JOURNAL OF THE LINGUISTIC
|
VOLUME 77, NUMBER 2 |
JUNE 2001 |
Articles:
The typology of voicing and devoicing W. Leo Wetzels 207
& Joan Mascaró
Meaning in interaction: The case of actually Rebecca Clift 245
Prelinguistic gesture predicts mastery and Adrianne Cheek, Kearsy 292
error in the
production of early signs Cormier, Ann Repp, & Richard P. Meier
On the nature of syntactic variation: Evidence William Snyder 324
from complex
predicates and complex
ASL ‘syllables’ and language evolution: Andrew Carstairs-McCar 343
Reviews:
Falk: Women, language and linguistics C. V. Chavny 350
Rosen: Latine loqui: Trends and directions E. Pulgram 353
in the crystallization of Classical Latin
Mithun: The languages of native North America K. Rice 356
Derbyshire & Pullum (eds.): Handbook of E. J. Vajda 360
Amazonian languages, Vol. 4
Mills (ed.): Slavic gender linguistics C. M. Vakareliyska 363
Takeuchi: The structure and history of Japanese: M. U. Fidler 366
from Yamatokotoba to Nihongo
Carstairs-McCarthy: The origins of complex J. Uriagereka 368
language
Shapiro (ed.): The Pierce seminar papers: H. Anderson 373
Essays in semiotic analysis, Vol. 4
Degraff (ed.): Language creation and language M. Aceto 376
change: Creolization, diachrony,
and development
Wheeler (ed.): The workings of language: S. M. Burt 379
From prescriptions to perspectives;
Language alive in classrooms
Preston (ed.): Handbook of perceptual C. J. Dannenberg 382
dialectology: Vol. 1
Lewis: The Turkish language reform: A. Eminov 384
A catastrophic success
Book Notices 387
The Editor’s
Department 425
Publications Received 429
Abstracts:
The typology of voicing and devoicing
Joan Mascaró
This article provides empirical evidence against the claims that [voice] is a privative feature and that word-internal devoicing can occur in a language without word-final devoicing. The study of voice patterns in a number of languages shows that the feature value [– voice] although it is the unmarked value of the laryngeal feature [voice], can be active phonologically in a fashion parallel to the marked value [+ voice]. Across languages, voice assimilation may occur independently of devoicing and, although it normally affects both [+ voice] and [– voice], it may affect only one value in some languages.
Meaning in interaction: The case of actually
One aspect of the relationship between meaning and interaction is explored here by taking the English particle actually, which is characterized by flexibility of syntactic position, and investigating its use in a range of interactional contexts. Syntactic alternatives in the form of clause-initial or clause-final placement are found to be selected by reference to interactional exigencies. The temporally situated, contingent accomplishment of utterances in turns and their component turn-constructional units shows the emergence of meaning across a conversational sequence; it reveals syntactic flexibility as both a resource to be exploited for interactional ends and a constraint on that interaction.
Prelinguistic gesture predicts mastery and error in the production
of early signs
Kearsy Cormier
University of Texas at Austin
Ann Repp
University of Texas at Austin
Richard P. Meier
University of Texas at Austin
We explore the predictors of early mastery versus error in children’s acquisition of American Sign Language. We hypothesize that the most frequent values for a particular parameter in prelinguistic gesture will be the most frequent in early signs and the most likely sources of substitution when signing children make errors. Analyses of data from a longitudinal study of the prelinguistic gestures of five Deaf and five hearing children and a longitudinal study of four Deaf children’s early signs have revealed evidence of significant commonalities between prelinguistic gesture and early sign. This apparent continuity between prelinguistic gesture and early sign reflects constraints operating on the infant — in all likelihood, motoric constraints—that seem to persist into the first-word period in both major language modalities. In sign, as in speech, the production of first signs uses building blocks that are available to the prelinguistic child.
On the nature of syntactic variation: Evidence from complex
predicates and complex word-formation
The existence of substantive parametric variation in syntax, as characterized in Chomsky 1981, has been questioned in the more recent generative literature, notably by Borer 1984, Fukui 1986, and Chomsky 1993. This article provides converging evidence from child language acquisition and comparative syntax for the existence of a syntactic parameter in the classical sense of Chomsky 1981, with simultaneous effects on syntactic argument structure (e.g., verb-particle constructions) and complex word-formation (root compounding). The implications are first that syntax is indeed subject to points of substantive parametric variation as envisioned in Chomsky 1981, and second that the time course of child language acquisition is a potentially rich source of evidence about the innate constraints on language variation.
ASL ‘syllables’ and language evolution: A response to
Uriagereka
I am grateful to Juan Uriagereka (2000) for his thorough and thoughtful review of my book The Origins of Complex Language (henceforth Origins; Carstairs-McCarthy 1999). The book tackles fundamental questions about the relationship among syntax, semantics, and cognition, and Uriagereka is not persuaded by all my suggestions about the prehistory of this relationship. I will not pursue these large issues here; rather, I want to address a more circumscribed issue that is nevertheless crucial to the argument of the book, so that my failure to discuss it is an important omission, as Uriagereka points out. This issue is whether the syllable, as a unit of phonological description, is modality-neutral (so as to be equally at home, with fundamentally the same sense, in descriptions of signed and spoken languages), or whether the syllables of signed and spoken languages are really different phenomena, so that the use of the term syllable for both draws attention to resemblances that are more accidental than fundamental. I will argue that the evidence supports the latter view more strongly than the former; therefore, when discussing language evolution, it is legitimate to appeal (as I do) to aspects of spoken syllables that are undoubtedly modality-dependent, such as their physiological underpinnings in the vocal apparatus.
