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

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.