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PAPERS IN GENERAL UNGUISTJCS
Preface
Endangered languages: An appeal for publications
IRJA H. ALHO: Distinguishing kind and set in Finnish
RAKESH Mohan BHATT: Language identity, conflict, and convergence
in South Asia
Hans HENRICH hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place
like this? Syntax vs. phonological form
IWONA KRASKA: From verb to clitic and nominal suffix: The Somali
-e, -o nouns
PINMIN KUO: On the use and function of Chinese keshi: An explana-
tion based on the notion 'inference system'
SHEILA OnkaetSE MMUSI: OCP violations in Setswana: Evidence
for redefining the OCP?
Pilar PRIETO: Truncation processes in Spanish
Squib
JOS£ IGNACIO HUALDE and GORKA ELORDETTA: On the lexical/
postlexical distinction: Vowel assimilation in Lekeitio Basque
Reviews
Nanene Twine (1991). Language and the modem state; The reform
of written Japanese. (Yasufumi Iwasaki)
Marina Yaguello. (1991). Lunatic lovers of language: Imaginary
languages and their inventors. (M. Lynne Murphy)
Book Notices
Christel Goldap (1991). Lokale Relationen im Yukatekischen:
Eine onomasiologische Studie. (Hans Henrich Hock)
.^y^^raj B. Kachru (1992). The other tongue: English across cultures.
(Hans Henrich Hock)
«9f
ecent Books
Con^nts of volumes 17-21
vu
1
17
39
89
107
123
143
159
165
169
173
174
177
183
epartment of Linguistics
University of Illinois
STUDIES IN THE LINGUISTIC SCIENCES
PUBLICATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
EDITOR: Hans Henrich Hock; REVIEW EDITOR: James H. Yoon
EDITORL^L BOARD: Eyamba G. Bokamba, Chin-chuan Cheng, Jennifer S.
Cole, Georgia M. Green, Hans Henrich Hock, Braj B. Kachru, Yamuna Kachru,
Chin-W. Kim, Charles W. Kisseberth, Howard Maclay, Jerry L. Morgan,
Rajeshwari Pandharipande, James H. Yoon, and Ladislav Zgusta.
AIM: SLS is intended as a forum for the presentation of the latest original
research by the faculty and especially students of the Department of Linguistics,
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Invited papers by scholars not as-
sociated with the University of Illinois will also be included.
SPECIAL ISSUES: Since its inception SLS has devoted one issue each year to
restricted, specialized topics. A complete list of such special issues is given on the
back cover.
BOOKS FOR REVIEW: Review copies of books may be sent to the Editor,
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, Department of Linguistics, University of
Illinois, 4088 Foreign Languages Building, 707 S. Mathews, Urbana, Illinois
61801.
SUBSCRIPTION: Normally, there are two issues per year. Requests for sub-
scriptions should be addressed to SLS Subscriptions, Department of Linguistics,
University of Illinois, 4088 Foreign Languages Building, 707 South Mathews,
Urbana, Illinois 61801.
UPCOMING ISSUES: Vol. 22:2: Twenty-five years of Linguistic Research at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Post-graduate research by
Doctoral and Master's degree students in the Department of Linguistics). Editors:
Braj B. Kachru and Frances Vavrus; Vol. 23:1: Papers in General Linguistics.
Price: $7.50 (per issue)
STUDIES IN THE LINGUISTIC SCIENCES
Papers in General Linguistics
EDITOR
Hans Henrich Hock
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Amy C. Cheatham
VOLUME 22, NUMBER 1
SPRING 1992
DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
I URB ANA, ILLINOIS 6 1 80 1
CONTENTS
Preface v
Endangered languages: An appeal for publications vii
Irja H. Alho: Distinguishing kind and set in Finnish 1
Rakesh Mohan Bhatt: Language identity, conflict, and convergence
in South Asia 1 7
Hans Henrich Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place
like this? Syntax vs. phonological form 3 9
Iwona Kraska: From verb to clitic and nominal suffix: The Somali
-e, -o nouns 8 9
Pinmin Kuo: On the use and function of Chinese keshi:
An explanation based on the notion 'inference system' 107
Sheila Onkaetse Mmusi: OCP violations in Setswana: Evidence
for redefining the OCP? 123
Pilar Prieto: Truncation processes in Spanish 143
Squib
Jose Ignacio Hualde and Gorka Elordietta: On the lexical/post-
lexical distinction: Vowel assimilation in Lekeitio Basque 159
Reviews
Nanette Twine (1991). Language and the modern state: The
reform of written Japanese. (Yasufumi Iwasaki) 165
Marina Yaguello. (1991). Lunatic lovers of language: Imaginary
languages and their inventors. (M. Lynne Murphy) 169
Book Notices
Christel Goldap (1991). Lokale Relationen im Yukatekischen:
Fine onomasiologische Studie. (Hans Henrich Hock) 173
Braj B. Kachru (1992). The other tongue: English across cultures.
(Hans Henrich Hock) 174
Recent Books 177
Contents of volumes 17-21 183
i
Preface
The present issue of Studies in the Linguistic Sciences has
greatly benefited from the help of the following faculty members
who have refereed submitted papers and squibs: Eyamba Bokamba,
Jennifer Cole, Braj B. Kachru, Yamuna Kachru, Rajeshwari Pandhari-
pande, James Yoon, Ladislav Zgusta (all in Linguistics), Jose Hualde
(Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese), Numa Markee (English as an
International Language), Erhard Hinrichs (Universitat Tubingen).
The Department of Linguistics also is grateful for support from
the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences toward publishing this issue,
and technical support from the Language Learning Laboratory. Last,
but not least, I would like to express my appreciation to Beth Creek,
Cathy Huffman, and Eileen Sutton from the Department Office, and
Amy Cheatham, my editorial assistant, for their help in preparing
this issue.
September 1992 Hans Henrich Hock (Editor)
i
Endangered languages: An appeal for publications
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences recently received the following
appeal from Derek Nurse, Department of Linguistics, Memorial Uni-
versity of Newfoundland:
I am writing to you with an article in the most recent issue of the journal
Language in mind. It is based on what I would think is a reasonable set of facts
and predicts that by the end of the next century most of today's languages will
be extinct. At least 25% of the world's languages are in Africa, many are in-
adequately recorded or described. This raises the possibility that some part of
these languages may just quietly slip away and we will have no or an imperfect
record of them. I feel this would be undesirable. I wonder if, as Editor, you
think your journal could do anything to prevent this anonymous mass exodus?
Would your journal for example consider including in each issue a description of
some lesser known African language, perhaps of limited length and format?
In this appeal. Nurse refers to a collection of papers entitled
'Endangered languages' that appeared in volume 68 (1992) of Lan-
guage (pp. 1-42), and was coauthored by K. Hale, M. Krauss, L. Wata-
homigie, A. Y. Yamamoto, C. Craig, L. V. M. Jeanne, and N. C. England.
The collection provides an excellent survey of the all too widespread
phenomena of language attrition and language death, as well as of
attempts to prevent these developments from occurring or to undo
their effects. In addition, the collection gives a very useful survey of
earlier literature. The most significant — and disturbing — part of this
excellent collection of papers is the observation that more than half
of the languages currently still in use are endangered in their exis-
tence.
Nurse's appeal therefore is extremely timely and significant. As
editor of Studies in the Linguistic Sciences and as a linguist who has
worked with one endangered language (spoken Sanskrit in modern
India), I would like to respond to this appeal by an appeal of my
own."
First, I would like to strongly encourage submissions of papers,
squibs, etc. concerned with endangered languages. Since language at-
trition and language death is a global phenomenon, I would welcome
contributions about languages from ANY area of the world.
Ideally, of course, publications on endangered languages should
serve not merely as convenient data banks for linguists. They should,
instead, give as full a picture of a particular language as possible.
Such fuller treatment would first of all preserve data which, though
not considered important in current linguistic theories, might become
significant in future theoretical work. Even more important, however,
is the fact that as linguists working with endangered languages, we
viii Endangered languages: An appeal for publications
have — I believe — a responsibility to the speakers of these langu-
ages, or their descendants, to preserve as much of their language as
possible so that, if speakers decide to revive their language, they are
able to do so on the basis of our work.
This means that, ideally, we should not limit ourselves to the
treatment of particular issues of grammar, sociolinguistics, etc. Even
accounts following the format of the 'Lingua Descriptive Series' would
not provide sufficient information. Our treatment needs to be much
richer, and it needs to take care of a much larger variety of language
uses, including the language of child's play, love, or even hate. More-
over, there ought to be extensive dictionaries, as well as recordings
of language in use or transcripts of such recordings. I would there-
fore like to encourage linguists working with endangered languages
to do as much work of this broader type as possible so that, if speak-
ers decide to do so, they can draw on this work in efforts to revive
their language. As the example of Modern Hebrew shows, language
revival is possible — if sufficient information is available on the
structure and use of the language. t
Clearly, however, we do not live in an ideal world. Many langu-
ages are dying too rapidly to be amenable to the ideally desirable in-
depth treatment. Moreover, there are limitations of time and money.
In many cases, therefore, individual papers are the best we can
expect. I would like to hope, however, that even such limited ac-
counts will keep in mind the ideal that our work should not just
serve the needs of linguists, but should reflect a feeling of respon-
sibility to the speakers of endangered languages, or their later des-
cendants, who might want to reverse the effects of language attrition
or language death.
September 1992 Hans Henrich Hock (Editor)
t See also Joshua A. Fishman's recent volume, Reversing language shift
(Clevedon, Philadelphia, & Adelaide: Multilingual Matters, 1991).
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences
Volume 22, Number 1, Spring 1992
DISTINGUISHING KIND AND SET IN FINNISH*
Irja H. Alho
This paper investigates the semantic distinction that
Finnish makes by two translations of the expression six of
them in the sentence Mark knows ten linguists, and Freddie
knows six of them. The pronoun is either in the partitive or
in the elative. The partitive pronoun refers to the kind
'linguists', i.e. to linguists in general, and the elative pronoun
refers to the particular set of ten linguists. It is argued that
this contrast between kind- and set-denotations follows
from the indefiniteness of the partitive and the definiteness
of the elative. Further, it is argued that in Finnish, plural
partitives refer cumulatively, and that the possibility of the
quantifier depends on this property.
1. Introduction
Carlson (1977:433) observes that in (1) the pronoun them has
two possible antecedents.
(1) Mark knows ten linguists, and Freddie knows six of them
In one reading the antecedent is the bare plural linguists, in another
reading, the whole noun phrase ten linguists. These readings are
paraphrased as (2a) and (2b) respectively.
(2) a. Mark knows ten linguists, and Freddie knows six
linguists
b. Mark knows ten linguists, and Freddie knows six of the
ten linguists that Mark knows
In Finnish, one can distinguish the two antecedents by using a
different morphological form of the pronoun them. In (3a) the
partitive pronoun picks out linguists in general, whereas the elative
pronoun in (3b) picks out the particular set of ten linguists.
The examples in (3) show that the morphological form of the
pronoun marks a semantically relevant distinction in the denotation.
The descriptive terms I am using for these denotation are kinds or
sets. In this paper I look for an explanation for this semantic contrast
in Finnish. I argue that the kind-interpretation follows from the
indefiniteness of the partitive, which is semantically related to the
indefiniteness of English bare plurals and mass nouns. The set-
2 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
interpretation of the elative on the other hand follows from the
definiteness of the elative.
(3) Mar
kku tuntee kymmenen
lingvistia,
M.
knows tenlACC
linguistlsg.PAR
ja
Fred tuntee
and
F. knows
a.
heita kuusi
themlPAR sixlACC
b.
heista kuusi
them-out-oflELAT sixlACC
'Mark knows ten linguists, and Freddie knows six of them.'
I further argue that the quantifier following the partitive is a
floated quantifier that derives from a measure phrase. The elative
construction corresponds to the English partitive construction, as
illustrated in (4).
(4) a. six of the linguists
b. kuusi lingvisteista
six linguists-out-oflpl.ELAT
'six of the linguists'
In (3b) the word order could be changed so that the elative
pronoun follows the quantifier, as in (5a). This word order is not
possible with the quantifier plus the plural partitive, since (5b) is
ungrammatical.
(5) a. kuusi heista
sixINOM them-out-oflpl.ELAT
'six of them'
b. *kuusi heita
sixINOM themlpl.PART
According to my hypothesis, the ungrammaticality of (6a) is due to
the indefiniteness of the complement in the same way as the un-
grammaticality of the English example in (6b).
(6) a. *kuusi lingvisteja
sixINOM linguistslpl.PART
b. *six of linguists
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 deals with the basic
semantic properties of plural partitives. My analysis is based on the
semantic properties proposed for English bare plurals and mass
nouns. I focus on the EXISTENTIAL USE and the CUMULATIVITY REEERENCE
PROPERTY. In 2.1, I discuss the indefiniteness of the partitive, in 2.2
the cumulative reference, and in 2.3 the quantifiers. In section 3, I
discuss the elatives. The elatives occurring as complements of
quantifiers correspond in a straightforward manner to the
Alho: Distinguishing kind and set in Finnish 3
complements of English partitive constructions. These complements
are always definite. Finally, in section 4, I contrast the use of
partitive and elative pronouns.
The historical development of the partitive makes it interesting
to compare its semantics with the semantics of the elative in modern
Finnish. It is known that the partitive used to be a concrete
separative case. Gradually the language developed a more
sophisticated case system which now has two sets of locative cases.
The elative case is the separative in the set of inner locative cases, as
illustrated in (7).
( 7 ) SG. PL.
INESSIVE auto-ssa auto-i-ssa
car-INESS car-pl.-INESS
'in a/the car' 'in (the) cars'
ELATIVE auto-sta auto-i-sta
car-ELAT car-pl.-ELAT
'out of a/the car' 'out of (the) cars'
ILLATIVE auto-on auto-i-hin
car-ILL car-pi. -ILL
'into a/the car' 'into (the) cars'
The meaning of the partitive was reinterpreted from its earlier
separative meaning. According to one hypothesis, this development
started with its more frequent use as an object. In this use, it started
to mean a part that was separated from the whole object.
In modern Finnish, partitive noun phrases occur as objects and
subjects, alternating with accusatives and nominatives. The
distribution of the partitive is determined by at least the following
three semantic conditions: quantity (8), aspect (9), and scope of
negation (10).
(8) a. Matti osti olutta
M. bought beerlPART
'Matti bought (some) beer.'
b. Matti osti oluen
M. bought beerlACC
'Matti bought a beer.'
(9) a. Kun tulin kotiin, Matti pesi autoa
when came-I home M. washed carlPART
'When I came home, Matti was washing a/the car.'
b. Matti pesi auton
M. washed carlACC
'Matti washed a/the car.'
(10) Matti ei pessyt autoa / *auton
M. not washed carlPART caiiACC
'Matti didn't wash a/the car.'
4 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
This paper is concerned with the condition of quantity, illustrated in
(8a). In this use the partitive gives divisive nouns, i.e. plurals and
mass nouns, a so-called 'indefinite quantity' meaning.' This meaning
is possible only in some contexts. First, the conditions seem to have a
hierarchical order so that quantity is the weakest one, and negation
is the strongest one. Also, with some verbs the plural partitive may
never indicate indefinite quantity. These are verbs that take their
object only in the partitive form.
2. Plural partitives
2.1 Indefiniteness of partitives
What does it mean that plural partitives are quantitatively
indefinite? Clearly, this meaning is related to the existential use of
English bare plurals. It is well-known that English bare plurals are
used in both existential and generic sentences. The interpretation of
the noun phrase as existential or universal depends on the context. A
typical existential context in English is there /.v/«re-sentences as in
(11a), and an example of a generic context is the predicate be
intelligent as in (1 lb).
(11) a. There are dogs downstairs
b. Dogs are intelligent
In the corresponding Finnish sentences in (12), the existential 'dogs'
is in the partitive, and the generic 'dogs' in the nominative.
(12) a. Alakerrassa on koiria
downstairs is dogslpl.PART
'There are dogs downstairs.'
b. Koirat ovat iilykkaita
dogslNOM are intelligentlpl.PART
'Dogs are intelligent.'
In formal semantics the two uses of English bare plurals have raised
the question whether or not bare plurals in English are ambiguous.
Carlson (1978) argued for a unified treatment of bare plurals. In his
theory, bare plurals always denote kinds. They do not themselves
bring any quantifier to the sentence. The ontology for the sorts of
entities that noun phrases may have as their denotations has three
layers: stages, objects, and kinds. The stages can be understood as
realizing objects and kinds in time and space. Objects are normal
individuals. The existential quantifier that is present in some
sentences with bare plurals is introduced when they combine with
predicates that apply to stages.
Finnish does not have bare plurals in the same way as English
does. Neither does the use of cases correspond to the use of the
Alho: Distinguishing kind and set in Finnish 5
articles in English. In the subject position, the plural partitive is
always existential. This is exemplified in (13).
(13) a. Poydalla oli kirjoja
table-on was bookslpl.PART
There were (some) books on the table.'
b. Koiria haukkuu
dogslPAR bark
'Some dogs are barking.'
These partitive subjects contrast with the plural nominative subjects
in (14). Depending on the context, the plural nominative is specific or
universal.
(14) a. Kirjat ovat poydalla
bookslNOM are table-on
'The books are on the table.'
b. Kirjat ovat hyodyllisia
bookslNOM are useful
'Books are useful.'
c. Koirat haukkuvat
dogslNOM bark
'Dogs bark.' / 'The dogs bark.'
(15) exemplifies the contrast between the partitive and the
accusative in the object position.
(15) a. Matti tuntee lingvistejii
M. knows linguistslpl.PART
'Matti knows (some) linguists.'
b. Matti tuntee lingvistit
M. knows linguistslACC
'Matti knows the linguists.'
With some transitive verbs the accusative is not possible. These are
verbs that seem to lexically select the partitive case for their object.
Many of these verbs express emotions or attitudes, as for example
'love', 'hate', 'respect', or 'admire'. The partitive objects of these verbs
may never have an existential reading. The natural interpretation of
the plural partitive object in (16) is universal. The accusative is
ungrammatical.
(16) Fred ihailee lingvisteja / *lingvistit
F. admires linguistslpl.PART linguistslACC
'Fred admires linguists (in general).'
With all accusative verbs plural partitive objects indicate indefinite
quantity.
A detailed discussion of the semantic classes of Finnish partitive
verbs of this type is outside the scope of this paper. One factor might
6 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
be the non-extensional nature of the verbs. Non-extensional verbs
such as 'love', 'fear', 'hate', 'admire', 'respect' do not entail the
existence of their object. In other words, one can love or fear
something that does not exist. A natural class of accusative verbs
would then be extensional verbs. These entail the existence of their
object. Carlson (1978:112) suggests that extensional verbs such as
'know' and 'find' are 'natural with existential a and some quantifying
over the object NP, and the existential use of the bare plural is
selected'.
2.2 Cumulative reference of partitives
Why can a plural partitive be followed by a quantifier in
Finnish? I propose that the partitive case in Finnish marks plural and
mass noun phrases as cumulative. The cumulative reference
property was first introduced in Quine 1960. It can be illustrated
with the mass noun water as follows:
If This is water is true about a quantity A of some
liquid and if it is also true about another quantity B of
some liquid, it is also true about the sum of these
quantities A+B.
In English, cumulative reference characterizes mass nouns
{water, gold, money) and bare plurals {apples, stars, lines). The idea
is that the denotation of both mass nouns and bare plurals is not
restricted in terms of quantity. Krifka (1989) distinguishes
cumulative and quantized nominal predicates, as exemplified in (17).
(17) CUMULATIVE QUANTIZED
beer a glass of beer
books a book
five books
Krifka (1989:76) expains cumulativity with the mass noun heer as
follows: 'If there are two entities to which heer applies, this predicate
applies to their collection as well.'
In Finnish, the nominative or the accusative is naturally
interpreted as referring to some individual object or a specific set or
quantity, and a partitive as referring cumulatively to arbitrary
quantities. 2
(18) a. omena omenat
applelNOM appleslpl.NOM
'an/the apple' 'the apples'
b. omenaa omenoita
applelPART appleslpl.PART
'apple' '(some) apples'
Alho: Distinguishing kind and set in Finnish 7
As in Finnish cumulative reference is marked by case morphology, it
does not have to coincide with the indefiniteness connected with
familiarity. Even partitive noun phrases with definite determiners
refer cumulatively, as for example (19b).
(19) a. se omena ne omenat
thatlNOM applelNOM thoselNOM appleslNOM
'that apple' 'those apples'
b. sita omenaa niita omenoita
thatlPART applelPART thoselPART appleslPART
'some of that apple' 'some of those apples'
Languages have mechanisms for restricting the quantity of a
cumulative noun phrase. In particular, measure phrases are such
means. For example, in English a measure phrase such as one kilo of
may apply to a cumulative mass noun such as butter. In Krifka's
terms, measure phrases apply to cumulative predicates to derive
quantized predicates. In Finnish, measure phrases and mass
quantifiers combine with partitives. Some quantized noun phrases
derived in this way are given in (20).
(20) a. kaksi kiloa kultaa / omenoita
two kilolPAR goldlPAR appleslPAR
'two kilos of gold / apples'
b. joukko alykkaita poikia
group intelligentlPAR boyslPAR
'a group of intelligent boys'
c. paljon kultaa / omenoita^
a lot goldlPAR appleslpl.PAR
'a lot of gold' / 'a lot of apples'
A measure phrase that expresses the number of individuals has the
measuring unit kappale 'piece'.
(21) kaksi kappaletta poikia
twolNOM piecelsg.PART boyslpl.PART
'Two (pieces of) boys'
Measure phrases may not have universal or definite quantifiers.
(22) *kaikki / *molemmat kappaleet
alllNOM bothlpl.NOM pieceslpl.NOM
2.3 Quantifier floating with partitives
In Finnish, the measure phrases may appear outside of the
partitive noun phrases which they modify. This is the case in (23b)
and (24b), as the plural partitive has moved to the beginning of the
sentence, and the measure phrase is in the sentence-final position.
8 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
(23) a. Poydalla oli kaksi kappaletta kirjoja
table-on was two piecelsg.PART bookslpl.PART
'There were two books on the table.'
b. Kirjoja oli poydalla kaksi kappaletta
bookslpl.PART was table-on two piecelsg.PART
'There were two books on the table.'
('Speaking of books, there were two of them on the
table.')
(24) a. Matti tuntee kaksi kappaletta lingvisteja
M. knows twolACC piecelsg.PART linguistslpl.PART
'Matti knows two linguists.'
b. Lingvisteja Matti tuntee kaksi kappaletta
linguistslpl.PART M. knows twolACC piecelsg.PART
'Speaking of linguists, Matti knows two of them.'
The measure may be associated only with existential partitives.
Thus it is not possible with partitive verbs such as 'admire' in (25).
(25) a. *Matti ihailee kahta kappaletta linvisteja
M. admires twolPART piecelsg.PART linguistslpl.PART
b. *Lingvisteja Matti ihailee kahta kappaletta
Linguistslpl.PART M. admires twolPART piecelsg.PART
We may conclude that in Finnish quantizing by a measure phrase has
the same affect as the accusative.
Another generalization seems to be that the measure phrases
themselves are either in the nominative or in the accusative.
However, vague quantifiers such as 'several', 'few, and 'many' occur
always in the plural partititive. It has been claimed that the
indefinite meaning of these quantifiers is incompatible with the
definiteness of the Finnish accusative (e.g. Hakulinen & Karlsson
1979:150). 4
(26) (a) *Ostin kirjoja usean kappaleen
bought-I bookslpl.PART severallsg.ACC piecelsg.ACC
(b) Ostin kirjoja useita kappaleita
bought-I bookslpl.PART severallpl.PART pieceslpl.PART
'I bought several books.'
We may conclude that the partitive form really does not take care of
quantification, but that it rather has to do with indefiniteness.
When the measuring unit is kappale 'piece', it is usually omitted
from a floated measure. Ki-Sun Hong (1990) notes that in Korean the
initial noun phrases that are later modified by a floated quantifier
have a discourse function that Dik (1978) defines as 'specifying the
domain or the universe of discourse with respect to which the
predication following it is going to present some relevant
Alho: Distinguishing kind and set in Finnish 9
information'. The same can be said about the Finnish plural partitives
with floated measures. In (27a) the quantity is actually the only
information that the sentence gives. In this case (27b) is impossible.
(27) a. Meita on paljon
usIPAR is a lot
'There are a lot of us.'
b. *0n paljon meita
is a lot usIpl.PART
The discourse function of specifying domains is also used when
the information concerning different domains is contrasted, as in
(28).
(28) a. Lingvisteja oli paikalla kuusi, mutta matemaatikkoja nelja
linguists was present six but mathematicians four
pi. PAR NOM pi. PAR NOM
'There were six linguists but four mathematicians present.'
b. Mark tuntee lingvisteja kuusi, ja matemaatikkoja nelja
M. knows linguists six and mathematicians four
pl.PAR AOC pl.PAR AGC
'Mark knows six linguists and four mathematicians.'
I propose that in Finnish the quantified partitives are
interpreted in the following way:
(i) the existence of some specimens of a kind is asserted;
(ii) the quantity of the cumulative reference is restricted.
3. Plural datives
The Finnish elative construction is exemplified in (29).
(29) a. kaksi kirjoista
twolNOM books-out-oflpl.ELAT
'two of the books'
b. muutama noista kirjoista
a fewlNOM those-out-oflpl.ELAT books-out-oflpl.ELAT
'a few of those books'
c. jokainen kolmesta kirjasta
eachlNOM three-out-oflsg.ELAT book-out-oflsg.ELAT
'each of the three books'
In all these examples the elative complement is understood as
referring to some specific set. The elative in Finnish thus seems to
satisfy the so-called partitive constraint defined for the partitive
constructions in English. Formal definitions of this constraint appear
in Jackendoff 1977, Barwise & Cooper 1981, and Keenan & Stavi
1986. As this constraint was formulated for English, it is stated in
terms of definite determiners. As we have seen, the definiteness of
1 0 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
Finnish noun phrases does not depend on determiners in the same
way as in English.
Elative constructions, too, split quite easily, as shown in (30).
(30) a. Matti osti kaksi kirjoista
J. bought twolsg.ACC books-out-oflpl.ELAT
'Matti bought two of the books.'
b. Matti osti kirjoista kaksi
M. bought books-out-of two
pl.ELAT sg.ACC
c. Kirjoista Matti osti kaksi
books-out-of M. bought two
Similarly to the initial partitive, the initial elative may indicate the
discourse function of introducing the relevant domain. Thus (c) says
'Speaking of the books, Matti bought two of them'.
The quantity expression is the head of the elative construction.
It determines the syntactic behavior of the whole NP. (31a) is an
example of the possessive construction, in which the subject is in the
adessive case, meaning 'on-X'.
(31) (a) Kahde-lla oppilaista on kirja
two-onlADESS students-out-oflpl.ELAT is booklNOM
'Two of the students have a/the book.'
(b) Oppilaista kahde-lla on kirja
students-out-of two-on is booklNOM
(c) Oppilaista on kirja vain kahde-lla
students-out-o is book only two-on
As the examples in (31) show, the elative construction can be the
locative subject of these sentences. The adessive case is only marked
on the quantifier kaksi 'two'.
In the previous section I noted that the vague quantifiers
'several', 'few', or 'many' could not be in the accusative. They
occurred in the plural partitive. The elative construction seems to
offer an exception to this restriction. As far as I know, hardly any
attention has been given to the fact that vague quantifiers may occur
in the accusative in elative constructions. This possibility is
illustrated in (32).
(32) Ostin usean kirjoista
bought-I severallsg.ACC books-out-oflpl.ELAT
'I bought several of the books.'
This evidence suggests that although the accusative case cannot
freely mark vague determiners, this restriction does not follow from
the lexical meaning of these quantifiers, as suggested by Hakulinen
and Karlsson (1979).
Alho: Distinguishing kind and set in Finnish 1 1
Typically the interpretation of a vague quantifier depends on
the situation. If it applies to a specific set, the interpretation is
relative to the cardinality of the set. For example 'several' might be
interpreted as 'at least half of the cardinality'. If the cardinality of
the set under consideration is not known, in principle there is no
limit to how many 'several' might be. To distinguish these two
situations, Milsark (1974) talks about the quantificational and the
cardinal reading of vague quantifiers. According to him, in an
existential sentence one gets only the cardinal reading.
The quantificational use of vague quantifiers may have
something to do with the possibility of getting the accusative in
elative constructions. In the elative construction the elative
complement denotes some specific set. Thus, when a vague quantifier
precedes it, the interpretation is quantificational. If on the other
hand the NP is a plural partitive, the set is not restricted, and the
interpretation of a vague quantifier is cardinal.
4. Partitive and elative pronouns contrasted
In Finnish a plural partitive pronoun may be existential.
(33) Matti pudotti lehdet
M. dropped magazineslpl.ACC
Niita oli yhteensa kymmenen
theylpl.PART was altogether tenlNOM
Nyt niita on kaikkialla
now theylPAR is everywhere
'Matti dropped the magazines. There were altogether ten
of them. Now there are they (= magazines) everywhere.'
In this context the plural partitive is restricted to the set of
magazines in question.
The verb class is relevant in the interpretation of the partitive
pronoun. With 'know' the partitive pronoun denotes any subset of
linguists in general, as opposed to the accusative pronoun, that
denotes the specific group of ten linguists introduces.
(34) Fred tuntee kymmenen lingvistia,
F. knows tenlACC linguistlsg.PAR
'Fred knows ten linguists.'
a. ja John tuntee heita myos
and J. knows themlPART too
'and John knows (some of) them (= some linguists) too.'
b. ja John tuntee heidat myos
and J. knows themlACC too
'and John knows them too.'
1 2 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
With 'admire', on the other hand, the partitive pronoun can only
denote the specific group of ten linguists.
(35) Fred ihailee kymmenta lingvistia
F. admires tenlPAR linguist
'Fred admires ten linguists,'
a. ja John ihailee heita myos
and J. admires themlPART too
'and John admires them (= those ten linguists) too.'
b. *ja John ihailee heidat myos
and J. admires themlACC too
Finnish differs from English in the possible interpretation of the
pronoun. English allows two interpretations of them in all the
sentences in (36). It can have as its antecedent either the whole NP
ten linguists or just the bare plural linguists.
(36) a. Fred knows ten linguists, and John knows six of them
b. Fred admires ten linguists, and John admires six of
them
c. Fred is looking for three articles, and John is looking for
two of them
Contrast these sentences with their Finnish counterparts in (37).
With 'admire' (37b) and 'look for' (37c), the partitive of 'them' may
not refer to linguists in general. This is only possible with 'know' as
in (37a).
(37) a. Fred tuntee kymmenen lingvistia,
F. knows tenlACC linguist
'Fred knows ten linguists,'
i. ja John tuntee heista kuusi
and J. knows them-out-oflpl.ELAT sixlACC
'and John knows six of them (= the ten linguists).'
ii. ja John tuntee heita kuusi
themlpl.PAR sixlACC
'and John knows six of them (= linguists).'
b. Fred ihailee kymmenta lingvistia,
F. admires tenlPAR linguistlPAR
'Fred admires ten linguists,'
i. ja John ihailee heista kuutta
and J. admires them-out-oflpl.ELAT sixIPAR
'and John admires six of them (= the ten linguists).'
ii. *ja John ihailee heitii kuutta
and J. admires themlpl.PAR sixIPAR
Alho: Distinguishing kind and set in Finnish 1 3
c. Fred etsii kolmea artikkelia,
F. looks for threelPAR articlelPAR
'Fred looks for three articles,'
i. ja John etsii niista kahta
and J. looks for them-out-oflpl.ELAT twolPAR
'and John looks for two of them (= the three articles.'
ii. *ja John etsii niita kahta
and J. looks for themlpl.PAR twolPAR
The readings in which them in (36b) and (36c) refers to linguists and
articles in general can in Finnish be expressed by an elliptic
expression with just the numeral, or by repeating the noun after the
numeral, as in (38).
(38) a. Fred ihailee kymmentii lingvistia,
F. admires tenlPAR linguistlPAR
ja John kuutta (lingvistia)
and J. sixIPAR (linguistlPAR)
'Fred admires ten linguists, and John, six (linguists).'
b. Fred etsii kolmea artikkelia,
F. looks for threelPAR articlelPAR
ja John kahta (artikkelia)
and J. twolPAR (articlelPAR)
'Fred looks for three articles, and John, for two
(articles).'
The possible interpretation of the plural partitive also depends on
the noun phrase that the pronoun refers back to. If this noun phrase
defines a specific set, as for example the accusative 'the Finnish
linguists' in (39) does, both the partitive and the elative pronoun
denote subsets of this set.
(39) Fred tuntee Suomen lingvistit
F. knows Finland's linguistslpl.ACC
ja John tuntee
and J. knows
a. heita joitain
themlPART somelpl.PART
b. heista joitain
them-out-oflpl.ELAT somelpl.PART
'Fred knows the Finnish linguists, and John knows some
of them.'
Further, with some semantically plural antecedents the partitive
pronoun is not possible at all. This is the case with conjunctions that
give the set by listing its members, as in (40).
1 4 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
(40) Markku tuntee Laurin, Kimmon, Marian ja
M. knows L.IACC K.IACC M.IACC and
Fredin, ja Timo tuntee
F.IACC and T.INOM knows
a. *heita joitain
themlPART somelpl.PART
b. heistii joitain
them-out-oflpl.ELAT somelpl.ELAT
'Mark knows Lauri, Kimmo, Maria, and Fred, and Tim knows
some of them.'
5. Conclusion
In this paper I have shown that in Finnish, quantified plural
partitives differ from quantified plural elatives in several respects.
The main semantic difference is that the partitive occurring with a
quantifier is indefinite, whereas the elative occurring with a
quantifier is definite. I have argued that this difference is the reason
that partitive pronouns may introduce kinds, whereas the denotation
of elatives is always restricted to a specific set.
Another difference between quantified partitives and quantified
elatives is the semantic nature of the quantifier. I proposed that the
quantifier occurring with the plural partitive is a measure phrase
which applies to a cumulative nominal predicate. This operation is
semantically important, because it derives quantized nominal
predicates from cumulative nominal predicates. When discussing this
I suggested that in Finnish grammar both the measure phrases and
the accusative case serve the same purpose. This also explains why
quantified partitives as objects occur only with accusative verbs. I
also noted that the unacceptability of vague quantifiers in the
accusative case with plural partitives, and their acceptability with
plural elatives, correlates with the difference between the cardinal
and the proportional interpretation of these quantifiers. The question
is about the specificity of the set that the quantifier applies to.
NOTES
*I thank Erhard Hinrichs, Manfred Krifka, and Jerry Morgan for
useful comments.
1 In Finnish linguistics the meaning of the partitive has been
described by at least the following notions: indefinite quantity,
partial quantity, neutral quantity, quantity admitting surplus, and
non-exhaustive or open reference.
2 Yli-Vakkuri (1979) seems to have a somewhat similar idea on
the role of the partitive case in quantification. She thinks that in
Finnish the partitive expresses 'neutral' quantity.
Alho: Distinguishing kind and set in Finnish 1 5
-^ The distribution of the noun phrases with the mass quantifer
paljon 'a lot '/'much' is a puzzle in Finnish grammar. It parallels the
distribution of accusative objects on one hand, and the distribution of
partitive subjects on the other. Karttunen (1970) suggests that all
these sentences are in some sense resultative. It is known that in
Finnish the accusative object indicates a resultative aspect. Karttunen
claims that sentences with partitive subjects are also resultative.
They express change from one state to another. Hakulinen and
Karlsson (1979:149) argue against this analysis by pointing out that
sentences with asua 'live', istua 'sit', or olla 'be' are not resultative,
although the subject may be a plural partitive or a po/yo^-phrase.
'* A special behavior of weak quantifiers with respect to case
marking has been noted for example by Eng (1991). In Turkish, the
accusative case morphology is optional for weak determiners like
'one, two, seven, thirty...', 'several', 'a few', 'many', 'few'. With the
accusative case morphology the NP's are specific, but without it, they
are nonspecific.
REFERENCES
Barwise, Jon, & Robin Cooper. 1981. Generalized quantifiers and
natural language. Linguistics and Philosophy 4.159-219.
Carlson, Gregory N. 1977. A unified analysis of English bare plural.
Linguistics and Philosophy 1.413-457.
. 1978. Reference to kinds in English. University of Massachusetts
Ph.D. dissertation in Linguistics. Reproduced by the University of
Indiana Linguistics Club.
DiK, S. C. 1978. Functional grammar. Amsterdam: North Holland.
EN(;, Miirvet. 1991. The semantics of specificity. Linguistic Inquiry
22:1.1-25.
Hakulinen, Auli, & Fred Karlsson. 1979. Nykysuomen lauseoppia
['Syntax of modern Finnish']. (SKST 350.) Jyvaskylii: Suomalaisen
Kirjallisuuden Seura.
HONC, Kl-SUN. 1990. Quantifier float in Korean. Proceedings of the
Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society,
175-186.
Jackendoee, Ray S. 1977. X'-Syntax. Linguistic Inquiry Monograph 2.
Cambridge: MIT Press.
Karttunen, Lauri. 1970. On the syntax of the word paljon in Finnish.
Mimeo, University of Texas.
Keenan, Edward, & Jonathan Stavi. 1986. A semantic characterization
of natural language determiners. Linguistics and Philosophy
9.253-326.
Krifka, Manfred. 1989. Nominal reference, temporal constitution,
and quantification in event semantics. Semantics and contextual
1 6 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
expression, ed. by R. Bartsch, J. van Benthem, & P. van Emde
Boas, 75-115. (GRASS 11.) Dordrecht: Foris Publications.
MILS ARK, Gary. 1974. Existential sentences in English. MIT Ph.D.
dissertation in Linguistics.
QUINE, Willard V. O. 1960. Word and object. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Yli-Vakkuri, Valma. 1979. Partitiivisubjektin toiset juuret. Eras
kvantiteetin ilmaisujarjestelman ilmentyma. [The other roots of
the partitive subject. One realization of the quantity system.']
Sanomia, Turun yliopiston suomalaisen ja yleisen kielitieteen
laitoksen julkaisuja 9.155-192. Turku: University of Turku.
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences
Volume 22, Number 1. Spring 1992
LANGUAGE IDENTITY, CONFLICT, AND CONVERGENCE IN
SOUTH ASIA
Rakesh Mohan Bhatt
This paper has one specific aim: to show how different
'acts of identity' (Le Page & Tabouret-Keller 1985) are
negotiated and manifested in multilingual settings and what
their consequences are. Based on the assumption that
identity is a socially constructed phenomenon, it is argued
here that the concept of identity in multilingual South Asia
is not immutable, rather it is variable and derives its
interpretation from the context of situation. By synthesizing
existing conceptualizations and empirical evidence in
linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, and
related disciplines into a single theoretical scheme
(Gumperz 1982a & b), this paper explores the repertoire of
identities available to members of multilingual speech
communities and shows how these identities sometimes
compete with each other, leading invariably to language
conflict, language convergence, and language variation.
1 . Introduction
Much of the research on the study of language and identity
rightly places emphasis on language as central to the process of the
social construction of identity (Gumperz 1982a, b; Le Page &
Tabouret-Keller 1985, Edwards 1985, Gudykunst 1988). This paper
takes a closer look at the concept of identity in the context of a
sociolinguistic area and proposes a (re)definition of identity, one
which is not immutable but 'variable' and derives its interpretation
from the 'context of situation'. Language use, as both indexical and
symbolic of identity, and as an important behavioral resource,
provides the theoretical framework for the interpretation of the
identity constructed in a given sociolinguistic interaction. This
approach to language study in a broader theoretical framework is
found in Fishman 1965, 1966, 1972, Gumperz 1964, Halliday 1970,
1973, Hymes 1964, 1972, and Labov 1966, 1972. It is not claimed,
however, that identity is predictable from language use, but rather
that language use embodies and symbolizes identity or efforts to
change an identity.
1 8 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
My main argument, following mainly from the work of Le Page
& Tabouret-Keller (1985) and Le Page (1986), is that individuals
'create their linguistic systems so as to resemble those of the groups
with which from time to time they wish to identify' (Le Page
1986:23). This argument, as it relates to my study, is premised on
two assumptions: (a) Identity is a socially constructed phenomenon
which arises out of sociolinguistic interactions; and (b) identity is
established and maintained through language. This paper focuses on
South Asia (mainly India) which provides a fascinating sociolinguistic
laboratory for the study of the phenomenon of language-contact,
especially as it relates to issues of language identity, language
conflict, and language convergence. This paper is organized as
follows: First, a definition of relevant concepts is provided to situate
the theoretical/conceptual framework used in this study. Then the
language situation in India is outlined followed by a discussion of the
interaction of language identity, conflict, and convergence. The paper
ends with a discussion of the implications and conclusions.
2. Conceptualization of the field
2.1 Language convergence and sociolinguistic area
Sprachbund, or 'linguistic area' as the term is commonly
understood, refers to a group of geographically contiguous languages
that do not exhibit any discernible genetic relationship but in
response to centuries of long-standing bilingual contact, have made
structural adjustments to the extent that they come to resemble each
other.' Large-scale diffusion of linguistic features across genetic
boundaries has resulted in the following sets of reciprocal
phenomena: The Indo-Aryanization of Dravidian languages (Sridhar
1975) and the Dravidianization of Indo-Aryan languages (Gumperz &
Wilson 1971, Nadkarni 1975, Pandit 1972); the Indianization of the
English language (B. Kachru 1983) and the Englishization of Indian
languages (B. Kachru 1986); the linguistic 'alliance' between Tibeto-
Burman Newari and Indo-Aryan Nepali (Bendix 1974) and the
linguistic 'separation' of Malayalam from Old Tamil (as a result of
excessive Sanskritization of Malayalam (Sridhar 1975)).
While such studies have indeed been insightful for the
understanding of the phenomenon of multilingualism, language
contact, and language change, there is a more interesting aspect,
namely LANGUAGE USE, that has been completely ignored until
recently, except for Pandit 1972. D'souza (1986, 1987) investigates
some features of language use that, together with features of
language structure, characterize India as a sociolinguistic area. She
defines a sociolinguistic area (1987:29-30) as:
Bhatt: Language identity, conflict, and convergence in South Asia 1 9
one in which LANGUAGHS BELONGING TO SEVERAL DIFFERENT
FAMILIES converge as a result of their daily interaction and
because they are called upon to express certain shared
social and cultural experiences and adhere to sociocultural
norms accepted by the members of the society at large.
Such an area is marked by widespread bilingualism or
multilingualism and by the fact that common social,
cultural, and linguistic factors have influenced the
languages of the area. (Emphasis added)
The concept of sociolinguistic area is insightful because it allows
one to make significant generalizations about shared structural
features in a linguistic area based on particular patterns of language
use over time. It also raises important questions concerning 'the
mechanisms by which linguistic convergence takes place and the
social conditions which cause these linguistic changes to occur'
(Shapiro & Schiffinan 1975:154). In fact it is only through the
concept of sociolinguistic area that linguistically significant
generalizations about the CAUSES of linguistic convergence in other
parts of the world, such as in the Balkan countries, can be made (see
Lehiste 1988:61-75, Hock 1986:494-498).
2.2 Language, identity, and language use
Defining either 'language' or 'identity' is a notoriously difficult
task: Any attempt toward a precise description of the relationship
between the two has always been uneasy and tricky. This paper
however, presupposes a reciprocal relationship between language
and identity, i.e., language use influences the formation of identity,
but identity also influences language use and attitude. This
theoretical insight from interactional sociolinguistics (Gumperz
1982a,b) forms the basis for the understanding and interpretation of
the role of language in the formation, maintenance, or rejection of
identity.
At one level of description, identity may be defined in terms of
'language' as an idiolect, i.e. as an individual's idiosyncratic behavior;
at another level of description however, identity may be defined in
terms of a 'code hierarchy' (B. Kachru 1986) which is determined
essentially by pragmatic considerations. The concept of identity is
thus discussed as a multidimensional, hierarchical, and dynamic
process. (For some case studies see Annamalai 1978, Bhatia 1987,
Bokamba 1988, Gibbons 1987, Gudykunst 1988, Gumperz 1970,
B. Kachru 1978.)
The notion of a hierarchy of identities is important in the
multilingual, multicultural, and multiethnic context of India as a
sociolinguistic area. 2 Which identity will come into play in a
sociolinguistic interaction will depend on the 'context of situation'.
20 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
The 'context of situation' may include a nonlinguistic context of
speech event: It may be defined either (a) as 'contextual domain'
(McCawley 1979) where context is built by the discourse itself as it
develops, or (b) as the options that any sociolinguistic system makes
available to its interlocutors.^
2.3 Language conflict
At times political decisions produce important changes in the
linguistic ecology of a contact situation. (Some examples include the
creation of Hindi-speaking Haryana from Punjab, Telugu-speaking
Andhra Pradesh from Madras, etc.) For a sociolinguistic area this has
important implications, especially in connection with a new (i.e.
changed) attitude toward, and evaluation of, 'diatypic' linguistic
variation.
In a sociolinguistic area, language issues are very sensitive and,
therefore language planning must, on the one hand, ensure the
preservation of religious, cultural, and linguistic identity, and, on the
other hand, respect the relationship between linguistic convergence
and language dynamics.
Elsewhere (Bhatt 1990) 1 have argued that language conflict,
manifested as linguistic mobilization among minority groups,
generally reflects the dynamics of language status and the changing
sociocultural context of language identity and language use. It has
been argued that whenever social mobility is blocked for a linguistic
minority, it produces relative deprivation (Rao 1979, Beer 1985).
According to this framework, language conflict arises when certain
minority groups break out of a traditionally subservient position and
improve their situation relative to others (Beer 1985:217). These
minority groups form a self-conscious identity based on their distinct
sociolinguistic and cultural characteristics and they use that as an
effective basis for linguistic mobilization.'*
Examples include the violent situation in Jaffna (Sri Lanka),
where Tamil and Sinhalese speakers are engaged in a seemingly
unending ethnolinguistically based war which has resulted in the loss
of thousands of lives so far; the creation of Pakistan out of British
India in 1947 on primarily religious grounds; the creation of
Bangladesh out of Pakistan in 1971 on a mainly linguistic basis; and
the political restructuring of Indian society after the creation of
Hindi-speaking Haryana from Punjab and Telugu-speaking Andhra
Pradesh from Madras.
Bhatt: Language identity, conflict, and convergence in South Asia 2 1
3. Case study of a sociolinguistic area
3.1 Language profile of India
There are 1652 mother tongues spoken in India which belong to
the following four language families:-^ Indo-Aryan (74.24%),
Dravidian (23.86%), Austro-Asiatic (1.16%), and Tibeto-Burman
(0.62%). Tables 1-4 gives an idea of the linguistic diversity in India,
which led Ferguson (1966) to regard India as a 'sociolinguistic giant'.
There are fifteen national languages (i.e. languages specified in
the Vlllth Schedule of the Indian Constitution) which cover 95.58%
of the total household population of India. Each of the 15 national
languages (excluding Sanskrit) has between 10-97 dialects
(Shrivastava 1979). The number of mother tongues in a state varies
between 12 (Orissa) and 187 (Maharashtra). Out of the 1652 mother
tongues, 240 have more than 10,000 speakers whereas 1248 do not
have more than 1,000 speakers. There are 400 "tribal languages",
most of which have no written tradition. Hindi (in the Devanagari
script) and English are the two official link-languages of India.
Together, these two languages make up more than half of the
bilingual population. The diglossic variation in some of the language
situations adds another variable to the dynamics of language
interaction in India as a sociolinguistic area, e.g. Bengali [sadhu bhaSa
(H) vs. colit bhaSa (L)], Telugu [granthika (H) vs. vyavaharika (L)],
Tamil [Classical (H) vs. Colloquial (L)], Kashmiri
[Sanskritized/Persianized (H) vs. Colloquial (L)] and Hindi
[(Official/New (H) vs. Colloquial (L)].
Language % of Total Population
1971 1981
Assamese
1.63
Not available
Bengali
8.17
7.79
Gujarati
4.72
5.02
Hindi
29.67
39.34
Kannada
3.96
4.06
Kashmiri
0.44
0.48
Malayalam
4.00
3.92
Marathi
7.71
7.50
Oriya
3.62
3.46
Punjabi
3.00
2.81
Sanskrit
N/A
N/A
Sindhi
0.31
0.29
Tamil
6.88
6.76
Telugu
8.17
8.20
Urdu
5.22
5.34
Table 1. Linguistic mosaic of India
22 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
State Percentage of minority language speakers
to 1971 census)
Andhra Pradesh
14.87
Assam
Not available
(42.86% accordin:
Bihar
19.83
Gujarat
9.27
Himachal Pradesh
61.53
Jammu & Kashmir
47.27
Karnataka
34.31
Kerala
4.01
Madhya Pradesh
15.63
Maharashtra
23.86
Manipur
35.54
Nagaland
84.54
Punjab
15.52
Rajasthan
10.11
Sikkim
54.15
TamilNadu
14.65
Tripura
34.78
Uttar Pradesh
10.32
West Bengal
13.63
Table 2. Percentage of minority-language speakers
in most of the Indian states (1981)
Percentage of minority Number of States &
speakers Union Territories
above 80% 1
above 70% 2
above 60% 1
above 50% 1
above 40% 5
above 30% 3
above 20% 4
below 10% 2
Table 3. Percentage of minority language speakers
by States and Union Territories
Bhatt: Language identity, conflict, and convergence in South Asia 23
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
78.20
Dadra & Nagar Haveli
41.14
Delhi
22.62
Goa, Daman, Diu
11.19
Lakshadweep
16.92
NEFA6
72.59
Pondicherry
11.71
Table 4. Percentage of minority language speakers
in some Union Territories:
In addition, the reorganization of states along linguistic lines has
resulted in the creation of a typologically different set of states: On
the one hand we have states like Gujarat and Karnataka, where
Gujarati or Kannada, respectively, is both the official and the
majority language, while on the other hand we have states like
Jammu and Kashmir, where Kashmiri is the mother tongue of a
majority of speakers but Urdu is the official language; Himachal
Pradesh, where Hindi, the official language, is the mother tongue of a
negligible minority; and Nagaland, where English, the official
language, is perhaps nobody's mother tongue (Mahapatra 1979). The
reorganization process has in fact changed a non-competing and non-
conflicting type of societal bilingualism to a competing and conflicting
one.
As a result of linguistic reorganization, the minority groups are
now in a peculiar position. In some states (see Table 2) and Union
Territories (see Table 4), the number of minority language speakers
is larger than the number of the majority language speakers. For
example, in Bihar, out of the 48 mother tongues reported in the 1971
census, the percentage of minority language speakers was 55.70. In
Jammu & Kashmir and in Assam, a significant number of minority
language speakers (45.58% and 42.86%, respectively) live in close
contact with the majority language speakers. Nagaland has more than
80% of minority language speakers while NEFA and Andaman &
Nicobar islands have more than 70% of minority language speakers.
3.2 Language identity and conflict
Theoretical speculations and empirical research on the
relationship between language and identity have shown that
language is not only crucial for the formation, presentation, and
maintenance of identity (Edwards 1985), it is also essential as a
marker of group identity just like age, sex, social class/caste, religion,
etc. To quote Thumboo (1991:206):
Our involvement with language is marked by unceasing
conscious and unconscious acquisitions and modifications.
We test, alter, subvert, elevate, permutate, and create;
24 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
explore the 'meaning potential' of words, in isolation, as
parts of a phrase, clause, sentence; as images and symbols,
manipulated and manipulating. We develop an idiolect.
It is this "idiolect" (= dialect) that is chosen to be a salient
characteristic of the national identity of countries like Israel, the
USA, Great Britain, France, and Italy; or the ethnic identity of
Chicanes and Blacks in America; Malay, Chinese, and Indians in
Singapore; or Macedonians in Yugoslavia; or the social identity of
Afrikaners in South African society.
In the remainder of this section, I will discuss the repertoire of
identities available to members of a speech community in a
sociolinguistic area, and how these identities sometimes compete
with each other, leading invariably to language variation, "^ language
conflict, and language shift.
The role of language in nation building and national identity has
been discussed extensively in the literature. To many scholars, like
Noah Webster for example, language IS identity. Webster's magnum
opus. An American Dictionary of the English Language, in 1828 was
instrumental in promoting an American national identity through
language. 8 The elimination of the vestigial u in words like colour, or
the replacement of ize for ise in words like agonize were deliberate
innovations to Americanize the spellings and, in the process, create a
new identity for a newly united American population (Weinstein
1982).
Other attempts toward creating a separate national identity have
been made, specifically in those nations that were colonized by
foreign powers. The cases of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore are
most illuminating. Indonesia, after she got her independence from
the Dutch in 1945, opted for Bahasa Indonesia ('the Indonesian
language'), a variety of Malay, as a sign of the Indonesians' identity
(see Diah 1982, for details). Malaysia, after her independence from
Britain in 1963, opted for a variety of Malay and named it Bahasa
Malaysia ('the language of Malaysia') to express its national identity
as distinct from Indonesia. Singapore chose Malay as the national
language. Linguistic differences among the varieties of Malay used in
these countries are perhaps slightly greater than the differences
between the British and American varieties of English (Stevens
1973), but the point is made: Each nation-state requires a language
which is symbolic of its nationhood.
In a sociolinguistic area, we see this point made more clearly. In
South Asia, it has been often noticed that as long as a language
remains a valued symbolic feature of nationalism, its power and the
appeal of linguistic nationalism will remain intact, but as soon as
another language provides a new political identity, the old language
Bhatt: Language identity, conflict, and convergence in South Asia 2 5
is no longer desired and often rejected; it loses its function of
linguistic nationalism. The creation of Bangladesh out of Pakistan is a
good illustration of the interaction of language dynamics and national
identity. Urdu, which served the function of affirming ethnicity and
nationalism was given up in favor of Bengali after the Bangla
language movement. This movement, in response to Urdu hegemony,
led to the formulation and later assertion of political identity in
terms of a well-articulated language ideology that called for an end
to the multilingual diglossia in East Pakistan, now known as
Bangladesh (see DasGupta 1985 and especially Kabir 1985).
The difference between Hindi and Urdu, two socio-cultural styles
of the same speech, khaRiibolii, hinges on the writing systems and
the source for lexical borrowing in their respective literary
traditions: Sanskrit for Hindi and Persian for Urdu. It was khaRiibolii
speech, known popularly as the Hindustani language, that became
the symbol of linguistic nationalism during the independence
movement in India. The use of Hindustani^ during that period is
perhaps most notable in the famous verse of Iqbal, hindii hai ham,
vatan hai hindustaan hamaaraa 'we are Hindi, and our country is
Hindustan'. The word vatan, clearly a borrowing from Persian, is
used for 'country', even in an emotionally charged verse, such as it is,
calling for the peoples of India to get united under a common
identity: Hindustani became the language of national emancipation
and national unity. Once British India was divided into India and
Pakistan, each country chose a different style/variety of Hindustani;
India chose Sanskritized Hindi written in Devanagari script for
purposes of national identity, while Pakistan chose Urdu in Perso-
Arabic script for the same purpose.
The fate of Hindustani in India after the partition is no secret:
Between 1951 and 1961, mother tongue returns for Hindustani
declined by about 99% (Khubchandani 1972). This apparent decline
in the reported use of Hindustani can be best understood in terms of
what may be called the DESIRED linguistic identity. The semantics of
desired linguistic identity is closely tied with questions like 'Who am
I?', or more precisely 'How would I actually want to be perceived?'
Individuals, it is assumed, project their identities through language
and shape them according to the behavioral patterns of the groups
with which they wish to identify (cf. LePage & Tabouret-Keller
1985).
The 'Black talk' by London Jamaicans (Le Page & Tabouret-Keller
1985) or the 'Fancy talk' by Black teenagers in the US (see Dillard
1972), which is characterized by flashy vocabulary, poetic diction,
and abundant use of malapropisms (e.g. the use of 'revorce' for
'divorce'), are attempts to identify with the indigenous African
culture. The use of such argot can be taken as an overt linguistic
26 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
reflex of psychological membership; in both of these cases (London
Jamaicans and US Black teenagers) their image of themselves is a
socially constructed and internalized conception. Duncan (1962:112)
observes: '[each member of a group] hears his own words and then
learns what words mean because he can observe how they can affect
others and how they affect him'. These observations are the basis for
shared meanings specific to a particular group, since such socialized
language use forms a group dialect when taken together as a set of
idiosyncratic language patterns (Fishman 1972).
In a sociolinguistic area, however, we often find that the
association of language and desired identity is a variable. The
partition of British India was interpreted by the Indian masses as a
verdict against a 'composite' Hindustani (= Hindi-Urdu) identity, lO
which explains the APPARENT (self-reported) loss of 99% of
Hindustani speakers between 1951 and 1961. A similar situation,
reflecting the close relationship between language dynamics and
desired linguistic identity, obtained in Pakistan after the emergence
of Bangladesh. Pandit (1978) has reported that the Punjabi-speaking
Muslims of Pakistan who had shifted to Urdu at the time of the
partition of India, are now reviving the use of Punjabi, thus
identifying themselves as a group distinct from the Pushto-speaking
or Sindhi-speaking Muslims. He further notes that, 'The Punjabi
Hindu of Delhi is prepared to give up Punjabi in order not to be
identified with the Sikh... and the Punjabi Muslim of Pakistan is
prepared to revive Punjabi in order NOT to be identified with other
Muslims' (107).
The linguistic reorganization of India, which aimed at bringing
together people speaking a common language, had two unwelcome
consequences: (a) It maximized the social distance between majority
and minority linguistic groups; and (b) it blocked social mobility for
members of linguistic minorities. There is evidence that the strong
relationship between linguistic identity and social mobility is at the
base of all language conflict (Lehiste 1988, Mohan [Bhatt] 1989).
Language conflict in India, manifested as shifts in language loyalties
and identities, supports this claim.
Mukherjee (1980), in her study of language maintenance and
language shift among Bengalis and Punjabis, two communities who
have come under similar pressures to modify their social and
linguistic behavior, reports that the Punjabi group shows linguistic
convergence with language shift, while the Bengali group shows
linguistic convergence with stable bilingualism (language
maintenance).
Among the Tamilians in Bangalore, Bayer (1986) has shown that,
for all of her three groups (Iyengars, Mudaliars, and Christians),
Bhatt: Language identity, conflict, and convergence in South Asia 27
spoken Tamil is the principal language of the home, whereas outside
of the home, they are shifting to Kannada in response to situational
and functional needs. However, as Bayer (ibid: 104) observes, the
three groups stand united 'on the subject of maintenance of Tamil
language as an important token in the maintenance of TAMIL IDENTITY
and solidarity.' The language behavior of Kannadigas in Delhi
(Satyanath 1982), and of Kashmiris in Kashmir (Mohan [Bhatt] 1983,
1989, Koul 1986) show the same correlation between language and
desired identity.' '
The discussion above points out the fact that the linguistic
organization of states did not take into account the problem of
another form of identity which derives from the migrant populations.
While a strong argument can be made for a common language as a
powerful unifier, the legislation of the use of such a language can be
perceived as an attack upon an otherwise well-formed identity. The
planned change from English to Hindi as national link-language after
India got its independence, was a proposed change in social
structure. Linguistic minorities saw in this change a threat to their
own well-established identity and, as a consequence, an opportunity
to assert their identities. The linguistic majorities on the other hand,
saw a threat to their relative socio-political position. '2
The consequences of language conflict were: the creation of
Hindi-speaking Haryana from Punjab and Telugu-speaking Andhra
Pradesh from Madras; the Maithali movement, with the dual purpose
of standardization and modernization of Maithali and the
development of a Maithali identity (Mishra 1979); the Konkani
movement, the Santali movement, and the Assam movement. All of
these instances of linguistic mobilization are responses to their
threatened linguistic solidarity and identity (Bhatt 1990).
The 'glottopolitics' in the Hindi area (Y. Kachru & Bhatia 1978)
describes very clearly the language rivalry and the emerging dialect
conflict. Bihar, for example, in the absence of any mass exodus of
Hindi speakers or an influx of a non-Hindi speaking population,
recorded a net loss of 54.4% of Hindi speakers during the 1951-61
decade (Khubachandani 1981). The mystery over the APPARENT loss
of Hindi speakers, as Khubchandani (1981:19) points out, is explained
by the phenomenal increases in the returns of the Bihari group of
languages (chiefly Bhojpuri, Maithali, and Maghai), from 112
thousands in 1951 to 16.4 millions in 1961. As Y. Kachru & Bhatia
(1978:55) point out, 'the various dialects of Hindi area are struggling
to preserve their identity'.
3.3 Linguistic neutralization of conflict
Centuries of language contact have resulted mainly in enriching
and expanding the verbal repertoire of the Indian speech
28 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
community. The linguistic varieties that developed under conditions
of language contact assumed important sociolinguistic functions, and,
at the same time, contributed to the understanding of the
phenomenon of linguistic convergence and the implications of its
manifested existence in a Sprachbund. Two such examples that
immediately come to mind are 'Urdu', a result of the interface of
KhaRiiBolii with Persian, and 'Indian English', a result of contact
between English and Indian languages.
In her definition of 'sociolinguistic area', D'souza insists on the
'convergence of languages belonging to different language families'.
Such a definition, however, is very limiting (as she herself
hesitatingly admits) since it not only excludes shared socio-cultural
and linguistic features of the Malay Archipelago (Lowenberg 1984)
where only languages of the Malay-Polynesian family are spoken,
but it also excludes the sociolinguistic description and development
of linguistic varieties that arise as a result of bilingual contact among
languages belonging to the same family.
The development of Malwi, as a result of the convergence of the
genetically related Gujarati and Rajasthani languages, has taken
almost the same sociolinguistic route as the development of
Saurashtri (Gujarati (Indo-Aryan and Tamil (Dravidian)) or perhaps
the Kupwar dialects (Urdu (Indo-Aryan), Marathi (Indo-Aryan),
Telugu (Dravidian) and Kannada (Dravidian)). The case of Halbi is
another illuminating example of confluence of languages
(Chattisgarhi, Oriya, and Marathi) belonging to the same family. The
study of bazaar varieties of Hindi, e.g. Bambaiyaa Hindi or Kalkatiyaa
Hindi or Naagpuri Maraathi also helps to capture important
generalizations about the sociolinguistic processes of languages in
contact (e.g., convergence vs. pidginization).
The nature of linguistic alliance in a sociolinguistic area is such
that it fosters stable multilingual identity. Pandit's (1972) example of
a Gujarati spice merchant settled in Bombay illustrates this point
well. The merchant speaks Gujarati with his family, Marathi in the
market, Hindi with his milkman, and Kachhi and Konkani in the
trading circles. It is not uncommon to find speakers of different
languages living in close proximity without any threat to language
loyalty or language maintenance. The study of Kupwar (Gumperz &
Wilson 1971) is the most striking account of language maintenance in
spite of centuries of stable multilingualism. Each of the four distinct
linguistic groups — Urdu-speaking Muslim landholders, Kannada-
speaking Jain landholders, Marathi-speaking Hindu laborers, and
Telugu-speaking Hindu rope makers — maintained its language as a
mark of its separate group identity.
Bhatt: Language identity, conflict, and convergence in South Asia 29
After Indian independence in 1947, the modernization of most
of the Indian languages began immediately through intensive
borrowing from Sanskrit. One consequence of such rapid
modernization was a virtual transformation of these languages into
new, independent, literary languages, differing in their own
particular ways from the corresponding spoken vernacular. The
intensification of the diglossic situation in Hindi mainly due to the
increased pace of Sanskritization (D'souza 1987, Y. Kachru 1987,
DasGupta 1970) is a case in point, significant especially in terms of its
sociolinguistic implications.
The division of language into literary (classical) and vernacular
(colloquial) forms, at the grammatical as well as lexical levels is
crucial in maintaining the traditional caste-related differences in
Indian languages. The use of aspiration, the passive, or the clausal
mode of relative clause formation in the H form of the Dravidian
languages (Sridhar 1975) not only demonstrates the differences in
education and social status but, more significantly, serves as the most
important exponent of BRAHMIN IDENTITY. In Tamil, to give another
example, the choice between lexical items, such as maccaan and
attimheer reveals CASTE IDENTITY (Annamalai 1978).
The language policy of classical revivalism, of the
Sanskritization of the Hindi vernacular for its development, and the
mandatory use of Hindi for all official purposes, had two important
sociolinguistic consequences. First, the policy of Sanskritization
resulted in a variety of Hindi which was far removed from everyday
usage and became almost incomprehensible to the common people.
Second, related to the first consequence, the standardization process
intensified and later stabilized the diglossic split between
literary/New (High) Hindi (e.g., saarvajanik duurhhaaSak 'public
telephone') and colloquial (Low) Hindi (e.g., pahlik Telifoun 'public
telephone'); — the two forms are neither structurally nor functionally
isomorphic. The New Hindi (NH), popularized in government
documents, newspapers, and radio and television broadcasts,
performs all the functions of a H-variety. At the same time, the
population continues to some degree to speak the colloquial Hindi
(CH) in informal domains and locales. Stabilizing diglossia, as a result
of the Sanskritization of the H form and its use only in formal
contexts, is one way of resolving language conflict.
In India, Sanskrit enjoyed the prestigious 'identification
function' among the educated during and beyond its contact with
Persian which in turn was the language of the court, administration,
and education during the Moghul period. After English displaced
Sanskrit for this important function, the Englishization of modern
Indian languages (B. Kachru 1975) followed mainly as a result of
widespread code-switching and mixing with English.
30 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
In a sociolinguistic area, code switching and mixing have
important sociolinguistic implications for the relationship between
language convergence and NEUTRALIZATION of linguistic identity.
Neutralization is a linguistic strategy used to neutralize language
conflict by the process of 'accommodation' (Giles & Johnson 1986):
Sometimes the process of neutralization leads to the development of
new identities. The process of partial reduplication is a result of code
switching between Hindi and Persian which results in the
neutralization of linguistic identities (see the examples below;
italicized items are Persian borrowings).
(#) tan-hadan 'body' naataa-r/^/ir^/a 'relationship'
dhan-daulat 'wealth' laaj-sharam 'deference'
dharam-imaan 'religion pyaar-mohabhat 'love'
Singh (1982:350) suggests that these forms may 'represent an effort
to forge a hybrid language from the uncomfortable opposition
between Hindi and Persian that made code-switching in India a
necessity'. The process of convergence, due mainly to structural
accomodation, eliminates language conflict and establishes a new
identity.
'Nativization' of English in non-native contexts has led to the
'outer circle' varieties of English, which reflect local identities. Thus,
notes Ogawa (1981), if the Japanese got rid of Japanese features in
English, they would lose their identity. In Malaysia and Singapore,
national identity is encouraged and reflected through the linguistic
characteristics of the English variety used there (Lowenberg 1985).
In Malaysia, Malaysians are proud of their own brand of English
(Wong 1981), while in Singapore, the Singaporeans want to sound
like Singaporeans, at least in the spoken variety of English. The
borrowings of certain lexical items from Malay, Lowenberg (1985)
argues, foregrounds national identity in these countries.
In a sociolinguistic area such as India, English serves the
neutrality function: it is not bound to any particular socio-cultural or
geographic group. The 1967 Official Language Amendment Act,
which made English the 'Associate' official language, saved the
country from the brink of dissolution.'-^ English was the accepted
compromise since it was not associated with any particular
ethnolinguistic group, its identity being perceived as neutral. It has
also been shown that code-mixing with English helps in the
neutralization of social, regional, or caste identity (Annamalai 1978,
Kachru 1986). Convergence, in terms of the nativization of English,
helps to resolve language conflict in a sociolinguistic area, largely
through strategies of neutralization.
Bhatt: Language identity, conflict, and convergence in South Asia 3 1
4. Conclusions
The past few years have seen global conflict in terms of
movements and uprisings which seem to have revolved around a
common theme: IDENTITY. In these few years the United States has
witnessed the rise of a powerful lobby that demands English must be
established as the national language, while in the Soviet Union, the
Baltic states have asserted their ethno-linguistic identity to claim
autonomy from the Union. Similar expressions of identity and
solidarity resulted, in part, in the destruction of communist ideology
in East Germany and the political upheavals in other Eastern Block
countries. The outcome was inevitable: the fall of the "Iron Curtain"
and the union of the two Germanics.
This paper focused on South Asia to study the nature of the
interaction of language contact and language identity; language
identity and language conflict; and language conflict and language
convergence. It was argued that (i) in multilingual societies
individuals create their linguistic systems in order to resemble those
groups with which from time to time they wish to IDENTIFY; and (ii)
multilingual and multicultural societies generally allow different
ethnic groups to explore the semantics of their hyphenated identities
— whether it be the Tamil-Iyengars in Karnataka, India (see Bayer
1986), or Greek- and Italian-Americans in Pittsburgh, USA (see Bhatt
1987). These arguments were premised on the assumptions that (a)
identity is a socially constructed phenomenon which arises out of
sociolinguistic interactions, and (b) identity is established and
maintained through language.
In sum, it is hoped that at a theoretical level at least, insights
from limited studies such as this one can be useful for a
sociolinguistic theory of 'interactional systematics' that will be able to
relate abstract concepts of social structure (e.g., identity) to
behaviorial facts (e.g., language use).
NOTES
1 The works of Emeneau (1956, 1969), Masica (1976), Andronov
(1964), and Kuiper (1967) are particularly significant for their
contribution to the understanding of South Asia as a LINGUISTIC area.
2 McNamara (1987) has discussed the iinportance of the notion
of a hierarchy of identities in multiethnic settings.
^ Language use also plays a crucial role in the process of
identification. In this paper, I assume that identity management is a
function of language choice and language use and attitude (see Giles
& Johnson 1987, Ryan & Giles 1982, Le Page & Tabouret-Keller 1985,
Bond 1983, Fishman et al. 1985, 1986, Kingsley & Kwok 1990). It is
32 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
through language use that individuals realize their identity (Gordon
1978) and see it mirrored in the responses of others.
'* For a discussion of some case studies from India, see
Annamalai 1979.
5 The data are generally taken from the 1981 Census, unless
otherwise mentioned.
6 North East Frontier Agency
"7 A discussion on language variation between men and women is
outside the scope of this paper. I do, however, regard gender identity
as separate from the individual view of self; it is the shared, socially
and culturally constrained identity of what it means to be a female
or a male.
8 A similar attitude is reflected in H. L. Mencken's choice for the
title of his book. The American Language.
^ Hindustani, spoken in the upper Gangetic Doab and in Eastern
Punjab, appeared at this juncture as the only linguistic bridge
between Persianised Urdu and Sanskritised Hindi.
'0 Compare Yugoslavia where we find Serbo-Croatian (Serbian-
written in Cyrillic script, and Croatian-written in Roman) expressing
a 'composite' identity of the nation.
11 One is reminded of the Irish situation here. Between 1851
and 1901 the Irish speakers dropped from 1,524,286 to 641,142, yet
in 1922 Irish was declared the national language of the Republic of
Ireland (Hindley 1990). The people value the part Irish plays as an
identifier of Ireland, but not enough to use the language in their
daily lives.
12 Joy (1972), McRae (1986), and Nelde (1987) discuss similar
consequences of language contact and conflict in multilingual
societies like Canada and Belgium.
13 We still see traces of the Orientalist vs. Anglicist conflict
which was resolved by Lord Macaulay's Minute, promulgated in
1835, making English the principal language of instruction (for more
details see B. Kachru 1986).
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Studies in the Linguistic Sciences
Volume 22, Number 1, Spring 1992
WHAT'S A NICE WORD LIKE YOU
DOING IN A PLACE LIKE THIS?
SYNTAX VS. PHONOLOGICAL FORM*
Hans Henrich Hock
A number of phenomena, including clitic pronoun and
particle placement (CPP) in various Indo-European langu-
ages and even finite verb accentuation in Vedic Sanskrit,
have been considered syntactic in one framework or anoth-
er. Some of these phenomena, e.g. Vedic verb accentuation,
can easily be shown to be matters of Phonological Form (PF).
For clitics etc., the situation is less simple. Some languages
(e.g. Modern Romance) no doubt require a syntactic ap-
proach. Doubts about the adequacy of such an approach
have been expressed for Serbo-Croatian in Inkelas & Zee
1988, Zee & Inkelas 1990, and Radanovic-Kocic 1988. I show
that CPP is sensitive to aspects of phonological phrasing not
only in Serbo-Croatian, but also in earlier Romance, Vedic
Sanskrit, and Pashto. (For Pashto I draw heavily on earlier
work by Tegey (1977), whose claims, however, were quite
different.) CPP must therefore be taken care of in PF even
though elements are 'moved' around within the clause.
Details of how PF can account for CPP still need to be
worked out, but an analogue can be found in Halle's mor-
phological account (1990, Forthcoming) for the surface re-
alignment of syntactic outputs like {have en + go} to have
gone. I conclude with a consideration of phenomena for
which a PF account is less certain, including the 'dummy es'
of German impersonal passives etc., for which a PF analysis
has been suggested by Hoeing 1991, without further elabor-
ation. I show that for German, the PF account is fruitful by
permitting a more plausible formulation of 'Topic deletion'.
0. Introduction
There is a common tendency among linguists, both traditional
and modern-theory oriented, to assume that if certain linguistic pro-
cesses or phenomena of broad application are sensitive to syntactic
information then they must be taken care of in the syntax or in a
closely related component (such as the Logical Form of the Principles
& Parameters approach). In the Indo-European languages, numerous
40 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
phenomena of this type have been, and continue to be, claimed to be
syntactic.
Some of these are considered syntactic only in more traditional
approaches. This is true for Vedic Sanskrit finite verb accentuation,
which appears to be sensitive to the syntactic distinction between
main and dependent clauses, and for another 'suprasegmental' phe-
nomenon in Vedic, traditionally referred to as 'pluti'.
Other phenomena are almost universally considered syntactic,
such as the placement of clitic pronouns and particles (CPP), in some
languages also of accented pronouns and particles, into the second
position of the clause — the so-called Wackernagel's-Law or P2 (=
'Position 2') phenomenon. With various modifications, this position
has been argued for instance in Kaisse 1980, 1982, 1985, Pullum &
Zwicky 1988, Zwicky 1977, 1985, and recently Nevis 1986, 1990a,b.
The arguments of the latter, based on data from a variety of Uralic
languages, are especially strong in favor of a syntactic approach to
CPP.
Instead of providing a detailed critique of the arguments and
evidence of these 'syntactic' approaches to CPP, I will accept the view
— uncontroversial in my view for the modern Romance languages,
modern Greek, Albanian, and Macedonian — that CPP is a matter of
syntax in some languages. From this, however, it does not follow (as
Nevis seems to assume) that it is a syntactic phenomenon in ALL
languages. In fact, for at least one language, Serbo-Croatian, Rada-
novic-Kocic 1988 and Inkelas & Zee 1988, Zee & Inkelas 1990 have
provided apparently independent arguments that clitic placement
must be accounted for in the prosodic component of the grammar, i.e.
in Phonological Form. These arguments are further examined in §4.2
and §5 below.
This paper offers a broader examination of the issue and pro-
vides strong evidence that CPP and a number of other phenomena
that are commonly considered syntactic should in fact be accounted
for in Phonological Form (PF).i
1 begin with an examination of more clearly phonological pheno-
mena such as Vedic finite verb accentuation for which a PF account is
relatively uncontroversial, given the clearly phonological nature of
accentuation. I then discuss the P2 placement of clitics and similar
elements for which a PF account requires more justification, since we
are dealing with 'movement' phenomena which appear to belong in
the syntax. I conclude with a brief discussion of phenomena such as
the 'dummy-^.v' of Modern German impersonal passives. Even though
a PF account for these phenomena is quite speculative, I show that
the account is fruitful for German, by permitting a more plausible
formulation of 'Topic deletion'.
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 4 1
1. Vedic finite verb accentuation
Vedic Sanskrit finite verb accentuation has traditionally been
considered syntactic because it appears to be systematically con-
trolled by syntactic information: Finite verbs are said to be accented
in dependent clauses (DCs) but (generally) unaccented in main
clauses (MCs), unless initial. Compare (1), where (la) illustrates the
accent difference between MC and DC, and (lb) demonstrates initial
main-clause accentuation of the verb.
(1) a. [tasmai visah svayam eva namante]MC
V
[yasmin brahma purva eti]DC (R^ 4.50.8)
V
'Even the common people bow to him for whom the
brahmin goes first.'
b. [syama _ id indrasya sarmani]MC (R^ 1.4.6c)
V
'May we be under Indra's protection.'
Approaches that subscribe to the autonomy-of-syntax hypo-
thesis may consider it surprising that verb accentuation should ever
be considered syntactic. However, this is the general view of tradi-
tional scholars. Compare e.g. Delbriick 1888:36-44, 473-476, Speijer
1896:77-78, 79-80, 90, Hettrich 1988:passim, and Klein In Press.
The reasoning behind this treatment is the following: The dis-
tinction in finite verb accentuation is conditioned by syntactic factors
(MC vs. DC), is said to be absolutely regular, and is therefore con-
sidered a syntactic marker, on a par with subordinating conjunctions
for which a syntactic account is uncontroversial.
Nevertheless, differential verb accentuation clearly is a phono-
logical phenomenon. Moreover, as widely recognized since Delbriick
(1888:37-43) and Oldenberg (1906), Vedic non-initial verb accentu-
ation is not limited to uncontroversially syntactic contexts. For
instance, finite verbs are accented in the first clause of coordinated
structures of the type (2), nearly regularly so if both of the coordin-
ated clauses contain the conjunctive particle ca 'and'.
(2) para ca yanti punar a ca yanti (RV 1.123.12)
& V [-t-acct] & V [-acct]
'They both go away and return again.'
Similarly, non-initial finite verbs frequently are accented in the
first of two antithetically related clauses, each containing anya- 'one;
other'; cf. (3). However, as (4) shows, similar antithetical structures
fail to exhibit this accentuation.
42 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
(3) a _ anyah krosati pra _ anyah sarhsati
V [+acct] V [-acct]
(TS 7.5.9.3)
'One curses, the other one praises.'
(4) somarh anya upa _ asadat ... karambham anya icchati
V[-acct] V [-acct]
(RV 6.57.2)
'One has sat down to soma, ... the other wants gruel.'
Hettrich (1988 with references to earlier similar views) tries to
account for all structures of the type (1) - (3), as well as similar, less
wide-spread types of constructions, as involving subordination: The
clause with the accented verb is claimed to be subordinate to the
other clause in that it is not complete without the latter.
While this account works well for MC-DC structures of the type
(1), it is less easy to see its relevance for structures like (2) and (3).
True, it can be argued that because of its ca 'and', the first clause of
(2) is not an independent proposition but requires the second to
complete it. But the same argument applies to the second clause,
which likewise contains ca and needs the FIRST to complete it. But as
noted, only the first clause contains an accented finite verb.
Similar arguments apply to structures like (3). Moreover, once
we compare (3) and (4) — both antithetical and containing anya- 'one;
other', but only one with accented finite verb — it becomes clear that
finite verb accentuation can be accounted for in terms of subordina-
tion only at the cost of circularity.
Finally, as even Hettrich admits, passages of the type (5), with
accented verb in a uniclausal MC structure, cause considerable
difficulties for the view that non-initial verb accentuation always is a
sign of subordination. 2
(5) hanta na eko vettu (yadi hato va vrtro jivati va)
V [-t-acct]
(SB 4.1.3.2)
'Come on, let one of us know = find out (whether Vrtra
is slain or lives).'
As I have noted elsewhere (Hock 1989, 1990), it appears, then,
that verbal accentuation is not an unambiguous signal of syntactic
subordination, or of anything truly syntactic. The only thing shared
by coordinate passages like (2) and (3) and DC-MC structures of the
type (la) is a fairly vague PRAGMATIC feature of 'special connec-
tedness' between the respective clauses. (For similar conclusions see
Gonda 1971:141 and Klein In Press.)
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 4 3
More than that, Klein (In Press) shows that in the poetic text of
the Rig-Veda, accentuation of non-initial verbs in MCs is highly con-
strained by considerations of poetic structure, especially of caesuras
and similar aspects of poetic prosody, i.e. PHONOLOGICAL factors. Klein
concludes that MC verb accentuation is a matter of 'parole', while (by
implication) DC verb accentuation is a matter of 'langue' and thus,
presumably, still a syntactic phenomenon.
I would go farther than that and claim that ALL aspects of verb
accentuation belong in the phonology, not the syntax.
First, Klein's approach would have to postulate essentially the
same phonological rule twice, both in the syntax and in the phono-
logy. An approach which avoids this violation of Occam's Razor would
seem preferable.
Secondly, by its very nature, verb accentuation is a phonological
phenomenon. In fact, the traditional account, distinguishing between
'accenting' and 'non-accenting' contexts, is misleading. It suggests
that verbs are inherently unaccented and that there is a conditioned
accent placement or INSERTION in 'accenting contexts'.
Now, such an account may be conect as regards the accentuation
of vocatives, which like finite verbs are accented in initial position,
but unaccented elsewhere. Here, the accent always falls on the
INITIAL syllable, irrespective of where it occurs underlyingly.^ It is
therefore possible to argue for a rule of accent INSERTION.'* In finite
verbs, by contrast, accentuation is not restricted to a particular syl-
lable. Rather, in 'accenting' contexts, verbs surface with the same
accent that they have UNDERLYINGLY.-'' The difference between ac-
cented and unaccented finite verbs, thus, involves the DELETION of
underlying accent in 'non-accenting' contexts. Put differently, finite
verb accentuation cannot be attributed to accent insertion and thus
cannot be considered similar to the insertion of syntactic markers
such as relative pronouns.
Finally, while in cases like (1) accentuation appears to be sen-
sitive to syntactic distinctions, it is not at all clear that this distinction
actually involves syntactic subordination (cf. Hock 1989). Moreover,
in structures like (2) - (5) accentuation is clearly sensitive to NON-
SYNTACTIC considerations, including PRAGMATIC ones ('special connect-
edness') and purely PHONOLOGICAL ones (poetic phrasing).
In this regard, an additional element, well-known in traditional
Sanskritist accounts, takes on special significance: Finite MC verbs are
accented not only if they are clause-initial (as in (lb)), but also when
they occur at the beginning of a poetic run-on line; cf. (6). Poetic line
structure, however, being sensitive to notions such as syllable weight
and syllable count, can and should not be accounted for in the syntax,
44 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
but must be a matter of PROSODIC STRUCTURE. Even the accentuation of
'initial' finite verbs, thus, must be phonological, not syntactic. ^
(6) surijpakrtnum utaye sudugham iva godiihe I
juhumasi dyavi-dyavi (RV 1.4.1)
V [+acct]
'Day by day we invoke the one assuming a beautiful shape
for help, just as (we invoke) the good milch cow for the
milker.'
There is only one grammatical component in which ALL of the
factors — syntactic, pragmatic, and phonological — controlling finite
verb accentuation can play a role. This is the phonological compon-
ent. True, 'orthodox' transformational syntax holds that Logical Form,
presumably the component relevant for pragmatic considerations,
cannot 'talk' directly to PF but must be linked to it through the syn-
tax. However, Woodbury (1987) has demonstrated that this assump-
tion cannot be maintained. Note further the increasing literature on
the relation between semantics and prosodic phonology; cf. Selkirk
1984, Nespor & Vogel 1986, Vogel & Kenesei 1987 and 1990. See
also Hock In Press b on the similar relationship between pragmatics,
syntax, and morphology as regards Sanskrit agreement.
2. Vedic 'pluti'
A similar phenomenon in Vedic Sanskrit is the so-called PLUTL a
trimoric pronunciation (indicated by the numeral 3, generally of the
final vowels of clause-final words, often with an extra accent on the
pluti vowel, in some case also with nasalization of the vowel (marked
by m)\ cf. e.g. (7).
(7) [adhah svid asi3d] [upari svid asT3t] (RV 10.129.5)
V V
'Was there an above, was there a below?'
Now, trimoric pronunciation, extra accentuation, and nasalization
all clearly are PHONOLOGICAL phenomena. But like initial finite verb
accentuation, pluti has been considered a syntactic phenomenon in
much of traditional literature; cf. e.g. Delbriick 1888:551-553, Speijer
1896:78-79, Strunk 1983 passim. And again, the reason for such an
analysis is that pluti can be argued to have been completely regular
in at least one syntactic context, viz. 'disjunctive questions' of the
type (7). Pluti has therefore been compared in function to question
particles which are routinely assumed to be introduced in the syntax,
cf. e.g. Skt. kirn in (8).
(8) kim ad utasi ... manyumattamah (RV 4.30.7)
Q.
'And aren't you also the fiercest ...?'
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 4 5
Strunk (1983) further argues that the use of pluti was a regular
feature of clause-final words in ordinary yes-no questions as well, as
in (9). And he plausibly compares pluti to the rising intonation in
yes-no questions of many other languages (including English).
(9) (a)ver apo (a)dhvarya3u (AB 2.20.10)
'Have you seen the waters, Adhvaryu?'
However, pluti is also found outside questions, especially with
vocatives and imperatives, contexts for which a syntactic account is
rejected even by Strunk. In addition, it occurs in 'topic structures' of
the type (10). Significantly, as shown by example (11), from the
same text as (10), topic structures of this type do not exhibit pluti
with complete regularity.
(10) tarn yan nabhayantT3m I srathayanty evainarh tat
RP V
(AB 6.24.2)
'In that they tear it up, thereby they loosen it.'
(11) sa yat prathamarh sad valakhilyanarh sijktani viharati
RP ■ ■ V
pranarh ca tad vacam ca viharati (AB 6.24.10)
'In that he inverts the six verses of the valakhilyas for
the first time thereby he reverses breath and speech.'
A closer comparison of (10) and (11) yields another difference,
beside the presence or absence of pluti: In (10), the pluti-marked
clause-final verb of the topic structure, nabhayanti3m, is followed by
a 'danda' (I), while its non-pluti-marked counterpart in (11), viharati,
is not. Now, the danda ordinarily marks major breaks in discourse
(quite often beyond the sentence level); and these breaks can be
expected to coincide with major breaks in phonological phrasing. (In
addition, it marks line breaks in poetry.) Its presence in (10) sug-
gests that the topic structure in this example is followed by a more
noticeable break in phonological phrasing than the one in (11).
If we accept Strunk's plausible explanation of clause-final pluti
in yes-no questions as comparable to the rising intonation of other
languages, we can account for the difference between (10) and (11)
along similar, 'intonational' lines: (10) apparently was phrased with a
major intonational break after the topic structure and, just as in lan-
guages like English, that break was accompanied by a rise in intona-
tion. The passage in (11), on the other hand, appears to have been
uttered without such a break and, thus, without any rise in in-
tonation. Compare the English counterparts in (10') and (11'), where
T indicates rising intonation.
(10') In that they tear it up T, thereby they loosen it.
46 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
(ID In that he inverts the six verses of the valakhilyas for
the first time thereby he reverses breath and speech.
Significantly, the two structures in (10) and (11) are syntactic-
ally alike: In both of them, an adverbial relative clause functioning as
a topic structure is followed by a main clause. Syntax, thus, will not
account for the presence or absence of pluti. Rather, pluti is con-
nected with rising intonation at certain breaks in PHONOLOGICAL
PHRASING. This is not to say that intonational phenomena are entirely
without syntactic motivation. For instance, rising intonation is a
cross-linguistic tendency in yes-no questions and, within sentences,
breaks with rising intonation are more likely to occur at clause boun-
daries than within clauses. But the evidence of fully observable
languages such as English suggests that other factors play a role, too,
such as rate of speech, as well as pragmatic considerations such as
emphasis. (For recent work on prosodic structure and its indirect
relation to syntax see especially Selkirk 1984 and Nespor & Vogel
1986, as well as many of the contributions to Inkelas & Zee 1990.)
As in the case of initial verb accentuation, therefore, pluti cannot
be accounted for purely in terms of syntax, but must be accounted
for in a component of the grammar in which the various — syntactic,
pragmatic, and prosodic — types of information conditioning pluti are
available, viz. in PF.
3. Vedic 'Initial Strings'
As noted earlier, scholars subscribing to the 'autonomy-of-syn-
tax' hypothesis would have no difficulties in accepting that accentu-
ation, trimoricity (etc.) should be accounted for in PF, even if there
may be a certain degree of syntactic conditioning. In fact, similar
phenomena of phonological processes with various degrees of
syntactic sensitivity have been observed in many other, non-Indo-
European languages, especially in the Bantu family; cf. e.g. Kisseberth
& Abasheikh 1974, Downing 1988, Kamwangamalu 1988, Bickmore
1990, Kanerva 1990, Kenstowicz & Kisseberth 1990, Kidima 1990,
McHugh 1990, Odden 1990a, b. The only issue on which there is some
disagreement is whether the phenomena are better accounted for in
a pre-syntactic or post-syntactic component of the grammar; cf.
especially Hayes 1990 vs. Odden 1990b. This issue is taken up again
in §4.3 below.
In this and the following sections I argue that even the place-
ment of clitic pronouns and particles (and syntactically similar ac-
cented particles) within the clause must in certain languages be ac-
counted for, not in the syntax, but in PF. This claim clearly is more
controversial and requires strong evidence to support it. I believe
that a number of Indo-European languages that I am familiar with,
or for which I have what I consider to be reliable data, do provide
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 4 7
that kind of evidence. No doubt, similar evidence can be found in
numerous non-Indo-European languages; but data for these are not
as easily accessible to me.
Let me begin the discussion with evidence from the language
covered in the preceding two sections, Vedic Sanskrit.
Ever since Wackernagel's pioneering study of 1892, it has been
known that in the early Indo-European languages, clitic particles and
pronouns, as well as accented, presumably non-clitic particles, 'tend-
ed' to be placed in clause-second position (P2). Drawing on Wacker-
nagel's data and arguments, as well as those of other Indo-Euro-
panists, I have shown (Hock 1982b) that if there is a multiple 'move-
ment' of such clitics and particles to clause-second position, they
stack up in a fixed order within 'INITIAL STRINGS'. The most up-to-
date version of the template for these strings is given in (12) below. ^^
Selected examples are presented in (13), with elements placed into
the string marked in boldface. Generally, only a subset of the slots
within the string is occupied; cf. (13a-c). But (13d) gives an example
with every position filled. Note that a limited amount of 'doubling up'
is possible within positions 2 - 5 and that the order of elements
doubling up within a given slot is not as strictly fixed as the basic
slot order. Further, in the totality of the Vedic language, placement of
clitics, particles, and other elements into the initial string, although
quite common, is optional. (Vedic-Prose texts, however, vastly prefer
initial-string placement.) In the early poetic language, members of
the class D of 'accented pronouns' (demonstrative tad, etdd, relative
ydd, and interrogative kirn) may occur in position 3. Finally, in my
1982b paper, I argued that under certain conditions verbs could be
placed into the same non-initial position as accented pronouns.
(12) Vedic 'Initial Strings'
(NEXUS) 12 3 4 5
atho X/D P P E D
Where: NEXUS = sentence connector
P = unaccented particle
P = accented particle
E = clitic pronoun
D = accented pronoun {tad, etdd, ydd, kirn)
X = other accented initial element (^^ P or D )
(13) a. pra ha va enam pasavo visanti (MS 1.8.2)
(X P P E ...)
'The cattle go to him.'
b. si'ro va etad yajfiasya yad purodasah (MS 1.4.8)
(X P D ...)
"This is the head of the sacrifice, viz. the sacrificial cake.'
48 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
c. dvisantarh ha _ asya tat bhratrvyam
(X ' P E D ...)
abhyatiricyate (SB 1.9.1.18)
'That remains for his hateful enemy.'
d. daivTrh ca vava _ asma etad visarh
(X P _P E D ...)
manusirh ca _ anuvartmanau karoti (MS 3.3.10)
'He then makes both the divine tribe and the human
one subserviant to him.'
Although Hale (1987) attempts to account for the Vedic P2 phe-
nomena in syntactic terms, several facts argue for a PF analysis.
First, as Schaufele (1991b) demonstrates, attempts to account for
P2 in the syntax run into considerable difficulties. These difficulties,
to be sure, could be overcome in a transformational approach by a
proliferation of left-peripheral 'landing sites', such as COMP, INFL, AGR,
or the corresponding SPEC positions, combined, if necessary, with ad-
ditional adjunction sites.
However, even if a syntactic approach can be found to place un-
accented particles, accented particles, clitic pronouns, and accented
pronouns into initial strings AND in that order, this enterprise would
fail to EXPLAIN the ordering of elements. A phonological account, by
contrast, would provide such an explanation: Potentially, i.e., if both
unaccented and accented particles, as well as clitic and accented pro-
nouns are present, they are stacked up in a pattern of alternating ac-
centuation (X/D P P E D), a common target of phonological accentua-
tion rules.
Now, the syntactic account could be maintained and be made ex-
planatory, if all clitics, particles, etc. moved into a SINGLE designated
landing site and if their RELATIVE ORDERING were subsequently deter-
mined in PF, in terms of the phonological accent information avail-
able in that component of the grammar. But in that case, part of the
ordering of P2 elements is accounted for, not in the syntax, but in PF.
Another, even more clearly syntactic alternative would let the
syntax generate particles and pronouns freely, or in a single adjunc-
tion site (as above), and postulate a syntactic 'surface filter' along the
lines of Perlmutter (1971) or Maling & Zaenen (1981)^ which would
disallow sequences not in conformity with the template in (12). (See
Vogel & Kenesei (1990:348) for a similar analysis of Modern Hebrew
data first presented in Hetzron 1972.) Such an account has been pro-
posed in Schaufele 1991 (written in 1987), but withdrawn in Schau-
fele 1990. To the extent that the frequently voiced misgivings about
the excessive powers of filters (cf. e.g. Maling & Zaenen 1981) can be
overcome, this approach would accomplish the same thing as the
phonological account argued for above. However, like the purely syn-
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 4 9
tactic account rejected earlier, it would suffer from being entirely ad
hoc and failing to EXPLAIN the ordering of the elements. (See below
for a possible PF variant of this approach.)
Finally, and most devastating for any purely syntactic approach,
while Vedic P2 elements generally stack up after the first element of
the clause (cf. (13) above), in metrical poetry, they may be placed
after the first element of a 'run-on' line, rather than of the clause; cf.
(14a) below (with P2 elements highlighted). ^ That is, just like finite
verb accentuation in MCs, the placement of particles may be sensi-
tive to the purely phonological criterion of POETIC PHRASING. There
are, moreover, examples of P2 elements occurring both after the first
element of the clause and after the first word of its 'run-on' continu-
ation; cf. (14b). (In contrast, run-on lines with accented or unaccent-
ed particles in initial position are ungrammatical.) That is, a clause
may simultaneously exhibit P2 that is 'syntactically' motivated (in
terms of clause boundaries) and phonologically (in terms of phono-
logical phrasing).
(14) a. yasya gavav arusa suyavasyu I
whose bulls ruddy used to good pasture
antar u sii carato rerihana
inside P P 'well' go licking
(RV 6.27. 7a/b)
'Whose two ruddy bulls, used to good pasture, go well
inside licking (one another) ...'
b. usann u s u nah sumana upake I
wishing P P 'well' E in good spirits at
somasya nii siisutasya svadhavah I pa...
soma P 'now' well-pressed self-willed drink
(RV 4.20.4)
'Wishing (it), well in good spirits now at our well-
pressed soma, O self-willed one, drink ...'
A syntactic account for structures of this type would seem to be
possible only by abandoning the autonomy-of-syntax hypothesis and
by accepting syntactic processes that are sensitive to purely phono-
logical considerations.
True, there is one alternative left to those who are unwilling to
concede that P2 cannot be accounted for in a phonology-free syntax.
This is the claim that the syntax generates clitics and particles freely
in ANY position within the clause and that PF eventually 'weeds out'
those structures that are not in accordance with its requirements,
including phonological phrasing. (Compare the very similar argument
discussed in §4.2 below.) However, this approach is tantamount to
saying that syntax has nothing interesting to say on the nature of
5 0 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
Vedic P2. It is therefore legitimate to ask why we should accept the
argument that P2 is a matter of syntax.
A phonological account, by contrast, has no difficulty with struc-
tures of the type (14), since syntactic information (clause breaks etc.)
and phonological/prosodic information (line breaks) are both avail-
able in PF. Moreover, as noted earlier, a phonological account can
explain the internal structure of the initial strings, whereas a purely
syntactic approach can at best provide an ad-hoc account.
4. P2 placement in other Indo-European languages
4.1. Early Romance clitics
The general principle of modern Romance clitic placement is that
it is 'verb-oriented': Clitics directly follow imperatives and non-finite
verbs, they directly precede the verb elsewhere. While the be-
ginnings of this system appear fairly early, the oldest Romance sys-
tem is of a different nature. Ignoring 'small clauses' with non-finite
verbs, clitics generally follow any INITIAL verb — no matter what its
modality — and precede the verb elsewhere — again, without regard
to modality. Compare (15a) vs. (15b), where (15a) illustrates clitic
placement after a non-imperative initial verb and (15b) before a
non-initial imperative. In addition, structures occur with clitics fol-
lowing an initial NON-verbal constituent and separated from the verb
by intervening material; cf. e.g. (15c). Ramsden (1963:134-158) re-
fers to the latter pattern as 'interpolation' and considers it an in-
novation. However, it is much more likely to preserve an older P2
pattern, from which the 'verb-based' system of general early Ro-
mance and the modern Romance languages developed through re-
bracketing; cL Pearce 1984, 1990.10
(15) a. gradan- se Rrachel e Vidas con averes monedados
V clit. subj.
(El Cid 172; Old Spanish)
'Rachel and Vidas were pleased (for) themselves with
the money-rich treasures.'
fait li le coer (Roland 2019; Old French)
V clit. subject
'(His) heart fails him.'
b. apriessavos guarnid (El Cid 986; Old Spanish)
quickly clit. V
'Prepare yourselves quickly.'
ore ne vus esmaiez (Roland 27; Old French)
now clit. clit. V
'Now do not frighten yourself.'
c. si les yo visquier (El Cid 825; Old Spanish)
if clit. subj. V
'If I should survive for them ..."
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 5 1
What is significant for present purposes is that in the early Ro-
mance system, 'initial' position of the verb cannot be exclusively de-
fined in syntactic terms (as clause- or sentence-initial), but just as in
Vedic Sanskrit, often must be defined PROSODICALLY, in terms of line-
initial environment or the position after the caesura. Compare the
examples in (16a) and (16b), as well as Ramsden (1963:passim) who
correctly characterizes clitic placement as a 'rhythmic' phenomenon.
(In (16), line breaks are marked by I, caesuras, by :. Note that post-
verbal clitic placement which is not clause-initial occurs more fre-
quently after caesura, presumably because line breaks more com-
monly coincide with sentence or clause boundaries. At the same time,
the position after the caesura, being phonologically less well defined,
exhibits frequent forerunners of the later Romance pattern, in which
clitics are placed before non-clause-initial or non-imperative verbs,
even if they occur line-initially or after caesura.)
(16) a. Martin Antolinez : el burgales conplido I
a Mio Cid e los suyos : abasta les de pan e de vino I
V clit.
(El Cid 65-66)
'Martin Antolinez, the Honorable of Burgos, fully gave
bread and wine to My Cid and his (people).'
b. Con la merced de Dios : e de Sancta Maria madre I
crece- m el coragon : porque estades delant
V clit.
(El Cid 1654-55)
"With the grace of God and of St. Mary, his mother, (my)
heart grows on me, since you are here.'
As in Vedic Sanskrit, therefore, P2 (or post-verbal) clitic place-
ment in early Romance must be accounted for in PF, not in the syn-
tax.i 1
4,2. Serbo-Croatian clitics
Serbo-Croatian is similar to Vedic Sanskrit in that it has fairly
elaborate initial strings. But it saliently differs from Vedic in that the
words following the initial element are all clitic. Moreover, in modern
Serbo-Croatian, there are severe restrictions on 'doubling up' in the
positions or slots of the string. Following Radanovic-Kocic (1988), the
template accounting for the ordering within the strings can be stated
as in (17).
(17) Serbo-Croatian initial strings:
X li Aux/Copula D A/G se je
where: X = a constituent or part thereof, or a
subordinating conjunction
li = the yes/no question particle
5 2 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
Aux/Cop. = An auxiliary or the copula, except
je, which appears in the last position
D = a dative pronominal clitic
A/G = an accusative/genitive pronominal
clitic, except reflexive se which
appears in penult position
se = the 'reflexive' clitic
je = third person singular present of the
verb 'to be'
As in many other languages with P2 clitics,^ ^ there are certain
complications regarding the definition of 'first element'. The exam-
ples in (18) show that if the initial constituent consists of more than
one word, it is possible to place the clitics either after the first word
of that constituent or after the entire constituent. According to Rada-
novic-Kocic (1988), the variant (18a), with clitics after the first word,
now tends to be limited to subject constituents, is more common in
Croatian, but is becoming obsolescent in all of Serbo-Croatian. Al-
though under some conditions, clitic placement may be preferred
after an EMPHASIZED element of the first constitutent (cf. (19a,b)), it is
not ungrammatical to place the clitic differently (cf. (19c,d)). That is,
the difference in clitic placement cannot be attributed to pragmatic
factors or to contrastive accent placement. Radanovic-Kocic is prob-
ably correct in considering the pattern with clitic placement after the
first word an archaism.
(18) a. Moj je brat dosao
my AUX brother come
'My brother has come.'
b. Moj brat Je dosao
(19) a. Moj je brat dosao, ne tvoj
neg. your
'My brother has come, not YOURS.'
b. Moj BRAT je dosao, ne sestra
sister
'My BROTHER has come, not (my) SISTER.'
c. Moj brat je dosao, ne tvoj
'My brother has come, not YOURS.'
d. Moj je BRAT dosao, ne sestra
'My BROTHER has come, not (my) SISTER.'
In other contexts, accentuation does seem to play a conditioning
role in clitic placement. As noted in Inkelas & Zee 1988 and Zee &
Inkelas 1990, the coordinating conjunctions ali and pa cannot host
clitics if they appear in their usual unaccented form; cf. (20a). If they
are accented, they can; cf. (20b).
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 5 3
(20) a. Mi smo zvonili
We Aux ring
all niko nam nije otvorio
but no one clit. neg. open
'We rang, but nobody opened the door for us."
b. Mi smo zvonili
We Aux ring
ALI nam niko nije otvorio
but clit. no one neg. open
'We rang, BUT nobody opened the door for us.'
Zee and Inkelas (1990:368) argue that under a syntactic ap-
proach, this difference in clitic placement can only be accounted for
by introducing an [ad hoc] diacritic marking for accented ali and pa.
'But under a prosodic account, we can capture all of the clitic facts
with one simple statement: clitics follow a phonological [i.e. accent-
bearing] word.'
The first part of this conclusion has been questioned by Vogel
and Kenesei (1990:348-351) who would let the syntax freely gen-
erate clitics 'in (almost) any position' or, in the present case perhaps,
after the first or second element, ^^ and then permit the phonology to
eliminate those structures which violate the condition that clitics be
preceded by a phonological word. Just as the alternative, syntactic
approaches to Vedic Sanskrit P2, this approach manages to 'account'
for the facts by means of a syntactic solution, but that solution lacks
any explanatory power.
Like Vedic and early Romance, Serbo-Croatian presents addi-
tional evidence in favor of a phonological account, in the fact that
clitic placement is sensitive to phonological phrasing. Although there
are minor differences of detail, the apparently independent accounts
in Radanovic-Kocic 1988 and Inkelas & Zee 1988, Zee & Inkelas 1990
agree in observing that the Serbo-Croatian clitics often do not stack
up after the first word or constituent of the clause, but after the
second, as in (21). (Examples are from Radanovic-Kocic 1988.)
(21) a. svoje probleme i dileme I lingvistika ce resavati
its problems and dilemmas linguistics Aux solve
'Linguistics will solve its problems and dilemmas ..."
b. * svoje probleme i dileme ce lingvistika resavati
c. Za svecanu priliku I BBC j e odbacio dvosmislenost
On special occasion BBC Aux. give up double talk
'On a special occasion, the BBC has given up its (usual)
double talk.'
d. ?? Za svecanu priliku je BBC odbacio dvosmislenost
e. Sapiru I jezik je instrumenat ...
Sapir language Cop. instrument
'For Sapir, language is an instrument ...'
5 4 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
f. Sapiru je jezik instrumenat ...
'For Sapir language is an instrument ..."
Both Radanovic-Kocic and Inkelas & Zee further agree that the
'heaviness', 'complexity', or 'length' of the first constituent plays a
role in what may be called delayed clitic placement, after the second
constituent. Inkelas & Zee, in fact, claim that the 'heaviness' (etc.) of
the first element is the crucial criterion for delayed clitic placement.
If we limit ourselves to evidence of the type (21a-b), this is
indeed a possible analysis. However, in (2Ic-d), heaviness of the first
constituent does not completely rule out 'early' clitic placement. And
(21e-f) show variation between early and delayed placement even
after single-word initial constituents.
As Radanovic-Kocic observes, what is really relevant is phono-
logical phrasing: If there is a break in phonological phrasing after the
first constituent (marked by I in the above examples), then clitic
placement is delayed; otherwise, early placement occurs. And while
'heavy' initial constituents are more likely to be followed by a pro-
sodic break, there is no direct correlation between heaviness and
prosodic break. Rephrasing Radanovic-Kocic's formulation (1988:134)
we can thus, for the time being (but see §5.1.3 and §6 below), state
the productive rule for Serbo-Croatian clitic placement as in (22).
(This rule, then, must be supplemented by the template in (17) to
account for the relative ordering of the clitic elements. )!"*
(22) Serbo-Croatian clitic placement rule:
Place all [+ clitic] elements into the position after the
first constituent that forms a prosodic phrase with the
rest of the clause.
Serbo-Croatian, thus, can be added to the languages presenting
uncontroversial evidence that clitic (etc.) placement must be account-
ed for in PF, after the rules responsible for prosodic phrasing have
applied.
4.3. Pashto clitics
Although intended to show that accent and morphological struc-
ture are relevant for the syntactic rule of clitic placement, Tegey's
early and pioneering dissertation (1977) offers additional ample ev-
idence that Pashto clitic placement must be accounted for in PF, un-
less we are willing to abandon the autonomy-of-syntax hypothesis.
Similar to Serbo-Croatian, Pashto permits extensive and quite
complex strings of clitic pronouns, modals, and sentential particles,
placed after a 'first element' in the clause. Following Tegey, the tem-
plate accounting for the relative ordering of clitics can be formulated
as in (23). Significantly, most of the positions in the template are de-
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 5 5
fined in terms of PHONOLOGICAL SHAPE, not grammatical function: As
Tegey observes, with the exception of positions 4 and 5, no sequen-
ces of phonologically identical clitics are permitted, cf. e.g. (24a) and
(25a). Note that (24b) and (25b) show that there is no syntactic or
functional constraint against the clitic sequence in the a. -versions of
(24) and (25). While in (25), the prohibited sequence is avoided by
using a non-clitic form of the second person singular pronoun, in (24)
it is avoided by 'deleting' one of the two occurrences of me; cf. (24c).
Even for the one permitted sequence of phonologically identical
clitics, viz. 4-1-5, his dialect prefers structures of the type (26a), with
non-identical phonological shape, to the identical clitics of type (26b).
The internal structure of Pashto initial strings thus crucially needs to
refer to PHONOLOGICAL information, not just to the syntax.
(23) Pashto initial strings
X xo ba amamsg. 1 de 3rd pers. no
mo
12 3 456 78 9
where: X = a constituent or part thereof
xo = particle ('indeed, really, of course')
ba = modal ('will, might, must, should,
may')
am = first and second plural clitic
mo = first and second plural clitic
sg. 1 = first singular clitic m e
de = modal ('should, had better, let') AND
second singular clitic
3rd pers. = third person clitic ye
no = particle ('then')
(24) a. *wror m e m e wahi
brother m y me beat
'My brother beats me.'
b. wror ni e d e wahi
brother my you beat
'My brother beats you.'
c. wror m e wahi
'(My) brother beats me. '/'My brother beats (me).'
(25) a.
*tor d e
de
wuwahi
Tor mod.
sg.2
clit.
hit
'Tor should hit
you.'
tor d e
to
wuwahi
Tor mod.
sg.2
hit
non-
clit.
'Tor should hit
you.'
56 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
(26) a. kitob a in mo rowora
book our we bought
'We bought our book.'
b. kitob am am rowora
book our we bought
'We bought our book.'
As Tegey shows, phonological considerations also play a role as
regards a reordering process within the initial string: Although or-
dinarily the third person clitic ye occurs in a very 'late' position
within the string, it may switch to initial position, IF it then can be
incorporated into the syllabic structure of the host by an indepen-
dently required process. Note that if switched in this manner, the
clitic MUST be incorporated; structures with ye switched but not
incorporated are ungrammatical. Put differently, ye switches only in
order to undergo the PHONOLOGICAL process of incorporation. Compare
(27), where (27a) illustrates the basic order, (27b) the ungram-
maticality of the switched order without incorporation, (27c) the
grammatical incorporated structure, and (27d) independent evidence
for y^- incorporation (where ye is placed into the string immediately
after X to begin with)
(27)
a.
ta
you
'You
xo ba
indeed mod.
must indeed know
h
y e
he
im.'
pezane
know
b.
*ta
ye xo
ba
pezane
c.
te
xo
ba
pezane
d.
za
I
y e goram
he see
— >
ze
'I see
goram
him.'
However, Tegey's evidence that phonological and other non-syn-
tactic information is required for clitic placement is not limited to the
relative order of clitics within the string. He shows that information
of this type also is needed to determine the initial element that
serves as hosts for the clitics.
Tegey amasses an impressive amount of evidence which shows
that, as in Serbo-Croatian (cf. (20) above), accent plays a role. Two
major types of evidence can be distinguished. One is the fact that
unaccented prepositional and adverbial phrases involving pronouns
do not 'count' as first constituents, and clitics follow the first accented
element after these unaccented elements; cf. (28). This generalization
clearly cannot be captured by a purely syntactic account since ro ta
and pe are full syntactic constituents. Rather, it requires the PHONO-
LOICAL information that these constituents are unaccented and that
the first accented element of the clause is the third constituent, god a.
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 5 7
(28) a. ro ta pe goda d e
me for by him sew you (ergative)
'You were having him sew it for me.'
b. *r3 ta de pe goda
c. *ro ta pe de goda
The other piece of evidence concerns structures with clause-
initial verbs. 15 'Compound' verbs, consisting of prefix + verb, exhibit
accent variation correlated with aspect: Perfectives accent the prefix,
imperfectives, the verb; cf. (29). Interestingly, the same accent varia-
tion is found in a group of lexically unprefixed verbs whose stem
begins in a-, except that accent variation here is an optional pheno-
menon, without aspectual conditioning; cf. (30). As Tegey observes
(1977:126, note 4), historically, the a- of these verbs is a prefix.
However, synchronically, 'the stem of these verbs ... is not analyzable
into more than one morpheme.' (93) Thus, the a- and the -xistal in
(30) 'alone convey no separate meaning and none of them appears
independently or as a morpheme in any other lexical item in the
language.' (94).
(29) a. tor tel-woha
'Tor pushed' (perf.)
b. tor tel-woha
'Tor was pushing' (imperf.)
(30) a. Tor axistala
'Tor was buying' (imperf.)
b. Tor axistala
'Tor was buying' (imperf.)
Now, if verbs of the type (29) and (30) are clause-initial, clitics
are placed after the whole verb only if the verb is accented on a non-
initial syllable (the final or penult). They go after the FIRST SYLLABLE
of the verb if that syllable is accented; cf. (29') and (30'). Different
placements are ungrammatical. (In these examples, the value of the
clitic is first person singular ergative.)
(29') a. tel- m e - woha
'I pushed' (perf.)
b. tel- woha -m e
'I was pushing' (imperf.)
(30') a. a- me- xistala
'I was buying' (imperf.)
b. a- xistala m e
'I was buying' (imperf.)
Looking only at (29') it might be possible to propose an analysis
along the lines of German 'separable-prefix' verbs, considering the
prefixes to be lexically independent words. In that case, the 'delayed'
58 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
clitic placement in (29'b) could be argued to be of the same nature as
in (28). For (30'b), however, such an analysis would be begging the
question, since there is no synchronic evidence that the initial a- of
these verbs constitutes an independent meaning-bearing unit. In ad-
dition, of course, we are faced with the same difficulty as in (28): The
crucial conditioning for clitic placement is ACCENT, a phonological phe-
nomenon. More than that: The pattern in (30') shows that the 'first
element', the X of the template in (23), may be identifiable not even
on morphological grounds, but only phonologically, as the first SYL-
LABLE of a particular type of verb.
Finally, Tegey provides evidence that clitic placement must be
ordered AFTER a PHONOLOGICAL RULE of vowel coalescence. By way of
background, note that in clauses beginning in a combination of the
negative particles na and ma'^ plus verb, clitics are placed between
the negative particle and the verb; cf. (31). Now, the final a of the
same particles undergoes a rule of coalescence with the initial a- of
verbs of the type (30)/(30') above, the outcome being o; cf. e.g. (32).
Interestingly, as examples like (33a) illustrate, clitic placement takes
place into negative particle + verb combinations AFTER vowel coales-
cence, inserting the clitic between the coalesced vowel o and the (rest
of the) verb. Clitic insertion after unchanged, underlying na is not ac-
ceptable. Compare the ungrammatical (33b) which by the rule of 'in-
corporation' illustrated in (27c,d) would have to surface as the equal-
ly ungrammatical (33c). That is, clitic placement seems to have to
take place SOLIDLY in the PHONOLOGY, BETWEEN the two phonological
rules of incorporation and coalescence.
(31) na ye skundi
neg. it pinch
'He is not pinching it.'
(32) na axli
— > noxli
'He is not buying.'
(33) a. no ye xli
'He is not buying it.'
b. *na y e axli
c. *ne axli
One might be tempted to avoid this conclusion by resorting to
Hayes's (1990) concept of 'precompilation' in a pre-syntactic compo-
nent of Lexical Phonology. Whatever the precise formalism, pre-
compilation must be assumed to produce the allomorphs no and m o
for the negatives na and ma and a-less allomorphs for a-initial verbs
(under certain conditions of proximity). These allomorphs would then
be inserted at the point of Lexical Insertion within the syntax, not
only in the syntactic frame of (32), but also of (33). Clitics, then,
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 5 9
would be inserted after the allomorph no. Compare the informal
presentation in (34).
(34) a. Precompilation in the pre-syntactic phonology:
i. na -^ no (if followed by a-initial verbs ± inter-
vening clitic)
ii. a- -^ 0 (if preceded by neg. na, ma- ± inter-
vening clitic)
b. Lexical insertion in the syntax
no ye xli
[in frame i.] [in frame ii.]
'He is not buying it.'
However to be consistent, we would also have to employ the
device of precompilation for the incorporation process illustated in
(27c). That is, we would have to claim that a-final words plus the
clitic ye yield preconfigured incorporated single words ending in -e,
and that when clitic ye is to be inserted in the syntax, we have a
choice of either inserting the precompiled incorporated structure in
--e or the normal allomorphs in their appropriate places within the
initial string. Compare (35).
(35) a. Precompilation in the pre-syntactic phonology:
i. -a -1- ye
[+ clit.]
-^ - e
ii. -a + ye
[+ clit.]
-^ - e (optional if clitics of classes
2 - 7 in (23) above are
present)
Lexical insertion
in the syntax
ze
[in frame i.]
'I see it.'
goram (= za ye ...)
ta xo
CR te xo
[in frame ii.]
ba ye pezane
ba pezane
'You must indeed know him.
While precompilation can indeed account for the attested forms
in (27c,d) and (33a), it is difficult to see how it would prevent unac-
ceptable forms of the type (33c) from arising: Given the elements to
be inserted in (33), it is not clear why we should choose the account
in (34), and not the equally possible account in (36) which operates
with the precompilation of (35a. i). In fact, given that na and the clitic
ye are direct neighbors, the latter precompilation should apply pref-
60 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
erentially — unless we added the condition 'not if the -a is part of a
negative particle and ye is followed by an a- initial verb'. Put
differently, here we run into the difficulties alluded to by Odden
(1990:83) which arise when there is an overlap between precom-
pilation frames.
(36) a. Precompilation in the pre-syntactic phonology:
i. -a + ye -> - e
[+ clit.]
b. Lexical insertion in the syntax:
*ne axli (= na ye axli)
[in frame i.]
'He is not buying it.'
These difficulties are avoided if we adopt the view that clitic
placement takes place in a POST-SYNTACTIC PHONOLOGICAL FORM, where
it can be ordered between the two phonological rules of coalescence
and incorporation. Moreover, accounting for clitic placement in PF
makes it possible for the process to be sensitive to a combination of
syntactic and phonological information (the presence or absence of
accent on clause-initial constituents), a combination of phonological
and morphological information (accented vs. unaccented verbal pre-
fixes), or even purely phonological, even if lexically restricted, infor-
mation (accented vs. unaccented initial a- in a certain class of verbs).
5. Clitic P2 placement in PF: Why and how?
The preceding two sections have shown that in at least four
different Indo-European languages (or groups) P2 is sensitive to
phonological factors and must therefore be accounted for in PF, not in
the syntax.
Before attempting to explain why P2 in these languages is a
phonological phenomenon and how it might be accounted for in PF, it
is useful to survey the similarities and differences between the
different languages.
One feature, solidly shared by all of the languages, is that the
clitics and particles in question are P2 elements. Another feature is
most strikingly attested to by Pashto and Serbo-Croatian, viz. that
what precedes the clitics or particles must bear (some kind of) ac-
cent. But as shown by the initial-string template for Vedic in (12), in
this language, too, P2 elements must be preceded by an accent
bearing element. Finally, although early Romance does not mark
accent, the line-initial or post-caesura verbs preceding the phonolog-
ically placed clitics in examples of the type (16) can be reasonably
assumed to differ from clitics by bearing at least some accent.
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 6 1
There are certain differences as well. For instance, the clitics of
early Romance are all pronominal (or pronominal-adverbial), while
those of Vedic, Serbo-Croatian, and Pashto include syntactic particles
(question markers or 'communicative' particles similar in function to
English after all, you know, etc.)- Those of Serbo-Croatian and Pashto
also include auxiliaries or auxiliary-like modal particles. The most
important difference, however, is the fact that the P2 elements of
early Romance, Serbo-Croatian, and Pashto are all clitics. Those of
Vedic include both unaccented, clitic elements and ACCENTED elements
which, because of their invariable, apparently underlying accent,
would be difficult to classify as clitics. (See also further below.)
Finally, it may be necessary to address the question as to
whether the P2 phenomena of these languages are truly independent
or whether they may reflect common heritage. This question is
especially relevant since, as already noted by Wackernagel (1892),
the tendency toward P2 placement of clitics seems to be a feature of
the Proto-Indo-European ancestral language; cf. also Hock 1982b and
Hale 1987.
For the Romance languages it is quite certain that the P2 place-
ment of pronominal clitics is an innovation: While very Old Latin
preserves some traces of the older Indo-European pattern, the
classical language patently has lost it. Wanner (1985) finds the earli-
est evidence for possible P2, beside cliticization within the VP, in
Latin texts of the Christian era.
As for Serbo-Croatian, Radanovic-Kocic (1988) finds that the
earliest (Old Church Slavic) texts have clear P2 evidence only for the
question particle //, plus two other sentential particles, ho 'because'
and ze 'and', which do not survive in modern Serbo-Croatian.
Pronominal clitics appear in P2 only under two circumstances: (i) The
initial element is a finite verb, in which case all clitic pronouns are
placed in P2; (ii) one of the sentential particles appears in P2, in
which case dative-marked pronoun clitics may be stacked up after
the particle. She concludes that only the sentential particles
originally were in P2, and that pronominal clitics started out as clitic
on the verb and became P2 elements only secondarily. Since only one
of the particles, ze , can be confidently traced to a PIE clitic
antecedent, the relation between the elaborate initial strings of
modern Serbo-Croatian and PIE P2 clitic placement is rather tenuous.
Still, the basic P2 PATTERN may be inherited.
The situation may be the same for Pashto and Vedic: Although
both are members of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of Indo-European,
they are separated from each other by some 3000 years. The details
of their initial strings and of the elements that go into them are quite
different. Still, the basic P2 pattern may be inherited in both
62 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
languages, since Avestan, the earliest attested East Iranian language,
has initial strings very similar to those of Vedic; cf. Hock 1982b and
Hale 1987.17
Even so, the fact that early Romance exhibits an independent
innovation, combined with massive evidence for P2 as a cross-lin-
guistic tendency for clitic placement (cf. especially Steele 1975, 1977,
1978), invites caution and requires us to explain P2 not simply as
inheritance from a — possibly idiosyncratic — Proto-Indo-European
antecedent.
5.1. Why P2?
As observed earlier, Nevis (1986, 1990a, b) claims that clitic
placement, including P2, does not require any special explanations,
but can be accounted for by general syntactic processes. However,
Nevis's definition of 'clitic' is overly narrow, being in effect limited to
quasi-affixal elements. While such a definition is possible, it is very
different from the traditional definition of clitics. In fact, when clitics
become quasi-affixal, the question arises as to whether they still are
clitics or rather have been reinterpreted as affixes.
Moreover, as I have demonstrated in this paper, the P2 of Vedic,
early Romance, Serbo-Croatian, and Pashto cannot be accounted for
in purely syntactic terms. Finally, in Vedic at least, the elements
placed into P2 include both clitics and accented particles.
In the following I show that phonologically-defined P2 can be
motivated for clitics if we retain the traditional definition of clitic
and that the Vedic pattern of P2 non-clitic particles can in principle
be explained as a secondary extension of the clitic P2 pattern.
5.1.1. Clitics are phonologically defined
The traditional definition of clitics significantly is largely phono-
logical, a point which suggests that clitics are fundamentally a phono-
logical phenomenon (even if through secondary developments their
behavior may — in some languages — have to be accounted for in the
syntax):
• Clitics have no accent and cannot be uttered by them-
selves. Rather, they require a host to 'lean on' (hence the
term 'clitic', from Gk. klino 'lean'). True, clitics may have ac-
cented counterparts that can be uttered by themselves, such
as Engl, n't beside not. But this very fact shows that clitics
are phonologically quite different from non-enclitic forms.
• Because they need an accented host to lean on, clitics may
be attached to elements with which they are not necessarily
closely connected semantically or syntactically. For instance,
Sanskrit clitic ca 'and', used as a sentence coordinator, at-
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 6 3
taches to the first accented element in the clause, no matter
what the syntactic status of that element; cf. (37). Similarly,
the English clitic 's (corresponding to accented is or has) at-
taches to preceding NPs, no matter what their syntactic
status, rather than to the remainder of the verb with which
it is more closely connected semantically, cf. (38).' ^
(37) (... yo 'sman dvesti) yarn ca vayaiti dvismah
(SB 1.2.4.16 and" elsewhere)
'(... whom we hate) and who hates us.'
(38) a. Who's he trying to fool?
b. The king of England's come to see us.
• Clitics tend to be sensitive to phonological phrasing. Thus,
trivially, enclitics (which require a preceding host) cannot
occur at the beginning of an utterance; cf. (37'). A less trivial
example is the fact that if a phonological break (T) is inserted
in (38b) after England, clitic 's becomes unacceptable; cf.
(38').
(37') *... ca yarn vayarh dvismah
(38') *The king of England T 's come to see us.
VThe king of England T has come to see us.
5.1.2. The question of 'sentential' clitics
If a clitic 'looks' for a phonological host, no problems arise if the
constituent in which they originate contains an accented element. In
that case, the accented element will naturally be the host. In fact, as
Radanovic-Kocic (1988) observes, early Slavic pronominal clitics fol-
low this pattern, in being attached to the verb, the head of the VP in
which they originate. Similarly, if Vedic clitic pronouns and other P2
elements do not move into the initial strings, they remain within the
VP; cf. especially Hale 1987. Finally, as observed earlier. Wanner
(1985) finds that the ancestors of the Romance clitics tend to appear
in two positions in late Latin: P2 and the VP.
For some elements, however, such as question particles, it is not
at all clear whether they originate in a particular constituent and if
so, what that constituent might be. Rather, they can be argued to be
'properties' of the entire clause. And since clauses may contain any
number of accented elements, the question arises which of these
should serve as the host. Kaisse (1982:12) claims that in such cases,
only the first non-clitic element of the clause can serve as host.
Moreover, she argues that other, non-sentential clitics may occur in
second position only if the language also has sentential clitics.
While Kaisse's account agrees well with Serbo-Croatian, where
sentential clitics appear earlier in P2 than other clitics, it fails to ex-
plain the early Romance situation, with P2 clitic pronouns, but no P2
6 4 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
sentential particles; cf. Radanovic-Kocic 1988. Moreover, Nevis (1986,
1990a,b) correctly notes that there are languages with 'sentential'
clitics, such as question particles, placed next to the verb, not in P2.
In spite of these difficulties, the notion 'sentential' clitic has a
certain intuitive appeal: The set of clitic elements which cross-lin-
guistically tend to be placed in P2 is not open-ended. It consists of
sentential particles (such as question markers), auxiliaries and mod-
als, and pronominals. Of these, sentential particles and auxiliaries/
modals, wherever they may be considered to originate, pragmatically
have SENTENCE SCOPE, modifying the modality, tense, etc. of the entire
proposition. True, pragmatic properties like these may not be rele-
vant in an autonomous syntax. However, they can certainly be rele-
vant in PF, the component in which P2 originates according to the
present hypothesis.
As for pronominal clitics, they may be part of the VP (if they are
objects), but at the same time they are complete phrases in their own
right. In fact, functionally they are major constituents of the clause.
Moreover, if there is no other element in their own noun phrase,
they lack a natural phrasal host to attach to within that phrase.
Especially interesting in this regard is that, as Garrett (1990)
shows, the elaborate initial strings of early Anatolian accommodate
object pronoun clitics, which constitute entire NPs, but possessive
clitics, which syntactically are phrases WITHIN NPs (or PPs), stay next
to their phrasal host. Only in later Anatolian do possessives likewise
move into the initial strings, presumably on the analogy of the other
pronoun clitics.
What seems to be relevant here is that the VP is less of a barrier
to movement than, say, NPs. For instance, English, German, and Hindi
all can move NPs out of the VP, as in (39a), (40a, b), and (41a, b).
However, neither English nor German find it easy to extract posses-
sives out of NPs or PPs; cf. (39b) and (40c) which are acceptable only
in 'afterthought' readings. And while languages like Hindi can do so
quite freely (41c) and not only with afterthought readings, the fact
remains that movement out of an NP or PP cross-linguistically seems
to be more difficult than out of a VP. This fact makes it possible to
assume that clitics within the VP that are phrases in their own right
or have sentence scope are relatively easily redefined as having the
sentence, rather than the VP, as their domain. In this regard it is
probably significant that Slavic pronominal object clitics originally
were VP clitics and only secondarily became P2 clitics in Serbo-
Croatian, that the early Romance P2 clitics go back to a later Latin
pattern with option between P2 and VP position, and that the P2
elements of Vedic likewise exhibit variation between P2 and VP
placement. These facts support the view that for pronominal clitics,
P2 requires a special development of 'liberation' from the VP.
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 6 5
(39) a. That person I have not seen.
b. *She has given me the pen (t) quickly of that man.
(40) a. Den Menschen habe ich nicht gesehen.
that person have I not seen
'That person I haven't seen.'
b. Ich habe nicht gesehen den Menschen (der ...)
I have not seen the person (who ...)
d. *Sie hat mir die Feder (t) gegeben des Mannes
She has me the pen given of that man
'She has given me the pen of that man.'
(41) a. us vyakti ko mairii-ne nahim dekha hai
that person I (ergative) neg. seen Aux.
'That person I have not seen.'
b. mairh-ne nahirh dekha hai us vyakti ko
I (ergative) neg. seen Aux. that person
c. us-ne kalam di hai us admi kl
she (ergative) pen given Aux. of that man
'She has given me the pen of that man.'
5.1.3. P2 as attachment to Topic and the role of accent
Accepting, then, that the notion 'sentential' clitics may be rele-
vant in PF and may include object pronoun clitics, why should these
clitics tend to move to P2? Kaisse's account merely puts a label on
the phenomenon, but does not explain it. Similarly, Steele (1977)
simply accepts P2 as a fact, stating that to ask 'why second position?'
might be just as meaningless as asking 'why adjectives?'
In her 1976 paper, however, Steele entertains the notion that P2
may be a consequence of the fact that the first element in the clause
is semantically most prominent or emphatic and as such could serve
as clitic host. With the following additional arguments, this claim, I
believe, provides the best explanation for P2.
The fact that clause-initial position commonly houses emphas-
ized elements was recognized among Indo-Europeanists as early as
the nineteenth century; cf. e.g. Delbriick 1878. This 'emphatic' con-
ceptualization of first position needs to be supplemented by the
Praguian notion of 'Topic-Comment' structure, introduced into gener-
al linguistics by Mathesius (1928), ^^ a type of discourse organization
whose initial Topic is not necessarily emphatic.
However, although Topics do not always receive extra stress or
accent, they can be counted on to be accented. Moreover, since they
occur in a constant, clearly identifiable position in the clause, they
provide a more RELIABLE ACCENTED HOST for a sentential clitic looking
for a host than other constituents whose presence or placement with-
in the clause is open to considerable variation.
66 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
Significantly, all the languages with P2 that I am aware of are
'topic-prominent' (or were so at the time that P2 originated); i.e.,
they have a strong tendency to place topicalized elements, often dif-
ferent from subjects, into the first position of the clause. This makes
it possible to claim that P2 originates when 'sentential' clitics (in the
larger sense), looking for an accented host, attach themselves in PF to
the initial, accented Topic.
However, the fact that breaks in the prosodic structure can lead
to a 'delayed' placement of P2 elements, as in Vedic, early Romance,
and Serbo-Croatian suggests that an approach that operates exclu-
sively with the notion 'accented Topic' will not be sufficient. Similar
problems arise from the fact that Serbo-Croatian accented coordinat-
ing conjunctions can serve as hosts for P2 clitics and that in Pashto,
accented prefixes or even accented initial syllables may do the same.
At the same time. Topic does play a role in the majority of the
P2 structures and, in terms of actual use, in the majority of utter-
ances. For instance, in Serbo-Croatian, only structures with accented
initial coordinating conjunctions do not involve Topic. Elsewhere, the
notion Topic is relevant, not only in structures with P2 directly after
Topic (or after the first word of Topic), but even in constructions
with 'delayed' P2, since the first constituent of these structures is the
first accented element after the initial Topic which forms a prosodic
phrase with the rest of the clause. 20 it goes without saying that this
'prosodic' conditioning of clitic placement makes eminent sense if we
accept that P2 is, at least in origin, a phonological, not a syntactic
phenomenon, involving a 'sentential' clitic looking for a phonologic-
ally acceptable host.
The situation appears to be similar in Pashto structures with
delayed P2 (cf. (28) above) and is at least arguably the same in the
Vedic and early Romance constructions with P2 elements following
the first accented word after a poetic line break.
In fact, even the Pashto structures with P2 after accented pre-
fixes and the initial accented a- of certain verbs may be historically
explained as originally involving accented elements placed in Topic.
This explanation requires the following assumptions:
(i) The initial a- of the relevant verbs originally was a prefix.
(Compare Tegey 1977 with references.)
(ii) All prefixes of verbs with alternating accent originally were
separate words which were later univerbated with the verbs into
single lexical units. (For parallels see the general tendency toward
univerbation in early Indo-European; cf. e.g. Hock 1986 (1991):328,
336-341.)
(iii) Somewhere along the way, accent variation between prefix
(or prefix-to-be) and verb was introduced, yielding the patterns ac-
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 6 7
cented prefix + unaccented verb (P + V) vs. unaccented prefix + ac-
cented verb (P + V )
(iv) Univerbation took place earlier in P + V. (This has a close
parallel in Vedic; cf. e.g. Delbruck 1888:44-46.)
(v) P2 placement reflects a stage when univerbation had taken
place in P -i- V, but not yet in P -h V. As a consequence, P -i- V would
be placed into Topic as a single unit, to be followed by P2 clitics. By
contrast, the P of P -h V would still act as a separate word, move into
Topic by itself, and host the P2 clitics.
5.1.4. Further extensions of the P2 pattern
While at least historically, the notion 'accented Topic' thus plays
a significant role in P2 placement, the fact that Topics occur on the
left periphery of the clause could give rise to secondary generaliza-
tions. One of these is the fact that in early Romance, as well as gener-
ally in Serbo-Croatian, subordinating conjunctions, i.e. 'Comp' words,
may host clitics; cf. (42a,b) and (43a). In early Romance, they may be
optionally followed or preceded by Topics (cf. e.g. (42c,d)), while Ser-
bo-Croatian shows some variation between post-conjunction and 'de-
layed' P2 placement (cf. (43b,c) and Radanovic-Kocic 1988:99-101).
(42) a. que vos he servido (El Cid 73; Old Spanish)
Comp. you have served
"... that I have served you.'
b. que li tramist li reis de Suatilie
Comp. him sent the king of Suatilie
(Roland 90; Old French)
'... which the king of Suatilie had sent him.'
c. e aquel que ge la diesse (El Cid 26)
Topic Comp. him it give
'And that he should also give it to him.'
d. qu' el faldestoeds' es Marsilies asis
Comp. Topic refl. Aux. M. sit
'... that Marsile sat down on his throne.'
(43) a. (hocu) da ti dam knjigu
Comp. you give book
'(I want) that I give you a book.' = 'I want to give you a
book.'
b. (Raduj se) jer ti je dosao brat
Comp. you is come brother
'(Rejoice) because your brother has come.'
c. (Raduj se) jer brat ti je dosao
Comp. brother you is come
'(Rejoice) because your brother has come.'
The fact that Comp elements can count as clause-initial elements
for P2 placement finds a ready explanation in the Principles & Para-
68 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
meters approach, since like Topics, Comp words occur in left-peri-
pheral structural nodes of the type (44), where either Spec of CP or
Spec of IP. may serve as the landing site for topicalized elements. We
would simply be dealing with an extension of 'first position' from
Comp. to one of the immediately neighboring left-peripheral landing
sites.
(44)
Spec V_
(Base Subject)
It is more difficult to give a syntactically motivated explanation
for the fact that even coordinating conjunctions can host P2 clitics in
Serbo-Croatian, provided that they are accented. Coordinating con-
junctions are not considered Comp words. In many languages, they
do in fact behave quite differently. Thus, in early Romance they are
ordinarily 'invisible' for the purpose of P2 placement; cf. (45). The
Serbo-Croatian situation in (20b) (and occasional early Romance
parallels), then, must be explained, not in syntactic terms, but as
generalization in terms of a more vaguely defined notion of 'left peri-
pherality'.
(45) a. e nos vos ayuderemos (El Cid 143)
and we you will help
"... and we will help you ...'
b. ...e pur seignur le tenez (Roland 364)
and as lord him keep
'... and keep him as (your) lord.'
A different kind of complication arises from the fact that Vedic
P2 elements include accented particles, and even accented pronouns.
Three different historical explanations are possible:
One is that these elements acquired accentuation in an alter-
nating accent pattern of the type (46); cf. Hock 1982b. However, this
explanation requires the assumption that their accentuation sub-
sequently was reinterpreted as underlying, rather than assigned by
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 6 9
phonological rule. Synchronically they are accented no matter what
precedes or follows; cf. e.g. (13b) above.
(46) (NEXUS) X/D P P E .. . ^ (NEXUS) X/D P P E .. .
An alternative historical account would consider their placement
secondary, following the analogy of unaccented, clitic particles with
which they agree in having sentence scope. Support for this account
may be the following: Whereas in the Rig-Veda, nu/nu 'now' may be
both clause-initial or in position 3 of the template in (12), in the later
Vedic Prose period it is limited to the latter position. This situation
could be explained by assuming that the particle originated as a
clause-initial element and moved to position 3 secondarily.
The best account may be the following, anticipated in part by
Hock 1982b and Hale 1987: Accented particles of the type nii/nu
originally were fronted to the Topic position, just like the accented
pronominals (demonstrative tad, etdd, relative ydd, and interrogative
kim), as well as finite verbs. Vedic (or its forerunner), however, per-
mitted fronting not only of accented particles, accented pronominals,
and finite verbs, but also of topicalized NPs or PPs.21 At the same
time, only ONE of the fronted elements was allowed in absolute initial
position, with preference given to topicalized NPs or PPs. Other ac-
cented fronted elements then were pushed farther to the right. At an
early stage they moved to the right of clitic particles, into position 3.
This accounts for the variability in the position of Rig-Vedic nu/nu. It
also explains the fact that in the Rig-Veda, accented pronominals oc-
cur in position 1 if there is no topicalized NP or PP, but ordinarily in
position 3 if there is. In addition, it accounts for Jhe placement of the
finite verb in position 3 in the archaic type sd ha _ uvdca gdrgyah; cf.
Hock 1982b. At a later stage, perhaps after clitic pronouns came to
be (optional) P2 elements, accented pronominals, if pushed out of
position 1 by a topicalized NP or PP, moved to the right of the clitic
pronouns, into position 5. Traces of this new placement can be ob-
served in the Rig-Veda;22 by the time of Vedic Prose it has become
obligatory. 23
Whatever the historical explanation, the fact that P2 is limited to
clitics in the other three languages examined in this paper (and in
many other languages around the world) suggests that the P2 of ac-
cented elements in Vedic^^ is a secondary phenomenon. At the same
time, the fact that P2 has been generalized to accented elements is
significant in light of the fact that P2 placement still has to be ac-
counted for in PP. This suggests that at least synchronically phono-
logical accounts are not necessarily restricted to clitics but may have
to be invoked even for the placement of non-clitic, accented ele-
ments.
7 0 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
5.2. How P2 placement in PF?
Although there are complications, the questions of whether P2
placement must be accounted for in PF for some languages and why
it may arise as a phonological phenomenon are relatively easy to an-
swer. Much more difficult is the question of HOW P2 is to be ac-
counted for in the PF of a synchronic grammar. The attempt at
answering this question below must be considered quite preliminary
and programmatic.
The major difficulty lies in the fact that very little work has
been done so far in this regard. The solutions offered, therefore, have
not been tested and, in fact, often are rather piecemeal. Zee and
Inkelas, for instance, offer the formalism in (47) which 'encodes the
fact that the unit [clitics] subcategorize for is the phonological [i.e.
accent-bearing] word [plus clitic extensions].' (369) But this formal-
ism says nothing about the fact that the 'phonological word' in ques-
tion must be in first position within the clause or prosodic phrase in
Serbo-Croatian, not to mention the different complications regarding
the host for P2 clitics in the other languages examined in this paper.
(47) je: [ [ ]co ]co
It is doubtful that a single formalism can account for P2 place-
ment in all of the languages examined, for the conditions on what
constitutes the host for P2 elements differ considerably. However,
given the discussion above, something like 'left-peripherality' (also
as a point of reference for 'delayed' P2), as well as accent and pro-
sodic phrasing, must play a prominent role. For some languages, such
as Pashto, additional, more idiosyncratic information may be re-
quired, such as 'accented prefix' of a clause-initial verb or even ac-
cented first syllable of a particular subset of verbs if they are placed
in first position.
Any such formalization, however, only defines the TARGET of P2
placement. In addition, we clearly need a TRIGGER, viz. a feature or
set of features on the P2 elements, specifying that they are 'sen-
tential' clitics (or in the case of non-clitics, 'sentential' P2 elements)
and also indicating whether they are so obligatorily or optionally.
Given features like these it is possible to find at least a parallel
to the notion that P2 elements do not remain 'in situ', but are MOVED
or PLACED BY RULE into a TEMPLATE after a host defined in such terms
as peripherality, accent, and prosodic phrasing. This parallel consists
in Halle's recently developed framework of 'Distributed Morphology'
(1990, To Appear), whose major components are post-syntactic.
The specific point of comparison lies in the fact that Halle's con-
ceptualization includes the notion that morphology can take elements
in the output of the syntax and rearrange their linear order so as to
satisfy the TEMPLATES of inflectional morphology. Thus, the well-
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 7 1
known English syntactic output {sg. 3 pres. + have en + go}25 is re-
arranged in the morphology to has gone because {sg. 3 pres.} and en
are inflectional suffixes that must be attached to a verb stem and
therefore move down to the next verb on the right, respectively.
Halle's movement proposal is governed by what may be called
the MORPHOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE, viz. that suffixes must be attached to
stems. 26 In the same spirit, I would like to propose that P2 move-
ment is governed by a 'P2 IMPERATIVE', which requires certain ele-
ments to attach to a 'first-position' (or PI) element whose nature is
determined by such features as peripherality, accent, and prosodic
phrasing.
Beyond the fact that both Halle's approach and the P2 account of
this paper involve movement into a position determined by the
nature of the element that is being moved, there are several other
points of similarity. One is that both assume an essentially post-syn-
tactic component, because in both approaches, non-syntactic criteria
motivate a reordering of elements. Another point of contact is the
fact that the data which both approaches deal with tend to require
templatic accounts.
However, there are differences as well. Probably the most signi-
ficant is that Halle's approach operates with clearly distinct compon-
ents such as 'Word Synthesis' (which is responsible for morpheme
movement), 'Morphophonology', and 'Phonology'. As shown in §4.3,
Pashto requires that clitic placement (i.e. movement) be ordered
between the two phonological rules of coalescence and incorporation.
This suggests that P2 clitic placement cannot be accounted for in a
component that is distinct from the relevant phonological component.
(This difference between the two approaches is reminiscent of the
controversy over whether there is a clear distinction between lexical
and post-lexical phonology; cf. e.g. Kaisse 1990, Hayes 1990 vs.
Odden 1990b, as well as Hualde and Elordieta 1992.)
Beyond these very general ideas, it is difficult to say anything
more about the question of how P2 clitics are to be accounted for in
PF. Clearly, a great deal of additional research, argumentation, and
disputation is required.
6. Phonological motivations for PI elements?
Besides movement of inflexional suffixes to verb stems, Halle
(1990, To Appear) postulates another, even more 'radical' process for
English, viz. the INSERTION of the verb stem do in configurations of the
type {Tense + Neg. + work}, where movement of the Tense suffix to
the verb stem work is blocked by the intervening negation. The in-
sertion of the dummy element do introduces a verb stem to which
the Tense suffix can attach, and as a consequence the morphological
imperative2'7 is satisfied. It is through this process, then, that Halle
7 2 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
derives structures of the type (They) do not work (in Boston) or
(That person) does not work (in Boston). In Halle To Appear he de-
fends his proposal against criticism by Pullum and Zwicky (1991),
even for cases like (They) do not work (in Boston) in which the Tense
morpheme that he postulates is realized as 0.
As the reaction by Pullum and Zwicky shows, Halle's proposal is
not uncontroversial. Interestingly, however, the notion of dummy
insertion has parallels in PI elements of Serbo-Croatian and German
which, like P2 placement, are generally considered syntactic but on
closer examination can be argued to be motivated by PF.
While the arguments in favor of a phonological account for these
PI elements clearly are more speculative than the earlier ones for
P2, the approach can be considered fruitful in so far as it provides a
better, more plausible explanation for certain colloquial German
structures than purely syntactic accounts.
6.1. Serbo-Croatian da and je
One of the parallels to Halle's morphological dummy insertion
has been proposed in Radanovic-Kocic's pioneering study of Serbo-
Croatian clitics (1988:49, 119-120). The facts are briefly as follows:
The use of the Serbo-Croatian clitic yes/no question marker // ordin-
arily is accompanied by verb fronting, as in (48a); and the fronted
verb readily serves as host for the clitic. Verb fronting, however, is
not obligatory. The question, then, arises as to what happens if the
verb is not fronted. Now, in the standard language we get construc-
tions of the type (48b), where the question particle // is preceded by
da, the general complementizer of Serbo-Croatian.
(48) a. Pise li on?
write Q. he
'Does he write?'
b. Da li on pise
Comp. Q he write
'Does he write?'
Browne (1974) claims that the combination dali in such struc-
tures is the non-clitic counterpart of // and is used here because en-
clitic // cannot occur at the beginning of the clause. Compare the un-
grammaticality of (48c) below. However, as Radanovic-Kocic notes,
the colloquial language offers an alternative to (48b), viz. (48d) with
je preceding the clitic. Now, je literally is the third person singular
present of the verb 'to be'; but in this context it is not used in its
literal meaning, as can be seen from the fact that it it is invariable,
not exhibiting agreement with following subjects, in contrast to the
following verb which does show agreement; cf. e.g. (48e). Moreover,
je does not exhibit tense or mood variation; cf. (48f). Put differently.
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 73
je is not employed as a verb but has taken on the same functions as
da.
(48) c. *li on pise
Q he write
d. Je li on pise
"is" Q he write
'Does he write?'
e. Je/da li su oni studenti?
"is"/Comp. Q are they student
'Are they students?'
f. Je/da li ce mi doci radost?
"is"/Comp. Q fut. me come happiness
'Will happiness come to me?'
Now, it is unlikely that // has two non-clitic counterparts, dali
AND jeli. Radanovic-Kocic instead reaches the following conclusion:
'Since the feature [+ clitic] plays no rule in the syntax, such
structures [as (48c)] would be perfectly acceptable at the
syntactic level. At the phonological level, however, clitics
cannot stand at the beginning of an intonational unit. A
dummy element da (or je) therefore is inserted in the initial
position in order to provide a host for the clitic //'. These
structures now obey the clitic-second principle and are
well-formed at the phonological level.' (120)
That is, if Radanovic-Kocic's argument is correct, da and je are
INSERTED in PHONOLOGICAL FORM in order to satisfy what I have called
the P2 imperative, by providing a PI host for clitic // to attach to.
Note that if da and je are accepted as 'phonological dummy PI
elements', this has significant repercussions for the way in which
Serbo-Croatian P2 clitic placement is to be accounted for. We may
either have to reformulate and considerably complicate the clitic
placement rule of (22) above (informally revised in §5.1.3). Or we
have to assume, as Radanovic-Kocic apparently does, that // is gener-
ated by the syntax in a left-peripheral position and simply requires
an accent-bearing element (Topic, or Topic + prosodic break -»-
another accented element) to precede it. In that case, P2 movement
of // would in effect be vacuous.
At this point I am not prepared to choose between these two al-
ternatives.
6.2. German es
The syntactic status of the pronoun es appearing in initial, pre-
finite verb position in German 'impersonal passive' structures of the
type (49) has received a variety of different accounts. Many scholars,
especially those subscribing to the 'orthodox' version of Relational
Grammar (cf. Perlmutter 1978, Perlmutter & Postal 1984) have
7 4 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
argued that es is a 'dummy subject'. Their analysis is motived by the
following considerations: (i) Initial, pre-finite verb position is
identified as subject position, (ii) All well-formed sentences are be-
lieved to require subjects in the final stage of the syntax, (iii) German
verb agreement marking is controlled by subjects. The third person
singular marking of the verb in (49) therefore requires a third
person singular subject antecedent, (iv) If we do not consider es the
subject of (49), the sentence would violate the requirement that all
sentences have subjects, since there is no other NP that could func-
tion as subject. Moreover, the third person singular marking of the
verb would lack a proper antecedent with which it can agree, (v)
Considering es the subject will solve all of these problems: It is a
third person singular pronoun and therefore can be the antecedent
for third person singular verb agreement. Being interpretable as
nominative, it can be the subject of the sentence and therefore sat-
isfy the requirement that all sentences have subjects. In recent ver-
sions of transformational syntax, a similar concept has been invoked,
namely the so-called expletive; cf. e.g. Safir 1985.
(49) Es wird (hier) getanzt
it Aux. here dance
"It is being danced (here)."
= 'There is dancing going on (here).'
Both approaches have received well-deserved criticism; cf. e.g.
Comrie 1977, Fagan 1984, Hoeing 1991, and Moorcroft 1991 (see also
Breckenridge 1975).
The most important counterargument to interpreting the es of
structures like (49) as a subject or expletive can be briefly summar-
ized as follows. The es of (49) differs from genuine dummy subjects
or expletives, such as the es 'it' subject of weather verbs, by being
confined to the initial. Topic position of main clauses. It cannot ap-
pear in main clauses that have other elements in Topic position, nor
does it occur in dependent clauses. Compare the main-clause ex-
amples in (50)/(50') and the dependent-clause examples in (51)/
(51'). Moreover, 'dummy es' is not confined to impersonal passives
and weather-verb structures; it also is found in 'personal' passives,
as well as in actives, where again it is confined to the initial. Topic
position. And again, if another element is placed into Topic position,
es cannot be used. Compare (52) and (53).
(50) a. Es wird (hier) getanzt
it Aux. (here) dance
'There is dancing going on (here).'
b. Hier wird 0/*es getanzt
'There is dancing going on here.'
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 7 5
(50') a. Es wird heute regnen
it Aux. today rain
'It will rain today.'
b. Heute wird es/*0 regnen
'Today it will rain.'
(51) Er sagt, daB 0/*es hier getanzt wird
He says that it here dance Aux.
'He says that there is dancing going on here.'
(51') Er sagt, daB es/*0 heute regnen wird
He says that it today rain Aux.
'He says that it will rain today.'
(52) a. Es werden hier Biicher gelesen
it Aux. here books read
"It are books being read here."
= 'Books are being read here.'
b. Hier werden 0/*es Biicher gelesen
'Here books are being read.'
c. Biicher werden 0/*es hier gelesen
'Books are being read here.'
d. Er sagt, daB 0/*es hier Biicher gelesen werden
'He says that books are being read here.'
(53) a. Es kommen heute noch viele Leute
it come today in addition many people
'Many more people (will) come today.'
b. Heute kommen 0/*es noch viele Leute
'Today, many more people will come.'
c. Viele Leute kommen 0/*es noch heute
'Many more people will come today.'
d. Er sagt, daB 0/*es heute noch viele Leute
kommen
'He says that many more people will come today.'
The proper conclusion, therefore, seems to be that the initial es
of (49), as well as of (52a) and (53a), is a 'dummy Topic' (e.g. Moor-
croft 1991), not a dummy subject or expletive. (The third person sin-
gular verb agreement, then, must be accounted for as 'default agree-
ment', motivated by the morphological imperative that finite verbs
be inflected for person and number. Cf. Hock In Press b for a Sanskrit
parallel.)
Now, if es is in fact a dummy Topic, we must ask ourselves in
what component of the grammar, and for what reasons, es is inserted
into the initial Topic position. After surveying various proposed and
possible syntactic accounts. Hoeing (1991:98) concludes that the pre-
sence of es cannot be motivated syntactically, which 'leaves insertion
76
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
at PF — plausibly enough, since [it is] only needed to satisfy certain
surface structural requirements left unsatisfied by the syntax.'
If I interpret Hoeing correctly, he would claim that the syntax is
perfectly capable (as probably it should be) to generate main clauses
without anything in the initial Topic position (the Spec of CP) and to
place the finite verb in the post-Topic position (in standard accounts
of German syntax identified as the Comp. position), even if the Spec
of CP is left empty in the syntax; cf. (54). PF, however, 'expects'
declarative main clauses to have the finite verb in second position
(V2). Not finding anything in the syntax that precedes the finite
verb, it inserts es, thus satisfying the V2 requirement
(54)
Spec
Finite Verb
0 wird getanzt
PF: es wird getanzt
Hoeing's proposal is certainly 'unorthodox', and many linguists
may question its justification. However, there is some evidence which
seems to support it.
There is a well-known phenomenon of 'Topic deletion' in collo-
quial German which permits the 'deletion' from the Topic position of
highly referential elements, whose identity can be recovered from
the pragmatic context. Compare the examples in (55). Note that being
colloquial, the structures in (55) exhibit inflectional forms that differ
from the formal standard. Moreover, they commonly employ partic-
les that are difficult to gloss in English. (In the word-by-word gloss-
es, these particles are simply characterized as Part.)
(55) a. 0 machen wir
= das machen wir
that do we
'We'll do that.'
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 7 7
b. 0 komm schon
= ich komme schon
I come Part.
'I'm coming!'
Interestingly, in the same variety of German, initial, dummy
Topic es may be missing; cf. (56).
(55) a. 0 kommt da doch so'n Kerl rein
(und fangt an zu briillen)
= Es kommt da doch so ein Kerl (he)rein
it come Part. Part. such a guy in
(und fangt an zu briillen)
'A guy comes in (and begins to shout).'
b. 0 wird hier doch schon wieder getanzt
= Es wird hier doch schon wieder getanzt
it Aux. here Part. again dance
'Again people are dancing here.'
Now, unlike the Topics of structures like (54), the 'missing' es of
(55) is anything but highly referential or recoverable from the
pragmatic context. In fact, pragmatically it is about the least referen-
tial thing imaginable. If es were indeed a syntactically introduced
(dummy) Topic, then colloquial Topic deletion would have to be
formulated to take place either if the Topic is highly referential or if
it is not referential at all — a very strange generalization indeed!
Assuming dummy Topic es to be inserted in PF avoids this
difficulty: Since in this colloquial variety, structures of the type (54),
without anything in Topic and with the verb in initial position, are
acceptable in declarative main clauses, there is no motivation for PF
dummy es insertion in the type (55). Only the type (54), therefore,
needs to be accounted for by a rule of Topic deletion, and that rule
can now be formulated sensibly, as requiring the element in Topic to
be highly referential. 2 8
7. Conclusions and outlook
In this paper I have presented evidence that certain phenomena
which have been considered syntactic are instead matters of PF.
This conclusion is probably least controversial as regards al-
legedly syntactically conditioned differences in Vedic Sanskrit finite
verb accentuation and the similar phenomenon of 'pluti'.
I also have shown that the P2 placement of clitic elements in
four Indo-European languages (or groups) must be accounted for in a
post-syntactic PF. Although the precise mechanism still needs to be
worked out, I have suggested that P2 placement is similar to suffix
movement in Halle's framework of Distributed Morphology (1990, To
Appear). Criteria for P2 placement include the notion Topic, accent,
as well as phonological phrasing.
7 8 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
Serbo-Croatian also permits clitic placement in reference to (ac-
cented) coordinating conjunctions, a fact which requires replacing
Topic by the more vaguely defined notion of left peripherality.
Pashto requires additional, more specific morphological and phono-
logical information. And Vedic has extended P2 to non-clitic ele-
ments. These phenomena can be historically explained as resulting
from secondary developments. The synchronic result in Vedic is a
grammar in which even the P2 placement of accented elements must
be accounted for in PF.
Finally, I have presented arguments that PF may be responsible
not only for the placement (or movement) of elements within the
clause, but also for insertion. While these arguments clearly are more
speculative, the PF account for German clause-initial, dummy Topic
es has proved fruitful in that it makes possible a more plausible
account of colloquial German 'Topic deletion' than a purely syntactic
one.
An issue that I have not raised in the present paper, although it
can be argued to be closely related to P2 placement, is the verb-
second (or V2) constraint of early Germanic, many modern Germanic
languages, Romance, Slavic, Baltic, Kashmiri, and many other langu-
ages. In an early paper (Hock 1982a) I argued that V2 originated as
P2 placement of clitic auxiliaries. That claim has been criticized most
recently by Nevis (1990b). I intend to address this issue in fuller
detail elsewhere. (For the time being, see Hock MSa.) At this point,
suffice it to note that the hypothesis that V2 originates in PF proves
itself useful, by providing a more plausible and motivated explana-
tion for the fact that early Germanic dependent clauses lag behind
main clauses in the shift toward V2.2^^
NOTES
* Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 1990 East
Coast Indo-European Conference in Philadelphia, the Seminar fiir
Natiirlich Sprachliche Systeme (Universitat Freiburg), and the Uni-
versity of Illinois Linguistic Seminar. I am grateful for comments
received on these occasions, especially by R. Bhatt, A. Garrett, M.
Hale, J. Harkness, E. Hinrichs, J. Hoeksema, A. Kroch, H. Ortman, B.
Santorini, and J. Yoon. As usual, the responsibility for any errors and
omissions rests with me.
1 This account, of course, assumes that at least the post-lexical
component of the phonology is ordered after the syntax.
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 7 9
2 For further discussion of Hettrich's treatment of this and sim-
ilar structures see Hock 1990 and MS b.
3 Thus, both bhratar- 'brother' (sg. Nom. bhrata), with underly-
ing initial accent, and pitdr- 'father' (sg. Nom. pita etc.), with underly-
ing non-initial accent, have initially accentuated vocatives in 'accent-
ing' contexts, and unaccented vocatives elsewhere: cf. bhratar, pitar
beside bhratar, pitar.
'^ However, this account leaves unexplained the lack of accentu-
ation in 'non-accenting' contexts, which would require an accent
deletion very similar to that of finite verbs in 'non-accenting' con-
texts.
5 Thus, initial finite verbs exhibit the same accent differences as
their non-finite counterparts (which are accented in all syntactic
contexts). Thus hhdrati 'carries' has initial accent just like the present
participle bhdrat- 'carrying', whereas tuddti 'pushes' has suffix accent
just like the present participle tuddt- 'pushing'.
6 Traditionally, the phenomenon in (6) is accounted for by
claiming that line-initial position is treated as if it were clause-initial;
cf. most recently Hale 1987. Even if we accept the claim, the wording
'as if makes it clear that line-initial verb accentuation is not really
taking place 'in the syntax'.
7 See Hock In Press b, Klein 1991, Schaufele 1990, 1991. For a
different approach, cf. Hale 1987.
8 The latter account was actually proposed for Germanic V2. If
the arguments presented in this paper are correct, it suffers from the
same weaknesses as the 'filter' account for P2.
^J This has been correctly observed by Hale (1987). However, fol-
lowing traditional Indo-Europeanist practice, he dealt with this as an
instance of a line boundary acting as if it were a sentential boundary.
10 This explanation casts doubts on Givon's claim (1971) that the
modern pattern of placing clitics before the finite verbs (except after
imperatives or non-finite verbs) reflects the OV order of Latin. Cf.
Hock 1968(1991):616-617. — The later Romance restriction of the
pattern verb -i- clitic to imperatives is an innovation, motivated no
doubt by the fact that imperatives increasingly tend to be placed in
initial position, a fact which made it possible to reinterpret this
placement, and the concomitant post-verbal placement of the clitic,
as prototypical.
80 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
• 1 Earlier PF proposals for Old Spanish are discussed by Wanner
(1992). However, like Wanner's own, non-PF analysis, they are stated
in terms of purely syntactic parameters such as NP movement or
attchment to the left margin of CP (i.e. the clause), rather than pro-
sodic phrasing. (Similarly in Rivero 1992.)
'2 Including Vedic Sanskrit, see e.g. Hock 1982b, In Press b. Hale
1987, Klein 1991, Schaufele 1990, 1991. For a cross-linguistic per-
spective see Steele 1975, 1977a, 1978, as well as Kaisse 1982.
•3 Vogel and Kenesei actually address facts of Hausa; but with
proper modifications, the argument would apply to the Serbo-Croa-
tian situation as well.
'4 Radanovic-Kocic (1988:160) cites medieval Serbo-Croatian
examples like the following which suggest that the modern prosodic
conditioning of clitic placement has long-standing antecedents. The
delayed clitic placement in structures of this sort clearly must be due
to the fact that the appositive phrase Stefani ... which follows the ini-
tial subject is set off by prosodic breaks.
e (I) Stefani ... (I) obekavaju se vami
I Stefan promise clit. you
'I, Stefan ..., promise you ...'
15 To keep the exposition reasonably brief, certain details are ig-
nored, such as the behavior of lexically unprefixed verbs in the
perfective or the interaction of optional accent variation in unpre-
fixed verbs not beginning in a-. For these see Tegey 1977:85-87 and
88.
'6 The prefix wa- added to underlyingly unprefixed verbs to
make perfectives exhibits the same behavior.
•^ It is commonly asserted that like their Vedic counterparts, the
initial strings of Avestan may be defined not only in terms of clause-
initial, but also of line-initial position; cf. e.g. Reichelt 1909. However,
as Hale (1987:107-122) observes, early passages with apparent line-
initial strings are amenable to alternative explanations.
18 See also Marantz 1988, 1989.
1^ Cf. also Danes 1974, as well as more recent publications such
as Klein-Andreou 1983 and Li 1976. Praguian notions of sentence
perspective have, in turn, been (re-)introduced into Indo-European
linguistics, cf. e.g. Dressier 1969.
20 This is a rewording of the rule stated in (22) above.
Hock: What's a nice word like you doing in a place like this? 8 1
21 Commonly, complex NPs or PPs front only one word, the rest
of the constituent remaining stranded in a later position of the
clause. See Schaufele 1990 for the syntactic implications of this 'par-
tial' movement.
22 This conclusion was advanced with some hesitations in Hock
1982b. Hale 1991 provides clear evidence for Rig-Vedic placement of
accented pronominals in position 5.
23 A parallel to this 'push-down' development may be found in
Germanic, where at a very early stage there was multiple fronting of
pronouns, short adverbials, and topicalized NPs or PPs into clause-
initial position, and second-position auxiliaries (etc.) were placed af-
ter ALL of the fronted elements. In later Germanic, this pattern gave
way to one in which only one element could appear in clause-initial
position before the finite verb, and where other fronted elements
were 'pushed down' into the position after the finite verb. Compare
Hock 1985.
24 Actually, with certain variations, the phenomenon is more
widespread in early Indo-European; cf. e.g. Hock 1982b and Hale
1987. One suspects that the same explanations apply to Avestan,
Greek, etc. as to Vedic. Hittite, by contrast, has a very different
system of initial strings, involving (it seems) only clitic elements and
frequently preceding topicalized elements.
25 The formulation given here is approximate. The example
comes from the version of Halle To Appear that was presented at the
1991 conference on phonology at the University of Illinois.
26 Similarly, I invoke (Hock In Press) a morphological imperative
to account for default agreement marking in Sanskrit, a language
which requires inflectable stems, including verbs, to be inflected,
even if there is no syntactic antecedent to determine the choice of
verb inflection.
27 This is my term, not Halle's.
28 The present argument is relevant mainly within the Principles
& Parameters approach. Other frameworks may be better able to
deal with German 'dummy-^^' within the syntax. This is especially
true for Sadock's Autolexical Syntax (1991, see also 1990). Even the
latter approach, however, does not seem to be geared to account for
the Serbo-Croatian PPl phenomena, especially for the fact that the
definition of PI depends to a significant degree on phonological fac-
tors.
82 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
29 Anderson (1992) reached me after completion of the present
paper. His discussion of clitics (198-223) therefore could not be dis-
cussed in the body of the paper. Anderson claims that P2 clitics (and
other 'special clitics') are 'phrasal affixes', attached to phrases by the
same morphological processes that attach ordinary affixes to words.
In this respect his interpretation converges with the claim of this
paper that P2 clitic placement is not a syntactic phenomenon. How-
ever, Anderson considers the domain for their placement to be DE-
TERMINED by the syntax (211), specifically, the clause (217). No men-
tion is made of PF arguments similar to the ones of this paper.
Rather, his interpretation of 'special clitics' as phrasal affixes is based
on the following morphological claims: Pronominal clitics are com-
parable to inflectional affixes, particles, to derivational affixes. Just as
'ordinary' inflectional affixes are placed 'outside' derivational ones, so
pronominal clitics are placed 'outside' the particles (i.e. farther from
their host). This interpretation works for Vedic and may do so for
Serbo-Croatian (if modals, auxiliaries, etc. can be considered inflec-
tional). It fails for Pashto, where only one of the three clitic particles
occurs on the 'inside'; the other two appear in final and antepenult
position (slots 7 and 9 of the template in (23).
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Studies in the Linguistic Sciences
Volume 22, Number 1, Spring 1992
FROM VERB TO CLITIC AND NOMINAL SUFFIX:
THE SOMALI -e, -o NOUNS'
Iwona Kraska
In this paper I argue that Somali nouns ending in
citation form in -e and -o contain underlying suffixes which
historically developed from the clitics "^-yah (m.) and *-tah
(f.). The clitics themselves were reduced forms of the verb
'be' (yahay 'he is', tahay 'she is') and they followed the noun
in a certain type of relative clause. Contemporary Somali
still has similar constructions in which the reduced form of
'be' ah acts as a relativizer.
Due to the loss of the Cushitic feminine proto-suffix
*Vt/tV which was also one of the plural suffixes, the
contrast between masculine and feminine, as well as
between some singular and plural nouns, was considerably
decreased. In order to mark these distinctions more overtly,
the nouns followed by the clitics came to be used in other
syntactic positions until they completely eliminated the
non-cliticized nouns. And the original clitic has been
reinterpreted as a nominal suffix.
The diachronic development sketched here helps to
understand synchronic alternations of the noun vowels:
phrase-final -ol-e vs. medial -a. It also explains why the
underlying /k/ of masculine clitics is realized as [g] after all
vowels (by a general rule of intervocalic voicing) but not
after -e and -o nouns, in which case intervocalic -h -
appears.
0, The problem and earlier accounts
Somali nouns ending in the citation form in -e and -o represent
a problem for the morphophonology of the language for two reasons.
The first one is the final vowel alternations: -el-o phrase-finally
versus -a phrase-medially. The second problem is the apparent
morphophonemic alternation of the initial consonant of masculine
clitics: -h- after -e, -o nouns versus -g- after other vowel-final nouns.
Before I present an outline of my proposal, I will illustrate these
alternations in more detail.
90 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
Although in the citation form there is a contrast between ^-final
and o-final nouns, e.g. bare 'teacher', dawo 'medicine', the contrast is
neutralized in phrase-medial position where -a appears: bara...
