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An Element-Based Approach to Ukrainian Back Fricatives The discussion offered in this article focuses on the problem of the back fricative segments in Ukrainian. An attempt is made to provide their phonological representations that account both for their distribution and phonological behavior. The analysis proposed here is coached within the framework of Government Phonology , a non-linear model, that awards considerable autonomy to phonological primitives building melodic expressions. Our concern, therefore, is to specify which elements define each of the turbulent sounds and determine the role they play within the relevant melodic structures. In accordance with the principles of the framework, it is predicted that the internal elemental content and organization of primes directly conditions the phonetic manifestation of the fricative segments. The aim of the present analysis is also to pinpoint the significance of the head-dependent distinction that obtains within melodic structures, as it often underlies, if not determines, the strength of expressions and their susceptibility to phonological processes.

Interrelations of Speech Perception and Speech Comprehension in Young Children Children's first-language perception base and their operative strategies of perceptual processes take shape gradually from age one onwards. A large amount of research has been devoted to the analysis of children's speech processing; however, this is the first comprehensive study of the speech perception processes of Hungarian two- and three-year-olds (based on 3360 data of 48 children, using 7 subtests of the GMP diagnostic procedure). The aim of the present research was to characterize the organization of speech decoding processes, the interrelations of speech perception and comprehension as well as the strategies children use. The analysis proved the existence of a strong top-down decoding process which is entirely different from the organization of adults' processes. There was no significant variation across age groups but significant differences have been found depending on the decoding processes themselves. In addition, children's speech perception showed enormous individual differences. The results have important consequences for the practice of speech therapy.

RP English and Castilian Spanish Diphthongs Revisited from the Beats-and-Binding Perspective This study sets out to determine the differences in the phonological representation of RP English and Castilian Spanish diphthongs. The analysis brings to light the discrepancies in the criteria for classifying a vocalic cluster as a diphthong. A functional explanation for the differences between Spanish and English complex nuclei in provided in Beats-and-Binding framework (the model developed by Dziubalska-Kołaczyk 1995, 2002a, inter alia ). The discussion also shows that English and Spanish glides phonologically differ by their ability/inability to propagate a n→B binding. The conclusion is that "diphthong" is an ad-hoc notion which denominates completely different phonological entities in English and Spanish. What follows, it could be successfully supplanted by the functional term complex beat.

Natural Syntax: English Relative Clauses 1 Natural Syntax is a developing deductive theory, a branch of Naturalness Theory. The naturalness judgements are couched in naturalness scales, which follow from the basic parameters (or "axioms") listed at the beginning of the paper. The predictions of the theory are calculated in what are known as deductions, whose chief components are a pair of naturalness scales and the rules governing the alignment of corresponding naturalness values. Parallel and chiastic alignments are distinguished, in complementary distribution. Here almost only chiastic alignment is utilized, this being mandatory in derivations limited to unnatural environments. (This paper deals with relative clauses, which are dependent clauses, an area of low naturalness in Natural Syntax.) The exemplification is taken from English. The chief aim is to solicit predictions about various aspects of relative clauses. For instance, the known fact is made predictable that more English relative clauses are finite than non-finite. The most frequent issues addressed in the deductions are acceptability judgements, the behaviour of subordinators, the difference between integrated and supplementary clauses, movement ex situ, etc. Some related work: Orešnik (2003a, b; 2004; 2007 [with Varja Cvetko-Orešnik]; 2007).

Looking at Sign Language as a Visual and Gestural Shorthand In this paper I will compare and contrast sign language (used by the deaf community) and spoken language from the point of view of semiotics and linguistics. Both signed and spoken languages can be defined as: a system of systems - revolving around the notion of the linguistic sign - used by human beings to communicate. Both languages also share a common goal: to achieve maximum communication with minimal effort. Where they differ, however, is in the way they produce the meaningful signs to create an efficient system of communication and in the nature of these meaningful signs regarding arbitrariness versus iconicity. Spoken language is based on phonemes that are in opposition to each other which are arbitrary and possess no meaning of their own - but combine into larger meaningful units such as morphemes, words, etc. Thus spoken language is fundamentally auditory and arbitrary (Tobin 1990, 1997, 2007a, b). Sign language is based on units that represent a combination of hand-shapes and gestures which have an orientation and movement to various parts of the body - all of which not only possess meaning - but are iconic rather than arbitrary in nature. Thus sign language is fundamentally visual and iconic (Fuks 2008; Fuks and Tobin 2008). Therefore it is our contention that the traditional concepts of spoken language are neither appropriate nor suitable for sign language and a different approach to analyze sign language will be suggested in this paper.

The Formal Dynamism of Categories: Stops vs. Fricatives, Primitivity vs. Simplicity Minimalist Phonology (MP; Pöchtrager 2006) constructs its theory based on the phonological epistemological principle (Kaye 2001) and exposes the arbitrary nature of standard Government Phonology (sGP) and strict-CV (sCV), particularly with reference to their confusion of melody and structure. For Pöchtrager, these are crucially different, concluding that place of articulation is melodic (expressed with elements), while manner of articulation is structural. In this model, the heads (xN and xO) can license and incorporate the length of the other into their own interpretation, that is xN influences xO projections as well as its own and vice versa. This dynamism is an aspect of the whole framework and this paper in particular will show that stops and fricatives evidence a plasticity of category and that, although fricatives are simpler in structure, stops are the more primitive of the two. This will be achieved phonologically through simply unifying the environment of application of the licensing forces within Pöchtrager's otherwise sound onset structure. In doing so, we automatically make several predictions about language acquisition and typology and show how lenition in Qiang (Sino-Tibetan) can be more elegantly explained.

Review: Karwatowska, Małgorzata and Jolanta Szpyra-Kozłowska. 2005. Lingwistyka płci: Ona i on w jezyku polskim. Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej