JOURNAL OF THE LINGUISTIC
|
VOLUME 77, NUMBER 1 |
MARCH 2001 |
The stage/individual distinction and Yoshiki Ogawa 1
Allomorphy in optimality theory: Jerzy Rubach & 26
Polish iotation Geert Booij
Measuring events Guido Vanden Wyngaerd 61
The psychological reality of OCP-place Stefan A. Frisch & 91
in Arabic Bushra Zawaydeh
The syntax and semantics of unselected David Adger & Josep Quer 107
Response to Aoun and Li Susumu Kuno, Ken-Ichi 134
Takami,
& Yuru Wu
Short Report David A. Peterson 144
Reviews:
Valentine & Darnell (eds.): Theorizing the J. Stanlaw 156
Americanist tradition
Sag & Wasow: Syntactic theory: A formal P. Farrell 158
introduction
Everett: Why there are no clitics: An alternative J. A. Nevis 162
perspective on pronominal allomorphy
Lakoff & Johnson: Philosophy in the flesh J. U. Neisser 166
Pinker: Words and rules: The ingredients
of language T. Wasow 168
Book Notices 172
Publications Received 204
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Abstracts:
The stage/individual distinction and (in)alienable possession
Yoshiki Ogawa
The stage-level/individual-level distinction, which has so far been limited to verbal and adjectival predicates, should be extended to (underived) nominal predicates as well. Specifically, while simple nominals are individual-level predicates, event nominals and inalienable possession nominals are stage-level predicates. The currently prevailing distinction between the stage-level and individual-level predicates, that is, whether a predicate denotes a transitory state or an inherent and unchangeable stage, must be reconsidered. Current suggestions in line with this move will be discussed.
Allomorphy in optimality theory: Polish iotation
Jerzy Rubach
University
of Iowa
University
of Warsaw
Geert E. Booij
This article discusses iotation, a process that has been analyzed in generative phonology as a palatalization rule. We argue that optimality theory predicts the treatment of this process in terms of allomorphy, which in fact is desirable for a synchronic analysis. The consequence is that, with regard to iotation effects, the task of phonology is to account for the distribution of allomorphs rather than to derive them from a single underlying representation. While, as a result of diachronic changes, the allomorphs are arbitrary, their distribution is not. It follows from the interaction of universal phonological and morphological constraints, and from the considerations of segment markedness.
Measuring events
The telic-atelic distinction has been argued to hinge on the presence of a (bounded) internal argument measuring out the event, or, alternatively, a resultative small clause providing an end point for the event. Both perspectives are partially correct and partially incorrect. On the one hand, the resultative is more adequately seen as a measure than an end point; on the other, it is the resultative predicate rather than the internal argument that performs this measuring function. Empirical evidence is adduced in support of this point of view: resultative predicates are subject to the requirement that they denote a bounded scale. Only bounded predicates can delimit an event by providing it with minimal parts. As a matter of conceptual necessity, unbounded predicates, though potentially denoting end points, cannot function as event measures.
The psychological reality of OCP-place in Arabic
Bushra Adnan Zawaydeh
Lernout
and Hauspie Speech Products, Inc.
The psychological reality of an abstract consonant dissimilation constraint is demonstrated in an experiment with native speakers of Jordanian Arabic. In this experiment, novel verbs containing constraint violations and those without violations were presented orthographically for judgments of well-formedness. Native speaker well-formedness judgments reflected knowledge of the phonotactic constraint. Systematic gaps were rated much less wordlike than accidental gaps that were equivalent in their lexical characteristics. Judgments for novel verbs containing constraint violations were also gradiently influenced by consonant pair similarity. The experimental study supports previous dictionary-based phonotactic analyses that propose that the native speaker’s knowledge of consonant cooccurrence constraints in Arabic is based on emergent generalizations over the lexical items in an abstract root lexicon.
The syntax and semantics of unselected embedded questions
Josep Quer
The selection of clausal complement type by embedding predicates constitutes a privileged domain for the assessment of interface issues between different modules of the grammar. This article addresses the selectional problem posed by embedded if-questions (of semantic type <t, t>) appearing as arguments of noninterrogative predicates like ‘admit’ or ‘say’ (which are assumed to select a that-clause of type t). We show that such unselected embedded questions (UEQs) are semantically sensitive to the same set of elements as polarity sensitive items, and this sensitivity constrains their distribution and interpretation. The proposal is that UEQs are headed by a semantically sensitive determiner ∆, which is covert in English (a counterpart of either) but overt in Basque. After raising, the UEQ leaves a variable of type t, thus solving the sectional problem. The interplay between s-section, c-section and lexical semantic specifications is argued to account for a number of other puzzles in clausal complementation.
Discussion Note: Response to Aoun and Li
Ken-Ichi Takami
Yuru Wu
Kuno, Takami, and Wu (1999) showed that Aoun and Li’s (1993) syntactic analysis of quantifier scope interpretation in English, Chinese, and Japanese makes incorrect predictions about the grammaticality and ambiguity of certain types of sentences. They proposed instead an expert system based on the interaction of syntactic and other principles that ranks the relative strengths of the potential scope interpretations of a given sentence. Aoun and Li (2000) replied to Kuno et al. with a number of criticisms, which are refuted here.
