bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Media representations of minority French: Valorization, identity, and theAcadiemanphenomenon
Authors: Comeau Philip , King Ruth 
Published: February 2018

AbstractThis article is concerned with the role of media representations of language use in the promotion of language ideologies and in identity construction. It focuses on media representations of Chiac, a traditionally low-status variety of Acadian French. We consider performances of this variety in the adventures of an animated superhero, Acadieman, presented in a cable TV show running on Rogers TV from 2005 to 2009. We first contextualizeAcadiemanin terms of the linguistic and cultural contexts in which Chiac is spoken. We then consider how particular social meanings are created through contrasts between Chiac-speaking characters and speakers of other varieties. While the juxtaposition of varieties is at one level quite humorous, on another level it draws on complex indexicalities and valorizes the local variety and, by extension, its speakers. Finally, we argue that theAcadiemanphenomenon provides a discursive space within which present-day Acadian identities can be negotiated.
The OCP as a synchronic constraint in Arabic
Authors: Mustafawi Eiman 
Published: February 2018

AbstractThis paper provides evidence for the activity of the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) as a constraint on dynamic alternations in the synchronic grammar of Qatari Arabic. It shows that the OCP is subject to proximity and to a gradient similarity effect. In Qatari Arabic, there are two variable phonological alternations that interact with the OCP, affrication and lenition. The velar stops /g/ and /k/ affricate to [ʤ] and [ʧ], respectively, when adjacent to [i(:)]. However, affrication is blocked when the outcome includes a sequence of segments that are highly similar. Lenition applies variably to the phoneme /ʤ/, which surfaces as [ʤ] or [j]. Usually, the probability of lenition applying to its eligible candidates is around the level of chance. The process, however, applies categorically when a violation of the OCP would otherwise be incurred. The data are analyzed within the framework of Optimality Theory.
Systematic Irregularity in JapaneseRendaku: How the grammar mediates patterned lexical exceptions
Authors: Rosen Eric 
Published: February 2018

AbstractExceptions to Japaneserendakuvoicing that are independent of Lyman’s Law have usually been considered to be random and unsystematic. This article proposes that such exceptions are largely systematic and can be explained through lexical specification and Positional Markedness. Two main types of systematicity are examined: the clustering of blocking cases around particular lexical items, and a prosodic size effect, where “long” compounds, with at least one constituent exceeding two moras, will disable blocking under most conditions. Lexical clustering is explained through lexical specification of features under Combinatorial Underspecification while the prosodic size effect is seen as an expression of Positional Markedness. It is argued that only in long compounds is the morpheme boundary at the edge of a Prosodic Word, a prosodically strong position that more freely permits the marked [−sonorant, +voice] featural combination ofrendakuvoicing to occur.
The Production of Social Meaning Via the Association of Variety and Style: A Case Study of French Vowel Lengthening in Belgian
Authors: Hambye Philippe , Simon Anne Catherine 
Published: February 2018

AbstractThis article questions the common usage of the concept of “linguistic variety” and the usual view of vernacular speech as the expression of a speaker’s identity. The term “variety” in linguistics has an ambiguous status: it is used to describe “linguistic representations” (social constructs) as well as actual linguistic practices. An alternative way of understanding the function of varieties in the sociolinguistic space is proposed: we explain how varieties relate to speech styles in a way that captures the social significance of linguistic variation. A case study about vowel lengthening in the French spoken in Belgium is then presented. Through both a quantitative and qualitative analysis, it is shown how marked regional variants are used to produce a particular social meaning, even among middle-class speakers.
Propriétés des substances, conditions sur la syntaxe et explication en linguistique
Authors: Bouchard Denis 
Published: February 2018

