Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Are Cariban Languages Moving Away From Or Towards Ergative Systems?, Desmond C. Derbyshire

Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session

From the introduction: "In this paper [...] I will be arguing for a direction of change in Cariban languages from systems that are purely ergative in both nominal case marking and verb agreement patterns (and which are probably of considerable antiquity) to mixed systems where in main clauses the core nominals are not marked at all and the verb agreement patterns are a mixture of nominative and absolutive, based on an agentivity-person hierarchy. Subordinate clauses take the form of nominalizations that retain characteristics of the older pure ergative system."

The Definite Article With Proper Names For Referring To People In The Greek Of Acts, Stephen H. Levinsohn

Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session

From the introduction: "I now consider the presence versus absence of the article with proper names, for people in the book of Acts, using the following four categories of description:

-- the unmarked patterns involving the first mention of a participant and further references to the participant in the same incident (Sect. 1); -- the reintroduction of participants after an absence (Sec. 2); -- further references to a participant in the same incident which are anarthrous, instead of arhrous (Sect. 3); -- the use of the article with names in reported speeches (Sect. 4).

"By dividing my discussion into four …

Semanically Ergative Languages In Typological Perspective, Alexandr E. Kibrik

Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session

From the summary: "This paper demonstrates the existence of languages whose core structure is determined by the principle of consistent differentiation of semantic roles by means of case coding; that is, to demonstrate the existence of role-oriented languages. If we refrain from interpreting role-oriented languages in terms of subject and direct object, then their organization becomes extremely natural, simple, and motivated. At the same time we gain the hope that by starting with languages of pure types we can reach a deeper and more adequate understanding of the structure of mixed languages."

Agutaynen Glottal Stop, J. Stephen Quakenbush

Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session

From the introduction: "In his 1982 discussion of Austronesian laryngeals, Zorc called for more information on "the phonemic and morphophonemic status of [ʔ] and [h] in various Austronesian languages" (Zorc 1982:133). An analysis of glottal stop in Agutaynen does indeed yield interesting information, not so much due to any immediate relevance to the reconstruction of Austronesian proto-forms, as was Zorc's goal in 1982, but rather because it presents a clearly visible case of a sound change in progress.

"Agutaynen is unusual among Philippine languages in that its glottal stop only occurs word medially preceding another consonant. In this particular environment, …

Front Matter For Sil-Und Work Papers Vol. 35 (1991)

Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session

No abstract provided.

On The Syllabification Of /Tl/ Clusters In Spanish, Steve Parker

Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session

From the introduction, "As is commonly known, permissible word- and syllable-initial consonant clusters in Spanish consist of a stop (p t k b d g) or f followed by one of the two liquids r or l. Of the fourteen theoretically-possible combinations which these groupings yield, two are problematic: tl and dl

"The sequence dl does not occur word-initially and its word-internal attestation is limited to second person plural "familiar" commands such as tomadlo ('drink it'), which are rarely used outside of Spain. In words of this type the syllable break unquestionably occurs between the d and the l; since …

A Double-Verb Construction In Mbyá Guaraní, Robert A. Dooley

Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session

From the introduction: "In this paper, the Mbyá V1-V2 construction is examined from various points of view: lexico-semantic (Sect. 2), phonological (in relation to stress) (Sect. 3), morphological (Sect. 4) and syntactic (Sect. 5). It is seen to be a phrase in which V2 functions syntactically as a modifier of V1. This construction is then compared and contrasted with others in Mbyá, namely subordinate clauses (Sect. 6) and coordinate clauses (Sect. 7). At this point (Sect. 8), it is compared with SVCs as documented in languages of West Africa, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Papua New Guinea and in …