JOURNAL OF THE LINGUISTIC
|
VOLUME 76, NUMBER 3 |
SEPTEMBER 2000 |
Geminate inalterability and lenition Robert Kirchner 509
In the mind’s ear: The semantic extensions Nicholas Evans & 546
of perception verbs in Australian languages David Wilkins
Where in the world is the Udi clitic? Alice C. Harris 593
Syllable cut prosody in Early Middle English Robert W. Murray 617
Reconciling comparative and internal J. Marshall Unger 655
reconstruction: The case of Old
Labio-palatalization in Twi: Contrastive, Kenneth de Jong & 682
quantal, and organizational factors Samuel Gyasi Obeng
Reviews:
Sampson: Educating Eve: The ‘language E. Pulgram 704
instinct’ debate
Fellbaum (ed.): WordNet: An electronic A. Kilgarriff 706
lexical database:
Sala: De la latină la română E. Vrabie 708
[From Latin to Romanian]
Hutton: Linguistics in the Third Reich: E. Pulgram 711
Mother-tongue fascism, race, and
the science of language
McCawley: The syntactic phenomena of A. Rosta 715
English (2nd edn.)
Ritchie & Bhatia (eds.): Handbook of child M. Thomas 718
language acquisition
Book Notices 721
Publications Received 754
Abstracts:
Geminate
inalterability and lenition
It is a familiar observation that phonological processes frequently fail to apply to geminates. A number of previous proposals attempted to account for these geminate inalterability effects in terms of a distinction between singly and multiply linked autosegments. Subsequent research, however, has observed that geminate inalterability is inviolable only in the domain of lenition processes. In this article, an account of this generalization is couched within a general optimality theoretic treatment of lenition, in which a scalar effort minimization constraint interacts with a set of lenition-blocking constraints. The geminate inalterability generalization follows from this effort-based approach to lenition, coupled with certain assumptions concerning the effort involved in geminates and their lenited counterparts.
In the mind’s
ear: The semantic extensions of perception verbs in Australian languages
David Wilkins
This article tests earlier claims about the universality of patterns of polysemy and semantic extension in the domain of perception verbs. Utilizing data from a broad range (approx. 60) of Australian languages, we address two hypothesized universals. The first is Viberg’s (1984) proposed unidirectional pattern of extension from higher to lower sensory modalities (i.e. intrafield extensions, like ‘see’ > ‘hear’). The second hypothesized universal is that put forward by Sweetser (1990) regarding the extension of perception verbs to cognition readings (i.e. transfield extensions, like ‘see’ > ‘know’). She suggests that vision has primacy as the modality from which verbs of higher intellection, such as ‘knowing’ and ‘thinking’, are recruited, and proposes that verbs meaning ‘hear’ would not take on these readings, although they often extend to mean ‘understand’ or ‘obey’. Though both hypotheses assign primacy to vision among the senses, the results of our Australian study show that Viberg’s proposal remains intact, while Sweetser’s is proved false. Australian languages recruit verbs of cognition like ‘think’ and ‘know’ from ‘hear’, but not from ‘see’. It appears that, at least as far as perception verbs are concerned, transfield semantic changes are subject to greater cultural variability than intrafield semantic changes. We argue that the same semantic domain can have its universal and its relativistic side, a foot in nature and a foot in culture, and conclude by demonstrating that there are good social and cultural reasons driving the extension of ‘hearing’, but not ‘seeing’, to ‘know’ and ‘think’ in Australian Aboriginal societies.
Where in the world is
the Udi clitic?
This article shows that endoclitics do exist in Udi, a language of the North East Caucasian family, and this fact poses a challenge to the lexicalist hypothesis. Clitics may be positioned between the morphemes of complex verb stems and immediately before the final segments of monomorphemic verb stems. The author argues, on the basis of accepted tests for wordhood, that complex verb stems are single words, not phrases. On the basis of criteria developed by Zwicky and Pullum (1983), it is argued that the clitics of Udi are true clitics. An analysis of the placement of clitics in various positions inside verb stems is proposed in optimality theory. The author shows that phonological phenomena do not provide an alternative basis for positioning these clitics and concludes that clitics in Udi are a counterexample to the lexical integrity hypothesis.
Syllable cut prosody
in early Middle English
Previous studies have been largely unsuccessful in investigating Middle English quantity changes in terms or moraic or foot structure. The present study approaches quantity changes as the consequence of the phonologization of a syllable cut prosody (Trubetzkoy’s (1939) ‘Silbenschnittkorrelation’) and provides new evidence for the relevance of syllable cut to the diachronic phonology of English. The evidence is from the author’s partial reconstruction of the phonological system of the early Middle English dialect represented in the Ormulum (Northeast Midlands, circa 1180), based solely on the orthographic and metrical evidence provided by its author, Orm. Although Orm’s innovative orthographic system previously defied analysis, it is fully interpretable once the role of syllable cut is recognized. The analysis provides crucial support for the relevance of syllable cut to the diachronic phonology of English, and ultimately to the explanation of the pan-Germanic similarities in the ‘breakdown’ of phonological quantity.
Reconciling
comparative and internal reconstruction: The case of Old Japanese /ti, ri, ni/
Some Korean-Japanese comparisons involving Japanese coronals complicate the internal reconstruction of pre-Old Japanese. Post-OJ verb forms that end uniformly in, for example, ki have distinct OJ final syllables (ki ≠ kwi) according to the form or paradigm of the verb. This is not true for OJ syllables like ti, but scholars have assumed that pre-OJ *ti ≠ *twi, etc., were distributed in corresponding verb forms in the same way as OJ ki ≠ kwi, etc. Whitman, however, has introduced K-J etymologies requiring that pre-OJ *ti > si, *ri and *ni > i, and hence that all OJ ti < *twi, etc. These conflicting results can be resolved if other pre-OJ sound changes supported by Korean etymologies are properly integrated into the internal reconstruction of Japanese verb paradigms.
