Linguistics Commons^™

Front Matter For Sil-Und Work Papers Vol. 31 (1987)

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

No abstract provided.

Ternarity And Obligatory Branching In Pirahã, Daniel L. Everett

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

From the introduction: "In this paper it is argued that the analysis of stress placement in Pirahã offers important new evidence on the proper characterization of prosodic organization as well as the notational devices necessary to express this organization. Specifically, I will show that Pirahã stress placement is intractable to either a grid account (Prince 1983) or a binary branching analysis but that an insightful perspective on a variety of stress related phenomena is available if we assume that Pirahã has ternary, obligatory branching feet. Evidence is presented from the assignment of stress in morphologically simple words, lexical compounds, words …

Grammatical Relations In Eskimo: A Response To Kalamár, Richard J. Nivens

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

From the introduction: "Kalmár (1979) attempts to disprove what he sees as two basic assumptions behind the relational grammar analysis of Eskimo antipassives. His arguments, however, have at least two flaws: a misunderstanding of relational grammar, and a less-than-comprehensive view of the Eskimo data."

The Languages Of The Zambales Mountains: A Philippine Lexicostatistic Study, John S. Wimbish

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

From the introduction: "A lexicostatistic survey was conducted in early 1985 as part of a comprehensive study of the languages spoken in the Zambales Mountains of the Philippines. The survey involved the collection and analysis of some forty word lists, resulting in the definition of six distinct languages in an area whose linguistic situation had previously been relatively unknown. This paper presents these survey findings in the form of a language tree, and introduces a general-use computer program which greatly enhanced the accuracy and speed of the lexicostatistic analysis."

Front Matter For Sil-Und Work Papers Vol. 30 (1986)

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

No abstract provided.

Indirect Objects And Incorporation In Mazatec, Daniel M. Agee, Stephen A. Marlett

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

From the introduction: "This paper deals with indirect objects in Mazatec. It has two fairly modest goals. The first is to describe the superficial characteristics of indirect objects in Mazatec. We claim that they occur as prepositional phrases which are obligatorily incorporated into the verb (in a specific way described below). The second goal is to describe the constructions in which indirect objects occur in Mazatec. We do this primarily within the framework of Relational Grammar (Perlmutter 1983a, Perlmutter and Rosen 1984), claiming that indirect objects occur in simple clauses and also in clauses with Benefactive-3 Advancement, 2-3 Retreat (personal …

Orthographic Reform In Kope, John M. Clifton

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

From the introduction: "In this paper, we will examine how local attitudes played a role in orthographic reform in Kope. In section 2 the previous orthographic tradition is outlined. Then in sections 3 and 4 we examine areas of apparent concern where local feelings pointed to new understanding of the phonological system and no change was made. Finally, in sections 5 and 6 we examine areas in which a genuine case for reform could be made and changes resulted."

Kanasi: A Brief Grammar Sketch, Ronald W. Pappenhagen

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

No abstract provided.

A Relational Grammar Approach To Verb Agreement In Lakota, Gray C. Plunkett, Michael Mckeever

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

From the introduction: "This paper examines verb agreement rules and their application in Lakota, a Siouan language. In particular, it explores how to best account for verb agreement in Lakota in a Relational Grammar framework. We will argue that certain concepts of Relational Grammar (RG), especially the notions of level and working 2, provide the necessary theoretical apparatus for formulating concise rules of verb agreement in Lakota. These rules account for all major transitive, ditransitive, and intransitive clause types. It also lends support to Perlmutter's claim that the notion of working term-x is needed to state rules in the grammars …

Reduplication In Majang, Peter Unseth

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

From the introduction: "Majang is a member of the Nilo-Saharan family of languages, part of the Surma cluster. It is spoken in southwestern Ethiopia in Kefa and Illubador provinces, with a small group also in Wellega. There are only two published linguistic descriptions, one by Cerulli (1948) and a recent, more comprehensive and reliable one by Bender (1983). In his article, Bender gives five examples of verb reduplication in Magang (1983a:121). Building on Bender, this present paper gives many more examples of verb reduplication, explains the different uses of reduplication, and describes the phonological rules for reduplicating. Examples of (possibly) …

The Koh Verbal System, Suellyn H. Glidden

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

From the introduction: "The purpose is to describe the Koh verbal system in terms of its grammatical forms and their possible meanings. Special attention is given to the tense-aspect-mood (TAM) system. The formally marked categories of the TAM system are relatively few in Koh. In fact Koh is a "tenseless" language in the sense that temporal deixis does not appear as a formal category in the verbal system. Rather, it is a sentence level function or is derived from the discourse-pragmatic context. There are one basic mood opposition and four aspectual categories. One aspectual category has a restricted usage. Even …

The Inflectional/Derivational Distinction, David H. Tuggy

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

From the introduction: "The traditional distinction between inflectional and derivational morphology is a useful one, but it is quite complex and difficult to apply to actual forms. With this, as with other linguistic distinctions, there is a tendency to assume that we have an absolute binary distinction, a dichotomy, a hard-and-fast line, with everything on one side purely inflectional and everything on the other side purely derivational. I do not believe the facts fit such a model.

