Current Issues in Linguistic Theory (vols. 1–335, 1975–2015)

The present volume presents cutting-edge research on Arabic linguistics. It features a set of papers which continue a long tradition of seeking new explanations for familiar or previously undiscovered structural patterns. While the papers illustrate a range of approaches, from formalist to functionalist, each paper combines rigorous analysis of a set of Arabic data within the context of explicit models of some aspect of human language. The volume consists of three sections, the first section devoted to phonetics and phonology, the second to syntax, and the third to language acquisition and language contact.

This is a collection of state-of-the-art papers in the field of syntactic reconstruction. It treats a range of topics which are representative of current debates in historical syntax. The novelty and merit of the present book is, the editors believe, that, in contrast to most previous work on diachronic syntax, it combines the perspectives of the traditional philological research on syntactic reconstruction with the insights of modern syntactic theory, as it is emphasised in the Foreword by Giuseppe Longobardi. The volume includes articles by well-recognized researchers in historical linguistics with a focus on syntactic change. In the present volume syntactic reconstruction is discussed from a variety of angles, including historical linguistics, phenomena of language contact, generative approaches as well as typological and variationist research. In the articles, languages from a diverse range of families are discussed, including Indo-European, North and South Caucasian, Sino-Tibetan, and Turkic.

Proto-Japanese is the reconstructed language stage from which all later varieties of Japanese, including Ryukyuan, descend. It has been studied both as an end in itself (as the genetic code of the Japanese language) and as part of endeavors to clarify the genetic affiliation of Japanese. Based on the state of the field, especially as represented in Samuel E. Martin's seminal work The Japanese Language Through Time (1987), this volume singles out key areas in the reconstruction of proto-Japanese where salient progress has been or promises to be made since Martin. Contributions were invited from scholars working on the following areas: segmental phonology, use of dialect evidence, accent, morphology, and syntax. While the book first of all presents new research which advances our understanding of proto-Japanese, it also gives an overview over the state of the art in the field and its main issues.

This volume offers a selection from the papers presented at the 2005 Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The papers cover a variety of topics in Arabic Linguistics, ranging from the lexicon, phonology, syntax and computational linguistics.

The papers in this volume are a selection from papers presented at the Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics, held in Cambridge, UK, in 2002. They deal with a wide range of theoretical issues in varieties of Arabic.

Principles of Generative Phonology is a basic, thorough introduction to phonological theory and practice. It aims to provide a firm foundation in the theory of distinctive features, phonological rules and rule ordering, which is essential to be able to appreciate recent developments and discussions in phonological theory.

Chapter 1 is a review of phonetics; chapter 2 discusses contrast and distribution, with emphasis on rules as the mechanism for describing distributions; chapter 3 introduces distinctive features, natural classes, and redundancy; chapter 4 builds on the concept of rules and shows how these can account for alternations; chapter 5 demonstrates the use of rule ordering; chapter 6 discusses abstractness and underlying representations; chapter 7 discusses post-SPE developments, serving as a prelude to more advanced texts.

Each chapter includes exercises to guide the student in the application of the principles introduced in that chapter and to encourage thinking about theoretical issues. The text has been classroom tested.

The two volumes of the Phonological Spectrum aim at giving a comprehensive overview of current developments in phonological theory, by providing a number of papers in different areas of current theorizing which reflect on particular problems from different angles. Volume II deals with phonological structure above the segmental level, in particular with syllable structure, metrical structure and sentence-level prosodic structure. Different syllable structure theories, as well as possible relations between segment structure and syllabic structure, and evidence from language acquisition and aphasia are examined in section 1. Metrical structure is examined in papers on foot structure, and, experimentally, on word stress in Indonesian. Finally in this volume, there are three laboratory-phonological reports on the intonation of Dutch.

In Cognitive Linguistics, polysemy is regarded as a categorizing phenomenon; i.e., related meanings of words form categories centering around a prototype and bearing family resemblance relations to one another. Under this polysemy = categorization view, the scope of investigation has been gradually broadened from categories in the lexical and lexico-grammatical domain to morphological, syntactic, and phonological categories. The papers in this volume illustrate the importance of polysemy in describing these various categories. A first set of papers analyzes the polysemy of such lexical categories as prepositions and scalar particles, and looks at the import of polysemy in frame-based dictionary definitions. A second set shows that noun classes, case, and locative prefixes constitute meaningful and polysemous categories. Three papers, then, pay attention to polysemy from a psychological perspective, looking for psychological evidence of polysemy in lexical categories.

The papers in this volume deal with various topics in Arabic Linguistics. Most of the papers focus on new issues and introduce new empirical generalizations that haven't been studied before within the context of Arabic linguistics. The syntax and morphosyntax papers explore issues ranging from the nature of extraction strategies to various types of Construct State representations and the proper analysis of the distribution of the nominal, adjectival and verbal mophological features. The computational linguistics papers focus on the challenge posed by the non-concatenative nature of Arabic morphology. The authors illustrate how their programs can handle Arabic morphology. The papers in morpho-phonology and historical linguistics deal with the development of the Arabic complementizer system and the empirical and theoretical problems that arise in the context of hypocoristic formation in Arabic. The sociolinguistics papers take up the issues of sociolinguistic variation as they pertain to the phenomenon of diglossia and regional uses of the Standard variety of Arabic.