'teacher...', dawa... 'medicine...'. The -a appears also before clitics, such
as definite articles, e.g. baraha 'the teacher', dawada 'the medicine';
demonstratives, e.g. barahaas 'that teacher', dawadaas 'that
medicine', and possessive pronouns, e.g. barahooda 'their teacher',
dawadooda 'their medicine'. The initial consonant of all these clitics is
a separate morpheme: a gender marker of the noun. The underlying
forms of the gender markers are /k/ for masculine, which is found
on the surface after most consonant-final nouns, e.g. will 'boy' —
wiilka 'the boy'; and l\J for feminine, e.g. sonkor 'sugar' — sonkorta
'the sugar'. The lil of the feminine gender marker is always realized
as [d] after vowel-final nouns, as in the examples given before, as
well as after /-final nouns, as in mindi 'knife' — mindida 'the knife'. A
simple rule of intervocalic voicing of stops easily accounts for the
latter realization.
The surface realizations of the underlying /k/ differ depending
on the environment of the noun-final segment. It is realized as 0
after a guttural consonant, e.g. /libaax+ka/ > libaaxa 'the lion';
/raah+ka/ > raaha 'the frog'. An accurate analysis may involve two
stages here: assimilation and degemination, e.g. /raah-i-ka/ > raahha
> raaha (cf. Bell 1953). For the sake of simplicity, however, I will
refer to this rule as 'post-guttural ^-deletion'. A problem appears if a
noun ends in a vowel, in which case [g] or [h] occurs in the cliticized
forms, and in each case intervocalically. Ignoring the backed/fronted
vowel contrast, 2 which is irrelevant for the problem discussed here,
vowel the inventory in Somali consists of five short vowels {i, u, e, o,
a} and their long counterparts {ii, uu, ee, oo, aa}. Not all of these
vowels may occur as a noun-final segment. Only nouns ending in -/, -
e, -o and -aa are commonly found in Somali. Those ending in -u seem
to be extremely rare: I found only one example of such a case. Other
vowels do not occur noun-finally.
The g-variant of the clitic appears after nouns ending in -/, -aa,
and -u\ the /z -variant appears after e- and o-final nouns:
(1)
guri
'house'
guriga
'the
house'
heesaa
'singer'
heesaaga
'the
singer'
guu
'main rains'
guugaa
•the
main rains'
bare
'teacher'
baraha
'the
teacher'
kabo
'shoes'
kabaha
'the
shoes'
Most descriptions of Somali (e.g. Bell 1953, Andrzejewski 1964,
Saeed 1985) simply state the complementary distribution of the two
variants of the clitic according to the quality of the noun-final vowel.
By doing so they reduce the problem to morphophonemic alternation
Kraska: From verb to clitic and nominal suffix: The Somali -e, -o nouns 9 1
of the masculine marker /k/, in which intervocalic [h] is derived
after the mid vowels /e/ and /o/, and /g/ is derived after high and
low vowels. It would be difficult to account for this alternation on
phonological grounds. Although a rule changing the underlying
intervocalic /k/ into [h] is by no means unusual, there is no
explanatory reason for restricting such a rule to the post-mid-vowel
environment.
Cardona 1981 proposes a different treatment of the problem. He
argues that nouns ending in -e and -o contain underlying final /-h/.
In isolation the /h/ normally is not realized on the surface, although
Cardona mentions, following Abraham (1964:329), occasional
pronunciations of o-final nouns as [-oh] or [-ah]. An additional
argument given by Cardona is that the final vowel in these nouns is
not followed by the expected glottal closure at the end of a vocalic
segment in the final position. When a /c-initial clitic is added, the -h
of the noun is deleted in the same manner as it is deleted after all
other gutturals by the rule mentioned here earlier. I am going to
support Cardona's analysis with a number of additional arguments.
However, it should be noted that accepting this proposal leads to the
creation of a distributional gap: There would no longer be nouns
ending in the underlying vowels /-e/ and /-o/, but only in /-eh/ and
/-oh/. Another question which comes to mind is also distributional in
nature: Why should there be so many nouns in Somali ending in -hi
I will address these two questions in section 1, showing that the -h is
not a part of the noun's root but a part of a suffix.
Some authors, e.g. Lamberti 1986b, Dolgopolskii 1973, postulate
a historical change of Cushitic intervocalic *-k- into Somali -h- after
the non-high vowels a, e, and o. Below are some reconstructions:
(2) ah- < *Ak/*Akk 'to be' (Dolgopolskii 1973:244)
bih- < *bAk 'to cry'
rah < *rak 'frog' (Lamberti 1986b:)
The occurence of the /j-form of the masculine clitics could then be
treated as an instance of that historical general change. However, as
has been pointed out, -aa-final nouns take the g-variant of the clitic
and not the expected -h-. Moreover, examples such as sheg- 'tell'
(shegay 'I told' etc.) reconstructed as *shek- (Heine 1978) or -oog
'fire' reconstructed as *wAk (Dolgopolskii 1973) indicate that *k > h
change could not be regular in Somali. Some Somali dialects (e.g.
Jiiddu, Lamberti 1986b) show a regular change of *k > h in less
restricted environments. It is likely that the few lexical items quoted
in (2) penetrated into other Somali dialects as a result of
interdialectal contacts and borrowing rather than directly developing
from the proto-language through regular sound change. The scarcity
of evidence which is at my disposal does not allow me to favor one of
92 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
these hypotheses against the other one. However, even if the
historical change of *k > h is accepted, it does not exclude or
contradict the claim that the h-initial masculine clitics are derived
from the underlying /-h/ of the nouns. ^
In section 1 of this paper I will propose that the underlying final
/-h/ in these nouns is a part of nominal suffixes, which developed
from earlier clitics. The historical development of these clitics is
outlined in section 2. Plural suffixes and relic forms found in
different Somali dialects provide further evidence, which will be
demonstrated in section 3. Finally, section 4 is devoted to the
development of the suffixes' vowels which resulted in synchronic
alternations.
1 . Evidence for underlying /h/
Nouns with final -e and -o constitute a large portion of the
Somali vocabulary, and it would be highly improbable to find so
many lexical stems ending in -h. In fact there is good evidence to
postulate that the majority, if not all, of these nouns are composed of
a lexical stem and the suffixes -o and -e, respectively. The singular
suffix -o is a feminine gender marker. The examples in (3a)
demonstrate that the suffix is not strictly defined in semantic terms.
Many nouns of foreign origin, especially Arabic as in (3b), which in
the source language end in -a, have been reinterpreted in Somali as
feminine nouns in -o. Synchronically they are no different from the
(3a) nouns. While the singular suffix -o is unproductive, the plural -o
is one of the most common plural suffixes. Notice that the plurals
usually 'reverse' the gender of the singular, as shown in (3c):
(3) a. xero (f.) 'corral' < xer (f.) 'herd' (Luling 1987)
tiro (f.) 'calculation' < tir-i 'to count'
talo (f.) 'decision' < tal-i 'to decide'
sheko (f.) 'story' < sheg 'to tell'
b. dawo (f.) < Ar. dawa? (m.) 'medicine'
muddo (f.) < Ar. mudda(t) (f.) 'period of time'
c. kab (f.) - 'shoe' kabo (m.) - 'shoes'
naag (f.) - 'woman' naago (m.) - 'women'
saaxib (m.) - 'friend' saaxibbo (f.) - 'friends'
sanad (m.) - 'year' sanaddo (f.) - 'years'
Among nouns ending in -e , two lexical suffixes can be
distinguished: the agentive suffix -e, as in hare 'teacher' from bar 'to
teach', and the 'ownership' suffix -le, as in dukaanle 'owner of the
shop' from dukaan 'shop'. I will show later that the -le suffix
historically developed as a composition of the associative la 'with'
plus the agentive -e.
Kraska: From verb to clitic and nominal suffix: The Somali -e, -o nouns 93
Once final -o and -el-le receive the status of nominal suffixes,
the assumption of an underlying /h/ for these suffixes does not
revolutionize the Somali lexicon. I am going to assume for the
moment the underlying representations of the suffixes as /-eh/ and
/-oh/, respectively. The only context in which the /h/ occurs on the
surface is when A:-initial clitics are added. As mentioned earlier, the
it-deletion rule applies, leaving the intervocalic [h]. The possible
derivation, including an additional rule of cross-guttural vowel
assimilation, is illustrated in (4):
(4) underlying bareh-t-k-f-iisa kaboh-i-k-i-iisa
it-deletion barehiisa kabohiisa
assimilation barihiisa kabihiisa
'his teacher' 'his shoes'
In the citation form, the final /h/ of these nouns is deleted {bare
'teacher', kaho 'shoes'). It is also deleted in phrase-medial position, as
shown below (note the optional change of noun-final vowel to -a,
which will be discussed later):
(5) caano locaad (caana locaad) (Andrzejewski, 1956, p. 18)
'cow's milk' (caano 'milk')
These two environments for the /i -deletion rule and the failure
of its application within the clitic group (as in 4) suggest that the rule
applies at the edge of a domain larger than the phonological word
but smaller than the phrase. I will refer to this domain as the 'clitic
group'.
A question may be posed concerning whether all nouns ending
in surface -e and -o contain these underlying suffixes or whether
perhaps there are among them 'truly' vowel-final nouns. Considering
the final /i-deletion rule, the only environment in which the two
kinds of nouns might exhibit the contrast is the position within the
clitic group. It is expected that the Id- and /o/-final nouns would
take the g-variant of the masculine clitic, analogously to other vowel-
final nouns. However, such cases are not reported. Hence I conclude
that there are no nouns in Somali which end in the underlying vowel
l-ol or l-tl.
Recall that among other nouns ending in vowels, only those in
-aa and -/ are common in Somali. The fact that other vowels do not
occur as a noun-final segment suggests that these two terminations
may have a status of suffixes. Caney (1984) characterizes the -aa as
an archaic derivational affix which used to indicate the performer of
the activity expressed by the verb (Caney 1984:303), as seen in (6)
below:
(6) heesaa 'singer' < hees 'to sing'
gabayaa 'poet' < gabay 'to compose poems'
94 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
In some of the nouns ending in -/, the vowel -/ is a part of the
causative suffix -inl-is, as in the example below:
(7) badi = badin=badis < badi (from 'Dizionario')
'great quantity' 'to increase in number'
For the majority of /-final nouns, however, there is no
synchronic evidence that -/ constitutes a lexical suffix, although it
could have functioned as such in the past."* I leave this issue
unresolved. Nevertheless my argument here is that nominal roots in
Somali are basically consonant-final. Postulating the suffixes /-eh/
and /-oh/ (rather than noun-final /-e(h)/ and /-o(h)/) complies with
this general pattern without creating a distributional gap.
The next question to pursue is the final /; -deletion rule. If this
were a simple phonological rule, there would be no words in Somali
ending in [h] in citation form. This is not the case, however. Although
such words are rare and mostly monosyllabic (as in 8a), some
polysyllabic words are also found (as in 8b):
(8) a. rah - 'frog'
shaah - 'tea'
leh - 'who has'
sooh - 'weaving ropes'
kaah - 'bright light'
b. soddoh - 'mother in law'
amaah - 'loan, credit'
kallah - 'to leave early in the morning'
babbah - 'nothing'
The existence of these /i -final words seems to contradict the h-
deletion rule. Fortunately there is one among them, namely the
relative pronoun leh 'who has' which actually provides substantial
evidence for the rule in question. This pronoun occurs as an
independent word in certain types of relative clauses, as in (9):
(9) nin dukaan leh (Saeed 1985:143)
man shop owning
'a man owning a shop'
Saeed notes that the same pronoun may be suffixed to the noun
rendering the meaning of 'ownership'. He adds that in such a case it
surfaces 'without the h' (Saeed 1985:143), that is as -le:
(10) dukaan 'shop'
dukaanle 'the owner of a shop'
Taking into account the semantic value of leh ('who has') and -le
('owner') there is no doubt that the suffixal -le is a reduced form of
the independent pronoun leh. Therefore it can be argued that when
Kraska: From verb to clitic and nominal suffix: The Somali -e, -o nouns 95
leh is cliticized to the noun, the final -h is deleted, not by a general
phonological rule but as the result of an idiosyncratic clitic reduction
process. (On clitic reduction in general see Hock 1986(1991):86.) It
will be important for my further argumentation to observe that the
pronoun leh '(who) has' is morphologically composed of the
associative particle la 'with' and the verb ah '(who) is'.-'' In the
following section, I will postulate that the suffixes -o and -e contain
the same morpheme -ah '(who) is'. Consequently, the final /i-deletion
in these nouns is by no means different from the /j -deletion in the
clitic leh. The rule is lexically restricted to one item: the morpheme
-ah.
2. Historical development of the -o and -e suffixes
I am going to propose that the -o and -e suffixes historically
developed from the clitics *-yah (m.) and *-tah (f.) which had their
origin in the personal forms of the verb -ah- 'to be'. The same verb
in its contracted form ah (see e.g. Saeed 1985) is the relative marker,
used to form periphrastic adjectival constructions, as in the example
below:
(ll)Nin hodon ah ayuu noqday (Saeed 1985:169)
man richman is FOC-he became
'He became a rich man'
Bell 1953 treats the above ah as an adjective requiring a comple-
mentary noun:
(12) nin Somali ah - 'a Somali man' (Bell 1953:78)
daar bir ah - 'an iron house' (daar 'house'; bir 'iron')
warqad ah - 'made of paper'
qorya ah - 'made of wood'
It is plausible that the same relative marker became a clitic in
the way -le is used as a clitic of leh. Originally the cliticized forms
carried the meaning of relativizers, too. I will show momentarily that
they still occur in this function in contemporary Somali. At a later
time -o was reinterpreted as gender or number marker, whereas -e
with its 'agentive' function still shows close semantic relation with
the relativizer 'who is'.
I assume that the original forms of the relativizers were the
third person present habitual tense forms of the verb 'be'. In
contemporary Somali the singular third person forms of 'be' are
yahay (m.) and tahay (f.) in the full form, and I assume the same as
historical reconstruction. In the plural, contemporary Somali has
yihiin (3 m.) and tihiin (3 f.), respectively. I argue that in these forms
the root vowel -a- underwent anticipatory assimilation to the -/- of
the inflectional suffix, that is, originally they were *yahiin (m.) and
*tahiin (f.). Note that all other forms of 'be' show similar assimilation
96 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
across the -h-, e.g. the negative habitual: ihi (1 sg.), ihid (2 sg.), ihin
(2 pi.), ihidin (3 pi.) vs. aha (3 sg.). I assume that these assimilations
took place later than the processes to be dealt with here. Thus the
plural relativizers are reconstructed as: *yahiin (3 m.) and *tahiin (3
f.). The first clitic reduction which affected the relativizers was the
loss of the inflectional suffixes leading to yah and tah, respectively.
The independent relativizers tah and yah were further reduced to
ah, in which form they occur in contemporary Somali, as has been
shown in (11) and (12). The cliticized relative -tah and -(y)ah can be
seen in relic forms in (13), in which the final -h has not been lost yet.
(13) ninka bukah naag buktah (Abraham 1964:35)
man the sick woman sick
'the sick man' 'a sick woman'
The next stage of the clitics' reduction was the dropping of the
final -h. In most Somali dialects the final -h is deleted everywhere
except for the position before demonstratives and other clitics, as
mentioned in section 1. Warsama and Abraham (1951) note that in
some dialects the nominal final -o is pronounced as -oh phrase-
medially. It might be suggested that these dialects represent an
earlier stage when the /z -deletion applied at the phrasal level,
whereas in other dialects the domain of the rule application was
narrowed to the clitic group. The /i -deletion led to the subsequent
change of vowel raising in phrase final position, which will be
discussed in detail in section 4. Given this change, the contemporary
agentive suffixes -e (m.) and -to (f.), exemplified in (14), can be
viewed as direct continuators of the earlier relative clitics.
(14)/qor/ 'to write' (Puglielli 1984:22)
qore (m.)/qorto (f.) 'the one who writes; writer'
/afuuf/ 'to blow (the fire)'
afuufe (m.)/afuufto (f.) 'the one who blows (the fire)'
/duul/ 'to fly'
duule (m.)/duulto (f.) 'the one who flies; pilot'
/qosol/ 'to laugh'
qosole (m.)/qososho (f.) 'the one who laughs'
/gurat/ 'to move, migrate (e.g. with cattle)'
gurte (m.)/gurato (f.) 'the one who migrates (with
animals)'
/fiirsat/ 'to look for'
fiirsade (m.)/fiirsato (f.) 'the one who looks for'
Note in (14) the operation of other rules of Somali: l+t > sh (duul + to
> duusho); syncope (qosole > qosle); intervocalic voicing of stops
(fiirsat + e > fiirsade) with the simultaneous bleeding of this rule, if
the intervocalic stop results from cluster simplification or
degemination (fiirsat + e > firsato /*fiirsado). Note also that all the
Kraska: From verb to clitic and nominal suffix: The Somali -^, -o nouns 97
nouns are given in the form in which they occur phrase-finally; in
phrase-medial position the final vowel -e or -o is optionally realized
as -a.
As noted by Puglielli (1984), in some cases the 'agentive' suffix
does not indicate a performer of an action but an object, as in cunto
'food' < cun 'to eat', or an instrument, as in fure 'key' < fur 'to open'.
All these slightly different semantic functions of the suffixes -e and
-to are derivable from the meaning of the earlier relativizer
'who/what is'. The problem unresolved until now is the plural suffix
-o.
As far as the form of the suffix is concerned, I will show in
section 4 that the variants -yo and -to, which go back to the clitics
*-yah and *-tah, respectively. Yet, it is not immediately obvious why
the relative clitic could be reinterpreted as a plural marker. In order
to answer this question, I suggest that this kind of reinterpretation is
due to the previous loss of an earlier plural marker whose function
was taken over by the the relative clitic. I hypothesize that the lost
plural marker is the feminine proto-suffix *-tV/Vt. Many Cushitic, as
well as Semitic languages, have preserved this suffix in the function
of the feminine gender marker. In a number of languages the same
suffix is also utilized as a plural marker of masculine nouns (cf.
Hetzron 1980). However, in Somali and in other Sam languages, we
do not find overt traces of the feminine proto-suffix. ^ Perhaps the
very few minimal pairs, such as Somali hoqor 'king' vs. hoqorad
'queen' and bidde 'male slave' vs. hid dad 'female slave', are relic
forms keeping the ancient proto-suffix. But it is more likely that the
feminine forms of these nouns were made up by analogy to
numerous Arabic loan-words borrowed into Somali together with the
feminine suffix -at > Som. -ad.
Although the feminine proto-suffix is segmentally lost in Somali,
its previous appearance can be predicted on the basis of the tonal
patterns of certain nouns. There are a few cases of minimal pairs of
words in which the tonal pattern is the only indicator of the noun's
gender, with masculine nouns being high-low and feminine nouns
being low-high, as in the examples in (15a) below. In addition, there
are nouns in which number distinction is marked by the same tonal
pattern, as in (15b).
(15) a. inan 'boy' inan 'girl'
orgi 'he-goat' orgi 'she-goat'
b. dibi 'bull' dibi 'bulls'
Carab 'Arab person' Carab 'Arabs'
I argue, following Oomen 1981 and Hyman 1981, that the tonal
contrasts in these cases resulted from the loss of the feminine plural
98 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
suffix. This complies with Oomen's hypothesis that originally all
nouns had penultimate accent, realized as high tone (Oomen
1981:44). After the loss of the mora-bearing proto-suffix the high
tone was preserved on the final vowel (final mora of long vowels).
The loss of the feminine proto-suffix considerably decreased the
contrast between masculine and feminine nouns, as well as the
contrast between those singular and plural nouns which had the
feminine proto-suffix as a plural marker. In order to express the
contrast more overtly and preserve the marked status of feminine
and plural nouns, the relative clitic was drawn on as a suffix
denoting their gender or number marking. The suffixed nouns came
to be used in other than relative clause syntactic positions, until they
completely replaced the non-suffixed feminine and plural nouns. The
cases cited in (15), then, represent relic forms, reflecting the stage
when the ancient suffix had already been lost and the new suffix did
not yet develop. It is somewhat puzzling why they did not undergo
the process described here. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that
the class of these nouns is limited to a small number of nouns
denoting humans and animals, whose gender is naturally assigned.
It is remarkable that in closely related Rendille and Boni, the
same clitic, which I refer to as 'relative marker', occurs in the
function of focus marker. ^ According to Heine and Reh (1984), the
focus marker -e historically developed from the copula *-ahi 'is',
used in cleft constructions, and according to them, that development
already took place in the Proto-Sam period. Somali did not preserve
*ah in either of these two functions, ^ compare Rendille (16), with the
clitic -e, to Somali (17), with the new focus marker baa.
(16) Inam-e yimi. (Heine & Reh, 1984:165)
boy-FOC came 'The boy came.'
(17) Inan baa yimi.
boy FOC came 'A boy came.'
Taking into account the Rendille and Boni data, the following
scenario of development can be proposed. In the Proto-Sam period,
the verb -ah- 'be' underwent grammaticalization, becoming a relative
clause marker. A certain type of relative clause, as in the example
(12), is still found in Somali. The same -ah- was used in another type
of relative clause, i.e. a cleft construction. This particular usage of
-ah- led to its reinterpretation as a focus marker. In Somali, the clitic
lost its function of focus marker, which was taken over by baa and
waa, and, for the reasons mentioned above, was reinterpreted as a
gender/plural marker.
The path of development proposed here for Somali has cross-
linguistic parallels, where a word first becomes a clitic, then a suffix,
and where finally the suffix is hardly recognizable as a separate
Kraska: From verb to clitic and nominal suffix: The Somali -e, -o nouns 99
morpheme. Semantic shifts accompanying such developments are not
unusual, either. Slavic adjectives provide a good example of such a
case. As Vaillant (1958) points out,"^ the relative *yo- in Balto-Slavic
became a clitic marking definiteness and was postposed in this new
function to adjectives and other qualifiers of the nominal phrase, as
in Old Slavic in (18):
(18) novo vino - 'new wine' (Vaillant 1958:428)
novo-je vino - 'the new wine'
In the related language Lithuanian, the function of the definite
determiner is still present, but in Slavic the clitic fused with the
nominal desinences and is actually no longer analyzable as a separate
morpheme. The use of the definite form was gradually expanded
until the non-definite short forms were almost completely lost. For
example, in Polish the short forms are preserved in very few
adjectives and are further limited to the nominative case singular of
the masculine gender, e.g. zdrow 'healthy', which is the continuation
of the non-determined form and is found in certain pragmatic
contexts, versus the more typical zdrowy, which is the old
determined form. Most adjectives occur exclusively in the long form
and even those in which the contrast prevailed morphologically do
not contrast semantically. The earlier function of the definite
determiner has been completely forgotten.
3. Relics of *-j- and *-/- in the plural
The -V- of the cliticized masculine -yah and the -t- of the fem-
inine -xah are often lost, and the plural suffix occurs as -o
(underlying /-ah/). However traces of -v- and -t- are found in the
plural suffixes of many Somali dialects.
The -I- of the feminine clitic is regularly preserved in the plural
formation in Digil dialects. Lamberti (1986a) notes than in Digil,
'plural nouns are formed by means of the suffixes -a, -ya and mainly
-ta (in Jiddu -clha)' (Lamberti 1986a:26). Thus the plural of m i n
'house' is Tunni/Garre minta, Dabarre mineta, Jiddu mindha. See the
further examples from Lamberti 1986b:47:
(19)
singular
plural
Tunni:
deb
debto
•fire'
Dabarre:
dib
dibeta
"
Jiddu:
buu?
buuqta
'copy-book
One might expect that the plurals with the -t- in the plural
suffix will be of the feminine gender and the others of the masculine
gender. This is not the case, however, since numerous dialects
generalized the gender of the plurals. As Lamberti indicates, in the
Ashraf dialects all nouns ending in a vowel are feminine and all
plurals are feminine; in May all plurals are masculine (Lamberti
100 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
1986a:26). He does not state so explicitly for the Digil dialects, but it
seems from his data that Digil generalized the gender of the plurals
as masculine, similarly to May.
Many, if not all Somali dialects, including the Northern dialect,
have an 'irregular' plural of // 'eye' as indo 'eyes'. As Cardona (1981)
points out, this root is related to Semitic \v« 'eye'. The change in the
singular, n > l, is irregular, but not very unusual for Somali in which
sonorants exhibit significant instability and often undergo sporadic
dissimilation or exchange (cf. Cardona 1981:22). Thus, assuming that
the root of this word is -in-, the -do in plural can be safely assumed
to be a plural suffix — another instance of the old *-tah.
A reflex of the masculine *->-- of the suffix *-yah is found in
plurals of polysyllabic masculine nouns, grouped by Bell (1953) as
nouns of class 2, corresponding to Saeed's (1985) declension 2 type.
Both authors give similar descriptions of these plurals stating that
the plural suffix is realized either as -yo (mostly after gutturals) or
as -o with the additional feature of geminating the final consonant, if
it is h, d, dh, /, or r. This type of gemination or >'-insertion is not
found in the plurals of feminine nouns (Saeed's declension 1; Bell's
class 3) which simply add -o to the noun stem, i.e. the singular form.
Bell, following Andrzejewski's suggestions, points out that these
features differentiate the two nominal classes (Bell 1953:15). It is
conceivable that the masculine declension plural suffix contains
underlying l-y-l which is assimilated to the preceding consonant in
specified phonological environments creating the geminates. Notice
that the nouns of this declension are masculine in the singular, and it
is understandable that they were followed by the masculine form of
the relativizer i.e. *yah, respecting the grammatical agreement still
present in Somali. On the other hand, the plural -o suffixed to the
feminine nouns is developed from the feminine form *tah. As
mentioned before, the original *-r- was lost and at the synchronic
level, the plural suffix is vowel-initial. However, there is no direct
correlation between the gender of the suffix and the gender of the
suffixed (i.e. plural) noun. As pointed out earlier, the gender of the
plurals may be generalized or assigned by the principle of
polarization, that is: Plurals are of the opposite gender to the
counterpart singulars, as shown before in (3).
4. Final vowel raising and other changes
The /? -deletion, discussed in section 3, caused a consecutive
phonological change, namely the raising of the final -a to -o. The -y-
of the masculine suffix caused further fronting of -o to -e . These
changes led to synchronic allophony: -e and -o phrase-finally vs. -a
phrase-medially. Recall that the phrasal allophone -a occurs also
before clitics, as in the examples in (20), (21), and (22). Notice the
Kraska: From verb to clitic and nominal suffix: The Somali -e, -o nouns
10]
operation of an additional rule of cross-guttural vowel assimilation,
limited to the cases when the trigger is a high vowel.
(20) aabbaheed
aabbahayo
aabbahood
but:
aabbiihiisa
(21) kabo
kabaheyga
kabahenna
kabahooda
but:
kabihiisa
(22) dawo
dawadeyda
dawadeyna
dawadooda
note:
dawadiisa
her father'
our (ex.) father'
their father'
his father'
shoes'
my shoes'
our shoes'
their shoes'
his shoes'
medicine'
my medicine'
our medicine'
their medicine'
'his medicine'
(from: Saeed 1985:157)
I am going to propose that the rule of vowel raising was
sensitive to the CV structure and took place when the low vowel was
followed by an empty C slot before a pause. An independent
argument for such an account comes from considering other Somali
data.
The imperative in Somali is regularly realized as a zero suffix in
the singular and -a suffix in the plural, e.g. (all examples from Saeed
1985:78) keen 'bring - sg.' : keena 'bring - pi.'; kari 'cook - sg.' :
kariya 'cook - pi.'; samee 'make - sg.' : sameeya 'make - pi.' (the
intervocalic >-insertion after a front vowel is an independently
motivated rule). Verbs with the lexical 'autobenefactive' suffix -at-
show an apparent irregularity in their singular, e.g. joogso 'stop - sg.'
: joogsada 'stop - pi.'; qaho 'seize - sg.' : qahta 'seize - pi.' (underlying
/qabata/ subject to syncopy > qahta). The expected regular
imperative singular of these verbs could be *joogsacl , *qahad,
respectively (with final voicing of -/). It is not impossible to derive
the correct surface imperatives from the underlying regular forms
by assuming morphophonemic deletion of the -t (> -d) of the
autobenefactive suffix in word-final position. Then the -a (followed
by an empty C slot) is raised to -o in the same way as suggested for
the feminine nouns with the underlying -ah suffix. Notice that
underlying final -a (e.g. keena mentioned earlier) does not undergo
the raising rule. Raising does not take place in final -aC sequences,
either, if the consonant is realized on the surface. There are a
number of Somali words ending in such a sequence and it is
102 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
impossible to postulate a general rule of raising -a- to -o- in closed
syllables. The final raising affects only the low vowel -a- which in
the process of derivation changed its status in the syllable structure:
from being the nucleus of a closed syllable to being the nucleus of an
open syllable. It is a general phonetic observation that vowel quality
may slightly differ in open and closed syllables. Apparently that
difference is the factor triggering or preventing the final a > o
change.
The rules of lexical deletion of -h in the final position and the
final raising of the vowel changed the suffixes *-yah and *-tah to
*-yo and *-to, respectively. The *-t- of the feminine suffix, with the
exceptions discussed in sections 2 and 3, has been lost, and
synchronically the suffix is represented as /-ah/ in both singular
(< *yahay) and plural (< *yahiin). Recall that the masculine *-yo also
had two functions, singular (< *yahay) and plural (< *yahiin), and it
is somewhat mysterious why these two underwent different
developments and are distinct synchronically. As mentioned in 2 the
singular 'agentive' suffix is realized as -e in the final position,
whereas the masculine plural suffix is -yo (cf.4.2). The development
in the singular can be characterized as loss of -y- with
'compensatory' fronting of the vowel. The formal rule is shown
below:
(24) a. y o > ye
C V
I I
• •
[+hi] [-bk] [+bk] [-hi] [-lo]
b. y e
C V
+ I
[-^hi] [-bk] [-hi] [-10]
place
place
The fronting rule was presupposed by the final a > o change.
Phrase-medially, where -a was not raised, the -y- was simply
deleted. The synchronic analysis of the singular masculine suffix may
assume an underlying representation as /-ah/ with the addition of
the floating feature [-back], which associates to the non-low vowel. It
is worth mentioning that Arabic men's names which end in the vowel
Kraska: From verb to clitic and nominal suffix: The Somali -e, -o nouns 1 03
-a are pronounced in Somali with final -e , e.g. Muse < Ar. Musa,
contrary to common nouns (cf. 6c) and women's names, which show
-o, e.g. Sahro < Ar. Zahra. The fact that in masculine plural the -y-
was not deleted and is still present underlyingly can be related to
the difference in accentuation of singular and plural nouns. Following
Hyman (1981) and assuming that the high tone is the manifestation
of accent, plural nouns in -o- are accented on the final mora, as in
sanaddo 'years', whereas singular masculine nouns in -e are accented
on the penultimate mora, as in bare 'teacher'. Therefore it is
plausible to argue that the -y- of the *-yah suffix remained in the
onset of accented syllables (i.e. in plurals), but underwent the
weakening process shown in (24b) when it was in the onset of
unaccented syllables (i.e. in singulars).
5. Conclusion
The hypothesis of the historical origin and development of
Somali nouns ending in -o and -e explains their somewhat bizarre
synchronic behavior. In addition, the case presented here is an
illustrative example of strong interrelation between phonology and
morphology and syntax. Only when these intertwining correlations
are taken into account, can an apparent irregularity be explained in a
coherent fashion.
NOTES
' An earlier version of this paper was read at the 20th North
American Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics (April 1992) at
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
1 am very much indebted to H. H. Hock for his guidance,
valuable suggestions on many particular issues of this paper, as well
as for his patience in reading and commenting on previous drafts.
Extended thanks go to my Somali colleague Abdulkadir Mohamed
who generously shared his time and enthusiasm in discussing Somali
with me. All the data given without reference comes from him. I am
grateful to Charles Kisseberth for commenting on my work on Somali
in general, and particularly on an earlier version of this paper. I also
thank Bernd Heine and Zygmunt Frajzyngier for their comments on
the final version of this paper. Obviously, all errors are my own
responsibility.
2 For the Somali backed/fronted vowel contrast and rules of
harmony see Armstrong 1934, Andrzejewski 1955 and 1956, and
Farnetani 1981. The fronted vowels, which can be analyzed as [+ATR]
are phonologically marked. Vowel harmony involves spreading of the
[+ATR] feature within the word and larger domains. For example
dawo 'medicine' contains [-ATR] vowels, but dawadiisa 'his medicine'
104 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
contains [+ATR] vowels, due to the spreading of [+ATR] from the
suffix -iisa 'his'. Since the contrast [-ATR]/[+ATR] is by no means
related to all the facts disscussed here and constitutes by itself a
highly complex issue, in order to avoid long and unnecessary
explanations I will ignore the contrast and throughout this paper will
be using quasi-phonetic transcription with the same notation for
both: [+ATR] and [-ATR] vowels, in keeping with the standard Somali
orthography. For consonants, Somali orthography has also been used,
with 'x' standing for [h] and 'c' for [V].
3 Oomen 1981 proposes for Rendille, a language very closely
related to Somali, that the plural -o suffix developed from the
feminine proto-suffix *-at/*-et. This hypothesis is very appealing
since it creates a bridge between the Sam languages and other
Cushitic or more generally, Afro-Asiatic, which often in one form or
another retained the feminine nominal proto-suffix *-t/-Vt/-tV .
However, Oomen's argumentation is problematic in certain aspects
and perhaps, in light of the Somali evidence, should be rethought.
According to Oomen, the same hypothetical proto-suffix
*-at/*-et underwent a number of different changes and became
either zero (in the citation form of feminine nouns) or an -e suffix in
the subject position of non-determined nouns or an -/ suffix in the
subject position of determined nouns, or finally an -ood suffix (notice
the unexplained lengthening) in the genitive case. Oomen does not
explain how the same proto-form could have so many different
reflexes and why. Another problem is the semantic shifts: from the
feminine gender marker to subject marker in one case and the
genitive marker in another case. In addition, Oomen proposes that
the masculine plural suffix -aC, in which C is a copy of the stem final
consonant, developed from the same *-at. Her crucial argument for
this is that when these nouns are suffixed with the /i-initial
determiners they show intervocalic geminate -ss-, eg. sam 'nose';
samam 'noses'; samassa 'the noses' < /samat+ha/ with the natural
rule -t+h- > -SS-. However, the -h- of the plural determiners
historically developed from *k and this must have been a
comparatively recent change since Somali still has -k-. If the
determined plurals represented some ancient stage in Rendille, we
would rather expect them to contain the older -k- form of the suffix
and not the newly developed -h-. But in such a case it is not possible
to derive the -ss- from l-t+k-l. It is quite plausible that the
masculine plural suffix aC was originally *-ay. Then in the isolated
form the final glide was strengthened and acquired the features of
the preceding consonant {*samay > samam), whereas in determined
form the *-k- was palatalized to [s] and eventually the [y] assimilated
to it i*samay + ka > samaysa > samassa). Oomen also proposes that
the plural suffix -Ce developed from the feminine *-te which,
Kraska: From verb to clitic and nominal suffix: The Somali -c, -o nouns 105
according to her, could be a variant of *-atl*-et. Here again, the
underlying form of the suffix can be /ye/ (parallel to Somali /yo/ <
*-yah). That is, instead of Oomen's /xoxom+te/ > xoxomme 'clubs'
there could be /xoxom+ye/ > xoxomme. An additional argument for
the underlying l-y-l comes from vowel-final nouns which take [-
nye] in the suffix: dulbe 'roofmate' : pi. dulbenye. The intervocalic
change of lyl to palatal [ny] seems to be more natural than the
assumption that the [ny] resulted from lil.
^ Puglielli 1984 gives two examples in which -il-ey could be
remnants of singulative suffixes: askari 'military sg.', askar 'military
collect'; haweeney 'woman', haween 'women'. Note, however, that the
first example is an Arabic borrowing: Ar. ?askarii 'military sg.',
?askar 'troops'.
5 Abraham 1964 notes that the inflection of Somali lahlleh
'have' and ah 'be' strongly suggests that the former is morpho-
logically composed of la 'with' and ah 'be'. The semantic
interpretation of 'be with' as 'have' is straighforward, and many
languages express possession in such a way (e.g. Arabic, Swahili).
6 1 disagree here with Oomen 1981, cf. footnote 3.
7 All the disscussion in this paragraph is taken from Vaillant
1958 except for the Polish example which is my own. Reference to
Vaillant has been suggested to me by H. H. Hock.
8 1 thank Bernd Heine (p.c.) for drawing my attention to these
data.
^ At least in the data at my disposal.
REFERENCES
Abraham, R. C. 1964. Somali-English dictionary. London: University
of London Press.
ANDRZEJEWSKI, B. W. 1955. The problem of vowel representation in
the Isaaq dialect of Somali. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and
African Studies 17:5.67-80.
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106 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
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. 1985. Dizionario somalo-italiano. Roma: Gangemi.
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in Afrika 2.7-126.
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. 1986(b). Die Somali-Dialekte. Hamburg: Buske.
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Wheaton: Sunwoody Press.
SasSE, Hans-Jurgen. 1979. The consonant phonemes of Proto-East-
Cushitic (PEC): A first approximation. Afroasiatic Linguistics 7.1-
67.
Vaillant, Andre. 1958. Grammaire comparee des langues slaves, v.
2. Lyon: Editions lAC.
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London.
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Semitic I. Krakow: Uniwersytet Jagiellonski.
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences
Volume 22, Number 1, Spring 1992
ON THE USE AND FUNCTION OF CHINESE KESHI:
AN EXPLANATION BASED ON THE NOTION
•INFERENCE SYSTEM*
Pinmin Kuo
Various uses of the contrast connective keshi 'but' in
Chinese are governed by important yet subtle distinctions
in the directionality of the resulting inference procedure. In
addition, the point-making function (i.e. the indication of
the attitude of the speaker towards previous discourse and
the following utterances) of keshi is shown to derive from
these same distinctions in the directionality of the inference
procedure.
1. Introduction
The English connective but has been studied both in terms
of its semantic use (R. Lakoff 1971, Blakemore 1989) and its
pragmatic function (Schiffrin 1987). In most studies, hut is
categorized by (i) its use for denial of expectation and (ii) its use for
contrast. In (la), but is interpreted as denial of an expectation. The
first clause suggests that, being a politician, John is not honest. The
use of but in the second clause suggests that this interpretation
should be abandoned. In (lb), but is used merely for contrast:
Although the two propositions are in contrast, neither is abandoned.
In both (la) and (lb), the speaker is understood to have presented a
single conjoined proposition whose relevance is revealed by the way
in which the first conjunct affects the interpretation of the second.
(1) (a) John is a politician, but he is honest,
(b) John likes apples, but Bill likes pears.
Blakemore (1989) claims that in both cases but instructs the
hearer to derive a negation of a proposition P (P but ~P),^ and in both
cases the value of P is determined by the interpretation of the first
clause. This claim, I think, cannot be fully supported.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the inference system
which underlies the interpretations of but and to show two things: (i)
There is only one but, instead of two, or more. The interpretations of
but vary because the readers/listeners interpret it under different
inference processes, (ii) The conjuncts connected by but both play
108 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
roles in the interpretation of the whole sentence. The subtle but
fundamental distinctions between various uses of but are accounted
for in terms of directionality of the inference procedure.
Independent evidence from Mandarin Chinese is offered in support
of this analysis. Also, it is argued that the point-making function of
but suggested by Schiffrin (1987) can be explained by this analysis.
2.1 Implication and inference
In the study of pragmatics it has been widely suggested that an
implication is a proposition that is implied by the utterance of a
sentence in a context even though that proposition is not a part nor
an entailment of what was actually said (Gazdar 1979, Levinson
1983, Green 1989). Where, then, does the implication come from, if it
is not the literal meaning of an utterance? The process of implying
involves at least three factors: (i) the propositional content of the
utterances, (ii) a sequence of inferences, and (iii) the language users'
knowledge which includes experience, cultural background, the
knowledge of language itself, knowledge of communication,
knowledge about the use of language, knowledge of the history of the
discourse, also, the knowledge of subject of the discourse, and the
addresser's model of the world. Based on the premises of the
language users' knowledge, the implications are inferred from the
literal meaning by rules of inference, 2 as shown in (2).
(2) Premises: language users' knowledge
the literal meaning of the utterance
inference rules -^ implications (expectations)
To interpret the utterance in (3), for example, there is a group of
items in the language users' knowledge which is related to the literal
meaning of the utterance he is tall and he is not handsome
respectively. Both conjuncts can have a very long but prioritized list
of meanings which are associated with them as in (4). Consider for
instance the utterance he is tall. If the language users believe (or
have the impression) that 'people who are tall are usually handsome',
'people who are tall are good at basketball', 'people who are tall are
strong', and also 'he' is a member of 'people', then implications such
as 'he is handsome', 'he is good at basketball', and 'he is strong' will
be inferred from the utterance. An imaginative reader could derive
as many implications from an given utterance as possible, but
whether it is necessary to infer something else besides the uttered
propositional content is determined by the communication principle.
(3) He is tall, but he is not handsome.
Kuo: On the use and function of Chinese keshi
(4) Language user's knowledge
109
Related to he is tall
Related to he is not handsome
a. people who are tall
a. people who are not
are handsome
handsome are unhappy
b. people who are tall
b. people who are not
are strong
handsome are quiet
c. people who are tall
c. people who are not
are good at basketball
handsome are smart
d. people who are tall
d. people who are not
are bold
handsome have character
e. he is a human
being
2.2 The interpretation of but
In the interaction with the use of but, the interpretation of
conjoined discourses is signaled by contrast. The conventional
implication of contrast relation arises solely because of the particular
(non-truth-condition) properties of the word but. To satisfy the
contrast purpose, two things need to be present: (i) the negation
condition and (ii) the principle of relevance. In a listener/reader-
based model of discourse, the interpretation of 'Ui but U2' (U stands
for utterance) can be analyzed into four steps (cf. Grice's
characterization of implicature 1975:49-50): (i) The speaker is
presumed to be observing the maxims, or at least the Cooperative
Principle, (ii) In order to make the speaker's uttering 'U] but U2'
consistent with (i), it is necessary to assume that the speaker
believes that 'P but ~P'. (iii) The speaker reflexively expects that the
addressee is able to grasp intuitively, or actively infer (ii), and the
addressee is cooperative, (iv) Therefore, he/she will infer 'P, but ~P'
by selecting one pair of propositions denoted or implied by Ui, and
U2 which matches the contrast relation denoted by but. This is
essentially the 'P but ~P' approach.
To obey the communication principle, both conjuncts have to be
relevant and contrast to satisfy the use of but, i.e., the use oi but
narrows down the possible meanings inferred from the utterance. On
the one hand, based on the addressee's knowledge, there might be a
long list of expectations derived from the utterance he is tall. On the
other hand, there could be also another long list of expectations
1 1 0 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
derived from the second conjunct he is not handsome. One possible
interpretation of discourse (3) is shown in (5a): One of the
expectation derived from the first conjunct matches the requirement.
The fact that "he is not handsome' contrasts with the expectation 'he
is tall and thus he is handsome'. Other potential expectations,
therefore, will not be interpreted. If both conditions of the use of but
are present, the reader/listener can follow the characterization of
implication and interpret the discourse; if not, the interpretation does
not succeed. As illustrated in (5b), 3 utterance Ui denotes
prepositional content X which implies implication ~y; utterance U2
denotes propositional content Y. This inference process yields '~y, but
Y' which satisfies the pattern of 'P, but ~P'.
(5) a. A possible interpretation of 'he is tall, but he is not
handsome'
'he is tall' but 'he is not handsome'
he is hand.
>ome he is unhappy
he is good at
basketball he is quiet
he is strong
he is smart
he is bold
he has character
Ui,butU2:
he is tall, but he is not handsome
X, but Y:
'he is tall', but 'he is not handsome'
X implies ~y:
'he is supposed to be handsome'
~y, but Y:
'he is supposed to be handsome', but
'he is not handsome'
3. Directionality of the inference procedures
Following the process of interpretation stated above, if the
propositional content 'X but Y' of utterance Ui or U2 seems irrelevant
to the reader/hearer, the reader/hearer will tend to construct a
sequence of inferences which make it relevant or at least
cooperative. I maintain that there are four possible patterns which
are derivable in reaching 'P, but ~P' in the interpretive process. As
shown in (6), in the first type of interpretation, Ui denotes X which
implies ~y; U2 denotes Y. In the second type, Ui denotes X; U2 denotes
Y which implies ~x. In the third type, Ui denotes X which implies z;
U2 denotes Y which implies ~z. In the fourth type, Ui denotes X; U2
denotes ~X.
Kuo: On the use and function of Chinese keshi 1 1
(6) Type Utterance Prepositional Interpretation
content
i Ui,butU2 (X,butY) -^ i~y,butY)
ii Ui,butU2 (X,butY) -> iX,but~x)
ill Ui,butU2 (X,butY) -^ {z, but ~z)
iv Ui.butU2 (X^butY) -^ (X,but~X)
The direction of inference procedure for the interpretation of
the utterance He is tall, but he is not handsome belongs to the first
pattern. These four patterns will be further illustrated below.
3.1 ~y but Y
In the first pattern an implication is made from the first
conjunct as shown in the Chinese example (7), where keshi 'but' is
highlighted in the illustration: The writer marks the contrast
between X and Y by inferring proposition ~y from X (represented as
the boldface subscript letter in the example), and reaches the pattern
of 'P, but ~P'. Although the proposition ~y is not part of the
prepositional content of the utterance just made, it is inferred from
it. The expectation inferred from the pre-A'^^/iZ-unit Nonghaole,
yexu..., pongqiao le, yexu... 'with luck, maybe.., without luck, may...' is
dependent on the unit introduced by keshi 'but'. From the first
conjunt X, many possible propositions can be inferred, but only the
one which is relevant to Y is useful in the interpretation. And since
the but-nnit is used to express the idea dan ye bu zaihu 'it doesn't
bother them' (Y), the interpretation of the proposition X can be
inferred to be 'something did bother them' (~y) and this then
satisfies both the relevance principle and the negation condition.
Thus the interpretation of the whole sentence can be interpreted as
'with luck, maybe something happens, and without luck, maybe some
other things happen — it should bother them a lot, but actually it
does not matter at all.' Keshi is used to mark the effect that what the
reader expects from the clause preceding the ke s hi-nnit is
abandoned, and the keshi-unii is asserted.
(7) X,butY
X implies ~y: 'it bothered them a lot'
~y, but Y: 'it should bother them a lot', but
it didn't bother them at all'
[.,y Nonghao le, yexu yixiazi nong ge yi kuai Hang
with luck P^ maybe once make cl one dollar two
kuai de; pongqiao le, yexu baihao yi tian, Han
dollar P chance P maybe waste one day even
112 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
'chefener' yemei mei zhaoluo,] keshi [y ye bu zaihu.] (p. 3)5
rent also no way but also not bother
'[-.yWith luck, a single trip can net one or two silver dollars;
without luck, it may happen that they spend the whole day idle,
not even recouping their rickshaw rent.] But [y still, it didn't
bother them at all.]'
The point is that neither X nor Y is independent; only by being
connected to the interpretation of X can Y be interpreted. Also, X may
imply many different propositions, but only the one which negates
(or incompletely negates) Y is construed as relevant.
3.2 X but ~x
In the second case, an implication is made from the second
conjunct: Proposition Y introduced by a contrast-connective is
understood to imply a proposition ~x which is in contrast to the
preceding proposition X. Unlike the first case, in (8), ta bugan (long
'he was afraid to move' does not negate the keshi-unh; instead, the
keshi -unit keshi mashang ying li luan qi lai 'hut around him the
camp was immediately thrown into confusion' implies that something
he must do in this situation is contrary to his fear of moving: 'he
must move.' Again, this inference contrasts with what is conveyed by
the pre-^^-y/jZ-unit, by satisfying both the relevance principle and the
negation condition.
(8) X,butY
Y implies ~x: 'he had to move.'
X, but ~x: 'he expected not to move,' but 'he
had to move.'
[xTa bugan dong,] keshi [-x mashang ying li
he dare-not move but immediately camp inside
luan qilai] (p. 20)
chaos up
'[x He was afraid to move,] but [~x around him the camp was
immediately thrown into confusion].'
3.3 z but ~z
Sometimes, the direction of inference from one conjunct to the
other is not apparent. In this case, it is possible that both
propositions X and Y are understood to imply other things which
contrast with each other. The interpretations of both conjuncts
involve sets of inference as shown in (9). In the text, the first
conjunct qian shao 'money is little' does not imply kuai pao 'need run
fast' which would negate the second conjunct wu xu kuai pao 'need
not run fast'. Similarly, wu xu kuai pao 'need not run fast' cannot be
Kuo: On the use and function of Chinese keshi 113
made to imply 'a lot of money' which would negate the pre-keshi-
unit qian shao 'money is little'. Instead, one of the expectations
derived from the pre-Jt^^/ii-unit is the expression 'money is little,
which is a bad thing'. A corresponding negated meaning can be
derived from the keshi-cXdiUse,: i.e. 'need not run fast, which is not a
bad thing'. The expectations derived from both conjuncts: 'a bad
thing' vs 'not a bad thing' satisfy the contrastive condition.
(9) X,butY
X implies z: 'it is a bad thing.'
Y implies ~z: 'it is not bad.'
z, but ~z: 'it should be a bad thing,' but 'it is
not bad.'
Dao guashi guoshi caishi qu la
to melon-market fruit-market vegetable-market to pull
huoche, dou shi tamen; [z qian shao] keshi
riskshaw all be they money few but
[_z wuxu kuai pao ne](p. 4)
needless fast run P
'They are the ones who take merchandise to the melon, fruit or
vegetable markets; [2 the amount of money (they get for this) is
little] but [~z they don't need to run fast.]'
3.4 X but ~X
In contrast to the three cases discussed above, in the last case,
almost no inference process is involved in the interpretation of each
of the conjuncts. Again, the inferential process is only a matter of
degree. It can vary from individual to individual. If two conjuncts
are explicitly in contrast, then less inference is involved in the
interpretation. In the example shown in (10), the contrast between
the two conjuncts is shown by the propositions 'the spring rain never
comes but war comes for sure.' The interpretations derived from
both sides contrast with each other by satisfying two conditions: the
principles of relevance and negation.
(10) X, but ~X: 'Spring rains won't come' but 'war comes
no matter whether people hope for it
or not'
[x Chun yu bu yiding shunzhe renmin de panwang
spring rain not sure for people NOM hope
er jiangluo,] keshi [_x zhanzheng buguan you mei
then fall but war regardless have not
114 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
you ren panwang zong hui laidao] (p. 15)
have people hope always will come
'[x Spring rains are not sure to fall when the people hope for
them,] but [~x war comes anyway, regardless of whether or not
anyone wants it.]'
Although the two conjuncts are clearly in contrast, this contrast
is partial. 'Spring rains' and 'war' are not being contrasted but rather
the idea of 'come' and 'won't come'. Indeed all contrasts are partial to
one degree or another since absolute contrasts of the type: 'He is
tired but he is not tired' on the surface, at least, are not informative.
Thus a hearer's knowledge of the world as well as her understanding
of semantic relations is vital to her interpretation of contrasts.
3.5 Conclusions of section 3
If we make allowances for variation in the directionality of
inference, in all four cases of ^^^/j/structures examined above, both
conditions for contrast (the negation principle and the relevance
principle) are satisfied, and the form of 'P but ~P' is obtained at the
final stage of interpretation.
On the one hand, these four patterns have one thing in common:
Each of them relates to two conjuncts. Since keshi is a connective, it
has the basic property of a connective. I call this basic default value
a 'transition marking function'.
On the other hand, the major difference between these four
cases is the degree of 'inferential contrast'. The point is that in a
situation where a hearer has immediate access to an assumption P,
any utterance U which conveys not-P will be taken as evidence that
the speaker's belief in not-P is stronger than in P. Hence P is
abandoned or is given less attention. In cases one, two, and three,
keshi marks the 'inferential contrast' through a particular set of
inferential processes. Either or both the conjuncts may be abandoned;
i.e., the expectation is denial. But in case four, less inferential contrast
is marked because less inference is involved; so although the two
propositions are in contrast, neither of them is abandoned. In the
four cases the transition marking function and the inferential
contrast marking function mix together. The inferential contrast is
more apparent in cases one, two, and three, but the transition
function is more apparent in the fourth case.
The relative rates of occurrence of the four cases are given in
(11).
Kuo: On the use and function of Chinese keshi 115
(11) Occurrences of keshi in Luotuo Xiangzi (Chs. 1-4) in
different types of inference (62 in total)
Type Proposition Interpretation Frequency Point-making
i. OiTbLTY) -^ (~y, but Y) ^9 Y
ii. (X, but Y) -^ (X, but ~x) 5 X
iii. (X, but Y) ^ (z, but ~z) 5 Z
iv. (X, but Y) -^ (X, but ~X) 13 X
As might be expected, the first case ('the honest politician' of
(la)) with its denial of expectation is the most common. Case four,
the relatively straightforward contrastive ('John likes apples, but Bill
likes pears' of (lb)) is the second most common. Categories two and
three, also denials of expectations, are less frequent. It is perhaps
this reduced frequency of usage which is responsible for the fact that
the types two and three have not been distinguished in earlier
analyses, which as noted in the introduction limit themselves to the
types one and four. The preceding discussion shows that, whether
their frequency of use, the types two and three need to be
recognized as separate categories. At the same time, each of the four
types recognized involves the making of a different point (X, Y, Z),
albeit by different inferences.
4,1 Point-making function of keshi
So far, the discussion has centered on the contrastive use of the
connective keshi. Another important aspect that makes the study of
connectives appealing is that they have point-making functions
related to discourse interpretation.
To check the discourse functions of keshi in Mandarin Chinese,
some claims about the functions of connectives in English are briefly
reviewed first. Brown & Yule (1983: ch. 7) suggest that the function
of the conjunctions in discourse would be explainable only in terms
of 'an utterance-as-action analysis'. For instance, in the use of the
conjunction because ('cause'), our understanding of discourse is based
on our assumption that a reason is being expressed for an action
performed in speaking. The conjunction because ('cause') is not only
used as a logical connector (P because Q) to connect two clauses in a
complex sentence, but also to introduce the reason for asking a
question, or introducing a particular subject into a conversation, that
is, to achieve a complete act 'A mention (or ask) P because Q'. It is
only by recognizing the action performed by each utterance within
the conventional sequencing of such actions that we can accept this
sequence as coherent discourse.
I claim that, similarly, keshi is not only used to connect two
contrasting propositions (by different degrees of inference) but also
116 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
to achieve a 'complete act'. Following the uses of keshi discussed
above, it is suggested that the way the inference goes reflects the
attitude of the speaker's attention towards the previous discourse
and the following utterances. This claim is supported by the data and
discussion below.
4.2 Point development in keshi
Note that the final stage in the inferential procedure in all four
cases examined above implies that the interpretation of THE ATTENTION
OF THE WRITER is related to its preceding and following discourse. In
the case of X, but Y, if proposition X implies ~y, then the speaker's
attention is supposed to be switched from facts about X to facts about
Y. A strong piece of evidence to support this hypothesis is that the
discourse following the unit connected by keshi is staying at the
same level of attention as that in the keshi-umi. Once the keshi-un'n
is used to imply the speaker's new attention, the immediately
following discourse will develop the same point. To develop the same
point means to illustrate the idea conveyed in the preceding
discourse by giving reasons, examples, or positions.
For instance in (12), the inferential procedure of the unit
connected by keshi belongs to the first type X, but Y -^ ~y, but Y. The
Tprc-keshi-nmi is used to describe the high prestige and pride long-
distance runners have in comparison with short-distance runners.
This description may also imply that the long-distance runners have
high prestige and pride in comparison with ALL the other groups of
runners (X-^~y). However, this is not true. The keshi-nmi contrasts
with the pre-A:^5/j/-unit by reflecting the fact that the long-distance
runners do not have the same prestige as the rickshawmen of
Dongjiaominxiang (Y). The discourse following the keshi-un'\i
continues the writer's point by describing the rickshawmen of
Dongjiaominxiang, thus further developing point Y.
(12) X,butY
X implies ~y
~y but Y
[_y Sheng yuXiyuandian de ziran yi zou Xishan,
born in Xiyuandian NOM naturally by run Xishan
Yanjing, Qinghua, bijiao fangbian, tongyang, zai Andingmen
Yanjing Qinghua more convenient same at Andingmen
wai de zou Qinghe, Beiyuan, zai Yongdingmen wai
outside NOM run Qinghe Beiyuan at Yongdingmen outside
de zou Nanyua, zhi shi pao chang tang de, buyuan
NOM run Nanyua this is run long run NOM unwilling
Kuo: On the use and function of Chinese keshi 117
la sanzuo yinwei la yitang bianshi yitang,
pull short-trip because pull one-trip then one-trip
buxieyu san wu ge tongzi de qiongcou le] keshi
not-care three five Q^ copper NOM scoff P but
[y tamen hai bu ru Dongjiaominxiang de che fu de
they still not as Dongjiaominxiang NOM runner NOM
qiercheng] [y Zhixie zhuan la yang maimai de jiangjiu
proud these only pull foreign trade NOM like
yiqier you Jiaominxiang la dao Yuquanshan] (p. 5)
non-stop from Jiaominxiang pull to Jade Fountain mount.
'[_y Those living in the western suburbs around Xiyuan and Haidian
naturally prefer to take fares to the Western Hills or the universities
of Yanjing and Qingjua; those from the northern suburbs outside
Andingmen Gate ply the Qingho and Beiyuan route, while those in
the south outside Yongdingmen Gate will go as far as Nanyuan. Those
long-distance runners will make trips which pay, and scoff at the
paltry three or five coppers which is all that one gets for short
distances.] But [y they still lose their wind sooner than the
rickshawmen of Dongjiaominxiang, the "legation Quarter".] [y These
are real long-distance runners who cater solely for the foreign trade
and pride themselves on being able to run non-stop from the
diplomatic quarter all the way out to Mt. Jade Fountain.]
Similarly, in the type two of the inference processes, the point
asserted by the writer is further developed in the discourse
following the keshi-unit. For instance, in example (13), the
interpretation of the ^^^/iZ-connected-unit asserts that 'he must
move' and the subsequent discourse is describing the way he moved:
'he stopped breathing ... he slowly, stopped breathing, climbed on the
ground to search those camels.' Thus the point which the writer
asserted in the A:e'.9/iz-connected-unit is developed.
(13) X,butY
Y implies ~x
X but ~x
[x Ta bugan dong,] keshi [~x mashang ying li
he dare not move but immediately camp inside
luan qilai.] [x Ta bizhu le qi, jihui dao le! ... Ta
chaos up he stop P breath chance come P he
manman de, bizhe qi, zai dishang pa, mudi shi
slowly NOM stop breath at ground climb purpose is
118 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
zai zhaodao na ji pi luotuo] (p. 20)
at search that several CL camels
'[x He was afraid to move,] but [_x around him the camp was
immediately thrown into confusion.] [x He stopped breathing ... He
slowly stopped breathing, climbed on the ground to search those
camels]'
4.3 Point return in keshi
Another use of keshi can be interpreted as the speaker's effort
to return to a prior concern in order to make a point. It is found that
the case of keshi used as a point return device usually involves a
certain kind of situation: The ^xt-keshi-wmi provides additional
information on a previous speech act. It is additional because it is not
the core of the speaker's concern. However it may help the hearer in
understanding the related information. The additional information
provided by the ^xc-keshi-umi is used to emphasize the contrast
between the speaker's point and the information asserted. Keshi,
then, is used to mark this contrast and return to the speaker's point
expressed in the speech act preceding the ^xQ-keshi-umt. The speech
act could be a question or an assertion. The keshi-\xx\\i then can be an
answer which reflects the speaker's real concern, or an assertion
which reasserts the speaker's point. As pointed out by Schiffrin
(1987), hut marks functionally differentiated portions of answers —
portions which fulfill different expectations of a prior question. In
this role, but is similar to anyway. The use of keshi in point return
function serves to indicate relevance in discourse, by using a
repeated point to display 'a committed orientation toward a
proposition in which stating one's point is one of the speaker's goals
(1987:177).
In (14), the first discourse element (X) states that Xiangzi 'did
not take very much to heart the rumor that he heard outside.' This
statement is followed by specific illustrations of such 'rumors'. The
second element of the discourse (Y), however, can be read as
suggesting that, by 'not hunting for trouble', Xiangzi was protecting
himself and thus did believe the rumors. It is this suggestion which
is derived by the following k e s h i -\xx\'\V. 'But as for the rumors
themselves, he did not believe them.' This assertion then returns to
the point asserted in the very beginning.
(14)
[x Waimian de yaoyan ta bu da wang xingli ting,
outside NOM rumor he not quite toward mind hear
sheme Xiyuan you lai le bing, sheme Changxindian
what Xiyuan again come P soldier what Changxindian
Kuo: On the use and function of Chinese keshi 119
you dashang le zhang, sheme Xizhimen wai you zai
have fight P war what Xizhimen outside again have
lafu, sheme Qihuamen yijing guanle bantian, ta dou
conscript what Qihuamen already close half-day he all
bu da zhuyi.] [y Ziran jieshang buhu yi dou
not too notice naturally on-street store already all
guanshang le men, er malushang zhan man le wuzhuang
close P door and on-street stand full P armed
jingchaju yu baandui, ta ye bubian
police and peace-preservation he too needless
guyi qu zhao buzizai, ye he bieran yiyang
on-purpose go look-for trouble also with others same
jimang shou le che.] Keshi, [x yaoyan, ta bu xing. (p. 14)
quickly close P rickshaw but rumor he not believe
'[x He did not take very much to heart the rumor that he heard
outside; he could not be bothered with all the talk about soldiers'
coming back to the Western Gardens, or the fighting at Chang Hsin
Tien, or the conscripting of men outside the Western Gate of
Forthrightness, or the Gate of Uniform Transformation's being
already closed for half a day.] [y Naturally the stores would have
closed their doors, and the streets would be full of armed police and
members of the Peace Preservation Corps. He could not go hunting
for trouble, and like everybody else he would put up his rickshaw as
quickly as he could.] [x But as for the rumors themselves he did not
believe them.]
Another kind of speech act occurs when the discourse preceding
the /:f'5/z /-connected-units is a question. In (15), keshi marks
differentiated portions of answer to the question, 'Was he to believe
that they had dragged back and forth for so many days only to come
out whetstone Pass, to the West of Beijing?': 'Did not know this' in the
pre-keshi-unit vs. 'did know some other things' in the keshi-unit.
The pre-keshi-unit gives an apparently complete answer to the
question. But the keshi-unit provides the real answer and, is so
doing, expresses the writer's point of view.
(15)
[x Nandao raolairaoqu, rao dao Moushikou lai le ma?]
wonder drag-around drag to Moushikou come P Q
[y Zhe shi sheme zhanlue — jiashi zhequn zhihui
this is what strategy if this-group only-can
paolu yu qiangjiede bingmen ye hui you zhanlue —
run and rob NOM soldiers also can have strategy
120 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
ta bu xiaode.] Keshi [x ta que zhidao, jiaru zhe
he not know but he actually know if here
zhenshi Moushoukou dehua, bingmen bi shi rao bu
really-be Moushoukou in-case soldiers must be drag not
chu shan qu, erxiang dao shan xia lai
out mountain go so think to mountain foot come
zhao ge huolu.] (p. 19)
look-for GL exit
'[x Was he to believe that they had dragged back and forth for so
many days only to come out at Whetstone Pass, to the West of
Peking?] [y He did not know what kind of strategy that was, or if this
gang of troops, who could march and steal, were capable of strategy.]
[x But one thing he did know: if this is really Whetstone Pass, then
the soldiers had not been able to find their way across the mountains
and had come back to the foot of them to get their bearings.]'
While it is clear in the case of point-development that the
subsequent discourse supports the point asserted in the keshi-unit,
in the case of point-returning, this is not as clearly the case.
Chao (1969) introduces two terms for different types of
connectives in Chinese: SYNTACTIC connectives and MACROSYNTACTIC
connectives. The syntactic connectives are used to connect clauses
within a sentence; the macrosyntactic connectives are used to
connect sentences. Keshi can be used in both ways. Although this has
not been treated in the previous discussion, there is an important
distinction between the syntactic, sentential-connective use of keshi,
and the macrosyntactic, intersentential-connective use of keshi. The
syntactic use of keshi as a point-making device is much more
limited than its macrosyntactic use. As a macrosyntactic connective,
keshi continues the point of the discourse prior to its occurrence. The
point-developing discourse may be represented by several
sentences; or by the rest of the keshi paragraph (as shown in
examples (14) and (15)), or indeed, even by the rest of the story. On
the other hand, in the use of keshi as a syntactic connective, only a
small range of point development is found. In these cases, the point-
developing discourse is only usually a single sentence in length, or
there may be no development at all. Similar phenomena are
observed in cases of point-returning.
5. Conclusion
Study of a Chinese written text shows that the contrast
connective keshi 'but' is used to reflect contrast relations in a
Kuo: On the use and function of Chinese keshi 121
coherent discourse to help the speaker guide the hearer to a full
intended message. The interaction of two main functions of keshi, a
transition marking function, and an inferential contrast marking
function, provides an explanation for the phenomena reflected in the
so-called expectation-denial use of but, and the contrast use of but.
There is only one keshi 'but', however, rather than two or more. The
interpretations of keshi vary because the readers/listeners interpret
it under different inference processes. Furthermore, this
generalization of inferential procedures provides evidence for the
claim that the contrast connectives can be used as a point-making
device. In the point-development function of keshi, the final stage in
the inferential procedure in all four cases implies that the
interpretation of the attention of the writer is related to its preceding
and following discourse. In the point-returning function of keshi,
keshi is interpreted as the speaker's effort to return to a prior
concern.
NOTES
* Parts of the paper have been presented at the Sixth Annual
International Conference on Pragmatics and Language Learning,
University of Illinois, April 4, 1992. An earlier version has been
presented at the First International Conference on Chinese
Linguistics, Singapore, June 26, 1992. I am grateful to C. C. Cheng,
Yamura Kachru, Bruce Fraser, Hans Henrich Hock, and Hugh Ortman
for their valuable comments. Any deficiencies must rest with me.
1 The letter on both sides indicates that the final propositions
connected by but are relevant to each other (Grice's maxim of
relation). ~P stands for not-P.
2 Rules of reference are a sequence of simpler argument forms
whose validity has already been established. All the premises are
assumed to be true. The result is derived from two of them by a
valid argument and can be added to the stock of premises for use in
further steps. Some basic rules of inference are discussed in Wall
1972.
3 The capital letters X, Y, Z stand for propositions (or facts)
derived from the propositional content, and the small letters x, y, z
stand for the propositions (or implications) inferred by the language
users based on the inference process and their knowledge.
"* Abbreviations in the glosses: P = particle, NOM = nominalizer,
CL = classifier, Q = question marker.
1 2 2 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
5 The examples are excerpted from Laoshe's Luotuo Xiangzi
(1935), and the English translations in all examples are based on King
1945 and Shi 1981.
REFERENCES
Blakemore, Diane 1989. Denial and contrast: A relevance theoretic
analysis of but. Linguistics & Philosophy 12:1.15-39.
Brown, Gillian, & George Yule. 1983. Discourse analysis. Longman and
Ablex Publishing Corp.
Chao, Yuen-Ren 1968. A grammar of spoken Chinese. University of
California Press.
Gazdar, G. 1979. Pragmatics, implicature, presupposition, and logical
form. New York: Academic Press.
Green, Georgia. 1989. Pragmatics and natural Language
understanding. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
GRICE, H.P. 1957. Meaning. Philosophical Review 66.377-388.
King, Evan 1945. Rickshaw boy. [Translation of Laoshe's Luotuo
Xiangzi 1935.] New York: Reynal & Hitchcock.
LakoFF, Robin 1971. Ifs, and's and but's about conjunction. Studies in
Linguistic Semantics, ed. by C. J. Fillmore & D. T. Langendoen,
115-150.
LaoSHE. 1935. Luotuo Xiangzi Laoshe xuangji 1.1-243. Chengdu:
Sichuan Ren Min Ban She.
Levinson, S. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
SCHIFFRIN, Deborah 1987. Dicourse marker. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Wall, Robert. 1972. Introduction to mathematical linguistics. New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Studies in the Linguistics Sciences
Volume 22, Number 1, Spring 1992
OCP VIOLATIONS IN SETSWANA:
EVIDENCE FOR REDEFINING THE OCP?
Sheila Onkaetse Mmusi
This paper addresses the tonal facts of Setswana as
they relate to the Obligatory Contour Principle. My
assumption is that Setswana is a language that observes
the OCP. I will demonstrate that apparent violations of
the OCP in this language can be accounted for, not by
totally rejecting the adherence of this language to the
OCP, but by assuming that Setswana tonology allows some
violations such as sequences of singly-linked high tones,
while rejecting sequences of multiply-linked high tones.
This implies that the language dictates whether it will
take the strong form of the OCP or a weaker form of the
OCP.
It is the purpose of this paper to show that the OCP is
a universal principle which may have different
manifestations in different languages, and therefore may
need some redefining for particular languages.
1. Introduction
In this paper, I claim that Setswana, a Southern Bantu language,
observes the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP). While I claim that
the OCP is prevalent in this language, I will also illustrate that this
claim is not without problems. While the OCP serves as a constraint
on some phonological rules across the board, it is not without
problems, as indicated by the controversial nature of the ideas of the
authors cited in this study. I provide an alternative analysis for
apparent OCP violations found in Setswana by proposing that they
are not true violations, but legal forms licensed by language-
particular rules in conjunction with the OCP and other universal
principles. This can be done by assuming two types of high tones in
Setswana, a lexical high tone and a grammatical high tone. These high
tones, which are distinguishable by their origin and manner of
spreading, provide the basis of this analysis. Using this distinction, I
claim that the OCP violations of Setswana should be viewed not as
true violations but as apparent violations which can be resolved
easily if we consider the two types of high tones.
124 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
Through the analysis of the tonal data of Setswana I show that
this language assumes a weaker version of the OCP by allowing
sequences of singly-linked high tones while disallowing sequences of
doubly- and multiply-linked high tones. Sequences of multiply-
linked high tones with single high tones are also not tolerated in
Setswana. The "apparent" OCP violations resulting from these
sequences will be accounted for by language-particular
manifestations of the OCP. In other words, this paper supports the
universality of the OCP, but suggests a parametric definition of the
principle.
2. Background
The OCP was first proposed by Leben (1973) as a constraint on
some tonal rules and was further modified by Leben (1978) after
being criticized by Goldsmith (1976). This paper will follow the
definition of the OCP as provided by McCarthy (1986). The OCP is a
principle that requires that spreading be the only way to describe
assimilatory processes, instead of the traditional feature-changing
rules; cf. Yip 1988. McCarthy concludes in his 1986 paper that the
OCP has widespread effects in phonology, being able to account for
many unrelated rules in the phonologies of the languages of the
world. In McCarthy's terms, the OCP is a universal principle that
should be assumed to be ON unless otherwise stated.
This is the position I assume for Setswana. The OCP effects noted
by McCarthy can be observed in this language: The OCP (a) is a
universal constraint, (b) serves as a rule blocker, (c) serves as a rule
trigger. I will restrict my discussion to OCP effects as they constrain
tonal representations in this language by triggering rules that repair
OCP violations or by blocking rules that would produce these
violations.
It is a well-known fact that the OCP does not always make correct
predictions, and hence it is not without its critics. In fact, the
inconsistency with which the OCP operates has led some of its critics
to reject its status as a universal principle. For example, Odden
(1986) rejects the OCP as a universal principle by Occam's razor. He
proposes that the OCP be regarded as a language-particular rule
because it is frequently violated in the very languages that are
claimed to be observing it. For instance, languages may violate the
OCP at one level, for example, the lexical level, and not at the
grammatical level. However, some supporters of the OCP like Yip
(1988) still see it as a universal principle and argue that different
languages may have different ways of repairing OCP violations.
In this paper, I argue that Setswana is one of those tonal
languages which observes the OCP. In order to demonstrate that this
is the case, I assume following Pulleyblank (1983), that some tones
Mmusi: OCP violations in Setswana 125
are linked to vowels in the lexicon, while other tones are linked at a
later stage by tonal rules of the language. The first assumption is
supported by the fact that in Setswana some verbs occur with an
initial high tone (a lexical high tone) after toneless prefixes such as
the infinitive morpheme go-, while others do not, as illustrated in (1)
and (2). Based on this observation, some Setswana verbs can
henceforth be classified as HIGH verbs, which bear a high tone
syllable-initially, while others are TONELESS verbs, which lack a high
tone in the underlying structure.
(1) High
a. go-ja 'to eat'
b. go-reka 'to buy'
c. go-rekisa 'to sell'
d. go-budiilala 'to close one's eyes'
(2) Toneless
a. go-lwa 'to fight'
b. go-lema 'to plough'
c. go-lemela 'to plough for'
d. go-kgorometsa 'to push'
Note that the high verbs of three or more syllables display a
second high tone; cf. (led). This phenomenon can be accounted for
by a rule of High Tone Spread (HTS) which spreads a high tone one
tone-bearing unit (TBU) to the right. This rule will henceforth be
known as the lexical HTS rule (3), as it spreads a LEXICAL high tone.
(This is in contrast to another HTS rule, to be discussed later, which
spreads a 'grammatical' high tone.)
(3) High Tone Spread
H
l\
Inf. X X X X HTS
go- bu d u la la
'to close one's eyes'
The low tones on the toneless verb stems (2) and other syllables
are accounted for by a default low tone rule, which renders toneless
syllables low-toned on the surface. The low tone on the final syllable
of bisyllabic verb stems (lb) is explainable by a rule of Extratonality,
which makes the final syllable invisible to the HTS rule. The final
syllable becomes low-toned by default. This extratonality rule is
based on a notion borrowed from Prince (1983), known as the
126 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
principle of Extrametricality, a concept through which certain
syllables are invisible to some rules.
So far I have illustrated that Setswana verb stems can be
classified into high versus toneless. The lexical tonal rules found to
operate in Setswana are (a) the lexical HTS rule, (b) the Extratonality
rule, and (c) a default low tone rule which makes all toneless
syllables low-toned on the surface.
3. OCP Violations versus Lexical High Tone
In this section, I discuss apparent OCP violations at the lexical
level. By definition, any sequence of high tones would constitute a
violation of the OCP. In Setswana, potential violations of this type are
resolved by 'OCP-induced' rules that act as repair strategies. The
rules that are proposed for this purpose are: High Fusion, a rule that
fuses sequences of high tones into a single multiply-linked high tone.
Left Branch Delink (LBD), a rule which delinks the left branch of a
multiply-linked high tone when it follows a high tone, and Right
Branch Delink (RBD), a rule that delinks the right branch of a
multiply-linked high tone when it precedes a high tone. RBD and LBD
are mirror images of one another as shown in Kisseberth & Mmusi
forthcoming. The details of these rules will become clearer as the
paper develops. The object prefix high tone in Setswana will be used
to illustrate how these rules function to prevent would-be OCP
violations.
Setswana has an object prefix which in this paper is assumed to
be underlyingly high-toned^ and morphologically supplied, since it
appears with the object prefix. The object prefixes, as in other Bantu
languages, always agree with the object noun in class, gender, and
plurality. The influence of this high tone is evident in the toneless
verbs as illustrated by the examples in (4).
(4) High
go-e-ja 'to eat it'
go-e-reka 'to buy it'
go-e-rekisa 'to sell it'
go-e-khuriimetsa 'to cover it'
Toneless
go-e-lwa 'to fight it'
go-e-lema 'to plough it'
go-e-fetola 'to change it'
go-e-kgorometsa 'to push it'
Leaving aside the monosyllabic forms (which warrant a
different and detailed account of their own), note the presence of a
high tone on the initial syllable of the toneless verbs. This high tone
Mmusi: OCP violations in Setswana
.27
can be explained through lexical HTS from the high tone of the object
prefix; cf. (5).
(5) Toneless verbs and OP HTS
H
Inf. OP X X
X
Lexical HTS
go- e- fe to
la
'to change it'
In the high verbs, the high tone on the object prefix is follov^ed
by a lexical high tone on the initial syllable of the verb stem and
spreading to the next syllable of the right, unless that syllable is
extratonal (see §2 above). This constitutes a violation of the OCP, as
there are two successive lexical high tones on a tonal tier. To resolve
this dilemma, I propose a rule of High Fusion whose purpose is to
fuse the two distinct high tones, the high tone of the first object
prefix and the lexical high tone and, into a multiply-linked high tone;
cf. (6). This is a language-particular rule to prevent violations of the
OCP. (As will be seen later, it is a rule that operates on objects
prefixes only, while other high-toned prefixes trigger the Left Branch
Delink rule.)
(6) High Verbs and High Fusion
H H
Inf. OP X X XX
go- e-khuru me tsa
'to cover it'
Lexical HTS
H
Inf. OP X X X X
go- e- khu rii me tsa
'to cover it'
High Fusion
In the case of SINGLE object prefixes, then. High Fusion
eliminates potential violations of the OCP. Setswana, however, also
uses MULTIPLE object prefixes which present a strong potential for
OCP violations. It is worth investigating what rules the language
possesses to eliminate these violations. The examples in (7) exhibit
sequences of double object prefixes in Setswana.
128
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
(7) Double Object Prefixes
High
go-mo-e-jela <-jela> 'to eat it for him'
go-mo-e-rekela <-rekela> 'to buy it for him'
go-mo-e-khuriimeletsa <-khurumeletsa> 'to cover it for
him'
Toneless
go-mo-e-tlela <-tIela> 'to bring it for him/her'
go-mo-e-lemela <-lemela> 'to plough it for him/her'
go-mo-e-kgoromeletsa <-kgoromeletsa> 'to bring it for
him/her'
Note that in these structures, (a) the object prefix nearest to the
verb stem is obligatorily low-toned, even though (b) the same prefix
(e-) is obligatorily high-toned if not preceded by another object
prefix; cf. (4) - (5) above. We can account for the structures in (7) by
postulating a Left Branch Delink rule (LDB) which delinks the left
branch of a multiply-linked lexical high tone that follows another
lexical high tone. As the example in (8) shows, LBD operates on the
output of High Fusion in high verbs (8a) and on the output of HTS in
toneless verbs (8b). The Left Branch Delink rule illustrated in (8) can
be stated as in (9). 2
(8) High
High Fusion; LBD
(9)
H
1
Inf. OP
H
OP X X X
go- mo-
e- re ke la
'to buy it
for him/her'
Toneless
H
1
Inf. OP
H
K
OP X X X
go- mo-
e- le me la
'to plough
it for him/her'
Left Branch
Delink rule
H H
1 K
XXX
Lexical HTS; LBD
Mmusi: OCP violations in Setswana 129
LBD, then, is a language particular-rule which repairs OCP
violations. Its effects go beyond double object prefixes, as can be
seen in (10), where it is triggered by the high-toned conditioned
(potential) prefix -kd-.
(10) High verb stems without object prefixes
go-ka-reka <-reka> 'to be able to buy'
go-ka-rekisa <-rekisa> 'to be able to sell'
go-ka-khurumetsa <-khurumetsa> 'to be able to cover'
Setswana has another rule called the Right Branch Delink rule,
which is a mirror-image of the Left Branch Delink rule. It delinks the
right branch of a multiply-linked high tone when another high tone
follows; cf. (11). It likewise serves as a repair strategy for OCP
violations.
(11) H H
k I
XXX
The examples in (12) serve to illustrate that the Right Branch Delink
rule applies in present tense verb forms, with the verb stem
following a high-toned subject prefix, the third person subject prefix
o-. This form of the present tense in Setswana always occurs with the
toneless aspect marker -a-. Note the difference between the high
verbs and the toneless verbs. In the high verbs the tone of the aspect
marker -a- is low after the high subject prefix, whereas it is high-
toned in the case of the toneless verbs.
(12) High
6-a-reka '(s)he is buying'
6-a-rekisa '(s)he is selling'
o-a-khuriimetsa '(s)he is covering'
Toneless
6-a-lema '(s)he is ploughing'
6-a-fetoga '(s)he is changing'
6-a-kgorometsa '(s)he is pushing'
In the toneless verbs in (12), it seems that lexical HTS applies to
produce the high tone on the aspect marker. The absence of a high
tone on the aspect marker in the high verb stems could be captured
by either (a) arguing that RBD applied after lexical HTS to produce
these forms in order to avoid an OCTP violation (cf. (13) below), or (b)
that lexical HTS was blocked by the OCP just in case an OCP violation
was imminent. Either way, the violations are resolved. The account
130 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
postulating an RBD rule is the prefeired explanation since it explains
other such forms elsewhere in the language.
(13) H H
k k
SP X XX XX
6- a- khiirij me tsa Lexical HTS; RBD
'(s)he is covering'
The application of RBD is further exemplified by the forms in
(14), which involve an object prefix. The absence of a high tone on
the aspect marker -a-, following the high-toned subject prefix -6-,
illustrates that RBD has applied.
(14) High
6-a-e-reka '(s)he is buying it'
6-a-ba-rekisa '(s)he is selling it'
o-a-e-khiarijmetsa '(s)he is covering it'
Toneless
6-a-e-lema '(s)he is ploughing it'
6-a-6-fetola '(s)he is changing it'
6-a-se-kg6rometsa '(s)he is pushing it'
The forms in (14) are graphically accounted for in (15), which
shows the derivation of the tonal patterns of both types of verbs.
(15) Right Branch Delink
HTS; RBD (Toneless)
High Fu.; RBD (High)
The only difference between these verb types is that the multiply-
linked high tone of the high verbs is a result of High Fusion of the
high tone of the verb stem with that of the object prefix, while the
multiply-linked high tone of the toneless verbs is a result of lexical
HTS. Lexical HTS applies to spread a high tone from the high-toned
subject prefix morpheme to the present tense morpheme a-. Right
H
SP-a-
H
l\
OP X X
X
X
6- a-
se -kgo ro
m e
tsa
H
SP-a-
H
OP X X
X
X
6- a-
e -khij r u
me
tsa
Mmusi: OCP violations in Setswana 131
Branch Delink then delinks the right branch from the a- to prevent
OCP violations.
The above tonal facts raise the question of how RBD and LBD
interact with one another. What is known so far is that both RBD and
LBD are triggered by the OCP and that they are mirror images of one
another. This fact leads me to conclude that these rules are not
ordered with respect to one another as they are basically one and the
same rule. The environment itself will trigger one or the other.
Perhaps evidence for this claim lies in the fact that when the
environment for both rules prevails then either RBD or LBD will
apply as illustrated by the alternative forms for (14) that are
exemplified in (16).
(16) LBD instead of RBD
High
6-a-e-reka '(s)he is buying it'
6-a-ba-rekisa '(s)he is selling it'
o-a-e-khuriimetsa '(s)he is covering it'
Toneless
6-a-e-lema '(s)he is ploughing it'
6-a-e-fetola '(s)he is changing it'
6-a-se-kg6rometsa '(s)he is pushing it'
The phenomena in (16) are schematically captured in (17) which
represents both toneless and high verb stems.