"I would claim that the distinction is better viewed as gradual or scalar along several parameters. In other words, rather than the dichotomy …

Front Matter For Sil-Und Work Papers Vol. 29 (1985)

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

No abstract provided.

Fortis/Lenis Consonants In Guichicovi Mixe: A Preliminary Acoustic Study, J. Albert Bickford

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

From the introduction: "This paper focuses on the fortis/lenis contrast in consonants in the Guichicovi dialect of Mixe (Mixe-Zoquean; Oaxaca, Mexico), and uses instrumental data to support a proposed phonological analysis of this contrast. In the remainder of Sect. 1, I briefly survey prior work on this contrast, especially as it impacts on the claim that Mixe has three contrastive vowel lengths. I summarize the phonetic and phonological facts that were determined by ordinary techniques of phonetic transcription, and describe the phonological hypothesis for which I wanted confirmation from instrumental data. In Sect. 2, I describe the instrumental study, including …

Referential Distance And Discourse Structure In Yagua, Thomas E. Payne

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

From the introduction: "This paper concerns Yagua, a lowland language of Peru. It also concerns the choices speakers make as to how they will refer to or "code" participants in discourse. The body of this paper will be organized into two broad parts corresponding to these two most general concerns. In the first part, consisting of Sect. 2, I will describe the major formal devices used to code participants in Yagua. In the second part, Sect. 3 and 4, I will look at the use of those devices in a body of folkloric narrative texts. I will take as a …

Red Lake Falls, Minnesota: A Sociolinguistic Survey, James Kapper

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

From the introduction: "Despite the varied ancestry of the area's population, and a time span of more than a century for the mechanism of the American "melting pot" to have done its work, a relatively large number of people in the area still use the French language in their homes and describe themselves and their communities as "French."

"The background of the community and the survival of the language pose sociolinguistic questions concerning the status of the language in the community, the users of the language, and the situations in which it is used. The center of this study is …

Some Aspects Of Zapotecan Clausal Syntax, Stephen A. Marlett

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

From the introduction: "In this paper I discuss pronouns and various syntactic constructions in Zapotecan (Z) languages. My major goal is to present a broad overview of the similarities and differences which exist among the various members of the Zapotecan group in these syntactic constructions, which I generally discuss in theory-neutral terms."

A Note On Ergativity, S', And S'' In Karitiana, Daniel L. Everett

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

From the introduction: "Ergativity has long been an important topic in linguistic research, from both a typological (Comrie 1978, Dixon 1979, Plank 1979) as well as a theoretical perspective (Levin 1983, Marantz 1984). The purpose of the present study is to contribute to the discussion of this phenomenon via a study of a fragment of the grammar of Karitiana, an Amazon language, focusing especially on its ergative-absolutive marking of affirmative particles and personal pronouns. The special features of the Karitiana (henceforth K) system are: (1) only absolutive marking need be stated by rule, ergative case being a default mechanism, and …

Ñumí Mixtec Syllable Structure And Morphology, Laura Gittlen, Stephen A. Marlett

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

From the introduction: "[...] we discuss the morphology and segmental morphophonemics of Mixtec in a degree of detail which has never been done before. The most novel aspect of our work below, for Mixtec studies, is that we posit underlying forms for the two tense prefixes and then account for the variety of surface forms. Since in many--indeed, in a majority--of situations the underlying segments are not present in the surface form, the analysis is not immediately obvious."

Syllable Structure And Aspect Morphology In Isthmus Zapotec, Stephen A. Marlett, Velma B. Pickett

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

From the introduction: "In this article we discuss the basic features of Isthmus Zapotec (IZ) syllable structure. Although previous work (Pickett 1967) has done this in some detail already, the present work differs from the previous analysis. First, the constituent "rhyme" is used and found useful, but "nucleus" and "syllable-final margin" are not. Second, glides are analyzed as forming part of the rhyme in some instances, whether they precede or follow the vowel. Third, glottal stop is analyzed here as a laryngeal feature of the vowel rather than as a consonant restricted to syllable-final position. Fourth, in the present analysis …

The Structure Of Reflexive Clauses In Michif: A Relational Grammar Approach, Larry Lee Lovell

Theses and Dissertations

Work in Relational Grammar has made possible the characterization of such notions as 'passive' and 'reflexive' in terms of grammatical relations and relational changes. More recent work in Italian has revealed evidence supporting the notions of retroherent advancement and cancellation.

