Proceedings of the 31st Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium

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  • Publication
    Processing presupposition: Verifying sentences with ‘only’
    (2008-04-23) Kim, Christina
    With respect to how comprehenders process presupposition and handle presupposition failure when verifying sentences, at least two hypotheses are possible: (1) presuppositions are treated like preconditions for evaluating the truth or falsity of a sentence, and are systematically verified before the assertion, and (2) presuppositions are 'backgrounded' and therefore taken for granted—meaning that assertions are systematically evaluated first. Three sentence-picture verification experiments are presented which suggest some version of the latter view; the results are compatible with there being no explicit step of presupposition verification. Instead, presupposition failure arises only accidentally, or in cases where the content of the presupposition is made especially salient in the discourse context by some external means.
  • Publication
    Addressing the actuation problem with quantitative models of sound change
    (2008-04-23) Baker, Adam
    Computational models are presented that evaluate different theories of sound change, particularly with regard to the actuation of change. Standard phonologization of coarticulation models predict counterfactual across-the-board change (cf. Weinreich, Labov, and Herzog 1968). Models that simulate a sigmoidal trajectory of change are more empirically appealing, but also are very sensitive to initial conditions. It is proposed that herein lies the solution to the actuation riddle. Sound change arises when a linguistic leader (Labov 2001) perceives an incidental correlation of social and phonetic variables, and adopts her speech to the "change." This simple incident leads to an entire sound change. We expect sound change to arise with the same frequency as these spurious correlations. The (presumed) infrequency of such correlations offers a schematic solution to the actuation problem.
  • Publication
    Phonetic, phonological, and social forces as filters: Another look at the Georgia Toscana
    (2008-04-23) Dalcher, Christina Villafaña
    This study brings quantitative analysis to data from Florentine Italian to describe the lenition process Gorgia Toscana, assessing the roles of physiological, perceptual, phonological, and social factors. Data from six native speakers of Florentine Italian were analyzed acoustically for consonant duration, intensity, periodicity, and burst absence. Results indicate that Gorgia Toscana produces gradient and variable output, with certain patterns occurring in the variation. The observations that emerge from the data cannot all be accounted for if Gorgia Toscana is characterized as a purely phonetic, phonological, or socially driven process of sound change. Rather, different aspects of the process can and should be attributed to different motivators: gradience and velar preference to articulator movements; resistance of non-velar lenition to perceptual constraints; targeting of a complete natural class and categorical weakening to abstract featural representations; and intersubject variation in velar lenition to external social factors. Gorgia Toscana seems best understood by referring to various forces that act to encourage or inhibit weakening. Applying Hume and Johnson's (2001) filter model to lenition data, we can generalize over the observed patterns in Gorgia Toscana in a way that is descriptively and explanatorily more adequate than previous accounts of the process.
  • Publication
    The real effect of word frequency on phonetic variation
    (2008-04-23) Dinkin, Aaron J.
    The claim that high-frequency words tend to undergo regular sound change faster than less frequent words is common in Exemplar Theory literature. This paper examines the effect of word frequency on F2 of short vowels in the region of American English subject to the Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCVS). I find that more frequent words appear to have more centralized vowels - higher F2 for back vowels, and lower F2 for front vowels - regardless of the direction the vowel is moving in the NCVS. I interpret this result as supporting, rather than the strong claim that high-frequency words undergo sound change in general faster, an observation by Phillips (1984) that high-frequency words undergo specifically lenition faster.
  • Publication
    DP hypothesis for Japanese “bare” noun phrases
    (2008-04-23) Furuya, Kaori
  • Publication
    Why cross-linguistic frequency cannot be equated with ease of acquisition in phonology
    (2008-04-23) Cristià, Alejandrina; Seidl, Amanda
  • Publication
    Reconstruction of Proto-Trique phonemes
    (2008-04-23) Matsukawa, Kosuke
    Trique languages are spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico and belong to the Mixtecan family of the Otomanguean stock. Trique languages are composed of three languages: San Andrés Chicahuaxtla Trique, San Juan Copala Trique and San Martín Itunyoso Trique. Based on the data on these three Trique languages, Proto-Trique has been reconstructed by Matsukawa (2005, 2006a, 2006b, 2007a, 2007b). This article is the refined version of my previous reconstruction of Proto-Trique. In Proto-Trique, seven stop sounds (/*t/, /*d/, /*k/, /*g/, /*kw/, /*gw/, /*ʔ/), three fricative sounds (/*ß/, /*s/, /*ʃ/), three affricate sounds (/*ts/, /*tʃ/, /*tʂ/), five resonant sounds (*m/, /*n/, /*l/, /*r/, /*y/), seven oral vowels (/*i/, /*e/, /*ɨ/, /*ə/, /*a/, /*o/, /*u/) and four nasal vowels (/*ĩ/, /*ɨ̃/, /*ã/, /*ũ/) can be reconstructed as phonemes. Both oral and nasal vowels have four types: short vowels (V), long vowels (VV), glottalized vowels (Vʔ) and aspirated vowels (Vh). Some of these reconstructed phonemes show very limited distributional constraints. All of the nasal vowels, long vowels, glottalized vowels and aspirated vowels occur only in a final syllable. In non-final syllables, only short oral vowels can occur. Although Proto-Trique has both voiced and voiceless stop sounds, voiced stop sounds can be reconstructed only in a final syllable. In non-final syllables, only voiceless stop sounds can occur. In this article, I will show how these Proto-Trique phonemes were reconstructed and how these reconstructed Proto-Trique phonemes have undergone series of historical sound changes in the three modern Trique languages.
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    An argument/adjunct asymmetry in wh-questions
    (2008-04-23) Yoon, Suwon
    Contra previous uniform approaches for wh-phrases, the current paper argues that there is a clear asymmetry between in-situ argument and adjunct wh-phrases with respect to Intervention Effects (IEs) in Korean and Japanese. Based on the categorical (nominal vs. adverbial) dichotomy evidenced by structural case attachment tests and formation of complex wh-expressions, different base locations for wh-arguments (inside vP) and wh-adjuncts (outside vP) are suggested in these languages. Finally, I propose that IE asymmetries be attributed to the inherently different properties of argument and adjunct wh-phrases under scrambling operation.