Labio-palatalization
in Twi: Contrastive, quantal, and organizational factors producing an uncommon
sound
Kenneth de Jong
Gyasi Obeng
Indiana
University
The authors propose that the typologically uncommon combination of labial and palatal construction in Twi has arisen from a convergence created by general patterns of coarticulation of consonants and vowels. This convergence has been systematized in a (consonantal) acoustic dimension partially independent from the original (vocalic) dimensions of contrast for which the rounding and palatal articulations were specified. These conclusions are based on an examination of distributional patterns, palatograms of the articulation of secondarily articulated consonants, and acoustic analyses. Contrastiveness and quantal considerations can be seen as contributing to the occurrence of typologically odd sounds, provided one keeps in mind how an articulatory gesture functions within a language’s contrastive system.
Polgárdi: Vowel harmony: An account in terms of J. M. Lipski 721
government and optimality
Rowicka: On ghost vowels: A strict CV approach J. M. Lipski 722
Faltz: The Navajo verb: A grammar for students J. M. Lipski 722
and scholars
Goedemans: Weightless segments: A phonetic J. M. Lipski 723
and phonological study concerning the
metrical irrelevance of syllable onsets
Weiß: Syntax des Bairischen: Studien zur M. L. Louden 724
Grammatik einer natürlichen Sprache
Löbel & Rauh: Lexikalische Kategorien M. L. Louden 725
und Merkmale
Gawlitzek-Maiwald: der monolinguale und
bilinguale Erwerb von Infinitivkonstruktionen:
Ein Vergleich von Deutsch und Englisch M. L. Louden 726
Edmonson & Burquest: A survey of linguistic Z. Salzmann 726
theories (3rd edn.)
Davenport & Hannahs: Introductory phonetics Z. Salzmann 727
and phonology
Pauwels: Women changing language Z. Salzmann 727
Harasowska: Morphophonemic variability, E. J. Vajda 728
productivity, and change: The case of Rusyn
Lemmens: Lexical perspectives on transitivity E. J. Vajda 729
and ergativity
Brenzinger (ed.): Endangered languages in Africa E. J. Vajda 729
Lehiste & Ross (eds.): Estonian prosody: Papers E. J. Vajda 730
from a symposium
Shuy: The language of confession, interrogation, E. Battistella 731
and deception
Mey (ed.): Concise encyclopedia of pragmatics E. Battistella 732
Paulston & Peckam (eds.): Linguistic minorities in A. Eminov 732
Central and Eastern Europe
Gvozdanović (ed.): Numeral types and changes J. F. Eska 733
worldwide
Cowan & Rakušan: Source book for linguistics (3rd edn.) J. F. Eska 733
Genee: Sentential complementation in a functional J. F. Eska 734
grammar of Irish
Smith: Language and power in the creation M. L. Greenberg 734
of the USSR, 1917-1953
Allwood & Gårdenfors (eds.): Cognitive semantics: J. Gutiérrez-Rexach 735
Meaning and cognition
Abraham & van Gelderen (eds.): German: Syntax J. M. Jeep 736
problems-problematic syntax
Dickens: Extended axiomatic linguistics A. S. Kaye 736
Benmamoun et al. (eds.): Perspectives on Arabic A. S. Kaye 737
linguistics XI
Keller: A theory of linguistic signs A. S. Kaye 738
Heath (ed.): Texts in Koyra Chiini A. S. Kaye 739
Hinton & Munro: Studies in American Indian S. Robinson 740
languages: Description and theory
Andrews & Manning: Complex predicates and S. Robinson 740
information spreading in LFG
Brown: Lexical acculturation in Native Z. Salzmann 741
American languages
Goossens et al.: Fonologische Atlas van de P. E. Webber 742
Nederlandse Dialecten I
Fabbro (ed.): Concise encyclopedia of language E. Battistella 742
Pathology
Fisiak & Oizumi (eds.): English historical linguistics S. M. Clankie 743
and philology in Japan
Akamatsu: Japanese phonetics: Theory and practice P. S. Ding 743
Dalby: Dictionary of languages: The definitive P. S. Ding 744
reference to more than 400 languages
Chambers & Trudgill: Dialectology (2nd edn.) N. C. Dorian 745
Ackerman & Webelhuth: A theory of predicates M. Dukes 745
Bickford: Tools for analyzing the world’s languages: A. P. Grant 746
Morphology and syntax
Lefebvre: Creole genesis and the acquisition of A. P. Grant 747
grammar: The case of Haitian Creole
Rudes: Tuscarora-English/English-Tuscarora dictionary A. P. Grant 747
Schuh: A grammar of Miya M. Haspelmath 748
Ryding (ed.): Early medieval Arabic: Studies on R. D. Hoberman 748
al-Khalīl ibn Ahmad
Fisiak & Krygier (eds.): Advances in English historical L. Oliver 749
linguistics
Brown: The syntax of negation in Russian: A. Pereltsvaig 750
A minimalist approach
Kehrein & Wiese (eds.): Phonology and morphology M. Pierce 750
of the Germanic languages
Borsley: Syntactic theory: A unified approach (2nd edn.) S. Robinson 751
Donohue: A grammar of Tukang Besi C. Rubino 752
Barrett (ed.): The development of language Z. Salzmann 752
Sutton-Spence & Woll: The linguistics of British Z. Salzmann 753
Sign Language: An introduction