledge about typical and atypical language patterns of African American children who are identified as African American English (AAE) dialect speakers. Much progress had been made, but limitations in this field of knowledge have persisted, especially for AA children who demonstrate variable use of AAE, presumably through the process of assimilation in the school setting. Therefore, more information is needed to provide diagnostic markers for deviations in typical language development for variable AAE-MAE speakers. Prior empirical research has found that third- and fourth-grade AAE-speaking children with typical language development overtly …
Vanilla Sequence-To-Sequence Neural Nets Cannot Model Reduplication, Brandon Prickett
Vanilla Sequence-To-Sequence Neural Nets Cannot Model Reduplication, Brandon Prickett
OWP Linguistics
This paper presents results from a series of simulations that attempted to teach a vanilla sequence-to-sequence neural network a reduplication process. These attempts did not succeed, suggesting that added machinery is necessary for connectionist models to perform such a task.
Phonologically Conditioned Allomorphy And Ur Constraints, Brian W. Smith
Phonologically Conditioned Allomorphy And Ur Constraints, Brian W. Smith
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation provides a new model of the phonology-morphology interface, focusing on Phonologically Conditioned Allomorphy (PCA). In this model, UR selection occurs during the phonological component, and mappings between meanings and URs are encoded as violable constraints, called UR constraints (Boersma 2001; Pater et al. 2012). Ranking UR constraints captures many empirical generalizations about PCA, such as similarities between PCA and phonological alternations, the existence of defaults, and the interaction of PCA and phonological repairs (epenthesis, deletion, etc.). Since PCA follows from the ranking or weighting of constraints, patterns of PCA can be learned using existing learning algorithms, and modeling …
Implications Of Harmonic Serialism For Lexical Tone Association, John J. Mccarthy, Kevin Mullin, Brian W. Smith
Implications Of Harmonic Serialism For Lexical Tone Association, John J. Mccarthy, Kevin Mullin, Brian W. Smith
John J. McCarthy
In some languages, notably Kikuyu, the association of tones and syllables is completely predictable. In this chapter, we show that a derivational version of Optimality Theory, Harmonic Serialism, cannot account for Kikuyu if underlying representations include preassociated tones. If richness of the base is to be maintained, then underlying representations can contain associated tones in no language, even a language with contrastive tone association. This leads to a discussion of alternative ways of lexically encoding these contrasts, such as sequences of identical tones and diacritic accents.
Reduplication In Harmonic Serialism, John J. Mccarthy, Wendell Kimper, Kevin Mullin
Reduplication In Harmonic Serialism, John J. Mccarthy, Wendell Kimper, Kevin Mullin
John J. McCarthy
In standard Optimality Theory, faithfulness constraints are defined in terms of an input-output correspondence relation, and similar constraints are applied to the correspondence relation between a stem and its reduplicative copy. In Harmonic Serialism, a derivational version of Optimality Theory, there is no input-output correspondence relation, and instead faithfulness violations are based on which operations the candidate-generating GEN component has applied.
This article presents a novel theory of reduplication, situated within Harmonic Serialism, called Serial Template Satisfaction. Reduplicative correspondence constraints are replaced by operations that copy strings of constituents. Depending on the constraint ranking, phonological processes may precede or follow …
Autosegmental Spreading In Optimality Theory, John J. Mccarthy
Autosegmental Spreading In Optimality Theory, John J. Mccarthy
John J. McCarthy
Revised December 2009
This paper is a shorter (and probably better) version of "Harmony in Harmonic Serialism." Like its big brother, it argues that Harmonic Serialism answers the conundrum of how iterative autosegmental spreading is obtained in Optimality Theory.
Autosegmental Spreading In Optimality Theory, John J. Mccarthy
Autosegmental Spreading In Optimality Theory, John J. Mccarthy
Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series
Revised December 2009
This paper is a shorter (and probably better) version of "Harmony in Harmonic Serialism." Like its big brother, it argues that Harmonic Serialism answers the conundrum of how iterative autosegmental spreading is obtained in Optimality Theory.
