Proceedings of the 46th Annual Penn Linguistics Conference

Thumbnail Image
Volume
Number
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Date Published
2023
Journal Volume
Journal Volume
Description
Keywords

Filters

202324
24
24
Reset filters

Settings

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 24
  • Publication
    L1 Influence of Initial Stop Consonants in Malaysian English
    (2023-01-01) Ng, Bee Kee; Chiew, Poh Shin
    L1 Influence on Initial Stop Consonants in Malaysian English As many postcolonial countries retain English for internal use following their independence, a 'new' English is formed with the influence of local varieties. Malaysian English is one of the Southeast Asian Englishes that has experienced long-term language contact and linguistic integration. Nevertheless, a lack of contribution in the phonological aspect of Southeast Asian Englishes is noticed. Thus, the present study aims to investigate the L1 influence on the English initial stop consonants produced by the three major ethnic groups in Malaysia and the extent of cross-linguistic influence. Voice onset time (VOT) and closure duration are investigated in four groups: Malay-English bilinguals (n=10), Mandarin-English bilinguals (n=10), Tamil-English bilinguals (n=10) and British monolinguals (n=9). The bilinguals' English results are compared with their L1s and British English. Findings show the data distribution of English initial stop consonants produced by the bilingual groups lie at an intermediate position between L1s and British English, indicating cross-linguistic influence. While all bilingual groups reflect weaker voicing contrast in the English initial stop production, Malay-English bilinguals and Tamil-English bilinguals show smaller data variability and greater resemblance to respective L1s whereas Mandarin-English bilinguals display greater data variability and greater resemblance to L2. A linear mixed effects model analysis confirms the findings. However, the contrast of closure duration between two voicing categories is observed in all bilingual groups except for the British monolinguals. Hence, this leads us to question the role and weight of VOT and closure duration as an acoustic cue or perceptual cue for voicing discrimination among the Malaysian English bilingual speakers.
  • Publication
    ATB Movement and Parasitic Gaps: From the Perspective of Head Movement
    (2023-01-01) Lee, Tommy Tsz-Ming
    This paper explores a less discussed aspect of head movement by examining two constructions, namely, Across-the-board (ATB) movement and Parasitic Gaps. I reveal an asymmetry between the two configurations: ATB head movement of verbs is attested in Cantonese, but Parasitic Gaps for verbal heads are not. I propose that the unavailability of PGs for verbal heads is not due to the head status of the moving elements: they are ruled out because the possible types for operators are independently restricted. The findings suggest (i) that there is no substantial counter evidence for the unity of movement from PG constructions, and (ii) that ATB movement and PG constructions should receive non-uniform treatment.
  • Publication
    How Various Frame Setters Restrict Interpretations of Contextual Comparisons
    (2023-01-01) Oda, Toshiko
    This study focuses on contextual comparisons that have received much less attention than standard more-than-comparisons. The purpose of this study is to expand the scope of Hohaus’ (2015) framework and enrich it by adding various types of frame phrases that bring different types of degree relations in presuppositions. It is demonstrated that the relations between frame phrases and their main clauses are rule-governed as predicted by Hohaus’ (2015) framework; an asserted degree relation holds only when it satisfies the degree relation in the presupposition brought by its frame phrase(s). Relevant data will be provided in English and Japanese.
  • Publication
    Linguistic Landscape of Howrah: A Comparative Study of Two Regions in a Multilingual City
    (2023-01-01) Kole, Tanya
    This paper aims to study the linguistic landscape of multilingual Howrah, comparing two regions specifically, in order to analyse the variations between areas speaking different languages. The two regions have been chosen such that one is occupied by speakers of the majority language Bangla, while the other is inhabited by non-Bangla communities. These minorities exist in the face of extreme linguistic nationalism by the majority Bengali community. For the linguistic landscape study, all posters, billboards, advertisements, shop names, graffiti on walls, official signboards, traffic signs, address plates, building names, and all other static text were considered, regardless of size. It was assumed that Bangla and English would be the most frequently sighted languages in both the areas, with lower presence of Bangla in the non-Bangla region. The study confirmed this idea, wherein Bangla, English, Hindi, Urdu, and Sanskrit were found in the study areas, with the predominance of English and Bangla. The non-Bangla area had an overwhelmingly high number of English signs, which also points towards the significance of English in contemporary Indian society.
  • Publication
    How Abstract is the Abstract Noun? Gender Agreement in Russian Restrictive Relative Clauses
    (2023-01-01) Bikina, Daria
    Mixed gender agreement has been widely discussed in Russian linguistics. Most work on this topic considers hybrid nouns - animate nouns that can refer to both male and female individuals and can bear the agreement patterns reflecting either the initial gender value of these nouns or the gender value of their context referent (Wechsler and Zlati ́c 2003, Pereltsvaig 2006, Matushansky 2013, Pesetsky 2013, Rappaport 2013, Landau 2015). However, agreement with other elements that can refer to both male and female individuals, such as non-gendered pronouns, has not received much theoretical attention. This paper analyses mixed agreement in constructions involving the interrogative/relative pronoun kto ‘who’. Although in most cases, kto ‘who’ triggers default masculine agreement, sometimes the agreement target reflects the initial gender of the referent of the pronoun.