The papers in this volume address core areas in contemporary Arabic linguistics: syntax, phonology, and variation studies. The papers in the syntax sections address different topics from the perspective of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995) and subsequent work. The topics in this section are adverbs and adjectives, resumptive pronouns, gapping and VP deletion, and the morphosyntax of reciprocals. The phonology section consists of a contribution on coarticulation effects of uvular(ized) segments, and of a paper on pharyngealization and uvularization within the framework of Optimality Theory. The sociolinguistics papers in the third section of the volume represent three important lines of inquiry: discourse level variation, stylistic variation, and diachronic variation.

This study investigates the phonological behavior of coronal consonants, i.e. sounds produced with the tip or blade of the tongue. The analysis draws on data from over 120 languages and dialects. A definition of coronality is proposed that rejects the current view holding that palatals are positively marked for this feature. The feature [coronal] is assumed to be privative; the natural class of noncoronals is captured with the feature [peripheral], which dominates [labial] and [velar] in feature geometry. The book contains a detailed examination of the phonological patterning of segments belonging to each of the six coronal subplaces (i.e. interdental, dental, alveolar, retroflex, palatoalveolar, and alveolopalatal). A universal set of features is posited that accounts for these facts. Inventories of coronal consonants are treated in depth and impossible contrasts are accounted for with several if-then statements. The present study also contains a lengthy analysis of the phonology of rhotic consonants. A set of features is postulated which captures natural classes involving rhotics and nonrhotic consonants and which distinguishes the various stricture types among rhotics (i.e. trill vs. tap vs. approximant).

This volume includes ten papers selected from the Eighth Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics, held at the University of Masschusetts, Amherst, 1994. Six of them deal with the syntax of Arabic two with phonology, and two with variation. The topics represented in the volume include binding in Arabic, the analysis of negation and negative polarity items, pronoun doubling in codeswitching, linguistic variation and language change, voice assimilation in Arabic dialects, among others.

The volume includes contributions by the following: Mahasen Abu Mansour; Maher Bahloul; Raja Bahloul; Elabbas Benmamoun; Naomi Bolotin; Mushira Eid; Mark LeTourneau; Michael McOmber; Bernadette Plunkett; Keith Walters

This is the second of two volumes deriving from papers presented at the Nineteenth Annual UWM linguistics Symposium held in Milwaukee in 1990. It focuses on the evolution of grammatical form and meaning from lexical material, which has reinvigorated historical analysis and theory and led to advances in the understanding of the relation between diachrony and universals. The richness and potential of some of the leading approaches to grammaticalization are here illustrated in thirteen selected papers.

This is the first interdisciplinary book-length treatment of paralanguage, briefly defined as: nonverbal vocal or narial communication. After sensitizing the reader to our sound-generating movements and to all human external and environmental sounds for their unquestionable communicative qualities, it realistically combines an anatomical-physiological auditory approach to voice production (identifying many neglected articulations) with the analysis of its visual manifestations as the triple reality of speech: language-paralanguage-kinesics. The primary qualities of speech (loudness, pitch etc.) are extensively discussed, as are the many voice qualities. The longest chapter in the book deals with paralinguistic differentiators: laughter, crying, sighing, yawning, coughing, sneezing etc. Finally the author presents a model for analyzing paralinguistic alternants, word-like independent constructs (such as Pooh, Aah and Brrr). Throughout the discussion of these paralinguistic phenomena, extensive attention is given to cultural, social and psychological aspects. This first, ground-breaking interdisciplinary work on paralanguage will serve as a source of data and a theoretical/methodological model for phoneticians, linguists, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, speech therapists etc.

The volume is divided into four sections: typology, syntax, discourse and phonology. Two of the typology papers study the structure and organization of category systems (Joseph Greenberg, Linda Schwartz); the third discusses language typology and universals from the perspective of language acquisition (Fred Eckman). The eight papers in the syntax section are of three types. Edith Moravcsik and James Tai discuss 'general' issues of linguistic theory/domain. Four papers (Mushira Eid, Michael Kac, Nancy Hedberg, Larry Hutchinson) address specific analyses and their implications from language-particular and theoretical perspectives. The papers by Deborah Dahl and Thomas Rindflesch relate theoretical concepts and analyses to natural language processing. In the section on discourse, the contributions by Anita Barry and Amy Sheldon deal with interpersonal conflict; George Yule discusses the selection between direct and indirect speech forms. Helga Delisle and Cynthia Clamons consider ways in which choices among, or variation in, some grammatical and semantic categories may be explainable on pragmatic and discourse grounds. The phonology papers are focused on two major themes: underspecification and borrowing. Four of the articles address the issue of underspecification in phonological representations (Daniel Dinnsen, Joseph Stemberger, Janet Bing, Gregory Iverson). In the other two papers questions of borrowing are discussed, in Nancy Stenson's contribution from a synchronic perspective, and in Gunter Schaarsmidt's paper from a historical one. The volume is completed by a subject index and a language index.