(17) LBD instead of RBD
HTS; LBD (Toneless)
High Fu.; LBD (High)
In summary, Setswana has two OCP induced rules, namely, the
Right Branch Delink rule and the Left Branch Delink rule which are
mirror images of one another. These rules serve to repair OCP
violations that have been caused by productive tonal rules such as
lexical HTS. Both rules operate on doubly-linked or multiply-linked
high tones by delinking a single branch in order to prevent OCP
violations. The conclusion drawn from this discussion is that
H
l\
SP- a-
H
K
OP X X
X X
6- a -
se -kgo ro
me tsa
H
SP-a-
H
OP X X
X X
6- a-
e -khu r u
me tsa
132 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
sequences of singly-linked high tones in Setswana do not constitute a
violation of the OCP whereas sequences of doubly- and multiply-
linked high tones do, as well as when they follow or precede a single
high tone. In other words, the OCP needs to be redefined for
Setswana and maybe for other languages as well — as a parametrical
principle. By assuming such a parametrical OCP, we can account for
apparent OCP violations in Setswana while retaining the essential
validity of the OCP for the language.
What follows is a discussion of more OCP "violations" in
Setswana. These occur at the grammatical level. It is my claim that
these, too, are only apparent violations. The claim that these high
tone sequences do not constitute OCP violations is supported by
showing (a) that there are two types of HTS (lexical and grammatical
HTS), and (b) assuming a morpheme tier hypothesis to distinguish
lexical versus grammatical high tones.
4. OCP Violations and Grammatical Tone
The tonal pattern of the perfective tense is used to show the
effects of grammatical HTS that produce apparent OCP violations. I
will show that these are not OCP violations by providing an account
of the origin of these sequences.
4.1 The tonal pattern of the perfective verb stem
The perfective tense in Setswana is formed by attaching the
suffix -He or -tse to the verb root, as exemplified in (18). These two
suffixes are allomorphs of the perfective morpheme. A low-toned
subject prefix morpheme ke- is attached to the verb stem since the
perfective form cannot cooccur with the infinitive prefix go-.
The examples in (18) illustrate the tonal pattern of the verb
stem in the perfective tense when it is in phrase-final position (that
is, when there is no object or adverb following the verb stem). Notice
the absence of the high tone on the toneless forms as opposed to the
high verb types.
(18) High
ke-jele <-ja > T have eaten'
ke-rekiTe <-reka > T have bought'
ke-rekisitse <-rekisa > 'I have sold'
ke-khiiriimeditse <-khurumetsa > 'I have covered'
Toneless
ke-wele <-wa > 'I have fallen'
ke-lemile <-lema > 'I have ploughed'
ke-fetotse <-fetola > '1 have changed'
ke-kgoromeditse <-kgorometsa > 'I have pushed'
Mmusi: OCP violations in Setswana 133
The high verb stems in (18) show evidence of the application of
the lexical HTS rule through which the high tone has been spread one
TBU to the right (unless that syllable is in final position). Now, if
perfective forms of high verbs occur phrase-medially, we find that
high tone appears to spread all the way to the last syllable; cf. (19).
An explanation of this phenomenon becomes possible when we
examine the behavior of toneless verbs in the same context; cf. (20).
(19) High
ke-jele nama T have eaten the meat'
ke-rekile nama 'I have bought the meat'
ke-rekisitse nama 'I have sold the meat'
ke-khuriimeditse nama 'I have covered the meat'
(20) Toneless Verbs in Perfective
ke-wele seriti 'I have lost my dignity'
ke-lemile tshimo 'I have ploughed the field'
ke-fetotse mogopolo 'I have changed my mind'
ke-kgoromeditse mmatsale 'I have pushed my mother-
in-law'
The verb stems in (20) bear high tones from the second syllable
through the last, regardless of the length of the verb stem. Since the
forms in (20) generally have no underlying high tones of their own,
the conclusion is that there is a floating high tone which comes with
the perfective tense. It is also apparent that the perfective high tone
in addition excludes the first syllable of the toneless verb stem.
A comparison of the high and toneless verb stems in phrase-
medial position leads to one of two conclusions: Either the floating
perfective high tone docks on the last syllable of the verb stem and
spreads leftward iteratively up to the second syllable, or it docks on
the second syllable and then spreads iteratively to the right through
the last syllable. At this point, there is no concrete evidence to choose
between these alternatives. For the sake of the argument, let us
assume that the floating high tone docks on the second syllable and
spreads rightward as in (21). (The absence of the floating high tone
when verbs are not phrase-medial will be discussed in §4.3.) The
absence of a high tone on the initial syllable of the toneless verb
stem in (21) is accounted for by the rule of Extratonality,^ whereby
some syllable, usually at an edge becomes invisible to a phonological
rule. In this case, the initial syllable is excluded by the rule of
Extratonality and is therefore shielded from the influence of the high
tone of the perfective. Since this excluded syllable is now toneless, it
becomes low-toned by the default low tone rule.
134 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
(21) Toneless Perfective Verb Stem
H
(X) X X X X$ Initial Extratonality
H
I s ^^^--^
(X) X X X X$ Grammatical HTS
kgo ro me di tse . . .
'pushed . . .'
($ indicates phrase-medial position)
It is now clear that the sequences of the high tones on the
perfective stem do not constitute any OCP violations, since they
result from a single high tone which, through grammatical HTS, has
become a multiply-linked high tone (which is allowable in the
framework of autosegmental phonology). However, the solution is not
so clear when the high verb stems are considered.
Now, as the examples in (19) show, high verb stems also have
high tones on the FIRST syllable. We can account for this high tone by
attributing it to the presence of an underlying lexical high tone on
that syllable, whereas the rest of the high tones are the result of the
grammatical HTS of the perfective high tone. This is illustrated by in
(22).
(22) High Perfective Verb Stems
H H
I IX^""^^— ^
X X X "X X$ Grammatical HTS
khu ru me di tse . . .
'covered . . .'
However, the facts in (22) raise problems for the OCP, since the
sequence of high tones is a clear OCP violation. This problem is
discussed in the next section.
4.2 The Perfective Tone and OCP Violations
A priori, the patterns in (22) can be accounted for by two
different hypotheses:
Hypothesis A: The OCP holds at the lexical, but not at the
grammatical level. This hypothesis is consistent with Odden's
(1986, 1988) argument that the OCP should not be seen as a
Mmusi: CXTP violations in Setswana 135
universal principle, since it can be violated in the very lan-
guages that are claimed to observe it.
Hypothesis B: The cooccurence of verb-stem initial high tone
with the grammatical floating perfective high tone does not
present a genuine OCP violation, since the two high tones dif-
fer in their origin and behavior. This difference is schemat-
ically presented in (23), where bold H indicates grammatical
high tone, while plain H stands for lexical high tone.
(23) H Lexical High Tone
X X X X
H Perfective High Tone
I believe that Hypothesis B provides a better account for Sets-
wana. First of all, note that the two types of high tone differ con-
siderably in their behavior, even if we limit ourselves to the phrase-
medial forms so far discussed: Lexical high tones are directly as-
sociated with particular MORPHEMES, while grammatical high tone is a
floating tone, associated with a particular CONSTRUCTION (viz. the per-
fective). Lexical high tone spreads by HTS to just ONE following TBU,
grammatical high tone spreads over ANY NUMBER of following
syllables (up to the last one). For lexical high tone, the LAST syllable
of the verb stem is extratoned for grammatical high tone, the FIRST
syllable is extratonal.
4.3 The perfective tone in phrase-final position
The toneless perfective verb stems in phrase-final position do
not display the sequence of high tones that are observed when the
verb stem is in phrase-medial position as in (20), even though the
morpheme of the perfective tense is present. Examples of the
phrase-final forms are repeated here as (24).
(24) Toneless
ke-wele <-wa > T have fallen'
ke-lemile <-lema > 'I have ploughed'
ke-fetotse <-fetola > 'I have changed'
ke-kgoromeditse <-kgorometsa > 'I have pushed'
Since the perfective high tone that surfaces when the verb stem
is in phrase-medial position is a morphological high tone, it is
possible that the morphological high tone was present initially but
failed to dock and was deleted by a rule of Perfective High Tone
Deletion. This is illustrated in (25). '^ The corresponding pattern of
high verbs is illustrated in (26).
136
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
(25) Toneless perfective in phrase-final position
H ^ 0
ke-kgoromeditse
•I-pushed(PFT)'
(26) High
ke-jele
ke-rekile
ke-rekisitse
Perfective High Tone Deletion
<-ja >
<-reka >
<-rekisa >
ke-khuriimeditse <-khurumetsa >
'I have eaten'
'I have bought'
'I have sold'
'I have covered'
Here, too, there is no surface evidence for the perfective high tone.
And as expected, the lexical high tone of the verb stem undergoes
HTS one syllable to the right (unless that syllable is final). Assuming
Perfective High Tone deletion, we can account for this pattern as in
(27).
(27) High perfective stem in phrase-final position
H^ 0
ke-khurumeditse Perfective High
Deletion
H
l\
ke-khuriimeditse Lexical High Tone Spread
Perfective High Tone Deletion, then, is a language-particular rule
that deletes the perfective high tone when the verb stem is in
phrase-final position. It is not an unusual rule, since it operates like
other rules in this language. Neither is it an unusual rule for the
theory of autosegmental phonology.
Now, let us look at phrase-final perfective verbs with high-tone
subject prefixes; cf. (28).
(28) High
o-jele^
6-rekile
6-rekisitse
o-khuriimeditse
Toneless
6-wele
6-lemile
6-fetotse
6-kgoromeditse
<-ja> '(s)he has eaten'
<-reka> '(s)he has bought'
<-rekisa '(s)he has sold'
<-khurumetsa> '(s)he has covered'
<-wa> '(s)he fell'
<-lema> '(s)he ploughed'
<-fetola> '(s)he changed'
<-kgorometsa> '(s)he pushed'
Mmusi: OCR violations in Setswana 137
The high and toneless examples in (28) provide evidence that
Perfective High Tone Deletion has applied to delete the perfective
floating high tone. The presence of a second high tone on the high
verbs is consistent with lexical HTS as formulated. The conclusion is
that after Perfective High Deletion, which removes the high tones
from the second syllable on up to the last giving rise to toneless
syllables, lexical HTS becomes productive and spreads a high tone to
the right. Because there is now a sequence of a singly-linked high
tone followed by a doubly-linked high tone (an OCP violation) LBD
applies to repair the violation, as illustrated in (29).
(29) H H H^ 0
I l\
SP- X X X XX Perfective High Tone Deletion
6 khu rii me di tse
H H
I K
SP- X X X XX Lexical HTS; LBD
khu me tse
6 r u di
'(s)he covered'
The default low tone rule subsequently puts low tones on the rest of
the toneless syllables in (29).
It is not clear, however, why the initial syllables of the toneless
verbs do not surface with a high tone by HTS from the subject prefix
high tone, as would be expected after Perfective High Tone Deletion. I
suggest the following solution: As noted earlier, the introduction of
the Perfective High Tone is accompanied by extratonality of the
leftmost syllable of the verb stem. 6 This extratonality, then, prevents
HTS from the preceding prefix and explains why toneless verbs have
no high tone whatsoever on phrase-final perfective verb stems, even
when preceded by high-tone prefixes.
(30) H H^0
I
SP- [(X) X X X X] Perfective High Tone Deletion
6- [kgo ro me di tse]
H
I
SP X X X X X
6- kgo ro me di tse
'(s)he pushed'
138 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
Further problems arise when we examine high verbs in phrase-
medial perfective structures preceded by high-tone prefixes.
Compare the examples in (31a), with high tone on every syllable,
from the prefix to the final syllable. In other words, there is a
sequence of high tones associated, respectively, with the prefix, the
first syllable of the verb stem, and the domain from the second to
the last syllable of the verb stem. (No such problems are encountered
in toneless verbs, for which see (31b).)
(31) a. High
6-jele nama '(s)he ate the meat'
6-rekile nama '(s)he bought the meat'
6-rekisitse nama '(s)he sold the meat'
o-khiirumeditse nama '(s)he covered the meat'
b. Toneless
6-wele seriti '(s)he lost his/her dignity'
6-lemile tshimo '(s)he ploughed the field'
6-fet6tse mogopolo '(s)he changed his/her mind'
6-kgor6meditse mmatsale '(s)he pushed his/her mother-
in-law'
(32) H H H
X X X X X X . . . Grammatical HTS
6 - k h li r li m e d i tse . . . HTS
'(s)he covered (PFT)'
These structures seem to require a further limitation on the
applicability of the OCP in Setswana: Potential Lexical violations of
the OCP so far have been accounted for by the assumption of (a) HTS,
(b) High Fusion, and (c) LBD and RBD. Of these processes, LBD and
RED by definition apply only to MULTIPLY-Iinked sequences of high
tones that result from HTS or High Fusion. There is nothing in the
rules that are needed to postulate so far that eliminates SINGLY-
linked sequences (except for the morphologically restricted High
Fusion). This suggests that Setswana has a constraint against
multiply-linked sequences of high tones, but not against singly-
linked sequences and that, therefore, the OCP needs to be further
parameterized to allow sequences of singly-linked high tones.
In conclusion, there is no OCP violation in the high verb stems in
(31). The rules apply as predicted in the case of the toneless verb
stems in (31), namely, the perfective floating high tone surfaces on
the second syllable as predicted and it spread iteratively to the last
syllable. The high tone from the prefix is prevented from spreading a
Mmusi: OCP violations in Setswana
39
high tone to the toneless initial syllable of the toneless verbs,
probably because this syllable has already been rendered extratonal
and subsequently low-toned in its participation in the perfective
tonal rules. It is evident now that the two high tones are separated
by a low tone. This is a well-formed structure which is not violating
the OCP. LBD could not have produced this tonal pattern as the high
tones are different. These facts are structurally presented in (33).
(33) H H
SP (X) X X X x$
6- kgo ro me di tse .
'(s)he pushed (PFT)'
Initial Extratonal;
Grammatical HTS
H L H
SP X XX X x$
6- kgo ro m e di tse .
'(s)he pushed'
Default Low Tone
5. Interaction of the object prefix high tone with the per-
fective High Tone
The examples in (34) show the tonal patterns of the perfective high
verb stems after a toneless subject prefix in phrase-final position.
Note that the high tone of the object prefix and that of the verb stem
form a sequence in apparent violation of the OCP; cf. the schematic
presentation in (35).
(34) After a toneless subject prefix
High
ke-e-jele T have eaten it'
'I have bought it'
ke-e-rekile
ke-e-rekisitse
ke- e-khur limed i tse
(35)
H H
1 l\
X X X X
X
X
SP OP khu ru me
di
tse
'I it covered'
'I have sold it'
'I have covered it'
HTS
140 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
Note however that as appeared in section 3, high-tone object prefixes
and high verb stems are subject to High Fusion which fuses the high
tone of the object prefix with the lexical high tone of the immediately
following verb stem as in (36).
(36) H H
/^
X X X X X X High Fusion
SP OP khii rii me di tse
'I it covered'
The examples in (37) show the tonal patterns of the high verb
stems after an object prefix when the verb stem is in phrase-medial
position. Note the sequence of high tones from the object prefix
through the last syllable of the verb stem.
(37) ke-e-jele ... 'I ate it ..."
ke-e-rekile ... 'I bought it ..."
ke-e-rekisitse ... 'I sold it ..."
ke-e-khuriimeditse ... 'I covered it ..."
Structures like these, again, may appear to be violations of the OCP.
But, again, they can be shown not to be genuine violations. The high
tones on the prefix and the first syllable of the verb stem can be
accounted for by High Fusion of LEXICAL high tones of the object
prefix and the first syllable of a high verb; the remainder of the high
tones are attributable to the GRAMMATICAL perfective high tone
docking on the second syllable of the verb stem and spreading from
there to the end of the word; cf. (38).
(38) H H H
X X X X X X$ High Fusion;
SP- OP khii rij me di tse . . . Grammatical HTS
'I it covered'
6.0 Conclusion
In this paper, I have argued that, contrary to Odden (1986,
1988) the OCP can be maintained to be a valid principle for
Setswana. Apparent violations can be accounted for by (a) limiting
the OCP to sequences involving multiply-linked high tones; (b)
permitting High Tone Fusion under certain morphologically
conditioned circumstances; and (c) distinguishing between lexical and
grammatical high tones. While the OCP does not operate on multiply-
linked sequences of lexical and grammatical high tones, it does apply
Mmusi: OCP violations in Setswana 141
to multiply-linked sequences of lexical high tones, where Left Branch
Delinking and Right Branch Delinking eliminate possible violations.
These facts suggest that the OCP may be a universal principle which,
however, may be parametrically constrained in languages like
Setswana.
NOTES
' Setswana does have a low-toned object prefix, but that prefix
will not be addressed in this paper since it does not trigger tonal
patterns that are relevant to the phenomena under discussion. This
low object prefix is rarely attested in the speech of Setswana
speakers.
2 This matter and other details about the object prefix of
Setswana are discussed in greater detail in Kisseberth & Mmusi
Forthcoming.
3 For a detailed description of this rule, see Mmusi 1991.
•* Here as elsewhere, high tones that fail to dock are placed over
the last syllable of the verb.
^ The preferred form is 6-jele; in this particular morphological
category, final extratonality is optional. For further details see Mmusi
1992, chapter 3.
6 Presumably, this rule takes place in the LEXICON, when the
perfective morpheme is suffixed to the verb stem. This may suggest
that the distinction in this paper between 'lexical' and 'grammatical'
high tone is spurious. However, the distinction clearly is needed. It
can be justified if we assume that 'lexical' and 'grammatical' high
tones are assigned to different lexical levels within the lexical
phonology.
REFERENCES
Goldsmith, John A. Tone and accent, and getting the two together.
Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistic Society 13.177-193.
KISSEBERTH, Charles W., & Sheila O. Mmusi. 1990. The Obligatory
Contour Principle and the tone of the object prefix in Setswana.
To appear in Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 20.1.
McCarthy, John J. 1986. OCP Effects: Gemination and Antigemination.
Linguistic Inquiry 17.207-264.
Mmusi, Sheila O. 1992. OCP Violations and effects: The case of
Setswana verbal tonology. University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign Ph.D dissertation in Linguistics.
142 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
Odden, D. 1986. On the role of the Obligatory Contour Principle in
phonological theory. Language 62.353-383.
. 1988. Anti antigemination and the OCP. Linguistic Inquiry
19:3.451-476.
PARADIS, Carole, & Jean-Frangois Prunet. 1990. On explaining some
OCP violations. Linguistic Inquiry 21 .456-466
Prince, Alan. 1983. Relating to the Grid. Linguistic Inquiry 14:1.19-
100.
PULLEYBLANK, Douglas. 1983. Tone in Lexical Phonology. MIT Ph.D
dissertation in Linguistics.
SiNGLER, John V. 1980. The status of lexical associations and the
Obligatory Contour Principle in the analysis of tone languages.
Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistic Society 6.442-456
Yip, Moira. 1988. The Obligatory Contour Principle and phonological
rules: A loss of identity. Linguistic Inquiry 19:1.65-98
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences
Volume 22, Number 1, Spring 1992
TRUNCATION PROCESSES IN SPANISHi
Pilar Prieto
This paper describes in detail processes of Hypocoristic
Formation and Noun Truncation in Peninsular Spanish. This
process displays an unusual optionality in some truncated
forms. I argue that in order to analyze the process as a
unified operation one needs the syllabic trochee acting as a
template, with an optional condition that the second
syllable be light. Another interesting characteristic of the
type of truncation described is that syllabicity is copied in
the process. Following McCarthy and Prince's (1988)
hypothesis, the fact that syllabicity has to be marked in the
Spanish lexicon (Harris 1989, Hualde 1991) determines that
syllabicity will be transfened in the process.
1. Introduction
Recent studies in prosodic morphology (McCarthy & Prince
1988, 1990, Forthcoming) have convincingly argued that certain
prosodic categories such as the foot, the syllable, and the mora can
act as templates in morphological areas such as reduplication or
truncation processes. The way one can constrain the copying process,
as well as the role of the so-called 'transfer' from the base to its copy,
are topics of current debate.
The focus of this paper is to describe in detail the productive
processes of Spanish Hypocoristic Formation and Noun Truncation,
which can offer new data on some of the issues discussed in Prosodic
Morphology.
One of the interesting facts of Spanish Hypocoristic formation is
that in some special cases truncated forms are optional, following
what seems to be an accommodation to two different templates. I
argue that in order to give a unified analysis of the data at hand one
needs to recognize the following processes of template matching. On
the one hand, Spanish truncation phenomena make use of a
circumscription process that delimits the extent of the base to two
syllables. On the other hand, the basic template corresponds to a
syllabic trochee (or a sequence of two syllables of any weight with
stress on the first) which has a further 'optional' condition that the
second syllable in this template be light. Finally, as McCarthy and
144
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
Prince (1988, Forthcoming) predict, underlyingly marked syllabicity
properties of the base are transferred.
2. Data
The present description is based on the Peninsular Spanish
dialect as spoken in different cities across Spain. 2 Basically,
Hypocoristic Formation and Noun Truncation consist in copying the
first two syllables of the base name — with some interesting
restrictions that are presented below, and movement of the stress to
the first syllable, forming what we might call a 'trochaic pattern'.
Cases of the most productive type of hypocoristic formation are
presented in (1).3 The data are divided by syllable types that refer to
the first two syllables of the base, as follows: HH=Heavy-Heavy;
HL=Heavy-Light; LL=Light-Light and LH=Light-Heavy. Heavy
syllables are of the type (C)VC, (C)VG, (C)GV, (C)GVC and (C)VGC
(where C=consonant, V=vowel, G=glide). Light syllables are of the
type (C)V. The base names and truncated hypocoristic forms are
provided in orthographic forms with the relevant stress pattern and
syllable structure of the base and the truncated form marked). As we
can see in (1), if the first two syllables of the base are light, both are
completely copied and the stress of the truncated form shows up on
the first syllable:
(1) Spanish Hypocoristic Formation
Syllable-type
LL
Base form
Jo.se
Te.re.sa
Je.re.mf.as
Te.o.do.ro
Re.me.dios
Ma.ri.a
Do. 16. res
So.le.dad
Ra.fa.el
E.du.ar.do
A.li.cia
Be.a.triz
Truncated form
J6.se
Te.re
Je.re
Te.o
Re. me
Ma.ri
Do.lo
S6.1e
Ra.fa
E.du
A.li
Be. a
Similarly, if the first syllable is heavy and the second is light, both
are entirely copied, as we can observe in (2):
(2) Syllable-type Base form Truncated form
HL Mar.ga.ri.ta Mar.ga
Sal.va.d6r Sal.va
Mont.se.rrat M6nt.se
Ig.na.cio Igna
Prieto: Truncation processes in Spanish 145
Dio.ni.sio
Dio.ni
Al.fre.do
Al.fre
Ger.tru.dis
Ger.tru
Cris.ti.na
Cris.ti
En.ri.que
En.ri
In. ma. cu. la
.da
in. ma
However, if the second syllable of the base is heavy (either in LH or
in HH forms), there is optional variation across speakers; while some
forms copy the entire second syllable, others just take the first
vocalic segment. Even the same speaker can accept both forms. In (3)
I reproduce only the responses that were obtained in a
questionnaire, without claiming that alternatives not listed are
unacceptable.
(3) Syllable-type
Base form
Truncated
form
LH
Da.niel
Da.ni
Ro.dol.fo
Ro.do ~
Ro.dol
Mi.guel
Mi.gue ■
- Mi.guel
Ro.ber.to
Ro.ber
Ja.vier
Ja.vi
Ri.car.do
Ri.ca ~ Ri.car
Je.sus
Je.su ~ .
Je.sus
A.drian
A.dri
Flo.ren.ti.na
Flo.ren
Lo.ren.za
Lo.ren
Pru.den.cio
Pru.den
Ju.Iia
Ju.li
Da.vid
Da.vi
Ro.ber.to
Ro.ber
Va.len.tin
Va.len
Ga.briel
Ga.bri
Ma.til.de
Ma.ti
Pru.den.cio
Pru.den
Ma.nuel
Ma.nu
Vi.cen.te
Vi.cen
HH
Ar.man.do
Ar.ma ~
Ar.man
Per. nan. do
Fer.na ~
Fer.nan
Ber.nar.do
Ber.na ~ Ber.nar
Fran. CIS. CO
Fran.cis
Al.ber.to
Al.ber
Con.cep.cion
C6n.ce
Al.fon.so
Al.fon
However, there is one general restriction: Truncated forms with
heavy second syllables are restricted to structures ending in one of
the consonants that commonly occur at the end of words with
146 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
penultimate stems, viz. [r, s, n, l],"* as in cdntas 'you sing', cdntan 'they
sing', drbol 'tree', cdrcel 'prison'. Structures ending in a consonant not
permitted or rare in that context, such as *Cdn.cep or *Dd.vid from
Con. cep.cion or Da.vid are not acceptable.
Another observation is that the high glides present in the second
syllable of the base appear as vowels in the second syllable of the
truncated form (cf. from Ja.vier [xa.bjer], [xa.bi]; from Da.niel [da.njel],
[da.ni]). In the first syllable, however, glides are retained (cf. from
Dio.ni.sio [djo.ni], *[di.o]). Elsewhere, the syllabification of the base is
mantained: such that while Ber.ndr.do can truncate to Ber.nar,
Mar.ga.ri.ta cannot yield *Mdr.gar. Finally, onsets are generally
copied in their entirety, no matter how many consonants they have. 5
In sum, we can observe that all truncated forms copy the entire first
syllable of the base, no matter whether the syllable is heavy or light.
Yet, we observe some differences in the mapping of the second
syllable when this is heavy. Here, speakers optionally make the
second syllable light in the truncation process (cf. from Ri.cdr.do, Rica
beside Ri.car; but from Da.niel, Ddni).
In order to support the claim that there is a tendency across
speakers to allow the consonants [-r, -s, -n, -1] to appear as the last
consonant of the truncated hypocoristics I asked seven speakers to
fill a questionnaire with the nonsense forms in (4). I asked them to
imagine that these were Spanish proper nouns and to truncate the
forms. In what follows I report the answers provided and the
number of speakers that gave the form in parentheses:^
(4) Truncation of nonsense forms
/-
-n/
Ca.ran.cia
Ca.ran (5); Cara (2)
Su.len.ca
SiJ.len (6); Su.le (1)
Im.pran.ca
Im.pran (5); Im.pra (2)
Sol. tan. ca
Sol. tan (4); Sol.ta (3);
/-
■r/
Su.ber.ta
Su.ber (4); Sii.be (1); Ber.ta (2)
/-
1/
Si.ral.do
Si.ral (4); Si.ra (3); Al.do (1)
Co.ral.da
Co.ral (6); Co.ra (1)
Ar.tal.do
Ar.tal (5); Ar.ta (2)
Mar.tol.da
Mar.tol (3); Mar.to (4)
/-
•s/
Ci.res.da
Ci.res (4); Ci.re (3)
Con.ras.da
Con.ras (2); Con.ras (5)
/-
m/
Si. nam. pa
Si.nam (4); Si.na (2)
Pan.tam.ba
Pan.tam (2); Pan.ta (4); Pan (1)
/-
jV/
Ton.mie.lo
Ton. mi (5); Ton (1)
Ta.mie.la
Ta.mi (6); Ta.mie (1); Mie.la (2)
/-
wV/
Mi.rau.la
Mi.ra (7); Rau.la (1)
Cas.tau.la
Cas.ta (6)
■ ns/
Ti.nens.po
Pul.mans.po
-p/
Co. rap. to
■ps/
-t/
En. rap. to
Su.leps.ta
En.leps.ta
Ri.cat.no
-d/
Con.cat.no
A.mad.vo
-k/
Con.vec.to
Si.vec.to
■g/
Cu.rag.no
e/
Ren.tag.no
Ro.sez.no
Se.raz.go
Cun.taz.go
So.lez.do
Prieto: Truncation processes in Spanish 147
Ti.nens (2); Ti.nen (4); Ti.ne (1)
Pul.man (5); Pul.ma (1)
Co.ra (7)
En.ra (6); Rap.to (1)
Su.leps (1); Su.lep (2); Sii.Ie (4)
En.lep (1); En.le (4); Leps.ta (2)
Ri'.ca (7)
Con.cat (1); Con.ca (6)
A. mad (1); A. ma (6)
Con.vec (1); Con.ve (4); Vec.to (3)
Si.vec (1); Si.ve (6); Vec.to (1)
Cu.rag (1); Cu.ra (6)
Ren.ta (7)
R6.se (6); Ro.sez (1)
Se.raz(2); Se.ra (4)
Cun.ta (6); Taz.go (1)
So.lez (1); So.le (6)
Looking at the answers displayed in (5) we can see that there is
a consistently higher acceptance of word-final /-I, -n, -r, -s, -mJ I
than of other final consonants. The pattern above clearly correlates
with the number of real paroxytones one can find with the
corresponding final consonants in Spanish, as shown in (5):
(5) Number of paroxytones (based on Stahl & Scavnichy 1973)
/ - n / all verbs in the third person plural form
60 words
/ - r / 63 words
/-I/ 102 words
/-s/ all regular plurals; all second person singular
and first plural verbs
more than 500 words
I -ml 25 words
I -pi 0 words
/ - 1 / 4 words
l-dl 3 words
l-kl 0 words
l-gl 0 words
/-6/ 2 words and some surnames*^
This supports the claim that a phonotactic filter prevents the
attachment of the coda consonant in the second syllable.
Another productive process of Noun Truncation, exemplified in
(6), has exactly the same characteristics, except that there is almost
no variation in the responses obtained across speakers for a given
item. While the first syllable is always copied as heavy or light (as in
the base), the second syllable can be forced into a light syllable or
48
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
not. Compare, for example, hi.per.mer.cddo, hi. per — with final [-r] —
and in.for.ma.cion, in.fo — with no [-r] — . Again, in some cases the
second syllable has to be light due to phonotactic pressure (from
di. rector, di.re, and not
*di.rec):
(6) Spanish
Noun
Truncation
Syllable
type
Base form
Truncated noun
LL
te.le.vi.sion
te.le
'television'
u.ni.ver.si.dad
li.ni
'university'
bo.li.gra.fo
bo.li
'pen'
mo.to.ci.cle.ta
mo. to
'motocycle'
vi.ce.pre.si.den.te
VI. ce
'vicepresident'
pre. si. den. te
pre. si
'president'
pro.fe.s6r
pro.fe
'professor'
se.iio.ri.ta
se.no
'lady'
po.li.ci.a
po.li
'police'
HL
dis.co.te.ca
dis.co
'discotheque'
au.to.mo.vil
au.to
'car'
com.pa.ne.ro
com. pa
'fellow'
LH
di. rector
di.re
'director'
te.nien.te
te.ni
'lieutenant'
su.per.mer.ca.do
su.per
'supermarket'
hi.per.mer.ca.do
hi. per
'big supermark.'
po.lio.mie.li.tis
po.lio
'poliomyelitis'
bi.blio.te.ca
bi.blio
'library'
HH
in.for.ma.cion
in.fo
'information'
sar.gen.to sar.gen sergeant
2. Spanish truncation templates
It is clear that the stress pattern created in Spanish truncation
processes coincides with a trochaic foot, that is, a sequence of a
prominent syllable plus a weak syllable. Recent research in foot
typologies (Hayes 1985 Forthcoming) has observed that trochaic feet
found across languages are not weight sensitive, that is, that 'the
initially-accented feet consist of units roughly equal in duration'.
Thus, according to the above typology, trochaic feet can be of two
possible types, namely, syllable-based (HH, LL, HL or LH) or mora-
based (either LL or H):9
(7) Inventory of feet
Syllabic trochee: two syllables of any weight {ac)
Morale trochee: two light syllables or one heavy (|i|i)
vs. Iamb: two syllables with first light and second heavy
For the Spanish truncation cases, where the speaker copies the entire
first two syllables of the base, the syllabic trochee would be an
Prieto: Truncation processes in Spanish 149
adequate template (with the proviso that one take the first two
syllables of the base first), as we can see in (8):
(8) Mapping to a syllabic trochee from left-to-right
Mar. ga. ri. ta Ri. car. do
[CT CT] [a o]
AA AA
marga ricar
Yet, as we saw in the preceding section, the other possibility across
speakers was to make the second syllable light. {Ri.cdr.do and
Fer.ndn.do were optionally Ri.ca and Fer.na instead of Ri.car and
Fer.nan.) This alternative pattern cannot be accounted for by a
syllabic trochee template since, as seen in (7), such a template
imposes no restrictions on syllable weight, either on the first syllable
or the second. A possible way out would be to consider that the final
consonant of the second syllable becomes extrametrical in the
process of mapping. lO This approach would work in the case in which
the second syllable is of the form CVC (cases such as Ri.ca and
Fer.na). However, if the second syllable of the word is of the form
CGVC, what is copied is not CGV, but CV, and the vowel in the second
syllable corresponds to the first glide, as shown in (9). If the final
consonant of the second syllable were extrametrical in Da.niel, for
example, we would expect a truncated form such as *Dd.nie, but we
obtain Dd.ni. Moreover, note that *Dd.nie or *A.dria would be well-
formed sequences in Spanish, since common words such as nd.die
'nobody', co.pia 'copy' have the same structure:' i
(9) Base Truncated form
Da.niel Da.ni *Da.nie
Ja.vier Ja.vi *Ja.vie
A.drian A.dri *A.driai2
Ma.nuel Ma.nu *Ma.nue
As noted before, the glides present in the second syllable of the base
forms in (9) are not copied as such in the truncated form. This
situation contrasts with the glides present in the first syllable, which
remain glides in the copy (cf. Dio.ni.sio [djo.ni], *[di.o]; Eu.ge.nia
[ew.xe], *[e.u]).
Now, there seem to be two options in trying to account for the
variation in the final consonant and the effects expressed in (9):
(a) Apart from the Syllabic Trochee, let us postulate as an
alternative template a Loose Minimal Word composed of a Morale
Trochee [c^^] plus a single minimal syllable [0|j] (that is [o^^] + [o^]).
This has been proposed by Scullen (1992) for French Abbreviation
150 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
processes. This solution is technically equivalent to the postulation of
an unbalanced HL trochee (or [a^^a|j], a structure not recognized in
the foot typology of (7)1^). However, this approach does not provide
an explanation for why the first syllable can be either light or heavy
(depending on the form of the base); the Loose Minimal Word
template would predict that the first syllable would be forced to be
heavy.
(b) An alternative would be to take as an optional template a
group of two syllables [a] + [a^], that is, any syllable plus a light
syllable. This is the approach taken by McCarthy and Prince (1990)
for the analysis of the Classical Arabic noun. Yet, the postulation of a
template of the type [a] + [a^] would require an extra-condition of
stress on the first syllable in order to obtain a trochaic pattern.
Moreover, if one adopts the solutions just outlined as templates
of Spanish Truncation, one has to give up on the possibility of
unifying the analysis in terms of a unique template.
I propose instead that a proper analysis must return to the
notion of the syllabic trochee as the proper template for Spanish
truncation. But in order to account for variation of the type Ro.ber.to :
Ro.her beside Rd.be, the basic analysis has to be modified.
A priori this could be accomplished by assuming that the base is
copied to the syllabic-trochee template without regard to the syllable
structure of the base and that the copy is subject to an arbitrary
convention that specifies the second syllable of the copy as optionally
heavy {Ro.her) or light (Rd.be). This analysis would be similar to that
required for the Ilokano progressive proposed by Abad & Hayes
1989.
However, as noted earlier, names like Mar.ga.ri.ta only exhibit
truncated forms of the type Mdr.ga. Truncated forms of the type
*Mdr.gar are not permissible. This suggests that the copying process
is sensitive to, and retains, the syllable structure of the base (viz.
Mdr.ga. ..., not *Mdr.gar. ...). This restriction, too, has parallels
elsewhere (cf. Mester 1990 on Japanese Rustic Girls' Names, as well
as Clements 1985 and Steriade 1988).
I propose the analysis in (10) which is based on the notion of
Prosodic Circumscription developed in McCarthy & Prince 1990, a
process of prosodic delimitation. Spanish truncation, then, requires
the circumscription of the first two syllables of the base, together
with their syllabic structure. This circumscribed base is mapped,
from left to right, to a syllabic-trochee template. And an optional
condition that the second syllable of the copy has to be light accounts
for the variation Ro.ber.to : Rd.ber beside Rd.be. On the other hand,
words of the type Mar.ga.ri.ta can only yield Mdr.ga, since the
Prieto: Truncation processes in Spanish 151
copying process retains the syllabification of the circumscribed base.
Compare the derivations in (11).
(10) Productive Hypocoristic Formation and Noun Truncation
Circumscribed Base: First two syllables of the word
Base: Full name or noun
Mapping: From left to right''*
Template: Syllabic trochee: two syllables of any weight
([oa])
Condition: The second syllable has to be light (optional)
(11) a. Mapping to a syllabic trochee (after circumscription)
Mar. ga. ri. ta Ro. ber.to
[a o] [a a]
AA AA
marga rober
b. Mapping with activated Condition
Mar. ga. ri. ta Ro.ber.to
[a o|i] [a a\i]
AA AA
marga robe
The same analysis can be made to account for cases such as
[da.ni] from [da.njel], with obligatory application of the condition that
the second syllable be light. This account is based on the assumption
that rising diphthongs of the type [je], [ja], [we], [wa] constitute
bimoraic syllables, that these are reduced to single-mora syllables by
deletion of the vowel, and that subsequently, the glides change into
the corresponding high vowels. Compare the derivations in (12).
(12) Mapping (after circumscription)
Da.njel Ma.nwel A.drjan
[o c\i] [a a[i] [a a|i]
AA AA I A
dani manu Adri
Evidence that diphthongs of the type [je], [ja], [we], [wa] are
bimoraic can be found in the fact that, just like falling diphthongs,
they count as heavy syllables for the purposes of Spanish stress
assignment. As Harris (1983:111) points out, 'antepenultimate stress
is impossible if the penult is a closed syllable.' As a consequence.
152 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
boligrafo 'pen' is an acceptable Spanish word, but forms such as
*cdramba, *cd.rrei.ra, *s6sjego are not.
The fact that syllabicity is 'transferred' to the copy supports the
view expressed by McCarthy and Prince (1988), who propose that
only underlying distinctions are copied with the base. They argue
that the fact that we can find glides copied from the original to the
copy 'is no proof of transfer if the rules for determining syllabicity
would have this effect anyway' (p. 32). They further hypothesize that
distinctive syllabicity will always be copied. A language like Spanish,
then, where it is clear that glides and vowels have to contrast
underlyingly (Harris 1989, Hualde 1991) is expected to copy lexical
syllabicity in truncation processes. As we have seen, this is the case
outlined for Spanish Truncation. Moreover, prosodic conservation
(quantity or syllabicity conservation) seems to be the unmarked case
in reduplication processes (see Clements 1985, Steriade 1988).
Finally, a type of Hypocoristic Formation in Italian seems to be
the exact replica of Spanish (Thornton 1991). As in Spanish, the
truncated cases copy the first two syllables of the base in a trochaic
pattern, with the restriction that the second syllable has to be light:
(13) Italian Hypochoristic Formation (Thornton 1991)
Base Truncated Form
LH
HL
However, while the case of Italian can be explained by appealing to
phonotactic restrictions (almost all words in Italian end in a vowel),
this is not the case for Spanish.
Another case which reminds us of the Spanish truncation
phenomena consists in a type of loanword abbreviation formation in
Modern Japanese (cf. ltd Forthcoming). Ito notes that the possible
templates in this Japanese process are mainly bisyllabic, with the
patterns exemplified in (14). Basically, as in Spanish, the abbreviated
forms copy the first two syllables of the word in a trochaic pattern.
Yet, while the first syllable is copied in its entirety (whether light or
heavy), the second syllable is obligatorily shortened in light-heavy
sequences (see (14 d.)). Presumably, the case of sandwich (heavy-
heavy), which in Japanese gives the truncated form san.du would be
explained by the impossibility of having a word-final [t|] in Japanese
(only /N/ is a final consonant in Japanese).
E.do.ar.do
E.do
Fe.de.ri.co
Fe.de
A.ris.to.te.le
A.ri
Da.nie.le
Da.ni
Vir.gi.nia
Vir.gi
En.ri.co
En.ri
Prieto: Truncation processes in Spanish 153
(14) Japanese Loanword Abbreviation
a. LL helicopter heri (LL)
operation ope (LL)
b. HL combination kombi (HL)
impotent impo (HL)
c. HH bartender baateN (HH)
sandwich sandu (HL)
d. LH demonstration demo (LL), *demoN
anarchist ana (LL), *anaa
Note however that the conditions for the Spanish enforcement of
light final syllables in truncated forms differ considerably from those
of Japanese. Ito's analysis, therefore, is not applicable to Spanish. 1 5
3. Conclusion and outlook
I have shown that the Spanish truncation process investigated in
this paper is best accounted for as a mapping process to a syllabic-
trochee template. Crucially, the copying process operates on a
circumscribed base, consisting of the first two syllables of the base,
with the syllabification of the base retained. Moreover, the analysis
requires the assumption of a condition that forces the last syllable of
the truncated form to be light, optionally in the majority of the
forms, obligatorily in structures of the type [da.njel] : [da.ni]. It is this
process which makes it possible to assume that the syllabification of
the base is retained in the copying process, in conformity with
McCarthy & Prince's (1988) hypothesis.
These findings are significant in light of recent claims in
Prosodic Morphology (McCarthy & Prince Forthcoming:56) that
abbreviation patterns are to be analyzed as mapping to EXISTENT
prosodic constituents of a given language. The fact that the proposed
analysis postulates the syllabic trochee as the template for Spanish
truncation therefore would suggest that the syllabic trochee must be
an active foot in Spanish prosody. There is, in fact, independent
evidence for this conclusion: According to Roca (1986), secondary
stress patterns are based on syllabic trochees, without any reference
to syllable weight. ^^
NOTES
1 I thank Curtis Blaylock, Stuart Davis, Miguel Angel Galindo,
Michael Kenstowicz, Alfons Morales and, above all, Jose I. Hualde for
their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.
2 I am indebted to the following people, who answered the
questionnaire containing almost all the words discussed in the
present paper: Ana Ardid, from Madrid; Teresa Cadierno, from Gijon;
154 Studies in the Linguistic vSciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
Miguel Angel Dominguez, from Melilla; Ana Fernandez, from Palencia;
Pilar Figueras, from Girona; Miguel Angel Galindo, from Montejicar
(Granada); Pere Gifra, from Barcelona; Montse Mir, from Barcelona;
Isabel Pereira, from Madrid; Carles Pujol, from Madrid; and Juliana
Ramos, from Salamanca. All informants are university students,
between 20 and 35 years old.
3 There is a much less productive way of constructing
hypocoristics, and that is to copy the first two syllables of the base,
changing the vowel of the second syllable to [-i] (cf. Ar.mdn.do >
Ar.mi ; Ri.cdr.do > Ri.qui ; Ro.ber.to > Ro.bi ; Ber.ndr.do > Ber.ni ;
Mi.guel > Mi.gui ; Pi.ldr > Pi.li ; Su.sd.na > Su.si; Do.l6.res > D6U).
Another way of forming hypocoristics is to take the last two syllables
of the base (cf. Al.fre.do > Fre.do; Al.fon.so > Fon.so; Ro.ber.to >
Ber.to; An.to.nio > To.ni , Td.no; Cris.ti.na > Ti.na). And indeed, we can
find nonproductive hypocoristic forms that are limited to particular
nouns and are not derivable through a productive process in the
language (cf. Je.sus > Chiis, Chu.chi; Do. Id. res > Ld.les; Ma.ri.a Lui.sa >
Ma.ri.sa; Ig.nd.cio > Nd.cho, I.nd.qui; Ma.nd.lo > Lolo; Jo.se Ma.ri.a >
Jo.se. ma; Ma.ri.a Te.re.sa > Mdi.te; Lo.ren.za > Chen.cha; En.ri.que >
Qui. que; Con.cep.cidn > Con.cha; Fran.cis.co > Pdco; Jose > Pepe).
'^ Other consonants can occur, too, but they are much less
common (cf. cenit 'zenith'; biceps 'biceps'; cesped 'grass'; Per eld]
'proper name'; Miriam 'first name').
"^ Although in some isolated forms we can find simplification of
onsets (cf. Ga.briel > Gd.bi; A.dridn > Adi).
6 If the same speaker gave two possible forms I include them as
part of the answers.
^ As Jose Ignacio Hualde points out, the fact that [-m] is one of
the most accepted vowels in proparoxytones is puzzling, since in
most of the borrowings final [-m] becomes [-n] (cf. dlbum [albun],
item [iten]). Even though all informants wrote final [-m] in their
answers, one might think that they would pronounce these words
with final [n].
^ The following examples of paroxytones ending in l-il are
given in the reverse dictionary consulted: cenit 'zenith', dbsit 'apse',
superdvit 'surplus', accesit 'consolation prize'. With final /-d/: cesped
'grass'; huesped 'guest'; dspid 'asp'. And with final /-9/: Idpiz 'pencil',
cdliz 'calyx' .
^ For more arguments see also McCarthy & Prince Forthcoming.
•0 In contrast, iambic feet (weak-strong feet) are generally
quantity-sensitive. According to Hayes (1985, Forthcoming:?!) this
Prieto: Truncation processes in Spanish 155
asymmetry is grounded in certain facts about human rhythm
perception. What he calls the Iambic/trochaic Law is repeated in (i):
(i) Iambic/Trochaic Law
Elements contrasting in intensity naturally form
groupings with initial prominence (trochaic feet)
Elements contrasting in duration naturally form
groupings with final prominence (iambic feet)
11 This possibility was pointed out to me by Jose L Hualde.
12 As Alfons Morales suggests, a possible way to maintain the
extrametricality approach would be to argue that a sequence like
*Dd.nie (with final CGV) is ill-formed and would have to be corrected
by deleting the last vowel. The difference between *Dd.nie and nd.die
'nobody' would lie in their morphological composition. While *Dd.nie
is a non-derived root, nad+ie is a morphologically complex word (cf.
ndd+a 'nothing'). In other words, if the final sequence is a
'morpheme' it is accepted at the end of a GV sequence, but a final
vowel which is part of the root is not accepted. This solution seems to
be more stipulative than the one adopted here. Moreover, similar
cases reviewed in this paper show no morphological sensitivity.
13 The second template, the unbalanced trochee, not accepted in
the typology in (7), can be considered as a restricted type of foot
that, although it is not common across languages, can be operative in
some cases such as the ones reviewed above. Some other special
cases reviewed in the literature seem to call for similar prosodic
solutions (see Jakobs 1991 and Kenstowicz Forthcoming).
1"* This is the unmarked directionality for prefixation mapping
(cf. McCarthy & Prince Forthcoming: 11).
15 Ito hypothesizes that the interaction between two prosodic
categories, the Stem and the Word, explains why sequences such as
light-heavy (but crucially, not heavy-heavy) are highly disfavored in
Japanese truncation. Basically, these two prosodic categories have a
minimal requirement stated in (i) below: while the minimal Stem is
the bimoraic foot, the minimal Word has to be longer than a syllable:
(i) Minimal Prosodic Requirements in Japanese (Ito to appear: 10)
Minimal Stem Requirement: Min (STEM) = F = [ |i n ]
Minimal Word Requirement: Min (WORD) > a
The first assumption of Ito's analysis is that 'every word contains a
stem' and that 'a bisyllabic prosodic word must also properly contain
the bimoraic prosodic stem'. Since Japanese is a suffixing language,
the stem will be located at the left edge of the word. Given the above
assumptions it is possible to rule out truncated words of the form
light-heavy, as we can observe in (ii). The first three structures are
156 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
prosodically well-formed, since in (iia) stem and word overlap, and
in (iib, c) the Word contains a bimoraic stem and an extra syllable.
However, in (iid), the Stem cannot dominate just one mora or three
moras (see the minimal stem requirement in (i)); thus, the form LH is
prosodically ill-formed and has to be repaired.
(ii) a. Word 'helicopter' b. Word 'bartender'
I / \
Stem Stem Z
/ \ II
a a a a
/\ /\ / l\ /l\
heri baateN
c. Word 'combination' d. Word 'demonstration'
/ \ / \ ?
Stem Z Stem ??
II II?
a 0 o a
/ 1\ /\ /\ / 1\
koNbi demoN
The above explanation cannot be extended to Spanish Truncation,
since in this language no distinction is made between the sequences
heavy-heavy and light-heavy in truncated forms.
16 Secondary stress patterns seem to disregard syllable weight:
Secondary stress is assigned by constructing syllabic trochees from
right to left, starting from the primary stress of the word (see Roca
1986 for arguments): And as we can see in the words in (i),
secondary stresses are assigned without paying any attention to the
presence or absence of consonants in the coda (crucially, compare a.
and b.).
(i) a. Constantinopla 'Constantinople'
b. cdnstantinopleho 'person from Constantinople'
c. cdnstantinopdlizdr 'to become from Constantinople'
d. cdnstantinopdlitdno 'person from Constantinople'
Moreover, as Navarro-Tomas (1956:520-2) points out, trochaic
rhythms have been used overwhelmingly in Spanish poetry, in a
variety of different verse lengths. In contrast, dactylic rhythms or
any other combinations of rhythms have played a very limited role
in Spanish metrics.
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Prielo: Truncation processes in Spanish 157
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ed. by Karen Deaton, Manuela Noske, and Michael Ziolkowski.
Chicago Linguistic Society: Chicago.
Jakobs, Haike. 1991. The evolution of French foot and syllable
structure. Eurotyp Working Papers 9:4.
Kenstowicz, Michael. Forthcoming. On metrical constituents.
Proceedings of the University of Illinois Conference on the
Organization of Phonology, ed. by Jennifer Cole and Charles
Kisseberth.
McCarthy, John, & Alan Prince. 1988. Quantitative transfer in
reduplicative and templatic morphology. Linguistics in the
Morning Calm 2:3-35. Seoul: Hanshin Publishing.
. 1990. Foot and word in prosodic morphology: The Arabic broken
plurals. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 8:209-282.
. Forthcoming. Prosodic morphology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
M ESTER, Armin. 1990. Patterns of truncation. Linguistic Inquiry
21.478-85.
NavarrO-TOMAS, Tomas. 1956. Metrica espafiola. Syracuse, NY:
Syracuse University Press.
Peng, Long. 1990. Root and foot in Kikuyu reduplication. Proceedings
of the First Meeting of the Formal Linguistics Society of
Midamerica, ed. by D. Meyer, S. Tomioka, & L. Zidani-Eroglu,
222-237. University of Wisconsin: Madison.
Prince, Alan. 1990. Quantitative consequences of rhythmic
organization. Papers from the Parasession on the Syllable in
Phonetics and Phonology, ed. by Karen Deaton, Manuela Noske, &
Michael Ziolkowski. Chicago Linguistic Society: Chicago.
ROCA, Iggy. 1986. Secondary stress and metrical rhythm. Phonology
Yearbook 3:341-70.
158 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
. 1988. Theoretical implications of Spanish word stress. Linguistic
Inquiry 19.3.
SCULLEN, Mary Ellen. 1992. Prosodic minimality and abbreviation in
French. Paper presented at the LSA Meeting.
STAHL, Fred A., & Gary E. A. Scavnicy. 1973. A reverse dictionary of
the Spanish language. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Steriade, Donca. 1988. Reduplication and syllable transfer in
Sanskrit. Phonology Yearbook 5:73-155.
Thornton, Anna. 1991. On prosodic morphology in Italian. University
of Rome, MS.
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences
Volume 22, Number 1, Spring 1992
SQUIB
On the lexical/postlexical distinction:
Vowel assimilation in Lekeitio Basque
Jose Ignacio Hualde and Gorka Elordieta
In the heyday of classical Lexical Phonology it was claimed that
there were a number of test properties that distinguished lexical
from postlexical rules. Lexical rules, which could apply within certain
morphologically defined domains but not across word boundaries,
could be subject to cyclicity and have lexical exceptions. Postlexical
rules were supposed to apply across-the-board and be blind to any
morphological or lexical conditions (see Archangeli 1985, Pulleyblank
1986:1-8, Kaisse & Shaw 1985, among others). The initial optimism
among researchers about establishing such a clearcut distinction
between two major types of rules or rule applications has diminished
considerably as contradictory evidence has been steadily amassed.
For instance, Kaisse (1985, 1990) and Odden (1990) argue that
certain postlexical rules have properties that had been taken to
characterize the rules of the lexical component. Kaisse's proposal is to
distinguish two subcomponents within the postlexical phonology,
which she names PI and P2. PI rules have essentially the same
properties as lexical rules but, in addition, have access to syntactic
information. PI rules apply within certain well-defined syntactic
configurations, but are insensitive to intonational breaks.
In this paper, we present a case of a rule that would form part
of the P2 subcomponent in Kaisse's model, since it is sensitive to
intonational boundaries, but that has other characteristics which are
typical of lexical rules, such as a very limited domain of application
(basically nominal and verbal inflection). The existence of processes
of this type makes the lexical/postlexical distinction essentially
vacuous. This process thus offers evidence that the whole conception
of the organization of phonology embodied within the framework of
Lexical Phonology is substantially flawed. Instead, we propose that
rules with lexical and grammatical conditions can apply at any level
in the phonology, including intonationally-parsed representations.
The process that we will examine is an optional rule of total
vowel assimilation that assimilates /a/ or lei to an immediately
preceding vowel in all features, in the Basque dialect of Lekeitio. In
this dialect, the sequences to the left of the arrow in (1), which
160 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
correspond to a more careful or guarded style, may be realized as
indicated to the right of the arrow in rapid or relaxed style: ^
(l)umia da -^ umii da 'it is the child'
basuak dis -» basiiuk dis [basiiutis] 'they are the forests'
umien ama -^ umiin ama 'the child's mother'
katuen platera -^ katuun platera 'the cat's plate'
zo eben -^ zo oben 'they hit him/her'
The rule of total vowel assimilation that the examples in (1)
illustrate can be formulated as follows:
(2) V V
• •
I
[-rd]
The high vowels do not undergo the rule simply because they
never occur in the relevant morphological contexts. As for /o/, it can
be shown that it does not undergo assimilation:
(3) basuok dis -> *basuuk dis 'they are the forests (prox.)'
umion ama -^ *umiin ama 'the mother of the children (prox.)'
The application of total vowel assimilation is restricted to
basically two contexts: Across the boundary introduced by nominal
inflectional endings and between main verb and auxiliary. Elsewhere
the rule does not apply. The rule is thus inapplicable inside a
morpheme (4a), between stem and derivational suffix (4b), in
compounds (4c), and generally across word boundaries, (4d):
(4) a. Morpheme internally
oe -^ *oo 'bed'
uel -^ *uul 'leather'
diabru -^ *diibru 'devil'
biar -> *biir 'job'
teatro -^ *teetro 'theater'
b. Derivation
tontu-ago -^ *tontuugo 'more stupid'
donosti-arra -^ *donostiirra 'from Donosti (San Sebastian)'
listu-egi -> *listuugi 'too smart'
c. Compounding
buru-andi -^ *buruundi 'big headed'
seme-alabak -> *semeelabak 'children (son-daughters)'
begi-erre — > *begiirre 'red-eye'
soro-antza — > *soro6ntza 'mad look'
Hualde & Elordieta: Squib 'On the lexical/postlexical distinction' 161
d. Across word boundaries
ortu estua — > *ortu ustua 'narrow field'
ori argiza -^ *ori irgiza 'that light'
In the application of the rule in nominal inflection, the target
vowel always assimilates to a high vowel, due to the existence of a
couple of likewise morphologically restricted rules which raise a
stem-final non-high vowel before a vowel-initial inflectional suffix.
These rules apply obligatorily and are ordered before the optional
rule of total vowel assimilation:^
(5)
/baso-a/
—>
basua
-^
basuu
'the forest'
/baso-en/
->
basuen
— >
basuun
'of the forest'
/baso-en*/
— >
basuen
—>
basuun
'of the forests'
/baso-on*/
— >
bastion
'of the forests (prox.)'
/ume-a/
-^
umia
-^
umii
'the child'
/ume-en/
-^
umien
-^
umiin
'of the child'
/ume-en*/
-^
umien
-^
umiin
'of the children'
/ume-on*/
— >
umion
'of the children (prox.)'
/neska-a/
—>
neskia
->
neskii
'the girl'
/neska-en/
-^
neskien
-^
neskiin
'of the girl'
/buru-a/
— >
burua
-^
buruu
'the head'
/buru-en/
->
buruen
— >
buruun
'of the head'
The rules illustrated in (5) are, first, a rule of mid-vowel raising
that raises stem-final /e/ to [i] and /of to [u] immediately before
another vowel in inflectional contexts, and, second, a rule that raises
stem-final /a/ to [i] only in the singular (in the plural, stem-final /a/
is lost; e.g. /neska-en*/ nesken 'of the girls'). It is also possible to
conceive of this second rule as raising /a/ to /e/, which finally
becomes [i] by mid-vowel raising.
The application of the rule of total assimilation in verbal
sequences, where the rules of mid-vowel and low-vowel raising do
not apply, shows us that total assimilation can indeed apply when
the trigger of the rule is a mid or low vowel, and not only when it is
high. In this context, total vowel assimilation can be fed by another
rule that deletes intervocalic stem-final /n/ in perfective participles
with this ending:
(6) /za-n eban/ -^zaeban ^ za aban 's/he ate'
/zo eban/ -^ zoeban -^ zo oban 's/he hit
him/her/it'
/apur-tu eban/ -^ apurtu eban -^ apurtu uban 's/he broke it'
/ikus-i eban/ -^ ikusi eban -^ ikusi iban 's/he saw
him/her/it'
162 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
Outside of these two morphosyntactic contexts, total vowel
assimilation applies only with the superlative suffix /-en*/. This is a
rather curious exception, since other suffixes of a similar semantic
and morphological nature such as the comparative /-ago*/ and the
excessive /-egi/ do not undergo the rule:
(7) /tonto*-en*-a/ -> tontuena -^ tontuiina 'the most
stupid one'
/tonto*-ago*-a/ -^ tontuagua -^ *tontuugua 'more stupid'
/tonto*-egi*-a/ -^ tontuegiza -^ *tontuugiza 'too stupid'
The superlative is phonologically identical to the genitive plural.
We want to propose that this is the reason that it undergoes a rule
that inflectional morphemes undergo. The superlative is the same
lexical entity as the genitive plural. This is similar to the notion of
readjustment rule in Halle 1991:
(8) Superlative -> genitive plural
The restrictions observed in the domain of application of total
vowel assimilation are what one would expect of a lexical rule. It
should be noted, however, that main verb and auxiliary, between
which the rule applies, do not constitute a morphological word. There
is plenty of evidence for the morphological independence of the
auxiliary with respect to the main verb. For one thing, some elements
can intervene between main verb and auxiliary; for another, the
auxiliary is preposed in negative sentences:
(9) a. zo eban 's/he hit him/her/it'
b. zo egin eban 's/he did hit him/her/it'
c. es eban zo 's/he did not hit him/her/it'
d. es eban mutilla zo 's/he did not hit the boy'
The fact that the auxiliary behaves in the same way as the
nominal inflectional suffixes with respect to the rule of total vowel
assimilation, as well as the fact that it triggers certain idiosyncratic
rules, such as the deletion of the final /-n/ of a preceding main verb,
can be seen as arguments for considering that some sort of
cliticization takes place between main verb and auxiliary when they
are syntactically contiguous. There is no standard account for
cliticization within the theory of classical Lexical Phonology, but a
number of solutions have been proposed, including reversion to the
lexicon (Pranka 1983, Pulleyblank & Akinlabi 1988, Hualde 1991)
and the existence of an early postlexical stratum with many of the
properties of the lexical component (Kaisse 1990).
But our rule has another property which clearly indicates that
this is a very late rule, using the temporal metaphor of Lexical
Phonology. This property is that the rule is sensitive in its application
to intonational boundaries. Total vowel assimilation cannot apply if
Hualde & Elordieta: Squib 'On the lexical/postlexical distinction' 163
the target syllable immediately precedes a pause or strong
intonational break:
(10) a. zon gure umia da -^ zon gure umii da 'Jon is our child'
zon da gure umia -> *zon da gure umii 'Jon is our child'
b. liburiiak zonek daukos -^ liburuuk zonek daukos
'Jon has the books'
zonek daukos liburiiak -^ *zonek daukos liburuuk
'Jon has the books'
c. [barristu egingo dabela plasan dagoen etxia/*etxii]
renovate do.fut AUX.that square. in is.rel house
esan eben
say AUX
'They said that they would renovate the house that is on
the square'
These examples show that the morphological conditions are
necessary but not sufficient in order for the rule of total assimilation
to apply. In addition there is a prosodic condition: The syllable
containing the target vowel cannot be placed immediately before an
intonational break. This is a condition to which only late postlexical
rules are supposed to show sensitivity. That is, in spite of its
restricted morphological domain, total vowel assimilation applies
postlexically; in fact, it would have to be classified as a P2 rule in
Kaisse's model.
Our conclusion is that across-the-board application is not a
necessary characteristic of late postlexical rules. Rather, rules
restricted in their domain of application to very limited
morphological contexts may apply at the postlexical level. This
implies that, against the claims of classical Lexical Phonology,
morphological information about boundaries and grammatical
categories is not erased upon concatenation, but rather remains
available at all levels.
NOTES
1 The data in this paper are based on the native intuitions of one
of the authors (Elordieta) as well as on observation of several other
Basque speakers from Lekeitio. The transcription system that is used
follows common Basque conventions, except that the prepalatal
voiced fricative found in the Lekeitio variety, for which there is no
standard Basque symbol, is represented as z. The following
equivalences are to be noted: tx = prepalatal voiceless affricate, // =
palatal lateral, rr = rhotic trill. Other symbols have their usual values.
164 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
2 An asterisk following a morpheme in underlying re-
presentation indicates that the morpheme is accented. Accented
morphemes assign prominence to the penultimate syllable of the
word containing them. Other words are unaccented and do not show
prominence on any syllable, unless they are focalized or in phrase-
final position, in which case they receive final prominence.
REFERENCES
ARCHANGEL!, Diana. 1985. An overview of the theory of Lexical
Phonology and Morphology. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics
7.1-14.
Halle, Morris. 1991. An approach to morphology. NELS 20.
HUALDE, Jose I. 1991. Basque phonology. London and New York:
Routledge.
KaisSE, Ellen. 1985. Connected speech: The interaction of syntax and
phonology. Orlando: Academic Press.
. 1990. Towards a typology of postlexical rules. The phonology-
syntax connection, ed. by S. Inkelas & D. Zee, 127-144. Chicago
and London: University of Chicago Press.
, & Patricia Shaw. 1985. On the theory of Lexical Phonology.
Phonology Yearbook 2.1-30.
Odden, David. 1990. Syntax, lexical rules, and postlexical rules in
Kimatuumbi. The phonology-syntax connection, ed. by S. Inkelas
& D. Zee, 259-278. Chicago and London: University of Chicago
Press.
Pranka, p. 1983. Syntax and word formation. MIT PhD dissertation
in Linguistics.
PULLEYBLANK, Douglas. 1986. Tone in Lexical Phonology. Dordrecht:
Reidel.
, & Akin Akinlabi. 1988. Phrasal morphology in Yoruba. Lingua
74.141-166.
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences
Volume 22, Number 1, Spring 1992
REVIEW
Nanette Twine: Language and the modern state: The reform
of written Japanese. (The Nissan Institute/Routledge Japa-
nese Studies Series) London: Routledge, 1991; pp. xiii, 329,
US $79.95.
Yasufumi Iwasaki
1 . Language and the modern state is one of the books in The
Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies Series, which seeks, in
the words of the general editor, to 'foster an informed and balanced
— but not uncritical — understanding of Japan' (xi). The volume
examines Japan's language modernization as a process whereby a
modern colloquial style was developed in the context of the overall
social, educational, and economic modernization of Japan. It details
the 'revolutionary reform' (257) in written Japanese undertaken
during the period 1866-1946, focusing mainly on the Meiji (1868-
1912) and the early Taisho (1912-1926) Periods.
2. At the beginning of Japan's modern age, there was no single
all-purpose written language simple enough to be understood by all
literate Japanese. In order to involve the entire nation in
modernization, it was imperative to develop a uniform style of
writing based on the grammar and vocabulary of a standard form of
the spoken language and hence comprehended by any literate
Japanese. This reform was initiated, not by the government, but by
progressive intellectuals including educators, political activists,
bureaucrats, journalists, linguists, and novelists, most of whom were
strongly influenced by European languages. Overcoming the
resistance of their peers to a colloquial style of writing based on the
contemporary speech was a formidable task.
3. The Introduction, presenting a brief outline, is followed by
Chapter 1 ('Language and modernization: The Japanese experience',
6-32), which discusses language modernization in general and the
background to the problem of language modernization in Japan. To
modernize a language means changing it so that it becomes 'capable
of acting as a facilitator for the involvement of the populace as a
whole in the social transformation being undertaken' (7). There are
four major elements in language modernization: stylistic reform (cf.
Chapters 3-7), standardization (cf. Chapter 8), orthographic reform
(cf. Chapter 9), and lexical expansion. Four main factors which led to
166 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
language modernization in Japan were the urgency of disseminating
new knowledge from abroad through formal education, the need to
expedite the flow of information (e.g. through mail and the press),
the importance that activists in jiyu minken undo (civil rights
movement) attached to mass political education, and the Japanese
novelists influenced by western literary theories.
Chapter 2 (Tre-modern styles', 33-73) describes in detail the
history, characteristics, and domains of use of the four major literary
conventions at the beginning of the Meiji Period: kambun (Sino-
Japanese), sorobun (epistolary style), wabun (classical Japanese), and
wakankonkobun (Japanese-Chinese blend). These conventions had to
be changed for two reasons. First, they were intrinsically difficult,
because they were divorced from contemporary spoken Japanese.
Second, they mirrored the ingrained belief of intellectuals that
writing was an artistic endeavor with content subordinated to form.
Chapter 3 ('Early stirrings: Education and the press', 74-107)
discusses the initial moves toward stylistic reform in two major
areas, education and the press. The stylistic reform movement was
known as gembun'itchi (uniting speech and writing) movement in
Japan.
Chapter 4 ('Language and polities', 108-131) focuses on the role
in language reform of popularizers of western political thought (e.g.
Ueki Emori, Kato Hiroyuki). These popularizers brought to light the
limitations of the pre-modern, class-bound style in mass-oriented
politics and lessened traditional antipathy against writing based on
the spoken form.
Chapter 5 ('The role of literature', 132-162) discusses the pivotal
role played by a crop of new, young novelists influenced by western
literary theories and motivated by a desire to create realistic fiction
in a serious attempt to depict the human psyche and environment.
They modeled colloquial style for an intellectual readership and
polished it into a medium acceptable to that readership, thereby
dispelling the fears of those who saw only deficiencies in colloquial
style and paving the way for the eventual spread of the new style to
other areas.
Chapter 6 ('The final stages', 163-183) examines the later
developments between the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and 1946,
when colloquial style finally replaced its literary precursors
completely. The most significant event occurred in 1902, when the
government set up a body to approve and implement what had been
already achieved by the gembun'itchi movement.
Chapter 7 ('The opposition', 184-206) discusses the main
arguments against colloquial style and its major alternatives (e.g.
Iwasaki: Review of Twine 167
futsubun (general style), wa/:«A2 'yo (Japanese-Chinese-European
style)). Futsubun adhered to the Classical Standard rather than
Colloquial Standard and was a viable alternative. Although it lost to
the colloquial style, its emphasis on simple vocabulary probably
helped weaken the anti-colloquial prejudice among intellectuals.
Chapter 8 (The standardization debate', 207-223) deals with the
standardization of written language, a prerequisite for the success of
colloquialization of writing, and shows how the speech of educated
people in Tokyo came to be the standard language.
Chapter 9 (The problem of orthography', 224-256) discusses
script reform and the development of a system of punctuation. For
script reform, three main proposals were advanced: limiting the
number of kanji (Chinese) characters, using only kana (Japanese
syllabary writing) and using only romaji (Roman alphabet). The least
radical one (i.e. limiting the number of kanji characters) was
eventually adopted. As far as punctuation was concerned, Japanese
texts were either sketchily punctuated or not punctuated at all, and
the development of a punctuation system was induced by western
punctuation, though not all western devices were adopted (e.g.
inverted commas). As a result of these two reforms, written Japanese
became much easier to understand.
The Conclusion, summarizing the major arguments of the book,
is followed by an Appendix, which provides English translations of
the cited Japanese passages, a Glossary, Notes, the Bibliography, and
an Index.
4. The volume is undoubtedly based on extensive and in-depth
research, of which the detailed notes and selected bibliography are
indications. The appendix is invaluable to those who cannot read
Japanese. The importance of the volume lies in the fact that it not
only fosters an informed and balanced understanding of Japan, but
also serves as a case study of language planning. However, it contains
little discussion of the theoretical implications of the Japanese
experience, which is one way to 'see what lessons, positive or
negative, can be drawn for other countries' (xi).
Language planning is defined as 'an explicit and systematic
effort to resolve language problems and achieve related goals
through institutionally organized intervention in the use and usage of
languages' (Christian 1988). Japan's 'language problems' were that
the existing written language was a hindrance, not a facilitator, to
smooth and rapid dissemination of information. The 'related goals'
were the overall modernization of Japan. The Japanese experience
corroborates the view that 'language planning takes place in a
sociocultural context' (Cobarrubias 1983) and thus that 'language
issues are only one part of the total language planning picture'
168 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
(Christian 1988). It also favors the 'socio-linguistic approach'
discussed in Fasold (1984:250-251) over the 'instrumental approach'
to language planning. One of the important findings of the book is the
crucial interdependence between style reform, script reform, and
standardization, the recognition of which came in the later stage of
Japanese language reform. This fact should be given due
consideration, though it may not be true of all instances of language
planning. The relationship between various elements of language
planning has not been dealt with so far (e.g. Ferguson 1968, Haugen
1983, Christian 1988, Haarmann 1990), and the volume testifies that
'much remains to be learned in language planning from case studies'
(Cobarrubias 1983).
REFERENCES
Christian, Donna. 1988. Language planning: The view from
linguistics. Linguistics: The Cambridge survey. Vol. IV: Language:
The socio-cultural context, ed. by F. J. Newmeyer, 193-209.
Cambridge University Press.
COBARRUBIAS, Juan. 1983. Language planning: The state of the art.
Progress in language planning: International perspective, eds. by
J. Cobarrubias & J. A. Fishman, 3-26. Berlin: Mouton.
Fasold, Ralph. 1984. The sociolinguistics of society. Oxford: Basil
Blackwell.
Ferguson, Charles A. 1968. Language development. Language
problems of developing nations, ed. by J. A. Fishman, C. A.
Ferguson, & J. Das Gupta, 27-35. New York: John Wiley .
Haarmann, Harald. 1990. Language planning in the light of a general
theory of language: A methodological framework. International
Journal of the Sociology of Language 86.103-126.
Haugen, Einar. 1983. The implementation of corpus planning: Theory
and practice. Progress in language planning: International
perspective, ed. by J. Cobarrubias & J. A. Fishman, 269-289.
Berlin: Mouton.
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences
Volume 22, Number 1, Spring 1992
REVIEW
Marina Yaguello, Lunatic lovers of language: Imaginary lan-
guages and their inventors. Translated by Catherine Slater.
Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1991;
pp. xvii, 223. US $39.50.
M. Lynne Murphy
In doing research on constructed languages, I have found that lin-
guistics departments around the world are havens for artificial lan-
guage junkies. Some of these folk pride themselves on knowing tid-
bits of terribly obscure languages from the last century, others have
been card-carrying Esperantists, and a particularly interesting varie-
ty got their starts as linguists when they invented new languages as
adolescents. Yet for all of this linguistic interest in constructed lan-
guages, relatively little is published on the topic. Certainly, studying
constructed languages does not provide the same kinds of insights
into the human linguistic capacity as the study of natural languages
does. But could it give us different, and valuable, insights into the
human mind? This is among the questions raised by Marina Yagu-
ello's Lunatic lovers of language.
Originally published in French as Les fous du langage: des langues
imaginaires et de leurs inventeurs (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1984),
this translation is a valuable addition to the literature on constructed
languages available to the English speaker. Y's research is remark-
ably broad and deep for such a short book, and many of the French
sources and European constructed languages that she cites differ
from those that are paraded again and again in the English language
literature, revealing new avenues of inquiry for the curious scholar.
Furthermore, Y has liberated herself from academic definitions of
constructed languages. In addition to considering the philosophical
and internationalist languages devised by scholars and self-described
interlinguists, Y explores the boundaries between constructed and
natural language, including the languages of schizophrenics, psychic
media, and glossolalists (those who 'speak in tongues' due to religious
possession). Comparing such unintentional language inventors with
deliberate interlinguists leads Y to the conclusion that lunacy is a
170 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
motivating factor for language inventors. Her discourse on this topic
is a bit fanciful, and while I encourage taking her conclusions with a
grain of salt, they certainly make for interesting and entertaining
reading.
In the introduction, Y outlines the purpose and limits of the book,
giving the criteria she used for collecting languages and theoretical
works in her research. She is mainly concerned with the relationship
between the language and its creator and introduces her hypothesis
that language inventors are 'linguistic lunatics'. The remainder of the
book is divided into four sections and two appendices.
Part I, 'From myth to Utopia', includes Chapters 1-3. Chapter 1,
'From austral to astral voyages: The founding myths', describes how
myths fuel the creation of language. Stories of other worlds, ques-
tions regarding the genesis of language, and increased European in-
teraction with non-European languages through imperialism (and
subsequent conceptions and misconceptions of these languages) in-
spired language construction from the Reconstruction period. Chapter
2, "The dreamer dreaming: Identikit picture of the linguistic lunatic',
pursues a psychology of the archetypical logophile, with modi ope-
randi for sub-types of this species. The language creator is charac-
terized as a passionate dreamer, innocent of linguistic knowledge. In
Chapter 3, 'Women outdreaming men: Female bodies, male science', Y
explores why the classical language inventor is invariably a man, and
why glossolalists are typically women. Here, Y walks the line be-
tween essentialism and socio-economic political analysis. She por-
trays men as intellectually-oriented and women as emotionally-
oriented in their language creation. But in addition to such broad
stereotypes, Y provides some analysis of the effects of sex and class
membership on the language inventor's process.
Part II, 'Down the stream of time', follows the evolution of lan-
guage construction from the I7th through the 20th century. In Chap-
ter 4, 'The unended quest: The search for an ideal language in the
17th and 18th centuries', Y discusses the period's fictive Utopian lan-
guages and attempts for a 'philosophical language' which would ren-
der thought and expression more rational than natural languages. In
these ten pages, Y discusses several language constructors and theo-
reticians with reference to their historical context, noting the effects
of trade with China, the grammar of Port-Royal, and religion and
superstition on the imaginations of language creators. As is her
strength, Y discusses more than just those authors familiar to the
English language reader (Godwin, Leibniz, Wilkins), providing exam-
ples from the works of Denis de Varasse and Gabriel de Foigny. Chap-
Murphy: Review of Yaguello 171
ter 5, 'Science against fiction: The advance of the scientific spirit',
describes the influence of philology and early linguistics on language
construction trends. In this chapter, we see how new ideas (such as
the arbitrariness of language) shift interest from the search for a
perfect philosophical language to a concern for an internationalist
language, and thus from a priori to a posteriori languages. Chapter 6,
'Myth at the heart of science: Modern linguistic theories as reflected
in contemporary science fiction', carries us from Sapir-Whorf through
the Chomskyan revolution in linguistics. Here, Y cites mostly English
language authors and novels, including George Orwell's 1984, Ian
Watson's The embedding, and Samuel Delaney's Babel 17. Y's concep-
tion of Chomskyan linguistics is marked by its rather antiquated
view of Deep Structure (circa 1965). However, this does not harm her
analysis, as it is this view of Deep Structure that affected the work of
Watson and Delaney.
Part III, 'At the two poles of linguistic fantasy', provides case
studies of two very different language creators. In this section, Y
continues to note lunacy in her subjects. Chapter 7, 'The emperor's
new clothes: The case of Nicholas Marr', describes the life and work
of the Georgian linguist, with special interest in his prediction that
the languages of the world will synthesize into a single, universal
tongue. Y's psychoanalysis of Marr is dramatic and worthy of some
healthy skepticism, but her account of Marr's interaction with Stalin
and his cult of personality is indeed interesting reading. Chapter 8,
'The Queen of the Night: Language and the unconscious: Spiritualist
and religious glossolalia', discusses the case of Helene Smith, a turn-
of-the-century French spiritual medium, whose 'Martian' languages
were recorded and studied by several psychologists. Y compares this
case to present-day Pentacostalists, who speak 'in tongues' when al-
legedly possessed with the Holy Spirit. Y reveals some of the (pre-
sumably subconscious) methods of glossolalists by investigating the
phonetics and syntax of the 'foreign' language in comparison to the
speaker's native tongue.
In Part IV, 'In defence of natural languages', Y reflects on the
roles and limitations of constructed languages. In Chapter 9, 'Sleeping
Beauty still asleep: Artificial languages, prisons of the mind', and
Chapter 10, 'The pull of opposing forces', Y reveals the circularity of
arguments for constructed languages.
Two appendices account for almost half of the text (pp. 125-208).
Appendix 1 is a very useful timeline of relevant points in the history
of language invention. Parallel columns note the publication dates of
theoretical and fictional works. Included in the timeline of theoretical
1 7 2 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1 992)
works are linguistic works that affected language construction trends
(e.g. Chomsky's Aspects of the theory of syntax), as well as prospecti
and grammars for constructed languages. Appendix 2 reprints selec-
tions from various influential works from the history of language
construction, from Rene Descartes to Nicholas Marr, as well as texts
on glossolalia and a typology of artificial universal languages. Since
many of the texts are readily available elsewhere (e.g. Paul's First
Epistle to the Corinthians), Appendix 2 seems like padding to leng-
then a fairly short book. However, many of these texts have not been
published in English, so the translations provided here may be of use
to English-speaking scholars.
All in all. Lunatic lovers of language provides an entertaining read
for us closet interlinguists and is a valuable addition to the scholarly
literature on constructed languages.
Studies in the Linguistics Sciences
Volume 22, Number 1, Spring 1992
BOOK NOTICES
Christel Goldap. Lokale Relationen im Yukatekischen: Eine ono-
masiologische Studie. (Continuum: Schriftenreihe zur Linguistik,
8.) Frankfurt am Main/Bern/New York/Paris: Peter Lang, 199L
The volume represents a revised version of the author's 'Magi-
sterarbeit' at the University of Bielefeld (Germany) and was devel-
oped under the auspices of that university's project on Yucatec, a
member of the Mayan language family. As the author notes, while
not on the edge of dying out, Yucatec appears to be undergoing a
certain degree of attrition, giving way to Spanish (5, note 2). Work on
the language, therefore, takes on added significance and urgency.
The major concern of the volume is the relationship between
language and (localization in) space. The author considers two major
approaches to this topic, a 'semasiological' and an 'onomasiological'
one. The former, which is adopted more commonly in linguistics, is
characterized as concerned with the question, 'Which expressions for
spatial localization does a particular language employ, what are their
syntactic and semantic characteristics, and what do they indicate
about the mental representation of locality?' The second, onomasi-
ological, approach assumes the existence of preexistent, ideally
universal structures of spatial perception and representation and
investigates by what linguistic means these are realized in a given
language. (1) The author opts for the second approach, but without
clearly stating the reasons for her choice. She notes, however, that
the preexistent perceptual structures postulated by the onomasi-
ological approach cannot be determined without reference to lin-
guistic evidence and that their relevance must again and again be
evaluated against that evidence (3).
The author defines the notion 'local relation' (i.e. the localization
of an object in reference to another object) in terms largely taken
from, or compatible with, Langacker's Cognitive Grammar, employing
such concepts as 'landmark' and 'domain of search' (13), 'trajectory'
(14), and 'prototype' (15). The major part of the volume (33-112)
examines the manner in which different 'local relations', such as
'static relations', 'relation of proximity', 'inclusion in a container', are
expressed in sentences with verb + prepositional phrase. The result
is a rich and interesting data collection on locational adverbials and
74 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
prepositional phrases, including such interesting phenomena as the
use of bare noun phrases, without prepositions, in unmarked con-
texts, such as when toponyms indicate the goal of a verb of motion
(90).
There is however a clear drawback to this method of pre-
sentation: As in most other languages, many different, a priori pos-
tulated 'local relations' are expressed by the same lexical means. As a
consequence, information regarding these lexical expressions must be
repeated again and again, under each of the different 'local relations'.
Only the final chapter (p. 113-116) gives a more comprehensive pic-
ture of the formal expression of local relations, such as the fact that
there are only two simple prepositions in Yucatec, ich and ti', that of
these ti' is the most unmarked and as such can be used to indicate
unmarked or nonspecific localization, and that under special circum-
stances (cf. above), unmarked localization can be expressed by bare
noun phrases.
(Hans Henrich Hock)
Braj B. Kachru, ed. The other tongue: English across cultures.
Second edition. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992, pp.
xxv, 384. $19.95 (paper), $44.95 (cloth).
The original edition of this book appeared in 1982, combining
revised papers from a conference on "English in Non-Native Contexts'
(University of Illinois, Summer 1978) with commissioned papers
from scholars not present at that conference. The second edition pre-
sents not only updated references, a more extensive index, and a
new introduction and preface. In addition, four authors of the ori-
ginal edition have contributed new chapters; five contributions of the
original edition have been omitted; and four chapters by authors not
represented in the original edition have been added. The following
discussion is limited to the substantially new elements of the book.
'English as an international language: Directions in the 1990s' by
the late Peter Strevens (Chap. 2) presents a survey of the interna-
tional spread of English, the development of indigenized non-native
varieties functioning as national or community languages, and the
implications of these developments for the teaching of English as a
Second or Foreign Language.
Some of these implications are addressed in more detail in L. E.
Smith's 'Spread of English and issues of intellibigility' (Chap. 4), a
report on a pilot study testing the intelligibility of different varieties
of English. An important conclusion is that '(n)ative speakers (from
Britain and the United States) were not found to be the most easily
Book Notices 175
understood, nor were they, as subjects, found to be the best able to
understand the different varieties of English.' (88)
Another implication of the international spread of English is
examined in P. H. Lowenberg's 'Testing English as a world language:
Issues in assessing non-native proficiency' (Chap. 6). As Lowenberg
observes, proficiency assessments routinely make allowances for
differences between different standard native varieties (especially
British and American English). One of the questions that must arise in
assessing the profiency of speakers of non-native, indigenized vari-
eties of English is whether their differences from, say, native stan-
dard American English, are comparable to those of, say, standard
British English speakers or to those of non-standard British speakers.
He concludes that in order to answer this question we need to come
to a better understanding of the norms that define STANDARD vari-
eties of non-native, indigenized Englishes. (This issue is more fully
addressed in Lowenberg's contribution to Volume 20, Number 2 of
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences.) The notion of 'standard' in non-
native varieties may strike some as preposterous. However, it should
be borne in mind that some standard languages, such as Sanskrit or
Arabic, have (virtually) no native speakers. Most speakers of Stan-
dard German are native speakers of non-standard, regional varieties,
and many of these varieties bear a diglossic relationship to the
standard language. Even for many native speakers of American and
British English the standard variety is a second dialect.
