Journal Issue: Proceedings of the 40th Annual Penn Linguistics Conference
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Publication “I didn’t drink and drove a car” Neg Expresses Eccentric Triplets(2017-01-01) Yoda, Yusuke; Kobayashi, RyoichiroThis paper aims to propose an account of the scope between negation and VP-coordination in Japanese. We investigate a scope puzzle between negation and VP-coordination, which has been unexplained. We claim that VP-coordination and negation have three readings: (i) Suspended Affixation Reading (neg > VP1 > VP2); (ii) non-Suspended Affixation Reading (VP1 > neg > VP2); and (iii) the third reading (VP2 > neg > VP1), which has been unnoticed. This reading is yielded via the phase-based interpretation system, as well as De Morgan’s Law, which only applies to negation.Publication The Semantic Ontology of Agent and Theme: A Case Study with Event Partitioning Quantifiers in Japanese(2017-01-01) Nakamura, TakanobuThe primary aim of this paper is a description of a previously unanalyzed kind of numeral quantifiers in Japanese. While the purpose is modest, I believe that it might shed light on the Neo-Davidsonian semantic architecture (see Parsons 1990, Schein 1993 and Kratzer 1996 among others). Specifically, I will introduce Event Partitioning Quantifiers (EPQs), which have not been analyzed in literature and show that with an EPQ, agents of events and themes of events are quantified independently of both an event expressed by a lexical verb and host nominals in the subject or in the object. Based on this observation, I discuss the semantic independence of thematic roles Agent and Theme from their corresponding verb.Publication The Particle Mo in Japanese and its Roles in Numeral Indeterminate Phrases(2017-01-01) Mohri, FumioThe main purpose of this paper is to provide an appropriate explanation for the so-called numeral indeterminate (NI) constructions, in which mo is accompanied by an indeterminate pronoun+ Cl(assifier). The quirky character of this construction is that apparently mo is applied to the denotation of a numeral indeterminate nan-nin as a syntactic binder and at the same it invokes a scalar reading. The assumption that mo should be a syntactic binder can be corroborated from the fact that the NI construction is degraded without the particle mo. Also mo as a scalar particle attributes an implicit large reading. This large reading can also be observed in cases where the indeterminate is replaced by a specific numeral, e,g, yo-nin-mo ‘four-Cl-mo’. To the best of my knowledge, Kobuchi-Philip (2010) and Oda (2012) are the only works that deal with this construction. Especially Oda extensively discusses every possible means to explain this construction and works out a solution by assuming that the suffix mo functions multiply as an existential quantifier and a scalar particle. Through this paper, I will support her claim for its double functions, but I will clarify that the functions are both derived from a core semantic property of mo, namely, maximality. In other words, these functions work individually, but the component of maximality is placed in the center of the semantics of both usages.Publication The German Definite Article and the ‘Sameness’ of Indices(2017-01-01) Hanink, Emily A.The German definite article may contract with a preceding preposition under certain circumstances; the contracted form is referred to in the literature as weak, while the non-contracted form is referred to as strong. Schwarz (2009) gives an analysis of this contrast according to which the weak form is required when the referent of an NP is unique, while the strong form is required when it is also anaphoric, i.e., when it refers back to an antecedent. However, as Schwarz himself points out, anaphoric uses in which the anaphoric NP is modified by the adjective same surprisingly surface with the weak form, and not the strong. The use of the weak form with the clearly anaphoric uses of same pose a challenge to the generalization that anaphoric uses of the definite article always require the strong form. I provide an account of the strong/weak distinction in the German definite article that explains the puzzling use of the weak form in anaphora involving same by proposing the following. P-D contraction in the general case is achieved through P-D Lowering (Embick and Noyer 2001). In the strong form however, D selects for the index-hosting head idx, to which it may lower and bleed the environment for P-D contraction. However, D may optionally not lower to idx, in which case P-D contraction freely occurs while idx spells out as same. Same in this account is therefore treated as an allomorph of an otherwise non-exponed anaphora-encoding head that is usually occupied by D. This account draws support from cross-linguistic evidence from English and Hebrew that same may undergo alternations with pronominal expressions.Publication Syntactic Constraints on Quantifier Domains: An Experimental Study of Adult Interpretation of the Mandarin Chinese Quantifier dou(2017-01-01) Ke, Alan Hezao; Epstein, Sam; Pires, AcrisioWhich NP does all associate with in “The pandas, the children have all seen”, the pandas or the children, or both? The intuition of adult Mandarin native speakers regarding the interpretation of the adverbial quantifier dou ‘all’ remains unclear and controversial, and based on these unclarities, various incommensurate theories of domain selection have been proposed. This paper points out that previous studies were confused by dou-domain selection because they used non-optimal testing materials. We present experiments on adults’ interpretation of dou, designed to avoid these pitfalls to test predictions of several influential theories. Despite extensive theoretical proposals in the literature, this is the first experimental study of adult knowledge and use of syntactic constraints on the quantifier domain of dou. We advance the hypothesis that the quantifier dou can take one and only one c-commanding NP as its domain, and an analysis based on a locality restriction are not operative in the domain we explore.Publication Morpho-pragmatic Faithfulness Interacts with