Volume 46, Issue 1 -

Wh-Movement in Standard Arabic: An Optimality-Theoretic Account This paper is meant to delineate the syntax of wh-movement in Standard Arabic within the Optimality Theory framework. The scope of this study is limited to examine only simple, relativized and indirect verbal information questions. Further restrictions also have been placed on tense and negation in that only past tense affirmative questions are tackled here. Results show that Standard Arabic strictly adheres to the OP SPEC constraint in the matrix as well as the subordinate clauses. Findings also show that Prep-Strand violation is intolerable in all types of information questions. Furthermore, the phonological manifestation of the complementizer is obligatory when the relative clause head is present or when the relative clause head is deleted and a resumptive pronoun is left behind.

Motivating Certain Variation Patterns in Degree Constructions: Semantics Meets Grammaticalization We analyze patterns of variation in degree constructions as ultimately semantically motivated (Beck et al. 2004);> more precisely, as rooted at the (structured) level of logical form via a parameter based on binding. The paper pursues two related objectives. First, we complement the sharp distinction between languages like Japanese vs. English with a case of a language that seems to be parametrically intermediate. We suggest that Modern Romanian is sensitive to largely the same configurations which are conspicuous in the Japanese/English split, but that it marks the relevant dependencies overtly. Second, we probe for the grammaticalization process of the pertinent functional items involved in marking degree dependencies by conducting a diachronic pilot study. In this part of the article, we analyze data from (literary) Old Romanian. We investigate the degree constructions at this stage of the language in preliminary fashion and point out that they display a particularly instable situation with regard to the diagnostics of the degree parameter discussed, a factor which may have enhanced the grammaticalization of the particular strategies under discussion and hence co-motivates the apparently idiosyncratic current distribution in the language.

Phonetic and Phonological Vowel Reduction in Russian The present paper reports the results of an empirical study that was designed to provide acoustic evidence that there exist at least two different vowel reduction patterns in the Russian language. The acoustic characteristics of the three peripheral vowels [i, a, u] were examined. Given that low vowels are dispreferred in unaccented positions, particular attention was paid to immediately pre-tonic [a] sounds that result from 1st degree reduction and which are weakened to [e] by some speakers. The acoustic and statistical analyses revealed that vowel reduction in Russian is a speaker-specific phenomenon. Although all subjects centralised unaccented high vowels, two of them applied two degrees of reduction, whereas the other two exhibited a different reduction pattern as in their speech the differences between the acoustic parameters of the [a] and [e] sounds did not reach the level of statistical significance (p > .05). The acoustic data strongly suggest that if a speaker applies one degree of vowel reduction, then the [i, e, a, e, u] inventory is simplified to [i, e, u] rather than [i, a, u] as there is a highly significant difference (p < .001) between the sounds found in immediately pre-tonic position and the [a] sounds placed in stressed syllables.

Individuating and Ordering Situations in Bangla The paper investigates complex predicate and serial verb constructions to explore how the meaning construing capacities of different syntactic categories are determined by the underlying structure of the construal specific communicative intents. In doing so, I have discussed the role of participle in integrating the argument structures and lexical aspects into the resultant construal. It is also shown how the concepts, like sequentiality and simultaneity, remain significant in determining different types of grammatical constraints while construing an interpretation.

Attitude and Its Situatedness in Linguistic Politeness For over thirty years, linguistic politeness has been constructed based upon the work of Lakoff (1975) and, particularly, Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987). Their seminal contributions, however, may elide other social constructions of linguistic politeness. Thus, this paper presents and represents a different positioning and experience that have not been previously attended to, especially the lived experiences of Black women in U.S. contexts. Key questions addressed are: How does politeness operate in the African American speech community? How does one linguistic practice, talking with an attitude , fit within that model of politeness? This work assesses one component of politeness based upon socially real engagements of African American women who situate themselves within the African American speech community, interrogating their own behavior. Using Afrocentric feminist epistemology as one theoretical frame, I conducted qualitative research, interviewing Black women in different communities of practice. From their words and lived experiences, the co-researchers construct attitude as a broad concept that can be displayed in language and/or kinesics. Its meanings and functions derive from social context and community norms.