Short Report: Ingush ʔa: The elusive Type 5 clitic?
A clitic occurring mainly in same-subject chaining constructions in Ingush (Northeast Caucasian) exhibits the following characteristics in terms of Klavans’s 1985 clitic typology: it is positioned with respect to the final element of its domain, before that element, and is enclitic on a preceding element. The clitic therefore provides a good example of Klavans’s Type 5 clitic, the existence of which is disputed. The search for evidence bearing on the status of the clitic also results in a more comprehensive treatment of clause chaining in Ingush than has previously been available.
MacKay: A grammar of Misantla Totonac D. Beck 172
Hyman & Kisseberth (eds.): Theoretical aspects G. T. Childs 172
of Bantu tone
Milroy & Milroy: Authority in language: G. T. Childs 173
Investigating standard English (3rd edn.)
Dirven & Verspoor (eds.): Cognitive exploration V. Haser 174
of language and linguistics
Wilss: Translation and interpreting in the 20th century: I. M. Laversuch 174
Focus on German
Senft (ed.): Referring to space: Studies in Austronesian E. Lindström 175
and Papuan languages
Schuppener: Germanische Zahlwörter: Sprach- und E. R. Luján 176
kulturgeschichtliche Untersuchungen
insbesondere zur Zahl
Gouvard: La versification H. Perdicoyianni- 177
Paléologou
Grenoble: Deixis and information packaging A. Pereltsvaig 177
in Russian discourse
Mitchell & Myles: Second language learning theories M. Picard 178
Kager et al. (eds.): The prosody-morphology interface M. Pierce 179
Polomé & Justus (eds.): Language change and M. Pierce 179
typological variation: In honor of Winfred P.
Lehmann on the occasion of his 83rd birthday:
Vol. 1: Language change and phonology;
Vol. 2: Grammatical universals and typology
Ramussen: Selected papers on Indo-European linguistics. M. Pierce 180
With a section on comparative Eskimo linguistics
Jones-Bley et al. (eds.): Proceedings of the tenth annual M. Pierce 181
UCLA Indo-European conference
Hajičová et al. (eds.): Prague Linguistic Circle Z. Salzmann 181
papers. Vol. 3
Parkinson: Cracking the codes: The Rosetta stone C. Shelvador 182
and decipherment
Aikenvald: Tariana texts and cultural context E. J. Vajda 183
Heath: A grammar of Koyraboro (Koroboro) Senni E. J. Vajda 183
Sohn: The Korean language E. J. Vajda 184
Dimmendaal & Last (eds.): Surmic languages E. J. Vajda 185
and cultures
Keating: Power sharing: Language, rank, gender, E. J. Vajda 185
and social space in Pohnpei, Micronesia
Bao: The structure of tone E. J. Vajda 186
Mey: When voices clash: A study in literary pragmatics N. Watanabe 187
Bucholtz et al. (eds.): Reinventing identities: N. Watanabe 188
The gendered self in discourse
Devitt & Sterelny: Language and reality: An L. Alonso-Ovalle 188
introduction to the philosophy of language (2nd edn.)
Wilson: Coverbs and complex predicates in Wagiman C. Bowern 189
Stevens: Acoustic phonetics B. Collins 190
Auer et al: Language in time: The rhythm and tempo B. Collins 190
of spoken interaction
Willis: Syntactic change in Welsh: A study of the J. F. Eska 191
loss of verb-second
Heinecke: Temporal deixis in Welsh and Breton J. F. Eska 192
Morris Jones: The Welsh answering system J. F. Eska 192
Donhauser & Eichinger (eds.): Deutsche Grammatik— J. M. Jeep 193
Thema in Variationen: Festschrift für Hans-Werner
Eroms zum 60. Geburtstag
Holton et al: Greek: A comprehensive grammar of J. Merchant 194
the modern language
Braunmüller: De nordiske språk (2nd edn.) R. M. Miller 195
Curat: Les déterminants dans la référence H. Perdicoyianni- 196
nominale et les conditions de leur absence Paléologou
Dziwirek et al. (eds.): Annual workshop on formal A. Pereltsvaig 197
approaches to Slavic linguistics: The Seattle
meeting 1998
Braidi: The acquisition of second language syntax G. Thurgood 197
Daley: Vietnamese classifiers in narrative texts G. Thurgood 198
Brendemoen et al. (eds.): Language encounters across G. H. Toops 198
time and space: Studies in language contact
Nielsen: The continental backgrounds of English and H. Waltz 199
its insular developments until 1154
Jones: Images of language: Six essays on German P. E. Webber 200
attitudes to European languages from 1500 to 1800
Bex & Watts (eds.): Standard English: E. G. Winkler 201
The widening debate
Roberts: Talking about treatment: Recommendations K. Emmons 201
for breast cancer adjuvant therapy
Choi: Optimizing structure in context: Scrambling A. Perelstvaig 202
and information structure