Volume 38, Issue 1

This paper reports the findings from an interconnected set of experiments designed to assess children's knowledge of the semantic interactions between negation and quantified NPs. Our main finding is that young children, unlike adults, systematically interpret these elements on the basis of their position in overt syntax. We argue that this observation can be derived from an interplay between fundamental properties of universal grammar and basic learning principles. We show that even when children's semantic knowledge appears to differ from that of adults, the observed differences occur within well-defined boundaries, that is, within the limits imposed by the theory of universal grammar. Moreover, we point to the (positive) evidence needed by children in their passage to adulthood. We conclude that children have incomplete rather than inaccurate knowledge, in accordance with the continuity hypothesis. Together, these observations support the conclusion that children draw from an arsenal of innately specified principles in the acquisition of the grammar of quantification.

This paper explores various phenomena of identity avoidance in Cantonese and argues that both pausing and omission play a significant role in avoiding identity of elements. The descriptive generalization is that in Cantonese if two adjacent morphemes are phonologically identical, add a pause between the two morphemes to rephrase the intonational phrase if possible to avoid the repetition. If pausing is impossible, don't do anything and just tolerate the identity. If two adjacent homophonous morphemes belong to the same type of functional category, then omit one of the homophonous morphemes. Both phonological information and morphological information are needed to calculate the violation of identity. Universal grammar provides an output constraint against phonological repetition of elements in natural language. Under the optimality-theoretical approach, violations of such a constraint may be tolerable to satisfy some higher-ranked constraints. Omission is regarded as a last-resort strategy of identity avoidance. A harmonic scale of haplology in natural languages can be derived from the findings of this paper: omission of functional morphemes is more harmonic than omission of lexical morphemes. It is conjectured that the harmonic scale should be universal.

This paper deals with the two main truncation processes that occur in Spanish. Type A and type B hypocoristics represent two different degrees of emergence of the unmarked. Whereas type A hypocoristics achieve unmarkedness at the prosodic level only (e.g. a minimal prosodic word), type B hypocoristics further achieve unmarkedness at the segmental level (e.g. onset and nucleus optimization). Spanish hypocoristics are equivalent to a MinWd because they must contain no more than a single binary foot. When the source form (SF) exceeds this limit, some of the segmental material may not be preserved. In type A hypocoristics faithfulness to the initial part of SF is enforced by the constraints ANCHOR-L and I-CONTIGUITY, whereas in type B hypocoristics faithfulness to the head of the PWd is secured by HEAD(PWd)MAX. Type B truncated forms display an additional tendency toward unmarkedness by favoring CV syllables with optimal peaks and margins. In addition to causing the deletion of certain segments, this tendency toward greater unmarkedness yields the selection of low-sonority segments to fill the syllable onset and high-sonority segments to fill the nucleus. There are also certain sound substitutions that take place in type B hypocoristics (e.g. [č]<[s], [p]<[f], [k]<[x],[l]<[r]). These are analyzed as a way to optimize the syllable by parsing segments that are more harmonic with the onset position.

We propose an analysis of Greek meter based purely on phonology and the idea that well-formedness in meter is largely gradient, rather than absolute. Our analysis is surface-true, constraint-based and nonderivational, in line with proposals like optimality theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993). The discussion centers on two properties of meter, rhythm (dactylic, anapestic, iambic …) and line length (hexameter, pentameter, tetrameter …). Unmarked meters are expected to be binary (dimeter) and rhythmic (no clash or lapse). We analyze individual meters in terms of how they deviate from this unmarked state, where deviations (big and small) are encoded directly as constraint violations following Golston (1996). Greek anapests are shown to be unmarked in terms of rhythm, while dactyls distinctively violate the constraint NOCLASH and iambs distinctively violate NOLAPSE. Similarly, dimeter is unmarked in terms of binarity, while trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, and hexameter violate constraints on binarity.

As in many other languages, the focus particle ni in Yoruba is derived from the copula ni . The basis for both functions of ni is a preconstructed domain, that is, a presupposed set of items out of which the speaker exhaustively selects the one (or more) that she assumes to be relevant in a given situation. The copula ni is used only in contexts to which the preconstructed domain applies. Thus, its functional range cannot be covered by the framework presented by Hengeveld (1992). The focus function of ni can only be adequately described in terms of identificational focus, because this focus type integrates the concept of the preconstructed domain. Focus theories such as Lambrecht (1994), Vallduví and Engdahl (1996), and the thetic/categorical distinction fail to adequately cover the functional range of Yoruba ni , because they concentrate on information focus and neglect identificational focus as recently discussed by Kiss (1998). However, the functional range of Yoruba ni goes beyond identificational focus in English and Hungarian (cf. Kiss 1998) inasmuch as its use is not limited to noun phrases. It also marks verbs and clauses. This can possibly be explained by the pervasiveness of the concept of the preconstructed domain, that is, by the fact that preconstruction is crucial not only for the focus construction but also for the copula construction with ni .

Asa Kasher, editor: Pragmatics : Critical Concepts . London: Routledge, 1998. ISBN 0-415-11734-8. £550 (boxed set). (Ken Turner) Rachel Sutton-Spence and Bencie Woll: The Linguistics of British Sign Language . An Introduction . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. (Bernard T. Tervoort) Yasir Suleiman, editor: Arabic Grammar and Linguistics . Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1999. £45.00. viii+245 pp. (hardcover). (Jonathan Owens) Maurizio Gotti: The Language of Thieves and Vagabonds. 17th and 18th Century Canting Lexicography in England . Lexicographica, Series Maior 94. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1999. vi+159 pp. DM 96.00 (paperback). (Manfred Görlach)

The editors of Linguistics would like to express thanks to the following colleagues who, though not members of the consulting editorial board, have nonetheless given generously of their time in evaluating manuscripts submitted for volume 37 of the journal.

September 16–21, Spa, Belgium: Interactional Linguistics: Euro-conference on the Linguistic Organisation of Conversational Activities. For further information: Dr. J. Hendekovic, European Science Foundation, 1 quai Lezay-Marnésia, 67080 Strasbourg Cedex, France. Tel. +33 388 76 71 35; fax +33 388 36 69 87. E-mail: euresco@esf.org. On-line information and application at www.esf.org/euresco.