Pausal Phonology And Morpheme Realization, John J. Mccarthy
Pausal Phonology And Morpheme Realization, John J. Mccarthy
Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series
Revised December 2009
Classical Arabic has complex phonological alternations affecting words in utterance-final position, traditionally called "pause". All pausal forms end in a heavy syllable, but the ways of achieving this result are both diverse and subject to both phonological and morphological conditioning. This chapter argues that an adequate analysis of Arabic's pausal phonology requires a derivational version of Optimality Theory, called Harmonic Serialism, in which morpheme spell-out is interleaved with phonological processes.
Pausal Phonology And Morpheme Realization, John J. Mccarthy
Pausal Phonology And Morpheme Realization, John J. Mccarthy
John J. McCarthy
Revised December 2009
Classical Arabic has complex phonological alternations affecting words in utterance-final position, traditionally called "pause". All pausal forms end in a heavy syllable, but the ways of achieving this result are both diverse and subject to both phonological and morphological conditioning. This chapter argues that an adequate analysis of Arabic's pausal phonology requires a derivational version of Optimality Theory, called Harmonic Serialism, in which morpheme spell-out is interleaved with phonological processes.
Copying Prosodic Constituents, John J. Mccarthy, Wendell Kimper, Kevin Mullin
Copying Prosodic Constituents, John J. Mccarthy, Wendell Kimper, Kevin Mullin
John J. McCarthy
The weight of a syllable-sized reduplicant is never dependent on the syllabification of the base -- that is, no language has a reduplicative morpheme that copies a coda in [pat-pat.ka] but no coda in [pa-pa.ta]. Yet this behavior is attested in the second syllable of foot-sized reduplicants: [pa.ta-pa.ta.ka], [pa.tak-pa.tak.ta]. Why is dependence on base syllabification possible in foot-sized reduplicants, but not in syllable-sized ones?
This article provides an answer to that question in the form of a novel theory of reduplication called Serial Template Satisfaction (STS), which is situated within Harmonic Serialism (a derivational variant of Optimality Theory). In STS, …
Agreement By Correspondence Without Corr Constraints, John J. Mccarthy
Agreement By Correspondence Without Corr Constraints, John J. Mccarthy
John J. McCarthy
Agreement by correspondence (ABC) is a theory of long-distance assimilation processes proposed in recent work by Hansson and Rose & Walker. This paper presents a refinement of the ABC framework, eliminating the need for Corr constraints, which require correspondence between similar segments.
An Introduction To Harmonic Serialism, John J. Mccarthy
An Introduction To Harmonic Serialism, John J. Mccarthy
John J. McCarthy
No abstract provided.
Harmonic Serialism Supplement To Doing Optimality Theory, John J. Mccarthy
Harmonic Serialism Supplement To Doing Optimality Theory, John J. Mccarthy
John J. McCarthy
This document consists of about 30 pages of text to supplement Doing Optimality Theory (Blackwell, 2008).
Harmony In Harmonic Serialism, John J. Mccarthy
Harmony In Harmonic Serialism, John J. Mccarthy
Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series
What OT constraint favors autosegmental spreading? Existing proposals for the pro-spreading markedness constraint make implausible typological predictions. This paper presents a new proposal that depends on Harmonic Serialism to avoid those unwanted predictions.
Classified Bibliography Of Works On Ot With Candidate Chains (Ot-Cc) And Harmonic Serialism (Hs), John J. Mccarthy
Classified Bibliography Of Works On Ot With Candidate Chains (Ot-Cc) And Harmonic Serialism (Hs), John J. Mccarthy
John J. McCarthy
No abstract provided.
Harmony In Harmonic Serialism, John J. Mccarthy
Harmony In Harmonic Serialism, John J. Mccarthy
John J. McCarthy
What OT constraint favors autosegmental spreading? Existing proposals for the pro-spreading markedness constraint make implausible typological predictions. This paper presents a new proposal that depends on Harmonic Serialism to avoid those unwanted predictions.
Classified Bibliography Of Works On Ot With Candidate Chains (Ot-Cc) And Harmonic Serialism (Hs), John J. Mccarthy
Classified Bibliography Of Works On Ot With Candidate Chains (Ot-Cc) And Harmonic Serialism (Hs), John J. Mccarthy
Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series
No abstract provided.
