Marlyse Baptista, along with Lisa Green and Tom Klinger, presented a keynote address at the Symposium on Louisiana Dialects and Cultures at Louisiana State University.

View the full program

Robin Queen gave a keynote address at the Indiana University Sociolinguistics Fest Workshop, entitled Language variation and social essentialism.  She explored the place of social and cognitive essentialism for understanding and explaining language variation, using data from a variety of sources, including the television sitcom, Ellen, and weblogs maintained in the voice of a family dog.

Susannah Levi presented a poster at the annual meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Paris.

The poster, co-authored with Stephen Winters and David Pisoni, was entitled, “A cross-language familiar talker advantage. The abstract is available as a downloadable .pdf file.

Susi now takes up her new position as Assistant Professor of Phonetics in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at New York University.

Andries Coetzee presented a keynote address at NAPhC  5 (The 5th North American Phonology Conference) at Concordia in Montreal.

Abstract

Many phonological processes apply variably. The likelihood of a variable process applying is determined by a complex interaction between both grammatical and extra-grammatical factors. Over the past decade, several formal models of phonological variation have been developed. These models are quite successful at accounting for the role that the grammatical factors play in phonological variation. However, they are purely grammatical and do not account for the potential influence of extra-grammatical factors on the application of variable processes. Extra-grammatical influences are often equated with performance factors, and if the goal of linguistics is to account for the competence of the language user, then these extra-grammatical factors fall outside the domain of linguistics.

In this paper, I argue for a broader understanding of linguistic competence, where it is taken to encompass all those factors that determine linguistic performance and that that are consciously or subconsciously under the control of the language user. This includes both grammatical and some extra-grammatical factors. A sufficient model of the linguistic competence of the language user therefore needs to incorporate both grammatical and extra-grammatical competence.

By reviewing the literature on English  t/d-deletion I demonstrate that this process is influenced by both grammatical and extra-grammatical factors, and that the language user has at least subconscious control over both of these. I then propose a formal model of the linguistic competence of the language user that integrates both of these components of linguistic competence in the framework of Harmonic Grammar.

Mike Marlo (now visiting assistant professor at UCLA) also presented a talk at the conference. The title of his talk was:  “Post-syntactic spell-out and post-syntactic phonology: evidence from Bantu”.

Miki Obata and Sam Epstein presented their talk, Deducing improper movement from phase based C-to-T phi transfer, at the 27th annual meeting of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, held at UCLA May 16-18.

Abstract

We seek to reveal and address empirical and theoretical consequences stemming from
Chomsky’s (2005:OP) C-to-T phi-feature inheritance (hereon CTI) analysis. We claim: [1] Simultaneousvattraction as a consequence of CTI “splits” the features on a wh-phrase: [Case]/[Phi] moves to Spec-T andv[Q] to Spec-C, [2] [1] makes it possible to rule out improper movement (IM) without appealing to the activity condition (see Nevins 2005 for arguments against activity and for a different approach to IM).

We argue that contra standard assumptions, IM is not a unified phenomenon but is
correctly classified into two distinct types: Case on a moving element is valued after A’-movement in (6) and before A’-movement in (7). We demonstrate that both types of IM are explanatorily excluded under the phase-based approach and it is especially the latter case that empirically supports the feature split system presented above. The derivation of (7) is shown in (8). When C and T each attract “who1″ simultaneously (→8b), the features on “who1″ are split: [Q] goes to Spec-C and [phi]/[Case] goes to Spec-T In the matrix clause (→8c), assuming PIC, only (the edge) “who3″ in the embedded Spec-C is visible to matrix C-T probing. Notice that “who3″ has only [Q], not [Phi] by virtue of feature split, so that “who3″ is not an appropriate (matching) goal for the probing matrix T precisely because “who3” lacks [phi]. In contrast, the matrix C can attract “who3″ but [uPhi] on matrix T is never valued, causing crash. This is a
direct result of the CTI, coupled with OP under which C and T separately attract different featural subsets, simultaneously from the ‘same’ launch site. The absence of [phi] on “who3″ makes it impossible for “who3″ to improperly move (“back”) into an A-position, (Spec-T). The other type of IM (6) is also excluded straightforwardly: when the derivation reaches the embedded CP in (6), the transferred TP includes unvalued [uCase] on “who1/2″ causing crash.

Carmel O’Shannessy gave a keynote address at the 16th annual Symposium about Language and Society - Austin, held at the University of Texas Austin,  April 11-13.

