Studies in Language. International Journal sponsored by the Foundation “Foundations of Language” - Volume 44, Issue 2, 2020

Given that face-to-face interaction is an important locus for linguistic transmission (Enfield 2008: 297), it is argued in this paper that conversational structure must provide affordances (Gibson 1979) for transmitting linguistic items. The paper focuses on repeats where an interactant (partially) repeats their interlocutor’s preceding utterance. Repeats are argued to provide affordances for the transmission of innovative and conservative linguistic items by forcing interactants to repeat linguistic material uttered by another person, facilitating production by exploiting priming effects. Moreover, repeats leave room for modification and thereby for actively resisting transmission. In this way, repeats unite the competing forces (Tantucci et al. 2018) of automaticity and creativity. To support this claim, this paper investigates the use of Spanish insertions and alternative variants in utterance-repeat pairs in Yurakaré (isolate, Bolivia) conversations. The findings are compatible with a holistic view of language where all linguistic levels are interconnected (Beckner et al. 2009).

The Xinkan, Jicaquean, and Lencan language families are isolates. However, they show similarities in their vowel co-occurrence restrictions within morphemes. This paper compares and contrasts the harmonic patterns in each of these language families and concludes that similarities are likely due to contact between their speakers. This suggests that Xinkan, Jicaquean and Lencan speakers existed in a sort of micro-language area, a small-scale scenario of contact that shows unique indications of contact near or within the more dispersed scenarios of contact and borrowing acknowledged throughout Mesoamerica.

This study explores the coding asymmetry between independent and dependent possessive person forms (as in English mine/my) from a cross-linguistic perspective. On the basis of a typological survey of 70 geographically and genealogically diverse languages, this paper identifies three universal tendencies: the length universal, the constituent order universal and the alienability universal. First, the length universal claims that independent possessive person forms are either longer or as long as the dependent possessive person forms. Second, the constituent order universal claims that the internal constituent order of the person form and the substantivizer correlates with the constituent order of the possessor and the possessum. In addition, in languages where both a composite possessive marker and a composite substantivizer are used, the possessive marker is always closer to the person root. Finally, the alienability universal claims that the possessive person forms in the alienable possessive constructions are more likely to be used as independent possessive person forms than those in the inalienable possessive constructions. These universal tendencies are instances of form-frequency correspondence, which is shown by corpus evidence from three languages.

In many languages, indefinite expressions are known to have restricted access to core argument functions. This article focuses on the accessibility hierarchy of indefinite expressions to subject and object functions in a sample of Austronesian languages. Aiming at some comparative analysis, some cross-linguistic perspectives on the differential encoding of ± definite core arguments and other types of restrictions are discussed. The questions addressed are: (i) What type of indefinite nouns have core argument function? (ii) If barred from core argument function, how are indefinite arguments circumvented? (iii) Does existence or lack of indefinite articles correlate with access to core argument function, and in what way?

In Austronesian languages, one finding is that languages with indefinite articles display fewer restrictions on the access of indefinite NPs to core argument function. Another finding is that differences of definiteness, individuation and specificity of arguments tend to be expressed by distinct domains: the noun phrase in languages with indefinite articles, the verb phrase in languages without indefinite articles (via valency, voice alternations, alignment changes), with an intermediate situation in some Micronesian languages.

This paper is an analysis of the use of reported speech in six Tibeto-Burman languages from two closely-related sub-branches (Tamangic and Tibetic). The data come from a set of interview narratives about people’s experiences of the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal. The analysis begins with an examination of the relationship between reported speech, overt subjects and ergativity. We also look at reported speech and evidentiality, including grammatical reported speech evidentials. Structural features discussed include hybrid reported speech and multiple clause relationality. Interactional features discussed include the use of deictic shift, prominent subordination, and the multiple functions of reported speech forms, as well as zero-marked reported speech events. This analysis highlights the benefits of studying linguistic features such as reported speech in narrative context. We conclude with the implications of this usage-based analysis in the coverage of reported speech in descriptive grammars.