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Laminal Sibilants In Chamicuro, Steve Parker

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

From the introduction: "This paper examines the phonological status of laminal sibilants in Chamicuro. Chamicuro is a Maipuran Arawaken language spoken in the Amazonian lowlands of Eastern Peru. The phonemic inventory of Chamicuro sibilants exhibits a very strong symmetry of three affricates and three corresponding fricatives. However, when the laminal alveolar fricative [š̯] is considered, the pattern of distribution becomes more complicated. Specifically, it is very difficult to account for the occurrence of syllable-final [š̯]'s in a simple and elegant way. Two possible solutions are outlined and discussed, and the advantages and disadvantages of each one are evaluated."

Unmarked And Marked Instances Of Topicalization In Hebrew, Stephen H. Levinsohn

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

From the introduction: "My aims in this paper are twofold: first, to spell out the normal or UNMARKED function of topicalization (as defined below) in narrative discourse; and second, to consider what Sperber & Wilson call the "additional contextual effects" (1986:196) that MARKED or apparently redundant instances of topicalization are intended to achieve in Hebrew.

"In sect. 2, I argue in favour of Beneš 1962 characterization of topicalization as bidirectional. It not only serves "as point of departure for the communication", but also provides the basis for linking the communication to its context. I then review my 1987 work on …

Possessor Ascension In Dakota Sioux, Thomas M. Pinson

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

From the introduction: "The goal of this paper is to present evidence for Possessor Ascension in Dakota Sioux. In this construction, a nominal which is semantically a possessor is syntactically not a constituent of the noun phrase, but rather a constituent of the clause. I first discuss the universal characterization of Possessor Ascension from within the framework of Relational Grammar and give an introduction to the ways possession is expressed in Sioux. Next I present four arguments for this construction in Sioux. One is based on verb agreement, the second on reflexivization, the third on the distribution of the possessive …

Case Marking Strategies In Kope, John M. Clifton

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

From the introduction: "In this paper I will examine case marking strategies in Kope, a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea, in light of claims made by Foley (1986:92-98). Foley makes a basic distinction between 'core' and 'peripheral' case relations in his typological study of case marking in the Papuan languages of New Guinea. Core relations include actor and undergoer, while peripheral relations include instrument, locative, and temporal. Syntactically, Foley claims that most Papuan languages have one strategy for marking core relations, and another strategy for marking peripheral relations.

"A third group of relations discussed by Foley includes the beneficiary …

Front Matter For Sil-Und Work Papers Vol. 34 (1990)

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

No abstract provided.

Data Base Design For Research In Comparative Zapotec, Anita C. Bickford

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the nature and content of a comparative data base for the Zapotec languages of Mexico that may be produced. Many questions are discussed: how to sub-divide and list the Zapotec languages and dialects; what data format will be most accessible to researchers as well as to field workers with data to add; computer software considerations (designing computational tools); how to handle non-cognates with shared meanings, non-overlap of glosses (i.e., one Zapotec gloss covers several Spanish words, or vice versa), semantic shifts and secondary meanings, and other problems such as special characters, free variation, elisions, etc.; whether to …

The Michif Technique: Code-Switch Cue, Carol Starzer Wildeman

Theses and Dissertations

The Michif technique is a method of language modification which encourages code-switching by introducing a third language as a cue. The method targets syntax modification and does not apply to phonetic modification.

The technique derives its name from the Michif Language which is the cue language used in the study. The learning of Michif is not a long-range goal of this study, but rather through the use of Michif code-switching can be fun and nonthreatening.

The Michif technique follows the bidialectical view which encourages the use of code-switching in formal environments and the use of the vernacular while in informal …

Relative Clauses In Koine Greek: A Transformational Approach, Martin M. Culy

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I consider the unique set of facts presented by relative clauses in Koine Greek. I give a thorough overview of relativization in Koine including idiomatic usages of the relative pronoun. In particular, I examine the phenomena of internally-headed relative clauses, attraction and inverse attraction.

I give a basic overview of the Greek language, discussing both the historical context as well as the facts of Koine syntax and morphology that are pertinent to the understanding of this thesis.

I provide a basic typology of Koine relative clauses discussing relativization strategy, examples where a relative pronoun is used for …

Basic Clause Structure In Veracruz Huastec, Peter G. Constable

Theses and Dissertations

Huastec is a Mayan language spoken in east-central Mexico. It is considered important in Mayan studies since it alone represents a distinct branch within the Mayan family of languages; however, there is, in fact, relatively little published work on Huastec, especially on Huastec syntax. This thesis fills in some of this lacuna with a description of several aspects of Huastec clause structure.

A general overview of Huastec grammar is presented in chapter 2, followed by several chapters each of which focuses on a separate topic of Huastec clause structure. The analyses in these chapters are presented within the theoretical frameworks …

Reflexives In Veracruz Huastec, Peter G. Constable

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

From the introduction: "In this paper, I will consider various clause types in Huastec which are, in some sense, reflexive; this includes ordinary reflexives, which involve coreference, as well as other clauses. Two mutually exclusive morphosyntactic devices are used for reflexives in Huastec: reflexive pronouns, and verbal morphology: in this way, Huastec is like various European languages, including Spanish, Italian, Albanian, and Russian. Clauses involving reflexive pronouns are considered in Section 3, while those involving reflexive verbal morphology are considered in Section 4.