Before addressing this issue directly, I would like to summarize briefly why it is important in the context of my book. Second, by way of reassurance, I will explain why the conclusion that I reach does not belittle sign languages, nor imply any old-fashioned skepticism about their entitlement to be recognized as real manifestations of the human language capacity.
Cheon: Zur Konzeption eines phraseologischen D. Aichele 387
Wörterbuchs für den Fremdsprachler
Amara: Politics and sociolinguistics reflexes: S. Davis 387
Palestinian border villages
Bricker et al: A dictionary of the Maya language V. Haser 389
as spoken in Hocabá, Yucatán
Lycan: mind and cognition: An anthology V. Haser 389
Munro et al. (eds.): Di’csyonaary X: tèe’n V. Haser 390
Dii’zh Sah Sann Lu’uc = San Lucas
Quiaviní Zapotec dictionary
Van de Vijver: The iambic issue: Iambs as A. J. Koontz- 390
a result of
constraint interaction Garboden
Hanny & Bokestein (eds.): Functional grammar A. J. Koontz- 391
and verbal
interaction Garboden
Ratner & Healey (eds.): Stuttering research I. M. Laversuch 392
and practice: Bridging the gap
Andrews: Sociocultural perspectives on language I. M. Laversuch 392 change in diaspora
Klintborg: The transcience of American Swedish I. M. Laversuch 393
Cinque et al. (eds.): Paths towards universal grammar: D. K. Nylander 394
Studies in honor of Richard S. Kayne
Adone & Plag (eds.): Creolization and linguistic change D. K. Nylander 395
Moss et al. (eds.): Logic, language and information, A. Pietarinen 396
Vol. 2
Ryazanova-Clarke & Wade: The Russian language today E. J. Vajda 397
Van den berg (ed.): Studies in Caucasian linguistics: E. J. Vajda 398
Selected papers of the Eighth Caucasian Colloquium
Rebuschi & Tuller (eds.): The grammar of focus E. J. Vajda 399
Mathangwane: Ikalanga phonetics and phonology: E. J. Vajda 400
A synchronic and diachronic study
Klein & Martohardjono (eds.): The development M. J. Washburn 400
of second language grammars: A generative
approach
Zaefferer (ed.): Deskriptive Grammatik und D. Aichele 401
allgemeiner Sprachvergleich
Niedzielski & Preston: Folk linguistics E. Battistella 402
Jones: Strange talk: The politics of literature in E. Battistella 402
Gilded Age America
Spears (ed.): Race and ideology: Language, E. Battistella 404
symbolism, and popular culture
Culicover: Syntactic nuts: Hard cases, syntactic A. Pereltsvaig 404
theory, and language acquisition
Molinie: Sémiostylistique: L’effet de l’art H. P. Paleologou 405
Naguschewski & Trabant (eds.): Was heiβt heir E. Schleef 406
„fremd”?: Studien zu Sprache und Fremdheit
Patrick: Urban Jamaican Creole: Variation E. G. Winkler 406
in the mesolect
Peccei: Pragmatics L. Alonso-Ovalle 407
Franco et al. (eds.): Grammatical analyses in L. Alonso-Ovalle 407
Basque and Romance linguistics: papers
in honor of Mario Saltarelli
Wierzbicka: Emotions across languages and A. Gianto 408
cultures: Diversity and universals
Koktova: Word-order based grammar A. Gianto 409
Fuchs & Robert (eds.): Language diversity and A. Głaz 409
cognitive representations
Hermans & Oostendorp (eds.): The derivational A. J. Koontz- 410
residue in
phonological optimality theory Garboden
Delisle et al. (eds.): Terminologie de la traduction G. E. Saunders 411
Smith: Essentials of early English J. Skaffari 412
Durgunoglu & Verhoeven (eds.): Literacy A. J. Toribio 413
development in a multilingual context:
Cross-cultural perspectives
Karttunen & Östman (eds.): Issues in minority peoples E. J. Vajda 414
Li: Manchu: A textbook for reading documents E. J. Vajda 414
Price (ed.): Encyclopedia of the languages of Europe E. J. Vajda 415
Miedema et al. (eds.): Perspectives on the Bird’s E. J. Vajda 416
Head or Irian Jaya, Indonesia: Proceedings
of the Conference Leiden, 13-17 October 1997
Trudgill: The dialects of England (2nd edn.) S. Wagner 417
Kulikov & Vater (eds.): Typology of verbal categories: L. Whaley 417
Papers presented to Vladimir Nedjalkov on the
occasion of his 70th birthday
Shahin et al. (eds.): The proceedings of the seventh L. Alonso-Ovalle 418
West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics
Kunnan et al. (eds.): Validation in language assessment R. A. Brown 419
Hardcastle & Hewlett (eds.): Coarticulation: Theory, J. R. Elliott 420
data and techniques
Skutnabb-Kangas: Genocide in education— A. Eminov 421
or worldwide diversity and human rights
Von Heusinger & Egli (eds.): Reference and I. García 422
anaphoric elations
Fehringer: Dutch: A reference grammar of Dutch C. van Kerckvoorde 422
with exercise and key
Van der Haagen: Caught between norms: The C. van Kerckvoorde 423
English pronunciation of Dutch learners
Nunn: Dutch orthography: A systematic C. van Kerckvoorde 423
investigation of the spelling of Dutch words