Morphology Commons^™

Accent In Uspanteko, Ryan Bennett, Robert Henderson

English Faculty Research Publications

Uspanteko (Guatemala; ∼2000 speakers) is an endangered K’ichean-branch Mayan language. It is unique among the K’ichean languages in having innovated a system of contrastive pitch accent, which operates alongside a separate system of non-contrastive stress. The prosody of Uspanteko is of general typological interest, given the relative scarcity of ‘mixed’ languages employing both stress and lexical pitch. Drawing from a descriptive grammar and from our own fieldwork, we also document some intricate interactions between pitch accent and other aspects of the phonology (stress placement, vowel length, vowel quality, and two deletion processes). While pitch accent is closely tied to morphology, …

Pedagogía De Hablantes De Herencia: Implicaciones Para El Entrenamiento De Instructores Al Nivel Universitario, Lina M. Reznicek-Parrado

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study researches the differences in pedagogical needs between learners of Spanish as a Foreign Language (FL learners) and learners of Spanish as a Heritage Language (HL learners) at the university level. By using the UNL Modern Languages and Literatures Department as an illustrative case and based on an analysis of the Heritage Language student profile in the context of the United States, this study seeks to explore arguments in favor of providing training for university-level instructors of Spanish that responds to the specific pedagogical needs of Heritage Language Learners.

The relevancy of this study is not only based on …

Functional Morphology And Performance Of Ecological Systems With Extreme Pressures: Waterfall Climbing And Predator-Prey Interaction In Amphidromous Gobioid Fishes, Takashi Maie

All Dissertations

Understanding the functional capacity and performance of organisms provides a strong foundation for recognizing the forces that are responsible for their form, and how they might adapt to variable or changing environmental conditions. Amphidromous stream goby fishes live in a habitat subject to two potentially extreme selective pressures: (1) predation on juvenile fish returning to freshwater from the ocean, and (2) the demand to climb waterfalls to reach adult breeding habitats. Recognizing these selection pressures, I present studies evaluating (1) the mechanisms underlying the functional capacity for adhesive performance, and (2) the risk that predation imposes on amphidromous gobies. Specifically, …

A Morphological Study Of Drug Brand Names, Celina M. Williamson

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Contemporary English In The Usa, Melissa Axelrod, Joanne Scheibman

English Faculty Publications

Indigenous and immigrant speakers from a variety of linguistic and sociocultural backgrounds have in different ways contributed to the development of present day American English, as have the geographical and social dimensions of the country. This paper provides a survey of contemporary usage of American English by describing and illustrating linguistic features documented for social and regional groups in the United States. The focus on variation in pronunciation, grammar, and meaning in American English highlights the diversity of dialects and styles in the U.S. as well as the centrality of sociocultural identities to language use. We group examples of variation …

A Revision Of The New World Ants Of The Genus Platythyrea Roger 1863 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Mayra Janett Leyva

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The genus Platythyrea consists of arboreal ants that are rarely collected. The genus was last partially revised in 1975 by Brown. Since that revision two additional species have been described. The New World genus Platythyrea now includes nine species: P. angusta Forel, P. exigua Kempf, P. lenca De Andrade, P. pilosula (Smith), P. prizo Kugler, P. punctata (Smith), P. sinuata (Roger), P. strenua Wheeler and P. zodion Brown. A new key, illustrations, diagnoses and distributions of the ants are provided.

