Journal Issue: University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: Volume 24, Issue 1
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Publication Lexical vs. Nominal prefixes and Their Meaning Domains(2018-04-02) Šereikaitė, MilenaThis study contrasts two types of prefixes in Lithuanian (a Baltic language), the lexical prefix and the nominal prefix. Despite being homophonous, I demonstrate that these prefixes are two distinct elements. There is a tradition in the literature to analyze lexical prefixes as part of a VP complement (Babko-Malaya 2003, Dimitrova-Vulchanova 1999, Svenonius 2004, ia.) since, despite being perfective, they also license an additional argument. Nevertheless, the data from Lithuanian show that the lexical prefix lacks phrasal properties. Instead, I propose that the lexical prefix is a morphological element, which is merged directly with a verbalized root (in line with Basilico 2008). In contrast, I show that the nominal prefix is a category-defining head n since it operates on the roots meaning space (Marantz 2001; Arad 2005) and can assign gender to a noun (Kramer 2016). I further gave evidence for this analysis showing that it correctly predicts polysemy resolution effects (Marantz 2013).Publication The Russian Comitative Construction as Reciprocal Conjunction(2018-04-02) Kasyanenko, SofiaOpen DownloadShare✕ The tendency of the Russian comitative construction to be interpreted collectively has raised a debate as to whether this construction denotes sums, like and-coordination, or denotes groups. I propose a more detailed mechanism explaining how the meaning of this construction is derived, and, relying on insights from the theory of possessives, I argue that the RCC should be treated as an instance of reciprocal conjunction. This more specific way to approach the RCC addresses the long-reported speakers’ intuition that this construction is best used when its members are “somehow related” or when the events in question occur in spatiotemporal proximity. Furthermore, my approach explains why the RCC can still be interpreted distributively when the abovementioned relatedness requirement is met, even as the collective interpretation might be strongly preferred.Publication Denominal Verbs: Past Tense Allomorphy, Event Frames, and Zero-Categorizers(2018-03-30) Adamson, LukeThis study discusses ‘recategorized’ verbs that are derived from nouns, focusing on those that have no overt categorial morphology. On the basis of evidence from past tense inflection with privative locatum verbs, I argue that the event structure can select for nouns rather than roots, and that this is another potential source of obligatory recategorization beyond determination of meaning for the root. I also dispute the empirical generalizations of Borer (2013), whose theory disallows zero-derived recategorization altogether.Publication The Effect of Focus on Creaky Phonation in Mandarin Chinese Tones(2018-03-30) Huang, Yaqian; Athanasopoulou, Angeliki; Vogel, IrenePrevious studies of the prosodic realization of focus in Mandarin Chinese show an expansion of the pitch range of lexical tones. It is less clear, however, whether focus affects the Creaky Phonation (CP) that often co-occurs with the Dipping third tone (T3), and to some extent, also with the Falling fourth tone (T4). This study investigates the effect of focus on the acoustic properties of the four Mandarin tones, and while it confirms the expansion of the pitch range under focus, it does not find that focus affects CP in T3; it only finds an effect of focus on CP in T4. Both the F0 and CP patterns are also considered in relation to the Functional Load Hypothesis, specifically, the relationship between the contrastive properties of a language and the manifestation of prominence.Publication General Prohibition: A New Type of English Imperative(2018-03-30) Donovan, MichaelThis paper is an investigation of the properties of what I term the general prohibitive in English. This paper is an introduction to the distribution of general prohibitives, as well as a formal analysis of general prohibition in English. This is a new type of English imperative that has previously gone unnoticed. General prohibitives are used to express banned entities such as “No smoking!” or “No pets!” I will demonstrate that general prohibitives are directives and have nearly identical distribution with imperatives. I propose this is because a null imperative mood marker is present in general prohibitives, and that restrictions on imperative mood explain the restriction on general prohibitives. Additionally, the possibility of adding the word “allowed” to these construction overtly without any change in distribution or meaning leads me to include “allowed” as an adjectival passive explicitly in the structure. The interaction between this null imperative mood marker and a negative element in the clause (“no”, “only”) licenses general prohibitives and explains their syntactic distribution.Publication A New Way to Define Binding Domain in Korean(2018-04-02) Park, JayeonThis paper examines a binding paradigm in Korean which