AbstractIn linguistics, explanation is based on whatever initial conditions are imposed on language, and so it necessarily functions within the range of options allowed by the laws of nature. Thus, since syntax is a computational system, it is subject to principles of efficient computation. Moreover, the Faculty of Language is located in human beings, so this means that it is constrained by the conceptual and perceptual systems of human beings. In this context, three topics are presented that have been repeatedly discussed over the last 50 years: inversion in interrogatives, long-distance dependencies, and recursion. For these cases, the computational approach favoured by Generative Grammar leads one to inscribe lists of unexplained elements in Universal Grammar. This is but a measure of our ignorance. On the other hand, a fully biolinguistic approach that takes into account the conceptual and perceptual basis of language opens a way to a true explanation.
Sociolinguistics and the Language Faculty
Authors: Chambers J.K. 
Published: February 2018

AbstractThe discovery that some processes are primitive rather than learned provides a window into the properties of the language faculty. One of the postulated modules of the language faculty is sociolinguistic competence, the ability to use language appropriately in its socio-cultural nexus. I present three cases where variable phenomena exhibit regularities that appear to be essential rather than accidental. First is the Ethan Experience, which inures children engaged in acquiring the community accent from learning foreign features that must later be unlearned. The experience entails an innate accent-filter, and its influence has been observed in all situations in which the accent being acquired differs from the home accent. Second is Sex-Based Variability, whereby women use fewer non-standard variants and have wider stylistic repertoires than men of the same social class in the same settings. Third is Vernacular Roots, the discovery that a number of sociolinguistic variables recur in English vernaculars wherever they have been studied, as well as in interlanguage, Creoles, and child language. The ubiquity of these features presumably reflects their privileged status in the language faculty.
Syntactic Dependencies as Memorized Sequences in the Brain
Authors: Grodzinsky Yosef 
Published: February 2018

AbstractThe prospects of a cognitive neuroscience of syntax are considered with respect to functional neuroanatomy of two seemingly independent systems: Working Memory and syntactic representation and processing. It is proposed that these two systems are more closely related than previously supposed. In particular, it is claimed that a sentence with anaphoric dependencies involves several Working Memories, each entrusted with a different linguistic function. Components of Working Memory reside in the Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus, which is associated with Broca’s region. When lesioned, this area manifests comprehension disruptions in the ability to analyze intra-sentential dependencies, suggesting that Working Memory spans over syntactic computations. The unification of considerations regarding Working Memory with a purely syntactic approach to Broca’s regions leads to the conclusion that mechanisms that compute transformations—and no other syntactic relations—reside in this area.
Canadian Raising, Opacity, and Rephonemicization
Authors: Idsardi William J. 
Published: February 2018

AbstractCanadian Raising—the phonetic changes in vowel quality and quantity in the diphthongs /ai/ and/ au/ before voiceless consonants—has been of considerable importance to phonological theories ever since Joos (1975). The opaque interaction of Canadian Raising and flapping in words such aswriterconsitutes one of the main arguments for rule ordering in phonology (Chomsky and Halle 1968; Chambers 1975). Recently, Mielke, Armstrong, and Hume (2003) have challenged Joos’s phonemic splitting analysis and have argued that Canadian Raising, rather than being a productive phonological process, is a static lexicalized generalization implemented as a choice between allomorphic variants. A rebuttal to this allomorphic analysis is offered based on evidence that, for some speakers, Canadian Raising productively applies in novel morphological contexts, in language games, and in the phrasal phonology, none of which are amenable to an allomorphic analysis.
Vowel Production in Winnipeg
Authors: Hagiwara Robert 
Published: February 2018

AbstractGeneral properties of the Canadian English vowel space are derived from an experimental-acoustic study of vowel production underway in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Comparing the preliminary Winnipeg results with similar data from General American English confirms previously described generalizations for Canadian English: the merger of low-back vowels, the relative retraction of /æ/, and the relative advancement of /u/ and /Ʊ/. However, a similar comparison of the Winnipeg sample with comparable Southern California data disputes the accuracy of the claim that Canadian Shift (Clarke et al. 1995) is a feature of ‘general’ Canadian and Californian English. An acoustic analysis uncovers subtle phonetic distinctions that make possible a more precise characterization of Canadian Raising: rather than only adjusting the height of the nucleus, Winnipeg speakers produce a directional shift in both the nucleus and offglide of the diphthongs /aɪ, aƱ/; this process applies to all three diphthongs (including /oɪ/).
Linguistic Resistance on the Maine-New Brunswick Border
Authors: Burnett Wendy 
Published: February 2018