C. L. Nelson's 'My language, your culture: Whose communicative
competence?' (Chap. 17) likewise takes issue with the fact that we
make allowances for differences between native speakers' varieties
English, but not for differences exhibited by non-native varieties.
Unlike Lowenberg, however, he does not distinguish between stan-
dard and non-standard varieties. (His notions of 'confidence' and
'consistency' are different, since they are not limited to standard
varieties.) It is therefore not clear whether Nelson wants to argue for
acceptance of all non-native varieties, or (like Lowenberg) just the
standard ones.
'Bridging the paradigm gap: Second-language acquisition theory
and indigenized varieties of English' by K. K. Sridhar & S. N. Sridhar
(Chap. 5) questions the appropriateness and relevance of current ap-
proaches to second-language acquisition (SLA) for indigenized non-
native varieties of English, especially SLA scholars' negative evalu-
ation of these varieties as 'fossilized interlanguages'. The authors are
certainly correct in arguing that such an evaluation fails to provide
an adequate characterization of the nature and social functions of in-
digenized language varieties. However, the inappropriate use of the
term 'interlanguage' by SLA scholars does not necessarily force us to
reject the concept altogether and to return to the older notion of
176 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
'interference', renamed 'transfer'. The notion 'interlanguage' was in-
tended to account for a broader range of developments in SLA than
interference or transfer. If used without negative value judgments, it
can be argued to be the major vehicle for the developments leading
to indigenization, as well as convergence and other language-contact
developments. (See e.g. Hock, Principles of historical linguistics,
1986, second edition 1991.)
In many parts of the world, the spread and indigenization of the
English language have been accompanied by a similar spread and in-
digenization of literature written in English. In his essay, 'The lit-
erary dimension of the spread of English' (Chap. 14), E. Thumboo
considers the implications of this development for literary theory
and criticism.
Y. Kachru's paper on 'Culture, style, and discourse: Expanding
noetics of English' (Chap. 18) explores one specific aspect of the
stylistic indigenization of English by comparing the 'style of stance' in
Indian English and American English college essay and news article
writing. She notes that Indian English rhetorical style is characterized
by a much greater use of 'stance-marking' adverbials (such as sadly,
ironically, precisely) than its American English counterpart. She finds
that this greater level of personal involvement is a feature of South
rhetorical style, anchored in the Sanskritic tradition. She concludes
that its presence in English-medium writing 'reflects an attempt to
create the Sanskritic noetics in English ...', but admits that 'a more
detailed study ... is needed to see if the findings of this study can be
further corroborated.' (347) Detailed empirical studies like that of Y.
Kachru make valuable contributions not only to research on the in-
ternationalization and indigenization of English but also to the field of
language contact studies in general. One hopes that the author will
conduct the 'more detailed' studies she is calling for. It would be es-
pecially interesting to see whether the greater use of 'stance-mark-
ing' adverbials is limited to Indian English or whether it is a feature
of broader occurrence, due perhaps to more general differences
between Anglo-American essay writing and the rhetorical traditions
of most of the rest of the world. (On this broader issue see the con-
tributions to the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 1982.)
The overall quality of production of this second edition of The
other tongue is excellent, the essays retained from the first edition
continue to be interesting and challenging, and the new introductory
essay by the editor, Braj B. Kachru, provides an excellent up-date on
this prolific author's view of 'The other side of English and the
1990s'.
(Hans Henrich Hock)
Studies in the Linguistics Sciences
Volume 22, Number 1, Spring 1992
RECENT BOOKS
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences gratefully accepts review copies of
recent publications and tries to find reviewers for them. In this en-
deavor, however, it does not always succeed. Volumes for which no
reviewers have been found so far are publicized in this section, with
brief indications of contents or interest. Prices are indicated where
known. (Unless otherwise indicated, the brief descriptions below are
by the editor.)
Elmer H. Antonsen & Hans Henrich Hock, eds. Staefcraeft: Studies in
Germanic linguistics. (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 70.)
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins, 1991, pp. viii, 217.
This volume contains selected, updated, and revised papers from two symposia
on Germanic linguistics, held at the University of Chicago (1985) and the
University of Illinois (1986). Issues in synchronic syntax and syntactic theory
are covered in papers by Coopmans (Dutch causatives 27-37), Fagan (un-
accusative and reflexive in Dutch and German, 40-54), Hoeing (Control theory
and empty categories in German, 91-101), Moorcroft (Semantic restrictions on
German passives, 146-159), and Sprouse (a parameter of case percolation in
German, 185-194). Contributions by Antonsen (1-26) and Leibiger (115-123)
deal with morphological questions in German. A paper by Shannon (169-194)
addresses some 'connections between morphology and syllable structure.' The
remaining five papers are historically oriented. Hock (55-89) deals with the
'origin and development of relative clauses in early Germanic'; Howell (103-
113) investigates modern evidence bearing on the interpretation of Old Eng-
lish breaking and Old High German vowel epenthesis; Liberman (125-137)
deals with phonologization in Germanic; Marchand (139-146) discusses Venne-
mann's recent claims about the Germanic sound shift; and Morris (161-167)
argues against Latin influence in the rise of German 'periphrastic tenses'.
C. Henry Bradley & Barbara E. Hollenbach, eds. Studies in the syn-
tax of Mixtecan languages, volume 3. Arlington, TX: Summer
Institute of Linguistics and University of Texas at Arlington, 1991.
pp. ix, 506.
This is the third in a series of volumes on the syntax of members of the Central
American Mixtecan language family. It contains syntactic sketches of Alaca-
tlatzala and Diuxi-Tilantongo Mixtec and a 'preliminary' syntactic sketch of
Concepcion Papalo Cuicatec. The method of presentation, which follows the
model of previous volumes, is standardized: A brief introduction, providing an
'orientation', information on the phonology, and a bibliography, is followed
by chapters on 'Basic sentences', "Verb phrases', 'Noun phrases', 'Other phras-
es', 'Parts of speech' (which deals with morphological derivation and inflect-
tion), 'Intersentential relations', and a brief Text. 'The structure of each
language is presented with a minimum of theory, numerous examples ...' (vii).
178 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
The book provides useful and well-presented information both for scholars of
indigenous American languages and for typologists. A tidbit of interest to ty-
pologists may be that in 'adverbial possessive noun phrases', it is possible to
either front the entire phrase or only the possessor element, in which case
the locative adverbial head remains stranded in situ. (26)
Hector Campos & Fernando Martinez-Gil, eds. Current studies in
Spanish linguistics. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press,
1992, pp. xvi, 635. $30.00.
According to the Foreword, this volume contains papers by 'scholars in the
areas of Spanish acquisition, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics
who ascribe to a theory of principles and parameters ...' The book is organized
in three major sections. Section 1 ('Cognition') contains papers concerned
with generative grammar and language acquisition by C. Otero and J. Strozer.
Four of the papers in Section 2 ('Syntax and semantics') address issues or pro-
noun and/or clitic syntax. Two of these deal with modern Spanish topics (H.
Campos and H. Contreras); one presents a synchronic account of Old Spanish
clitics (M.-L. Rivero); and one provides a synchronic and diachronic perspec-
tive on Old Spanish clitic P2 (D. Wanner). By being syntactically oriented, the
latter two differ from Hock's approach in this issue of Studies in the Linguistic
Sciences. The remaining four papers on syntax deal with Adjective Phrases (V.
Delmonte), ditransitive verbs (P. Kempchinsky), indirect questions and the
structure of CP (M. Sufier), and perfective haber and the theory of tenses (K.
Zagona). Section 3 ('Phonology and morphology') offers five papers on pho-
nology, by M. Carreira (on 'alternating diphthongs'), J. Harris (accentual con-
stituents, J. I. Hualde (syllabification), F. Martfnez-Gil (redundancy rules and
neutralization), and I. Roca (stress and syllables); one paper, by R. A. Nuiiez
Cedeiio, deals with morphology (headship assignment in compounds).
Martin Davies & Louise Ravelli, eds. Advances in systemic lin-
guistics: Recent theory and practice. London/New York: Pinter
Publishers, 1992, pp. x, 258. $69.00.
The volume contains selected and updated papers from the 17th International
Systemic Congress, Stirling, July 1990. Part I ('Framework') offers papers by J.
McH. Sinclair and M. A. K. Halliday; Part H ('Metafunctions'), articles by C.
Matthiessen and J. L Lemke; Part III ('Lexicogrammar'), contributions by K.
Davidse, W. McGregor, and G. Tucker; Part IV ('Functional sentence perspective
and time'), papers by J. Firbas and L. S. Rashidi. The concluding Part V is
devoted to one of the favorite topics of Systemic Linguistics, 'Text studies', with
contributions by J. D. Benson & W. S. Greaves, C. Emmott, and D. Kies.
Sylvester Douglas. A treatise on the provincial dialect of Scot-
land, edited by Charles Jones. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press, 1991, pp. x, 278. $59.00.
Douglas's Treatise, written in the 18th century, provides an excellent account
of the educated pronunciation of English in London and Scotland of that time.
Never published during his lifetime, it has now been edited by Jones, together
with an extensive scholarly introduction (which includes a summary and
interpretation of Douglas's observations) and comprehensive footnotes. Note-
worthy features of Douglas's approach include the view that the distinction
between vowels and consonants is not binary, but which, according to Jones,
involves a scalar hierarchy in terms of 'cavity resonance characteristics' (11).
Recent Books 179
Bernd Heine, Ulrike Claudi, & Friederike Hiinnemeyer. Grammatic-
alization: A conceptual framework. Chicago: University of Chi-
cago Press, 1991, pp. x, 318, $21.95 (paper), $59.95 ('library cloth').
The topic of the present book is the phenomenon of grammaticalization, such
as the change of one of the verbs of a serial-verb construction into a preposi-
tion. Drawing on a large variety of African languages, the authors argue that
this process is based on metaphor, context, and creativity, i.e. essentially prag-
matic and cognitive factors. In so doing, they challenge previous theories.
Rejecting the usual distinction between synchrony and diachrony, they claim
that both linguistic structure and language use are dynamic phenomena.
Moreover, they point to 'hybrid forms', somewhere between the input (X) and
output (Y) stages which can only be described as 'no longer quite X but not yet
quite Y' (231). Phenomena of this type, reminiscent of Ross's Squishes, chal-
lenge the predominant 'either-or' approach.
Shin Ja J. Hwang & William R. Merrifield, eds. Language in context:
Essays for Robert E. Longacre. Arlington, TX: Summer Institute of
Linguistics and University of Texas at Arlington, 1992, pp. xxiii, 616.
The thirty-seven essays by fifty scholars collected in this volume cover a large
range of languages: indigenous American languages like Mixe, Zoque, and
Guaranf; European languages like English, Latin, and Polish; the African lan-
guages Hausa, Mofu-Gudur, and Obolo; ancient near eastern Hebrew; Asian lan-
guages like Korean; and the Pacific languages Berik and Tok Pisin. The topics
covered are: 'Discourse structures and strategies', 'Topic, focus, and discourse
particles', 'Expository discourse', 'Verbs of speech', 'Pragmatic functions',
'Foreground and tense-aspect', 'Clause and sentence', and 'Phonology, pho-
nological history, and writing systems'.
John Laver. The gift of speech: Papers in the analysis of
speech and voice. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1992 (©
1991), pp. xviii, 400. $42.50 (hardback).
The volume represents a collection of twenty articles on two distinct topics: (i)
The analysis of speech production with special emphasis on slips of the tongue
and related issues, and (ii) the description of voice quality, especially as a so-
cial index and as it relates to speech pathology. The final chapter presents a
historical survey of the concept of articulatory settings. Many of the articles
have appeared previously in relatively inaccessible publications, and four
papers have not been published before. Seven articles were coauthored with
other scholars, including D. S. Boomer, R. J. Hanson, and P. Trudgill.
Christian M. 1. M. Matthiessen & John A. Bateman. Text generation
and systemic-functional linguistics: Experiences from Eng-
lish and Japanese. London: Pinter Publishers, 1991, pp. xxiv, 348.
$69.00.
The term 'text generation' appearing in the title of this book comes from arti-
ficial intelligence and refers to a process of reorganizing abstract gram-
matical structures and lexical terms into a 'worded text'. The purpose of the
present book is to demonstrate the usefulness of Systematic-Functional Lin-
guistics in the task of text generation, using English and Japanese examples.
180 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
Robin Melrose. The comniunicative syllabus: A systemic-func-
tional approach to language teaching. London: Pinter Pub-
lishers, 1991. pp. X, 172. $59.00.
Notions such as 'communicative competence' have been current in much of
recent literature on second-language pedagogy. The present book surveys ear-
lier views and asserts that linguistics does have a role to play in com-
municative syllabus design. The author adopts a systemic-functional approach
drawing on the work of scholars like Halliday and Lemke. Specifically, he sug-
gests a 'meaning negotiation' model, based on 'topic' and 'interaction' and sen-
sitive to 'cultural frames', social context, etc., not just to linguistic structure.
Toshiki Osada. A reference grammar of Mundari. Tokyo: Tokyo
University of Foreign Studies, Institute for the Study of Languages
and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1992, pp. 168.
Among the three major linguistic families of South Asia, the Munda languages
have received the least amount of attention among linguists. One of the major
reasons for the relative neglect of the Munda languages is no doubt the fact
that unlike the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages they are 'tribal' langu-
ages, without any traditional written literature. Associated with the 'tribal'
status of these languages is the fact that they are used by relatively small
numbers of speakers, under relatively inhospitable conditions, both as far as
geographic location and opportunity for cultural and linguistic survival are
concerned. Because of their relatively endangered status, it is highly desirable
that they receive more thorough investigation before they undergo further
attrition or even language death. The present study of Mundari, a member of
the northern branch of Munda, therefore, is to be highly welcomed. It is based
on more than six years of field work, during which the author became a fluent
speaker of the language. (His wife is a native speaker.) The emphasis of the
volume lies in the areas of phonology (p. 19-40) and especially morphology
(41-150), an area in which the author has used the questionnaire of the
Lingua Descriptive Studies series. Regrettably, syntax is relegated to five pages
(151-154) and does not deal with issues such as subordination which pose
interesting theoretical challenges in South Asian languages. However, some
syntactic information can be found in the discussion of morphology. The pho-
nology section deals with the 'phonemic inventory', 'syllabification', 'accen-
tuation', and 'vowel harmony' (in terms of the feature [high]). The section on
morphology provides extensive discussions of nouns (including syntactic and
semantic functions of case marking), pronouns, verbs (including agreement
and the non-finite verbal system which as in other South Asian languages,
plays a significant syntactic role), adjectives, postpositions, numerals, adverbs,
a grab-bag of 'conjunctions, interjections and vocatives', particles (including
topic, negative, and question markers), and 'expressives' (partial or complete
word reduplication, a prominent feature of South Asian languages).
Linda A. M. Perry, Lynn H. Turner, & Helen M. Sterk, eds. Con-
structing and reconstructing gender: The links among com-
munication, language, and gender. Albany: State University of
New York Press, 1992, pp. ix, 310.
The volume is a collection of twenty-five essays whose purpose it is to 'cut
across disciplines and scholarly methods'. The disciplines on which it draws
include Communication, Linguistics, English, Business, Law, and Psychology.
Recent Books 181
In addition to several papers concerned with rhetorical issues, two essays are
of special interest to linguists: 'Genderlect, powerlect, and politeness' by N.
Hoar (Chap. 11) and 'The tu/vous dilemma: Gender, power, and solidarity' by A.
H. Deakins (Chap. 13). An appendix adopted by the Organization for the Study
of Communication, Language, and Gender addresses the issue of 'Avoiding sex-
ism in communication research: Guidelines for gender/sex research and pub-
lication'.
Nicolas Ruwet. Syntax and human experience. Edited and trans-
lated by John Goldsmith. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991,
pp. XXV, 334. $24.95 (Paper), $57.95 ('Library cloth').
The main thesis of this book is that many phenomena that usually are consid-
ered syntactic and accountable for in terms of straightforward generalizations
must, instead, be explained in terms of the more fuzzy manner in which we
view the world. Thus, in the first two chapters, Ruwet argues that the relative
grammaticality or lack thereof in Engl. / want to leave/*! want me to leave or
its French counterpart Je veux partir/*Je veux que je parte is a consequence,
not of syntactic considerations, but of the fact that the relationship between
oneself and one's actions is fundamentally different from that between oneself
and the action of others. (Unfortunately, in this context Ruwet does not exam-
ine the fact that languages like Modern Greek only permit the type of con-
struction that corresponds to the starred structures of English and French,
such as Oelo na yrafo, lit. 'I want that I write'.) Chapter 3 and 4 extend this ar-
gumentation to weather verbs (with Chap. 4 concerned with 'Weather verbs
and the unaccusativity hypothesis'). The final chapter deals with the 'Use and
abuse of idioms in syntactic argumentation.' An important conclusion reached
by Ruwet is that 'we should, among other things, rehabilite taxonomy' and that
'the systematic use of judgments may allow us to build new and more rigorous
taxonomies, and new theoretical proposals may and must be tested by means of
taxonomies bearing on new, formerly undiscovered, types of data' (xix).
Ivan A. Sag & Anna Szabolcsi, eds. Lexical matters. (Lecture Notes,
24.) Stanford: Center for the Study of Language information, 1992,
pp. XX, 328. $19.95 (Paper), $49.95 ('Library cloth').
The papers collected in this volume concern the content of lexical entries, the
nature of lexical representations, and the structure of the lexicon. The four
major themes are: (i) Argument structure and the nature of thematic roles,
with papers by C. Tenny ('The aspectual interface hypothesis'), M. Krifka
('Thematic relations as links betwen nominal reference and temporal consti-
tution'), and F. Ackerman ('Complex predicates and morpholexical relatedness:
Locative alternations in Hungarian'); (ii) Blocking and the boundaries of the
lexicon, with contributions by D. Farkas ('On obviation'), W. Poser ('Blocking of
phrasal constructions by lexical items'), and M. Liberman & R. Sproat ('The
stress and structure of modified noun phrases in English'); (iii) The nature of
lexical meaning, with contributions by F. Kiefer ("Hungarian derivational
morphology, semantic complexity, and semantic markedness'), and G. Gergely
('Focus-based inferences in sentence comprehension'; (iv) Lexical alterna-
tives to syntactic analysis, with papers by A. Szabolcsi ('Combinatory grammar
and projection from the lexicon', dealing with English anaphora), P. Jacobson
('The lexical entailment theory of control and the /oug/; -construction'), and I.
Sag, L. Karttunen, & J. Goldberg ('A lexical analysis of Icelandic case', spe-
cifically, of 'quirky case' in Icelandic complementation).
182 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1992)
Reuven Tsur. What makes sound patterns expressive? The
poetic mode of speech perception. Durham, NC: Duke University
Press, 1992, pp. xi, 174. $16.50 (Paper), $32.50 ('Library cloth").
In his preface, Tsur labels his book a 'study in Cognitive Poetics' (i). His major
concern is to provide a basis for capturing people's '"mysterious" intuitions'
about language, such as the notion that front vowels are 'brighter' than back
vowels, and the role played by these intuitions in poetic language. For this
purpose he draws on the insights of literary critics, linguists, and psycho-
logists. Chapter 4, on Rimbaud's Voyelles, illustrates the way in which 'the per-
ceptual qualities of speech sounds ... account for the feeling of mystic insight'
(ix) evoked by the poem.
David O. Westley. Tepetotutia Chinantec syntax. (Studies in
Chinantec Languages, 5.) Arlington, TX: Summer Institute of Linguis-
tics and University of Texas at Arlington, 1992, pp. xiii, 129.
The first two chapters mainly provide background information, chapter 1 on
the phonology, chapter 2 on the morphology of the verb (including such
issues as agreement). The remaining chapters successively take up clause
structure, the noun phrase, pronominal syntax, relative clauses, 'injunction'
(i.e. imperatives and other modal structures), questions, prepositions, and
modal adverbs. Tepetotutia Chinantec is a VSO language permitting the front-
ing of one or more elements to clause-initial, preverbal position (especially of
subjects), and has an ergative system of verb agreement. The author's state-
ment that '(a)ll verbs are finite' (83) suggests that subordination is possible
only in terms of fully clausal structures.
CONTENTS OF STUDIES IN THE LINGUISTICS SCIENCES,
VOLUMES 17 - 21
Volume 17:1 (Spring 1987)
Papers from the 1986 South Asian Languages Analysis Roundtable
(Editor: Hans Henrich Hock)
Abbi, Anvita, & Mithilesh Kumar Mishra. Asf)ectual elements of simultaneity and
interaction in Indian languages: A case for an areal universal. (1-14)
Bundrick, Camille. A lexical phonology approach to Hindi schwa deletion. (15-23)
Davison, Alice. WTj-movement in Hindi-Urdu relative clauses. (25-33)
Garapati, U. Rao. The development of personal pronouns in modem Gondi. (35-50)
Helmreich, Stephen C. Devanagari word-processing on the IBM-PC. (51-61)
Hook, Peter Edwin. Poguli syntax in the light of Kashmiri: A preliminary report. (63-71)
Kachru, Yamuna. Impact of expanding domains of use on a standard language:
Contemporary Hindi in India. (73-90 )
Khan, Baber S. A. The ergativecase in Hindi-Urdu. (91-101)
Steever, Sanford B. Remarks on Dravidian complementation. (103-1 19)
Subbarao, Karumuri V, & Anju Saxena. Reflexives and reciprocals in Dravidian. (121-
135)
Tsiang, Sarah, & Albert Watanabe. The Pancatantra and Aesop's Fables: A comparison of
rhetorical su-ucture in classical Indian and western hterature. (137-146)
Valentine, Tamara M. Interactional sociolinguistics and gender differentiation in North
Indian speech. (147-162)
Wallace, William D. The government and binding analysis of Nepali EQUI and subject-
raising clauses. (163-179)
Volume 17:2 (Fall 1987)
Papers in General Linguistics
Bennett, J. Eraser. Consonant merger in Navajo: An underspecified analysis. (1-19)
Bokamba, Eyamba G, & Nkonko M. Kamwangamalu. The significance of code-mixing to
linguistic theory: Evidence from Bantu languages. (21-43)
Du, Tsai-Chwun. A computer tool in the study of Taiwanese tones. (45-62)
Farina, Donna M. Multiword lexical units in French. (63-76)
Green, Georgia M. Some remarks on why there is implicature. (77-92)
Lu, Zhiji. Shanghai tones: A nonhnear analysis. (93-1 13)
Nakazawa, Tsuneko, & Laura Neher. Rule expansion on the fly: A GPSG parser for
Japanese/English using a bit vector representation of features and rule schemas. (115-
124)
Teoh, Boon Seong. Geminates and inalterability in Malay. (125-136)
Lee, Cher-leng. Review of Hakuta, Mirror of language: The debate on bilingualism. (137-
142)
184 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
Volume 18:1 (Spring 1988)
Papers in General Linguistics
Carreira, Maria. The representation of diphthongs in Spanish. (1-24)
Downing, Laura J. Tonology of noun-modifier phrases in Jita. (25-60)
Irshied, Omar, & Peter Whelan. Exploring the dictionary: On teaching foreign learners of
Arabic to use the Arabic- English dictionary. (61-75)
Kenstowicz, Michael J., Emmanuel Nikiema, & Meterwa Ourso. Tonal polarity in two Gur
languages. (77-103)
Moshi, Lioba. A functional typology of «/ in Kivunjo (Chaga). (105-134)
Patterson, Trudi A. Some morphological and phonological interactions in Lakhota. (135-
149)
Wong-opasi, Uthalwan. On deriving specifiers in Spanish: Morpho-phono-syntax inter-
actions. (151-177)
Volume 18:2 (Fall 1988)
Papers in General Linguistics
Abu-Salim, Lssam M., & Hassan R. Abd-el-Jawad. Syllable patterns in Levantine Arabic.
(1-22)
Cei-vin, Richard. On the notion of 'second position' in Greek. (23-39)
Gerdemann, Dale, & Erhard W. Hinrichs. UNICORN: A unification parser for attribute-
value grammars. (41-86)
Kamwangamalu, Nkonko Mudipanu. 'C-command' and the phonology-syntax interface in
Ciluba. (87-109)
Ourso, Meterwa A. Root control, underspecification, and ATR harmony. (1 1 1-127)
Schaufele, Steven. Where's my NP? Non-transformational analyses of Vedic pronominal
fronting. (129-162)
Tsiang, Sarah. The discourse function of the absolutive in the Paiicatantra. (163-181)
Zhou, Xinping. On the head movement constraint. (183-210)
Hock, Hans Henrich. Finiteness in Dravidian (Review article): Sanford B. Steever (1988),
The serial verb formation in the Dravidian languages. (21 1-233)
Volume 19:1 (Spring 1989)
Papers in General Linguistics
Arora, Harbir, & K. V. Subbarao. Convergence and syntactic reanalysis: The case of so in
Dakkhini. (1-18)
Bundrick, Camille. An inference-based account of resuictive relative which and that. (19-
31)
Cassimjee, Farida, & Charles W. Kisseberth. Shingazidja nominal accent. (33-61)
Chung, Raung-fu. On the representation of Kejia diphthongs. (63-80)
Gerdemann, Dale. Restriction as a means of optimizing unification parsing. (81-92)
Hock, Hans Henrich. Conjoined we stand: Theoretical implications of Sanskrit relative
structures. (93-126)
Kachru, Braj B. Worid Englishes and applied linguistics. (127-152)
Kachru, Yamuna. Corpus planning for moderniz.ation: Sanskritization and Englishization
of Hindi. (153-164)
Contentsof volumes 17 - 21 185
Bhatl, Rakesh Mohan. Good mixes and odd mixes: Implications for the bilingual's
grammar. (Squib.) (165-168)
Aitchison, Jean. Review of Agnihotri, Crisis of identity: Sikhs in England. (169-171)
Pandharipande, Rajeshwari. Review of Bhatia, A history of the Hindi grammatical
tradition. {\13-\19)
Markee, Numa. Review of Chamberlain & Baumgardner (eds.), ESP in the classroom:
Practice and evaluation. ( 1 8 1 - 1 85)
Zgusta, Ladislav. Review of Katre, Astadhyayi of Pdnini. (187-193)
Volume 19:2 (Fall 1989)
The contribution of African linguistics to linguistic theory. Vol. 1
(Editor: Eyamba G. Bokamba)
Introduction (vii-xi)
Clements, G(eorge) N. African linguistics and its contributions to linguistic theory. (3-39)
Biloa, Edmond. Tuki gaps: Null resumptive pronouns or variables? (43-54)
Childs, G. Tucker. Where do ideophones come from? (55-76)
Ottenheimer, Harriet, & Heather Primrose. Current research on ShiNzwani ideophones.
(77-87)
Downing, Laura J. Tone in Jita questions. (91-113)
Hyman, Larry M. Accent in Bantu: An appraisal. (1 15-134)
Timmons, Claude, & Christian Dunn. La selection morphophonologique des classes en
kpokolo. (135-151)
All, Mohammed. Trends in Oromo lexicon and lexicography. (155-168)
Borne, Robert. Reconstruction of a grammaticalized auxihary in Bantu. (169-186)
Clamons, Cynthia Robb. Modification of the gender system in the Wollegan dialect of
Oromo. (187-195)
Appendices to the Proceedings
A. History of the Annual Conference on African Linguistics (199-201)
B. Research and publications in African linguistics by students, alumni, and faculty of the
University of Illinois (203-225)
Volume 20:1 (Spring 1990)
The contribution of African linguistics to linguistic theory. Vol. 2
(Editor: Eyamba G. Bokamba)
[Under preparation]
Volum 20:2 (Fall 1990)
Linguistics for the Nineties: Papers from a lecture series in
celebration of the Department's twenty-fifth anniversary
(Editor: Hans Henrich Hock)
Antonsen, Elmer H. Introduction, (ix-xiv)
Kahane, Henry. The estabhshment of Linguistics at Illinois. (1-2)
Langacker, Ronald W. Cognitive Grammar: The symbolic alternative. (3-30)
Sadock, Jerrold M. A trimodular account of Yiddish syntax. (31-50)
Newmeyer, Frederick J. Some issues in language origins and evolution (51-68)
186 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:1 (Spring 1992)
Odden, David. Phonology and its interaction with syntax and morphology (69-108)
Menn, Lise. Aphasic language under discourse pressure: Functional syntax vs. psycho-
linguistic function. (109-122)
Lowenberg, Peter H. Standards and norms for World Englishes: Issues and attitudes.
(123-137)
Hermon, Gabriella. Syntactic theory and language acquisition: A case against parameters.
(139-163)
Sridhar, S. N. What are applied linguistics? (165-176)
Index to Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, Volumes 1 - 19
A. Author index (177-195)
B. Title index (197-214)
Volume 20:3 (Spring 1990)
Meeting handbook, Thirteenth South Asian Languages Analysis
Roundtable [Abstracts]
(Editor: Hans Henrich Hock)
Ahmed, Mariam. Convent English: Structure and attitudes. (17)
Anderson, Lloyd B. Script Manager software for Indie scripts on the Macintosh. (18)
Bagchi, Tista. Conditionals and emphasizers in Bangla: Some pragmatic effects of their
interaction. (19-20)
Bains, Gurprit. Focus movement in Hindi-Urdu. (21)
Bhatt, Rakesh M. An essay on Kashmirit stress. (22-23)
Boolchandani, Pushpa. On binding reflexives in Sindhi. (24-25)
Bubenik, Vit, & C. Paranjpe. Some observations on the development of West-Indo- Aryan
pronominal systems from Apabhrarhsa. (26)
Butt, Miriam J., & Tracy Holloway King. Semantic case in Urdu (27-28)
Chakraborty, Jayshree. Perfectivity and the resultative state in Hindi (29-30)
Chandrasekhar, S., & S. N. Sridhar. Case markers and prepositions in Kannada. (31)
Cole, Jennifer. Alliteration in Sindhi poetry: Evidence for phonological structure. (32-33)
Davison, Alice. Finiteness and case in Hindi-Urdu complements. (34-35)
Deshpande, Madhav. Sociolinguistic parameters of Panini's Sanskrit. (36)
Genetti, Carol. On the loss of gender distinctions in Nepali. (37-38)
Gnanam, M. Religious cum linguistic problems in modern India. (39)
Hamp, Eric P. The sources of a passive. (40-41)
Herring, Susan. From aspect to tense in Old Tamil: Evidence from narrative discourse.
(42-43)
Hock, Hans Henrich. Syntax or Phonological Form? Reconsidering some allegedly
syntactic phenomena of Vedic Sanskrit. (44-45)
Hook, Peter E., & Omkar Nath Koul. Kashmiri causals: Evidence for a transformational
approach. (46-47)
Jamison, Stephanie W. Demonstratives with non-third persons in Vedic Sanskrit. (48)
Jayasuriya, Wilfrid. The web of the spider: Language and power in Sri Lanka. (49)
Joseph, Brian. Sibilant confusion in eariy Indie: Sanskrit pradiir. (50-51)
Kamwangamalu, Nkonko M. Advancement in some Asian and African languages. (52)
Multilingualism and social identity: The case of Singapore. (53)
Contentsof volumes 17 - 21 187
Kapoor, Kapil. Analogy as argument in Adi Saiikara. (54)
Kissock, Madelyn J. Reflexive pronouns in Vedic. (55)
Loud, John A. Issues in translating the Puranas. (56)
Mahajan, Anoop. Against wh-movemcnt in Hindi. (57-58)
Mahajan, Gyanam. Sanskrit reduplication: A templatic approach. (59-60)
Marlow, Patrick E. Meet me in the Bazaar: A historical perspective on the origin of a North
Indian koine. (61)
Mehrotra, Raja Ram. Sociolinguistics of verbal abuse in Hindi. (62)
Menon, A. G. Tamil verb formation. (63-64)
Moag, Rodney F. The associative case in Malayalam: Making sense of a catch-all category.
(65-66)
Mohanty, Gopabandhu. Compound verbs in Oriya. (67-68)
Nadahalli, Jayashree. Pronouns in Kannada: Sociolinguistic implications. (69)
Nadkarni, Mangesh V. On liberating English to be a world language: An Indian perspec-
uve. (70-71)
Nihalani, Paroo. Articulatory and acoustic properties of apical and laminal stop consonants:
A cross-language study. (72)
Pandit, P. N. A socio-cognitive approach to designing a self-instructional multi-media
course in Enghsh communicative skills. (73)
Paolillo, John C. Functional articulation: Analyzing diglossic variation. (74-76)
Pelletier, Rosanne. Telugu negatives and non-capabilitives: Morphological structure and
syntactic structure. (77-79)
Rai, Alok. Sammelani Hindi and Malviya Hindi: Language and politics in India between
1875 and 1930.(80)
Ramchand, Gillian. The category of nominals in Bangla. (81-83)
Rau, Nalini. Coordination and word order. (84)
Sadanand, Kamlesh. The pure vowels of Punjabi. (85)
Sadanand, Suchitra. Malayalam syllabication. (86)
Satyanath, T. S. On change and variation of (!) in Kannada. (87)
Scharf, Peter M. Assessing Sahara's arguments for the conclusion that a generic term de-
notes just a class property. (88)
Schaufele, Steven. The Vedic clause-initial string and universal grammar. (89)
Sharma, Krishna K. Semio-linguistic aspect of dhvani siddhanta. (90-91)
Sharma, Rama Natha. Naming and expressing objects in Panini. (92)
Singh, Atamjit. The aesthetics of play in Punjabi folkloric tradition. (93)
Singh, Mona. A situation-type analysis of compound verbs. (94-95)
Sreedhar. M. V. Drastic modernization of the curricula of the teacher training courses. (96-
97)
Sridhar, S. N., & Mark Aronoff. A lexicalist analysis of participle compounds in Kannada.
(98-99)
, & Indira Ayyar. Aspects of the syntax of spoken Indian English. (100)
Srivastav, Veneeta. Pair-list answers in Hindi indirect questions. (101-103)
Subbarao, K. V., & Harbir Arora. Convergence and syntactic change: The case of the neg-
ative participles in Dakkhini. (104-105)
, & Lalitha M. The INFL nodes in non-fmite clauses in Dravidian and Tibeto-Burman
languages. (106)
1 8 8 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 1 (Spring 1 992)
Tickoo, Asha. New dimensions of word order freedom in verb-final languages. (107)
Tsiang, Sarah. Clausal vs. non-clausal subordination in Sanskrit narratives. (108-109)
Vijayakrishnan, K. G. The mental dictionary: Its role in linguistic theroy. (1 10-1 1 1)
Winters, Clyde A. The Harappan script: The most ancient form of Dravidian. (112)
Yatabe, Shuichi. Verbal compounds in Malayalam. (1 13-1 14)
Zakharyin, Boris A. Ergativity in the Indo-European languages of South Asia: Diachronic
and synchronic processes. (115-116)
, & L. V. Khokhlova. The development of ergativity in Indo-European languages of
Western India in the fifteenth through twentieth centuries. (1 17-1 18)
Zide, Norman. A sketchy history of cUticization and verb stem noun incorporation in
Munda. (119)
Pandharipande, Rajeshwari. A grammar of politeness in Marathi. (125)
Mishra, Mithilesh K. Towards an ethnography of politeness in Maithili. (126)
Bhatia, Tej K. Directives in Panjabi and Lahanda. (127)
Verma, Manindra K. Linguistic conventions of politeness in Bhojpuri and Magahi. (128)
D'Souza, Jean. Recreating South Asian speech acts in EngUsh: A study in linguistic trans-
fer. (131)
Kachru, Yamuna. Speech act in the mother tongue and the other tongue. (132)
Nelson, Cecil L. On creating speech acts: The creativity of Indian English writers. (133-
134)
Valentine, Tamara. Language and female identity in India. (135)
Ahmed, Mariam. A house divided: Conflict and rivalry in two varieties of a language.
(139)
Bhatia, Tej K. Transplanted languages and ethnic identity. (140)
Sridhar, Kamal K. Language minorities: Issues of identity in a global perspective. (141)
Bhatt, Rakesh M. Identity, conflict, and convergence: South Asia as a sociohnguistic area.
(142-143)
Pandharipande, Rajeshwari. The question of defining the language of religion. (147)
Hock, Hans Henrich. Vasat, s'rausat, and other ritual particles: Their origin and use in
Vedic ritualistic literature. (148-149)
Mishra, Mithilesh K. The role of deixis in defining ordinary vs. religious language. (150)
Anushivarani, AU. Rabindranath Tagore's Nobel Prize: What does it mean? (153)
Wu, Yongan. Chinese responses to Tagore: Pin Hsin's poetry. (154)
Tikku, Girdhari. Aldous Huxley's The island. (155)
Harada, Hiroko. Coleridge and Basho: The legacy of Indian monism. (156)
Volume 21:1 (Spring 1991)
Papers in General Linguistics
Branstine, Zoann. Stop/spirant alternations in Spanish: On the representation of contrast.
(1-)
Darzi, Ali. Compensatory lengthening in modem colloquial Tehrani Farsi. (23-)
Hancin, Barbara J. On the phonology-morphology interaction in Brazilian Portuguese
vowel harmony. (39-)
Kang, Seok Keun. Morale phonology and /L/-irregular predicates in Korean. (55-)
Kang, Yongsoon. Coronal: Transparent or opaque? (67-)
Contents of volumes 17-21 189
Lee, Han-Gyu. Plural marker copying in Korean. (81-)
Mtenje, Al. On Autosegmental feature-spreading in phonology: Evidence from Chiyao.
(125-)
Pandey, Pramod Kumar. Schwa fronting in Hindi. (147-)
Hock, Hans Henrich. Review of R. N. Aralikatti (1989). Spoken Sanskrit in India: A
study of sentence patterns. (16 1-)
Yoon, James H. Review of Mark R. Baltin & Anthony S. Kroch, eds. (1989). Alternative
conceptions of phrase structure. (167-)
Conefrey, Theresa. Review of Deborah Tannen (1990). You just don't understand. (179-)
Recent Books (1 83-)
Volume 21:2 (Fall 1991)
Illinois studies in Korean linguistics, 2
(Edited by Chin-W. Kim)
[Under preparation]
STUDIES IN THE LINGUISTIC SCIENCES
The following issues are available
(For contents of volumes 1 7 - 2 1 , see pp. 1 83- 1 89)
Vol. 17:1 Spring 1987
Vol. 17:2 Fall 1987
Vol. 18:1 Spring 1988
Vol. 18:2 Fall 1988
Vol. 19:1 Spring 1989
Vol. 19:2 FaU 1989
Vol. 20:2 Fall 1990
Vol. 20:3 Spring 1991
Vol. 21:1 Spring 1991
IN PREPARATION:
Vol. 20:1 Spring 1990
Vol. 21:2 Fall 1991
Papers from the 1986 South Asian
Languages Analysis Roundtable
(Editor: Hans Henrich Hock)
Papers in General Linguistics
Papers in General Linguistics
Papers in General Linguistics
Papers in General Linguistics
The Contribution of African Linguistics
to Linguistic Theory, Vol. 1
(Editor: Eyamba G. Bokamba)
Linguistics for the Nineties:
Papers from a Lecture Series in Celebration
of the Department's Twenty-Fifth Anniversary
(Editor. Hans Henrich Hock)
Meeting Handbook: Thirteenth South Asian
Languages Analysis Roundtable, 25 - 27 May
1991, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Papers in General Linguistics
The Contribution of African Linguistics
to Linguistic Theory, Vol. 2
(Editor: Eyamba G. Bokamba)
Illinois Studies in Korean Linguistics, 2
(Editor: Chin-W. Kim)
FOR EARLIER ISSUES AND ORDER INFORMATION SEE INSIDE COVER
Orders should be sent to:
SLS Subscriptions, Department of Linguistics
University of Illinois
4088 Foreign Languages Building
707 S. Mathews
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TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF
LINGUISTIC RESEARCH AND TEACHING
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Special Issue of
STUDIES IN THE LINGUISTIC SCIENCES
VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2
E\LL 1992
DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS
UNIVERSITY OF IU.INQIS=^3ii[RB4NA-CHAMR\IGN
STUDIES IN THE LINGUISTIC SCIENCES
PUBLICATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS
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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
EDITOR: Hans Henrich Hock; REVIEW EDITOR: James H. Yoon
EDITORIAL BOARD: Eyamba G. Bokamba, Chin-chuan Cheng, Jennifer S.
Cole, Georgia M. Green, Hans Henrich Hock, Braj B. Kachru, Yamuna Kachru,
Chin-W. Kim, Charles W. Kisseberth, Howard Maclay, Jerry L. Morgan,
Rajeshwari Pandharipande, James H. Yoon, Ladislav Zgusta, and Alessandro
Zucchi.
AIM: SLS is intended as a forum for the presentation of the latest original
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UPCOMING ISSUES: Vol. 22:2: Twenty-five years of Linguistic Research at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Post-graduate research by
Doctoral and Master's degree students in the Department of Linguistics). Editors:
Braj B, Kachru and Frances Vavrus; Vol. 23:1: Papers in General Linguistics.
Price for this special issue: $10.00
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF
LINGUISTIC RESEARCH AND TEACHING
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Graduate Research by Doctoral and Master's Degree Students
with Autobiographical Vignettes
by Five Founders of the Department
EDITOR
Braj B. Kachru
With the assistance of
Amy C. Cheatham
and
Frances Vavrus
Special Issue of
STUDIES IN THE LINGUISTIC SCIENCES
VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2
FALL 1992
DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
URBANA, ILLINOIS 61801
CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xv
Part I: Perspectives on Linguistics in the Midwest and at
Illinois
Introduction: Henry Kahane and Braj B. Kachru 3
Linguistics in the Midwestern Region: Beginnings to 1973:
Braj B. Kachru 7
History of the Department of Linguistics at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Henry Kahane 3 7
The European Emigree: Henry Kahane 3 9
The Tale of an Eager then Lonely then Contented Dinosaur:
Charles E. Osgood 4 2
How to Find the Right Tree to Bark Up: Robert B. Lees 5 9
Three Linguistic Reincarnations of a Kashmiri Pandit:
Braj B. Kachru 6 5
A Sense of Perspective: Charles W. Kisseberth 7 5
Part II: Memorial Tributes to a Builder: Henry R. Kahane
Introduction 8 5
Memorial Tribute to Henry R. Kahane 8 7
Elmer H. Antonsen 8 7
Roberta Kahane Garner 8 9
Charles Kahane 9 1
Morton W. Weir 9 2
Larry R. Faulkner 9 4
Ladislav Zgusta 9 5
Braj B. Kachru 9 7
Part III: Graduate Student Research 1964-1992
Introduction 103
Ph.D. Dissertation Abstracts 105
Master's Thesis Abstracts 23 9
Research in Progress up to August 1992 25 9
Author Index 263
Language Index 267
Regional Index 27 3
Area of Concentration 27 7
Index of Advisors 28 1
This volume is dedicated to the memory of
Henry Kahane
November 2, 1902 - September 11, 1992
Foreword
In the academic year 1990-91, the Department of Linguistics at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign celebrated the 25th
anniversary of its founding. Among the commemorative events was a
series of lectures presented by eight nationally and internationally
prominent scholars who had received their training in the Depart-
ment. These lectures have now been published as Linguistics in the
Nineties: Papers from a Lecture Series in Celebration of the Depart-
ment's Twenty-Fifth Anniversary, edited by Hans Henrich Hock
{Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 20:2 [Fall 1990]). Other events
were state-of-the-art conferences on "The Organizaton of Phonology:
Features and Domains", and on "Linguistics and Computation: Com-
putational Linguistics and the Foundations of Linguistic Theory", the
hosting of the thirteenth national meeting of the South Asian
Languages Analysis Roundtable, and an exhibition in the University
Library of representative works by Department faculty members
(for details of the entire program, see SLS 20:2 x-xii). This year-long
celebration now reaches its culmination in the publication of the
present volume outlining highlights in the history of the Department
and cataloguing linguistic research at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign in the form of abstracts of master's theses and
doctoral dissertations by students who received degrees in the De-
partment over the first quarter-century of its existence.
The 25th Anniversary Lecture Series was introduced by the late
Henry R. Kahane with a talk entitled "The Establishment of Linguis-
tics at Illinois", which is presented in this volume along with auto-
biographical vignettes by Henry R. Kahane, Charles E. Osgood, Robert
B. Lees, Braj B. Kachru, and Charles W. Kisseberth, all of whom played
crucial roles in establishing the Department and in determining its
course over the first quarter-century. These vignettes were solicited
in 1974 for a book planned by Thomas Sebeok, but for certain rea-
sons, the book never materialized. Their inclusion here seems par-
ticularly appropriate, since they provide unusual and delightful in-
sights into the human side of the history of a linguistics department
from its conception, through the gestation period, to its birth, and on
to its coming of age. While these vignettes refer specifically to the
Department of Linguistics at Illinois, they cast interesting light on the
personalities and thinking of some of the most prominent linguists of
the second half of the twentieth century, since the founders of the
Department were themselves ensconced among these or were their
early colleagues or students. Of general human interest are the man-
ner in which these five scholars were attracted to the field of linguis-
tics and the quirks of fate that led them to their own specific des-
tinies, whether their paths started out in Central Europe or South
Asia, in Massachusetts or the Midwest. It is perhaps a pity that the
book planned by Sebeok did not materialize, but it seems to me that
these vignettes from almost twenty years ago now make even better
vi i i Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
reading than they would have then, for they have taken on a certain
patina with time,i and we can now judge them with greater objec-
tivity. In any case, they are valuable testimonies not only to the
formative years of the Department, but also to a critical period in the
development of the field of linguistics. We can all delight in the fact
that they have at last found a fitting repository for the edification
and inspiration of future generations. The Department had been
looking forward to a celebration of Henry Kahane's 90th birthday in
November of 1992. Instead, his unexpected death in September led
to a Memorial Tribute held in the Krannert Center for the Performing
Arts on 14 November 1992. The texts of these tributes are also pre-
sented in this volume.
While Henry Kahane's personal recollections of the events and
personalities leading up to the founding of the Department in 1965
are presented here, it seems appropriate to mention a few other
milestones in the Department's history, including the fact that the
actual proposal submitted to the University was worked out in 1963
by a committee chaired by Robert B. Lees (then of English and Com-
munications Research, and Director of the Program in Linguistics) and
consisting further of Joseph H. Allen (Spanish, Italian, and Portu-
guese), Katherine Aston (English), Frank G. Banta (German), Joseph B.
Casagrande (Anthropology), Kenneth L. Hale (Anthropology), Lee S.
Hultzen (Speech), Henry R. Kahane (Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese),
Frederic K. Lehman (Anthropology), Rado Lencek (Russian), Howard
S. Maclay (Communications Research), Charles E. Osgood (Communica-
tions Research), Angelina R. Pietrangeli (Spanish, Italian, and Portu-
guese), Victor Terras (Russian), and Willard R. Zemlin (Speech).
From its very inception, the Department assumed a leading role
in the development of linguistics in the United States and currently
ranks among the top five departments in the nation. Only three years
after its founding, however, the Department was faced with a grave
internal crisis when its first head, Robert B. Lees, emigrated to Israel,
and two of its most prominent younger faculty members, Arnold
Zwicky and Theodore Lightner, were lured away to other institutions.
Compounding the difficulties was the collapse of the post-Sputnik era
of national educational enlightenment. To the great good fortune of
the Department, the helm was taken over by an energetic scholar of
vision, Braj B. Kachru, first as Acting Head in 1968-69 and then as
Head from 1969-79. Under his leadership, the Department made
great strides in enhancing its position not only within the campus
community, but also on the national and international scenes. He
initiated the journal Studies in the Linguistic Sciences (SLS), which
has since attained such stature as to be included among the journals
surveyed by the Bibliographie linguistiquelLinguistic Bibliography.
• The time-warp becomes particularly obvious from the new blatantly
obvious absence of gender-neutral modes of expression. There is no need to
point out instances, smce they are so apparent. They serve as an indication of
the progress that has been made over a less sensitive age.
Foreword i x
During his headship, the annual departmental Newsletter, now in its
twenty-fourth year, was initiated. He recruited promising young
scholars, encouraged members of the faculty to launch a conference
on African linguistics, and was himself co-organizer of a conference
on South Asian linguistics and director of a summer Linguistics Insti-
tute. While significant in themselves, these conferences were the
stimuli for the development of permanent national and international
traditions of regular conferences attended by the leading authorities
in these fields. We have recently witnessed the Twentieth Annual
Conference on African Linguistics (proceedings edited by Eyamba
Bokamba in SLS 19:2 [Fall 1989] and 20:1 [Spring 1990]), and the
Thirteenth South Asian Languages Analysis Roundtable (meeting
handbook edited by Hans Henrich Hock in SLS 20:3 [Spring 1991]).
In 1976, the Division of Applied Linguistics was established as a
research unit within the Department of Linguistics with a cross-cul-
tural and cross-linguistic focus. It coordinates and initiates research
activities in the areas of bilingualism/multilingualism, language and
development, literacy, and English in a global context. The Division
has organized and partially supported numerous international con-
ferences, colloquia, and seminars, and collaborates in activities re-
lated to English in the international context initiated by Larry E.
Smith of the East-West Center in Honolulu. The Division has interna-
tional academic contacts with scholars and institutions in such coun-
tries as India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Singapore, which facilitates the
exchange of research in various areas of applied linguistics, par-
ticularly in the study and analysis of English in non-native contexts.
Among other projects, the Division of Applied Linguistics is at
present taking a leading role in the establishment of a databank for
various types of non-native Englishes, and with the support of other
campus units, sponsored a conference on World Englishes in April
1992. Research projects initiated by the Division have been sup-
ported in the past by the Ford Foundation, the American Institute of
Indian Studies, the Research Board of the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, among other agencies. Professor Braj B. Kachru is
Coordinator of the Division.
Under the leadership of Chin-W. Kim (Chair, 1979-1986) and
Charles W. Kisseberth (Chair, 1986-1989; Acting Head, 1989-1990),
the Department maintained and consolidated its position of eminence
in the fields of phonology, syntax, and historical linguistics, and in
the areas of applied linguistics and non-Western language teaching
(particularly African and South and West Asian). It sought and
eventually received a faculty position in formal semantics in
conjunction with the Program in Cognitive Science/Artificial Intelli-
gence and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Tech-
nology.
A particular strength of the Department is without doubt to be
found in the breadth of its programs, ranging from the most theo-
retical to the most practical. Because of the wide scope of its activ-
X Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
ities, the Department is intimately bound together with numerous
other campus units through formally organized joint programs, e.g. in
Romance linguistics with the Department of Spanish, Italian, and
Portuguese, and the Department of French; in teacher education with
the College of Education; in psycholinguistics with the Department of
Psychology; and in applied linguistics with the Division of English as
an International Language. It has both formal and less formal ar-
rangements with units such as the Beckman Institute, the Center for
African Studies, the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, the
Center for Latin American and Carribean Studies, the Center for Rus-
sian and East European Studies, and the programs in Cognitive Sci-
ence/Artificial Intelligence, in the Study of Religion, and in South and
West Asian Studies. In addition, the Department shares faculty mem-
bers through joint and/or adjunct appointments with the following
departments or programs: African Studies; Anthropology; the Center
for Advanced Study; Classics; Communications Research; Comparative
Literature; East Asian Languages and Cultures; English; English as an
International Language; French; Germanic Languages and Literatures;
Language Learning Laboratory; Psychology; Slavic Languages and
Literatures; Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese; and Speech and Hearing
Sciences. The centrality of the Department of Linguistics within the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is clearly evident and
accounts to some extent for the fact that an unusually large number
of its faculty members have been appointed to administrative posi-
tions in campus units outside the Department: Eyamba Bokamba,
Director of the Division of English as an International Language, suc-
ceeding Braj B. Kachru; C. C. Cheng, Director of the Language Learning
Laboratory; Chin-W. Kim, Director of the Program in East Asian
Studies (1990-91) and Director of the Program in Japan (1993-94);
Jerry Morgan, Associate Director of the Beckman Institute for Ad-
vanced Science and Technology; and Ladislav Zgusta, Director of the
Center for Advanced Study.
The diversity of the Department's programs was of particular
importance in the recent review of the allocation of resources within
the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Advisory Committee on
Financial Policy to the Dean wrote in its report, LAS Resources, 1993-
2000, Priorities and Principles for Allocations in the College of Lib-
eral Arts and Sciences (p. 13):
The Department of Linguistics is one of the College's best
departments, with a consistently excellent faculty, and its qual-
ity deserves protection. The Advisory Committee recognizes in-
trinsic strength in our Department's tradition of combining
formal and applied areas (including training in the less com-
monly taught languages) within a single unit. We note that in
other universities, units devoted wholly to formal linguistics
have not been able to maintain vitality and have been slated
for closure. We congratulate our Department for using a differ-
ent approach and for its success in sustaining its strength.
Foreword x i
The excellence of the Department's faculty was recently re-
affirmed through the appointment this year of Braj B. Kachru as Pro-
fessor in the Center for Advanced Study, the highest recognition be-
stowed on a faculty member by the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign. Other linguists accorded this highest recognition include
Ladislav Zgusta, James Marchand, and the late Henry Kahane. The
Department also claims two LAS Jubilee Professors, C.C. Cheng and
Braj B. Kachru, and a University Scholar, Rajeshwari Pandharipande,
all-in-all an astonishing record for a department of our size.
While the number of undergraduates majoring in linguistics at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has traditionally been
quite small (partly a result of the first head's firm belief that linguis-
tic students should have a major in a particular foreign language), it
is worth pointing out that this small body of students has shown an
unusually high level of academic achievement: for example, of a total
of eight graduating linguistics majors in 1991, two were Bronze Tab-
let Scholars (i.e., they ranked among the top 3% of the entire Univer-
sity graduating class), and four were elected to Phi Beta Kappa (i.e.,
in addition to other requirements, they ranked among the top 10% of
graduates in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, by far the lar-
gest college in the University).
At the suggestion of the Advisory Committee on Financial Policy
of the College, the Department is currently engaged in an intensive
effort to contract the number of graduate students in its programs
and to expand its undergraduate offerings that satisfy the Campus's
general education requirements. Three new course proposals have
already been submitted to higher administrative levels for approval,
and others are in various stages of preparation. The Department is
also seeking to strengthen its programs in Arabic language and Sem-
itic linguistics, as well as in sociolinguistics.
The quality of the graduate programs in the Department of
Linguistics has never been in doubt. Over the first quarter-century,
the Department trained 168 Ph.D.s and 51 M.A.s, with 15 candidates
for the Ph.D. whose work is still in progress. The great diversity in
areas of concentration, in regions of the world, and in languages
treated is apparent, not only from the abstracts themselves pre-
sented in this volume, but even more readily from the useful indices
devoted to these matters. To round out the picture, there are also
indices devoted to the authors of the theses as well as to the faculty
members who directed them.
I had the privilege of witnessing the events of the anniversary
year from the vantage point of an acting head who was neither a
true insider, nor a complete outsider. I had held the titles of a faculty
member 'without budgetary implications' in the Department ever
since I came to the University of Illinois in 1967, just two years after
the Department's founding. I have always been interested in, and
have often participated in, its activities. After having committed
xii Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
myself only in this past year to a permanent and intimate relation-
ship with the Department and its excellent faculty, staff, and student
body, and having served as Acting Head for a year and a half, I
pondered why I had declined the kind suggestion by Henry Kahane
in 1967 that I accept a joint appointment in the Department of Ger-
manic Languages and Literatures and in the Department of Linguis-
tics. I was no longer sure of the reason until I read the late Charles
Osgood's and, more particularly, Braj Kachru's contributions to this
volume with the vivid descriptions of their early encounters with the
Department's first head, Robert B. Lees. I realized then for the first
time that it was my failure to interpret correctly Bob Lee's straight-
forward mannerisms that had dampened my interest in a joint ap-
pointment, and not until after the decision had been made did I come
to realize what a generous and kind colleague he really was beneath
the disguising exterior.
In an era of great uncertainty in academe brought on by the
unstable economic situation in the country, it is my sincere hope and
conviction that the Department of Linguistics will be able to weather
the external storms and continue long into the future the excellent
work begun more than 25 years ago and partially chronicled in this
volume.
Urbana, IL Elmer H. Antonsen, Head
July 1993 Department of Linguistics
Preface
This volume has a fascinating biography. The plans for the
project were initiated as a modest undertaking at the invitation of
the Committee which was formed to plan a program for the
celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Department of Linguistics
at UIUC. The original plan was to compile a volume listing the Ph.D.
dissertations and Master's theses submitted to our department from
its founding to 1992. This was one of several projects to celebrate the
Silver Jubilee of the Department as outlined in the Foreword by
Professor Elmer Antonsen. But as time passed, new ideas and
suggestions substantially altered the original plan. The volume
gradually became larger and larger, like the proverbial tail of the
mythical monkey-god, Hanumana.
What we now have is a three-part volume. However, these three
parts, I believe, directly contribute to our understanding of the
founding and development of the Department as one of the major
centers of linguistic studies and research in the world. The addition
of parts one and two was an afterthought, and thereby hangs a tale.
The reasons that motivated the inclusion of these parts have
been discussed in the introduction to each part. But, briefly, both
parts have historical significance for our Department. The first part
includes specifically commissioned perspectives originally written in
1973-74, over twenty years ago. These were meant for a specific
project that is briefly discussed in the introduction to part one. That
project, however, did not materialize; but copies of the papers were
preserved by Henry Kahane and me.
The title of the second part is self-explanatory. Henry Kahane
passed away on September 11, 1992. We were planning to celebrate
his ninetieth birthday on November 2, as some of us had been
celebrating his birthday for several years, at his favorite restaurant,
Katsinas, in Champaign, Illinois. Henry was deservedly recognized as
the founder and as one of the major builders of the department. He
delivered the inaugural lecture in a series of lectures organized to
celebrate the Silver Jubilee. These lectures have already been
published in a special issue of Studies in the Linguistic Sciences (Vol.
20:2; Fall 1990).
The third part consists of the original idea, providing
information about the Ph.D. dissertations and Master's theses from
the year of the Department's founding to 1992. That is actually the
original tail of the monkey-god Hanumana.
I hope that this special issue of SLS will be useful to our former
graduates and to new students who will join the Department in the
years to come, and to linguists in the USA and elsewhere.
xiv Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
This volume is dedicated to the memory of the late Henry
Kahane. Professor Kahane was, as stated above, as instrumental in
the preparation of Part I of this volume as he was in initiating
various other enterprises related to our Department since the time
he joined UIUC, and until he passed away on September 11, 1992.
Urbana, IL Braj B. Kachru
August 15, 1993
Acknowledgements
In the planning, editing, and production of this volume a
number of colleagues, students and the office staff of the Department
of Linguistics have contributed directly and indirectly. My
appreciation and gratitude are particularly due to the following: to
the late Henry Kahane who, in his usual pleasant and persuasive
manner, helped in putting together Part I of this volume; to
executive officers of the linguistics programs in the Midwest who
provided detailed information about their units and promptly
responded to my follow-up questions for writing the chapter
"Linguistics in the Midwest: Beginnings to 1973" — it would not have
been possible to write this chapter without their cooperation and
valuable input; to Elmer Antonsen for writing a detailed and
informative Foreword; to Hans Henrich Hock, editor of Studies in the
Linguistic Sciences (SLS), for his invitation to include this volume as a
special issue of SLS, and for his patience in spite of the delay in
preparation of the final version; to Frances Vavrus, who was
associated as editorial assistant from the inception of this project
until 1992, and to Amy Cheatham, who took over from Frances and
saw this volume through the final stages of editing, checking and
production — the contribution of the two of them has been
invaluable; to Sara Michael and Rosa Shim for their editorial
assistance; to Cecil L. Nelson, a former Ph.D. student of our
department, now a professor at Indiana State University, Terre
Haute, IN, for his insightful and precise editorial comments and
constructive suggestions; to Eyamba G. Bokamba for checking
references related to Africa and African languages; to William F.
Brewer for editing Charles E. Osgood's paper; and to Beth Creek, Cathy
Huffman, and Eileen Sutton for attending to the one-hundred-and-
one chores which the production of a complex volume such as this
entails.
Braj B. Kachru
PARTI
Perspectives on Linguistics in the Midwest and at Illinois
ACADEMIC Administrators
of
THE DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS
1965-1993
ROBERT B. LEES
Head, 1965-1968
Braj b. Kachru
Acting Head. 1968-1969
Head, 1969-1979
Chin-Woo Kim
CHAIR, 1979-1986
Chari.es W. KISSHBHRTH
CHAIR. 1986-1989
ACTING head, 1989-1990
ELMER H. ANTONSEN
Acting Head, 1990-1992
Head. 1992-
[ntroduction
About twenty years ago, in the early seventies, when the
Department of Linguistics was still in an early stage of its existence,
we were asked (as were, nationwide, various other Departments of
Linguistics) to contribute word portraits of our members: to indicate
their development, training, scholarly aims and accomplishments.
The idea, which, alas, did not materialize, was good: To characterize
through collective pictures of selected departments the status of
linguistics in our country.
By now, the present of then has turned into a distant past, and
the plans of then into memoirs. The few pieces that follow (written in
1973-74 and appearing here without change, have to be read as a
testimony of the development of linguistics at our universities in a
time of restless changes, where "modern" means "old", and "post-
modern" refers to last Monday.
March 1992 Henry Kahane
II
This part, as Henry Kahane has said above, has a history that
goes back to 1973. These papers were specifically invited for a
multi-volume series entitled. Current Trends in Language Sciences, to
be published by Mouton Publishers, the Hague, the Netherlands.
Thomas A. Sebeok was the Editor-in-Chief of the proposed project.
One of the first volumes in the series was to be on. The University
Teaching of Linguistics in the United States. The late Henry Kahane
was to write a case study of linguistic studies at the University of
Illinois. The plan was to include the University of Michigan and
Northwestern University as other case studies from the Midwest. In
January 1973, I was invited to write a chapter which would include
... a presentation and discussion ... of the principal lines of
development (roughly, from World War II on) in the
teaching of linguistics in linguistics departments and/or
programs in those private and state universities located in
the states included in your region [the Midwest].
This invitation resulted in the chapter "Linguistics in the
Midwestern Region: Beginnings to 1973" which was received by the
editorial office of the proposed volumes on March 21, 1974. Henry
Kahane followed a different route to compile the case study of
linguistics at Illinois. In a succinct note to his four departmental
colleagues, dated June 6, 1973, Professor Kahane outlined his plan for
4 S tudies in the Linguistic Sciences 22: 2 (Fall 1 992)
documenting the story of linguistics at Illinois. Let me quote here the
relevant parts from the Kahane letter:
My idea is to tell our story arranged according to
linguistic sub-disciplines and presented in the form of a few
portraits of the protagonists together with one or two group
pictures, rather than in terms of more or less irrelevant so-
called statistical facts. The technique of the self-portrait
should dominate, and again, not in the Who-is-Who style,
with an enumeration of degrees, awards, and publications,
but rather as an intellectual history of the portrayee: e.g.,
How did you come to linguistics — To which method or
'school' of linguistics — Your development before and at the
U. of L — The reception of your field among students and
disciplines... and whatever else seems relevant to you. And
above all: What did you do to develop your subspeciality
within the U. of L and the impact of the U. of L on you and
your groups' work.
You see what I am driving at. The value of the survey
would be greatly enhanced if you could write for us such an
essay, of any length that you may want, with
September/October as the target date. Since the volume will
be widely available, now and later on, your self-portrait is
probably, something that will remain and contribute a
precious contribution to the history of linguistics in our
country and to the methodology of the expansion of a new
(or renewed) academic field.
I myself will provide the frame and the 'embedding' of
the individual contributions within our case history. I trust
that you will permit me to edit and streamline whenever
necessary.
Let me end with a trivial note which I feel 1 should add
for correctness' sake rather than for its content. I have been
offered $300 for my contribution. Since I am trying to have
these portraits authored by others, I shall divide the
amount equally among us. I apologize for the remark but
you will understand why I add it.
This letter was sent to Braj B. Kachru, Charles W. Kisseberth,
Robert B. Lees and Charles E. Osgood. It identified the areas on which
each person was to concentrate: Kachru on Applied Linguistics and
Sociolinguistics; Kisseberth on the Neo-Transformationalists; Lees on
the Transformationalists, and Osgood on Psycholinguistics. In due
course, the manuscripts were sent to the editor, and a note, dated
March 1, 1974, confirmed, "...that University Teaching of Linguistics
in the United States has this date, been sent off to Mouton Publishers,
for immediate production."
However, a few months later, we received a "Dear colleague"
note from the Editor-in-Chief, dated July 22, 1974, informing us that
Introduction 5
"...owing to irreconcilable differences which have arisen between me
and the new management of Mouton Publishers, I have decided to
relinquish the editorship of this series effective this month."
I do not recall having heard from the publishers after that. It
was the death of the projected series. This history provides a context
for the papers included in this part. During the past nineteen years
several changes have taken place: Robert B. Lees is now in Israel (in
fact, he submitted his contribution from Israel); Charles E. Osgood
passed away on September 15, 1991; and Henry Kahane passed away
on September 11, 1992.
When the deliberation for this volume started, we agreed —
Henry and I — that the contributors originally submitted in 1973-74,
should appear in their original form, without any changes, additions,
or updating. These five contributions thus represent perspectives of
1973-74, just a decade after the department was established. These
should be read within that context. Professor Elmer Antonsen's
Foreword provides a brief update until the academic year 1992-
1993.
Braj B. Kachru
LINGUISTICS IN THE MIDWESTERN REGION:
BEGINNINGS TO 1973*
Braj B. Kachru
0. Introduction
This survey presents an overview of the earlier and current
position of the teaching of the linguistic sciences in the Midwest of
the United States; the states included are Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
The focus and orientation of the teaching of linguistics in the
Midwest, as elsewhere, are directly related to the theoretical
breakthroughs which are made in this region and at other places.
Therefore, there are several digressions in this paper which are not
directly related to the teaching of linguistics, but are important for
tracing the development of linguistics as an autonomous discipline at
various institutions. I have also briefly presented the types of
linguistic traditions associated with each major institution which now
has a fully developed department of linguistics. I have also included
information on the teaching of the applied aspects of the linguistic
science. There are two areas which have developed due to serious
involvement of linguists, i.e. the teaching of non-western languages
and the programs in the teaching of English as a foreign (or second)
language. These are discussed in sections 8.0. and 9.0. This brief
report therefore is primarily about the teaching of linguistics in this
geographic region with the perspective of the state of the art as seen
in diachronic and synchronic terms.
1.0. Three earlier phases in the teaching of linguistics
The growth of linguistics in the midwestern states is
characterized by roughly three stages. In a sense, these three stages
also indicate the chronological order in which the linguistic sciences
developed in these states. The first stage could be called the pre-
thirties period, when linguistic studies were still a part of the
comparative neo-grammarian tradition. Courses in linguistics were
available in departments such as Classics or German, but most
generally, in the departments of English. These courses had
essentially a comparative focus such as "Comparative Indo-
European," or they concentrated on the elements of language and
phonetics or historical linguistics. The second stage could be termed
the phase of "field linguistics." This phase is important since it slowly
changed the direction of linguistics in the USA from a humanistic
area of research to a research area within the social sciences. During
this period linguists began to be housed in Anthropology, Sociology,
and later, in Psychology departments. For example, at Indiana
University, Carl F. Voegelin, who had originally come to the
Department of History, moved to the Department of Anthropology. At
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Anthropology housed
8 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
the linguistics program for several years, and Kenneth Hale (now at
MIT) joined that department. The result of this shift toward the
social sciences was that several courses with an interdepartmental
focus came into existence.
In linguistic theory this was primarily the period of
Structuralism. It was during this period that the distance between
language scholars and linguists started widening; this trend reached
its climax in the states during the peak period of structural
linguistics. The reasons for the LANGUAGE-LINGUISTICS controversy are
varied, and we shall not go into those here.
The third stage began in the fifties. Gradually, but definitely,
efforts were made to view linguistics as an autonomous field of
study. As a result of this desire for recognition as a discipline, a few
independent departments of linguistics were established. In addition,
several programs or interdepartmental coordinating committees for
linguistics were set up.
The development of programs in linguistics peaked in the
sixties. This does not mean, however, that the loose structure of the
pre-sixties inhibited linguistic activity or its development as a
distinct discipline. The program at Indiana University, which had a
serious impact on the development of linguistic study and research
in the USA, did not become a Department of Linguistics until 1963 —
but by then it had already established itself as a center for teaching
and research in linguistics and had also granted several degrees in
the field. This was also true at Michigan and Illinois. The sixties,
however, saw the formalization of a dozen departments of linguistics
in the Midwest. This was a big step forward in one decade. These
new departments were: University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
(1960's); University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois (1964);
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana (1963); University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (1963); University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, Minnesota (1966); Northeastern Illinois University,
Chicago, Illinois (1961); Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
(1966); Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio (1967); Ohio
University, Athens, Ohio (1969); Western Michigan University,
Kalamazoo, Michigan (1968); and University of Wisconsin,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1964).
This trend toward expansion continued until the end of the
sixties, when a period of rethinking about the diffusion of higher
education was initiated. Understandably this had an effect on the
further growth of linguistics departments. However, expansion did
not come to a complete stop. The following departments were set up
in the early seventies: University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, Chicago,
Illinois (1973); University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa (1970); Oakland
University, Rochester, Michigan (1970); and University of Southern
Illinois, Carbondale, Illinois (1970).
Kachru: Linguistics in the midwestem region 9
In addition to these formalized departments a few programs in
linguistics were also set up; for example, the following, among others:
Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio (Ad hoc.
Interdepartmental Committee in Linguistics, 1973); Indiana State
University, Terre Haute, Indiana (Committee on Linguistics and
Lexicography, 1973); Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, Illinois
(Interdepartmental Committee, 1971); University of Toledo, Toledo,
Ohio (Linguistics Committee, 1970). At present, the expansion seems
to have come to a standstill. The reasons for this probably can be
traced to the more-or-less stagnant condition of higher education in
the USA in the past few years, at least as far as the addition of new
departments or programs is concerned.
2.0. Teaching of linguistics in the 'Big Ten'
The following universities are traditionally called the 'Big Ten' of
the Midwest: Chicago, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan
State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, and Wisconsin.
In this study, the University of Chicago has been treated as the
eleventh member of the group. All of the Big Ten universities have
departments of linguistics, except for Purdue. In chronological terms,
the University of Wisconsin at Madison has the oldest formalized
department of linguistics (1954). The University of Illinois at Chicago
Circle has the youngest department, established as an independent
entity in the summer of 1973; it is still primarily an undergraduate
program.
The story of the pioneering universities which initiated linguistic
offerings in the Midwest is of interest both in terms of the growth of
linguistics as an autonomous discipline, and also from the point of
view of the typical stages through which linguistics has had to pass
at some of the major linguistic centers in the Midwest. The following
selected excerpts give some idea of this process at these universities.
At the University of Chicago, the offerings in linguistics date back to
1892. At that university, linguistics
...has been an independent unit since the founding of the
university, which was in 1892, under the name of the
Department of Comparative Philology. It became
Linguistics early in the 1960's.2
Chicago has an old tradition of teaching and research in
linguistics. Carl Darling Buck was selected to join "the original faculty
of the University of Chicago, as Assistant Professor of Sanskrit and
Comparative Philology, when the University opened its doors on
October 1, 1892. ..In 1930 he was named Martin D. Ryerson
Distinguished Service Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative
Philology, and in 1933 became Professor Emeritus. "3 Leonard
Bloomfield was there as Professor of Germanic Philology from 1927
to 1940.
The Department of Linguistics at Iowa was established in 1970.
It began as a program in the department of English in 1962, with a
1 0 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
National Defense Education Act (NDEA) grant. It continued there until
1965, "...when it became an interdepartmental program directed by a
committee of nine faculty members representing seven departments
in the university. "^
At Michigan, the Department of Linguistics
...was established in 1963, with Herbert Paper as the first
chairman, John Catford as the second, and then me
[William J. Gedney]. It grew out of an Interdepartmental
Program in Linguistics going back to the 1930's,
established originally by Professor Charles Fries, headed
later by Hans Kurath and then Albert Marckwardt...^
At Michigan State University the department of linguistics has
the title of Department of Linguistics and Oriental and African
Languages:
[It] was established in 1964 when the formerly existing
Department of Foreign Languages was broken into three —
a Department of Romance and Classical Languages, a
Department of German and Russian, and this Department
[Department of Linguistics and Oriental and African
Languages]. 6
The University of Minnesota established its department in 1966
under the chairmanship of Walter Lehn.
At Northwestern University, the Department of Linguistics
became a degree-granting unit in the 1965 academic year:
It was a direct outgrowth of a department of African
Languages and Linguistics which had been created and
staffed a year before. The Program in Linguistics under the
direction of Professor Werner Leopold had been in
operation at Northwestern University since the mid 1940's.
The earlier Program of Linguistics consisted of faculty
members from the Departments of Anthropology, English,
German and others. The growth of the current department
has been essentially an independent one and much
linguistics oriented work is still offered in other
departments. Much of the impetus for growth in the
department involved the exploitation of established
scholars in the field of African languages and linguistics.''
At Ohio State University, the tradition of linguistics dates back to
the twenties when George M. Boiling (Classics) and Leonard
Bloomfield (Professor of German and Linguistics from 1921 to 1927)
were there. However, it was not until 1961 that a planning
committee was set up for the development of linguistics. The
committee included Leonard Newmark (then in the English
Department) and William S-Y Wang. In 1962 a Division of Linguistics
was created and Wang was appointed its chairman. It was, however,
Kachru: Linguistics in the midwestem region 1 1
in June, 1967 that the Department of Linguistics was established,
with Use Lehiste as the first Chairperson.
At the University of Wisconsin at Madison, linguistics passed
through several phases, beginning in the 1920's:
In the middle 1920's the Department of Comparative
Philology was established, listing the (by then rather
extensive) offerings of several departments in these areas.
To what extent this was a purely 'paper department' I
have not been able to tell; in 1936 its listed staff, Arthur
Gordon Laird (Classics) and Alfred Senn (Slavic and
German), were both members of other departments. In
1938 Miles Dillon was appointed as the department's first
proper chairman, and its staff was considerably
augmented, on paper at least... That year the department
included Morris Swadesh on its staff, sharing him with
Anthropology, but he left a year or two later. In 1947 the
staff consisted of the following, some of whom are known
figures in the field: Martin Joos, Frederic Cassidy, Joseph
Russo, Miles Hanley, Einer Haugen, Roe-Merrill Heffner, J.
Homer Herriott, William Ellery Leonard, Freeman Twadell,
Julian Harris, Lloyd Kasten, Edmund Zawacky, and Murray
Fowler (who joined the staff in that year). In 1950, the
department was rechristened Comparative Philology and
Linguistics...^ [his italics]
It was renamed the Department of Linguistics in 1954.
At Illinois and Indiana, autonomous linguistics departments
were not formed until the sixties. At Illinois, the Program in
Linguistics was a component of the Department of English. (For a
detailed discussion see the chapters that follow in Part I). At Indiana,
the Interdepartmental Program in Linguistics was set up in 1946
with serious input from seven members representing five
departments: H. Herzog and C. F. Voegelin (Anthropology), Thomas A.
Sebeok and F. Whitehall (English), Fred Householder (Classics), Harry
Velten (German), and Marion Porter (French and Italian). A
Department of Linguistics was formally established in 1963.
3.0. The components of the departments of linguistics
The composition of the linguistics departments in the Midwest is
not uniform. The variation in the organization of the departments is
as follows: First, there are those departments which focus only on
offerings in the various branches of the linguistic sciences. In these
departments, the core faculty concentrates on the areas of syntax,
phonology, and semantics (e.g. Wisconsin, Iowa).
The second type of department has a full graduate program in
linguistics with Master's and Ph.D. degrees. However, they also have
the added component of non-Western language teaching. The reason
for this combination varies from one institution to another. The
1 2 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
following departments have such components: Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign (Arabic, Hindi, Modern Hebrew, Swahili and Yoruba);
Southern Illinois (Vietnamese, Lao, Cambodian, Arabic, Hebrew, and
Persian); Western Michigan (Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Japanese,
Hindi-Urdu, Arabic, Swahili, and Hebrew); and Chicago (Malay and
Japanese). At some places this integration of the non-Western
language component manifests itself in the name of the department,
as, for example, the Department of Linguistics and Oriental and
African Languages at Michigan State University.
The third type of department has both non-western languages
and English as a Second Language as added components (e.g.
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee).
In the above discussion I have included only those universities
in the Midwest which have independent departments of linguistics,
not what are termed 'interdepartmental programs' or
'interdepartmental committees.' (See below §3.1.)
3.1. Interdisciplinary programs and committees
Interdepartmental programs and committees continue to play
an important role in teaching and research in linguistics. Universities
with such interdepartmental programs also help in providing
graduate students for specialized training in linguisitcs to those
universities which have fully-developed departments of linguistics.
David Lowton is right when he says, "I think the interdisciplinary
programs in linguistics are worthy of mention [in this survey] since
these programs are not generally widespread insofar as linguistics is
concerned." 10 The main interdepartmental programs are at the
following universities, among others: Ball State University, Central
Michigan, Miami University, and Youngstown State University.
4.0. Toward establishing theoretical traditions in the
teaching of the linguistic sciences
This section is an historical note on the theoretical developments
in linguistics in the Midwest. These developments have a direct
relevance to the focus in the teaching of the linguistic sciences in this
region.
4.1. The forerunners
It was in the Midwest that the initial framework for Structural
linguistics was developed by Leonard Bloomfield (1887-1949). In the
linguistic literature, this development within the discipline has also
been called "The Bloomfield 'School'" (see Fries, 1961). Bloomfield
spent a number of years in midwestern universities. He began his
career as an Instructor in German at the University of Cincinnati
(1909-1910), and then moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, where he worked as an Instructor from 1910 to 1913;
from 1913 to 1921, he was an Assistant Professor of Comparative
Philology and German at the University of Illinois. In 1921, he was
appointed Professor of German and Linguistics at Ohio State
Kachru: Linguistics in the midwestem region 1 3
University, a position which he held until 1927. His last job in the
Midwest was at the University of Chicago (1927 to 1940), before he
became Sterling Professor of Linguistics at Yale University.
It was at another midwestern university (Wisconsin) that
Bloomfield had done his graduate work:
Here he met Edvard Prokosch, his senior by nine years,
and fell at once under the spell of the older man's
personality. The meeting was an important event in
Bloomfield's life; for it marked the birth of his career as a
linguist. 1 1
It was during his tenure at the University of Illinois that
An Introduction to the Study of Language (1914) was published. In
the Preface to this book Bloomfield says (Bloomfield, 1914, v):
This little book is intended, as the title implies, for the
general reader and for the student who is entering upon
linguistic work.
Commenting on the then available linguistic offerings in American
universities, the Preface adds:
Students whose vocation demands linguistic knowledge are
subject in our universities to a detached course or two on
details of the phonologic or morphologic history of such
languages as Old English, Gothic, or Old French — details
which are meaningless and soon forgotten, if no instruction
as to their concrete significance has preceded. To this
method of presentation is due, I think, the dislike which so
many workers in related fields bear to linguistic study (iv).
It has already been noted in the literature that the theoretical
orientation of An Introduction to the Study of Language was
somehow different from that of Language, which came out in 1933.
This change of focus in the second book is partly responsible for the
direction which our discipline took during that period.
4.2. Post-Bloomfieldian breakthroughs
The other theoretical breakthrough in descriptive linguistics
came from Kenneth L. Pike, who had received the Ph.D. degree from
the University of Michigan in 1942. Pike has been working at this
same university since his graduation. It was here that he developed
the Tagmemic model of linguistics, the preliminary version of which
appeared in 1954 in Language in Relation to A Unified Theory of the
Structure of Human Behavior. A revised edition was published in
1967. It should, however, be mentioned that the University of
Michigan never became known for its Tagmemic theoretical
orientation. The main center for that model continued to be the
Summer Institute of Linguistics.
A recent development in linguistic theory termed "Case
Grammar" initially came from Ohio State, where the seminal papers
1 4 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
on this theory were written by Charles Fillmore (now at the
University of California, Berkeley) during his tenure at that
university. It was originally at Chicago, Ohio State, and Illinois that
this model was presented in the courses on syntax.
The developments in three areas, i.e. syntax, phonology, and
phonetics, are presented below. These developments manifested
themselves directly in the teaching of courses and graduate student
research.
4.3. Syntax
The midwestern contribution to syntax and its teaching should
be viewed in terms of the work done under various traditions (or
models) of linguistics. In a sense, the Bloomfield 'school' (or
'tradition') was initiated in the Midwest, though Bloomfield himself,
as Fries says, never meant to establish a 'school' of linguistics (Fries,
1961:196):
He [Bloomfield] despised 'schools', insisting that the usual
attitude of the adherents of a 'school' strikes at the very
foundation of all sound science. Science, he believed, must
be cumulative and impersonal. It cannot rest on private
theories. To Bloomfield one of the most important
outcomes of the first twenty-one years of the Linguistic
Society of America was that it had "...saved us from the
blight of the odium theologicum and the postulation of
'schools'."
In the thirties and forties Bloomfield's book was the
fundamental basic text in linguistics, and it soon replaced Whitney's
Language and the Study of Language and The Life and Growth of
Language. It is still used in the classroom at several places, especially
in introductory courses. Even at those places where it is now
considered outdated, the sections on historical linguistics continue to
be used.
The Tagmemic model has been used for the analysis of the
largest number of unwritten languages, both in the Western and
non-Western parts of the world. Pike was its main architect for over
a decade, and the model was used by a large number of missionaries
in reducing unwritten languages to writing so that the Bible could be
translated into those languages.
In the sixties, the universities of Chicago, Indiana, and Illinois
were actively engaged in suggesting modifications to
Transformational theory, and in applying this extended model to a
wide variety of Western and non-Western languages. The graduates
from these universities became the radicals in the field.
At Indiana University, the Transformational model, along with
other models, was taught by Fred W. Householder, Andreas
Koutsoudas, and Thomas A. Sebeok. The University of Illinois took a
front position as one of the main centers in the USA for
Kachru: Linguistics in the midwestem region 1 5
Transformational linguistics, and developed an exclusive
Transformational focus which has since continued.
In the period of the sixties the primary development in the area
of syntax and semantics was that of Generative Semantics. In certain
circles the term 'neo-Transformationalists' is also used for this
development. The varied contexts in which the term 'Generative
Semantics' is used is succinctly summarized in Green & Castillo
(1972:123):
In the broadest sense, 'Generative Semantics' refers to the
assumption that semantic representation provides the
input to the transformational rules of a grammar, an idea
which was unthinkably radical when Jeffrey Gruber
proposed it in his 1965 MIT dissertation, but which now is
taken almost for granted by many. However, only a
relatively small part of the literature is concerned with
elaborating and explicitly motivating this assumption. In
another sense, the term 'Generative Semantics' is taken to
refer to a theory in which global rules and other
derivational constraints play a major role — although as G.
Lakoff argued in "Global Rules", this theory is logically
quite independent of the role of semantics in grammar. In
still a third sense, 'Generative Semantics' is used to refer to
what was for a time called 'abstract syntax', which is not so
much a theory or an assumption as a way of doing things...
In some midwestern universities, a young, enthusiastic group of
linguists has continued to contribute to the paradigm, both by
applying it to various languages, and by bringing a rigor to the
analytical techniques.
At the University of Chicago, James D. McCawley has
significantly contributed in developing a focus in teaching and
research in semantics as an area of linguistic study and investigation.
In this he is helped by an Illinois graduate, Jerrold Sadock. The
proceedings of the annual Chicago Linguistics Society meetings (CLS)
are the primary source of very insightful and programmatic papers
in this area. McCawley's two students, Georgia Green and Jerry
Morgan, have developed a serious interest in Generative Semantics
among a number of graduate students at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. At Illinois, Herbert Stahlke is using this
framework for the description of some African languages, and
Yamuna Kachru for the description of Hindi.
At Ohio State University, Michael Geis, Johnny Geis, and Arnold
Zwicky are working primarily in this framework on English. Indiana
University, through its Indiana University Linguistics Club, makes
available very influential (and controversial) "underground" papers
on Generative Semantics. (See §13.0.)
In teaching and research in syntax, therefore, this model has
become the main thrust at these universities. On the other hand, at
1 6 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
places like Michigan and Wisconsin the aim is toward eclecticism.
(See §10.0; for a detailed discussion see Francis, 1973.)
4.4. Phonology
The well-established departments in the Midwest have a long
tradition of research and teaching in phonology in the framework of
Structuralism. Detailed discussion on this can be found in Valerie
Makkai (1972).
In phonology after the early sixties, it was primarily the area of
Generative phonology in which Chicago, Indiana, Ohio State, Illinois,
and Minnesota made contributions. In recent years insightful new
developments in the theory of phonology have been taking place at
Chicago, Illinois, and Ohio State. At Chicago, James McCawley has
given direction to this research. At Illinois, the team of Charles
Kisseberth and Michael Kenstowicz (now at MIT) has attempted to
reevaluate certain assumptions and bases of Generative phonology.
In their research and teaching, they have not over-emphasized form
to the neglect of function (see Kisseberth, 1970). They have re-
evaluated the assumption that the "ordering" of rules is the natural
way of showing the interactions that exist among rules (see
Kenstowicz & Kisseberth, 1970; Kisseberth, 1973a, 1973b). They have
attempted to relate "phonological" explanations of phonetic
phenomena to "morphological" explanations. Thus, an attempt is
being made to relate phonetic and morphological levels to
phonological processes. In their research, Kenstowicz concentrates on
Balto-Slavic languages and Kisseberth on Amerindian and African
languages. At Ohio State, David Stampe (now at Hawaii) and Arnold
Zwicky have addressed a variety of theoretical problems in
phonology (see Stampe, 1973). Contemporary phonological models
have been applied to a wide variety of languages at Indiana,
Michigan, and Minnesota. The following, among others, are actively
involved in theoretically insightful research in phonology: Andreas
Koutsoudas (Indiana), 13 Kenneth Hill and Charles Pyle (Michigan),
and Gerald Sanders (Minnesota). At Michigan State University and at
the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, paradigms other than
Generative phonology are being actively discussed and taught. At
these latter universities, the Stratificational model has been used for
the analysis of several languages and is also discussed in detail in
courses on phonology. (For detailed discussion see Wang, 1973.)
4.5. Phonetics
The attitude toward phonetics as a branch of the linguistic
sciences has varied in the United States from one of "benign neglect"
to outright academic hostility. In the linguistic literature there is
substantial discussion on FORM vs. SUBSTANCE, and their roles in
linguistic description. In the Bloomfieldian tradition the emphasis
was primarily on FORM. However, in the Midwest, there has been a
continuing interest in phonetics and it has become a serious
Kachru: Linguistics in the midwestem region 1 7
component of the teaching at several universities, especially at
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio State.
Three books which have had a serious impact on the study and
research in phonetics were written by linguists from midwestem
universities. Two of these scholars were from the University of
Wisconsin: Martin Joos, Acoustic Phonetics (1948) and R.-M. S.
Heffner, General Phonetics (1950). Five years before Joos' book was
published, Kenneth L. Pike of the University of Michigan published
his Phonetics (1943). This book continues to be the standard work in
the field. In later years. Pike also published his Intonation of
American English (1945), and Tone Languages (1948). Research on
phonetics has not been restricted to articulatory phonetics, since
innovative research in experimental and instrumental phonetics was
initiated at the following centers, among others: the University of
Michigan, Ohio State University, and the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. These universities developed phonetic research
as a subspeciality. At Michigan, in addition to Pike, there was Gordon
E. Peterson, before he finally moved to Santa Barbara, California.
Peterson was the Director of the Communications Laboratory and
trained two distinguished phoneticians. Use Lehiste and William S-Y.
Wang. These two were then responsible for the early planning and
development of linguistics at Ohio State University and where, under
their guidance, research in experimental phonetics was conducted. In
her book Suprasegmentals, Lehiste says (1970:vi):
For a linguist, phonetics is only a means toward an end, not
a purpose in itself. The end is to provide reliable answers
to linguistically relevant questions. However, for providing
these answers, phonetics is indispensable. I believe firmly
that true statements regarding phonological phenomena
presuppose correct observation of their phonetic
manifestation. A phonologist ignores phonetics at his own
peril.
At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in the Speech
Research Laboratory, an active team of researchers worked under
Grant Fairbanks during his tenure at Illinois from 1948 to 1962. This
group included, among others, Lee Hultzen and later, Willard Zemlin.
Some of the important papers by Fairbanks have been published in
Experimental Phonetics: Selected Articles (1966). In 1967, Chin-W.
Kim, a student of Peter Ladefoged, joined the active group of linguists
in the Department of Linguistics. Kim helped in setting up a research
and teaching laboratory for phonetics. In addition, research and
teaching in experimental phonetics is being done by Kenneth Moll at
the University of Iowa, and by Raymond Daniloff at Purdue
University in the Department of Audiology and Speech Sciences.
1 8 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
5.0. Teaching of the applications of the linguistic sciences
5.1. Linguistics and language pedagogy
In 1933 Leonard Bloomfield included a chapter in Language
entitled "Applications and Outlook" (pp. 496-509; see also Bloomfield,
1942). In that chapter the applications of the linguistic sciences are
seen as being primarily in the area of language learning and
language pedagogy. This tradition of restricting the application of
linguistics to this one area has continued in the United States.
However, it is well known that this restricted view is much narrower
than how the applications of linguistics are viewed on the other side
of the Atlantic.
In any case, it was the area of language pedagogy which was
fostered earlier by linguists in midwestern universities. (A detailed
survey of the national scene is presented in Moulton 1961.) In 1942,
the Intensive Language Program was initiated with support from the
US government. A large number of linguists were involved in that
program. In the following year, the Army Specialized Training
Program (ASTP) and Civil Affairs Training Schools (CATS) were
established. Their operation naturally involved the preparation of
pedagogical materials. Linguists from midwestern universities
contributed to these programs, especially in the production of what is
known as the "Spoken Language Series." The following linguists from
the midwestern region contributed to this series: Einar Haugen, then
at the University of Wisconsin (Norwegian); Carleton T. Hodge,
Indiana University (Serbo-Croatian); Henry and Renee Kahane,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Greek); Norman A.
McQuown, University of Chicago (Turkish); Thomas Sebeok, Indiana
University (Finnish-Hungarian); and S. N. Trevino, then at the
University of Chicago (Spanish).
It was in the fifties that linguistic insights were first applied to
the teaching and learning of English as a foreign (or second)
language. This was considered an important area of applied
linguistics, and the Midwest provided the lead in this work for over
two decades. (For further discussion see §9.0.) At present, at most of
the universities where linguistic offerings are available, there is at
least one course in linguistics and language pedagogy or language
learning. Such courses are offered either in linguistics programs (i.e.
Chicago, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Northeastern), or in
the TESOL or education programs. (See Table II in Appendix B.)
5.2. Linguistics and the study of literature
In the last decade courses in linguistics and literature (or what
is now called "stylistics") have not only developed in linguistics
programs but the language departments are also making such
courses available. (See Table II in Appendix B.) The term "stylistics"
is used for that area of linguistics which is concerned with the formal
analysis of literary texts.
Kachru: Linguistics in the midwestem region 1 9
The first interdisciplinary conference on stylistics was held in
the Midwest in 1958, under the auspices of the Social Sciences
Research Council at Indiana University (Sebeok, 1960, v):
... to explore the possibility of finding a common basis for
discussing and, hopefully, understanding, particularly
among linguists, psychologists, and literary critics, the
characteristics of style in language.
The proceedings of this conference were incorporated in Style in
Language (Sebeok, 1960), which set the foundation for this now fast-
growing area of the application of linguistics in the USA. (A survey of
the current trends in the field of stylistics is presented in Kachru &
Stahlke (1972); see also, Chatman & Levin, 1973).
5.3. Linguistics and lexicography
Recently, linguists have become involved in theoretical or
applied research in lexicography and have initiated teaching of
courses on lexicography in linguistics departments. It was in 1960
that "... a small group of linguists and lexicographers met at Indiana
University to discuss a variety of problems related to the making of
dictionaries." '3 xhe proceedings of that conference, entitled Problems
in Lexicography (1962), certainly had some impact in focusing
attention on the linguistic aspects of lexicography and the then state
of the art.
In the fifties and sixties, courses in lexicography were offered at
a few universities such as Chicago and Michigan. Currently, one or
more courses on lexicography are offered by six universities in the
Midwest, i.e. Chicago, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Indiana,
Michigan, Northeastern, and Indiana State.
Indiana State University has taken several important steps in
drawing attention to lexicographical research and teaching. In 1970,
an alumnus, Warren N. Cordell, gave that university some five
hundred dictionaries. This collection includes rare and out-of-print
dictionaries. With gifts and matching grants from the National
Endowment for the Humanities, this collection is soon expected to
increase to:
... four thousand dictionaries that cover the entire history
of Western lexicography. Several areas are especially
worthy of note. These include one hundred and fifty
different editions and issues of Samuel Johnson's A
Dictionary of the English Language; comprehensive
holdings of Renaissance English-Latin Latin-English
dictionaries; numerous dictionaries by American
lexicographers such as Webster and Worcester; and
representative classic dictionaries in several Western
European languages.'"*
At Illinois, Ladislav Zgusta, the author of the Manual of
Lexicography (1971), is actively involved in the application of
2 0 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
contemporary linguistic models to lexicographical research. Fredrick
G. Cassidy (Wisconsin at Madison) is compiling a Dictionary of
American Regional English and is also involved in the teaching of
courses in lexicography. (For a detailed discussion see Read, 1973.)
5.4. Linguistics and the theory of translation
There are two books which have set the tone for teaching the
applications of linguistics to the theory of translation, i.e. Nida (1964)
and Catford (1965). There are some institutions (e.g. Michigan) which
have courses in this area. In addition, in the fifties, it seems that
courses in machine translation also were offered at several places. In
recent years, courses on machine translation are slowly disappearing
from the scene in the Midwest (see Table II in Appendix B).i5
6.0. Interdisciplinary teaching and the linguistic sciences
In the United States the tradition of interdisciplinary course
offerings goes back at least to the thirties. However, this interest was
primarily restricted to areas such as anthropological linguistics. The
focus of such courses partly depended on the departmental
affiliations of the faculty interested in linguistics. In the last two
decades, a considerable number of courses with an interdisciplinary
focus have developed. The interdisciplinary areas are primarily the
following: anthropological linguistics, bilingualism, computational
linguistics, mathematical linguistics, philosophy of language, and
psycholinguistics.i6
7.0. Teaching of linguistics and the challenge of the sixties
The late sixties presented a serious challenge to the linguists of
the United States. They were called upon to show the relevance of
their discipline to society in general. It was appropriate, therefore,
that in 1973 the theme of the Linguistic Institute of the Linguistic
Society of America at Ann Arbor, Michigan, was "Language in the
Context of Time, Space, and Society." This new trend led to the
development of a wide variety of courses and projects on the
sociology of language, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, and bilingual
education. This societal aspect also became the main focus of
linguistic research at several places (see Kachru, 1972). Such courses
cover a spectrum from Black English on the one hand to language and
sex differences on the other. More than a dozen univeristies in the
Midwest now offer courses in the areas of the sociology of language
or sociolinguistics (see Table II in Appendix B).
8.0. Linguistics and the non-Western languages
In this subsection I shall concentrate primarily on the
involvement of linguists with the languages of the non-Western parts
of the world. These languages are often termed "exotic," "uncommon,"
or "critical." For the most part this includes the languages of the
African continent, the Far East, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Kachru: Linguistics in the midwestem region 2 1
In a sense, the interest of linguists in non-Western languages,
such as Sanskrit is related to their interest in the Indo-European
languages in general. The beginning of this interest is generally
traced back to the now famous "discovery" of Sanskrit by Sir William
Jones. In the early years, before the recent upsurge of interest in the
study and teaching of non-western languages in America, the
Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago had already earned a
considerable reputation for teaching and research in the languages of
the Orient.
It was not until the early fifties that linguists actually became
involved with modern non-Western languages. It was during this
period that non-western language teaching and organized research
on these languages started in the USA, and linguists took an active
role in this undertaking. The motivation for this research, and the
background for the allocation of federal and other funds for this
work have already been discussed in the literature by, among others.
Brown (1960) and Lambert (1973). The current role of midwestern
linguists and institutions in the teaching and research in this area is
presented briefly below.
8.1. African languages and linguistics
The universities of Wisconsin at Madison, Northwestern, Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, Indiana, and Michigan State have a heavy
emphasis on the teaching of African linguistics. A smaller, but very
active center is located at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. The five
major programs have little overlap in African linguistics and have
been cooperating through the Big Ten Committee on Institutional
Cooperation in offering joint Summer Programs.
The distribution of work in African languages and linguistics,
like that of the languages taught, shows a great deal of
complementarity. Wisconsin is particularly strong in Berber
linguistics (Jeanette Harries), and Bantu linguistics (Lyndon Harries,
Daniel Kunene, and Patrick Bennett). The concentration at
Northwestern is more in pidgins and Creoles (Jack Berry), Ghanaian
languages (Berry), and Mende linguistics (Richard Spears). Michigan
State is strong in Bantu linguistics (Irvine Richardson), Hausa
linguistics (John Eulenberg), and Efik linguistics (John Ritter). Indiana
University has a strong program in Hausa and Afro-Asiatic linguistics
(Carleton Hodge), and Mende linguistics and literature (Charles Bird),
as well as a rich and varied program in other areas of African
linguistics through the use of an exchange scholars' program. The
University of Illinois, the newcomer in African languages and
linguistics in the Midwest, has established a program in Swahili
language and linguistics (Chin-W. Kim and Herbert Stahlke), as well
as a rich program on the contribution of African linguistics to
linguistic theory (Chin-W. Kim and Herbert Stahlke). The University
of Illinois initiated the Annual Conference on African Linguistics in
1970.
2 2 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
8.2. Far Eastern languages and linguistics
Research and teaching on the linguistic aspects of the Far
Eastern languages and linguistics has continued mainly at four
universities. The University of Michigan has produced several
dissertations on Chinese and Japanese linguistics. Indiana University
has done primarily pedagogical research on these languages. Indiana,
Illinois, and Michigan State are the only midwestern universities
where there is a focus on the Korean language and linguistics. At
Illinois there are several linguists working on Far Eastern linguistics:
C-C. Cheng (Chinese), Seiichi Makino (Japanese), C-W. Kim (Korean),
and Frederick Lehman (Thai and Burmese). This group of linguists
and their students have worked on phonological and syntactic
problems concerning these languages in the framework of
contemporary linguistics. In cooperation with William S-Y. Wang at
Berkeley, C-C. Cheng of Illinois has developed a computer file of
Chinese dialects. The file contains phonological information on 23
dialects of Sino-xenic languages, each having about 3000 lexical
items. A theory of phonological change, called lexical diffusion, has
been proposed based on studies of Chinese, historical phonology. (For
further details see Wang & Cheng, 1970, and Cheng & Wang, 1971.)
At Southern Illinois University, James H. Y. Tai has been working on
constraints in Chinese syntax.
8.3. Middle Eastern languages and linguistics
The oldest center for research on the Middle Eastern languages
is the University of Chicago where the Oriental Institute made
available offerings in this area. At Michigan Ernest McCarus, and at
Minnesota Walter Lehn, have continued to direct research and
teaching on these languages, primarily Arabic. Illinois has initiated a
vigorous program on the linguistic and pedagogical aspects of
Modern Hebrew.
8.4. South Asian languages and linguistics
There are courses on the structure of one or more South Asian
languages at several midwestern universities, e.g. Chicago, Illinois,
Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. In recent years linguistically
interesting and original research has been conducted primarily at
Chicago, Illinois and Wisconsin. In the Midwest, Chicago was the first
to enter the field of South Asian linguistics. A group of researchers
there have worked on several of the languages of this area, for
example K. C. Bahl (Hindi and Panjabi), Edward Dimock Jr. (Bengali),
John Lindholm (Tamil), and A. K. Ramanujan (Dravidian, primarily
Tamil and Kannada). The Munda Languages Project, initiated by
Norman Zide, has resulted in several papers and monographs. At
Illinois, the primary focus in teaching and research has been on Hindi
linguistics and Yamuna Kachru and Tej Bhatia continue research on
various aspects of that language. Braj Kachru continues his research
on Kashmiri and South Asian English. Courses and research on
Sanskrit linguistics have been initiated by Hans Henrich Hock and
Kachru: Linguistics in the midwestem region 2 3
Ladislav Zgusta. (For a detailed bibliography see Subbarao and
Bhatia, 1973.) The University of Wisconsin at Madison has
contributed to the development of teaching materials and linguistic
research in several South Asian languages, primarily Hindi (M. K.
Verma) and Telugu. At Minnesota, both the Departments of
Linguistics and South Asian Studies have members who are
continuing research on the languages of this area, e.g. R. V. Miranda
(Indo-Aryan).
9.0. Linguistics and TESOL programs
The applications of the linguistic sciences to language pedagogy
(see §5.1.) were naturally extended to the fast growing
interdisciplinary area of the teaching of English as a foreign (or
second) language. In the Midwest, the pioneer in this field has been
the English Language Institute of the University of Michigan. It was
founded in 1941 under the leadership of Charles C. Fries. Fries was a
typical representative of the Bloomfieldian "School" and his American
English Grammar (1950) and The Structure of English: An
Introduction to the Construction of English Sentences (1952) have
become models of the application of the structural model to a
language.
In the forties, Fries published his Teaching and Learning English
as a Foreign Language (1945). It became a classic in this field and
continued to be used as a model for the LINGUISTIC approach to
language teaching for over two decades (see Kachru, 1967). The
Institute at Michigan has always had a linguist as Director and the
previous directors included Charles C. Fries, Robert Lado, Albert H.
Marckwardt, and J. C. Catford.
At several universities in the Midwest, TESOL programs have
either developed within the linguistics departments, or linguistics
has had a serious input in their development. There are some TESOL
programs which are part of English departments, and they are doing
linguistically insightful work, for example the program in Applied
English Linguistics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. This
program has produced very significant research under the guidance
of Charles T. Scott. Their publication Papers in Descriptive, Historical,
and Applied English Linguistics has included many original
contributions, not only to the field of TESOL but to several other
areas of linguistics, such as stylistics.
At Indiana the TESOL program started as an adjunct of the
Department of English and then became a small component of the
Program in Linguistics. It was under the direction of Bernard
Spolsky, between 1964 and 1968, that the academic foundations for
a TESL program were set. In 1968 — for several reasons, both
academic and administrative — this component was restructured as
an independent unit and renamed the Department of Urban and
Overseas English.
2 4 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
At Illinois, the Division of English as a Second Language also
started as an adjunct of the Department of English. Several members
of its faculty are contributing to linguistically oriented course
offerings and research, e.g. Katherine Aston, Lawrence Bouton,
Wayne Dickerson, and Yamuna Kachru. The departments of
linguistics at the University of Minnesota and at Ohio University,
Athens, Ohio, also offer an MA program in English as a second (or
foreign) language. (For a detailed discussion see Allen, 1973.)
10.0. The theoretical focus in the teaching of linguistics
The fast-developing and constantly changing field of linguistics
creates a pedagogical problem for those who have to develop a
curriculum for it at various levels of instruction. The basic question
they have to answer is: What constitutes the basic component of
linguistic knowledge that should form the basis for a linguistic
curriculum? Once this question is settled more or less to the
satisfaction of all the faculty, soon another, more intriguing, question
comes up: Which model (or models) of linguistics should one focus on
in teaching linguistics in a particular department? If one finds even
more or less agreement on this question, it is an achievement.
The broad dichotomy generally used to discuss the focus of a
department in terms of its teaching is traditional vs. contemporary.
As we know, there is no agreement on what these terms mean, since
they can be defined in a time dimension or in terms of a particular
linguistic model.
One may take the position, as some departments do, that these
polemic questions are primarily of interest to an historian of ideas in
linguistic thought, not to a teacher of linguistics. However, it soon
becomes obvious that such a position is not necessarily correct. If the
curriculum is essentially based on one model — for example. Systemic
or Transformational — the pedagogical implications are that it results
in a monolithic curriculum. On the other hand, if the choice is made
in favor of an ecletic curriculum, the danger is of developing no clear
focus in research or teaching. In any case, both these choices have
their advantages and disadvantages. And, the decision made in either
direction is important from the point of view of teaching.
The situation in terms of the theoretical focus in teaching
linguistics in the midwestern states provides an interesting profile
about the state of the art and the linguistic curricula. The responses
to the question concerning the theoretical focus have been
summarized in Table I (see Appendix A) under six categories. i'^
11.0. Current trends in the teaching of linguisitcs
As section 1 indicates, there have been approximately three
phases in the teaching of linguistics in the Midwest. The forties and
fifties were essentially a period of Structuralism. The emphasis was
primarily on methodological and procedural refinement. This was
Kachru: Linguistics in the midwestem region 2 5
also the period when interdisciplinary course offerings were
developed mainly with Anthropology and Sociology.
The sixties initiated a period of polemics and argumentation at
the main centers of linguistics. It was during this period that a wide
variety of courses were developed and interaction was sought with
philosophy, psychology and, in certain cases, with mathematics. This
argumentation was not restricted to the scholarly journals but it was
obvious in the classrooms, too. The Linguistic Institute of the
Linguistic Society of America, as usual, presented this phase of our
discipline at Indiana (1964) and at Illnois (1968 and 1969).
This was also the period when the earlier dichotomy between
language, literature, and linguistics began to become less visible and
research was done in the area of the "linguistic" study of literature. It
was during this period that stylistics came of age. In the Midwest
now a number of linguistics departments have offerings in this area.
The late sixties and the early seventies again brought a new
dimension and a new challenge; the linguistics departments, as did
other departments, had to demonstrate their relevance. As a result, a
closer relationship developed with the departments of philosophy
and psychology. The language and linguistics departments also
rediscovered their relevance to each other. But, more visible to a
non-American was the phenomenon of midwestern linguists
discovering the role and manifestation of language in the Midwest.
There was a sudden upsurge in urban language study. Black English,
and language and sex differences. In short, language variation, which
had been pushed under the rug for over a generation, was back in
the classroom. (See also Cassidy, 1973.)
In reorienting the teaching of linguistics in the Midwest with the
new thought and new demands, several linguists played an
important role at various stages. They were, among others, Eric Hamp
(Chicago), C. C. Fries and Kenneth Pike (Michigan), Fred Householder,
Thomas Sebeok, and Carl Voegelin (Indiana), Henry Kahane, and
Robert Lees (Illinois).
In linguistically orthodox setups, room has been made for new
insights in the field, and younger scholars are now more readily
accepted.
At institutions such as Illinois at Chicago Circle and Michigan
State, attempts are being made to represent, both in teaching and
research, linguistic models such as Stratificational (A. Makkai) and
the Scale and Category (M.A.K. Halliday). The main thrust of the
seventies points toward looking at all aspects and manifestations of
language in both teaching and research (see §12.0.)
12.0. The spectrum of linguistics offerings
In Table II (see Appendix B) I have attempted to show the
range of linguistic offerings in the various linguistics departments
and programs in the Midwest. In the seventies, it seems that all the
2 6 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
aspects of the linguistic sciences and their applications are
represented.
13.0. On teaching "underground" linguistics
In the sixties and seventies, the way in which linguistics has
been taught at the main centers in the Midwest has made
conventional course titles and course descriptions misleading if not
irrelevant. In addition, these present only a part of the linguistic
"iceberg". The main core of it is underground: By "underground" I
mean that the active, innovative groups have telephonic,
mimeographed, or dittoed channels of communication about their
ideas on the various branches of the linguistic sciences. These convey
the state of the art today. They are circulated to the initiated
members of the group, who then present the material in their
classes. This restricted research has developed into a large body of
material in certain areas of linguistics, but especially on syntax,
phonology, and semantics. The pedagogical implications of this are
that evaluation of course content at various universities has become
difficult. Another implication is that this material is not readily
available to all the institutions and faculty members interested in a
particular field.
In order to remedy this situation, several departments in the
Midwest have started their own in-house publications which help in
making available the current thinking of active workers in the field.
A partial list of such publications is given below; it includes only
publications from the Midwest.
Contributed Papers (Speech, Hearing, Language), Purdue
University; Indiana University Linguistic Club Publications, Indiana
University, Bloomington; Informal Working Papers in Applied
Linguistics, Ohio University; The Informant, Western Michigan
University; Minnesota Working Papers in Linguistics and the
Philosophy of Language, University of Minnesota at Minneapolis;
Natural Language Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor;
Newsletter of the Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign; Occasional Papers of the WOLFENDEN Society on
Tibeto-Burman Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign; Papers in Descriptive, Historical, and Applied English
Linguistics, University of Wisconsin at Madison; Studies in Generative
Semantics (SIGS), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Studies in the
Linguistic Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
Working Papers in Linguistics, Ohio State Universiity.
The Indiana University Linguistics Club plays an important role
in making such "underground" literature widely available. Chicago
and Illinois also make available the research of their graduate
students and faculty. The Papers of the Chicago Linguistic Society
Meetings (CLS) has become an important trendsetter in the new
thinking in linguistics. At several universities in the Midwest such
Kachru: Linguistics in the midwestem region 2 7
materials continue to form the basic core of the advanced courses in
linguistics.
14.0. Conclusion
In the previous sections I have presented an overview of the
earlier and contemporary trends in the teaching of linguistics and
attempted to relate these to the breakthroughs in the theories of the
linguistic sciences which were initiated in the Midwest. I have not
presented details concerning the role of linguistics in the curricula of
English departments or any other language departments. At present,
substantial or marginal course offerings in linguistics are available in
the Midwest in humanistic disciplines, in the social sciences and also
in the colleges of engineering. At several places, programs in
computer studies have linguistics-related courses. Therefore, it is
obvious that all the manifestations and orientations in the teaching of
linguistics have not been covered in this study.
The current status in the teaching of linguistics is exactly the
same as the status in the development of the linguistic sciences, one
of constant change and innovation. It seems to me that the direction
in the near future will be toward developing theoretical foundations
and methodological rigor in the teaching of applied linguistics and
interdisciplinary offerings.
NOTES
*I gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the executive
officers of the linguistics departments and programs in the
midwestern region for supplying me information concerning their
institutions for this survey. I owe special gratitude to Chin-Chuan
Cheng, Henry Kahane, Chin-W. Kim, Seiichi Makino, Herbert Stahlke,
and Ladislav Zgusta for providing me useful data in their areas of
specialization. My thanks are also due to S. N. Sridhar for his
assistance.
1 Communication dated 10 December 1973 from Howard I.
Aronson says, "There has been no success in establishing a definite
date for the origination of the Linguistics Department. I expect it has
been an independent unit since the founding of the University, which
was in 1892, under the name of The Department of Comparative
Philology. It became Linguistics early in the 1960's."
2 Ibid.
3 Lane, George S. 1955 "Carl Darling Buck", Language 31, 181-
189. Reproduced in Portraits of Linguists: A Biographical Source Book
for the History of Western Linguistics 1746-1963, ed. by Thomas A.
Sebeok (Bloomington, Indiana University Press), Vol. II.
'* Excerpt from a communication dated 15 November 1973 from
Robert Howren, Chairman, Department of Linguistics.
2 8 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
5 Excerpt from a communication dated 31 October 1973 from
William J. Gedney, Chairman, Department of Linguistics.
6 Excerpts from a communication dated 28 November 1973
supplied by the secretary. Department of Linguistics and Oriental and
African Languages.
7 Excerpts from a communication dated 13 November 1973 from
Richard A. Spears, Chairman, Department of Linguistics.
8 Excerpts from a note entitled, '"An Account of the Department
of Linguistics, University of Wisconsin-Madison", supplied by
Andrew L. Sihler, Chairman, Department of Linguistics.
9 Note that several of these departments also include the
teaching of one or more Western languages. For example, Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, provides instruction in Modern Greek. Western
Michigan, in addition to some non-Western languages, also provides
instruction in Brazilian Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Polish, and
Latvian. At Chicago, Celtic, Georgian, Albanian, and Modern Greek are
taught in the Department of Linguistics.
10 David Lowton, Director, Interdisciplinary Major in Linguistics,
Central Michigan University, in his communication dated 22 August
1973.
11 See Bernard Bloch, "Leonard Bloomfield", Language 25 (1949),
87-98; reproduced in Sebeok 1963.
12 For a detailed discussion on the contribution of Indiana,
particularly that of Andreas Koutsoudas, see Valdman's contribution
which was planned to appear in this series.
13 See Householder, Fred W., & Sol Saporta. 1962. Problems in
Lexicography (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University, p. v.
1"* Mimeographed brochure provided by the Cunningham
Memorial Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections,
Indiana State University.
15 Note that currently only two institutions have courses in
machine translation, one of them being Chicago.
16 Interesting insights about the development of
psycholinguistics as a distinct area of research are contained in
Charles E. Osgood, "The Tale of an Eager then Lonely then Contented
Dinosaur" (in this volume).
17 These six categories have been abstracted from the
information supplied by the executive officers of the linguistics
departments or programs. I found that these six categories were the
crucial terms used to define the theoretical focus or orientation of a
department. In certain cases, some executive officers rightly felt that
my use of the term 'contemporary', for example, was not well-
defined. But then who can define 'contemporary'? If a department
did not fall under any of these categories, 1 have left all the columns
Kachru: Linguistics in the midwestem region 2 9
blank and presented their explanation in a footnote, for example.
Northwestern.
A few universities did not provide information on this point and
therefore have not been included in this table, for example, Ohio
State.
18 "The primary emphasis is generative-transformational,
although structural linguistics, especially phonology and morphology
is taught." (Ball State)
19 "The linguistic focus is probably 'contemporary' rather than
'traditional' although I am not certain what you mean by these
terms." (Bethel College)
20 "The focus is bipartite." (Central Michigan)
21 "We follow more than one method or school of linguistics."
(Chicago)
22 "Our focus is contemporary, if by that you mean post-
Bloomfieldian. In fact, I like to think that it is post-Chomskyite in the
simple sense that we do not espouse any party line. I would call ours
a highly eclectic department. Here a student learns not only about
TG, but also about the views of Pike, Halliday, Lamb and even
Bloomfield!" (Illinois at Chicago Circle)
23 "Although most of the linguistically oriented faculty members
are interested in contemporary developments, there is no focus in
the minor program on either contemporary or traditional linguistics."
(Indiana State)
24 "The theoretical orientation of the department, although not
monolithic, is mainly generative-transformational." (Iowa)
25 "The range of our course offerings is pretty traditional, and is
intended to serve primarily although not exclusively, students with
interest in English. Somewhat unfortunate, but by necessity, our
courses tend toward the 'applied' aspects of linguistics often at the
expense of theory. We don't call ourselves a program in applied
linguistics, but this is pretty much what we are, I guess." (Miami)
26 "...we have prided ourselves both back in the days of the
Interdepartmental Committee and during the last decade with a
Department, on a variety of points of view represented. We are often
called an eclectic department." (Michigan)
27 "Our orientation is contemporary; theoretical courses adhere
essentially to the generative-transformational approach, though not
in the orthodox way. Scepticism is encouraged and members of the
department are, actively engaged in consideration of alternatives to
established theories." (Minnesota)
28 "Our program is not so extensive that we can be said to have a
focus. We have tried to include structuralism, general semantics,
philology, communication theory, and traditional grammar, as well as
3 0 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
transformational grammar and some of the later models." (Minnesota
at Duluth)
29 "I would say that the department represents both traditional
linguistics and contemporary linguistics, but perhaps with more of an
emphasis on the latter." (Northeastern)
30 "Members of the faculty are (...] versed in contemporary
linguistics of various types but one could say that most of us are
resistant to and weary of what someone has described as flash-in-
the-pan, provincial back-patting 'schools' of linguistics."
(Northwestern)
31 "The 'focus' [...] is certainly 'contemporary' although
'traditional' linguistics constitutes a portion of the content of various
courses." (Ohio University)
32 "...focus is in terms of contemporary linguistics for both
theoretical and applied linguistics." (Southern Illinois)
33 "Presently, our approach is non-doctrinaire." (Toledo)
3'* "The focus of the Department as a whole — its programs,
courses, and philosophy — could be described as contemporary..."
(Western Michigan)
35 "Currently, the Department is theoretically unfocussed,
tending on all hands toward an agnosticism whose general footing is
that structuralism didn't work, and currently fashionable theories
endlessly fascinating though they are — don't seem to be working
very well either. No one here seems to be working on either wholly
novel theories, or particularly trenchant explorations of current
theories. Since the Department is heavily data-oriented and
empirical, I would aver that its focus is, if anything, traditional."
(Wisconsin)
36 "The focus of the department is on contemporary linguistics,
and its orientation is 'generative'..." (Wisconsin at Milwaukee)
37 "...the group would have to be described as eclectic."
(Youngstone State)
38 The term 'area linguistics' includes course titles such as
linguistic typology.
39 In 'Language Structure' I have included courses on the
structure of a particular language (e.g. the structure of Hindi) and
courses entitled 'language structure'.
"^0 By the term 'other' I mean courses which could not be
classified under the categories set up in this Table, e.g.
neurolinguistics. Note also that the numbers in the Table indicate the
total number of courses which could be classified under each of the
categories.
Kachru: Linguistics in the midwestem region 3 1
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history of Western linguistics, 1946-1963, Volume II.
Bloomington. Second printing. The Hague: Mouton.
(ed.) 1973. Current Trends in Linguistics 10 (Linguistics in North
America). The Hague: Mouton.
Stampe, David. 1973. A dissertation in natural phonology. MS.
Subbarao, K. V., & Tej K. Bhatia. 1973. A bibliography of research
done on South Asian languages and linguistics in the Department
of Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 3:2.149-154.
Wang, William S-Y., & Cheng, C-C. 1970. Implementation of
phonological change: The Shuangfeng Chinese case. Papers from
the Sixth Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society, 552-59.
1973. Approaches to phonology. Current Trends in Linguistics
10, ed. by Sebeok, 101-121.
Zgusta, Ladislav. 1971. Manual of lexicography. The Hague: Mouton.
(Received June 1974.)
Kachru: Linguistics in the midwestem region
APPENDICES
33
Appendix A:
TABLE I:
Theoretical Focus in the Teaching
of Linguistics in 1
he Midwest
^S. Focus
Institution ^S.
ITS
a.
o
E
<u
c
o
o
1
o
a
c
o
is
Ii
00 Z
13
C
•5
3
o
C
Ball State U. > »
V
Bethel College ^^
V
Central Michigan U.^o
V
U. of Chicago 2 1
V
U. of Illinois at
Chicago Circle Campus2 2
V
U. of Illinois at
Urbana
V
Indiana State U.^^
V
U. of Iowa 2 4
V
Miami U.2 5
V
U. of Michigan2 6
V
U. of Minnesota at
Minneapolis2''
V
U. of Minnesota at
Duluth28
V
Northeastern U.29
V
Northwestern U.-'^
Ohio U. at Athens 3^
V
Southern Illinois U.^2
V
U. of Toledo3 3
V
Western Michigan U.-^"*
V
U. of Wisconsin at
Madison-'^
V
U. of Wisconsin at
Milwaukee^^
V
Youngstone State U.^^
V
34 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Appendix B:
TABLE H: Part 1
Range and Distribution of Linguistics Offerings in the Midwest
Courses
3
E
J
•o
a.
a.
<
3
c
'3
t
o
c
<
<
1
00
3 C
6 <
1
s.
E
U
■3
c
£
c3
c
<
c
U
0
0
1
Q
-a
0
1
1
1
ir
1
•o
C
1
3
.5
1
1
3
"3
u
"§
Departments
U. of Chicago
3
3
1
3
19
2
6
3
3
1
1
U. of Illinois at
Urbana
1
3
2
1
2
1
2
5
2
U. of Illinois at
Chicago Circle Campus
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
U. of Indiana at
Bloomington
2
5
6
1
1
1
-
1
19
2
1
2
1
3
U. of Iowa
2
1
1
1
14
1
1
1
3
1
U. of Michigan
1
5
1
2
1
1
1
2
3
2
1
1
U. of Minnesota
2
1
-
.
2
2
4
2
4
3
Northeastern U.
3
1
3
1
1
3
1
Northwestern U.
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Ohio U. at Athens
1
2
-
1
1
4
2
Ohio State U. at
Columbus
1
1
2
5
5
1
2
U. of Wisconsin at
Madison
U. of Wisconsin at
Milwaukee
1
1
1
1
Western Michigan U.
1
1
1
1
3
Southern Illinois U.
at Carbondale
1
1
2
1
2
Oakland
1
1
-
2
Programs
~
"
Cleveland State U.
Indiana State U.
2
I
3
-
8
1
Northern Illinois U.
U. of Toledo
1
Others
■■
■■
■"
Ball State U.
3
1
1
1
Central Michigan U.
1
Miami U.
-
5
-
Youngstone State U.
1
2
3
1
1
Kachru: Linguistics in the midwestem region
35
TABLE IL Part 2
Range and Distribution of Linguistics Offerings in the Midwest
Courses
1
1
c
3
3
C
to
o
1
00
c
3
C
3
1
H
'5
00
c
J
3)
i
1
o
o
2
1
00
c
J
o
f
a.
c
o
o
c
3
C
O
a.
E
o
>>
c
00
o
O
Departments
U. of Chicago
12
60
2
1
1
1
1
5
5
3
2
4
3
4
1
U. of Illinois at
Urbana
4
1
1
2
2
1
9
3
6
I
1
1
5
3
U. of Illinois at
Chicago Circle Campus
4
2
1
1
4
1
1
1
2
U. of Indiana at
Bloomington
7
22
1
3
4
3
3
4
1
5
6
U. of Iowa
3
7
1
1
1
4
1
4
3
5
U. of Michigan
5
13
1
2
1
1
1
2
5
6
6
6
2
9
1
2
U. of Minnesota
4
2
1
1
1
5
5
2
3
1
6
-
6
Northeastern U.
1
2
3
2
1
1
2
2
-
6
5
1
2
Northwestern U.
5
2
2
3
2
1
4
3
5
Ohio U. at Athens
2
4
1
3
3
3
1
2
3
4
Ohio State U. at
Columbus
2
1
2
2
2
2
2
3
4
U. of Wisconsin at
Madison
U. of Wisconsin at
Milwaukee
4
1
1
2
1
2
2
2
Western Michigan U.
2
1
1
1
1
1
I
Southern Illinois U.
at Carbondale
1
6
5
1
2
1
1
3
5
Oakland
3
1
1
1
1
2
!
4
Programs
Cleveland State U.
Indiana State U.
1
1
4
1
1
5
4
1
-
4
Northern Illinois U.
U. of Toledo
2
-
1
-
1
Others
^
Ball State U.
1
1
1
1
2
Central Michigan U.
1
1
1
1
1
2
Miami U.
1
1
1
7
Youngstone State U.
1
.-
1
The History of the Department of Linguistics at the
University of Illinois
Henry Kahane
Introduction
In certain ways, the birth and growth of a new academic
department at a large modern University reflects changes in the
intellectual and social climate of the Nation; it thus merits a modicum
of general attention. A new discipline usually exists long before its
official recognition; it is hidden under other labels until the time
when its inherent dynamics pushes it to the fore, when, as the saying
goes, its time is ripe. The story of Linguistics at the University of
Illinois, one of those huge Midwestern state universities, is a typical
example of the process (paralleled, of course, by the history of
linguistics at various other American Universities). I shall try to tell
the story by stressing the roles and functions of the scholars,
teachers, and administrators on the local scene. The underlying
methodological credo is, obviously, my conviction that the academic
development of a new unit, particularly in its early stages, before
departmental routine has strangled the alternatives, is largely due to
the impact of individual personalities.
Bloomfieldian Prelude
An early, short-lived attempt to establish linguistics at the U. of
I. deserves interest primarily because of the one man involved.
Leonard Bloomfield (1887-1949), the central figure of the American
School of Structuralists, taught at the University from 1910 to 1921.
He was a member of the German Department, yet his bent toward
linguistic generalization was already evident in his academic title
from 1913 on. Assistant Professor of Comparative Philology and
German. It was the period in which the Urform of his influential
Language (1933) had just appeared as An Introduction to the Study
of Language (New York, 1914). The early version shows that a
mentalistic-psychological approach to language strongly influenced
by Wilhelm Wundt still dominated the curriculum which Bloomfield
had established. (After he left Illinois for Ohio, Chicago, and Yale, he
discarded the mentalistic approach for the mechanistic.) Bloomfield's
curriculum at Illinois, necessarily modest as a one-man operation,
resembled the Indo-European curricula of European universities,
which were often the domicile of linguistic theory. Bloomfield's three
courses from 1914 to 1921 bore the titles, Introduction to the Study
of Language, Comparative Philology of the Indo-European Languages,
and Sanskrit.
The Founding Fathers
The department (or group of departments) in which linguistics
surfaced varied from university to university: it could be
Anthropology or Philosophy or English or Oriental Studies or Classics
3 8 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
or the foreign languages. Particularly in the language departments
linguistics in some form or other had traditionally been taught,
intertwined with a specific language: for textual interpretation; in
connection with the dreaded medieval courses. Old English, Gothic,
Old Spanish; in the framework of the teacher's pedagogical
preparation as French phonetics and Latin syntax. The main purpose
of these courses, whether historical or descriptive, was to convey
information about the target language; linguistic methods, rules, and
implications came in, so to speak, by the backdoor. At Illinois, as
elsewhere. Linguistics grew not so much from a single department as
from a constellation of them. By the mid- and late forties, we had a
group of faculty members, most of them associated with the
Linguistic Society of America, who, in their respective departments
and through common gatherings, tried to promote the "cause of
linguistics". The most active were, in Speech, Lee Hultzen (1896-
1968), oscillating between phonetics and phonemics, and Grant
Fairbanks (1911-1964), an experimental phonetician and a specialist
in the acoustics of speech; in Psychology and Communications,
Charles Osgood, the psychologist, and his faithful collaborator,
Howard Maclay, who contributed to the concept of hesitation
phenomena; in Philosophy, Leonard Linsky (at the U. of L from
1948-67), the semanticist; in Anthropology, Joseph Casagrande (with
us since 1960), an ethnolinguist, with a special interest in the
Amerindians, who activated the anthropologists's concern with
linguistics; and in Romance (Spanish and Italian), the present
chronicler, Henry Kahane, philologist. In terms of the general
background, the terrible event of WW II proved to be a boon for
linguistics: The Linguistic Society developed the so-called Army
Method for teaching foreign languages to enlisted men, and through
applied linguistics made university communities (among them
Illinois) aware of the existence of linguistics itself.
We decided to launch a Department of Linguistics. The academic
steps, one after another, were the usual ones: (a) A small curriculum
with a director but minus a budget, using the available faculty
members on released time; (b) a modest budget for the curriculum;
(c) an officially established Department under a head and with
members still largely from other departments; and finally (d) a
regularly constituted Department. The Department's foundation was
a long affair which took about eighteen years, with objections coming
partly from administrators who doubted the future of linguistics, and
partly from the language departments which often disliked both
linguistics per se and a young, dynamic, and often aggressive
competitor. We succeeded when, after many hopeful and hopeless
memoranda and frustrating notes, two deans of our Liberal Arts
College sensed the potentialities of the newcomer: Lyle Lanier and
Jack Peltason. The program of the early stage was determined, first,
by the constraint, in view of our budgetary conditions, to use just the
men and the courses available on the campus, and second, by our
consensus to balance, within the available, the various directions of
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 3 9
linguistics: these were, by then, psycholinguistics, phonology and
experimental phonetics, semantics, and historical linguistics. The
addition of a theoretical linguist was the most urgent desideratum:
we had no doubt that linguistic theory would become the core of the
curriculum. By 1961, the Program in Linguistics was in existence as a
graduate program; in 1965 departmental status had been reached;
by 1974 we had 14 faculty members and 66 degree students, and we
offered 65 theoretical courses (in addition to 40 devoted to specific
languages). Linguistically oriented members of other departments
cooperated generously in the teaching of many related fields. Plans
were underway for an undergraduate major.
So far five men have played a preponderant role in the history
of our department: Henry Kahane, a historian and comparatist linking
linguistics to the humanities, the founder and first director, who put
the curriculum on its feet and established the basic design for his
successors to build on; Charles Osgood, who cooperated from the very
beginning in the founding of the Department, the widely known
creator of psycholinguistics, whose influence and prestige greatly
helped to convince the skeptics, and whose field became one of the
hallmarks of the linguistic offerings at the U. of I.; Robert Lees, the
orthodox representative of standard transformational theory, a
brilliant intellectual, the first head, who gave to the department its
decisive direction and put it on the map; Braj Kachru, our
sociolinguist, who with extraordinary energy and never-failing
gentlemanliness steered the department from its modest beginnings
to a complex and flourishing University unit; and Charles Kisseberth,
a leading neo-transformationalist, who gathers about him an
enthusiastic group of adepts trying to push back the known frontiers,
this very moment if possible. These five men (including, I apologize,
myself) have consented to portray himself and to give substance, in
this way, to the image of our Department. Nationwide, the curricula,
our surface, look very much alike; the real image of a department,
which we were asked to present, is to be found in its deep structure,
the personalities that make up the team. Therefore, the chronicler
yields to the protagonists.
40 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
The European Emigree
Henry R. Kahane
I was born in Berlin early in our century, an Austrian in the
German world. I grew up in a milieu of literary and intellectual
stimulation: my father was a man of letters and for three decades the
literary adviser of the stage producer Max Reinhardt. My feeling for
acculturation and comparative literature developed early. From the
study of Literaturwissenschaft I turned to Romance linguistics,
attracted by the magnetic personality of Ernst Gamillscheg, a trail-
blazing genius, who, up to his death in 1971, was inexhaustible in
linguistic themes and explanations and, despite political flings, of an
incorruptible professional objectivity. Two other teachers who
sharpened my insight into the interrelatedness of language and
history and area were Max Leopold Wagner and Gerhard Rohlfs. My
classical, Romance, and German education widened, principally
through my marriage with a scholar of Greek origin who became my
life-long co-worker, to a preoccupation with the Mediterranean, that
unique testing ground for comparative methods. These methods,
within the range of my interests, were essentially historical:
explanations stemmed from the similarities and differences between
earlier and later stages. With the political events of the Hitler period
we found a new home in Illinois. Emigration to America meant to me
(among other things, to be sure) the transfer from a diachronic state
of mind to a synchronic. Diachronic and synchronic interpretations of
the world around us go far beyond academic disciplines; they are, in
their different concern for yesterday and today, different forms of
life, and I had to adjust to the new way. In linguistic matters, the
school of the phonemicists, in high bloom in the forties and early
fifties, was a hard and interesting training for a European, and its
terse style and precise expression strongly shaped my modes of
approach and presentation. In my own studies and in cooperation
with my students, I experimented with structural analyses, often
eliciting the pattern variants through fieldwork, sometimes without
reference to meaning although usually with semantic correlates. But
my wife and I returned time and again to the Mediterranean and its
cultural conformity, most evident in its nautical parlance, and from
the Mediterranean lexicological equations we glided to the problem
of the heritage of Hellenism in the Western world. Since we came
from word studies, we approached texts with an analysis of the key
words; through these, as a point of departure, we tried to solve old
riddles of medieval magic, science, and literature. These endeavors to
exploit genetic and comparative methods for the reconstruction of
medieval humanism culminated in our derivation of the Grail myth
from Hermetism. We also attempted, on the basis of the
sociolinguistic model of lexical borrowings, to reconstruct a complex
phase of medieval history that had not been described by the work
of historians: the relations between Byzantium and the West. Such
studies involve an interplay of numerous techniques of historical
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 4 1
linguistics: the filiation and chronology of records, phonological
substitution, semantic change and semantic connotation, dialectology,
and linguistic geography and diffusion. The material and the methods
are largely linguistic but the target lies beyond the borderline of the
field: with sociolinguist lexicology, the linguist turns into a historian.
I have always loved the classroom performance. What I know
about teaching I owe to two highly educational but non-academic
experiences. For a few years, right after my doctorate, I became a
foreign correspondent in the Balkanic area for a large and prestigious
newspaper, the Berliner Tageblatt; both the pressure for lucid
phrasing and summary and a constant awareness of the reader's
level of comprehension formed a unique curriculum in Teacher
Training. As teaching has always helped me to write, so writing has
always helped me to teach. The second experience was furnished by
the theatrical milieu in which I grew up: For me, still today, the
classroom is a theatre, the teacher's desk the stage, and the teacher
himself a performer — on a high level to be sure (or so we believe) —
and a flop if he is not lively, stimulating, or personal, even with a
subject matter as brittle as historical grammar.
In my own comparative-historical courses I drew on the
classical, Romance, and Germanic languages using them as a vehicle
for an introduction to the many forms of diachronic analysis. Within
the Department of Linguistics we soon expanded into the area in
which the techniques of reconstruction can best be developed, Indo-
European linguistics, and we were fortunate in finding three co-
workers who approached the problems in their personal ways:
Antonio Tovar (with us from '61 to '68, when he left for Tiibingen), a
many-sided Spaniard, classicist, philologist, grammarian, etymologist,
Celtiberianist, Euskarianist, Myceneanist, and Amerindianist; Ladislas
Zgusta (who came in '71, taking over my chair), of Czech background
and training, again a most versatile, most learned, most productive
scholar, covering such fields as onomastics, lexicology, dialectology,
and machine translation, such languages as Sanskrit, Chinese and
Hittite with the other tongues of ancient Asia Minor; and finally a
scholar of the younger generation, Hans Henrich Hock, who
specializes in the generative analysis of historical problems, with
application to a wide range of languages. Zgusta and Hock represent
today's historical linguistics.
(Received December 1974.)
4 2 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
The Tale of an Eager then Lonely then Contented Dinosaur*
Charles E. Osgood
In his instructions to the contributor to this section on the
development of psycholinguistics in the MiddleWest, Henry Kahane
explicitly requested that "the technique of the self-portrait should
dominate, not in 'Who-is-Who's style'... but rather as an intellectual
history of the portrayee." Although I'm not much of a portrait artist,
this should be fun, and I'll daub away at will. Since I was
intermittently, and at such times, intimately, involved in the
evolution of linguistics at Illinois as well, my picture will have
several reflecting facets — a bit surrealistic, no doubt. The theme for
psycholinguistics is marital — engagement, marriage, divorce, and
reengagement — and an introspective little dinosaur (there were
little dinosaurs, you know) will, of necessity, be the main character.
A Confession and an Awakening
As a baby dinosaur I was teethed on Meaning by a dentist
grandfather who had always wanted to be a professor. He fed me
rare words and then gave me money to buy jelly-beans when I used
them correctly in sentences. Later, around the age of 10, my aunt
gave me Roget's Thesaurus — perhaps to even the odds with Grampa
O. a bit — and I remember having vivid dreams about multi-colored
word-points distributed in clusters in an endless space. After an
entirely murky spell in grammar school (spent more in reading
Tarzan books and science fiction magazines than in school work), I
found myself as Editor of both the weekly newspaper and the
monthly magazine at Brookline High School, near Boston. I
contributed several short stories to The Challenge, as the magazine
was called. The Thesaurus came in very handy, and I went off to
Dartmouth College convinced that I was destined to become, not a
dinosaur but, a newspaper man and novelist.
But in my sophomore year at Dartmouth I took Introductory
Psychology and then an advanced course in Experimental Psychology
from a man who was to become both a mentor and a father figure for
me — Ted Karwoski. Karwoski was a scholar-scientist with unusual
sensitivity, eclecticism in research pursuits (from Purkinje after-
images to visual-auditory synesthesia), and an enviable capacity to
think about the same problem on several levels at once. The young
dinosaur had found what he wanted: a field that offered the right
balance between rigor and creativity. My undergraduate thesis (we
had them then) was a combination of laboratory work on auditory-
visual-verbal synesthesia (or metaphor) and cross-cultural study of
parallel polarities (e.g., between white-black, up-down, good-bad,
and supraordinate-subordinate) in the medical, religious and other
facets of the cultures of about ten human societies (based on field
reports by others, of course).
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 4 3
I wonder how common it is for the schema of one's scholarly life
to be set in his undergraduate years; this certainly was the case for
me — a focus on meaning. At Yale I got swept up in the monumental
edifice of learning theory that Clark Hull was building. I believed
that, with appropriate extensions, such a theory could handle Man's
most complex behaviors, including language — but my focus was still
on meaning. With a Ph.D. under his belt (1945: thesis title,
Meaningful Similarity and Interference in Learning), this dinosaur-
to-be began teaching at the University of Connecticut and writing
drafts of chapters for what was to be the last graduate-level text in
experimental psychology written by a single hand.'
In 1949 came the bonanza that every young scholar prays for:
an invitation to a major university at a tenured level and — rare in
those days — with half-time explicitly for research in a newly formed
Institute for Communications Research at the University of Illinois.
Confession
At Illinois I went busily to work on both the (learning theory)
nature of meaning and the (semantic differential technique)
measurement of meaning, and with a growing group of interested
colleagues and graduate students things went along at an exciting
pace. But I must confess that at this time — except for the work of
Charles Morris in semiotics — I didn't have the foggiest idea of what
scholars in other fields were thinking and doing about language
behavior. Specifically, as to LINGUISTS, I had only a vague notion that
they were strange, bearded, bird-like creatures who inhabited the
remoter regions of libraries, babbling in many exotic languages and
constructing dictionaries for them — hardly fit companions for a
robust, rigorous and objective young dinosaur! Of course, it was true
that at that time few linguists had much interest in meaning — my
own focus — but there were some who did (Jakobson and Weinreich,
for examples) and there was much else they were doing about
language that was certainly relevant. The alinguistic state of my
awareness is evident from a perusal of the last chapter (title,
"Language Behavior") of my graduate text. Method and Theory in
Experimental Psychology: it is devoid of references to the works of
linguists (the possible exception being Benjamin Lee Whorf).
Awakening
In the summer of 19512 the Social Science Research Council —
sparked by Jack Carroll (attuned to linguistics via his tutelage under
Whorf) and supported by John W. Gardner (a psychologist, then with
the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and later to become secretary
of HEW, and still later organizer of Common Cause — sponsored a
summer conference of linguists and psychologists at Cornell
University. The linguists were Fred Agard, Tom Sebeok and Stan
Newman and the psychologists were Jack Carroll, Dick Solomon and —
by a bit of a fluke — Charles Osgood. 3 I say "fluke" because Bernard
Riess, a psychologist who had been doing studies on semantic
44 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
generalization as a function of age, was the original invitee but had to
withdraw (for reasons I can't recall). Since I had already been
awarded an SSRC Research Fellowship (for support of the semantic
differential studies), I was invited to be his substitute and — frankly,
in part because of the attractiveness of a summer in the hills and by
the lakes of Ithaca — I readily accepted. I often wonder how the
course of my scientific life would have run if this "fluke," and all that
followed from it, had not happened. It is at least quite certain that I
wouldn't be writing this paper of remembrances for this volume. In
any case, that summer was an eye-opener: not only were the
linguists NOT either polyglots or lexicographers, but they WERE robust,
rigorous and objective — and maybe more so than the young
dinosaur!
As a result of that summer's meeting — and with the continuing
push of Jack Carroll and the support of John Gardner — the SSRC
established a new Committee on Linguistics and Psychology in
October of 1952. The initial membership was as follows: Charles E.
Osgood (psychologist and, for reasons I can't fathom, chairman); John
B. Carroll (psychologist. Harvard); Floyd Lounsbury (ethnolinguist,
Yale); George A. Miller (psychologist, MIT); and Thomas A. Sebeok
(linguist, Indiana). Joseph B. Casagrande was officially the SSRC staff
representative on this committee, but in matter of fact he served
more as a regular member. •* George Miller resigned from the
committee at the end of the first year, and Joseph H. Greenberg
(ethnolinguist, Columbia) and James J. Jenkins (psychologist,
Minnesota) were added in the fall of 1953. This turned out to be a
very busy little committee and, as Howard Maclay (1973, p. 596)
notes in his history of relations between linguistics and
psycholinguistics, contributed significantly to what he calls The
Formative Period of the relationship (in the 1950's). Maclay's other
two stages are The Linguistic Period (in the 1960's) and The
Cognitive Period (so far into the 1970's); these correspond to my
Engagement, Marriage, and Re-engagement phases below.
The Engagement
One of the first steps taken by this new Committee was to plan
and sponsor a research seminar on psycholinguistics, this being held
during the summer of 1953 on the campus of Indiana University —
when and where, not by chance, the Linguistic Institute was also
having its summer session. In his foreword to the monograph that
resulted from this seminar {Psycholinguistics: A Survey of Theory
and Research Problems, 1954),^ John Gardner says, correctly, that the
seminar "... set itself to the task of examining three different
approaches to the language process (and their relationships): (1) the
linguist's conception of language as a structure of systematically
interrelated units, (2) the learning theorist's conception of language
as a system of habits relating signs to behavior, and (3) the
information theorist's conception of language as a means of
transmitting information... (as well as) to examine a variety of
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 4 5
research problems in psycholinguistics with a view to developing
possible experimental approaches to them (p. x)." The senior
participants were Greenberg, Jenkins, Lounsbury, Osgood, and
Sebeok, with Jack Carroll, Eric Lenneberg, and Joe Casagrande
participating for a period of two weeks and with occasional visitors
for briefer periods — Grant Fairbanks, E. M. Uhlenbeck, John Lotz, and
Werner Leopold. Graduate-student participants for the whole
summer were Susan Ervin, Donald Walker and Kelly Wilson
(psychologists) and Leonard Newmark and Sol Saporta (linguists).
According to one impartial chronicler (A. Richard Diebold, Jr.,
1965), "within a year or two of its appearance, this monograph
became the charter for psycholinguistics, firmly establishing the
discipline's name. It so successfully piqued the interest of linguists
and other behavioral scientists that the volume itself was soon out of
print, and also became notoriously difficult to obtain second-hand, or
even in libraries (p. 208)." And Sol Saporta was in 1961 to edit the
first "... long-awaited reader, Psycholinguistics: A Book of Readings ...
(which was ) also a testament to the fact that there (was) an ever-
growing number of university courses variously titled 'psychology of
language,' 'psycholinguistics,' 'linguistic psychology,' etc. (p. 208)."
According to another observer (Howard Maclay, 1973), "the
Formative Period was characterized by extremely good relations
between psychologists and linguists. This happy state of affairs had
two major sources: a common commitment to an operationalist
philosophy of science, and a division of labor that prevented a
number of potential difficulties from becoming overt ... linguists were
assigned the 'states of messages,' while psychologists assumed
responsibility for the 'states of communicators' and, by default, 'the
processes of encoding and decoding' (pp. 570-71)."
The thrust of the continuing SSRC Committee on Linguistics and
Psychology is evident in the other projects and seminars it supported
during the 1950's: (1) a "Southwest Project on Comparative
Psycholinguistics" (centered at the University of New Mexico,
summer, 1954);6 (2) a conference on Bilingualism (Columbia
University, 1954); (3) another conference on Techniques of Content
Analysis (University of Illinois, 1955); (4) yet another on Associative
Processes in Verbal Behavior (University of Minnesota, 1955); (5)
and yet another on Dimensions of Meaning — Analytic and
Experimental Approaches (1956);^ (6) a very impressive, large-scale
conference on Style in Language organized by Tom Sebeok (Indiana
University, 1958); (7) a summer seminar on the Psycholinguistics of
Aphasia (Boston Veterans Administration Hospital, 1958); and a
conference on Language Universals (Dobbs Ferry, New York, 1961).^
Ah, happy eager dinosaur! Now reaching maturity, he had
participated in the full kaleidoscope of these SSRC activities, and
Spring was turning into what HAD to be a Golden Summer.
4 6 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Psycholinguistics at Illinois in the 1950's
Our eager dinosaur was also very busy on his home grounds at
Illinois. During this decade there were a series of theoretical papers
elaborating my own version of Neo-behaviorism and its relevance for
understanding human perceptual, motivational and semantic
processes, in general as well as in language behavior per se: "The
Nature and Measurement of Meaning" (1952) — which demonstrated
the abject wrong-headedness, of course, of everything psychologists
had previously done in trying to measure that elusive thing called
'meaning'; "Behavior Theory and the Social Sciences" (1956) — mainly
argued for the power of a two-stage mediation theory for
underpinning the social sciences generally, via its incorporation of
meaning, but also introduced my three-stage model with its
"integration level" on both sensory and motor sides of the behavioral
equation; "A Behavioristic Analysis of Perception and Meaning as
Cognitive Phenomena" (1957a) and "Motivational Dynamics of
Language Behavior" (1957b) — both of which further elaborated on
the necessity of a three-stage (or level) model, if behavior theory
was to incorporate gestalt-like perceptual and equivalent motor (cf.
Lashley, 1951) skill integrations; "A Question of Sufficiency" (1958) —
a highly critical review of Skinner's (1957) Verbal Behavior, mainly
on the grounds of his complete failure to handle meaning; and
"Cognitive Dynamics in the Conduct of Human Affairs" (1960) —
which was an excursion into the dynamics of congruence and
incongruence ("psycho-logic") in human thinking and sentencing.^
While all this was going on in my own thinking, our little group
of psycholinguists at Illinois was busily pushing the developing
Semantic Differential Technique (SD for short) into various nooks and
crannies of the social sciences:iO into the affective thinking that
characterizes the "authoritarian personality" (by George Suci, 1952,
my first Ph.D.); the prediction and measurement of attitude change
(by Percy Tannenbaum, 1953); the nature of dream symbolism (C.
Scott Moss, 1953); into the role of source credibility in mass media
communications (Jean Kerrick, 1954); the semantics of passive sonar
signals (Laurence Solomon, 1954); the nature and measurement of
interpersonal identification (Lionel Lazowick, 1954); application of
the SD to the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) cards (Margaret
Reeves, 1954); into the semantic factor structures of schizophrenics
(Joan Bopp, 1955); the development of assigned meanings in the
context of meaningful adjectives (Joan Dodge, 1955); the semantics of
advertising (William Mindak, 1955); the semantic structure of
aesthetic judgments of visual art (William Tucker, 1955). And in
1954 Zella Luria and I published our blind (SD) analysis of a case of
triple personality — the case that was to become famous as "The
Three Faces of Eve." Of course, our psycholinguistic interests were not
limited to SD research: Kellogg Wilson's (1954) thesis was on an
extension of information theory and statistics; Wilson Taylor's (1955)
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 4 7
thesis was an intensive evaluation of his "Cloze Procedure" in
information theory terms.
In these days, when so much of research is "administered" —
senior people like myself having practically nothing to do with it
between original designing and terminal writing-up — it is a real
pleasure to look back on those early days at Illinois when we
literally lived and breathed our research from morning to night. I
used to be my own first "guinea pig" (not impossible for a small
dinosaur!) in every experiment, to try to get the "seat of the pants"
feel for what might go on in the real subjects' heads. In the midst of
doing one experiment, others were always aborning — over coffee,
over sandwiches and beer, and even over cocktails and dinner, much
to the amusement, but never irritation, of our spice. I am minded of
an enlarged photograph on the wall of my office which caught Percy
Tannenbaum and myself, glasses in hand, in animated mid-flight
over something or other — and a caption had been appended, reading
"BUT THERE MUST BE A MEDITATION PROCESS!" Al Heyer and I spent an
hilarious weekend, practically without sleep, constructing a
monstrous three-dimensional distance model with colored balls and
wooden dowels to represent the meaningful similarities among 40
facial expressions of emotions. I still have that old model in my
office, but ANGER and BITTERNESS have fallen off, and SURPRISE has
somehow gotten attached to ADORATION — by a bemused janitor, no
doubt.
In the comparatively brief period from 1950 through 1955
some 70 studies were completed, and in the summer of that year the
Osgood family took off on its first sabbatical — in Tucson, Arizona.
Packed into the trunk of our second-hand Buick Roadmaster (freshly
painted in Dartmouth Green) was everything psychological about
meaning and the measurement thereof that I could put my hands on.
My sabbatical job was to put into one document all the diverse things
we'd been doing on the development and application of SD technique
— first with generous support from the University of Illinois Research
Board and later from the Social Science Research Council. As each
section was completed, I would whip it off to George Suci and Percy
Tannenbaum, now on our Institute staff and my closest colleagues in
this exploration of semantic space. They showed copies of some of
the earlier chapters to the editor of the University of Illinois Press
(Miodrag Muntyan), and he suggested making a book of it. So The
Measurement of Meaning (Osgood, Suci, and Tannenbaum) was
published in 1957. Because it had originally been planned as merely
a research report, the first hard-cover edition didn't even have an
index — so I firmly recommend the later paperback edition (which
DOES have an index) to anyone interested in sampling this early work.
To the enduring amazement of Osgood, Suci, and Tannenbaum,
this little book proved to be one of the best sellers on the University
of Illinois Press list.
4 8 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Linguistics at Illinois in the 1950's
Professors in disparate fields are often brought into contact by
students they share. This is what happened between Henry Kahane
and myself. I had only met Henry socially a couple of times by 1953,
but when plans for the summer psycholinguistics seminar were
taking form I asked for his recommendation of a linguistics graduate
student at Illinois who would profit from and contribute to this
enterprise — and he suggested Sol Saporta. Not only did Sol
contribute most solidly, but he continued to work closely with our
psycholinguistics group while completing his thesis under Kahane. ^^
It was during another large conference at Indiana in the incredibly
hot and humid summer of 1955 — this one on Anthropology and
Linguistics'^ — that Kahane and I began, during our commutings back
and forth between Urbana and Bloomington, to talk about getting a
Ph.D. program in linguistics underway at Illinois. Although there
were students specializing in this field, there was no degree-granting
pathway for them to follow (for example Saporta's Ph.D. was in
Spanish Linguistics).
I spent the academic year 1958-59 as a fellow in the Center for
Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Palo Alto. I had
proposed to spend that year doing the first-drafting of a book to be
titled — after my graduate text in experimental psychology with the
Oxford Press — Method and Theory in Psycholinguistics. I actually did
just about everything but: finished the final drafting of Approaches
to the Study of Aphasia (jointly edited by Murray Miron and myself),
had long discussions with George Miller and others about Chomsky's
new Syntactic Structures (1957),' 3 did research with Albert Hastorf
on predicting the meanings of facial expressions fused in a
stereoscope, joined Ed Dozier and Ian Waterhouse in a two-week
field-trip to the Grand Canyon area to apply new psycholinguistic
techniques to the study of kinship with Hopi and Hopi-Tewa Indian
subjects — and MAINLY, given the example of psychiatrist Jerome
Frank (who happened to have the Center "cell" next to mine), I
worked on problems of applying psychological theory to
international relations, ending up with what was to be acronymed
GRIT (Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-reduction —
cf. An Alternative to War or Surrender, 1962).
But by the end of the 1950's the distant mutterings of a
scientific revolution were in the air — impelled by Chomsky's
generative and transformational grammar (1957) — certainly in
linguistics and possibly in cognitive psychology, too. In the preface to
his Psycholinguistics (1961) Sol Saporta was to say: "... all attempts
by psychologists to describe 'grammaticality' exclusively in terms of
habit strength (etc.) ... seem inadequate ... to account for some of the
most obvious facts of language (p. v)." In 1959 Chomsky wrote a
carefully documented and scathing review of Skinner's Verbal
Behavior (1957) — never responded to by Skinner himself — and this
was to have cumulative impact on many psycholinguists. Perhaps
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 4 9
because our dinosaur was confidently mature, had a much more
complex behavior theory, and, indeed, had written a highly critical
review of Skinner himself, he was not particularly disturbed and
kept right on nuzzling along and munching away at his semantic
daisies.
The Marriage
While at the Center in Palo Alto in 1958-59 George Miller,
Eugene Galanter and Karl Pribram were working on their Plans and
the Structure of Behavior, to be published in 1960; it was heavily
influenced by Chomsky and included a chapter on "Plans for
Speaking." This was followed by Miller's important paper titled
"Some Psychological Studies of Grammar" (1962) and soon thereafter
by a small flood of papers by Miller, his students and others testing
the psychological reality (in terms of effects upon processing time,
memory and the like) of grammatical structures and transformations.
The consummation of this intimate relation between linguistics and
psychology was symbolized by two chapters in the Handbook of
Mathematical Psychology (1963) written jointly by Chomsky and
Miller: "Introduction to the Formal Analysis of Natural Languages"
(Chomsky and Miller) and "Finitary Models of Language Users"
(Miller and Chomsky).
The distant mutterings of revolution were becoming heavy
rumblings of imminent paradigm clash. In concluding their debate
with Martin Braine over the learning of grammatical ordering of
words in sentences, Bever, Fodor, and Weksel (1965) felt themselves
able to say: "As the empirical basis for assuming an abstract
underlying structure in language becomes broader and the
explanatory power of that assumption becomes deeper, w e
recommend to all psychologists that they seriously question the
adequacy of any theory of learning that cannot account for the fact
that such structures are acquired (p. 500, italics theirs, not mine)."
By the middle 1960's even the middle-aged dinosaur in his
daisy patch was beginning to eye the ominous storm with some
concern. But he was still eager and busy, and — as such things are
measured — he was successful in his profession and therefore quite
confident. In 1960 he received the award for distinguished scientific
contribution of the American Psychological Association for his studies
of meaning and in 1962 he was elected president of that
Association.!'* So early in 1963 I began to worry about what I should
say to my fellow psychologists. I went through a period of intense
ambivalence about this: on the one hand, since my year at the Center
at Palo Alto I had been giving top priority to strategies of
international relations in a nuclear age (from 1960 through 1963 I
must have averaged about 20 lectures, seminars, etc. per year on
GRIT as a rational strategy), and I knew that most of my potential
audience expected a tough policy speech on this major social issue; on
the other hand, I felt a strong urge to follow the tradition of most
past presidents of APA and talk about the most crucial scientific
5 0 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
issues in my own specialty — even if to a much smaller audience as
far as comprehension was concerned. I took the latter course, and the
title of my address, "On Understanding and Creating Sentences,"
indicates what I thought was the most crucial issue for
psycholinguistics.
I can thank Noam Chomsky (remotely) and Jerry Fodor
(intimately) for not letting my "success" make me complacent. I have
always been a believer in bringing the opposition up close — both to
keep in touch with their ideas and to bounce my ideas off them. So
when I met Fodor at Oxford University in the spring of 1961, I
decided to invite him to Illinois as a Visiting Professor; he came in
the fall of 1962, on a joint appointment in our Institute of
Communications Research and the Department of Philosophy. He sat
in on my seminar on psycholinguistics (if you could imagine Jerry
just "sitting in" on anything; bouncing between floor and ceiling
would be more like it!), and several of the students in the seminar
told me it was the most exciting course they had ever had. In 1969 I
was able to attract William F. Brewer here — from Iowa via
Minnesota — and he performed the Devil's Advocate role most ably
and amiably.
Oh, how the dinosaur worked on that APA address! By the
middle of the summer of 1963 (and only a few weeks before the
convention) he had pounded out a small book of 204 double-spaced
pages that had to be paired down to about 36 deliverable pages. The
full version was never published — I was not really satisfied with it
— but much of it was predictive of the path our dinosaur would be
following through the next decade. By 1966 the conflict between
competing psycholinguistic paradigms had reached what Thomas
Kuhn (1962) terms the "crisis" stage in scientific revolutions. Fodor
(1965) had published a paper titled "Could Meaning Be an rp^?",
explicitly aimed at O. Hobart Mowrer but obviously including me, to
which I replied (Osgood, 1966); it claimed to reduce neo-behaviorist
two-stage mediation theories to single-stage Skinnerian theory,
hence rendering them heir to all of the inadequacies claimed by
Chomsky (1959). In the spring of 1966, at the University of
Kentucky, there was a conference with an innocent-enough sounding
topic. Verbal Behavior and the General Behavior Theory. This was
published in 1968 under the same title (Dixon and Horton, editors).
Particularly in the session on Psycholinguistics, the prepared papers
by "revolutionaries" Bever, Fodor, Garrett, and McNeill constituted a
frontal attack on behaviorism and associationism generally. As
discussant of these papers, I found myself in the unenviable and
unfamiliar role of defending The Establishment. The title of my
discussion, "Toward a Wedding of Insufficiences," is indicative of my
ambivalence in this role. And I was beginning to realize that I WAS
the dinosaur!
This is not the place to go into a detailed analysis of the issue of
revolutions vs. pendula swings (however, see the chapter by the title
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 5 1
in my forthcoming Prolegomena to a Behavioral Theory of Cognizing
and Sentencing). But my conclusion from making such an analysis is
that, although the impact of Chomsky on linguistics was certainly a
revolution in Kuhnian terms, this has not been the case for his impact
upon cognitive psychology (or even psycholinguistics). Why? Because
it has not met the criteria which distinguish revolutions from mere
pendula swings in the competition between viable paradigms: (1)
there has been no attempt to incorporate solutions to problems
successfully handled by the old paradigm; (2) the old paradigm has
not been shown to be insufficient IN PRINCIPLE; (3) there has been no
new paradigm to SHIFT TO — in the sense of a well-motivated,
internally coherent alternative theory of language performance.
There has been a SHIFT AWAY FROM behaviorism in any form, but in
the absence of any alternative paradigm this would be better called a
"revulsion" than a "revolution." Maclay (1973, p. 579) notes that the
responses of "... psychologists who had a vested interest in research
on language ... fell into the three familiar categories of AVOIDANCE,
CONVERSION, and COMPROMISE ... their overwhelming response was
conversion ... (and) the quasi-religious nature of scientific conversion
required that those who had seen the light should condemn
everything connected with their erroneous views they had
previously held."
Maclay also points out (pp. 579-80) that in a clash between
paradigms the middle ground becomes very insecure, and he kindly
comments that "Osgood was the only major psychologist who
continued to take linguistics seriously but who rejected some of its
implications for psycholinguistics ... (particularly) the assumption of
the centrality of grammar. While acknowledging the success of
transformationalism as a linguistic theory and insisting that his
students be trained in linguistics, he continued to argue that a
revised version of behavior theory was, at the least, an essential
component of an adequate psycholinguistic theory." But it was a
rather lonesome old dinosaur who kept offering his daisies at the
shrine of a near-deserted (if still viable) paradigm in the late 1960's.
What was particularly disturbing to him was that, given the
prevalent liturgy — that Chomsky had demolished Skinner and Fodor
had reduced Osgood to Skinner, thereby demolishing him as well —
many young psycholinguists didn't even bother to read what Osgood
himself had to say. The old dinosaur even sent some of his best
students (after helping guide them to their Ph.D.'s) to serve at the
shrine of the opposing paradigm at MIT — Merle Garrett and then, for
briefer periods. Ken Forster and John Limber.
Psycholinguistics at Illinois in the 1960's
But this period was another busy one on the home ground, and
the dinosaur didn't have much time to brood about possible
paradigms lost. For one thing, the extension of the SD technique
cross-culturally and cross-linguistically began in 1960, and the
number of communities involved around the world increased
5 2 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
steadily from six to about 25 during the decade — accompanied by a
steadily increasing local (some 10 staff and graduate-student
assistants) and foreign (from a dozen or so colleagues to nearly 60)
co-workers, increasingly long periods traveling abroad by the
Principal Investigator (the friendly dinosaur), and exponentially (it
seemed) increasing correspondence. Nevertheless, he kept a talon or
two in psycholinguistics more generally: while the running debate
with Fodor, Bever, et al. was going on, there was a study on the
semantics of communication via facial expressions (Osgood, 1966)
and two papers jointly with Hastorf and Ono (1966) and Ono and
Hastorf (1966) on predicting the meanings of facial expressions fused
in a stereoscope from the meanings of the component faces. Whose
face? Why the genial dinosaur's, of course! A major thrust was
toward development of a procedure for discovering semantic
features other than the semantic differential; working first with Ken
Forster in Hawaii (second sabbatical, 1964-65) and then with
Marilyn Wilkins back at Illinois, a "semantic interaction technique"
was evaluated — a technique in which the appositeness,
permissibility or anomaly of word-pairs in phrases (e.g., 'plead with
humbly, Oplead with sincerely, *plead with tolerantly) were judged
by native speakers and the pattern of judgments analysed factorially
to determine the features operating (cf. Osgood, 1970a, 1970b). And
there was a little piece with Jerry Boucher ("The Pollyanna
Hypothesis," Boucher and Osgood, 1969) that used our cross-cultural
data to test certain hypotheses relating to linguistic and affective
marking.
Throughout the decades from 1950 to 1970 the Institute of
Communications Research was the focus of psycholinguistics at
Illinois, often with joint appointments in Psychology, and the
continuing grants from NIMH and NSF for the cross-cultural projects
also supported both staff and graduate students specializing in this
field. Osgood was Director of the Institute from 1955 through 1965,
when Howard Maclay took over. And James Carey was to become
Director in the 1970's. Murray Miron was Co-director of the cross-
cultural project and a "resident psycholinguist" during the early
1960's; Leon Jakobovits took over the same role in the middle to late
1960's; since then William H. May, truly my right arm (as chief
programmer, data analyst and budget manager), has served as Co-
director since 1969. Danny Steinberg was with us for a couple of
years in the mid-60's as a post doctoral student from Hawaii.
Brief citations of the topics of the doctoral theses of my students
during this decade will document the gradual shift of focus from
words to sentences: 15 Murray Miron's thesis (1960) was a cross-
cultural study of cognitive interaction among words, colors and
forms; Ken Forster (1964) compared the difficulties of completing
left-deleted vs. right-deleted sentences (left-deleted, of course, were
harder for English speakers, but later Ken extended this study to
speakers of Turkish, a left-branching language, and found the same
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 5 3
difference, but less in amount); Merle Garrett (1965), working then
at MIT under Fodor, did one of the earliest studies on the subjective
displacement of clicks in one ear as a function of the syntactic
structures of sentences received in the other ear; Dogan Cuceloglu
(1967) — one of the five or six young people so far who first worked
as field staff on our world-wide project and then came to Illinois for
advanced degrees — did a three-culture study of the communicative
components of facial expressions; John Limber (1968) did a three-
mode factorial study of the functions of sentence-frame, noun, and
adjective features in determining the acceptability of resulting
sentences; James E. Martin (1968) made a theoretical and empirical
study of the determinants of prenominal adjective ordering; and
Tulsi Saral (1969) returned to the domain of facial, gestural and
postural communication, but now between live humans in
interpersonal interactions.
Disillusion and Divorce
The marriage between linguistics and psycholinguistics in the
1960's might better be called an elopement — or perhaps even an
abduction — because it was a very one-sided affair. The intuitions of
generative linguists were to provide a theory of Competence, or
knowledge that native speakers have of their language, and the
wifely psycholinguists were to cook up experiments on Performance
designed to demonstrate empirically the validity of such a theory of
how the mind works in sentencing. This presumed a direct
Correspondence Hypothesis (Hayes, 1970) — "that the sequence of
rules used in the grammatical derivation of a sentence — that is, the
derivational history of the sentence — corresponds step by step to
the sequence of psychological processes that are executed when a
person processes the sentence (p. 5)."i6 Learning a language was
equated with the acquisition of its syntax, and semantics took a back
seat. Since it seemed inconceivable that such an incredibly complex
capability as a transformational grammar could be learned in the
incredibly short period of three or four years, it was assumed that
much of it must be innate — universal to humans and specific to
language.
Although the early psycholinguistic studies of sentence
processing by George Miller (1962) and his students and associates
seemed to give credence to such a Correspondence Hypothesis, even
by the mid-60's sufficient contrary evidence had accumulated to lead
Fodor and Garrett (1966, p. 162) to say "... an acceptable theory of
the relation between competence and performance models will have
to represent that relation as abstract, the degree of abstractness
being proportional to the failure of formal features of derivations to
correspond to performance variables." In the absence of ANY
characterization of this "abstract" relation, of course, all this does is to
remove competence grammar from the danger of being disconfirmed
by performance data.
54 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
The denouement of the Competence/Performance distinction, in
my opinion, came at a symposium on Cognition and the Development
of Language held in 1968 at Carnegie-Mellon University, the papers
being subsequently published under the same title in 1970 (Hayes,
editor) — particularly in the contributions of William C. Watts ("On
Two Hypotheses Concerning Psycholinguistics") and Thomas G. Bever
("The Cognitive Basis for Linguistic Structures"). Watts first
demolished (to his satisfaction, as well as mine) the hypothesis that a
Competence Grammar, derived from the intuitions of linguists, could
be isomorphic with what he terms a deeper Mental grammar — i.e.,
that Competence could describe how the mind works in
understanding and creating sentences;'^ he then proposed the
hypothesis that what he terms an Abstract Performance Grammar
must be isomorphic with the deeper Mental Grammar — and although
he was rather vague about the nature of this APG, it is clear that a
theory of "how the mind works in sentencing" is to come from
abstracting about the performances of speakers, particularly
children. The main theme of Bever's paper was that performance, at
least in part, determines ultimate linguistic Competence; "many
aspects of adult language derive from the interaction of grammar
with the child's processes of learning and using language (1970, p.
280)," and after demonstrating this in a variety of language
processing situations, he concluded that we must "... reject the claim
that a linguistic grammar is in any sense internal to such linguistic
performances as talking and listening (p. 344)."
Re-engagement
Needless to say, the elderly dinosaur in his daisy patch was
following these developments with great interest, and even the
casual observer could see the brightening gleam in his eye and the
increasing vigor with which he flicked his tail. By the early 1970's he
had discovered a new field of semantic daisies — ones that grew in a
wondrous variety of little trees made up of chains of linked blooms —
and he fed upon them with relish while he refurbished and
expanded the shrine for his paradigm. The denouement of the
Competence/Performance distinction had (some might say
paradoxically) paved the way for a new, more balanced, and
potentially very productive relation between linguists and
psycholinguists in what Maclay (1973) has called The Cognitive
Period of the 1970's.