is claimed to support the Highest Edge Effect (HEE), where in a phase with multiple edges, only the highest-edge is accessible from outside of the phase due to the Phase-Impenetrability Condition (PIC), as proposed in Bošković (2013). It has been argued by a number of authors that the binding domain for principle A should be stated in terms of phases (e.g. Lee-Schoenfeld 2008, Despić 2011, Wurmbrand 2013b, Zanon 2015, Bošković 2016a). Under this approach, an anaphor must be bound in its minimal phase. What is important for our purposes is that an anaphor can be bound outside of its own minimal phase XP only if it is located at the edge of the phase (the anaphor then does not really “belong” to phase XP, but to a higher phase). I also argue that the binding patterns from Korean examined here provide empirical evidence for contextuali-ty of phasal edgehood, where the existence of another specificer of a phase (i.e. edge) affects the edgehood of other specifiers (see Bošković 2016a).Publication Unifying V-C Movement in Algonquian and Germanic: A View from Morphology(2018-03-30) Bogomolets, Ksenia; Fenger, Paula; Stegovec, AdrianThis paper suggests that V-C movement can be detected in polysyntetic languages via its morphological correlates. The claim is based partly on the striking parallelism between the contexts where a particular agreement paradigm (Independent Order) can occur in Algonquian languages and the contexts where V-C movement/V2 can occur in Germanic languages, and partly on the morphological properties of the relevant agreement paradigm in Arapaho (Plains Algonquian). We argue that the existence of agreement allomorphy and the partial prosodic independence of agreement proclitics in this paradigm result from V-C movement feeding into C-triggered allomorphy and m-merger of the proclitic.Publication A New Kind of Perspective Sensitivity Cross-linguistically: Primary Predication with -gaa(2018-03-30) Balusu, RahulWe argue for a new type of judge-dependence encoding based on Telugu adjectival data (with cross-linguistic parallels in Spanish ser/estar, Finnish Essive case, and, Russian Instrumental case). Uniquely, this kind of predicate gives rise to a transient reading in certain contexts without an overt PP. With other experiencer and tense combinations, it gives rise to subjective, dispositional and evaluative interpretations, similar to PPTs. The general theoretical import comes down to the difference between an experiencer argument in an event mediated predication vs. a non-event-mediated predication. We analyse the transient reading as event mediatedpredication, brought about by the eventive predicator -gaa, with a first-person based generic quantification over the experiencer variable (introduced by -gaa) and judge index. When the experiencer is overt or pro, the interpretation is subjective, and when there is generic quantification over the event variable (interaction of tense) the meaning is evaluative or dispositional. In non- event-mediated predication, without -gaa, the transient reading is absent, and subjectivity is based on the kind of gradable adjective–dimensional, and evaluative adjectives; PPTs.Publication A Unified Account for German “doch”(2018-03-30) Enders, FelicitasDoch is one of the German discourse particles that has been widely discussed in the literature (a.o. Grosz, 2014; Egg and Zimmermann, 2012; Karagjosova, 2009). There are two main challenges of providing a meaning for it: first, doch can be prosodically realized either unstressed (roughly as you know) or stressed (roughly after all) with the two realizations providing related yet different meanings. While some accounts focus on only one of the two realizations (a.o. Rieser, 2015; Grosz, 2014), other accounts pursue a unified account for both realizations, treating the two as one lexical item (a.o. Rojas-Esponda, 2014; Egg and Zimmermann, 2012). Second, one has to account for its distribution. While the occurrence of doch in declaratives can straightforwardly be explained in most accounts, its discourse initial use and its occurrence in other sentence types is often absent from the discussion of doch. I follow the line of previous accounts that treat the two prosodic realizations as a single lexical item and propose a new unified account in which both the unstressed and the stressed realization of doch conventionally convey the speaker’s belief as well as her belief about the addressee’s belief at a past time, attributing the difference in meaning contribution of the two realizations to the contribution of stress.Publication On the Distribution of Headless vP/VP-Movement(2018-03-30) Arano, AkihikoThis paper argues that the distribution of headless vP/VP-movement is constrained by Cyclic Linearization (Fox & Pesetsky 2005). It is shown that headless vP/VP-movement in VO languages leads to a linearization failure, while headless vP/ VP-movement in OV languages does not. It is also argued that VO languages allow headless vP/VP-movement if a linearization failure can be avoided through a repair strategy of verb-doubling.
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