AbstractPrior studies have established that the Atlantic region of Canada constitutes a dialect zone. Data from the Dialect Topography of New Brunswick, gathered from 2001 to 2003, permit a comparison of linguistic trends in this part of the Atlantic region with those observed in the Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario. In both cases, there is a convergence towards American forms. However, at a certain point on the border between New Brunswick and Maine, where there is significant social contact between Canadians and Americans, the data suggest that Canadian youth are resisting adoption of several American forms. The present study considers this border effect in the responses of 14–19-year-olds living in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, and in the adjacent town of Calais, Maine. Sixteen items identified as Canadian/American shibboleths in the Golden Horseshoe study are examined, and the results are assessed in relation to the Boberg’s (2000) claims regarding geo-linguistic diffusion.
Beyond the Isogloss: Isographs in Dialect Topography
Authors: Pi Chia-Yi Tony 
Published: February 2018

AbstractIsoglosses do not accurately reflect linguistic usage in a region, because the isolated conservative forms they are based on do not represent actual variants extant in the population. The isograph enables researchers to find more representative dialect trends. Canadian and American data from the Dialect Topography database are submitted to isographic analysis of linguistic boundaries at the provincial, national, and cross-border levels. Topography provides a multi-dimensional picture of how variants are used. Variants occur in different proportions, so analysis is quantitative and implies the abandonment of the isogloss because the discrete datum-points of dialect geography are unavailable. The isograph compares adjacent regions, and plots potential channels for language spread. Percentage differences between neighbouring regions are calculated, and a line is drawn between neighbours with the least difference. When all lines of minimum distance have been drawn, the result is a constellation of the most similar regions.
The Modal Auxiliarieshave toandmustin theCorpus of Early Ontario English: Gradient Change and Colonial Lag
Authors: Dollinger Stefan 
Published: February 2018

AbstractThe notion ‘drift’ plays an important role in the development of the modalshave toandmustin early Canadian English in relation to British and American English during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.Have tois first found in texts that reflect informal usage, and for the period in question (1750–1849),have tois only attested with deontic readings; the data suggest that its rise was not exclusively conditioned by the defective paradigm ofmust. Mustmaintains its epistemic function in relation to its Late Modern English competitors. In early Canadian English, changes progress gradually, with individual variables following different directions. Canadian English epistemicmustlags behind, while deontichave tohas spread more quickly in North America, with Canadian English more progressive than British English varieties, but less so than American English. Within a more general drift towardshave to, Canadian English shows independent development in successive periods.
“So cool, right?”: Canadian English Entering the 21st Century
Authors: Tagliamonte Sali A. 
Published: February 2018

AbstractA socially stratified sample—theToronto English Corpus—together with the construct of apparent time (with speakers aged 10–90 years) reveal that certain features are declining, including futurewill, deontichave got to, possessivehave got, intensifiervery, and the sentence tagyou know. On the other hand, some features are on the rise, including futuregoing to, deontichave to, possessivehave, intensifiersreallyandso, and sentences tags such aswhatever, so, andstuff like that. The younger generation is pushing these changes forward more rapidly. While some developments date back hundreds of years in the history of English, they are not particular to Canada, and are consistent with research on other English corpora. Other changes appear to be progressing in a unique way in Canada, including deontic and possessivehave. I argue that the broader socio-historical context is a critical factor: geographic and economic mobility as well as changes in communication technology may explain the rapid acceleration of certain types of linguistic change.
The Subclassification of Southern Wakashan
Authors: Jacobsen William H. 
Published: February 2018