And in the Midwest the old dinosaur and his companions have
also been moving happily into this new relationship. He contributed a
paper titled "Where Do Sentences Come From?" to the Steinberg-
Jakobovits collection {Semantics, 1971); the main point was to
demonstrate that there is an intimate interaction between non-
linguistic and linguistic channels in the process of Simply Describing
ordinary events, and hence that these channels must share some
deeper cognitive level that cannot, in principle, be characterized by
LINGUISTIC constructs and rules. '^ The dinosaur and one of his friends
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 5 5
even invaded the heartland of the linguistic domain by publishing an
article in Language (Osgood and Richards, 1973) titled "From Yang
and Yin to And or But," in which laws of cognitive congruence and
incongruence were used to predict the discriminative use of these
conjunctions in simple conjoined sentences of the form X is ADIj
ADJ2 (e.g., X is sweet kind or X is cowardly
honest) — frames which, linguistically speaking, will accept either
and or but. A wife-and-husband team, Sara and William Smith,
demonstrated in their theses that a priori semantic features intuited
on a behavior-theory basis were, indeed, predictive of the speed of
completing skeleton words (Sara, 1971) when given cue words
varying in feature overlap with the skeletons (e.g., completing _ X _
LO _ T when given BULLY and IMPOSE ON vs. WARN, varying in
feature similarity to EXPLOIT) and predictive of falsely recognizing
as "old" new interpersonal verbs in long lists as a function of feature
similarity (William, 1972).
In the spring of 1972, after I got back from several long trips
around the world in connection with the continuing cross-cultural
project — which was becoming something like a dinosaur having a
bear by the tail! — what we call our Cog Group began to hold regular
idea-suggesting and idea-critiquing sessions, first with a small group
of my own graduate students and psycholinguist colleague, Bill
Brewer, and later with an expanded group of students in several
fields and two lively young linguists at Illinois, Georgia Green and
Jerry Morgan. Combining my type of componential mediation theory
(semantics) with liberal dashes of intuition about meanings of
entities and their action and stative relations (syntax) in pre-
linguistic behavior, we were trying to build a fresh conception of
"where sentences come from and go to" — or, going back to Watts'
notions about the characterization of the deep Mental Grammar, you
could say that we were trying to build an APG (Abstract Performance
Grammar) on a psychological as well as a linguistic basis. '^ Oh, these
Cog Group sessions have been exciting for the old dinosaur — down-
right rejuvenating, in fact! And they are good intellectual fun —
particularly, I guess, when the old fellow tries to put on his baby
booties and intuit how his pre-linguistic world was structured
cognitively.
A number of recent theses and research papers were generated
by these Cog Group sessions, and they pretty well portray the nature
of our new thrust: Rumjahn Hoosain's thesis (1973) confirmed the
prediction that cogs^O encoded from the perceptual channel (e.g., two
outline facial expressions) as well as cogs across perceptual and
linguistic channels (e.g., a smiling face and "I flunked the exam") will
display the same processing difficulties as functions of (a) negative
affect and (b) incongruence as do conjoined sentential cogs. In
another study titled "The Processing of Negation," Hoosain (1974)
demonstrated the same effects for simple linguistic cogs, also to be
conjoined by and or but, and added a third negativity factor, the
5 6 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1 992)
number of explicit nots. In her thesis (1973) Gordana Opacic explored
the psycholinguistics of various modes of conjoining cognitions, in
terms of types (Simple Junction, Sequence, Cause, Cause and
Sequence, Intention), in terms of forms (basic, centered and or hut
and their extensions like and so, but still then, and the like, vs.
displaceable adverbials like before, because, and in order to), and in
terms of displacement of adverbials and clause order — and
predictions based on assumptions about "naturalness" (based on
intuited pre-linguistic experiences) were confirmed. Tom Hewett
(1973) tackled the problem of presuppositions, confirming the
prediction that, since the theory says that presuppositions of
sentences are cognized and stored at the time of comprehending
them, along with the given sentence, subjects should falsely
"recognize" the presuppositions but not control statements using the
same words. Meridith Richards (1974) tested the hypothesis that, in
both comprehending and producing triplets of prenominal adjectives
in the context of displays of object-sets, both adults and children
would order the adjectives according to the abstractness (frequency-
of-usage) of the semantic features they tap — with generally
supportive results.
And so, the old dinosaur is contented — but neither complacent nor
satisfied. There will always be much to be busy about. Whence
psycholinguistics at Illinois into the 1980's and maybe beyond? The
cross-cultural project, particularly its Atlas of some 600 translation-
equivalent concepts for some 30 language-culture communities
around the world, has generated enough data on what we now call
"subjective culture" to take up the energies of a dozen young scholars
for several years to get it reported to social scientists — and
meanwhile Oliver Tzeng, Bill May and 1 are working on refinements
in methodology for analyses of the some 50 categories of concepts in
the Atlas. I now expect that this little shrine to the neo-behavioristic
paradigm will go through a period of expansion. Bill Brewer and his
students are busily mining gold in the field of memory for ideas —
not necessarily incompatible with my views, by the way, since we
are moving in on a cognitive theory of "ideas," too. But the old
dinosaur knows that he will never be satisfied. Life is like the ending
of his favorite symphony — Sibelius's Second, especially the Robert
Kajanus rendition that I got second-hand from the music library at
Dartmouth College 'way back in 1938 — always striving for
fulfillment, but never quite achieving it.
NOTES
An earlier version of this paper was published under the title,
"A dinosaur caper: Psycholinguistics past, present, and future," in the
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 263, pp. 16-
26, September 19, 1975.
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 5 7
1 Not because there was no other hand capable of doing it, but
because the field of psychology was literally exploding in numbers of
people and numbers of research papers.
2 To keep my "confession" and "awakening" unconfused in time,
it should be noted that, although my Method and Theory was
published in 1953, it was already in production at the Oxford
University Press by the fall of 1952 — too late to do any re-writing of
whole chapters.
3 I might also note, as relevant to the development of
psycholinguistics at Illinois, that Don Dulany — who some years later
was to come to Illinois with the help of my prodding and become a
central figure in our cognitive psychology program — participated in
this Cornell meeting as a graduate student member.
4 Again for historical purposes, I should note that in 1960, when
I was asked to chair a search committee for a Head for a new
Department of Anthropology (separate from a department that had
combined anthropology and sociology), I was fortunate to be able to
talk Casagrande into leaving SSRC and coming to Illinois.
5 Appropriately enough, this monograph was published
simultaneously in both the International Journal of American
Linguistics and the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology.
6 It was mainly out of our contacts with Howard Maclay on this
project that he was invited to Illinois as an Assistant Professor in the
Institute of Communications Research in 1956.
7 It was at this one that our little dinosaur first met Noam
Chomsky and got the impression that he was (a) brilliant, but (b) not
convinced that meaning was the central problem for students of
language.
8 Many of these activities resulted in book-length publications
(Trends in Content Analysis, Ithiel Pool (Ed.), 1959; Style in
Language, Thomas Sebeok (Ed.), 1960; Approaches to the Study of
Aphasia, Osgood and Miron (Eds.), 1963; Universals of Language,
Joseph Greenberg (ed.), 1963) and others in journal publications by
individual participants.
9 It is perhaps testimony to the pervasiveness of "psycho-logic"
that most behavior theorists were oblivious to the existence of an
Integration Level in my general theory — perhaps because it
introduced S-S and R-R relations where only S-R (stimulus-response)
relations "obviously" should obtain!
^0 All dates in what follows refer to doctoral dissertations by
students who were my advisees, available in the University of
Illinois Library. Most have also been published in various journals.
1' Sol collaborated with Jim Nunnally and myself in preparing a
monograph describing a procedure for analysing sentences in texts
into their (paraphrastic as sets) kernel assertions — in principle, if
5 8 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1 992)
not in formal elaboration, like the transformational grammar that
was soon to appear in Chomsky (1957) — kernel assertions that could
then be coded on affective features. This monograph was published
in Litera (Osgood, Saporta, and Nunnally, 1956), a journal edited in
Turkey as I recall, and proved to be one of the best kept secrets in
psycholinguistics!
12 Obviously, Tom Sebeok was an extraordinarily effective
organizer of scholarly conferences! As the only psychologist
participating, I found myself in the often embarrassing situation of
trying to field questions of the form ". . .and what does our
PSYCHOLOGIST think about X vs. Y?"
13 Considering what was to happen in psycholinguistics as a
result of the impact of Chomsky, it's a good thing I didn't write my
book — and I STILL haven't, but definitely plan to now.
^^ The sequence between that award and election to presidency
of APA, with two or three years intervening, seems to be repetitive;
George Miller followed this course a few years later, as did Donald
Campbell, for example.
15 See fn 10. I'm sure I must have omitted a few of those who
did their dissertations under my direction, and to them I can only
apologize for lack of evidence in my files and for the memory lapses
of an old dinosaur.
16 In an oft-quoted (recently) footnote, Chomsky himself (1961,
fn 16) early stated that this is an "utterly mistaken view."
1^ It is interesting that this characterization of Competence is
more prevalent among converted psycholinguists (e.g., McNeill, 1970,
Palermo, 1971) than among linguists (cf. fn 16).
18 Maclay (1973, p. 583) points out that "if language is
inextricably involved with . . . nonlinguistic systems, the distinction
between competence and performance becomes highly questionable"
— 'completely untenable', I would say.
19 The final chapter of my forthcoming Prolegomena to a
Behavioral Theory of Cognizing and Sentencing (Mouton Press, 1975)
will be an attempt to put all of these Cog Group activities into more
formal expressions.
20 "Cogs" is our shorthand for "cognitions": a simple cog can be
represented as [Ml — (M) -> M2], where the Ms are the componential
meanings of perceptual entities (or the subject and object
constituents of base sentences) and the arrow is the Action or Stative
relation between them.
{Received February 1974.)
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 5 9
How to Find the Right Tree to Bark Up
Robert B. Lees
One of the reasons I flunked the required course in Inorganic
Chemistry TWICE at the University of Chicago back in 1947 was my
pretentious and misguided practice of taking down all lecture notes
in German, a language with which I have never had more than a
studious tourist's acquaintance. But the disaster forced an already
crystallizing issue, and still on the GI Bill, I walked across the
campus, to sample the Geisteswissenschaften.
No doubt some covert feelings of intimidation or discontent still
troubled me, and I was disposed to leave research on classified
projects, for we had been rather shaken by having enjoyed the
dubious privilege of appearing, as first on the list of atomic scientists
in Chicago, before a government-organized tribunal investigating the
extent to which I and my wife were Communist supporters of the
Soviet Union. Such questions are still alive in Washington, though
Sen. Joseph McCarthy is not.
With chemistry credits as minor, plus music, a sizable dose of
Germanic philology, Bloomfield's and Sapir's, Pike's and Harris's
structural linguistics, and several years' worth of Sanskrit, they
conferred on me my first college degree, the Artium Magister and
inducted me into the Phi Beta Kappa, and I went to work as an
apprentice linguist for my professor, Norman A. McQuown.
Despite the efforts of my Germanic mentor, George Metcalf, of
my Sanskrit guru, George V. Bobrinskoy, of the newly arrived Indo-
Europeanist, Eric P. Hamp, and of course, of McQuown himself to
instruct me in the ways of scholarship, the transition from my
laboratory across the campus to our paradigms and phonemes has
never really been completed, and in many ways my heart still lies
close to mathematics, cosmology, and the stink of chemicals.
Behind lay several years of an interrupted B.S. in chemical
engineering plus meteorology and forecasting in the Air Force, some
work as a metallurgist, four years of research in physical chemistry
at Argonne National Laboratory — Why leave all that? If occasionally
you manage to discover some little thing, it's enough encouragement
to go on; but if you ALMOST discover one big thing, you must leave it
all to the real experts. I ALMOST discovered carbon- 14 dating; but
Willard Libby was the expert.
In those days linguistics was basically quite easy and more than
a bit tedious — it takes little talent to find those phonemes. But all
the new exotic languages were great fun — Atta unsar, pu in himinam
in half a dozen archaic German languages, As id rdjd, Nalo ndma and
the rest of that cops-and-robbers boy-meets-girl saga of classical
Sanskrit, and the struggle to speak left-branched Turkish.
60 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
It was about this time that I became acquainted with the late
Morris Swadesh, Sapir's most devoted student. He had just begun his
study of lexico-statistics with the clever and, I believe, independent
observation that the etyma in the word-stock of a language may be
viewed as subject to a first-order-rate law, the same which governs
the temporal decrease in mass of an element which undergoes simple
radioactive decay. I had just abandoned a laboratory crammed with
Geiger counters.
At an LSA meeting at Michigan some tedious paper on
Stammbaume prompted me to rise and presumptuously and
arrogantly announce our definitive resolution of the language family
problem on the basis of a mathematical model of morpheme decay.
The graybeards gently invited me to lecture on the subject one
evening. Later I surveyed some languages, consulted with a real
statistician, William Kruskal, and published a paper on what Swadesh
insisted on calling "glottochronology". The subject seems still to be
very much alive, mostly among anthropologists.
We edited an English-for-Turks bristling with Smith-
Trageremics, and a year or so later I took it to Ankara for Leon
Dostert (Georgetown University) and inflicted it upon the grateful
natives. Our students dutifully heard out my broken-Turkish lectures
on the Smith-Tragerology of English grammar, struggled manfully
with our pattern-drills, plus-junctures and barred-eyes, and,
mirabile dictu, survived.
Returning via a four-month stint on an old Emek Jezreel kibbutz,
some months at the central Berlitz sweat shop of New York, and half
a year of delightful labor as an audio-engineer at Consumers Union, I
somewhat reluctantly accepted Victor Yngve's offer to return to the
University — not much ivy — It was MIT. Yehoshua Bar-Hillel had
breezed through and called upon the computer world to graduate
from counting numbers to translating natural-language texts. (Not
long afterward he was to breeze back again with a theorem
purporting to prove the impossibility of machine-translation!) Yngve
took his place, accepted an R-and-D grant, and looked for man power.
He had chatted with me occasionally back at the University of
Chicago on how to persuade the Physics Department to accept his
proposal for a dissertation on Machine Translation (they remained
unpersuaded). Though his offer of a position for research on the
quixotic project was, in my 1956 ignorance, not entirely unpalatable,
the major attraction was the possibility of a return to study and a
Ph.D. As it happened, our decision to move up to Boston was a
turning-point — another in a long series of accidents and minor
disasters which somehow turned out each time for the good (a sense
of humor is required, of course), but this time particularly auspicious.
Arriving at the Research Laboratory of Electronics for duty, I
found several colleagues already at their desks. G. H. Matthews
poured over his Hidatsa grammar, J. P. Applegate fussed over
German with Yngve, and next door N. A. Chomsky stapled together
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 6 1
dittos of a chapter or two of some obscure work. I fussed over
German verbs too, and uttered snide and discouraging commentary
on Machine Translation (for which a year later Yngve fired me). We
helped this Chomsky collate his dittos. And his mild-voiced time
bombs sputtered away in our structuralist souls.
The dittos became Syntactic Structures, and I became a
transformational grammarian. My review article in Language on that
parvum opus was, perhaps, the first challenging polemic in our
standard journals to signal the beginning of the Chomskyan
Revolution in Linguistics.
We had already met once before, when at a cold winter meeting
of L.S.A. in Cambridge in the early 50's, an old Chicago friend, Eric H.
Lenneberg, introduced Chomsky to me. He sharply disparaged the
journalistic doctrines I had brought from the previous summer I had
spent in study at the Indiana Summer Institute with Louis Hjelmslev,
but he granted that they might at least be "insightful".
Still another friend from the University of Chicago days was
beginning to make his influence felt. Morris Halle had been engaged
several years previously, ostensibly to develop a speech typewriter
at the Research Laboratory of Electronics and to teach Russian in the
Modern Languages Division of the Institute. He, I believe, was
responsible for persuading Yngve to hire Chomsky, who might have
persisted as a Wall-Street formalist in linguistics had not Halle's
Jakobsonian leavening fermented so fruitfully inside an otherwise
not very yeasty laboratory — a most propitious confluence of Harris's
Methods and Jakobson's features, of Philadelphia logic and Riga
languages.
At that time Harris was seeking legitimate help in spending a
sizable grant for linguistic research, and I accepted his invitation to
do a research project on his budget (which meant not doing much for
Yngve, who continued to pay my salary, a contributing factor,
perhaps, in his agonized decision to dismiss me after the year). I
studied nominal compounding and tried to construe it as a set of
transformations over sentences in order to represent more generally
one's knowledge of syntactic relations such as subject, object,
modifier, etc. However, to avoid the inelegant assumption that a
person simply memorizes each compound he believes his language to
allow, I had to idealize the notion of grammaticalness to the extent of
regarding an indefinitely large set of compounds not in use to be
grammatical (in a given dialect, at a given time). To relate
compounds to other nominal expressions and to generalize some of
the rules, I was led to study nominalization processes as well.
Chomsky and Halle immediately met the crisis of my dismissal
by persuading the head of the Research Laboratory of Electronics,
Professor J. Wiesner (later President Kennedy's science adviser, and
now President of MIT) to grant me a fellowship; Halle then
persuaded the Department of Electrical Engineering to accept me as a
6 2 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Student and to accept an extended version of the compounding paper
as a dissertation, and in two years I was ready to be graduated. My
committee consisted of Jakobson, Halle, Chomsky, Walter Rosenblith
(a student of von Bekesy and representative of the Research
Laboratory of Electronics), and Peter Elias (representative, and
subsequently head, of the Department of Electrical Engineering).
The defense was a memorable occasion. Elder Statesman
Jakobson was not expected to attend — would be in Poland — but
ominously appeared at the last minute. Why the omen? He was
known to have been outraged at a grammatical dissertation which
said almost nothing about the long, though not too glorious history of
the subject. The first hour consisted entirely of a nearly
uninterrupted sequence of questions put by Jakobson to the non-
plussed candidate about a score or so of illustrious linguistic scholars
of the past several centuries. No one else in the room, except
occasionally Halle, and least of all the ignorant electrical engineering
candidate masquerading as linguist, could identify any of these
professional ancestors or what they had said. At the end of the hour
Jakobson dropped a tiny scrap of paper on the table and departed.
Halle told me later it contained the one word "Passed".
During the second hour I explained at the blackboard to Elias
and Rosenblith what I thought the dissertation was about. There had
been a written examination on linguistics, analytical philosophy,
information theory, and audition; I offered a minor in algebra. MIT
graduated me — the first and probably last linguist the Electrical
Engineering Department has ever certified.
Jakobson had, of course, made a valid point, and, comfortingly
for me, with good humor — what we called linguistic analysis in those
days was indeed crude, and some of us were, or were to become,
cruel polemicizers. But Chomsky's revolution has turned linguistics
back from its empiricist dead end. Some roots in the past have been
found for the new ideas, and Chomsky's name is now anathema in
only a few houses. And linguistic research has expanded explosively
in several countries, thanks only, in my opinion, to his ideas.
The problem of employment was quickly solved, for just at the
time of my graduation the expanding interest of the huge industrial
R&D laboratories in language processing opened up a number of
positions for linguists, and I accepted a post with IBM. We warned
them that a serious linguist was not likely to expend much thought
on how to make a computer translate Russian into English. Although
they were sincere in their desire to hire "pure" scientists, at least in
order to keep up IBM's prestigious image in their field, still the
pressures to exhibit practical results were felt eventually, and the
intellectual atmosphere was largely dominated by the attitudes and
interests of engineers.
Having just finished a dissertation it was not difficult for me to
publish a number of papers on related topics and thus help to
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 6 3
publicize transformational grammatical claims. I even managed to
fiddle a bit with a computer program, but it never came to anything
of importance.
And so, the visit of an emissary from the University of Illinois
two years later was very welcome, even the offer of a position in an
English department.
When I arrived at the University of Illinois in 1961, the state of
linguistics was indeed a strange one, contrasted with the majority of
other sciences. A large and influential body of linguists in the world,
mainly older scholars, had by then managed to assimilate the basic
notions advocated by the Junggrammatiker of, say, 1880 — a kind of
mixture of Latinate grammar, i.e. philology, some evolutionary ideas
from biology, a bit of inexpert laboratory phonetics, the glimmering
of so-called "structuralism" based mainly on a strongly entrenched
empiricist dogma about the nature of Science, a growing respect for
exotic languages and for anthropology, an abiding disrespect for
psychology and philosophy, and no inclination whatever to evaluate
or reappraise their methodological doctrines.
There were also a number of "younger" (not always on the
calender, of course) linguists with an even stronger intellectual bias
toward empirical science and a deep hatred for "traditional
grammar," a deep suspicion of semantics and the mind, and an
antipathy toward theory and abstraction — great respecters of "hard,
cold facts," and often allied to ethnology and field studies; they were,
or thought of themselves as the heirs of Sapir, Bloomfield, and de
Saussure. Europe and America differed little except in style, slogans,
and totems.
The challenge we transformationalists noisily flung down before
all was an unmistakable and inescapable exposure of fallacy at the
very heart of things, and it took a good long time for the gravity of
this disclosure to sink in. We were not always articulate; we did not
all speak with the same voice; acolytes and fellow-travelers often
distorted the message. Some understood us to have advocated an
alternative notation for old ideas. Some thought the structures were
important only for computer fanatics. Some feared we wished to
mathematicize linguistics or kill off the humanities altogether. And
many a structural linguist was (and in a few cases, still is) sure that
Chomsky is a modern mystic.
There was good reason for these reactions, even for the
acrimony and bitter disputes, for we were experiencing a true
"scientific revolution" in the now well-known sense of Kuhn. We
Chomskyites were demanding not minor revisions in linguistic
practice, not adoption of some new gimmicks, but nothing less than a
radical reorientation of the prevailing philosophy of science, a
painful, wrenching swerve from our comfortable empiricist doctrine
to an unfamiliar, bewildering metaphysics of rationalism. And at the
6 4 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
same time, of all things, we were all to send our friendly Navajo
informants back home and start boning up on mathematical logic!
Everything seemed to be turned upside down; formerly a hard
problem was one which required nine months of field work in the
jungle, or preparing a 900,000-entry slip-file, or a tedious search for
every Welsh word in the N.E.D. Now that was all dismissed as so
much data collecting, and, after all, we are swimming in data. Now,
we are told a REALLY hard problem is one which requires the
creation of heretofore unheard-of concepts. Concepts?! Linguistics
was supposed to be about words and sounds and subordinate clauses,
not about theories, the implicit knowledge of an ideal speaker, the
recursiveness of nominalization processes — all philosophy,
psychology, mathematics — anything but linguistics.
Yet, now that the dust has settled, we see that, except for a few
recalcitrant casualties, we have all made the transition into a new
world, and in a sense, linguistics has come of age. Today research
flies off in all directions, and every week several bright, young men
solve all the problems. The technical literature has long since
outstripped any one linguist's ability to stay au courant.
In my own view, none of the currently and often obstinately
defended theories of grammatical knowledge is truly serviceable,
and I for one, look forward to an early reorientation of our
conceptions about what kinds of knowledge we must presume a
person to control. It simply cannot be the case that all the constraints
on what we can say and understand are correctly formalizable in
terms of branching-diagrams of grammatical constituents plus a
lexicon of taxonomized morphemes. Some as yet undelimited, and
perhaps quite extensive, part of what most linguists have tried to
force into such a formulation just doesn't belong to one's LANGUAGE
per se but rather to one's beliefs about the world, to one's
imagination (conceptualization of other worlds), to one's knowledge
of logic, to one's feelings about social propriety or ethical behavior. It
elucidates nothing to build into the syntactic or semantic organization
of sentences arbitrary cases of non-linguistic constraints (our
notations are so powerful that that can always be done quite easily);
such linguistic imperialism merely conceals the relevant principles
which govern our non-grammatical mental powers.
Thus I am hopeful for efforts, just beginning now, to formulate
the relations between grammar and logic, between grammar and the
perceptual mnemonic, learning, and processing constraints studied
by psychology, and between grammar and the vicissitudes of social
history. But such studies will have to be conducted by real
professionals — philosophers, logicians, psychologists, and linguists —
brighter, younger men of the coming decades.
(Received February 1974.)
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 6 5
Three Linguistic Reincarnations of a Kashmiri Pandit
Braj B. Kachru
I shall start this note with a non-linguistic aside. It was in the
winter of 1961 that I first met Robert B. Lees in the Faculty Club of
Edinburgh University, Scotland, during his two-day visit to that
University. In the typical Leesian manner, he left two distinct
impressions on the rather tight-lipped group of British linguists: the
first, of being a missionnary-at-large for the then impatient, vocal,
and brisk Transformationist school, and second, his typical verbal
capacity for intense shock treatment. Those who know Lees know
very well that his linguistic discussions are replete with non-
linguistic asides. It is these asides which either bring people close to
him or convince them not to cross his path again. The first Leesian
aside — for there were hundreds more to come in later years — left a
distinct mark on me. It was a casual remark perhaps consciously
uttered to shock the middle-aged members of his not-too-
sympathetic British audience. While mentioning the work of several
very young members of the transformational CLAN (for that is what it
was in 1961), there was a mischievous spark in his bright eyes when
he said, "You know, linguistics is the discipline of the young. When
one is forty one should stop doing linguistics." If this Leesian aside is
to be taken seriously then the tone of this note should be one of
linguistic auto-obituary, for I was born on May 15, 1932. Thus I have
already crossed the crucial year.
In deciding to use individual profiles to develop the linguistic
profile of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Illinois,
Henry Kahane has provided an opportunity for ego trips;
psychologically this might help in a retrospective look at one's self
and also at the department. This note is, therefore, mixed with
nostalgia and historical tidbits. Some of these are personal and some,
I think, are helpful in unfolding the linguistic spectrum at Illinois. In
order to bring this personal chronicle to the foreground, some
background information may be in order.
In the Indian context (1 suppose as well as anywhere else),
among other things, several RIGHT things should happen to a person
at the time of birth. For example, the place of birth should be right,
the caste should be right, and the family should be right. I don't
know if all these things were right for me, but they were vital.
I was born in Srinagar, Kashmir, India, in a Kashmiri Pandit
family. Being a Kashmiri Pandit is like being a Jew in several ways.
Incidentally, there is a theory that claims that the Kashmiris
represent the lost tribe. Whether we are the lost tribe or not, is not
important. What is crucial is that the Kashmiri Pandits have the
psychological, cultural and identity problems of a very small
minority. The Kashmiri Pandits are not a minority in the sense in
which this term is generally understood, since among over five
6 6 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
hundred million inhabitants of India, Kashmiri Pandits are around
seventy-five thousand. It is perhaps their stamina and God's sense of
humor which prevented their complete annihiliation. They would
then have become an interesting minor anecdote in India's three-
thousand-year history. Kashmiri folklore tells us that once they came
close to complete destruction; they were persecuted and reduced to
eleven families. They not only survived, but they survived with a
vengeance, as a constant irritant. They also developed all those
characteristics which, understandably, such a minority develops. In
passing I should mention that it is not accidental that in the Kashmiri
language pandith (pandit) refers to one set of characteristics of this
minority, and bat,ika:kh refers to another set of characteristics. Let
us not disturb this can of worms any more, for thereby hangs a tale.
A typical Kashmiri Pandit family used to be something of a
commune — the commune was not really a discovery of dissident
western youth. My father lived with his two brothers and their
families in a four-story stone house. I was never able to count the
total number of rooms in this house, but neither did we ever count
how many of us lived in it. It was always a festival for the children,
since the family had been very productive — again the minority
complex. In addition, we would be joined by a host of kids of
relatives who lived on the two banks of the river Jhelum, in the City
of Seven Bridges — as Srinagar used to be called. The mothers didn't
know if their kids got fed, and the kids were not supposed to know
who were their actual parents. The head of the family and his wife
were considered the PARENTS, and often, their names were used on
official documents. In fact, when our joint family broke up in 1946,
the legal sorting out of parenthood took considerable time. The
children were taught to show deference to age, and the eldest in the
family had the honor of being considered parents. Again, this is a
digression not directly relevant to a linguistic profile.
In 1952, when I graduated from Sri Pratap College with honors
in English literature, it came as a shock to several people, including
many members of our family. The reason was that the doctors had
given me up as a patient of rheumatic heart disease and had kept me
bedridden for several years. Later, in Edinburgh, I found that the
diagnosis had been wrong. So my early years were spent doing what
a heart patient usually does — learning to paint, doing some light
reading with private tutors, or just whiling away the time. The result
was that I never went to school until 1948, when I found myself in a
junior college as a shy kid perspiring under the gaze of over sixty
students learning English, Sanskrit, history and economics from
professors who made it obvious that they didn't enjoy the experience
of teaching.
In 1953, I went to Allahabad University for my Master's degree
in English literature. At that time it was the place where the
intellectual action was to be found. It was politically stimulating and
full of anti-British intellectual (and physical) activities; it was the
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 6 7
center of the so-called "Hindi movement" and it was also the center
of the creative upsurge and experimentation in Hindi literature. Since
my ambition was to become a creative writer in Hindi, I couldn't
have made a better choice. The University of Allahabad had a
reputation of being the Oxford of India. During those days we always
had to have a British model! That Oxford of India is now in shambles
both physically and academically. In the fifties, the English
Department there had scholars such as P. E. Dustoor, Harivanshrai
Bachchan, S. C. Deb and R. S. Firaq. All of them had distinct, individual
characteristics, and all of them were distinguished in their fields. It
was at Allahabad that I was first exposed to what may be considered
an academic atmosphere. The Department of English at Allahabad
exposed me to several things. First, how inadequately students are
prepared for the study of literature at the MA level. Second, how the
teaching of literature is done without any rigor or theoretical
foundations. Third, how crucial it is to have training in language —
linguistics, especially when one is teaching a foreign or second
language. The real stimulation to go in the area of language and
linguistics came from an outstanding teacher and scholar, P. E.
Dustoor. It was due to his encouragement that I was indirectly
thrown into the lap of Structuralism. (But then, it was already 1955!)
My first encounter with Structuralism was at Poona, where the
Linguistic Society of India and the Deccan College Postgraduate and
Research Institute had initiated linguistic institutes with funding
from the Rockefeller Foundation. It was at one of these institutes that
I first met senior American linguists such as Henry A. Gleason Jr.,
Charles F. Ferguson, Henry Hoenigswald, and Gordon Fairbanks. It
was also just at this time that the United States had discovered South
Asia and the social scientists were flocking to find the answers to
questions such as the exact number of castes in India, or the
workings of an Indian Village. The group also included several young
linguists, e.g. William Bright, John J. Gumperz, John Kelley, and
Norman Zide.
The enthusiasm of the Structuralists was contagious. If we found
an allophone in a language it was like holding a newly born baby
delivered by phonemic caesarian. The atmosphere was full of attacks
on the 'traditionalists' and challenges were thrown to traditional
Pandits who had spent their lives studying Sanskrit, Pali or other
Indian languages. It was there that we were exposed to the academic
grouping and divisions in linguistics. If we went to Sukumar Sen (the
Khaira Professor of Linguistics of Calcutta University) with a problem
in linguistics, his pat answer was, "Why don't you go and ask your
American friends." There was the usual disgruntled group among the
Hindi language scholars, who accused the whole linguistic operation
and Structuralism as an attempt by the Americans for cultural
domination of India.
In 1957, I was selected as a Fellow of Deccan College Research
Institute for a year's training in linguistics. The American visiting
68 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
scholar for that year was Henry Gleason, Jr.; it was like getting
structural linguistics from the horse's mouth.
In retrospect I can think of several things that happened at
these schools. One is that for the first time I looked at my mother
tongue, Kashmiri, with an entirely different language attitude. The
earlier, typically Kashmiri, attitude changed to one of treating it as a
HUMAN language which could be an area of serious academic and
intellectual research. Second, I had an opportunity to think seriously
about Indian English; its status, roles, and academic position.
In 1958, when I had just finished my tenure at Poona, I was
selected by the British Council for specialization in linguistics at
Edinburgh University in Scotland. The British Council tried to make
our transition smooth and cushioned the culture-shocks by a one-
week orientation course. The orientation had both serious and
hilarious aspects. One morning a beautifully dressed, efficient-
looking person gave us a talk on how to break a boiled egg for
breakfast. I was fascinated by his impeccable Received
Pronounciation (RP) and was unmindful of the fate of the egg. RP had
been a mystical goal which all the iTonnative speakers of English
were persuaded to aspire to; the word received always intrigued me.
Received by whom? It was much later that Ruqaiya Hasan solved
this riddle for me when she said, "Received by Almighty God." We
were trained how to use forks and knives with distinction. It was
there I learned, for example, that a fork should not be used as a
weapon to win an argument, and that a knife should not be used as if
one is slicing the air to emphasize a point. In later years, I found that
this same information had been elevated to an academic level
internationally in the programs on the teaching of English as a
foreign language, under the "cultural component." After a week's
cultural (and social) orientation, the Council thought that we were
ready to face British (or Scottish) culture. There was the typical
British challenge — sink or swim.
Once at Edinburgh, I found that, linguistically, I had to go
through two processes at the same time: the first, of learning the new
paradigm, and the second, of unlearning the earlier paradigm
without even leaving any 'substratum.'
There was a distinguished group of linguists at Edingurgh. J. R.
Firth (1890-1960) had retired from the Chair of General Linguistics
at London University in 1956. It was the first Chair of General
Linguistics in Great Britain established in 1944, and he was its first
occupant. During my first year at Edinburgh, Firth was there as a
Visiting Professor for a term. Michael Halliday had just left
Cambridge University to take a position at Edinburgh in what was
then the Department of English Language and General Linguistics. He
was already well-known both as a political and linguistic radical, and
his study. The Language of the Chinese "Secret History of the
Mongols," was being seriously discussed in linguistic circles. J. C.
Catford was Director of the School of Applied Linguistics, attempting
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 6 9
to give new direction to APPLIED linguistics. Angus Mcintosh, David
Abercrombie, Peter Ladefoged and Peter Strevens were also
contributing to the program.
Since Firth had spent eight years in India (1920-1928), and
since, at that time, I was the only Indian student in linguistics at
Edinburgh, he took a personal interest in me. In his unique way, he
would talk for hours and fill me in on the personal, political and
linguistic history of the members of what was then called the
"Firthian" or the "London" group of linguists. I would sit in front of
him (one seldom got a chance to discuss or converse with Firth) both
bewildered and dazed, listening to his impressions about Indian
English. It was there, listening to him, that my ideas about Indian
English, and the non-native varieties of English in general, began to
be structured. (I guess Indians really need gurus!)
At these sittings, I also learned that two distinct types of
linguistics were developing on opposite sides of the Atlantic. In
1958-59, the Firthians were still flogging the structural horse. The
transformationist (Chomsky) group was still not recognized, and
Harris was considered out in the left field of linguistics. This
divergence in approach would sometimes show itself in interesting
ways. For example, Angus Mcintosh did not like my use of the term
"phoneme" in my thesis proposal. I was told that I should use the
term "phonematic unit". In linguistics the term phoneme was used
for a long time as a sort of caste mark — it marked you either in the
"in group" or "out group."
Michael Halliday did not bring the theoretical differences to
class, he merely presented HIS point of view. His seminal paper
"Categories of a Theory of Grammar" (Word, 17.3, 1961) was written
and discussed primarily during this period.
In the Indian tradition, we are taught to learn from a teacher by
"sitting at his (lotus) feet." The sisya and guru concept is deeply
rooted in us. A Western teacher, who does not understand
'inscrutable India' is confused by the docility, unarming humility,
and blank look of an Indian student. I have heard hundreds of
interpretations of this attitude of Indian students from my Western
colleagues. And, I would say to myself, "here again, the mystic East
confuses them." I guess I was not much different from the typical
Indian student finding his way in the Scottish educational system.
But there was a difference.
Firth loved to perform like an Indian guru, and Halliday had
been seriously exposed to the mystic East in China. Therefore, he
understood the limitations of a new oriental student in a Western
classroom. Firth's personality was multifaceted. In a sense, one facet
of Firth represented the typical Britisher with the raj mentality. But,
on the other hand, India had played its three-thousand-year-old
trick on him; it had worked the process of Indianization on him — the
first step toward assimilation. But in some ways he was so British
7 0 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
that the Indian trick would not have completely worked on him. He
had imbibed several characteristics of the typical sahib who had
lived in India too long. In linguistics, as in everything else, his likes
and dislikes were too strong.
In the late fifties Edinburgh had perhaps the most stimulating
atmosphere for linguistic studies. During his stay, J. R. Firth gave the
classes a crispness and character. Michael Halliday was both
innovative and inspiring. He had the unique quality of bringing out
the best in every student. David Abercrombie was a superb teacher
who taught us Henry Sweet with the zeal which traditional Pandits
use for the teaching of Panini. His seminar could have only six
students since there were only six chairs in his office!
In this stimulating atmosphere, I completed my Ph.D. thesis (in
Britain it is not called a dissertation) on some linguistic aspects of
Indian English under the supervision of M.A.K. Halliday and J. C.
Catford. It is usual to feel a vacuum after finishing a Ph.D. thesis. I
spent several months working in the Phonetics Laboratory for which
every Friday (payday) I received a sealed brown envelope with my
wages. These wages helped me to continue to sit in Michael Halliday's
seminars in his overheated tropical room and look at the icicles in
George Square. We had a small but very stimulating circle of
graduate students who interacted both linguistically and socially.
Among others, the group included Hanna Ulatowska, Rodney
Huddleston, Ayo Bombose, Ruqaiya Hasan (now Mrs. Halliday), John
Mountford and R. W. M. Dixon. Dixon's status was not quite that of a
student — he used to straddle the fence between groups and read us
sections of his forthcoming book. Linguistic Science and Logic,
(Mouton 1963).
Semantics and phonetics were relevant and exciting areas of
linguistics, and one didn't have to use the side door if one was a
phonetician. In fact, when sociolinguistics became a popular
bandwagon in America, Halliday made the apt remark, "What is now
sociolinguistics in America, was always linguistics for us."
By now I had already spent three years in Edinburgh and had
passed through several academic and cultural experiences. One, that
of going from (pure) literature to language (1954). Second, passing
through an intense period of Structural linguistics with all the
leading gurus. Third, passing from Structuralism to Firthian-
Hallidayan linguistics. The question was: What next?
It is here that Lees comes into the picture. In that 1961 meeting.
Lees and I had a fascinating discussion. I guess for an Indian —
anthropologists tell us that we are full of humility and deference — I
was rather forthright and less tight-lipped than others who had
dinner with him in a pseudo-Indian restaurant. But then, what other
mode of communication could be used in talking with Lees during
that period? If he was not abrupt, he was ironical; if he was not
ironical, he was caustic. Above all, he was the typical Lees, with the
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 7 1
mischievous smile and kind eyes, watching and observing
everything.
A few months after Lees' Edinburgh visit, Halliday received a
letter from him asking if he could recommend someone for a possible
opening in his linguistics program at Illinois. As a postscript, he
inquired if the "Indian boy" he had met at Edinburgh would be
interested in the position. Yes, I would be interested in the position,
but a year later, was my reply to Lees. I had already accepted a
position to initiate a program in applied linguistics at Lucknow
University in India. Lees agreed to defer the offer for a year, and in
1963 I went to Urbana, right in the middle of a new culture, new
linguistics, and a new phase of my life.
The process of learning and unlearning linguistics started again.
It was like trying to move from one caste to another caste and being
conscious of it all the time. I guess intellectual (or religious, for that
matter) conversions can be painful. It was challenging to share with
Lees and with a part-time assistant a small room in the Department
of English where we were a Program. How we changed from a
Program to a Department has already been discussed by Kahane and
Osgood, and I shall not repeat it here.
The sixties were a period of youth in linguistics; a generation of
linguists was being retrained and reoriented in a fast-changing
discipline. In this process some survived, some became a part of the
new movement, some copped out, and many either disintegrated or
became bitter and cynical.
Illinois was in the forefront of the new "revolution." I was
fascinated and awed by the overcharged linguistic activity here. I
spent a lot of time in classes, trying to understand the fast changing
paradigm. I also published several papers on my pet hobbyhorse,
Indian English. The reactions to these papers varied, and a
controversy was generated. In the beginning, the Indian scholars —
and also some non-Indians — did not accept the identity of Indian
English. You could not claim an ontological status for a foreign
language. How sad that the transplanted languages never seem to
grow roots! It was another manifestation of linguistic schizophrenia
in India, and it took several years to attain academic acceptability for
"Indian English". In my papers the processes of the INDIANIZATION of
English were discussed and INDIAN English was considered a "culture-
bound" language which must be studied in the Indian socio-cultural
context. The Firthian (and Malinowskian) concept of "the context of
situation" was considered crucial for such a study. I adopted the
same position for other non-native varieties of English as the
Chairman of the Committee on Regional Varieties of English at
Brisbane, Australia. Later this model was adopted by several
students who concentrated on various aspects of Indian English. This
interest naturally led me to sociolinguistics in general. It was during
this period that we also initiated linguistic projects on several Indian
languages.
7 2 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
In teaching, my primary thrust was toward developing the
applied linguistics program, using the term "applied" in a wider
sense. In developing such a program, one was fighting against
several problems. In America, APPLIED linguistics had been reduced
to some uninteresting aspects of language pedagogy. A person
interested in APPLICATION of linguistics was suspect in the new
paradigm — and there were good reasons for this suspicion. Initially,
Lees and I did not see eye to eye on this part of our curriculum, but
then he left me alone. In this background, therefore, it was
challenging to initiate and teach courses such as Introduction to
Applied Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Stylistics, and South Asian
English. My other interest was the history of linguistics. Since an
Indian always carries the burden of three thousand years of history
on his back, the historical development of ideas fascinates him. In
the sixties, however, the attitude of the linguistic radicals was that
linguistics as a discipline REALLY started in 1957. It was
unconventional and old-fashioned to suggest that a course on the
history of linguistics be taught in a department whose focus was on
new linguistics. If such courses were taught, these were labeled "bad
guys" courses. On my part, therefore, it was "linguistic
antiquarianism" when I first taught such a course, and I continued to
teach it until Ladislav Zgusta joined the department and willingly
agreed to share my antiquarian interest. Thus, during the early
sixties, if you talked of applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, or history
of linguistics, you were the lowest of low caste shudra on the
linguistic totem pole (certainly not a desirable position for a Saraswat
Brahmin!). It did not take linguistics too long to enter the phase of
neo-transformationism and neo-Firthianism. The actors on the stage
changed, and so did the focus of interest. We now have the PURISTS
and NON-PURISTS. We have lexicalists and non-lexicalists on this side
of the Atlantic, and, on the other side, we have, among others, the
"Firthians" and "neo-Firthians." Membership in a group is not given
without challenge, and this has added more interest to the polemic
controversies. Consider the following remark of F. R. Palmer about
Halliday:
Today Firth's name is linked with M.A.K. Halliday's "neo-
Firthian' or 'Scale and Category Grammar' which Halliday
explicitly states in his "Categories of a theory of grammar"
to have derived from Firth. But Halliday's essentially
monosystemic categorization seems to me to have little in
common with Firth's approach. (F. R. Palmer, ed.. Selected
Papers of J. R. Firth 1952-58, 8-9, 1968, Bloomington).
The main characteristic of this period is that the much maligned and
ignored area of semantics came back to the forefront of linguistic
investigation. In America, one heard of 'conversational postulates,'
'context,' and 'appropriateness.' It was like going back to Firth's class
in 1958-59. Linguistic antiquarians started going through the
literature on our discipline, and found that these concepts were very
close to Bhartrharis' dkanksd, yogyata and sannidhi. Whitney,
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 7 3
Jesperson, and Henry Sweet — in short, the whole earlier linguistic
tradition — were being studied with interest. And one wondered if
Firth's concept of "contextualization" was not worth revisiting. I keep
bringing up these names from the past since each linguistic
"reincarnation" has left its impression on me.
By 1968, the young team of linguists such as Ken Hale, Chin-W.
Kim, Ted Lightner, Arnold Zwicky, and, of course. Lees, had already
put Illinois on the linguistic map. Among the Ph.D's Illinois produced
during this period were LeRoy Baker, C.-C. Cheng, Austin Hale,
Charles Kisseberth, Ronald Langacker, Frederick Newmeyer, and
Jerry Sadock. They took the positive image of Illinois to the leading
institutions where they were hired.
In 1969, Lees made the decision to move permanently to Tel
Aviv University in Israel in order to initiate a program in linguistics
there. This decision was again in line with Lees personality — an urge
for something new and challenging. In September, 1969, I was
offered the position of Head of the Department, which Lees had
occupied with distinction since the beginning of the Department. The
new role I accepted was both challenging and awe-inspiring. There
were several questions facing us, but the primary one was: What
should be the future direction of the Department? In a sense, the
Department was going through a reincarnation (or, was it
disintegration?). Ted Lightner and Arnold Zwicky left at the same
time as Lees. Budget constraints were suffocating higher education,
and Illinois was not left untouched by all this. The linguistic scene
had again changed in America. And, here we were, attempting to
revitalize a program!
The linguistic revolutionaries of the sixties — primarily the
Transformationists — were close to their forties. If we followed Lee's
dictum, they were close to their retirement from ACTIVE linguistics. A
new generation of their students had emerged on the linguistic scene.
At this point, in line with our earlier Illinois tradition of "radical"
linguistics, we decided to invite a young team of fresh, energetic, and
innovative scholars to the Department. In working out these plans, I
had the cooperation and advice of three persons representing three
areas: Henry Kahane, a historical linguist; Howard Maclay, a
psycholinguist; and Chin-W. Kim, a phonetician and phonologist (he
really does not mind being called just a phonetician!). The first thing
we did was to hire one of our students, Charles Kisseberth. Then
came Herb Stalke, Jerry Morgan, Georgia Green, Chin-Chuan Cheng
and Michael Kenstowicz. It did not take them too long to make their
presence felt in the profession and infuse graduate students with
new ideas. Kisseberth's note (see Section VI) has discussed their
contribution in detail. Michael Geis (who later left for Ohio State
University to become Chairman of the Linguistics Department there),
Yamuna Kachru, and Hans Henrich Hock were already members of
the young team. In 1971 Ladislav Zgusta joined us after an
adventurous escape from Czechoslovakia. He brought with him some
7 4 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
fresh East European air, and his typically European scholarship. In
order to announce our "reincarnation," we started a house journal.
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences (SLS) and a Newsletter. SLS has
become a highly respected journal in our profession.
Once the team was put together, the next question was: How
should the linguistic spectrum unfold itself at Illinois? Again,
continuing the earlier tradition, we decided to have a strong
contemporary orientation. But we also agreed to present all the
aspects of the spectrum of the linguistic sciences at Illinois. We
initiated an area-oriented program in linguistic offerings. Herbert
Stahlke was invited to offer African linguistics; C,-C. Cheng, Chin-W.
Kim, Seichi Makino, and Frederic Lehman offered courses in Far
Eastern linguistics; Yamuna Kachru and I added courses in South
Asian linguistics. Recently, Peter Cole, a graduate of the Department,
joined the faculty for Semitic linguistics. The areas of applied
linguistics were strengthened and expanded; specialization is now
available in historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, mathematical
linguistics, computational linguistics and lexicography. Charles Osgood
and Howard Maclay have further developed a strong program in
psycholinguistics and language acquisition. In short, the
manifestations of language — in all its aspects — are under study and,
like Vdgdevf, the goddess of language, one wonders at the immense
potential and infinite awe of human language.
In linguistics, usually every ten years brings new linguistic
thinking. It is both healthy and fascinating, and demonstrates the
vitality of our discipline. The final question now is: Can linguistics at
Illinois keep up with the new paradigm that might come up in the
next ten years? The answer to this question is difficult, since in the
next ten years my present vocal linguistic colleagues will be in their
forties and, I should guess, will be writing THEIR linguistic auto-
obituaries.
(Received March 1974.)
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 7 5
A Sense of Perspective
Charles W. Kisseberth
From the time I was ten I wanted to write novels. Beginning
about the age of seventeen I wanted to write richly philosophical
novels about the human condition. As the years passed, I settled
more and more for the academic study of literature and philosophy,
drifting finally into a M.A. degree in English literature. I accepted a
teaching position at the college level in Ohio, and thoughts about the
great American novel were submerged in teaching freshmen how to
write their weekly theme. It was during this period that I had my
first exposure to linguistics: Robert Hall's Leave Your Language
Alone! was one of the freshman English textbooks we used. In the
course of casual reading I even came across a little blue book called
Syntactic Structures, but was rather easily frightened away.
In the Fall of 1966 I entered the Ph.D. program in English at the
University of Illinois, but almost immediately decided to switch into
the Department of Linguistics. I enrolled in a couple of elementary
linguistics courses and audited a couple of others. I began to spend
long hours in the "conference room", which was the site of much
animated discussion among linguistics students: I listened most of
the time, said very little, and managed to learn a great deal. Almost
the first student I met at that time was Michael Kenstowicz, who had
entered the Department that Fall and who later was to join the
Illinois faculty with me.
The enthusiasm of the linguistics students and faculty, the
smallness and the intimacy of the department (in striking
comparison to the gargantuan English department), the youthfulness
of the field and of its leaders — all of these things appealed to me
greatly. It seemed as though here was a field of study where papers
and theses that students wrote were not just academic rituals, of no
earthly interest to anyone at all, but rather were potentially
significant documents that might well find a place in the rapidly
expanding "underground literature", then so characteristic of
transformational grammar. One wrote with the expectation of being
read. One didn't have to be a graybeard to join the ranks of the
"scholars" — for the names that recurred most often in classes (in
addition to Chomsky and Halle, we heard most about Haj Ross, George
Lakoff, Paul Kiparsky, Jim McCawley, Paul Postal, etc.) were largely
the names of very young scholars. In many cases they were people
exactly of my age. It was all very intoxicating.
In 1966-67, the transformational camp of linguistics was still in
the era of good feelings. The "bad guys" had been routed and all of
the "good guys" were still good guys. MIT was still mecca, Chomsky
and Halle were still the voices of authority, and what now seems a
quite unhealthy smugness reigned: just as the taxonomic dragons had
been completely vanquished. Language would soon follow. The
7 6 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
dominant mood appeared (at least to me, as a beginning student) to
be that armed as we now were with deep structure and
transformations, ordered rules and cycles, etc., it was just a matter of
time before each problem of language structures would be
confronted and reduced to a simple set of very general principles.
While mention was often made of the complexity of language, I do
not think that we were yet (in 1966-67) being taught to view
language with sufficient awe.
There was much about that period to be regretted: the arrogance
with which we tended to ignore all but those on the inside —
Chomsky and Halle, or their students; the unfortunate manner in
which 'theoretical' contributions to linguistics became the end-all of
doing linguistics, and 'data-collecting', even if well done, something of
no significance. Nevertheless, it was a period that was tremendously
exciting to a new student. The smallness of the number of active
transformational grammarians at the time, and the closeness of the
ties among them, meant that leading figures in the field did not
remain mere names, but very often materialized on campus. For
example, Ross came early in the year 1966-67 and gave a most
remarkable series of non-stop lectures on syntax, including the now
famous demonstration that underlying the sentence "Floyd broke the
glass" is a deep structure containing eight (or is it eleven?) clauses. I
recall vividly the awe with which I listened to these lectures,
understanding almost nothing, but feeling deeply the excitement and
the brilliance of the man at the blackboard.
The sense of being close to the center of things, of being in at the
very beginning of new developments, contributed much to the
excitement. For instance, during my second year of study a letter
from Ross and Lakoff to Arnold Zwicky (who, along with Ted
Lightner, was primarily responsible for teaching me linguistics
during my student days at Illinois) asked the then heretical question:
Does deep structure exist? By Spring 1968 the controversy over a
transformational versus a lexicalist account of nominalizations was
one of the focal points of Zwicky's advanced syntax class. The
summer brought the annual Linguistic Society of America Summer
Institute to the Illinois campus, and the syntax courses were being
taught by Ross, Lakoff, and McCawley. The split between the
Generative Semanticists and the Interpretivists was a constant theme
of that summer. A new set of bad guys had developed.
It was during that Institute that I first met two subsequent
colleagues — Georgia Green and Jerry Morgan. They were students of
McCawley's at Chicago, and had come south to Champaign-Urbana for
the Institute. People with a really good control of syntactic
argumentation, people with a flair for picking sentences out of thin
air that support or contradict some hypothesis, always amaze me.
The student at Illinois who most amazed me in this respect was Jerry
Sadock (who himself was later to join McCawley on the Chicago
faculty). Georgia Green and Jerry Morgan similarly awed me that
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 7 7
summer. In fact, observing their very obvious skills made me feel
sufficiently insecure about my own abilities to question whether I
should attempt a thesis in the area of syntax (as I had originally
been planning). I ultimately discussed the question of what I should
work on for my thesis with Ross, and when he suggested I do
phonology (doubtless to save me from a fiasco), I decided to follow
his advice — and left syntax to those who could do it well.
The year 1968-69 I spent in the Boston area, attending classes
at MIT (Halle, Ross, Chomsky), at Harvard (Lakoff), and at Brandeis
(Perlmutter), and trying to write a thesis. The notion of "conspiracy"
was being discussed in the area of syntax by Ross and Lakoff that
year, and I felt that it had considerable relevance to phonology. It
was Halle who suggested that a study of Yawelmani might be the
source of evidence for the claim that diverse phonological shapes will
have a specified character. The thesis that I ultimately wrote, as well
as my first real paper in the area of phonology, were the direct
outgrowth of Halle's suggestion.
During my stay in Boston, changes were in the works at Illinois.
Lees had decided to take a position in Israel; Lightner accepted a
position at Texas and Zwicky at Ohio State. Although this massive
departure was viewed with alarm by many, I had selfish reasons for
being not altogether displeased: I wanted to return to Illinois to
teach. The mass exodus made this a possibility. As it developed, I
was offered and accepted a teaching position at Illinois for the next
year. One other person was hired at this time — Herb Stahlke, an
Africanist from UCLA.
Although the staff had been largely decimated, Illinois still felt
like home to me. Many of the students had been fellow students of
mine. In particular, Michael Kenstowicz was working on his thesis at
the time, and a regular interchange of ideas about phonology was
quickly resumed. We had both been trained within an atmosphere
where phonological analyses were highly "abstract", in the sense that
proposed underlying structures deviated radically from the surface
forms (and generally matched the surface forms of much earlier
stages of the language) and a complex set of rules (generally
recapitulating historical sound changes) related these abstract deep
structures to their surface realizations. We both joined the rebellion
then developing against this sort of analysis, motived as it was
almost entirely by "simplicity", the desire to capture "significant
linguistic generalizations". We did not necessarily join those who
assumed that phonology must necessarily be extremely "concrete"
(i.e. that underlying forms did not deviate very much at all from
surface forms). But we did want to explore more deeply the question
of whether the "significant linguistic generalizations" that abstract
phonology had found were in fact significant to speakers of
languages, or whether there were other generalizations that were
also of importance. For example, abstract phonology worked under
the basic assumption that the "best" analysis is one where
78 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
phonological alternations are described by rules that have only
phonological conditions governing their scope of application. Rules
restricted to particular morphological structures are less preferred.
We were interested in the validity of such assumptions. Could there
not be conditions under which phonological alternations very
NATURALLY lose their phonological basis, for instance, and come to be
controlled by grammatical conditioning?
During my first year of teaching, plans for developing the
faculty further were being worked out. A position for Kenstowicz
eventually materialized. We were also able to persuade Chin-Chuan
Cheng to join the staff; he had been a student in the department
earlier and had written a dissertation on Mandarin Chinese
phonology. Before coming back to Illinois, he did research at Harvard
and Berkeley, working with William Wang at the latter institution.
With the addition of Kenstowicz and Cheng, the department was in a
strong position in the areas of phonetics and phonology. In Chin-Wu
Kim, who had come to Illinois during my student days, we had
clearly one of the leading phoneticians in the country; but his
accomplishments were even greater — he was equally well-versed in
phonology, and was actively pursuing the phonological investigation
of Korean. In Herbert Stahlke we had a linguist with an extensive
knowledge of the phonological structure — and especially the tonal
structure — of several African languages. In Hans Henrich Hock we
had a man thoroughly trained in the traditional approaches to Indo-
European, but with a rapidly developing interest in synchronic as
well as diachronic phonological investigation of several Indo-
European languages — in particular, Sanskrit and Lithuanian. In
addition to these linguists within the department who were actively
concerned with phonetics and phonology, there were two others
outside the department with whom we had very extensive contact —
Mario Saltarelli and Dieter Wanner of the Spanish, Portuguese, and
Italian department. Both of these linguists are highly productive
researchers in the phonological structure of Romance languages.
Thus, although the teaching of the general phonology courses came to
fall in the hands mainly of Kenstowicz and myself, the extent of the
department's commitment to phonology has been immensely greater.
The principle weakness at this point in the department's
program was syntax/semantics, but fortunately that weakness was
instantly solved when an arrangement was worked out that brought
both Georgia Green (first as a fellow in the Center for Advanced
Study of the University of Illinois, later on a regular line) and Jerry
Morgan to the department. With the arrival of these two, Illinois
became one of the focal points of the new concern with semantics, for
they were the first fruit of McCawley's teaching, and it was
McCawley who was so instrumental in bringing semantics to the
forefront of research.
The faculty that was now assembled to teach the core courses in
phonology and syntax/semantics all shared much in the way of a
History of the Department of Linguistics at The University of Illinois 7 9
common experience and a common reaction to that experience. We
were all trained in linguistics during roughly the same period, we
were all students of the first generation of transformationalists, we
all gained the necessary control of the concepts and methods of
transformational grammar but also learned to think critically about
these concepts and methods, we all developed a healthy skepticism
about formalism, we all developed an appreciation of really good
data collecting. And I hope we all learned not to take ourselves or
our pet theories too seriously. And at the very least we learned to
stand in the proper awe of language.
Transformational grammarians have always been interested in
Language. But the study of Language must be done through the
study of languages. And in the beginning, it was mostly English that
was the source of insights into Language (this was especially true of
the study of syntax, of course). Linguists working within the
transformational framework have more and more come to believe
that the structure of one language cannot be properly understood
unless the linguist avails himself of the knowledge provided by a
study of similar phenomena in other languages. The advantages of a
cross-linguistic perspective are now very generally accepted. One of
the principal virtues of the Department of Linguistics at the
University of Illinois is the extent of its involvement in non-Western
languages. A certain international, particularly a non-Western
outlook was naturally fostered by the presence of a head from the
Indian sub-continent. This outlook was strengthened by the presence
of a substantial number of faculty with a special interest in non-
Western and rare languages — Hans Henrich Hock (Sanskrit), Yamuna
Kachru (Hindi), Braj Kachru (Kashmiri and Hindi), Chin-W. Kim
(Korean and Swahili), Chin-Chuan Cheng (Chinese), Herbert Stahlke
(Ewe, Yoruba), Peter Cole (Hebrew), Ladislav Zgusta (Hittite), Jerry
Morgan (Albanian). The teaching of these languages has made it
possible to support the graduate study of a large number of linguists
from abroad, which in its turn has meant that much of the linguistic
research of the department's students has been directly focused on
non-Western languages. If we accept that a cross-linguistic
perspective is necessary to the analysis of any given language, then
clearly one of the main tasks of any linguistics department is to train
native speakers of a variety of languages to do careful and thorough
research into these languages so that the relevant kinds of
information about their structure will be available to linguists in
general. There is, of course, much already known about the linguistic
structure of such relatively well-known non-Western languages as
Hebrew and Hindi. But the kinds of questions that linguists are
seeking answers to currently are often highly articulated, requiring
very specific types of information that cannot be found in existing
descriptive materials. The necessary ingredient to a successful
utilization of a cross-linguistic perspective is the training of linguists
who can unearth the pertinent aspects of the structure of their
80 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
native language. It is such a training that we are attempting to
provide.
The linguistics program at Illinois seems to me to be
characterized by a high degree of cohesiveness (based on the shared
experience of many of us), but at the same time an openness of
spirit; an intense desire to keep from becoming shackled to familiar
ways of thinking, to old questions; most of all, a sense of perspective.
(Received March 1974.)
PART II
Memorial Tributes to a Builder:
Henry R. Kahane
Memorial Tribute
Musical Prelude:
Cdsar Franck:
Symphony in D-Minor, First Movement
Henry R. Kahane
November 2, 1902 - September 11. 1992
Center for Advanced Study
Professor Emeritus ofLinguisli
Saturday, November 14. 1992
2:30 PM.
Tryon Festival Theater
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Elmer H. Antonsen
Head, DeparUnent of Linguistics
Roberta Kaliane Gamer
Morton W. Weir
Chancellor
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Larlislav Zgusta
Director. Center for Advanced Study
Representative, Linguistics Society of America
Lany R. Faulkner
Dean
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Charles Kahaiie
Braj B. Kacliru
Former Head, Department of Linguistics
Reception:
South Main Lobby, Krannert Center
Henry R. Kahane
November 2, 1902 - September 11,
1992
[ntroduction
This part includes memorial tributes paid to Henry R. Kahane on
November 14, 1992 at the Tryon Festival Theater, Krannert Center
for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Professor Kahane peacefully passed away at his home (808 West
Oregon, Urbana) on Friday, September 11, 1992. He was
professionally active until almost the last day of his life working on
various projects, meeting friends and engaging in intellectual
discussions. He would have been ninety years old on November 2,
1993.
The secular memorial service was attended by a large number
of Kahane's colleagues, friends, students, and admirers. The memorial
tributes were paid by five members of the University of Illinois and,
Professor Kahane's daughter, Roberta Kahane Garner, and his son,
Charles Kahane.
Elmer H. Antonsen: Head, Department of Linguistics,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Henry Kahane was our mentor, our colleague, and our friend for
most of the days of our adult lives. He had become, or so it seemed to
us, such a permanent feature in our intellectual landscape that it is
difficult to grasp his absence.
In German academic circles, from which Henry ultimately
sprang, the common designation for a dissertation advisor is
Doktorvater, literally 'doctoral father'. Henry was certainly the
intellectual father of many a doctor of philosophy, but he was also
something no other can claim to be: he was both the father and the
midwife of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Illinois.
He laid all the groundwork for the Department and devoted
enormous energy and a great deal of time in seeing it successfully
born, but in characteristic modesty, he did not seek appointment as
its first Head. Only much later did he serve a brief term as Acting
Head. He brought great distinction to this University through his
scholarly activities, which won him high office in academic societies,
memberships in scientific academies, and honorary degrees from a
number of illustrious universities. A bit of this glory rubbed off on
us, who were fortunate enough to know him and to work with him.
But it is not this side of Henry Kahane I want to talk about, but
rather about a side not recorded in any Who's Who.
My association with Henry Kahane began in 1958, when I was a
graduate student in what was then called the Department of German.
Before the fall semester began, the chairman of that department.
Professor Frank Banta, who was also a linguist, called me to his office
to discuss my graduate appointment. To my great surprise, he
recommended that instead of a half-time appointment in German, I
take a 1/4-time in German and another 1/4-time as research
assistant to a professor in the Department of Spanish, Italian, and
Portuguese, whom I had indeed heard of, but knew very little about.
My first reaction was 'No'. Why would I want to work for someone in
Romance languages? Professor Banta patiently explained to me the
possible advantages to a student interested in linguistics of working
for Professor Kahane. I accepted reluctantly, thinking of the valuable
teaching experience I would be missing.
In my interview with Professor Kahane, I immediately
discovered a kind person who needed an assistant with a knowledge
of German, since he and his wife and collaborator. Dr. Renee Kahane,
were engaged in research seeking the source of the term grail, so
prominent in medieval literature, and also the identity of the figure
of Kyot, mentioned by Wolfram von Eschenbach as the source of his
Parzival. That year turned out to be a fascinating experience for me,
working in the Kahanes' office, then in the rear of the Modern
Language Library. I saw first-hand how scholars go about the
88 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
business of conducting research and experienced the joy and
excitement that comes from making new discoveries, from finding
new links, from carefully selecting exactly the right turn-of-phrase,
even from the meticulous proofreading of galleys and the careful
checking of quotations and their sources. It was a different world
from the one I was accustomed to, but also one in which I knew I
could be at home.
As it happened, during the following summer the German
Department was unable to provide me with financial aid, which was
a severe blow to my wife and me, since Hannelore was expecting our
first child in August. Somehow, the Kahanes learned of our
predicament and took immediate action. Henry secured a research
assistantship for Hannelore which would keep us both busy and
financially above water for the summer. I am now convinced it was
as much make-work as a pressing necessity for them to have us
translate hundreds of little slips of paper containing words and
phrases from the dialect of Kephalonia betraying Venetian influence
on the Greek of that island. But for us, this work was also a hugely
educational experience. Since Hannelore was a native speaker of
German and I of English, we were able to cooperate in translating the
German translations of these often earthy items into English. It was
another view into the world of scholarship, at the time a little
shocking, which is comprehensible now only in the context of the late
1950's, when From Here to Eternity had to be printed with asterisks
in place of vowels in strategic places.
During that summer we also got to know and love Henry's
mother, who came to our apartment every day for lunch while Henry
and Renee took their children to Wisconsin for a week's vacation.
Frau Kahane, then in her eighties, not only regaled us with delightful
tales of her younger years in the heady intellectual atmosphere of
Vienna and Berlin, she also showed Hannelore how to bathe a new-
born infant and gave her a good deal of practical advice on child-
care. We were flattered to learn from Henry after her death that she
had considered us to be the last new friends she had made.
Henry's interest in us did not end when we left Urbana. He and
Renee continued to take an interest in my career and in our well-
being and had a substantial impact on both, for which Hannelore and
I are both deeply grateful.
A few days after Henry's death. Professor William M. Calder III,
the William Abbott Oldfather Professor of the Classics, wrote some
words to me that I would like to share with you.
I have just received your saddening note. I consider it a
privilege to have known Henry R. Kahane. His life was a model
for every decent scholar. He belonged to a vanishing species. He
was an intellectual. Again and again I met him a nonagenarian
at lectures in classics or German. His emeritude was the chance
to work harder. Solon says wisely "Never call a man happy
Kahane Memorial 8 9
until he has died." We can call Henry Kahane happy. He loved
his work and lived for it. He made a permanent contribution to
human knowledge. He gave generously to students and
colleagues. He had a wonderful wife who was also his closest
colleague. He lived to see two children successful. He had a
famous brother who was a distinguished archaeologist. He was
never bitter at the unfairness with which history treated him.
He was ill for a few days. He died painlessly in his sleep. He is
remembered as a friend by all who knew him.
Roberta Kahane Garner: Department of Sociology and
Anthropology, DePauI University, Chicago, Hlinois
Others may speak today of Henry as a warm, patient teacher
and mentor, a scholar, a vigorous administrator, and a loving father
("familienmensch"). I would like to remember him as a magician and
prankster, whose sense of fantasy, imagination and ironic wit
constituted the core of his being.
Part One: Of masks and mirrors
Much of this playful side of Henry derived from his immersion
as a youngster in the world of theater and his continuing love of the
illusions of the stage. On many occasions he spoke of himself as "the
old actor." Certainly many of my happiest moments with him
centered on plays, and I remember very clearly the wonderful
surprise on my fourth birthday when I received the Little Theater, a
plywood construction with colored lights and velvet curtains for
which my mother and I produced cardboard sets and characters
suspended by wires, while my father and I invented exciting plays
about pyramids and zeppelins. Henry and I also performed as actors
for my mother and grandmother, using as our stage my
grandmother's room behind the curtain that partitioned our small
apartment on Coler Street; one of our best series of plays concerned
the servant Ramona, shrouded in silence to hide her Indian identity
from her masters. What excitement when Papa and Mama prepared
a staging of Pirandello's "Man with a Flower in his Mouth" for the
Spanish and Italian Department, and what a treat it was for me to go
to U of I theater productions with them. Later Henry read to me
many of the great works of the stage — Oedipus Rex, The Bacchae,
Schiller's Robbers — that portrayed the monster or criminal as tragic
hero and the gods as implacable arbiters of human fate.
In short, he keenly felt the illusoriness of social roles, the drama
of history, the pleasures of shape-changing, and the peculiar
interplay of the real interiors and the shimmering surfaces of life.
Part Two: Twoness and manyness.
Henry's lighthearted and playful sense of self also derived from
his life story as a Jew in Europe — an outsider, an "Oriental", a
wanderer — and as a European in America — an exile in Paradise,
90 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
condemned to live in the innocent Eden of a Big Ten college town.
What to some might have been a double alienation, a twofold source
of pain and bitterness, was to him a source of delight and mischief.
He played with these twonesses in his personal life and work. The
role of bilingualism and multiculturalism in his scholarly work is well
known. One of his favorites was The Krater and The Grail, in which
he and my mother found the origins of Arthurian ideals of the soul in
the interplay of Greek and Egyptian culture in antiquity, their
preservation in Byzantine and Islamic forms during the Dark Ages
(whose Dark Ages, anyway?), and their repackaging, recycling and
transmission into Western Europe by Jews and Moors. Those of you
who have seen the illustrations for this book know that he quite
literally put new pictures on Richard Wagner's Wall of Fame.
These ironies at the heart of "Western" culture appeared also in
his personal life. In some ways he was very Central European; for
instance, I never saw him sit, let alone lie, on a sofa, nor eat without
a knife and fork; and he always prided himself on his "Prussian
punctuality." But under his stiff, slightly formal suits he wore shirts
of the softest, silkiest and most colorful fabrics, because in his own
words he was "a Jewish prince," that is to say, sensuous as well as
scholarly. He was also a feminist patriarch, an oxymoron I wish I had
time to explain. He bequeathed these cultural complexities to his
children, who grew up Jewish and Gentile, German and
Mediterranean, Pagan and "People of the Book," European and
American ...
I end this section with another memory of Henry's reading to
me when I was a child: As for all educated Central Europeans of his
generation, the world of classical antiquity — Greece and Rome — was
a wellspring of intellectual life and he spoke of it constantly to me.
But I suddenly realized a month after his death, that he had read
only one account of Roman history to me: A book in German (I do not
know the author) that told the story of the Punic Wars entirely from
the viewpoint of African and Semitic Carthage. I now consider this to
be one of his jokes, one that I understood only forty years after he
played it on me.
Part Three: The word, the magnifying glass and the aleph.
The two things I removed most eagerly after his death from the
office in the library were a mirror and a magnifying glass. To the
mirror I have already alluded when I described his identity as an
actor, playing life's roles. The magnifying glass stands for his close
inspection of words, each word a microcosm of history. The word was
like an aleph, that tiny magical object of Jewish mysticism that
contains within itself the entire universe. For Henry and my mother,
the tracing of word histories was not a work of dry, antiquarian
pedantry, but the squeezing of history into a compressed form
because each word contained within itself class struggle, the clash of
Kahane Memorial 9 1
empires, the migration of tribes, voyages of exploration, warfare with
cannons and Greek fire, love, laughter, pleasures...
To conclude: The ironic and imaginative qualities of Henry's
character also grew out of his childhood in Berlin — the same milieu
that produced the political Freudians, the Frankfurt school, Walter
Benjamin, and Gershom Scholem; for him (as for many intellectuals
nurtured in this milieu) the sophisticated and assimilated Jewish
environment of European rationality rested on a "substratum" of
older, half-forgotten traditions of enchantment that he tried to
recapture in his writings on alchemy, his reading of secondary
sources on the Jewish mystical tradition and his continuing interest
in his own Sephardic, Judaeo-Spanish and Balkan heritage.
To this heritage must be added the fact that he saw himself as a
man who had outwitted Death, Death having appeared to him in the
form of the SS officer who interrogated him in Florence in 1938. He
was well aware that he had escaped only with the help of friends —
gentiles, including Italians and Germans, and foremost among them
my mother; but in any case, to have escaped gave him a pride,
optimism, and toughness, as well as a deep thankfulness to Fate for
the next 54 years of life. Of course, at the end he did not escape
Death a second time, but this time Death came in the gentler form of
old age, and during his last night, he spoke of traveling to Genova
and Athens, returning in thought to his beloved Mediterranean. We
scattered his ashes in the prairie landscape, and I will never forget
the golden rays of the afternoon sun touching the greenness of the
corn plants and the cottonwoods that day. Nature shining with the
magic of his presence.
Charles Kahane: Science Advisor, National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, Washington D.C.
Ordinary, everyday experiences can reveal a lot about a man's
character. I would like to share two happy memories of my father.
When I was 12, we visited Catalonia. We stayed at a brand-new
hotel, with a shiny new espresso machine. When my father saw it, he
said, "Charlie, have you ever seen an espresso machine?" "No." "I'm
going to order an espresso so you can watch how the machine
works." I was fascinated by the complicated preparations, mechanical
activities and hissing noises that went into producing a tiny cup of
black coffee. "Would you also like an espresso?" "No thanks, but is
there any chance the machine also makes hot chocolate?" "Please
give the young man a hot chocolate!" I watched in even greater
fascination as the waiter took a bottle of chocolate milk from the
refrigerator, poured it into a cup, opened the steam valve on the
espresso machine and played live steam on the chocolate milk until it
became hot.
92 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
With my father, every encounter became a learning experience.
He always made sure that learning was not rote memorization, but
discovery and fun. Just as he never stopped teaching, he never
stopped his own learning. Even in his last months, he was studying a
variety of new areas, looking for ways to apply his research methods.
Those last months, when his body refused to cooperate with his
spirit, are imprinted in all our memories. Some of you, perhaps,
never met him till this year. We should try not to remember him
only that way, but how strong he was just a few years ago.
When my father was 68 and I was 21, my parents and I spent a
month hiking in the Pacific Northwest. One morning, in the North
Cascades, my mother felt like staying at the lodge. There was an
unmarked trail that led uphill from the lodge. "We don't know where
the trail goes," we told her, "so we'll walk uphill for a couple of hours,
if it goes that far, and come back for lunch." We started up the hill
without any food or water. After two hours, the scenery was
wonderful, but we hadn't reached any place in particular. "How often
do we have the opportunity to walk a trail like this?" he said, "Who
knows when will be the next time? Let's keep going and see where it
takes us!"
After 4 hours, when we were about 4-5,000 feet above the
lodge, we reached a promontory. To the north, the peaks stretched
far into Canada. Below us, Ross Lake was covered by a layer of clouds
and surrounded by evergreens. We both knew: this was our
destination. A few minutes later it started to snow. We ran most of
the way downhill.
The way my father played that morning is how he worked all
his life. When he had a new idea — when his intuition told him he
was on the right track — he would pursue the idea relentlessly until
he revealed its true meaning and full implications. He inspired all of
us.
Morton W. Weir: Chancellor, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
In a way, it is easier to memorialize a giant than it is to
remember someone of lesser accomplishments. There is so much
more that one can say.
But in another way, it is more difficult, because when the
person's contributions are so many and they are so important, it is
possible to overlook even some that would be the crowning
accomplishments of an ordinary intellect.
Henry Kahane was anything but an ordinary intellect. He and
Renee formed the most remarkable scholarly team that I have ever
known or heard about. For 65 years, they collaborated on books and
Kahane Memorial 9 3
scholarly papers, literally changing the nature of what we know
about cultural linguistics.
This remarkable record of scholarship is well known to you all,
as is the fact that Renee and Henry began their careers here in 1941.
Henry retired in 1971, and at the time of his death, Henry and Renee
have served this campus and its students for more than 50 years.
You may not know about some other aspects of Henry's career,
however. For example, he served for a short while as a foreign
correspondent in Istanbul, writing for a leading Berlin daily. Of this
experience, he was later to write: "... many events that my colleagues
for other foreign newspapers took seriously (I remember as typical
the arrival of a Zeppelin) meant little to me." He soon and wisely
returned to the academic life he really loved.
He served for five years as Headmaster of a boarding school for
refugee children in Florence, Italy.
In 1938, he spent a week in an Italian prison as a kind of
political hostage. Referring to that experience in an interview a few
years ago, Henry said: "A week in prison, I must confess, is quite an
educational experience. Every morning I was shaved, with tender
care, by a lifer who had murdered his entire family."
Henry was instrumental in the formation of the Department of
Linguistics on this campus. He and colleagues from a number of fields
could see that such a department would promote the study of
linguistics, but it took them eighteen years before the Department
was successfully launched in 1965.
You may not realize, either, that after his retirement in 1971 he
served as acting administrator of seven different units on this
campus — four departments, one division, one program, and the
Center for Advanced Study.
He was, in effect, our administrative pinch-hitter. In his quiet,
intelligent, perceptive way he led these units effectively — some of
which were in turmoil when he was asked to preside over them.
Henry was widely recognized and honored. He was the recipient
of two Guggenheim Fellowships. He was named Outstanding Educator
in America in 1974. He and Renee were the recipients of the Silver
Award of the Academy of Athens in 1976.
Henry was awarded honorary degrees from Humboldt
University in Berlin, the Free University of Berlin, and the University
of Illinois.
He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in
1989, a marvelous and well-deserved honor. He also served as
President of the Linguistics Society of America. And of course, he was
a member of our Center for Advanced Study.
9 4 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Whenever I spoke with Henry, he never talked about linguistics
— he probably knew that was hopeless insofar as I was concerned.
We always talked about the library. And he always told me we
weren't allocating enough money to it. Recently he wrote:
The extraordinary library of the University of Illinois, in
which we had our 'study' since the day of our arrival,
proved to be an unending source of support.
Henry Kahane was amazing and productive right up until the
end. Just the other night I was at a dinner and the conversation
turned to Henry. One faculty member with whom I was speaking
said that she had run across Henry in an elevator just a couple of
weeks before his death. He asked her what she was working on and
when she told him he said she should take a look at some relevant
work written nearly 50 years ago — and he later returned to his
office and sent her the specific reference.
I end with that story because it is the essence of Henry and the
essence of scholarship. A giant has indeed passed from our midst. He
cannot be replaced.
Larry R. Faulkner: Dean, College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
In Illinois, in this city, on this campus, I have learned the value
of genius and of commitment.
It is not now fashionable to speak of genius, but it does exist,
and it is of immeasurable importance to a university. I have
encountered here members with extraordinary intellectual power,
far beyond that of merely talented colleagues. Genius allows
achievement and advance that diligence, no matter how great, never
will. There is no substitute for its enriching power.
On this prairie, with nothing in the physical landscape to
distinguish this location from countless others, has developed one of
the truly exquisite locales on the globe. It has gained its merit
entirely from its humanity; its distinction arises from the genius and
commitment that have marked its principal figures in the 20th
century. Henry Kahane was a giant here. He gathered vast ranges of
the humanities into his intellect, and he invented. He saw new ways
of organizing thought and scholarship, and he led. Over and over
again, he led. I am sure that he was head of more departments and
programs than any other individual in the history of our campus.
Chancellor Weir has already mentioned the long, persistent
effort leading to the birth of the Department of Linguistics. Henry
Kahane took pleasure in telling me that story not so long ago. I recall
the brilliant sparkle in his eyes when he explained how he finally
wore down the Dean!
Kahane Memorial 95
Years ago, long before I learned of the magnitude of their
accomplishments, I came to recognize a remarkable symbol of
personal commitment in the brisk walk together of Henry and Renee
Kahane. Almost every day — in the morning, at noon, and in the
evening — they passed by Roger Adams Laboratory on their way to
or from the Library. One did not need to know the details of their
work to see that purpose filled their lives.
Chemistry is my field, so it is perhaps not surprising that I draw
on a chemical vision. Among the most beautiful and useful of all
physical phenomena is crystallization. A striking effect can arise if
one introduces a single tiny crystal, as a seed, into a solution of
molecules at saturation. One by one, new molecules seat themselves
on the faces of the seed, so that it grows to become a different entity,
often manyfold larger than the original. The seed organizes the
surrounding universe to match its own elegant patterns. Henry
Kahane was a seed crystal in this community, and a large, beautiful
product has arisen from his facets.
In Illinois, in this city, on this campus, I have learned the value
of genius and of commitment.
Ladislav Zgusta: Director, Center for Advanced Study,
Professor of Linguistics and the Classics, University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Chancellor Weir has mentioned that Henry Kahane was involved
in the work of many institutions, departments, societies. Of particular
importance was his membership in the Center for Advanced Study of
our University. He was one of the first professors appointed to that
highest academic position on the campus at the very beginning, when
the Center was founded, and for some time he was the Director of the
Center. In this way, Henry's participation was of decisive importance
in the molding of the new institution and in the determination of the
direction which its development was to take. Even when emerited,
Henry frequently came to our gatherings to hear a presentation, or to
take lunch with the Center community. He was as excellent a
companion as he was a penetrating discussant. The Center regrets the
passing away of one of its most eminent members.
One of the national organizations in which Henry played an
important role was the Linguistic Society of America, by the number
of its members probably the greatest professional society of linguists
in the world. Henry was the Society's president and member of many
committees. I cannot fail to mention that it is not only the executive
officers of the Society who asked me to bring their condolences to
this memorial gathering: I received a phone call from the Secretary
asking me also to mention how deeply saddened the whole staff of
the Secretariat's office is and what a fond memory they all have of
Henry's kindness and pleasant way of reaching decisions when he
was President of the Society. It seems to me that to be remembered
96 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
in such a warm way is typical for Henry's ways of dealing with
people.
I frequently asked myself how one can become such a
repository of human knowledge and wisdom as Henry was and it
seemed to me that the answer was in the many dimensions of
Henry's life. The first of those dimensions is obvious: his trajectory
through time was longer than that of most people, and all those
nearly ninety years were marked by constant growth and constant
increase of knowledge. The second dimension, the so to say
horizontal dimension of space, is not less important: Henry lived in
Germany, Italy, Greece, and America. This sounds like not a big deal
in today's world of easy travel, but the point is that this was not
travelling around, those were changes of places where to live. There
is an enormous difference between travelling somewhere and
moving there for life. As anybody who went through the experience
knows, the latter is infinitely more difficult and requires deep,
extensive adjustments in the way how one understands and handles
people and situations. A 'normal' emigre becomes an immigrant once
in life: Henry went through that process three times. It must have
been very difficult, but as a source of experience priceless. The third
dimension of Henry's life is that of his research. Romance linguistics
and philology is one of the richest fields within the Humanities,
because of the number of languages, their long and well attested
history and their rich social and spatial ramifications, and because of
the wealth and importance of the texts preserved in all those
languages. As if this were not enough, Henry combined with this
overwhelming bulk of study an intensive research in the Byzantine
culture. Greek is one of the few languages of the world that have an
attested history stretching over several millenia. The European
tradition has been that of studying in the first line Ancient Greece
and its language; it was only quite recently that a modest interest in
Modern Greece was developed. This caused that the Byzantine
culture has not been studied with the intensity its importance would
deserve. Henry's field of research comprised both these enormous
areas, Romance and Byzantine; one of them would be more than
enough for a lifetime, but Henry roamed through both those vast
intellectual spaces, constantly accompanied by his potnia dlochos, an
accomplished scholar herself, with the virtuosity of the master who
knows where to find new treasures and who is not afraid to tread on
untrodden paths. This par nobile maritorum (if we accept the
changed quotation) developed an ability of combining knowledge
from the two fields, Romance and Byzantine, that will seek its equal
for generations to come.