This study examines reflexive clauses in Michif, a language with Algonquian verb morphology. It shows (1) that the conditions for the occurrence of the reflexive morpheme and the passive morpheme may be formulated simply using concepts available in RG, (2) that the structure of reflexive Passive clauses involves retroherent advancement, and (3) that there exist initially unaccusative clauses in Michif …

Clitic Doubling And M-Chains In Pirahã, Daniel L. Everett

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

From the introduction: "Recent studies of syntax have shown clitics to be a rich source of insights into a variety of principles governing the well-formedness of sentences (cf., inter alia, Kayne (1975); Steele, et al. (1981); Jaeggli (1982); Borer (1981); Kaisse (1982)). One particularly interesting focus of discussion continues to be the relationship between pronominal clitics and coreferential NPs in the same clause, so called clitic doubling constructions. [...]

"At least two points of consensus have been reached by studies on clitic doubling in the Government and Binding Theory (henceforth GBT) of Chomsky (1981; 1982). These are : (i) the …

A Beginning Sketch Of The Huastec Noun Phrase, Abdias Pablo E., Daniel L. Everett, James Walker

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

From the introduction: "The present paper proposes a preliminary analysis of nominal phrases in Huastec, a Mayan language spoken in the states of Veracruz and San Luís Potosí, Mexico. This analysis is important in that it provides one of the first discussions of phrase structure in Huastec, a language regarded by some authorities as somewhat independent in its development in the Mayan family (for one classification of Huastec, cf. Voeglin and Voeglin (1977:224ff)).

"While earlier studies of Huastec (cf. Walker 1983)) have claimed the basic word order to be VSO, material found in texts has adduced little evidence for this. …

New Approaches To Coping With Stress: A Case Study In Conchucos Quechua, Anne M. Stewart

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

From the introduction: "The primary purpose of this present study is [...] not to argue for the superior effectiveness of the metrical approach by comparing it with another approach, but to demonstrate its effectiveness by applying it to the description of a stress system which has not been previously studied, that of the Quechua of Conchucos. [...] The analytical framework is as outlined in the first three chapters of Hayes (1980)."

Evidence For A Yaguan-Zaparoan Connection, Doris L. Payne

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

From the introduction: "This paper examines preliminary evidence regarding the type of the relationship obtaining between Peba-Yaguan and Zaparoan languages. My tentative conclusions are that certain features shared by the Peba-Yaguan and Zaparoan families may be due to a genetic connection, though independent origin cannot be ruled completely out. These features include phonological phenomena, certain transitivity-related verbal suffixes, and postpositional counterparts of some such suffixes."

A Relational Grammar Approach To Kera Syntax, Janet K. Camburn

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

From the thesis as originally filed with the university:

"Kera is an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Chadic family. Verb morphology includes complex tense and aspect marking. Indication of final grammatical relations is by word order, auxiliary prefix agreement with subject, fused pronouns as direct and indirect object, and prepositions to mark indirect objects and obliques. Body parts serve as prepositions and they govern a locative suffix on the noun phrase which they precede.

"A passive construction is described and its analysis defended within the relational grammar framework. Arguments for this analysis are based on term markings discussed above, plus …

Locational Relations In Yagua Narrative, Thomas E. Payne

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

From the introduction: "In this paper I will attempt to show that locational relations are specified by rhetorical predicates in the same way as the other relations mentioned above are. I suggest that the paucity of locational and directional relations in lists of rhetorical predicates in previous work is due to the absence of specific morphosyntactic devises for indicating such relations in the languages that most linguists speak."

Front Matter For Sil-Und Work Papers Vol. 28 (1984)

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

No abstract provided.

Argumentation In Romans 1-11, Mary Margaret Walker

Theses and Dissertations

This study addresses some of the problems of the Book of Romans in Koine Greek as a source text for a translation, particularly into non-Indo-European languages which do not share common cultural, grammatical or rhetorical conventions with the original audience for which Romans was written. A basic question broached was, "What is argumentation - as a discourse genre, as an act, as a pattern of grammatical reflexes?"

The discourse grammar model of Dr. R. E. Longacre was the main point of departure. Important secondary sources were the work of Teun A. van Dijk on macrostructure; the semantic structure analysis method …

Discourse Analysis Of A Michif Narrative, Breck S. Speers

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis offers a transcription and translation of a Michif narrative. Michif is a hybrid language consisting of French noun phrases and Cree verb structures. After the translation of the text, a structural analysis of the text is given based on textual analysis techniques proposed by Roger Schank and Robert Abelson (1977) and Ellen Prince (1979).

The Michif narrative was elicited from a resident of San Clara, Manitoba, Canada, and was transcribed with the help of native Michif speakers involved with the Summer Institute of Linguistics at the University of North Dakota. The concept of the script, a stereotypic chain …