Journal of the International Phonetic Association, Mar 31, 2021
In this Illustration we describe the Cwyzhy (also Tswydzhy) dialect of Abkhaz, the native languag... more In this Illustration we describe the Cwyzhy (also Tswydzhy) dialect of Abkhaz, the native language of the third author. In Cwyzhy, the language Abkhaz is called /apHsaSWa/ [»apHsQSjQ] аҧсашәа. 1 Abkhaz (ISO-639-3 abk) belongs to the Northwest Caucasian family of languages, and the Abkhaz dialects are related as shown in (1) (adapted from Chirikba 2012: 36): (1) Relationships between Abkhaz varieties Cwyzhy is a sub-dialect under the Sadz node in (1). All of the language varieties dominated by the 'Proto-Abkhaz' node are mutually intelligible (Chirikba 1996b: ii). Though T'ap'anta and Ashkharywa are spoken by a politically distinct Abaza people who live in the North Caucasian republic of Karachaj-Cherkessia (ibid.: ii), linguists who work on Abkhaz (e.g.
We introduce a stochastic model of language change in a population of speakers who are divided in... more We introduce a stochastic model of language change in a population of speakers who are divided into social or geographical groups. We assume that sequences of language changes are driven by the inference of grammatical rules from memorised linguistic patterns. These paths of inference are controlled by an inferability matrix which can be structured to model a wide range of linguistic change processes. The extent to which speakers are able to determine the dominant linguistic patterns in their speech community is captured by a temperature-like parameter. This can induce symmetry breaking phase transitions, where communities select one of two or more possible branches in the evolutionary tree of language. We use the model to investigate a grammatical change (the rise of the phrasal possessive) which took place in English and Continental North Germanic languages during the Middle Ages. Competing hypotheses regarding the sequences of precursor changes which allowed this to occur each generate a different structure of inference matrix. We show that the inference matrix of a "Norway Hypothesis" is consistent with Norwegian historical data, and because of the close relationships between these languages, we suggest that this hypothesis might explain similar changes in all of them.
Uyghur is generally believed to possess a vowel harmony system very similar to the one found in i... more Uyghur is generally believed to possess a vowel harmony system very similar to the one found in its relative Turkish, save for the fact that in Uyghur i is neutral and transparent (Lindblad 1990, Hahn 1991, Alling 1999). In this paper I argue on the basis of the phonological behavior of disharmonic vowels that Uyghur vowel harmony is actually quite different from the Turkish system in that harmony propagates only [-back] and harmony applies both cyclically and postcyclically. I demonstrate furthermore that the Uyghur facts ...
We argue that the cross-linguistic distribution of vowel systems is best accounted for by grammar... more We argue that the cross-linguistic distribution of vowel systems is best accounted for by grammar-external forces of learnability operating in tandem with cognitive constraints on phonological computation, as argued for other phonological phenomena by
Classical Armenian displays a curious type of subordinate clause formation characterized by the a... more Classical Armenian displays a curious type of subordinate clause formation characterized by the addition of a cliticized anaphoric pronoun to the end of the first constituent within the subordinate clause. Meillet (1897-1898) first proposed that this process was an instance of Wackernagel's Law, which encompasses a range of syntactic secondposition phenomena in the world's languages. In this paper I survey the distribution of Wackernagel clauses in Armenian, and provide an account for their behavior within the framework of current syntactic theory. More specifically, I show that the constraints on what elements may serve as host for the clitic and where the finite verb and adverbs in the subordinate clause may surface follow naturally from independently motivated principles of recent generative syntactic theory.
Proceedings from the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 2003
This paper explores English shm-reduplication and aims to answer questions that have previously b... more This paper explores English shm-reduplication and aims to answer questions that have previously been left open on the subject. Results from an online survey show emerging patterns that have not been adequately addressed in the literature. It will be shown that shm-reduplication targets prosodic landmarks, syllabic landmarks and the phrasal site of the target of reduplication. Instances of avoidance phenomena will also be discussed and analyzed. The results suggest that shm-reduplication is computed by a grammar that is ...
Since Clements (1985) introduced feature geometry, four major innovations have been proposed: Uni... more Since Clements (1985) introduced feature geometry, four major innovations have been proposed: Unified Feature Theory, Vowel-Place Theory, Strict Locality, and Partial Spreading. We set out the problems that each innovation encounters and propose a new model of feature geometry and feature spreading that is not subject to these problems. Of the four innovations, the new model-Revised Articulator Theory (RAT)-keeps Partial Spreading, but rejects the rest. RAT also introduces a new type of unary feature-one for each articulator-to indicate that the articulator is the designated articulator of the segment.
Abstract: Patterns of plural selection in Armenian suggest that lexical representations of morphe... more Abstract: Patterns of plural selection in Armenian suggest that lexical representations of morphemes must include predictable syllabic structure, contrary to most theories of phonology, and that some phonological rules such as syllabification may precede morphological rules, contrary to the theory of distributed morphology. Furthermore, certain segments at the edges of morphological domains are not syllabified in lexical representations, and are syllabified at a later stage in the derivation. The findings are ...
Abstract The Western Armenian possessive plural data originally reported in Vaux (1998, 2003) hav... more Abstract The Western Armenian possessive plural data originally reported in Vaux (1998, 2003) have been asserted by Wolf 2011 to involve outwardly-sensitive phonologically conditioned allomorphy, a phenomenon widely argued to be unattested (Carstairs-McCarthy 1987; Paster 2006) and predicted to be impossible by the tenets of Distributed Morphology (Halle and Marantz 1993; Bobaljik 2000). We show that the full complexity of the Western Armenian system is better captured in an account that makes no reference to outwardly- ...
IntroductionBenveniste 1952:" transitive perfect" nora e: gorUeal3Sg. GEN be. 3sg do-pp... more IntroductionBenveniste 1952:" transitive perfect" nora e: gorUeal3Sg. GEN be. 3sg do-ppl.'(s) he has done/accomplished'possessionnora e: handerdz3Sg. GEN be. 3sg garment'(s) he has a garment'TODAY'S POINTS: 1. The possession analysis of the transitive perfect was already known by the Armenianmonks in Vienna by 1866.2. More concrete evidence for the possession analysis occurs inKoriwn, Middle Armenian, and at least two modern dialects, which use lexical'have'to form the perfect with" transitive" verbs. 3. These ...
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