"The analysis presented here adopts the frameworks of Relational Grammar (RG) and Arc Pair Grammar (APG)."

---------------- …

Switch Reference In Mbyá Guaraní: A Fair-Weather Phenomenon, Robert A. Dooley

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

In this paper, I will claim that switch-reference marking in Mbyá has several modes of use, which require different kinds of description. Specifically, I claim that there is an unmarked mode of use that has a grammatical ("internal") description, as well as other, marked modes of use that require extragrammatical ("external") descriptions. Among phenomena with such marked and unmarked modes, we can further distinguish at least two subtypes: on-call phenomena and fair-weather phenomena; Mybá switch-reference marking is of the latter type.

Front Matter For Sil-Und Work Papers Vol. 33 (1989)

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

No abstract provided.

The Nahuatl Verb Maka: A Cognitive Grammar Analysis, David H. Tuggy

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

From the introduction: "The verb stem maka 'give' in Nahuatl is unusual in its range of options with respect to transitivity. Like all transitive verb stems, it regularly occurs with an object and in fact must do so, but it also appears in an unusually large number of constructions in which it has two objects. I would like to examine these constructions within the framework of Cognitive grammar (CG) (Langacker 1987)."

Lexical Variation In Mexican Sign Language, J. Albert Bickford

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

No abstract provided.

A Typology Of Koine Relative Clauses, Martin M. Culy

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

From the introduction: "In this paper I endeavor to give a broad description of Koine Greek relative clauses. My database consists primarily of the Greek New Testament (Marshall and Nestle 1960). I begin by pointing out that Koine uses the strategy of relative pronouns in all relative clauses (Sect. 2). This section is followed by a description of the other ways in which relative pronouns are used besides introducing a relative clause (Sec. 3). In section 4, I discuss the position of the relative clause with respect to its head, arguing that only postnominal and internally headed relative clauses occur. …

Tonal Instability: Tone As Part Of The Feature Geometry, Stephen P. Walker

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

From the introduction: "In this paper I present an analysis of Kagate tone, within an autosegmental framework (Goldsmith 1976). The principal focus is the phenomenon of tonal instability, which occurs as the result of a compensatory lengthening process:

"In [figure] (1) the vowel of the suffix loses its melodic quality, and takes instead the melody of the previous vowel. Crucial to the topic of this paper, the tone of the suffix is simultaneously lost.

"[...] To account for both the tonal stability and the tonal instability facts, I propose that the location of tone within the overall geometry is subject …

A Morphological Parser For Linguistic Exploration, David J. Weber

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

From the introduction: "This paper describes AMPLE, a morphological parser (i.e., a program that parses words into morphemes). AMPLE grew out of work in computer assisted dialect adaption, as described in section 1. It contains no language-specific code, being controlled entirely through external, user-written files, the notations of which were designed for linguists. AMPLE's constructs are linguistic: "allomorph," "morpheme," "conditioning environment," "co-occurrence constraint," etc.

AMPLE's fundamental algorithm is (i) to discover all possible decompisitions of a word into allomorphs, and (ii) to eliminate those which fail any conditions, constraints or tests imposed by the user."

Phonological Processes And Syllable Structure In Tainae, Terry Bruce Carlson

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this thesis is to present the phonological processes generating surface forms from underlying segments in Tainae, a Non-Austronesian language of Papua New Guinea.

All phonetically occurring segments in the language are examined in varying environments, e.g., in word-initial position, word-medial position, and word-final position. Chapter Two, Consonants in Tainae, concentrates on the consonants on the language, separating them into classes such as bilabial stops, alveolar stops, velar stops, fricatives, etc. Within each of these classes the various consonants which appear on the surface are compared with one another in scope of distribution and regarding which possible phonological …

Tabaru Phonology And Morphology, Edward A. Kotynski

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an analysis of the phonology and an overview of the morphology of the Tabaru language. The phonology is analyzed in light of recent theory and the merits of metrical, CV and lexical phonology are discussed as they relate to some inadequacies of earlier generative theory.

Pragmatics And Grammar: Motivation And Control, Robert A. Dooley

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

From the introduction: "Much of what has been done as "pragmatics" has dealt with utterance interpretation, that is, with the influence of context on meaning. Relatively little has been said about the interaction between context and form. As a result, there is much we do not know about how pragmatic phenomena relate to the grammar of a language. The present paper makes three points in this regard: (a) it is not anomalous for there to be pragmatic phenomena encoded in the syntax and controlled by the grammar; (b) it is not anomalous for there to be pragmatic phenomena encoded in …

The Semantics And Morphology Of Mixtec Mood And Aspect, J. Albert Bickford, Stephen A. Marlett