  • Publication
    Gèng: A Coercive Comparative Marker in Mandarin Chinese
    (2023-01-01) Chen, Zhuang
    Mandarin Chinese geng is often translated as “even more” in the literature. Previous studies mainly concentrate on cases where geng combines with a gradable predicate, under which circumstance geng has been long observed to trigger an evaluative inference that both the comparison standard and the comparison target are above the norm on the scale associated with the gradable predicate. To account for this observation, geng has been variously argued to be a degree intensifier, a modifier for gradable adjectives that carries a presupposed comparison, or a comparative morpheme with an evaluative presupposition. These accounts all assume, covertly or overtly, the presence of a gradable predicate for geng to combine with in the syntax. Liu (2010) notes that geng, puzzlingly, can also combine with non-gradable predicates, which poses a challenge to all such accounts. We pick up this puzzle and make two follow-up observations that (a) geng operates on a context-dependent scale when combining with predicates that are non-gradable and non-scalar and (b) geng, in such cases, is norm-sensitive in that it requires both its hosting proposition and the contextually salient, preceding proposition to indicate a degree above the norm on that relevant scale. To account for all the observations, we adopt Liu’s (2010) suggestion that geng has a comparative component and a presupposed evaluative component as its semantics, but more than that, we suggest that geng is uniformly a coercive and thus super flexible comparative marker that forcibly establishes an ordering relation between compared items. To meet its drive of imposing the ordering relation, geng manipulates different elements in its semantic core but is subject to an economy-driven semantic principle, so no over-generation occurs. This study contributes to our understanding of Mandarin comparatives and has some comparatives-related implications regarding e.g. degree abstraction in general.
  • Publication
    Type-C Emphatic Reduplication in Sakha
    (2023-01-01) Chan, May P. Y.
    Sakha (Yakut) is a Turkic language spoken in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Like many other Turkic languages, Sakha allows reduplication. One pattern is a reduplicative prefix CVp-, which intensifies adjectives (e.g. kirdex ‘dirty’; kip-kirdex ‘very dirty’). It involves fixed segmentism of /p/ and is described in the literature as emphatic or ‘Type-C’ reduplication. This pattern is the focus of the present work. Using data from both existing literature and a consultant, this study captures using a traditional OT approach: (i) the general pattern of fixed segmentism in type-C reduplication, (ii) optional OCP effects, and (iii) monophthongization or vowel shortening effects in the reduplicant.
  • Publication
    The Effects of Topic and Part of Speech on Nonbinary Speakers’ Use of (ING)
    (2023-01-01) Rechsteiner, Jack; Sneller, Betsy
    This paper investigates the variable usage of (ING) by nonbinary speakers across conversation topics, specifically asking whether nonbinary speakers shift their rates of (ING) variation when discussing the salient topic of gender. 8 nonbinary speakers (4 AFAB and 4 AMAB, ranging from 21 to 27 years old) participated in sociolinguistic interviews conducted by a nonbinary researcher who was familiar with each interview participant. A modular interview guide was developed based on Labov’s Q-GEN-II modules with modifications made to specifically obtain participant narratives on their experiences with gender identity and expression in addition to traditional narratives. The results of the study find that despite a markedly more deliberative style during gender topics, participants do not shift rates of (ING) across topics. The present study further finds that a speaker’s assigned gender at birth plays no predictable role in rates of (ING). Taken together, these results suggest that nonbinary speakers form their own distinct linguistic community which should be analyzed as operating outside of the gender binary.
  • Publication
    On the Locus of Tense
    (2023-01-01) Kato, Takaomi
    In this study, I provide an argument in favor of Chomsky’s (2021) claim that tense is a feature of v, not of INFL. First, I show that the Japanese Gapping construction (JGC) can involve the coordination that I call “continuative form coordination (CFC),” as well as another type of coordination, referred to as “finite form coordination (FFC).” I argue then that what are conjoined in CFC are constituents smaller than IP. And finally, I argue that the view that tense is a feature of v receives support from a contrast between the JGC and its non-elliptical counterpart with CFC with respect to whether the non-final conjuncts can contain a temporal adverb that is incompatible with the tense indicated by the sentence-final verb.
  • Publication
    The Effect of Language Contact on Phonological Simplification: A Rapid and Anonymous Survey of Checked Vowel Merger in Shanghai Urban Dialect
    (2023-01-01) Gao, Xin; Tao, Huan
    This paper aims to investigate how different intensities of language contact affect the process of phonological simplification. We conducted a sociolinguistic rapid and anonymous survey in Shanghai to collect information on along a bus route. The results show that area of residence has a significant effect on the merging result. The merger rate is higher in peripheral areas where language contact is more intensive than in central areas where language contact is less intensive. We therefore argue that the intensity of language contact affects the process of phonological simplification. The higher the intensity, the faster the phonological simplification.