The Development Of Korean Children’S Abilities To Use Structural Cues For Sentence Comprehension, 연세대학교 심리학과, Minju Kim, Hyun Joo Song

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The present study used a preferential looking paradigm to examine the types of structural cues used by 24- and 21-months-old Korean children when processing the meaning of sentences with a novel verb in Korean. In the first two of the three experiments, participants were shown two videos positioned adjacent to each other, depicting independent or causative behaviors, and were made to listen to sentences with a nominative or accusative case marker. It was found that in Experiment 1, the 24-month-old infants looked at causative rather than independent behaviors for longer in the accusative condition, but not in the nominative condition. …

Morphological Alternations At The Intonational Phrase Edge, Robert Henderson

English Faculty Research Publications

This article develops an analysis of a pair of morphological alternations in K'ichee' (Mayan) that are conditioned at the right edge of intonational phrase boundaries. I propose a syntax-prosody mapping algorithm that derives intonational phrase boundaries from the surface syntax, and then argue that each alternation can be understood in terms of output optimization. The important fact is that a prominence peak is always rightmost in the intonational phrase, and so the morphological alternations occur in order to ensure an optimal host for this prominence peak. Finally, I consider the wider implications of the analysis for the architecture of the …

“Defaults” And Morphological Structure, Stephen Anderson

Defaults in Morphological Theory Conference

No abstract provided.

Defaults And Head Marking: Maximal Inheritance, Minimal Overriding, Andrew Hippisley

Defaults in Morphological Theory Conference

No abstract provided.

Defaults And The Canonical Ideal, Dunstan Brown

Defaults in Morphological Theory Conference

No abstract provided.

Word Grammar And The Grammaticalization Of New Morphology, Nik Gisborne

Defaults in Morphological Theory Conference

No abstract provided.

The Logic Of Default Inheritance In Word Grammar, Dick Hudson

Defaults in Morphological Theory Conference

No abstract provided.

Defaults And Lexical Prototypes, Rob Malouf

Defaults in Morphological Theory Conference

No abstract provided.

Old French Declension From A “Word And Paradigm” Perspective And Default Syncretism, Alain Kihm

Defaults in Morphological Theory Conference

No abstract provided.

Overriding Default Orderings In Paradigm Function Morphology, Gregory Stump

Defaults in Morphological Theory Conference

No abstract provided.

Systemic Polyfunctionality And Morphology-Syntax Interdependencies, Farrell Ackerman, Olivier Bonami, Irina Nikolaeva

Defaults in Morphological Theory Conference

No abstract provided.

Inheritance And Construction Morphology, Geert Booij

Defaults in Morphological Theory Conference

No abstract provided.

Introductory Paper On Defaults In Morphological Theory, Arnold Zwicky

Defaults in Morphological Theory Conference

No abstract provided.

Changing Language, Remaining Pygmy, Serge Bahuchet

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

In this article I am illustrating the linguistic diversity of African Pygmy populations in order to better address their anthropological diversity and history. I am also introducing a new method, based on the analysis of specialized vocabulary, to reconstruct the substratum of some languages they speak. I show that Pygmy identity is not based on their languages, which have often been borrowed from neighboring non-Pygmy farmer communities with whom each Pygmy group is linked. Understanding the nature of this partnership, quite variable in history, is essential to address Pygmy languages, identity and history. Finally, I show that only a multidisciplinary …

Functional Morphology Of The Sphyrnid Shark Cephalofoil: An Assessment Of The Hydrodynamic Lift Hypothesis Using Computational Fluid Dynamics, Matthew K. Gaylord

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The hammerhead sharks (Family: Sphyrnidae) are all characterized by a conspicuous lateral expansion and dorsoventral flattening of the head forming a structure known as a cephalofoil, however, there is substantial morphological variation within the clade. Many theories have been proposed regarding the functional aspects of this structure. One of these is that it may produce beneficial dynamic lift as the shark swims (in similar fashion to the cambered wings found on many modern-day aircraft). As sharks do not possess a swim bladder, part of their energy intake is expended on simply maintaining vertical station in the water column. If indeed …

The Role Of Compliment Topics In Compliment Response, Hiroko Katsuta

Dissertations and Theses

This study examines the role of compliment topic by analyzing compliment responses by Japanese and American college students. Compliment responses can be seen as solutions for maintaining a balance between (1) a preference to avoid self-praise and (2) a preference to accept or agree with the compliment (Pomerantz 1978). Building on studies showing that response strategies can be influenced by compliment content and context, the study analyzed responses to compliments on ability, achievement, belongings, appearance, and personal characteristics by determining the subjects' choice of response strategy--categorized as acceptance, avoidance, or rejection--for each compliment topic. Compliment responses were elicited in a …