Abstract:

A new mixed language, Light Warlpiri, has emerged in a remote community in northern Australia. It is spoken by children and young adults in the multilingual community of Lajamanu and has developed within the last 30 years. Most verbs and the verbal morphology are from Aboriginal English or Kriol (AE/Kriol), while most nominal morphology is from Lajamanu Warlpiri (the variety of Warlpiri spoken in Lajamanu community). Nouns are drawn from both types of source language. An innovative auxiliary system has developed which draws on, but is not the same as, the systems in the source languages. But the system for indicating grammatical functions draws directly on the two typologically different source languages. Lajamanu Warlpiri uses case-marking in an ergative-absolutive system while AE/Kriol uses word order (SVO) in a nominative-accusative system. In Light Warlpiri these two systems meet.

The language ecology in the community is complex, and code-switching between languages is very common. Children growing up in the community learn the new language, Light Warlpiri, as their primary language, and also learn Lajamanu Warlpiri in their early years. Their learning situation raises the question of how they deal with very mixed input - to what extent do they show adult-like variation and patterning in the grammatical systems of each language? The study uses production and comprehension data to examine the children’s use of word order and ergative case-marking in each language.

Natalia Kondroshova and Christopher Becker each presented work at the 17th meeting of Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics held at Yale May 9-11.

Natalia presented work on Licensing Modality in Infinitival Structures.

Christopher presented work on Case and Agreement Feature Uniformity.

Chris Odato and Debby Keller-Cohen presented their paper, “Revisiting off-target verbosity: Discourse context and speaker identity” at the Cognitive Aging conference held in Atlanta April 10-13.

Abstract

The claim that some older adults talk at length on irrelevant topics has spawned research on what has become known as “off-target verbosity” (OTV). In prior research, OTV has been attributed to speaker characteristics—inhibition (Arbuckle, Pushkar and colleagues) or communicative strategies (James et al., 1998). Out study examined the potential of discourse context and speaker identity to influence perceptions of these speech characteristics.

Forty older adults (age 70+) and forty college students participated in an experiment testing the effects of Participant Age (older/younger), Speaker Age (older/younger), Speaker Gender and Discourse Context (interview/conversation). Participants evaluated transcripts on five measures: focus, talkativeness, clarity, interest and the extent to which the speaker was off-target. The content of the speech represented in the transcripts was held constant while the context in which it was produced and the age and gender of the speaker to whom it was attributed varied between participants.

Age proved to be important in several ways. Overall, older participants were more generous in their evaluations. Also, speech was rated as more interesting when attributed to older speakers. In addition, there were significant interactions between research participant age and discourse context: younger, but not older participants found the speech represented in the transcripts more focused in the conversation context. Gender too was found to enter into evaluations: speech was seen as more focused and clearer when attributed to a female speaker.

This study points to the importance of identifying what analytic categories raters/listeners bring to the task of evaluating others’ speech.

On April 4-6, the Department hosted the Twelfth Spring Workshop on Theory and Method in Linguistic Reconstruction, a long-running biennial series that began in 1986.  The talks were on Indo-European (Ben Fortson, Eric Hamp, Jay Jasanoff, Brian Joseph); Tibeto-Burman (Jim Matisoff, David Kamholz); Native American languages (Terry Kaufman, Ives Goddard, Bob Rankin); Australian languages (Claire Bowern); Caucasian languages (Alice Harris); Austronesian languages (Mark Hale); and general topics (Andrew Garrett, Lyle Campbell).  The best title (and certainly one of the best talks) was Bob Rankin’s: “The mystery of the Vice President’s Chair”.

Acrisio Pires and his co-author Jason Rotham (University of Iowa) presented their paper at the 38th Annual Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages held April 4-6 at the University of Illionois.
Abstract

