Volume 44, Issue 4

This article considers the theoretical challenge posed by fixed segmentism, the introduction of a particular segment or segments into a reduplicated string. The languages of the Indian subcontinent contain many examples of this type and a wide range of different patterns is presented. Previous accounts of fixed segmentism are surveyed and applied to these data, with particular attention to the optimality theory approach of Alderete et al. (1999). This is contrasted with a new proposal, termed “dual description”, which is set within the framework of declarative phonology. This uses the mechanism of default inheritance to implement the repetition of phonological material from the base. The introduction of fixed segments is handled by default unification, a procedure that conjoins the inherited material with information specific to the reduplicant, giving priority to the latter. This approach is applied to the Indian data and shown to handle the full range of patterns of fixed segmentism successfully. Its potential as a general theory of reduplication is also demonstrated by applying dual description to various other kinds of reduplicative phenomena.

Much work on the syntax-semantics interface has focused on verb frame alternations, the well-documented phenomenon that a verb is typically found in a variety of syntactic contexts. On the other hand, cognitive linguists have often focused on the flexibility of categories other than verbs in relation to such issues as metaphor, metonymy and polysemy. Drawing on the usage-based orientation of cognitive grammar, this article argues for a unified treatment of variation in the use of nouns and verbs under the general concept of symbolic flexibility. In this approach, typical cases of nominal metonymy (e.g., read Langacker ) and unconventional verb use (e.g., Frank sneezed the napkin off the table ) are both creative facets of a usage event that are rich in semantic value, the salient elements of which consist of both the conventional meaning and the contextual understanding of the noun or the verb. In addition, nominal metonymy and unconventional verb use are aspects of usage events that are simultaneously categorized by their conventional counterparts as well as their linguistic context in the form of constructional schemas. The network of categorizing relationships that results accounts for the semantic character of such usages as well as variation in argument expression associated with verbs. This article provides arguments against certain versions of construction grammar (e.g., Goldberg 1995) that treats verb meaning as invariant across syntactic patterns.

The Persian counterparts to English noun phrases like John's and mine involve the anaphoric element mal (lit. ‘property’). This element can form a possessive construction in combination with common noun phrases, proper names, or pronouns but can never co-occur with the otherwise ubiquitous pronominal enclitics in its anaphoric function. In this article an account of this co-occurrence restriction is given in terms of information structure. Specifically, mal , as an anaphoric element, is argued to be “topical” while its possessor constitutes the focus of the larger possessive construction. The non-occurrence of the pronominal enclitics with mal is proposed to be the consequence of a broader constraint that prohibits these elements from occurring in focused positions. The article presents a lexical entry for mal capturing its syntactic and semantic properties within the parallel architecture framework of Jackendoff (1997, 2002).

Toqabaqita (an Oceanic language) has two types of valency-rearrangement whereby the grammatical relations of two object noun phrases are interchanged. One type is lexically severely restricted: it applies only to a small number of verbs, but there are no syntactic conditions on it. The other applies to any transitive verb that has an instrument noun phrase in addition to a direct object, but only under certain syntactic conditions. The focus of the present study is on the latter type, referred to as “instrument inversion”. In instrument inversion the instrument oblique object of the basic structure becomes the direct object in the inverted structure, and the patient/theme direct object becomes an oblique object. While the grammatical relations of the two noun phrases change, their thematic roles do not. Nevertheless, the same preposition is used with both types of oblique object. Although the grammatical evidence for instrument inversion is relatively limited, it is unequivocal. It is argued that instrument inversion is motivated by pragmatic factors, specifically by the relatively high information prominence of the instrument noun phrase. There are some parallels between instrument inversion in Toqabaqita and locative inversion in Chicheŵa (Bresnan and Kanerva 1989).

The Welsh definite article has three surface forms, 'r [r], yr [ər] and y [ə]. Though it might appear that all three forms are derived from a single underlying representation, with the surface forms representing a case of simple (morphophonological) allomorphy, in fact such an account is untenable: in this article we show that the interaction of phonetic, phonological, morphological, and lexical considerations all bear on selection of the correct form. The solution to the problem of choosing the correct form of the definite article involves the staggered insertion of various classes of lexemes over the course of the syntactic derivation, with content words inserted first and functional elements inserted later on. Evidence from initial consonantal mutation in Welsh further supports the view that lexical insertion takes place at different stages, rather than as a single operation. We also consider the properties of a number of functional elements in Welsh involving interactions between distinct parts of the grammar. Finally, we show how our solution also sheds light on the system of initial mutation, which displays some interesting features with respect to the functional items that trigger mutations.

This paper explores preschooler's knowledge of the linguistic principles (syntactic, semantic and pragmatic) regulating the interaction between universally quantified noun phrases and negation. Previous work has shown that 5-year-olds differ systematically from adults in the way they interpret sentences containing these elements (Musolino 1998; Musolino et al. 2000). On the basis of these results, Musolino et al. conclude that the grammar of 5-year-olds generates only a subset of the interpretations available in the adult grammar. We present here a series of experiments whose results challenge this conclusion. First, we demonstrate that under certain contextual conditions, 5-year-olds can be shown to access the same range of interpretations which characterize the adult system. Second, we show that while 5-year-olds do not differ from adults grammatically, their command of the pragmatic principles associated with the use of quantified statements is much more fragile than that of adults. We further suggest that children's immature pragmatic abilities is what gave rise to Musolino et al.'s findings in the first place. In doing so, we tie together research on grammatical development with a growing body of work on the development of pragmatic abilities and sentence processing in young children (Noveck 2001; Papafragou and Musolino 2003; Trueswell et al. 1999; Hurewitz et al. 2001). Finally, we show that our results have interesting methodological implications for the study of grammatical development.

Comrie (2000) asks if there are any cases of documented ontogenetic processes that could throw light on the creation of human language — are there cases now where humans endowed with linguistic capacity “create language anew”, and is it possible if there are such cases to characterize the circumstances necessary for language creation? This article first pays tribute to the potentially fertile idea of Comrie's, and then sets out why, in the opinion of its author, Comrie does not take his idea far enough. Comrie has a traditional view of what characterizes “the complexity of normal human languages”, namely, “complex syntax”, and thus falls into the black hole of a discontinuity between protolanguage and fully fledged language. This article advocates that very simple manifestations of the human linguistic capacity should be taken very seriously indeed as the seedbed for the development of complex syntax (in Comrie's sense): Comrie's quest for the origins of language does not go back far enough.