Spanish In Contact With Arabic, Lotfi Sayahi

Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Scholarship

Spanish and Arabic have been in contact for long periods and in different regions. While this is largely due to the geographical proximity of the Iberian Peninsula to western North Africa, a set of historical, political and social developments helped bring both languages into close contact. Of remarkable significance was the presence of Arabic in Iberia from 711 to 1492 and, at least, for several more decades after the Reconquista was completed. This fact, as is often mentioned, led to heavy lexical borrowing from Arabic into Spanish and other Ibero-Romance languages. Also important was the introduction of Spanish into North …

Valence Sensitivity In Pamirian Past-Tense Inflection: A Realizational Analysis, Gregory Stump, Andrew R. Hippisley

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Argument Encoding And Pragmatic Marking Of The Transitive Subject In Shiwilu (Kawapanan), Pilar Valenzuela

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Articles and Research

Shiwilu (a.k.a. Jebero) is a nearly extinct Kawapanan language from Peruvian Amazonia. The goal of this article is twofold. First, it investigates the obligatory cross-referencing of arguments in the complex Shiwilu verb. This system is predominantly nominative accusative, with the caveat that main clause object markers coincide with those conveying subject in one type of clause involving nominal predicates, as well as subject and object of dependent clauses. Second, this article provides a first analysis of the enclitic =ler, which may attach to transitive subjects and thus exhibits an ergative-like distribution. Unlike the situation in languages with syntacticized ergative systems, …

Morphological Typology, Andrew R. Hippisley

Linguistics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Una Aproximación Teórica A La Definición Del Modo Verbal Español, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Lexical Class And Word Frequency On The L1 And L2 English-Based Lexical Connections, Alla Zareva

English Faculty Publications

Three groups of participants—L1 speakers of English, L2 advanced, and intermediate users of English—responded in writing to a word association test containing words balanced for lexical class (nouns, verbs, adjectives) and frequency of occurrence (high, mid, low). The questions addressed in the study concerned the way two word-related factors (i.e., lexical category and word frequency) interplayed with two learner-related characteristics (i.e., proficiency and word familiarity) and influenced 1) the participants’ knowledge of vocabulary, 2) their preference to build specific types of lexical connections among the words they know, and 3) their ability to maintain networks of associations as an indicator …

Applicative Constructions In Shipibo-Konibo (Panoan), Pilar Valenzuela

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Articles and Research

This article provides a detailed, typologically informed treatment of applicative constructions in Shipibo-Konibo, a Panoan language from Peruvian Amazonia. Shipibo-Konibo has three applicative suffixes: affective (i.e., benefactive or malefactive), dedicated malefactive, and associative. These applicative types are rather common cross-linguistically and hence the language cannot be said to be particularly rich either in terms of number or kinds of applicative constructions. Nevertheless, the Shipibo-Konibo system exhibits certain points of special interest such as the interplay between transitivity and the different applicative construction types, which include a restriction on the dedicated malefactive to combine with transitive verbs only, and the almost …

Paradigmatic Realignment And Morphological Change: Diachronic Deponency In Network Morphology, Andrew R. Hippisley

Linguistics Faculty Publications

A natural way of formally modeling language change is to adopt a procedural, dynamic approach that gets at the notion of emergence and decay. We argue that in the realm of morphological change, and notably the reorganization of a lexeme’s paradigm, a model that at a given synchronic stage holds together both the actual facts about the paradigm as well as the range of potential or virtual facts that are licensed by the morphological machinery more elegantly captures the nature of the changing paradigm. We consider the special case of morphological mismatch where syntactic function is misaligned with morphological expression, …