Given that various influential proposals about syntactic change have been based on acquisition and learnability (e.g. Lightfoot 1999, Clark&Roberts 1993, Roberts 2001, 2007 and refs therein), tests of children’s knowledge of properties that are undergoing change in different dialects are relevant (but still lacking), and can provide new evidence to refine such proposals. With this in mind, the acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) is especially relevant, since many aspects to the formal/standard grammar were argued to have been at least partially eliminated from colloquial dialects, differently from European Portuguese (e.g. 3P accusative clitics, enclitic pronouns, null referential subject pro, see Azevedo 1989, Galves 2001, Kato&Roberts 1993, Naro 1981, Salles 2005 and refs therein). However, adult BP speakers that are tested for grammaticality judgments show evidence of full knowledge of certain grammatical properties that are argued to have been lost. Such is the case with inflected infinitives, infinitival forms that are overtly inflected for person/number, independently of tense (1b) (2a): adult BP speakers give evidence of knowledge of the grammatical properties of these forms (e.g. Koike 1983, Perini 1974, Quicoli 1996, Rothman & Iverson 2007). However, such properties were argued to have been partially or entirely eliminated from the grammar of colloquial BP (see Botelho-Pereira&Roncaratti 1993, Lightfoot 1991, Painter 1991, Pires 2002). In addition, corpus studies of colloquial dialects of BP indicate that alternative structures are used to the exclusion of inflected infinitives. This paper focuses on questions such as: (i) To which extent is full/native knowledge of certain grammatical properties determined only by native/child language acquisition? (ii) How can knowledge of grammar that results from native acquisition (Chomsky 1986, 2005) be teased apart from grammatical knowledge that results from late learning, in case the empirical naturalistic data (or the absence thereof) and grammaticality judgments (Chomsky 1964 and much later work) lead to opposite conclusions regarding the knowledge attained by adult speakers? We address these questions by investigating whether the morphosyntax and semantics of inflected infinitives are actually acquired as part of native BP grammatical systems or are instead acquired (or learned) later.
This study tested two hypotheses: (i) whether inflected infinitives are indeed no longer acquired as part of native BP (colloquial) dialects and (ii) whether these forms are actually learned late by BP speakers (e.g. as an artifact of learning standard BP in school). We tested a cross section of BP child/teenage groups (ages range from 6-15) from upper and lower income classes to determine if and when BP children come to acquire inflected infinitives. We present below the results for the upper income class: the only one that showed full knowledge of inflected infinitives.
We conducted two experiments, a morphological recognition task (MRT) and a truth value judgment task (TVJ task, e.g. Crain & Thornton 1998). Test materials were presented in two different (but similar) versions, according to the age of the subjects. Children up to age 9 were tested with a picture matching/choice task (e.g. McDaniel, McKee & Cairns 1996) that involved the participation of a puppet, and subjects age 10 and older were presented with a written version of the same task. The MRT involved 12 stories (3 stories testing 3PL inflected infinitives, 3 stories testing 1PL inflected infinitives, 6 control stories with non-inflected infinitives or present tense). Each story had two test sentences, and correct/incorrect test sentences varied randomly across stories. An example of the MRT with inflected infinitives appears in (1). After each story the child was asked to correct the test sentence if they thought it was incorrect. For the younger children, the test sentence was uttered by the puppet, Tigger, given that children were told that Tigger was still learning Portuguese, and sometimes needed help when he made mistakes.
In the TVJ task the subjects were told stories such as (2). They were then presented with the test sentence (uttered by the puppet as the end of the story) and asked to pick the picture/description that corresponded to that story end (or to say what happened in case they did not accept either picture/description). There were 24 stories, with a total of 12 test sentences (6 each for inflected infinitives 3PL and 1PL forms) and 12 fillers/distractors (including non-inflected infinitives). Test sentences targeted three syntactic/semantic properties of non-inflected infinitives (vs. non-inflected infinitives): (i) non-obligatory control (2a,c), (ii) strict reading under ellipsis and (iii) the possibility of split antecedents.
The experimental data clearly show (confirmed statistically across both tests) that children under the age of ten (and from the youngest school age) do not have grammatical knowledge of the distinctive syntax and semantics of inflected infinitives (for both tests these groups did not differentiate between inflected and uninflected infinitives, for every counterbalanced property, i.e. p>.05 for all relevant categories). In addition, children and teenagers above age ten develop such knowledge incrementally: we show that only children/teenagers above age 10 show incremental evidence of knowledge of inflected infinitives: by the age of 13, subjects performed as expected of a native grammar with inflected infinitives (every counterbalanced comparison was p<.001 for all relevant categories). The late learning (arguably post critical period) of inflected infinitives confirms proposals of Portuguese dialectal variation and BP diachronic change. However, BP educated speakers still learn inflected infinitives as teenagers, which can explain the grammatical knowledge shown by adults, and gives relevance to the potential role of standardization and literacy in the acquisition of grammatical knowledge that is restricted to a standard, non-native dialect but has been lost from native vernacular dialects.

(1) (Story testing 3PL inflected infinitive) A Margarida e a Minie gostam de esportes. Elas semprem fazem natação, mas hoje o esporte delas é outro. Por que a escolha delas mudou?
Daisy and Minnie like sports. They always swim, but today they picked a different sport. Why did their choice change?
Test sentences (uttered by puppet, for younger subjects):
a. *É muito difícil elas nadar todo dia. (incorrect non-inflected infinitive form)
It is very difficult they swim every day.
b. Agora é mais importante a Daisy e a Minnie correrem mais vezes. (3PL infl. inf)
Now it is more important for Daisy and Minnie to run more times.
(2) Story: O Mickey estava em casa, com o Pato Donald e a Margarida. O carro estava muito sujo e precisava de uma limpeza.
Mickey was at home, with Donald Duck and Daisy. The car was very dirty and needed cleaning.
a. Test sentence: O Mickey ficou satisfeito de lavarem o carro.
Mickey was happy of wash-INF-3PL the car.
‘Mickey was happy that they washed the car.’
b. Wrong picture: shows Mickey washing the car alone (no one else is on the picture).
c. Correct picture: shows Donald and Daisy washing the car (Mickey is absent).