This volume includes papers on the study of Arabic dialects and their implications for general linguistics (Section I), as well of papers of a more general nature (Sections II and III). Because the Arabic dialects are similar in many ways, a study of their differences can help isolate precisely the range of permissible interlinguistic variation (i.e. the “parameters” of universal grammar). A number of papers in Section I focus on the contribution of dialect studies to a theory of crossdialectal and crosslinguistic variation; others focus on individual dialects, thus providing data and analyses that can further contribute to our understanding of this type of variation. The papers in Sections II and III of the volume are selected from the general session of the symposium and address sociolinguistic and historical aspects of Arabic, respectively.

This volume, which has partly grown from a Round Table at the XIVth International Congress of Linguists, argues for a large amount of underlying unity in outlook among different frameworks in present-day linguistics: the contemporary Prague School; the Noematic approach; the UNITYP model; Integrational Linguistics; Natural Morphology; much recent work in phonology; and Popperian Interactionism as applied, in particular, to historical linguistics. Section I discusses philosophical issues such as realism vs. cognitivism; Section II characterizes current frameworks; and Section III deals with individual linguistic areas like phonology. Leading representatives of the various approaches are shown to agree in subscribing to most if not all of nine 'Principles of New Structuralism' that combine ontological realism with non-cognitivist mentalism. These principles define a position that is structuralist in a novel sense and appears to be partly represented also in approaches such as Katzian 'Platonism' and Searle's intentionalism; it should be compatible with frameworks like GPSG. There are definite historical connections with European structuralism. The position is incompatible with current cognitivism of the 'mechanism' type but otherwise bridges traditional oppositions such as the dichotomy of generative vs. non-generative frameworks.

This is the third in a continuing series of papers presented at the annual meetings of the Arabic Linguistic Society whose primary purpose is to provide a forum for the study of Arabic within current approaches in linguistics. The volume includes a section on Arabic in relation to other languages, with papers ranging from the importance of Arabic to general linguistic theory, and guttural phonology to Arabic loanwords in Acehnese, verbless sentences in Arabic and Hebrew, and a contrastive study of middle and unaccusative constructions in Arabic and English. In the second section of the book, “Grammatical perspectives on Arabic”, topics ranging from causatives in Moroccan Arabic and epenthesis in Makkan Arabic to a computer analysis of Modern Standard Arabic morphology are discussed. The third section, “Socio- and psycholinguistic perspectives”, includes papers on women, men, and linguistic variation, code switching and linguistic accommodation, and agrammatism.

The papers in this volume approach the study of Arabic, its structure and use, from different linguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives. The book is divided into three sections: Section I Morphological and Phonological Perspectives; Section II Semantic Perspectives; Section III Sociolinguistic Perspectives.

These papers, deriving from the 7th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL) in Pavia in 1984, provide an overview of the current status of research in this field. They clearly show that new issues are emerging in the theory of linguistic change which tend to incorporate non-autonomous principles like naturalness in phonetic processes, the influence of socio-cultural settings and discourse pragmatics.

These papers are a selection from papers presented at the 4th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (Amsterdam, 1985). Most studies deal with some aspect of an earlier stage of English, though present day varieties of English are also under investigation. Many of the papers show that there is a growing interest in the question why a certain change has taken place. Furthermore, the volume contains a considerable number of papers on historical syntax.

This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the XII Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), held in April 1982 at Penn State University. These papers reflect the general state of the art in Romance Linguistics. Some of the studies are theoretical papers that seek to establish general principles based on the analysis of a Romance language, others apply the principles of a particular theory to the solution of a problem in some Romance language, or provide data-oriented descriptions of linguistic phenomena in Romance languages.

This volume deals with the reconstructed morphology of Proto-Romance. It is the third in a series by this author. The first volume (1974, Elsevier) deals with the external history of the Romance languages: the conditions under which they developed, were used, and (in some instances) went out of use. The second volume (1976, Elsevier) treats the phonology of their common source, Proto-Romance. Together these three volumes aim to cast light, not only on Popular Latin speech by means of its surviving elements in the Romance languages, but also on the extent to which the comparative method can be regarded as valid and useful in instances where no attestations are available for a language as closely related to the reconstructed proto-language as high Classical Latin was to Proto-Romance.

The papers in this volume are a selection from those presented at the 3rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL), held in 1977 at the University of Hamburg. These selected papers deal with a wide variety of issues, some from a more general-theoretical perspective, some deriving new theoretical insights from language data ranging from Ojibwa to Old-Saxon.

The studies in this volume are revised versions of a selection from the papers presented at the Fourth International Conference on Historical Linguistics, held at Stanford University on 26–30 March 1979. Papers at this conference, and in this volume, treat aspects of all current topics in historical linguistics, including topics that are only recently considered relevant, such as acquisition, structure, and language use.

The purpose of this study is to apply experimentally the principles of recent grammatical theories to the facts of the Basque language. This study aims to test out those principles, and endeavours to discover the best form for a grammar of Basque.