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

From the introduction: "This study presents a relatively detailed description of the grammatical categories of mood and aspect in three Mixtec languages. Our goals include morphology in a broad sense, covering both meaning and form. Our focus is a grammatical category known in Mixtec studies as 'aspect', which distinguishes three forms of every verb, generally called completive, continuative, and potential. We present a view of the system that differs somewhat from previous work, suggesting that the system is primarily modal, not aspectual in character. Partly, this is just a matter of how terms like 'mood' and 'aspect' are defined, but …

Nonsyllabic Vocoids, John M. Clifton

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

In this paper, I will examine a number of New Guinean languages in an attempt to show that [the above] analysis is too simplistic. When determining the markedness of a given segment, it is necessary to examine both paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationships. Paradigmatially, it is undoubtedly true that a nonconsonantal sonorant (i.e. vocoid) unmarked for syllabicity is [+syll]. Syntagmatically, however, there are a number of environments in which a vocoid unmarked for syllabicity is [-syll]. In section 2, I discuss a number of environments in which the unmarked status of a vocoid is [-syll]. Then in section 3, I outline …

Front Matter For Sil-Und Work Papers Vol. 32 (1988)

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

No abstract provided.

Anaphoric Indices And Inalienable Possession In Brazilian Portuguese, Daniel L. Everett

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

From the introduction: "In this squib, I want to draw attention to some previously unnoticed but intriguing facts about inalienably possessed NPs (INPs) in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). I argue that these differ from both pronouns and anaphors in that (i) they must always be c-commanded in their minimal Complete Functional Complex (CFC) by an argument with an independent θ-role and (ii) the Binding Theory (BT) applies to IPNPs algorithmically: first the BT attempts to treat them as anaphors; if successful, the BT is satisfied; if not, then it treats them as pronouns."

Clitics, Case And Word Order In Yagua, Daniel L. Everett

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

From the introduction: "[...] Clitics which double objects in Yagua are called Set II clitics. All other clitics are referred to as Set I clitics.

"In this paper, I argue that the relationship between Set I clitics and Set II clitics, and the effect of these clitics on word order, present some intriguing problems for theories of syntax, especially as seen in the phenomenon of clitic doubling, the co-occurrence of tautophrasal, coreferent clitic NP pairs associated with a single semantic or thematic (θ)-role. I argue that a careful study of Yagua clitic doubling makes at least the following contributions to …

Tabaru Phonology And Morphology, Edward A. Kotynski

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

From the introduction: "In this paper we examine the Tabaru language in light of recent phonological theory.

"First, we review the history of stress within various theories and discuss both strengths and weaknesses. After concluding that previous theories are not sufficiently predictive or restrictive in terms of general theory, we discuss metrical phonology (Harris 1983, Mohanan 1986) and apply that theory to the Tabaru language.

"Second, after reviewing the morphology of Tabaru, we discuss the notion of syllable and its structure within the theory of CV phonology (Clemonts and Keyser 1983). We then analyze the Tabaru syllable within this framework, …

Extraction From Complement Clauses In Koine Greek, Stephen A. Marlett

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

From the introduction: "It is evident that, despite a certain amount of word order freedom in Ancient Greek, there are also severe constraints on where words may occur. In this brief paper I present one such constraint and show how it affects the understanding of two verses which seem to be counterexamples to it (1 Cor 14:12 and 1 John 5:16)."

From Meaning To Text: Semantic Representation In The Meaning-Text Linguistic Theory And A New Type Of Monolingual Dictionary, Igor A. Mel'Čuk

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

From the introduction: "The Meaning-Text Theory (MTT) is not simply another of numerous linguistic theories, which proliferate to such an extent nowadays that there are almost as many theories as there are practicing linguists. The MTT is truly different in that is puts quite a new emphasis on "sprachlich" meaning, taking it as a cornerstone of language description as a whole; accordingly, semantics is declared and, most importantly, actually treated as the central linguistic discipline (which, among other things, underlies syntax and morphology).

"The Meaning-Text Theory is by no means a novelty. It was launched in 1965, in Moscow, by …

Basic Configurations Of Pragmatic Structuring, Robert A. Dooley

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

From the introduction: "In this paper, I will be making a small exploration into the question: What variety is present in human languages in regard to a basic, unmarked pragmatic configuration? After presenting some preliminary notions (Sect. 2) and the evidence for Topic-Comment in Mbyá Guaraní, Comment-Topic in Hixkaryana, and Focus-Presupposition in Xavante (Sect. 3-5), I will discuss the problem of V-only languages (Sect. 6), and then some considerations regarding a universal framework for the study of pragmatic configurations (Sect.7)."

The Syllable Structure Of Seri, Stephen A. Marlett

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

From the introduction: "[M]y main objective is to provide a comprehensive understanding of Seri syllable structure and facts which are relevant to it. In some cases I argue that certain data support a particular structure over another, but in some cases alternative treatments may also be compatible with the facts. These facts are relevant to a number of issues, including the sonority hierarchy, the internal structure of syllables (especially the nucleus), the representation of long vowels, the representation of round consonants, the CV tier, the relationship of stress to syllabification, and the distinction between the syllable structure of inflected words …