The Serial Interaction Of Stress And Syncope, John J. Mccarthy
The Serial Interaction Of Stress And Syncope, John J. Mccarthy
John J. McCarthy
Many languages respect the generalization that some or all unstressed vowels are deleted. This generalization proves elusive in classic Optimality Theory, however. The source of the problem is classic OT’s parallel evaluation, which requires that the effects of stress assignment and syncope be optimized together. This article argues for a version of OT called Harmonic Serialism, in which the effects of stress assignment and syncope can and must be evaluated sequentially. The results are potentially applicable to other domains where process interaction is best understood in derivational terms.
The Serial Interaction Of Stress And Syncope, John J. Mccarthy
The Serial Interaction Of Stress And Syncope, John J. Mccarthy
Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series
Many languages respect the generalization that some or all unstressed vowels are deleted. This generalization proves elusive in classic Optimality Theory, however. The source of the problem is classic OT’s parallel evaluation, which requires that the effects of stress assignment and syncope be optimized together. This article argues for a version of OT called Harmonic Serialism, in which the effects of stress assignment and syncope can and must be evaluated sequentially. The results are potentially applicable to other domains where process interaction is best understood in derivational terms.
Derivations And Levels Of Representation, John J. Mccarthy
Derivations And Levels Of Representation, John J. Mccarthy
Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series
In the theory of generative phonology, the phonological grammar of a language is regarded as a function from underlying to surface forms: /kæt þz/ ! [kæts] ‘cats’. Underlying and surface form are known as levels of representation, and the mapping between them is a derivation. This chapter describes the rationale for positing distinct levels of representation, various views of how many and what kind of levels of representation there are, and the nature of the derivations that link different levels of representation.
Consonant Harmony Via Correspondence: Evidence From Chumash, John J. Mccarthy
Consonant Harmony Via Correspondence: Evidence From Chumash, John J. Mccarthy
Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series
The phonology of [anterior] in Chumash supports recent proposals by Hansson (2001), Rose & Walker (2004), and Walker (2000a, 2000b) that long-distance consonant assimilation does not involve autosegmental spreading. Linking of the feature [anterior] is forbidden across morpheme boundaries, but long-distance [anterior] harmony is allowed across morpheme boundaries. The Chumash evidence therefore shows that assimilation can occur without autosegmental spreading.
What Is Optimality Theory?, John J. Mccarthy
What Is Optimality Theory?, John J. Mccarthy
Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series
Optimality Theory is a general model of how grammars are structured. This article surveys the motivations for OT, its core principles, and the basics of analysis. It also addresses some frequently asked questions about this theory and offers suggestions for further reading.
Slouching Toward Optimality: Coda Reduction In Ot-Cc, John J. Mccarthy
Slouching Toward Optimality: Coda Reduction In Ot-Cc, John J. Mccarthy
John J. McCarthy
There is a well-established asymmetry in the behavior of medial consonant clusters: the first consonant in the cluster can undergo assimilation or deletion, but the second consonant in the cluster cannot. This article presents an explanation for that asymmetry based on a version of Optimality Theory with candidate chains (McCarthy (2006a)). The key idea is that a consonant can only assimilate or delete if it first loses its place features by debuccalizing, and debuccalization is only possible in coda position.
What Is Optimality Theory?, John J. Mccarthy
What Is Optimality Theory?, John J. Mccarthy
John J. McCarthy
Optimality Theory is a general model of how grammars are structured. This article surveys the motivations for OT, its core principles, and the basics of analysis. It also addresses some frequently asked questions about this theory and offers suggestions for further reading.
Less Than Zero: Correspondence And The Null Output, John J. Mccarthy, Matthew Wolf
Less Than Zero: Correspondence And The Null Output, John J. Mccarthy, Matthew Wolf
John J. McCarthy
In this chapter, we have argued for a revision of correspondence theory in which strings rather than segments are the formal objects that stand in correspondence. In this revision, well-behaved unfaithful mappings do not alter ℜ’s status is a total bijective function. Candidates with a less orderly ℜ violate MPARSE; among these candidates there is one that harmonically bounds all of the others, the null output . The primary goal of this project is to explain why uniquely violates no constraints except MPARSE, making it suitable for the analysis of phonologically-conditioned gaps. Along the way, we have also discussed …