AbstractThe Southern Wakashan (or Nootkan) languages exhibit a sort of chain relationship, from south to north: Makah, Nitinat, and Nootka. Given the intermediate geographic position of Nitinat with respect to Makah (situated more to the south) and Nootka (situated more to the north), one can ask which of these languages is most closely related to Nitinat. At present, this question remains unresolved, as reflected by the disagreement in the literature. Relying primarily on lexical data, but also considering aspects of sound changes and grammatical criteria, it is proposed that the closer grouping of Nitinat is with Makah.
The Effects of Post-Velar Consonants on Vowels in Nuu-chah-nulth: Auditory, Acoustic, and Articulatory Evidence
Authors: Wilson Ian 
Published: February 2018

AbstractPrevious phonetic documentation of Nuu-chah-nulth consonant-vowel interactions has either solely relied on transcriptions or has been incomplete in some other respect. Using auditory, acoustic, and articulatory evidence, this article documents the effects of all post-velar consonants on all vowels. Results show that /i/ and /i:/ almost always have a schwa offglide before the uvular and pharyngeal stops, but not always before the fricatives. When these vowels follow uvulars and pharyngeals (with the exception of the labialized uvular), they are usually lowered and do not have a schwa offglide. Ultrasound data confirm that the tongue root is active in articulating uvular and pharyngeal consonants and that the schwa off-glide occurs because the tongue is moving through a schwa-like configuration on its way from the high front vowel to the retracted consonant. The vowels /u/ and /u:/ are lowered and/or diphthongized following (but not preceding) pharyngeals, and they are unaffected by uvulars.
Ditidaht Vowel Alternations and Prosody
Authors: Werle Adam 
Published: February 2018

AbstractAmong the Southern Wakashan languages, Ditidaht has patterns of short vowel epenthesis and deletion that are unusually complex. It is shown that the surface presence or absence of short vowels is determined not by their underlying presence or absence, but by how segments are parsed by prosodic constituents. An optimality theoretic analysis is developed, according to which vowel alternations result from the low ranking of faithfulness constraints (Max/V and Dep/V) relative to constraints on the forms of syllables, feet, and prosodic words. Vowel presence creates ideal iambic feet, makes prosodic words minimally disyllabic, and ensures that adducted consonants (those that involve adducting the vocal folds for glottalization or voicing) are vowel-adjacent. Vowel absence ensures that prosodic words end in consonants, and eliminates unfooted syllables. An additional finding is that all adducted consonants must be postvocalic.
Possessor Raising in Nuu-chah-nulth
Authors: Ravinski Christine 
Published: February 2018

AbstractNuu-chah-nulth possessor raising is semantically unrestricted and affects only subjects: subject agreement matches the person and number of the possessor (rather than the possessed subject), and the possessive-marking clitic attaches to the head of the clause (rather than to the possessum). Nuu-chah-nulth possessor raising is analyzed as a syntactic dependency between the possessive clitic in the main clause and the base-generated possessor position within DP. A Possessive Phrase can appear in either the DP or the clausal domain, and the possessive clitic may be generated in either position. When the possessive clitic is generated in the main clause, a possessor may raise out of subject position via feature-driven movement; the Minimal Link Condition prevents such movement from occurring out of object position.
Introduction: Interface Asymmetries
Authors: Di Sciullo Anna Maria 
Published: February 2018

The articles assembled in this issue of the Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique contribute to our understanding of the role of asymmetric relations at the interfaces. Asymmetric relations have privileged status in the syntactic, phonological, and morphological derivation of linguistic expressions (see for example the articles in Di Sciullo 2003).Interfaces are representations that must meet legibility conditions imposed by external systems. According to the Strong Minimalist Thesis (Chomsky 2001), language is an optimal solution to interface conditions, in that language is an optimal way to link sound and meaning. Questions arise regarding the properties of the interface representations that make them optimally legible by external systems. These properties could very well be abstract, and remote from the perceptual systems, and could bear on the form of interface representations, rather than on the interpretation of their parts. A strong hypothesis in this regard is that asymmetric relations are core properties of the relations derived by the grammar (Chomsky 1981, 1995, 2001; Kayne 1994; Moro 2000; Di Sciullo 2005; Zwart 2006). From this perspective, asymmetry is a pervasive property of derivations and interface representations; it is thus expected to be a property of different structural relations, such as the relation between a displaced constituent and its copy, the relation between an anaphor and its antecedent, the relation between a head and its dependent, and more generally, the relation between the constituents of a configuration.
On Some Special Adverbs, Word Order, and CP: Variation vs. Micro-Variation
Authors: Ambar Manuela 
Published: February 2018