Phonological Markedness in Appalachian A-prefixing(2017-01-01) McQuaid, Goldie AnnThis paper examines so-called a-prefixing in the speech of dialect speakers living in Appalachia. Building on existing empirical work, and leveraging results from a GoldVarb analysis, I posit the a-prefix realizes a morpho-pragmatic feature which expresses a range of related meanings, including surprise, unexpectedness, and newsworthiness. This range of meanings is encompassed in the linguistic category mirativity. The prefix is therefore suggested to spell out the feature [MIRATIVE]. Variable insertion of the a-prefix is blocked when the base does not meet certain phonological requirements. In particular, prefixing is blocked with forms beginning with a lax vowel (*‘a-ask-ing’), and with forms possessing non-initial stress (*‘a-discover-ing’ ). A formal, Optimality-Theoretic (OT) analysis of the interaction of morpheme insertion and phonological markedness is provided.Publication Use of Discourse Cues During Garden-Path Resolution is Modulated by Verb Argument Structure(2017-01-01) Besserman, Ana; Kaiser, ElsiStudies on garden-path sentences such as While the man hunted the deer ran into the woods have shown that comprehenders face processing difficulties due to the locally ambiguous noun phrase “the deer”. This critical noun phrase tends to be initially interpreted as the object of the preceding verb, but it must ultimately be interpreted as the subject of the following clause. This grammatical role ambiguity is particularly of interest because in English (and other languages) discourse information tends to be packaged in such a way that objects are typically indefinite, new information, and subjects are most often previously-mentioned, definite information (e.g., Comrie 1989, Prince 1992). We hypothesized that, if discourse information is at play, noun phrases that are more subject-like might facilitate garden-path resolution relative to more object-like noun phrases. However, in order to better understand when the discourse level is engaged in processing these constructions, we examined garden-paths with two verb types: reflexive absolute verbs (RATs, e.g., “wash”) and optionally transitive verbs (OPTs, e.g., “hunt”). Due to their reflexive nature, RATs were expected to operate mainly through a structural route (syntax-only). On the other hand, OPT verbs can introduce implicit arguments and are more likely to engage in operations beyond the domain of syntax (e.g., syntax+discourse). In this study, we discuss data from a self-paced reading experiment (see Besserman and Kaiser 2016) to shed light on the syntax/discourse division of labor: we found effects of information status related to subject-/object-hood in the processing of garden-paths with OPT, but not RAT verbs. These findings suggest that engagement of discourse representations was modulated by the verb’s argument structure.Publication Phonetic Enhancement and Three Patterns of English a-Tensing(2017-01-01) Nie, YiningEnglish a-tensing has received numerous treatments in the phonological and sociolinguistic literature, but the question of why it occurs (i) at all and (ii) in seemingly unnatural disjunctive phonological environments has not been settled. This paper presents a novel phonetic enhancement account of a-tensing in Philadelphia, New York City and Belfast English. I propose that a-tensing is best understood as an allophonic process which facilitates the perceptual identity and articulatory ease of nasality, voicing and/or segment duration in the following consonant. This approach unifies the apparently unnatural phonological environments in which the two a variants surface and predicts the attested dialectal patterns. A synchronic account of a-tensing also provides an explanation for the suprasegmental and morphological factors that condition the process.Publication Case in Polish Predication and Control(2017-01-01) Lindert, PatrickIn this paper, a unification of case markings in Polish predication and control is proposed. It is argued that adjectives with instrumental case marking in control environments are actually modifiers of DPs, and not bare APs, therefore following the predictable case assignment mechanism of Polish predication. This paper discusses cases of subject control and non-obligatory control.Publication Social and Structural Constraints on a Phonetically-Motivated Change in Progress: (str) Retraction in Raleigh, NC(2017-01-01) Wilbanks, EricThe current project examines the status of (str) retraction, an ongoing, phonetically-motivated sound change, in the Raleigh, NC corpus of sociolinguistic interviews (Dodsworth & Kohn, 2012). Investigating the status of this sound change in apparent time, acoustic analyses of 140 Raleigh-natives was carried out. All tokens of /s/ and /S/ were automatically extracted and the spectral characteristics of the resulting 99,150 tokens were analyzed. Results demonstrate the retracted variant in the speech of the youngest Raleigh women and it is argued that the emergence of (str) retraction in the community in the 1960s corresponds with massive demographic shifts caused by urbanization and immigration from the North. While the specific causes of (str) retraction, whether it reflects a diffusion of an externally developed change or the community-internal innovation based on clear phonetic motivation, is unclear, the variant is clearly an emergent phenomenon of Raleigh speech. Additionally, it is argued that medial word position was the locus for actuation of the sound change and remains the environment which most strongly favors the retracted variants. This structural constraint has been observed in other communities but its role as the position in which change began has previously only been hypothesized. At the level of the community, (str) retraction is still heavily restricted and its spread to other linguistic environments and into the systems of other speakers is currently unfolding. These data, in addition to improving our knowledge of the sociolinguistic characteristics of Raleigh's speech, inform our understanding of the overarching principles governing the progression of sound change.