AbstractFor some adverbs, European and Brazilian Portuguese sharply differ, with consequences for the syntax of tense, quantification, word order, quantifier floating, wh-extraction, and clause structure. Evidence is provided for the architecture of the left, for remnant IP movement, and for the claim that “micro-” lexical differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese reduce to syntactic “macro-” variation: absence vs. presence of V-movement.
A Derivational Approach to Scope Interaction between Wh-phrases and Quantifiers
Authors: Miyamoto Yoichi 
Published: February 2018

AbstractI examine scope interaction between a wh-phrase and a quantified phrase (QP). Sloan-type sentences in Japanese are also discussed, based on Motomura’s analysis on zibun ‘self’. I show that Sloan’s original proposal is empirically inadequate, and propose an analysis based on the Hornstein/Kayne-type analysis of bound pronouns. One consequence is that scope determination must be understood to occur derivationally, based on the asymmetrical relationship between a wh-phrase and a QP at one point in the derivation. Also, only QPs collocated with an unchecked Case feature can be a probe for Q-absorption.
Desymmetrization: Parametric Variation at the PF-Interface
Authors: Richards Marc D. 
Published: February 2018

AbstractI advance the thesis that the narrow syntactic component of CHLis purely symmetrical, with all apparent asymmetries reducing to interface conditions. Properties of Germanic object shift and scrambling, in particular the VO order-preservation (Holmberg’s Generalization), derive from symmetry-breaking strategies which dispose of superfluous (symmetric) syntactic information and ensure the PF-legibility (linearization). These interface desymmetrization strategies provide a Minimalist analysis of non-lexical (macro-)parameters, such as the head-directionality parameter.The Linear Correspondence Axiom is reconciled with the VO/OV head parameter such that linear “shape” is preserved across the derivation. This allows object shift and scrambling to emerge as two sides of a single parametric coin. The implications of this system for the A/A-bar movement typology are explored, and a Minimalist reconceptualization is offered.
À propos de la fermeture des voyelles moyennes devant [r] dans le français du Québec
Authors: Morin Yves Charles 
Published: February 2018

RésuméCe travail examine la thèse de Malcah Yaeger-Dror sur l’évolution des voyelles moyennes du français voulant qu’elle soit régie par des principes généraux sur les changements en chaîne. En français, les voyelles toniques longues non hautes auraient tendance à se fermer vers les positions extrêmes [e:], [ø:] et [o:], puis, arrivées à cette étape, à renverser leur trajectoire et à s’ouvrir en direction de [a:] et de [a:]. Cette deuxième étape est retardée dans une classe de mots pour lesquels Yaeger-Dror pense que seules seraient pertinentes leurs connotations sociales, sans tenir compte de l’étymologie, de l’environnement phonétique et de la fréquence. Le présent article reprend la problématique générale de l’évolution des voyelles moyennes du français et propose une nouvelle analyse de la formation de voyelles longues et de leur évolution en français.
Specification, equation, and agreement in copular sentences
Authors: Heycock Caroline 
Published: February 2018

AbstractThis article presents new data from a number of Germanic languages concerning the agreement patterns found in copular clauses that contain two nominais; in both clauses with specificational readings (such asThe problem is your parents) and those with what are here termed readings of assumed identity (such asIf I were youorIn my dream I was you).It is argued that the specificational sentences involve asymmetric equative structures where one nominal is interpreted as in a concealed question, and that the cross-linguistic differences in agreement patterns found in the languages considered follow from the copula lexicalizing either Tense or a lower head.