However, there was yet another dimension in Henry's
intellectual life. During one of the, alas, last lunches I had with him,
we talked about Modernism and its origin; Marcel Dechamp and his
memorable painting submitted to the Salon were, naturally,
mentioned, but also the quotation from, I think, Rimbaud in which
Kahane Memorial 9 7
we are told that 'it is absolutely necessary always to be as modern as
possible'. It was most interesting to see that the nearly nonagenarian
had a much more positive attitude to this piece of wisdom than I,
although nearly a quarter of a century younger. That was typical
Henry: always accepting something new. I think that this component
of his psychology, the proclivity to things new, was the reason why
he as a young man hesitated whether to choose journalism or
Academia as his career. To make up his mind, he spent a year as
reporter of a big German newspaper in Istanbul; but luckily for all of
us, the Muses won. Henry's whole life was marked by symptoms of
this proclivity, of this willingness to accept novelty. For decades, he
has never taken a plane, whether crossing the Atlantic or the
American continent. But then, when he was elected President of the
Linguistic Society in his, I think, eighties (unless they were 'only' his
late seventies), he had to get somewhere in California quickly and
the only possibility how to make it was offered by the plane: without
hesitation he took it and happily kept flying forever after, always
accompanied, of course, by his alter (or in this case, altera) ego. There
was a saying in Rome about Cato, a man who for a long time hated
Greek culture: Cato senex litteras Graecas didicit "Cato learned Greek
when [= in spite of being] an old man"; with equal right we can
proudly say Kahane senex caelum navigare didicit. I am sure that
this attide, this willingness to accept novelty, this constant
orientation towards modern trends, points of view, ways of life, has
caused that Henry during all his nearly ninety years of life always
has been so very young.
Braj. B. Kachru: Professor of Linguistics, Jublee Professor of
Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
I first met Henry and you, Renee, on October 17, 1963, in a
cluttered room behind the present reference room of the Modern
Languages and Linguistics Library. That was almost a generation ago.
And now, this afternoon, I am here to celebrate with you, Renee,
Roberta, Charles, and the friends, students, colleagues and admirers
of Henry, the many ways in which the richness of Henry's life
touched us all. In the tributes paid to Henry this afternoon we have
seen many facets of his personality: his wit and the twinkle shown in
his penetrating eyes, his capacity for immense friendship and
concern, his contagious dynamism and energy, his astute instinct for
academic administration, his integrity and equanimity, and , above
all, refinement and dedication. In short, he was an ideal humanist, a
renaissance man.
But that was only one part of Henry's personality. After all,
Henry was an institution in more senses than one. The other aspect
perhaps less often articulated and less visible, was Henry the rebel,
the activist, and the catalyst for challenge and change. In fact, Henry
98 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
in his quiet way was indifferent to conventions, ignored dominant
disciplinary paradigms, and ignored academic and administrative
norms. He had an extraordinary skill in building bridges between the
present and the challenging future. In 1962, he strongly supported
the appointment of Robert B. Lees to lead the yet-unborn
department of Linguistics at UIUC, for he wanted the future
department to be on the cutting edge of the fast-expanding
discipline. And Lees was an apostle of a new paradigm: provocative,
unconventional and often devastating. Henry ignored all that , for he
saw the future direction of the field. And this showed his academic
vision and foresight.
His persistence in achieving an objective — academic or
administrative — is legendary on this campus. Once, when asked how
he had been able to convince the administration to start linguistics at
the University of Illinois, he answered with typical Kahane wit: "It
was very simple. It took just two things. One, I had to wait until we
got a Dean who was not from the Humanities, because a humanist
Dean invariably shelved the proposal for a linguistics department.
We had to wait until a psychologist became the Dean. Second, I made
it a point to visit the Dean every week to emphasize the importance
of linguistics on this campus. He would throw me out the door and I
would come back through the window." This persistence for an
intellectual cause and for change, and an immense intellectual
curiosity were marks of Henry the activist.
But there was a contradiction, too. Henry was progressive in
ideas, in thinking, in teaching, but he did not quite accept the
material progress of our times. In 1973, Henry responded firmly to
an interviewer: "I don't drive. I don't fly. I don't use a typewriter
and I never look at television. I am a European, and I am very afraid
of machines." {Illinois Alumni News, February 1973:14) This he said
in his charming, consciously preserved, European accent. However,
when Henry was elected President of the Linguistic Society of
America in the 1980s, the position entailed considerable travelling.
He was persuaded to travel by air. And once Henry and Renee had
found their wings, it was difficult to stop them.
This blend of modernism and tradition, combined with an
exuberant and youthful spirit, made the Kahanes unique. And those
of us who set our watches according to the schedule of the Kahanes
will understand what I mean. In a sense their life revolved around
room 427 in the Library Building. In their life style, the Kahanes
provided "... a unique, enviable example of the perfect reconcilability,
for both husband and wife, between a rich and balanced family life
and the rigor and austerity of advanced research." (ibid: p. 14) Who
contributed what to their long academic career of joint research is
difficult to answer. Once, confronted with this question, Henry's
modest answer was, "my wife has the ideas and I write them." And,
as one would expect, Renee protested, "I think that is not right."
Henry clarified: "teamwork is a very complicated thing. As ideas
Kahane Memorial 9 9
develop, one gives one thing and then the other changes it, and then
the first one again." (ibid: p. 14) This was actually the secret of their
very harmonious relationship.
In celebrating Henry's life, then, we are here to celebrate a life
of unusual dedication and a life of deep scholarship, but above all, a
life of warmth and human concern. We are celebrating the life of one
who built programs, brick by brick, and person by person, and
created well-rounded students idea by idea and argument by
argument. Henry's international impact and the respect for him as a
person was evident at the International Conference on World
Englishes Today (April 1-4, 1992), organized to honor him on his
90th birthday, seven months before his actual birthday. And in his
talk at the Conference, he did not talk of the past, but presented an
agenda for the future.
I was fortunate in that I had many opportunities to watch
closely as Henry performed his roles in the classroom, in the library,
as an editor, as a collaborator and as a mentor. I almost said as a
guru, but he did not like that term. We had telephone chats at least
once a week. On Thursday, one day before Henry passed away, he
was optimistically talking, in his usual sanguine and firm tone, of his
future plans, of one-hundred-and-one projects. We even briefly
talked of a volume which we were jointly editing to be released in
1994 to honor one of our mutual friends.
The next day, Friday, at 7:30 p.m., Renee called Yamuna to
convey the grim news. And two hours later, when Henry was taken
from 808 W. Oregon, the five of us, Renee Kahane, Mariam Ahmed,
Yamuna Kachru, Amita Kachru, and myself, who were there to say
goodbye to him represented the world's great cultural traditions: the
Judeo-Christian, the Hindu, and the Islamic. It was not planned, it
just happened that way: a convergence of major faiths and
philosophies of life and living. I believed that Henry would have
liked it that way, for in his ideas, he did not believe in the
boundaries of culture and region. All his life he crisscrossed those
boundaries in his scholarship and in his personal life. As the hearse
turned off Oregon Street on to Lincoln toward Florida, it was almost
dark; the black hearse disappeared, carrying one who has been called
a prince among teachers and a scholar's scholar, and most
importantly, a dear colleague to us all. An era seemed to end as one
wistfully watched the slow-moving hearse. We walked back to
Henry's living room, misty-eyed. And there was Renee with us,
dignified, serene, and even at that moment of loss, concerned about
the comfort of us four.
And on that evening, as Renee and the four of us sat in their
living room, I wondered: has this relationship of years with Henry
come to an end? But, soon I thought of the assurance given by the
wise, the sages, that the physical body may be destroyed, but the
Self can neither be cut, nor burnt, nor be wet or withered, for it is
100 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
eternal, all-pervading, stable, immovable, and timeless. Therefore,
knowing this to be so, one should not grieve, says the Song Celestial,
The Bhagwad-Gita.
PART III
Graduate Student Research 1964-1992
ntroduction
This part includes abstracts of 191 Ph.D. dissertations and 52
Master's theses submitted to the department from 1964 through the
end of the 1991-1992 academic year. These abstracts do not include
dissertations or theses submitted to other academic units at UIUC on
topics related to linguistics, for example. Department of Spanish,
Italian and Portuguese; Department of Germanic Languages and
Literatures; Department of the Classics; Department of East Asian
Languages and Cultures; interdisciplinary program in Second
Language Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE); Division of
English as an International Language; and various units in the College
of Education. A number of dissertations and theses submitted to
these units are directed by the faculty of our department, or they
serve as members of the committees.
Research in Progress lists the dissertations and theses defended
and/or deposited to the Graduate College after August 1992 and also
those which have yet to be defended for award of the degree.
We have also attempted to make this section user-friendly by
including the following indices:
1. Author index
2. Language index
3. Regional index
4. Areas of concentration; and
5. Index of advisors
We hope that this part will be useful to researchers in linguistics
and to our present and future students.
Ph.D. Dissertation Abstracts
[1] Abasheikh, Mohammad Imam 1978
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
The grammar of Chimwi.ni causatives
In this dissertation we have attempted to provide a detailed introduction to
the morphological causative verbs in Chimwirni, an introduction that has
included phonological, morphological, morphophonemic, syntactic, and
semantic aspects. We have shown that the causative is derived either by means
of suffixation or consonant change and that the causative stem may function
either as simply a transitive verb or a true causative (with varying semantic
implications — e.g. assistance, compulsion, persuasion, provision of means).
Some evidence has been presented to show that the true causatives are
appropriately described in terms of a bisentential source whereas those
causatives with just a transitive function ought not be analyzed in the same
way. We have examined a variety of syntactic features of sentences containing
a morphological causative verb. In particular, we have considered the
grammatical verb and how these NP's behave with respect to various
transformational processes in the language.
The emphasis of this dissertation has been on providing a description of
the behavior of Chimwi:ni causative verbs. But in order to present this
description, in a coherent fashion, it has been necessary to suggest various
rules (Predicate Raising, Preposition Incorporation, principle for assigning
grammatical relations, etc.) and rule interactions (Reflexivization before
Predicate Raising, Predicate Raising before Preposition Incorporation, etc.) It
should be noted, however, that we have made no attempt to present a formal
account of these rules or their interactions. Rather we have tried to give some
data justifying these rules and interactions, leaving the details and the
formalism for future research.
We hope that the basic facts about Chimwi:ni causatives presented in this
dissertation can — in conjunction with similar descriptions of other Bantu
languages — provide insight into the structure of the causative verb in Bantu,
and that such insight into Bantu causatives will provide relevant material for
a general theory of causative verbs in human languages.
[2] Abdo, Daud A. 1969
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
On stress and Arabic phonology: A generative approach
Arabic dialects spoken in the Arab countries from Morocco in the west to
Iraq in the east and from Syria in the north to the Arabian Peninsula in the
south differ from each other, even within the same country, in various
respects, particularly in phonological features and lexicon. Most of these
dialects, however, share certain features that are different from Classical
Arabic (CI. Ar.) and Modem Standard Arabic (MSA), the latter being the form
of Arabic that is taught in schools throughout the Arab countries and is used
as the medium of press, formal talks, and the greatest number of radio
broadcasts.
This thesis is opposed by others, e.g. Blau (1965) who maintains that "the
various items, carefully collected by Ferguson to attest to the existence of the
'koine', from which, it is alleged, the modern sedentary dialects have
106 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
developed, do not in our opinion, prove that such a common language really
existed. The 'koine' stands, as we have tried to demonstrate, at the end of the
linguistic process and not at its beginning." Blau attributes the features the
spoken dialects share in contrast to CI. Ar. to a general "drift", or "convergent
lines of development", and to mutual influences. Blau's thesis is that the Arab
conquests during the seventh century A.D. affected their language through
contact with the languages of other peoples "which had lost their flexional
systems."
It is not the aim of this study to deal with this problem of the origin of
modern Arab dialects. Suffice it to say that the differences between these
dialects and CI. Ar. should not be exaggerated, except perhaps in the realm of
the lexicon. In phonology, where the differences are most obvious, excluding
lexicon, it is striking that in most cases the underlying structures for the
spoken dialects dealt with in this study and CI. Ar. are by and large very
similar, and almost identical. The phonetic differences are accountable by
plausable rules, as will be seen in this study.
Although this study concentrates mainly on an Arabic dialect spoken at
Jabal Al-Mukabbir south of Jerusalem, the discussion of stress and some related
matters will not be restricted to this dialect, but will also touch on other
dialects, particularly Egyptian Arabic (Cairo) and Iraqi Arabic (Baghdad), in
addition to CI. Ar., since similar problems are involved in most Arabic dialects,
and I simply chose the ones I am most familiar with (ignoring other dialects
from the Levant because they are similar to Palestinian Arabic).
[3] Abdul-Karim, Kamal Wadih 1980
Advisor: Micheal Kenstowicz
Aspects of the phonology of Lebanese Arabic
Many studies relating to the sound system of Lebanese Arabic (LA) often
times included in works on Syrian and Levantine Arabic, have been conducted
within the traditional framework of Descriptive and Structural Linguistics.
This study is the first major work on the phonological system of LA conducted
in the framework of Generative Phonology.
Lebanese Arabic differs from other colloquial dialects in several
interesting ways. One is the major subdivision of the Lebanese dialects into
differential versus nondifferential dialects. The latter limit vowel syncope to
short high unaccented vowels in open syllables, while the former have
generalized the rule to a and thus apply it to all short vowels regardless of
quality. This generalization of the syncope rule provides important
confirming evidence for the cyclic analysis of stress assignment originally
proposed by Michael Brame for Palestinian and Maltese Arabic. Traditional
research in Levantine Arabic was puzzled by the contrast between fhim-na
'we understood' versus fihim-na 'he understood us', both deriving from [fihim-
na]. Brame accounted for this contrast by proposing a cyclic assignment of
stress to the underlying representations [fihim-na] versus [figim]-na]. In this
dissertation confirming evidence for the cyclic analysis is demonstrated on
the basis of the nondifferential dialects, where [CaCaC] perfects exhibit the
same contrast: drab-na 'we hit' versus darab-na 'he hit us'. We also show that
the possessive suffixes induce a cyclic structure on nouns: cf. samak-na 'our
fish'.
Doctoral dissertations 107
Two different analyses for the differential versus nondifferential
contrast are discussed. One simply deletes a in the context CV, while the second
reduces a to /' in unstressed nonfinal syllables and then syncopates the
resultant / in an open syllable. Further research is needed to decide between
the two alternatives.
In the course of our analysis all of the major phonological alternations
appearing in the inflection of the nouns and the various verb forms — perfect,
imperfect, imperative, lame — are discussed.
[4] Abu-Salim, Issam M. 1982
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
A reanalysis of some aspects of Arabic phonology: A metrical approach
This study attempts to reanalyze some aspects of Arabic phonology,
particularly, Palestinian Arabic (PA), within the metrical framework. First,
the syllable structure and syllabification rules of PA are dealt with in Chapter
2 where it is argued that the syllabification process involves not only rules to
define syllable boundaries and assign structure to syllables, but also other
rules, which have to apply at the time syllabification is carried out. The
placement of such rules among the syllabification rules explains a number of
phenomena, such as shortening of vowels carrying primary stress, that can
not be accounted for by the phonological rules proper. Moreover, the internal
structure of the syllable is examined and it is concluded that McCarthy's
( 1979a, b) analysis of superheavy syllables is inadequate.
Second, the question of how syllables are organized into higher metrical
units is considered in Chapter 3. This issue is directedly related throughout this
chapter to stress assignment in PA, where it is argued that the metrical
approach to stress (prominence) is superior. Moreover, the metrical fool is
argued to be maximally ternary rather than unbounded in PA.
Third, vowel-length alternation is dealt with in Chapter 4. Broselow's
(1976) account of this phenomenon in Egyptian Arabic, whereby vowels are
lengthened before clitics, is discussed and shown to be inadequate. An
alternative analysis is then offered whereby this phenomenon is accounted
for by a vowel-shortening rule. This rule is shown to be simpler if stated in
metrical, rather than segmental, terms. Moreover, the stressed-vowel
shortening phenomenon is considered and a proposal is made to account for
their shortening by a syllabification rule applied at the time syllable and
higher metrical structures are assigned.
Finally, in Chapter 5, various syncope and epenthesis rules are
considered in an attempt to show how these rules modify metrical structures. It
is argued that these rules do not alter the underlying prominence relations
established by the metrical-structure assignment mechanism since they apply
after the metrical structure is erected.
[5] Ahn, Sang-Cheol 1985
Advisor: Chin-Wu Kim
The interplay of phonology and morphology in Korean
The purpose of this study is to propose a more satisfactory explanation for
the various morphologically constrained phonological phenomena in Korean.
108 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
For this, I employ the framework of lexical phonology by Kiparsky (1982) and
Mohanan (1982) and CV phonology by Clements & Keyser (1983).
Chapter 1 provides preliminary information about an inventory of
underlying segments, as well as an overview of lexical phonology and CV
phonology.
In Chapter 2, I examine the word-formation process in Korean and
organize the model of the lexicon which consists of four ordered strata. I also
provide a reanalysis of the three noun-forming suffixes, -/, -im, and -ki which
is related to the Avoid Synonymy Principle of Kiparsky (1983). Finally, 1
reanalyze the Korean syllabification process.
In Chapter 3, I discuss several consonant-related problems. First, I argue
that the controversial tensification phenomena should be regarded as several
different processes. For the so-called "Bindung-s" phenomenon, I propose the
underspecified c-epenthcsis rule instead of the traditional t- and n -
epentheses. Second, I discuss two types of palatalization phenomena in Korean;
lexical r-palatalization and post-lexical palatalization processes. 1 also argue
that phonological opacity is explained by correct morphological analysis.
Third, I reanalyze the "so-called" irregular conjugation of the p-, /-, s-, h-, and
/- predicates within the framework of CV theory. Finally, I discuss the
miscellaneous aspects of aspiration, consonant cluster simplification, and
coda-obstruent neutralization.
Chapter 4 deals with several vowel-related problems. First, I discuss the
vowel harmony process and the reduplication in which I propose to recognize
two kinds of vowel harmony in Korean, each dividing the vowel chart in its
own way and being differentiated from each other in terms of the lexicality
vs. post-lexicality distinction. Second, I reanalyze the i-deletion phenomena
and recategorize them into two groups; lexical vs. post-lexical. I also discuss
the i-analogy phenomenon which occurs in the process of children's
overgeneralization of suffixation. Finally, I elaborate on the vowel shortening
process.
In Chapter 5, I review the thesis and discuss some of the implications.
[6] Ajolore, Olusola 1974
Advisor: Howard Maclay
Learning to use Yoruba focus sentences in a multilingual setting
Focus sentences are so important in Yoruba that it is hard to picture what
the language would be like without them. Their arrival in a child's language
development thus marks an important point in his linguistic development.
This dissertation, based on data from adult Yoruba and child language,
tries to do two things. It tries to present an adequate analysis of adult Yoruba
focus sentences, and to account for how Taye and Kein (the two children
studied) came to learn to use these sentence types. These two tasks are not easy
to perform, and so not commonly found in language learning accounts.
After describing the children, their socio-linguistic background, and the
data, the dissertation defines focus sentences, and links them with identical
linguistic phenomena in English. In showing some of the characteristics of
this sentence type, an attempt is made to show that one type of negation in the
language is possible if and only if there is a focus sentence construction. The
study shows that one form of reflexivization in the language (and incidentally
Doctoral dissertarions 109
in English) does not require the clause-mate condition, but that it occurs to
prevent a syntactic gap.
A proposal for analyzing focus sentences reveals that:
Ore n i o r a isu
Ore be he bought yams
'it was Ore who bought yams'
transformationally derives from
Ore n i en i ti o r a isu
Ore be one who he bought yams
'Ore was the one who bought yams'
which in turn derives from
eniti o ra isu neore
one who he bought yams be Ore
'the one who bought yams was Ore'
It reveals that there is no known way of transformationally deriving focus
sentences of the type just seen from their traditionally related non-focus
sentence:
Ore ra isu
Ore h e bought yams
'Ore bought yams'
and that an attempt at deriving them differently than as sketched in this study
will leave many grammatical focus sentences unexplained and so must be
judged observationally inadequate, or do so only at the cost of a very complex
machinery the type not really called for.
It argues that the Extraction Theory proposed by Grosu (1972) and
Akmajian (1970) for analyzing English pseudo-cleft sentences, the English
counterparts of Yoruba focus sentences, cannot handle the Yoruba data, and
that in fact it cannot cope with what it is intended to do. I show that my
proposal can handle English focus sentences adequately, including the ones
which all existing analyses have no answers for.
The second part examines the language learning data, and reveals that
the rules by which adult focus sentences are derived do not help to explain
how Taye and Kein learned these sentences. On the contrary, there is reason to
believe that they learned by imitation, and pattern copying, and by careful
use of semantic cues. The gap between the linguistic description and the
language learning data is shown to be inherent in generative grammars
which say that they have nothing to offer concerning how language is
perceived and produced.
Taye and Kein are shown to have learned certain oppositions very early
in life and these are used to project how they probably learned language.
Semantic notions like animacy, humanness, dependency, agent, initiator,
affected, action or attribution, possessor-possessed, and location or direction of
objects and people are suggested as cues which the child uses in learning to
speak. The dissertation suggests that an adequate theory of child language will
have to integrate all of these with the use of imitation in its wide and true
sense with the use of imitation in its wide and true sense, and the place of the
model. This it argues, means that biologists, neurologists, speech experts,
110 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
linguists, sociologists and psychologists must have to team together to produce
such a theory.
[7] Alghozo, Mohammad Hamdan 1987
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
Syncope and epenthesis in Levantine Arabic: A nonlinear approach
The nonconcatenative morphology of Arabic played a prominent role in
the development of CV phonology. McCarthy (1979, 1981) showed that many
Arabic word formation rules can be conceived of as stipulating a CV template
to which the segmental phonemes are autosegmentally mapped. In addition, he
showed that the Semitic root pattern system can be reduced to the assumption
that radical consonants and vowels are on separated tiers representing
different morphemes. The development of underspecification theory
(Archangeli 1984) made it possible for the radical consonants and the vowels
to be minimally specified in the lexicon, and for the phonological rules to
apply and refer to tiers rather than the whole representations. In this study,
we argue that the above assumptions are essential: first, to explain an
otherwise problematic set of alternations found in some Modern Levantine
Arabic dialects; and second, to provide an explanation for the effects of
emphatic consonants on other neighboring segments in various Arabic
dialects.
The assumptions made in this study are: (1) The syncope rule deletes a
mere V slot from the skeletal tier and the vowel associated with it remains
floating. (2) Epenthesis rules insert an empty slot which will be (a) associated
with a floating vowel if available; (b) otherwise, associated with a high stem
vowel; (c) otherwise, associated with an empty matrix. Redundancy rules of
different types will fill in the values of the front vowel / in the empty matrix.
(3) The interaction between redundancy and phonological rules will provide
the desired epenthetic vowel u in emphatic contexts and prevent the same
vowel in the same contexts from getting rounded when (a) syncope feeds
epenthesis within a stem or (b) the stem vowel is the high front /. Evidence
and arguments for assumptions (1) and (2) are presented in Chapter 3, and
those for assumption (3) are presented in Chapter 4. Chapter 1 serves as an
introduction to the study, and Chapter 2 briefly discusses syncope and
epenthesis rules.
[8] Awoyale, James Oladuntoye Yiwola 1974
Advisor: Herbert Stahlke
Studies in the syntax and semantics of Yoruba nominalizations
This study is an attempt to characterize Yoruba nominalizations, and on
that basis to enrich our understanding of the processes that a natural
language can use to create new lexical items that are too large to be found in
any dictionary. This investigation is imperative for several reasons. First, the
processes have not been characterized in the language before, in the way we
have done here, at least not to our knowledge. This does not mean that
nominalizations are not important in Yoruba. In actual fact, it is our
contention that the same information that speakers use in forming sentences
is used in creating new words out of existing forms in the language. The
creativity that makes somebody know and use the infinite number of
sentences of a natural language, underlies the production and use of
compound forms in the language.
Doctoral dissertations 111
Our success in describing this knowledge will depend first on substantive
evidence from individual languages and what it provides for explaining
language as a form of communication. Such substantive evidence will include
the morphology of the language, which will tell us how new words are derived
and how productive the processes are. We might then begin to understand why
a speaker can tell whether a new word belongs to his language or not, just as
he can tell whether a sentence is part of his language or not.
The information we have on Yoruba indicates that it is possible to dissect
its complex lexical items formally, without doing it intuitively alone. That is, it
is possible, given a nominal compound, to pull apart both the affix and the
stem. This is our approach in this dissertation. Both the stems that the affixes
take, and the affixes that the stems take are looked at in detail in order to
determine what principles govern their association. What previous writers on
Yoruba have done is to list the affixes and the nouns they can form. The
nominal compounds were not related to sentences in the language, nor were
the stems correctly identified as to whether they are verbal or ideophonic.
[9] Bader, Yousef Farhan 1984
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
Kabyle Berber phonology and morphology: Outstanding issues
This thesis presents a novel account of the most important phonological
and morphological processes operating in a Berber language — Kabyle —
spoken in parts of Algeria. The study is conducted within the framework of the
recent theories of syllable structure (with emphasis on the CV and Onset and
Rime tiers), autosegmental phonology, and lexical phonology and morphology.
First, the syllable structure of Kabyle is investigated. This language will
be seen to have a relatively simple syllable structure, compatible with
universal rules. Then, I show that the puzzling problem of the schwa in
Kabyle and another Berber dialect can be easily accounted for if a set of
syllable-building rules specific to these languages is devised. The
syllabification scheme will also be demonstrated to explain the phonological
alternations associated with the 'bound' state of the Kabyle noun as well as
with some vowel sandhi phenomena. In addition, the problem of
syllabification at the word and/or the phrase level and its implications for the
linguistic theory will be discussed. Finally, in the domain of phonology, I will
show that the distinction made within lexical phonology between lexical and
post-lexical rules is able to account for some consonant sandhi phenomena.
In the realm of verbal morphology, two attempts are made. First, the
model of autosegmental analysis which allows reference to levels of
representation or tiers other than the surface segmental representation of a
string (McCarthy, 1979) is made use of in order to explain the Kabyle verbal
allomorphy. Second, I attempt to account for the same verbal allomorphs
within the framework of Lieber (1980) who argues that the morphological
alternations (allomorphs) of a verb must be listed in the lexicon, with
relationships among them expressed by means of devices called morpholexical
rules. Each analysis will be shown to bear at least one important consequence
for the purpose of understanding Kabyle verbal roots and their derivatives.
112 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
[10] Barjasteh, Darab 1983
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
Morphology, syntax, and semantics of Persian compound verbs:
A lexicalist approach
This dissertation deals with morphology, syntax and semantics of Persian
compound verbs from a lexicalist viewpoint. The following is a summary of the
major points discussed in this study.
In Chapter 1, 1 show that the morphological, syntactic and semantic
properties of Persian compound verbs have not received proper treatment in
the past. To this end, I take the position that an adequate analysis of this
phenomenon is possible within the general perspective of the "Lexicalist
Hypothesis."
In Chapter 2, I discuss the phonological, morphological and syntactic
characteristics of Persian simple verbs. Unlike previous proposals, I suggest
that all Persian verbal stems are registered in the lexicon. However, prior to
being mapped onto the underlying P-markers, 1 argue that such stems
undergo a number of lexical rules.
In Chapter 3, a distinction is made between gerundive nominals and
derived nominals. It is shown that while the former category are derived
syntactically, the latter are constructed in the lexicon. Such a distinction is
argued to provide an explanation for a regular tendency in all Persian
gerundive nominals which do not undergo compound verb formation
processes.
In Chapter 4, two major categories of simple and compound derived
nominals are examined. It is argued that while a syntactic analysis of these
nominals has a number of shortcomings, a lexical approach to the problem is
fairly adequate.
In Chapter 5, the phenomenon of verbal compounding is discussed. Based
on a number of criteria, it is argued that a large ponion of Persian compound
verbs are separable by various syntactic transformations. In this chapter, it is
also argued that, first, the process of compound verb formation, similar to the
case of derived nominals is lexical; second, unlike previous claims, such
processes reveal a remarkable pattern of regularity.
[11] Barkai, Malachi 1972
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
Problems in the phonology of Israeli Hebrew
This dissertation covers the principal part of modern Hebrew phonology.
The introductory chapter sets out the morphological "background" for the rest
of the work, with a fairly complete outline of the Hebrew verb and noun.
Two main problems in Hebrew phonology are the a) "gutterals" and b)
spirantization. In the former case, it is shown that there is a lowering of front
vowels in the environment of a guttural, provided these vowels are either in a
prefix or epenthesized, but vowel lowering does not affect (non-prefix) base
vowels. It is claimed that prefixed and epenthesized vowels carry tertiary
stress (as opposed to other vowels which are primarily or secondarily
stressed), and that an output condition assigns tertiary stress to epenthesized
vowels.
Doctoral dissertations 113
The question is also broached as to whether there is justification for
setting up two pharyngeal continuants /'/ and /H/ both of which are
absolutely neutralized; the former as a glottal stop, the latter as a voiceless
velar fricative. Evidence is brought, inter alia, from children's speech to
support arguments against a /'/ phoneme, and a 'concrete' approach is
adopted, i.e. historical /'/ has been replaced synchronically by /? / plus
certain exception features. Historically, some rules are applied to /'/ but not to
/?/. Arguments, based on children's interpretation of adult grammars, are
presented to show how these exception features should be distributed in the
adult's lexicon.
An underlying /H/ is however, shown to be justified, although it is
absolutely neutralized as x. One important difference between the
"recognition" of /H/ but not /'/ is that the former is realized phonetically as a
non-guttural, but the latter remained within this class after the change. Since
about half of the twenty odd rules of Hebrew phonology refer directly or
indirectly to the gutturals — this difference in realization is crucial.
As regards spirantization, the frequently held view that this can be
described as a phonologically determined phenomenon is refuted. It is shown
that the language is in the course of change which has, to some extent,
replaced the "old" spirantization rule by increased dependence on the
morphology. Differences between adult and child interpretations of
spirantization are discussed and theoretical implications arising herefrom are
stated. One recently added rule to the grammar involving the dissimilation of a
stop to a fricative after another stop in two of the seven verb classes is
examined. Arguments and evidence are presented to show that this rule was
probably added by adults, and that the rule is "rejected" by children in the
developing stages of their acquiring the language. The dissimilation rule
actually leads to what may loosely be called "analogy", and the possibility of at
least some types of analogy being caused by adults is raised.
A third chapter discusses the ordering of the rule of voicing assimilation,
which has to precede a morphologically conditioned metathesis rule. It is
argued that certain substantive factors have to be considered in evaluating
grammars, as well as purely formal ones; both in connection with this
ordering relationship and as regards the metathesis rule itself.
In the final chapter the inter-reaction between schwa-insertion and
consonant lengthening is discussed, and a summary of the rules is given.
[12] Barnitz, John Gerard 1978
Advisor: Howard Maclay
Children's development of syntactic aspects of reading comprehension:
Pronoun-referent structures
This experiment was conducted to understand the development of
comprehension of pronoun-referent structures involving the pronoun "it" by
standard English speaking children in grades 2, 4, and 6.
In each grade, comparisons within linguistic factors were made:
1. Referent Type: Pronoun-referent structures where the referent is a
noun or noun phrase (NP) vs. Pronoun-referent structures where
the referent is a clause or sentence (S).
1 1 4 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
2. Reference Order: Pronoun-referent structures where the pronoun
follows its antecedent (Forward Reference, FW) vs. pronoun referent
structures where the pronoun precedes its referent (Backward
Reference, BW).
, 3. Referent Distance: Pronoun-referent structures where the pronoun
and referent are within the same sentence (Intra) vs. structures
where the pronoun and referent are located in separate sentences
(Inter).
These structures were embedded into experimental passages of eight
different passage types: NP (FW, Intra), NP (BW, Intra), NP (FW, Inter), NP (BW,
Inter), S (FW. Intra). S (BW. Intra), S (FW, Inter), and S (BW, Inter). Four
passages were constructed with each of these possible antecedents for the
pronoun, one correct antecedent and two disiractor items. The forward and
backward versions of a story containing the same referent type and referent
distance were written with the same content to control for background
knowledge influences on the structure. The two versions of each story were
alternately assigned to two forms of experimental booklets. Thus, each booklet
had the same number of forward vs. backward structures; but no booklet had
two versions of the same passage. In the experimental booklet, each of the 16
passages is followed by a question asking a child to recall the antecedent.
The three schools in which the experiment took place serve a
predominantly "blue collar" or working class community in East Central
Illinois. Protocols of second graders reading below grade level or having
significant decoding difficulty were eliminated on the basis of standardized
achievement test scores and/or teacher judgements on survey sheets.
Furthermore, protocols of children of below average intelligence were not
included. This was done to guarantee that all the native English speaking
children had enough reading ability and intelligence to perform the task. The
mean reading levels for the children whose booklets were used in the analysis
were at grade level.
The children were tested within their regular class. Each child was
handed one of the two forms of the experimental booklet and was asked to read
each story and answer one question based on each story.
Analyses of variance were applied to the data. Along the dimension of
referent type, passages containing pronoun-referent structures where the
referent is a noun phrase had significantly higher scores than passages with
structures where the referent is a sentence. Along the dimension of reference
order, passages with forward reference order also had significantly higher
scores than passages with backward reference order. There was a strong trend
within passages with intra-sentential structures: forward reference had
higher scores than backward reference. Yet the reference order factors had
less effect on inter-sentential structures. Along the dimension of referent
distance, intra-sentential pronoun-referent structures were not significantly
higher than inter-sentential structures. Yet for sentence pronominal
structures, intra-sentential pronominals had higher scores than inter-
sentential pronominals. The opposite occurred for passages with noun phrase
pronominals. Although some pronoun-referent structures are well
comprehended by second grade (e.g., NP (FW, Intra)), the comprehension of
other structures are still being developed well into the middle grades.
These findings are discussed in the light of research findings in reading,
linguistics, and psycholinguistics.
Doctoral dissertations 115
[13] Bentur, Esther 1978
Advisor: Charles W. Kissebcrth
Some effects of orthography on the linguistic knowledge of modern Hebrew
speakers
Languages should be studied without reference to writing systems — that
is one of the basic assumptions of modem linguistics. Most speakers intuitively
feel, however, that the exposure to the orthographic system clearly
contributes to one's knowledge of the language. The object of this study is to
empirically demonstrate that the orthographic factor does play a role in the
process of grammar formulation, and must therefore be regarded as
linguistically significant.
Several linguistic tests were conducted with speakers of modem Hebrew.
In order to isolate the crucial factor (i.e. the availability of orthographic
information), the tests were presented in both oral and written versions and
were mn with two groups of subjects: literate and preliterate native speakers.
It is argued that unless it is assumed that orthographic information
affects (maybe subconsciously) the linguistic behavior of literate adults, a
plausible account for the results found in these tests cannot be provided.
The conclusions of the study are:
1 ) Exposure to the orthographic system might lead to the reformulation
of phonological rules, as additional information which cannot be
recovered from the available oral data becomes accessible.
2) Orthographic representations play an important role in identifying
and distinguishing between morphemes and consequently in
establishing their relatedness in other lexical items.
3) Lexical representation may be modified as a result of the availability
of additional linguistic information which can be recapitulated only
from the orthography.
4) Orthographic distinctions may lead to the establishing of phonemic
contrasts.
Since orthographic information clearly contributes to the process of
grammar formulation, and given the accessibility of written data to the
average speaker in most modem societies, it is concluded that orthographic
systems should be treated as linguistically significant sources of data. Unless
such data are incorporated into the linguistic model, the picture one gets about
speakers' competence might be partially distorted and far from characterizing
adequately what they really 'know' about their language.
[14] Berns, Margie Sue 1985
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
Functional approaches and communicative competence: English language
teaching in non-native contexts
Recently considerable attention has been given to communicative
approaches to language teaching, which have grown from the realization that
knowledge of grammatical forms and structures alone does not adequately
prepare learners to use the language they are learning effectively when
communicating with others. It is also an outgrowth of renewed interest in the
view of language as communication, a view associated with functional
116 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
approaches to linguistics, which have been acknowledged as the theoretical
base of the development of communicative language teaching theory and
practice. However, the relationship between communicative language
teaching and functional approaches to linguistics is far from clear.
This study explores the relationship of functional approaches and
communicative language teaching through a consideration of the Prague and
British linguistic traditions, concepts such as communicative competence,
intelligibility, and model, the nature of English language use and teaching in
the contexts of India, Japan, and West Germany, and the application of
American and European communicative approaches to the development of
English language teaching materials designed for English language learners
in these three non-native contexts.
As an applied study, it does not claim to offer solutions to pedagogic
problems, but to provide a means by which such problems may be solved. One
of its objectives is to show how a theoretical model for linguistics can be used
for classroom purposes by relating a linguistic framework to actual classroom
materials and activities. It also offers a clarification of linguistic principles,
drawn from the functional linguistic models of the Prague School and the
British linguistic tradition, which can guide in the development and
implementation of communicative language teaching models which are
responsive to the needs of a growing number of learners of English in non-
native contexts.
This study also addresses applied and theoretical implications for teacher
training, cross-cultural communication, models in the pedagogical context,
intelligibility in the classroom, and syllabus design.
[15] Bhatia, Tej Krishan 1978
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
A syntactic and semantic description of negation in South Asian
languages
This study accounts for the syntax and semantics of negation in six South
Asian languages, four belonging to the Indo-Aryan group (Hindi, Marathi,
Nepali and Punjabi), one to the Dravidian group (Kannada) and one to the
Dardic group (Kashmiri). In the process of characterizing the formal
properties of negation, various theoretical and language-specific problems
are discussed.
The dissertation is divided into seven chapters. In the first chapter, the
goals, methodology, framework and scope of the dissertation are outlined.
Chapter II ("The Syntax of Negation") illustrates that the syntax of the
languages under discussion follows two syntactic patterns. In one group of
languages, (Hindi and Punjabi) the negative particle is realized in the
preverbal position, while in the other group (Kannada, Marathi, Nepali and
Kashmiri) it is realized in the postverbal position. It is also shown that in these
languages the surface distribution of NEG particles is semantically and not
morphologically conditioned. The conditions under which these positional
constraints are violated are also presented. A rank order of postverbal NEG
languages is established on the basis of fixed order of negative particles.
Chapter III ("Deletion and Negation") discusses various negation-sensitive
deletion rules. It is shown that such deletion is subject to grammatical and
pragmatic conditions. These deletion processes, together with the absence of
Doctoral dissertations 117
scope specification rules, such as NEG-incorporation, set the stage for potential
massive ambiguity in the language. Chapter IV ("Quantifiers and Negation")
discusses the syntax and semantics of quantifiers under negation. Chapter V
("NEC-Raising") is a pragmatically governed optional rule. The inadequacy of
the concept 'optional rule' in current linguistic theory is discussed in detail.
Chapter VI ("Negation and Subordination") shows that several constructions,
such as causatives and consecutive-action constructions, are not permitted on
the grounds of semantic incongruity caused by negation in subordinate
clauses. It is also demonstrated that negation in subordinate clauses does not
favor reduction processes. The final chapter provides a summary and
conclusion.
The dissertation also attempts to relate the topic under discussion to the
concept of India as a "linguistic area", and to investigate the strategics which
these six languages adopt to resolve potential ambiguities and thus facilitate
the processing of negative structures.
[16] Biava, Christina Mary 1992
Advisor: Howard Maclay
Comprehension and recall of figurative language by nonnative
speakers of English
This study attempted to extend some of the findings in figurative
language research over the past 10-15 years to a population not often tested in
this area before, nonnative speakers of English. Most metaphor researchers in
psycholinguistics have come to believe that nonliteral language is a vital
component of language, not a "special" part that is acquired only after literal
language has been acquired or that requires a different type of processing
than literal language. The few studies done on nonnative speakers, on the
other hand, concluded that figurative language was harder for these speakers,
an aspect of the L2 that was to be avoided.
This study tested 124 international students in two intensive English
programs in the spring of 1991. The study included two parts, a multiple-
choice test of comprehension and a cued recall task. The three hypotheses that
were tested in this study — that comprehension of literal and figurative items
would be equal, that comprehension of metaphor and simile items would be
equal, and that recall of literal and figurative items would be equal — were all
supported, using ANOVA procedures. In the comprehension results, there was
no statistically significant difference between literal and figurative items and
metaphor and simile items. This held true, regardless of cultural background
or English language proficiency. The third hypothesis was also supported in
that figurative recall was not only as good as literal recall, but significantly
better than it.
Thus, the results of this study, while supporting a decade of findings in
psycholinguistic research on metaphor, make a somewhat counterclaim for
second language researchers. However, it must be stressed that the handful of
figurative language studies using nonnative speakers are not exactly
comparable. Many of those studies used highly conventionalized figurative
language, such as idioms, while this study used novel metaphors. Also, most of
those studies investigated production while comprehension and recall were
the subject of the present study.
1 1 8 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
[17] Bolozky, Shmuel 1972
Advisor: Charles W. Kissebcrth
Categorical limitations on rules in the phonology of modern Hebrew
My purpose in this thesis is to show that in the morpho-phonological
component of Hebrew, it is natural for rules to be restricted to grammatical
categories, and that vacuous extension of the domain of categorial rules to the
whole grammar should be avoided — even if "it works". Claims of this nature
have been made before, but 1 will be trying to point out the extent to which
they are true of Modem Hebrew. I wish to show that it is particularly natural
for rules to be limited to the verb system due to its great productivity,
especially with regard to borrowings, i/e a (Chapter IV), two vowel deletion
rules (Chapter V) and two sub-rules of stress (Chapter VI) will be given as
examples of rules that are categorial, and I will argue that they should remain
so. Apparent scattered manifestations of such rules beyond the category
concerned should be treated separately. Chapter VII gives an illustration of a
constraint that used to be general and recently has narrowed down to the
verb; in other words — an actual proof that certain linguistic processes tend to
be limited to a category. Chapters I, II and III are introductory in nature, and
thus do not constitute an integral part of the body of this thesis: Chapter I
provides the general background for Standard Modem Hebrew and for root-
pattern analysis. Chapter II explores various possible treatments of the
underlying representation, and Chapter III discusses the possibility of not
representing gutturals underlyingly and how it would affect the whole
analysis.
Previous publications, the findings of which arc incorporated in this
thesis, are "i/e Alternations in the Hebrew Verb and the Question of 'Vacuous
Generalization'", Hebrew Computational Linguistics No. 5, Bar-Ilan University
(Israel), February 1972.
"On Morphological and Phonetic Constraints in Modern Hebrew", to
appear in Hebrew Computational Linguistics No. 6, Bar-Ilan University
(Israel).
[18] Bouton, Lawrence F. 1969
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
Pro-sententialization and the DO IT construction in English
In his thesis, Ross (1967) suggested at one point that all sentences
containing non-stative verbs originate as complement sentences embedded on
instances of do. That same year, Anderson (1967) also proposed a stmcture of
this sort. His contention: that a large class of verb phrases "should be
represented as embcddings, the complements of the verb do." Furthermore,
Anderson was writing within the framework of a non-cyclic transformational
theory. This thesis will set out to determine what fundamental assumptions
must be made if one is to adopt the proposals of Ross and Anderson, and
whether these assumptions are sound within a transformational grammar that
does include a cyclic transformational component.
My intention is to test the proposal that the phrase do it be derived from a
deep structure do + a complement sentence object within the framework of a
transformational grammar that employs the transformational cycle. In the
process, we will review some of the evidence presented by Anderson and
present other evidence that bears on the question we are investigating. We
Doctoral dissertations 119
will start in chapter two by asking whether pronouns representing sentences
or verb phrases need to be assumed to be derived from underlying sentences
or whether they can occur as pro-forms in the deep structure itself. We shall
then turn our attention to what constituents must underlie the anaphoric it of
do it. In chapter three, we will compare these minimal constituents of the
complement of do with those of other sentences and find them to be essentially
the same. In the process, we will take issue with Anderson's claim that the
identity constraints on pronominalization of sentences require that non-
identical constituents in such sentences be deleted before the
pronominalization rule applies to them. By tying do it so closely to other verb +
complement constructions, we will have presented a situation in which
considerations of simplicity will urge that the deep structure do + complement
proposal be adopted. In chapter four, we will try to make the proposal work,
analyzing some quite difficult problems inherent in it as it was put forth by
Anderson. And finally, in chapter five, we shall draw what conclusions we
must as a result of our confrontation with those problems.
[19] Burt, Susan Meredith 1986
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Empathy and indirect quotation in Japanese
This dissertation is concerned with resolving a disagreement in the
linguistic literature about indirect quotation, specifically in Japanese. On the
one hand, Kuno (1972) and authors of related work (Kuno & Kaburaki (1977),
Kamada (1981)) have argued, partially on the basis of so-called "empathy"
phenomena, that indirect quotation must be grammatically related to direct
quotation, and that the mechanism of deriving the former from the latter is
most appropriate. On the other hand, works such as Banfield (1973) and
Gallagher (1970) have argued against such derivations. Clearly, if the position
taken by this second group of authors is to retain its validity, it is necessary to
reconcile the data of Kuno and others with the non-derivational position. This
is the aim of this dissertation.
In order to make the argument accessible, the first chapter gives a
general outline of the types of data under discussion. It discusses, first, the
phenomenon of empathy in Japanese, and second, the nature of indirect
quotation in Japanese. The first chapter also gives examples showing the
interaction of empathy (Kuno & Kaburaki 1977) and for theories of indirect
quotation. The second chapter reviews analyses of empathy and of indirect
quotation, those of Kuno (1972), Kuroda (1973a), Kuno & Kaburaki (1977),
Ogura (1978) and Inoue (1979).
Chapter III gives arguments, both from English and Japanese, against the
analysis that derives indirect quotation from direct. Chapter IV applies Cole's
(1978a) idea of propositional and quotative complements to indirect quotations
containing empathy verbs, and shows how the idea of these two kinds of
complements can illuminate some aspects of the data. This chapter also shows
how pragmatic principles can explain exceptions in the data to a
propositional/quotative analysis.
Chapter V builds on the data of Chapter IV and proposes an explicitly
pragmatic analysis to patterns of empathy in indirect quotation in Japanese,
by proposing a new pragmatic maxim, the Viewpoint maxim. This chapter also
discusses the question of status — grammatical or cultural — of empathy
phenomena in general.
120 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
[20] Carreira, Maria Margarita 1990
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
The dipthongs of Spanish: Stress, syllabification, and alternations
The intricate system of Spanish diphthongs has generated much
discussion in Spanish phonology as well as in the development of numerous
theories of syllable structure. In this dissertation, it is my claim that many of
the difficulties posed by the diphthongs of Spanish can be dispensed with if we
assume that they are derived structures rather than primitive syllable types.
Falling diphthongs are derived prior to initial stress assignment from two
adjacent syllable nuclei, where the second nucleus is [+high]. Rising
diphthongs are created subsequent to the assignment of stress from a
sequence of a [+high] vowel followed by an onsetless syllable. Surface
differences in the syllabicity of words like Mar[y]o and Maria then, are
encoded underlyingly in terms of stress, rather than in terms of a feature, or a
structural property of high vowels. Such a proposal reduces the inventory of
Spanish syllable types and allows us to eliminate the feature [syllabic]. The
Sonority Principle and the two-mora limit per syllable determine syllabic
wellformedness. This makes it possible to uphold a maximally simple model of
the syllable, with no inner structure.
This analysis of diphthongs also leads to a more explanatory account of
the alternating diphthongs of Spanish ([ye]^[e] and [o]^[we]). It is my claim
that the monophlhongal forms of the diphthongs are derived from the
intermediated monomoraic structures: (ye) and {wo}. These diphthongs
monophthongize in unstressed environments as a result of a ban against
shared feature matrices in monomoraic diphthongs that are in a metrically
weak position. Overall, the analyses presented uphold a minimally marked
model of Spanish syllable structure.
[21] Cassimjee, Farida 1986
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
An autosegmental analysis of Venda tonology
This thesis is an attempt to explore the tonology of Venda, (more
correctly, Tshivenda), a Bantu language spoken in the Zoutpansberg district of
the Northern Transvaal in South Africa as well as in parts of Zimbabwe. It
represents the first attempt to look at Venda from the perspective afforded by
the autosegmental framework for phonological analysis. We also consider at
times whether certain other theoretical notions could be resorted to in an
attempt to get a better understanding of Venda tone. In particular, we have
considered whether the theory of underspecification could be used to account
for the well-known asymmetry in Bantu languages (including Venda)
between High and Low tones. And we have considered whether the theory of
lexical phonology can contribute to a better understanding of problems
relating to the domain of application of certain tonological rules in Venda. We
conclude, however, that neither of these theories appears to contribute very
significantly to the understanding of Venda tone, though some aspects of
Venda are relevant for the elaboration of these particular theories.
Four chapters make up the body of the thesis. In Chapter Two, we examine
the tonal alternations exhibited by Venda nominals. Chapter Three presents an
analysis of a number of major affirmative verb tenses. Chapters Four and Five
Doctoral dissertations 121
primarily focus on further aspects of the verbal system, but with forays into
other, tonally-related matters (various "inflected" forms of the noun,
adjectives).
[22] Cerron-Palomino, Rodolfo Marcial 1977
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
Huanca-Quechua dialectology
This study is largely based on previous work done by the present writer,
most of which appeared in the form of working papers within the Documentos
de Trabajo series under the auspices of the Center for Applied Linguistics of
San Marcos University (Lima). Aside from being a near native speaker of the
communolect spoken in his native district of Chongos Bajo (Huancayo), he
spent more than one month on two occasions (1972 and 1975), traveling from
town to town and from village to village, along most of the Quechua speaking
communities of Huancayo, Concepcion and Juaja. Besides, he spent
considerable time working with different informants in Lima. The material
gathered in the field and during his data-eliciting sessions is largely
preserved in magnetophonic tapes and in his field-work notebooks.
Spanish being the language of the dominant culture, it is normal to
expect that Quechua is more influenced by it than vice versa. This influence is
most noticeable in the lexicon, as usual, but as a result of the massive
incorporation of Hispanisms, the phonology of the native language has
become seriously altered. This is true especially for the consonantal system,
which has adopted the Spanish voiced stops; the same is true for the syllabic
pattern, for now the language has consonant clusters, previously non-existent
(except ambisyllabically). The vowel system, however, has proved to be more
resistant, since the Spanish mid vowels /e,o/, incorporated in most Quechua
varieties, arc normally accommodated as /i,u/ within the native language. This
and other aspects of the influence of Spanish upon Huanca-Quechua has been
treated extensively in Cerron-Palomino (1975); see also Chapter 3, where more
details are provided.
As is the case in a (unidirectional) language contact situation, however,
the influence of a language upon another cannot be measured as if the two
languages were discrete and homogeneous entities; rather one has to deal with
a continuum. Thus if it is true that a variety x has incorporated some Spanish
phonemes into its phonemic system, it is equally true that a variety y has those
phonemes variably or simply does not have them yet, depending, for example,
on the degree of bilingualism of the speakers. Thus the fact that a language
has or has not been influenced by another, especially when this is the
language of prestige, can only be determined to the extent that we lake into
consideration socio-economic and regional variables.
[23] Cervin, Richard S. 1990
Advisor: Hans Henrich Hock
Greek word order and linguistic typology
Ancient Greek is a language which has a high degree of freedom in the
placement of words/phrases within the sentence, so much so that there have
been competing claims regarding the so-called 'basic' or 'unmarked' order of
constituents. Short (1890) and Kieckers (1911) claim that SVO is the 'basic'
order, while Ebeling (1902), Fischer (1924), Frisk (1932), and Dover (1960)
122 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
maintain that SOV is 'basic'. More recently, Friberg (1982) and Radney (1988)
have put forth the claim that Greek is VSO.
In this paper 1 will show that a typology based on syntax is inappropriate
for Ancient Greek because Greek does not behave in any way consistent with
one given type, but rather exhibits behaviour which is characteristic of all
three types, VSO, SVO, SOV. I will argue that the 'basic' order in Ancient Greek
cannot be determined from statistical or syntactic analyses, and that a
typology based on pragmatics as proposed in Payne (1987) and Dooley (1987) is
more appropriate for Ancient Greek than a syntactically based typology.
[24] Chang, Suk-Jin 1972
Advisor: Chin-Wu Kim
A generative study of discourse with special reference to Korean and English.
This thesis is an attempt to describe in the general framework of
generative semantics, some aspects of discourse in a Discourse-frame,
characterized as an abstract frame consisting of speaker, hearer, time of
utterance, pace of utterance and manner of utterance. In Chapter 2, these
deictic elements are formally introduced, and their various functions in
linguistic descriptions have been discussed in a systematic way. In Chapter 3,
the deictic element of manner of speaking is described as the source of various
discourse levels and honorification in Korean and discourse operator
'honorific' is introduced. In Chapter 4, another discourse operator
'information focus', originating in the discourse structure of new information
in a given discourse situation is introduced, and its function in emphatic stress
and clefting, its interaction in negation with proposition has been described.
In Chapter 5, sentence types, declarative, interrogative, imperative and
propositive are examined in terms of the modality of the speaker and hearer,
with reference to Korean and English. Important notions in this approach to
discourse are indices of speaker and hearer, underlying the discourse-frame.
[25] Chao, Huey-Ju 1992
Advisor: Chin-Chuan Cheng
Aspiration in Chinese
This dissertation studies aspiration in Chinese in these four areas: the
temporal relationships between aspiration and the vowel of the syllable, the
perception of aspiration, the correlation between pitch and aspiration, and the
role of aspiration in a historical change in Chinese. Data based on 144 words
with aspiration contrasts were derived from the experiments which involved
production and perception by a total of 28 Chinese speakers. On the basis of the
measurements of acoustical characteristics of the voice onset time and the
lengths of the syllable, a constant ratio model has been proposed to describe
the timing relationships among the elements within a syllable. The perceptual
experiment tested the cues of aspiration by deleting the portion of the voice
onset time from the syllable on the front, back, middle and both ends. The
results are reported and discussed. The effects of aspiration on intrinsic tone
heights in Mandarin were measured and the significance calculated. Finally
some attempts are made to solve the development of aspiration from voiced
obstruents under the condition of different tones from Middle Chinese to
modern dialects.
Doctoral dissertations 123
[26] Chen, Ching-Hsiang Lee 1974
Advisor: Chin-Chuan Cheng
Interactions between aspects of noun phrase structure and restrictions on
question formation in Mandarin Chinese
This dissertation raises the question as to why it is not always the case in
Mandarin Chinese that a corresponding interrogative exists for every noun
phrase in a declarative sentence. Given the assumption that declaratives and
interrogatives are related, and the assumption that this relationship is to be
captured by some device such as a transformational rule of Question Formation
or a phrase structure rule which introduces a question morpheme, it is
claimed that the non-occurrence of certain corresponding interrogatives
must be explained in terms of the blocking of the relating device. This
blocking takes the form of constraints which state restrictions on the
occurrence of question morphemes.
In order to formulate the constraints some notions connected with the
properties of noun phrase structure are needed, particularly the features of
definiteness/nondefiniteness and restrictiveness/nonrestrictiveness. These
aspects are first defined and shown to have their independent places in the
description of the language in the sense that such notions bear syntactic
consequences.
The process of Relative Formation is studied in considerable detail since,
in the expansion of noun phrase constructions. Relative Formation
incorporates additional noun phrases which are in turn potential positions for
the occurrence of a question morpheme. It is pointed out that a principle of
primacy hierarchy is necessary to account for the varying acceptability of
relalivization in Mandarin Chinese.
Having introduced and independently justified several important aspects
of noun phrase structure, a set of constraints on Question Formation which
makes crucial use of these features is proposed. These constraints are that (1)
no definite NP nor any element inside such a NP may be questioned, and (2) no
element inside a nonrestrictive modifier may be questioned. Other factors
which bear on the acceptability of an otherwise grammatical interrogative
are also discussed.
The dissertation ends with some speculation on the sources of the
constraints as essentially involving the notions of 'function,' 'propositional
content,' and 'illocutionary act,' and a prediction that, if the speculation is
indeed correct, it should be the case that no language could violate these
constraints.
[27] Cheng, Chin-Chuan 1968
Advisor: Theodore Lightner
Mandarin phonology
A Chinese syllable is traditionally divided into three parts: the initial, the
final, and the tone. The final is that part of the syllable which extends from
the first non-consonantal segment to the end of the syllable. The initial, then,
is anything else, possibly null, that precedes the final. The tone is
superimposed over and belongs to the whole syllabic. The final is further
analyzed as always consisting of a main vowel or nucleus, sometimes a medial,
the segment preceding the main vowel, or an ending, any segment including
124 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
consonants following the main vocalic segment including consonants
following the main vocalic segment. The final excluding the medial can be
called "rhyme" since words rhyme in spite of differences in the medial.
This traditional analysis can be traced back to as early as the sixth
century. In 601 A.D. a rhyme book called Qieyun was published. In the book
lexical items are first grouped in terms of tones. At that time there were four
tones: ping "even," sh9ang "rising," qu "going," and rCi "entering." In each
group the items are then grouped in between fifty and sixty rhymes. Every
item is spelled with two characters; the first character represents the initial,
the second the final and the tone. More specifically, the initial of the first
character represents the initial and the final of the second character
represents the final and the tone.
The traditional Chinese assumption that Chinese tone belongs to the
whole syllable seems correct; at least it has proved itself useful in both
synchronic and diachronic description through the course of time. But the
support of this claim lies in a detailed study of a type of the Chinese dialects. 1
shall describe Mandarin phonology in terms of this traditional understanding
first, and then come back to examine this assumption and to explicitly
demonstrate that other alternatives are incapable of accounting for many
facts in modem Mandarin in a linguistically significant way. This thesis is an
attempt to describe Mandarin tones in detail: their features, tone sandhi, tone
neutralization, etc. It is also an attempt to answer questions that are often
overlooked or vaguely answered, questions such as those about the nature of
Chinese tone, those about the reality of contour tones, etc.
An adequate linguistic theory must be established on the basis of detailed
descriptions of specific languages. At the same time, a grammar of a language
must receive sufficient theoretical constraints. 1 shall first stale the
framework within which I am describing the phonology of Mandarin. The
general framework that is now being shown quite promising is the one that
incorporates the theory of markedness.
[28] Chishimba, Maurice Mulenga 1984
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
African varieties of English: Text in context
This is a sociolinguistic study of the characteristics of the English
language used in Africa. Because English has become a world language, it is
assumed in this study that non-native speakers in Africa, Asia and other parts
are slowly developing new varieties of English. These varieties have already
been recognized as 'Indian English', 'Nigerian English', 'Ghanaian English',
'Singaporean English' and so on.
The study shows that the English being used in Africa is slowly
undergoing a process of contextualization. That is, new forms and usages are
emerging which express the meanings and serve the functions of African
local conditions. This process involves the use of several linguistic strategies,
such as translation, semantic shifts and extension, caiques, lexical
hybridization, repetition and reduplication, and transfer.
In addition, the study shows that the new varieties of English also have
discourse patterns, structure and strategies which deviate from native English.
These are found to be in narrative types, coherence in discourses, topic-
comment relations and the social significance of proverbs, indirectness and
Doctoral dissertations 125
circularity in verbal interaction. For these reasons, the analysis gives
substantial attention to the influence of social markers of speaking such as
age, sex, role, status, turn-taking, etc.
It is concluded that the English language in Africa is being acculturated
to accommodate the context of situations in which it is used. In other words,
the meaning systems which are expressed by African languages are being
transferred to English, and these meanings remain either as a substratum or
cause the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of native English to be modified. It
is suggested that linguistic concepts such as communicative competence,
meaning potential, verbal repertoire and language variation and contact
should, when used in connection with English as a second language, be
understood in terms of the socio-cultural settings in which English is being
used.
[29] Cho, Euiyon 1988
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Some interactions of grammar and pragmatics in Korean
By now it has become clear among linguists that there are various kinds
of correlations between syntactic form and pragmatics. But the fact that there
are interactions between grammar and pragmatics cannot be taken as prima
facie evidence for the position that pragmatics is part of grammar or that
grammar is part of pragmatics. This study, rather, argues for a position which
keeps pragmatic features strictly out of grammar and gives functional
explanations of linguistic forms in pragmatic terms. This position is referred
to as a 'Modular Account of Language' in the present study.
The modular account of language assumes that (1) knowledge of language
is distinct from knowledge about the use of language, and that (2) the two
independent systems, grammar and pragmatics, are connected to each other.
To provide evidence for the modular account of language, I present
theoretical arguments and reanalyze three areas of grammar-and-pragmatics
interactional phenomena in Korean; sense adjective verb constructions,
subject honorification, and periphrastic causative constructions. In each case
it will be shown that both formal and functional accounts of them given under
the modular account of language is superior to the accounts under the
framework mixing grammar and pragmatics.
[30] Cho, Seikyung 1992
Advisor: Howard Maclay
Universal Grammar and the Subset Principle in Second Language Acquisition:
The Acquisition of the Governing Category Parameter by Adult Korean
Learners of English
The goal of developing a theory of language acquisition is to account for
how language learners construct the grammar of their target language and
how such knowledge is acquired. Even though recent advances in generative
grammar have made a considerable contribution to the development of first
language (LI) acquisition research, no one has yet completed a full account
for a single human language because of its tremendous complexity. It is
apparent that research on second language (L2) aquisition is an even more
complex, and therefore even more demanding, task to carry out, since in L2
acquisition, at least two languages are involved; the learner's native language
126 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
and a second language. Futhermorc, in L2 acquisition research, we have to
take a number of additional variables into consideration from general factors
like age, the length of education, and the type of exposure to the target
language, to individual factors like personality, aptitude, motivation, etc.
Therefore, in this relatively undeveloped field of study, fundamental questions
still remain not fully answered. How do L2 learners construct the grammar of
the target language, and what kind of process is involved in such a
construction of the grammar? What is the role of previous knowledge of the
native language in the L2 acquisition process? In the following sections, I will
briefly review traditional theories on these problems; the basic tenets, claims,
and weaknesses of Contrastive Analysis and Creative Construction and also look
at Universal Grammar as an alternative theory to those traditional ones.
[31] Choi, Yeon Hee 1988
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
Textual coherence in English and Korean: An analysis of argumentative
writing by American and Korean students
This study investigated textual coherence in American and Korean
students' argumentative texts in English and Korean. With the ultimate goal of
exploring the relationship between (a) linguistic features and text coherence
and (b) coherence and culture, it compared 76 English and 49 Korean essays
written by one group of American students and three of Korean students,
including Korean ESL students in America and Korean EFL students in Korea,
with respect to the following features: interactive roles of linguistic units and
text structure; linguistic and textual features that disturb the reader's
reconstruction of the writer's message; and components significantly
affecting coherence evaluation.
Three major types of linguistic features marking interactive acts
(connectives, modal verbs and tense, and specific types of lexical items) were
shared between the English and Korean texts. The computer analysis based on
these markers showed that interactive functions were reflected relatively
highly in surface linguistic forms.
Five major types of text structure were identified from the four groups of
argumentative writing: claim-justification-conclusion, problem-solution-
conclusion, sit nation -problem -solution -conclusion, introduction-elaboration-
conclusion, and introduction-development-transition-conclusion. The use of
the five patterns by the four groups of writers revealed that cultural context,
the extent of exposure to English rhetoric, and the writing conventions in the
native language affect text structure.
Nine types of coherence problems were identified by American and
Korean readers: topic-structuring, cohesion, justification, conclusion,
semantic/pragmatic, style, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics. Among
three variables (language, writers, and readers) the reader's ability to decode
the writer's message was the key factor for the coherent interpretation of a
text. American readers tended to mark textual and contextual problems, while
Korean readers were more sensitive to paragraphing and sentence-level
features.
American and Korean evaluators strongly agreed on the overall
impression of the coherence of a text; however, a comparison of their holistic
Doctoral dissertations 127
and analytic evaluations showed that their judgements were based on
somewhat different criteria.
This study suggests that native speakers of English and Korean have
different notions of text coherence and that these are closely related to the
writing conventions based on their cultures.
[32] Chung, Raung-fu 1989
Advisor: Chin-Chuan Cheng
Aspects of Kejia phonology
This thesis is concerned with four aspects of Kejia phonology: initial
consonants, diphthong representations and syllabification, the domain of lone
sandhi, and the notion of geminate inalterability. The analysis is in line with
the non-linear framework of generative phonology.
Two issues are investigated in terms of initial consonants: palatalization
and onset friction. We conclude that the nasal palatal p has two UR's: n and ng.
Moreover, we argue that the fricatives v and j are derived from high vowel
spreading. As for diphthong representations, we propose that there are two
different representations: one for a rising diphthong and one for a falling
diphthong. In addition, we propose that there are at most three skeletal slots
for a Kejia syllable. These proposals account for two generalizations: no
consonant can follow a falling diphthong, and a falling diphthong differs
from a branching rime. As far as the domain of tone sandhi is concerned, we
postulate that it is defined by the syntactic structure on the basis of domain-c-
command (Kaisse 1985). The last topic is gemination and geminate
inalterability. We conclude that gemination in Kejia results from spreading
and that there is no inalterability effect in Kejia geminates.
[33] Chutisiip, Pornpimol 1984
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
A sociolinguistic study of an additional language: English in Thailand
This study seeks to provide an explicit analysis of a 'performance variety'
of English as used in Thailand by the Thai people. It is an examination of the
linguistic and sociolinguistic characteristics of English in the Thai context,
where English serves a vital role as an additional language. The ways in which
English is patterned and organized support the concept of 'Thainess', i.e.. Thai
English with its unique characteristics. The 'deviations' at different levels in
what has been termed here 'Thai English' are explained in terms of social and
cultural transfers from the native language. It is further claimed that such
Thainess in English can be best understood in the Thai context of situation
where English is being used. The discussion, therefore, includes shared rules
of speaking and interpretations of speech performance, shared attitudes
regarding language forms and uses, and shared sociocultural understandings
with regard to Thai norms and values in Thai settings.
It is evident that English in Thailand has been acculturated and as a
result, various innovations have taken place. These innovations can be
exemplified by linguistic strategies that include translation, shifts,
hybridization, reduplication, repetition, transfer, and the use of proverbs and
idioms from the Thai language. Additionally, development of typical Thai
strategies in discourse and style are discussed and illustrated.
128 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
This dissertation is composed of the following eight chapters: 1.
Introduction; 2. Linguistic Context of Thailand; 3. Varieties of English:
Theoretical and Functional Approaches; 4. The Spread of English in Thailand;
5. Towards Thai English; 6. Style and Discourse in Thai English; 7. Theoretical
and Applied Implications; and 8. Summary and Directions for Future Research.
Although the study does not discuss specific pedagogical concepts and
approaches in detail, it does conclude with theoretical and applied
implications, i.e., the notions of speech acts and pragmatics, stylistics,
communicative competence, and bilingualism are discussed and it is pointed
out as to how the teaching and learning of English in Thailand, will be
affected as a result of studies such as this one.
[34] Cole, Peter 1973
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Indefiniteness and anaphoricity: The analogical extension of a semantically
based constraint
This dissertation is an examination of a facet of the general problem of
the relationship between syntax and semantics. It has been proposed in a
variety of works written within the framework of semantically-based
grammar that the most underlying syntactic structure of a sentence and the
semantic structure of a sentence are coterminous.
In the chapters which follow 1 trace the ontogenesis of a syntactic
constraint which appears to have its inception in semantics. As the constraint
has developed in English, however, it appears to have become increasingly
arbitrary from the point of view of semantics. Analogical generalization has
led to the extension of the constraint from a semantically coherent class of
items to a morphologically coherent but semantically incoherent class.
This thesis as a whole concerns the way in which the semantic basis for a
syntactic constraint may become obscured. The results of my study suggest
that it is inadequate to posit semantics alone as providing naturalness
conditions for syntax. Rather, as was suggested by Jespersen (1924:45-47),
syntactic processes would appear to be the result of a tension between
meaning and form. It is this bidirectional pressure which may explain the
juxtaposition in syntax of logically and morphologically motivated properties
of language.
[35] Cureton, Richard Dozier 1980
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
The aesthetic use of syntax: Studies on the syntax of the poetry of
E. E. Cummings
On the theoretical level, this dissertation develops, illustrates, and
documents an 11 -point typology of syntactic aesthetic effects which provides a
working theoretical model for the study of the aesthetic use of syntax.
Following Leech (1969, 1974) and Nowottny (1962), it is argued that these
effects represent the various ways authors and speakers use syntax to
"particularize" (perceptually, emotively, and conceptually) the informational
content of a text or discourse — these effects being the syntactic realizations of
more general aesthetic effects (i.e., iconicity, focus, emphasis, pace, tension,
surprise, ambiguity, development, parallelism, transcendence, and stance)
which can also be produced at other levels of linguistic structure (phonetic.
Doctoral dissertations 129
orthographic, morphological, or semantic) or by other aspects of literary form
(e.g., poetic line, metrical structure, or narrative perspective).
It is argued that, by providing a direct link between linguistic structures
and aesthetic functions, this theoretical model can serve as a much-needed
corrective to the overly formal analyses of literary syntax in linguistic
stylistics while providing a productive supplement to the overly content-
oriented analyses of literary syntax in the mainstream of literary research
and pedagogy. This theoretical model, it is maintained, provides a framework
within which one can make statements about, not just the formal, but the
aesthetic styles of speakers and authors across historical periods, literary
genres, and levels/aspects of linguistic and literary structures — thus making
a truly aesthetic rather than merely formal poetics possible.
On the practical level, the dissertation applies this theoretical model to
the analysis of several previously unexamined aspects of E. E. Cummings'
syntax — demonstrating that a broad range of Cummings' syntactic deviations
produce poetically significant aesthetic effects. Chapter 2 examines how
Cummings exploits the semantic constraints on English derivational
morphology (««-, -ingly, -fully, -lessly, -ly, and the nominal conversion of
quantifiers, pronouns, verbs, and function words) to populate his
transcendental poetic "world" with dynamic, personal, self-conscious, unique
objects and individuals — regardless of normal referential distinctions; Chapter
3 provides a semantic analysis of Cummings' much discussed line "he danced
his did" — demonstrating that the conversion of did to a noun and dance to a
transitive verb leads to complex, poetically productive ambiguity; Chapter 4
illustrates Cummings' use of fifteen types of syntactic icons (icons of
existence, substance, complexity, spatial contiguity inclusion, inversion,
symmetry, disorder, fusion, occurrence, movement, temporal contiguity,
simultaneity, interruption, and intrusion) through which he perceptually
"presents" the thematic content of his poems; Chapter 5 explores the ways in
which Cummings exploits the semantic constraints on the order of prenominal
modifiers in English to convey his poetic epistcmology which asserts the
abnormal centrality of the projective, unique, close, immeasurable, subjective
and value-laden attributes of objects; and Chapter 6 analyzes how Cummings
orchestrates the syntax in one poem ("supposing i dreamed this") to
simultaneously produce five different aesthetic effects which support the
thematic content of the poem. In conclusion, it is argued that, taken together,
these five studies demonstrate the critical power of this aesthetically-oriented
approach to the analysis of literary syntax while at the same time laying the
foundation for a reevaluation of the aesthetic purpose and success of
Cummings' unique syntactic style.
[36] D'souza, Jean 1987
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
South Asia as a sociolinguistic area
The aim of this study is to provide a clear characterization of the concept
'sociolinguistic area' and based on this characterization to define South Asia as
a sociolinguistic area.
The questions addressed in the study are:
1) What is meant by 'sociolinguistic area'?
2) What is the importance of the concept?
130 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
3 ) What arc some of the features that may be seen as characteristic of a
sociolinguistic area?
In order to answer these questions other uses of the term 'sociolinguistic
area' are examined and a working definition is formulated. The importance of
the concept for an understanding of linguistic convergence is stressed and
South Asia's claims to being considered a sociolinguistic area are stated. As the
claims depend crucially on the existence of a common 'grammar of culture' for
the region, factors which clearly illustrate the relationship between language
and culture are taken up for discussion. The features studied are: diglossia,
echo formation, interactional strategies, explicator compound verbs, and
modernization of language. These features arc studied in languages belonging
to the Austro-Asiatic, Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and Tibcto-Burman language
families. It is shown that they function in much the same way across language
families and their use may be seen as dictated by the grammar of culture of the
area. This provides clear evidence that language and society are intimately
intertwined and each affects the other in very definite ways.
The study provides insights into the South Asian linguistic context. It
claims that the term 'sociolinguistic area' subsumes the term 'linguistic area'
because a linguistic area is the result of . the prior formation of a
sociolinguistic area. The study shows that South Asia has a common grammar
of culture which affects linguistic diffusion and language change and
provides social motivation for language change. Finally, it shows that despite
surface diversity, there is an underlying unity in South Asia and this makes it
a sociolinguistic area.
The study has implications for both theoretical and applied aspects of
future research. It broadens the scope of research for our understanding of
sociolinguistic phenomena, it provides a framework for comparison of
sociolinguistic areas, and contributes to our understanding of formal
innovations in functional terms. In addition, it has implications for language
planning and second language teaching.
[37] Dabir-Moghaddam, Mohammad 1982
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
Syntax and semantics of causative constructions in Persian
The present study deals with syntax and semantics of causative
constructions in Persian. The major points of focus in this study may be
summarized as follows:
1. Chapter 2 describes periphrastic causatives in Persian. In particular,
the categories of (a) Nominative-Subjunctive Causatives, and (b)
Accusative-Subjunctive Causatives are discussed in detail. The
members of the former category are further divided into (i)
'Unmarked Causatives', and (ii) 'Permissive Causatives', and it is
shown that the members of the latter category constitute 'Coercive
Causatives'.
2. Chapter 3 discusses lexical causatives in Persian. In this chapter, on
a purely morphological basis, lexical causatives in Persian are
classified into the three classes of (a) root, (b) morphological, and
(c) auxiliary causatives. In this chapter, it is argued that only a
lexicalist analysis can adequately account for the facts of the lexical
causatives in Persian. A slightly modified version of Jackendoffs
Doctoral dissertations 131
Proposal (1975) is introduced to capture the morphological,
grammatical, and semantic regularities between non-causal and
their associated lexical causal verbs in the lexicon.
3. Chapter 4 focuses on a side by side study of the periphrastic and
lexical causatives in Persian. In this chapter, the similarities,
differences, and the interactions between these two levels of
causation in Persian are spelled out.
4. Chapter 5 addresses the question of passive in Persian. The question
of passive has been a controversial issue in the transformational
treatments of Persian. While a group of scholars have postulated
(with very little discussion) the existence of passive in Persian,
Moyne (1974) has called this construction inchoative. In this
chapter, these two approaches are discussed and a new proposal for
the treatment of passive in Persian is suggested. In particular, it is
claimed that a distinction should be made between
unambiguous/transparent passives and ambiguous/opaque (i.e.,
ambiguous between an inchoative and a passive reading) passives in
Persian. It is argued that the transformational rule of passive in
Persian is a governed rule in the sense that it applies to a
semantically definable class of verbs — i.e., verbs that express a
volitional act.
[38] Dalgish, Gerard Matthew 1976
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
The morphophonemics of the OluTsootso dialect of (Olu)luyia:
Issues and implications
This thesis is an investigation of the major morphophonemic processes of
the OluTsootso dialect of (Olu)Luyia, a Bantu language of Kenya spoken in
Guthries' Zone E. 32b., north and west of Lake Victoria. The morphophonemic
processes involving nasal interactions, vocalic lengthening and reduction
alternations, and the various processes connected with the complex verbal
derivational suffixal phenomena form the major topics of this work. The issues
that are raised by the analyses of these phenomena, and their theoretical
implications for future research, are developed in detail after a through
presentation of the facts. This thesis is an investigation of a previously
unexplored language, and so is of importance in preserving and adding to our
store of knowledge of the languages spoken today. The data alone can be used
to expand and enhance phonological, historical, and general Bantu linguistics
studies, and thus is useful for future research.
A second justification for the present work is the thoroughness and
reliability of the research. This has been accomplished by conducting original
full-time informant work extending over a period of a year and a half,
working with a native speaker of the language. It has been possible,
therefore, to investigate various processes quite extensively, to correct early
mistakes, and to obtain accurate and spontaneous judgements and intuitions
concerning both the facts and the analyses.
The last point raised leads to another reason for the work. The research
has been conducted within a generative phonological framework, and relates
the original and extensive data directly to current theory. Some of the data and
analyses proposed here raise serious and interesting problems for certain
132 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
theoretical positions, in that in many cases, the phenomena resist
uncomplicated morphophonemic rule and rule ordering solutions. Alternative
analyses are presented here, and are shown to have interesting explanatory
power. Now, in many cases, these phenomena have been discovered only after
a very thorough investigation of the categories involved. Thus, it is here again
that the importance of working with a native speaker is manifest. Without
frequent checks, careful elicitations, and a painstakingly thorough
investigation of a great deal of data, it is quite likely that the evidence for some
of these processes would never have been obtained, and none of the more
interesting analyses would have been possible. Thus, the reliability of the data
is a direct function of the nature of the investigation, while the analyses
which result are therefore correspondingly strengthened and supported.
[39] de Souza, Jose Pinheiro 1982
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
An integrated approach to child bilingualism
The present study is intended as a threefold contribution: (1) to the field
of language acquisition in general; (2) to the particular field of child
bilingualism, and (3) to the field of general linguistics.
The focus of the work is on the description of child bilingualism,
especially the phenomenon of cross-influence between LI and L2, and more
particularly the influence of L2 on LI.
The analysis is based on data collected from Brazilian children in their
process of acquiring and using Portuguese as their first language and English
as their second language.
The study is approached from an integrated view of human language, its
analysis, acquisition and use. In this sense, a state-of-the-art summary of the
main currents in the field is provided, and a new way of viewing linguistic
competence is proposed. It is argued that the notion of 'integrated linguistic
competence' is more adequate than the other notions of competence found in
current literature because it can fit any description of human language
(including analyses of child language and of bilingualism), while the other
views of linguistic competence can fit only partial aspects of language
description.
The cross-influence between LI and L2 has been investigated along the
first twenty-four months of the subjects' being in the USA. Three stages of
cross-influence have been identified: Stage I (months 1-8), the period in
which the influence of LI on L2 is more transparent than the influence of L2
on LI, Stage II (months 9-16), when L2 dominates LI, and Stage III (months 17-
24), the period in which the LI influence on L2 is almost nil, and the L2
influence on LI is less transparent than in Stage II.
The interaction between LI and L2 has been examined in terms of
language transfer, code-switching, and code-mixing. The phenomenon of
language interference has been described in all levels of linguistic analysis,
viz.: the phonetic/phonological, the morpho-syntactic, the lexical, and the
semantic/pragmatic.
Doctoral dissertations 133
[40] De Urbina, Jon Ortiz 1986
Advisor: Peter Cole
Some parameters in the grammar of Basque
In this study, I concentrate on some key aspects of Basque in order to lay
out a basic description of this language from a GB perspective and to check
relevant points of the theory against the evidence from an apparently highly
marked isolate language.
The first chapter deals with ergativity, key syntactic structures which
discriminate subjects from objects uniformly identify the ergative and the
absolutive argument of intransitives as 'subjects'. Furthermore, building on
Levin's (1983) analysis of izan (intransive) verbs as unaccusative predicates I
show Basque to belong to the 'extended ergative' type. To capture this, a case
assignment system is proposed which expresses at S-structure the
generalization that all and only D-subjects are marked ergative and all and
only D-objects are marked absolutive.
Chapter Two deals with the configurationalily parameter. Despite free
word order, I present some subject/object asymmetries which can be
accounted for in a natural way only by positing a configurational structure
where subject NP's c-command object NP's but not vice versa. Chapter Three
considers the pro-drop parameter. I claim AGR in Basque includes three
distinct features matrices with case specifications for Ergative, Absolutive and
Dative. Following Huang's (1984) analysis of pro identification, I claim Basque
to be an extended pro-drop language with both subject and object pro's. This is
directly linked to the extended agreement pattern of Basque verbs. Some
deviations from the expected case marking patterns in impersonal sentences
follow directly from the case marking system proposed here assuming that 0-
role cannot be assigned to certain non-canonical assignees.
Finally, in Chapter Four, an alternative to Horvath's (1981) FOCUS-
parameter is presented which explains the syntax of question and focus
formation in Basque. Rather than the existence of a FOCUS position for wh-
phrases and foci distinct from SPEC, I claim the parameter to be the level at
which both move to SPEC. Wh-operators move at S-structure in Basque and
English, while focus operators move at S-structure in Basque, but at LF in
English. The apparent pre-verbal position of these operators is claimed to
follow from general independent processes like INFL-to-C movement.
[41] Dolezal, Fredric Thomas 1983
Advisor: Ladislav Zgusta
The lexicographical and lexicological procedures and methods of John Wilkins
This dissertation documents John Wilkins' contribution to the science of
language analysis. I analyze his Essay towards a Real Character and a
Philosophical Language (1668) concentrating on his lexicographic and
lexicological achievements and the scientific apparatus that he uses to
organize his classification schemes. I show how the Wilkins project must be
considered a legitimate contribution to the practice of lexicography: with his
friend William Lloyd he constructed a dictionary which anticipated later
trends of lexicography and surpassed his contemporaries (e.g. general
inclusion of ordinary words; multiple senses of single lexical items; fixed
combinations — idioms, set collocations; systematic and impartial presentation
of definitions). Though this dictionary has been largely ignored in the
134 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1 992)
scholarship of the history of lexicography, I demonstrate the need to
reappraise the accepted tradition of English lexicography. I have compared
entries from the dictionaries of Blount (1656), Kersey (1708), Bailey (1721), and
Johnson (1755) with the alphabetical dictionary appended to the Essay. In the
sections on the lexicological practice of Wilkins I document the semantic
organization underlying the classification tables based on my analysis of the
text which reveals that organization; these tables can be seen as an application
of a structural analysis of the lexical items representing concepts Wilkins
deemed as universal. The arrangement of the tables follows a binary and
hierarchical formula. The most important aspect that I have found regarding
the organization of the tables is Wilkins' use of what we would call distinctive
features. In order to better appreciate the Wilkins system, I compare relevant
portions of classificatory and semantic work done preceding and succeeding
1668 with the principles I have deduced from Wilkins' text. I look at works of
classification (Comenius; Dornseiff; Hallig-von Warlburg; Roget), works of
structural/componential analysis (Coseriu; Katz-Foder; Nida) and a design for a
dictionary (Apresyan-Melcuk-Zolkovsky). I claim that Wilkins' work is
organized by systematically (with lapses) applied principles. These principles,
which I have deduced from my analysis of the Essay, anticipated much of what
we regard as modern linguistic-semantic theory.
[42] Donaldson, Susan Kay 1984
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
Some constraints of consideration on conversation: Interactions of politeness
and relevance in Grice's second maxim of quantity
In his by now well-known paper 'Logic and conversation' philosopher of
language, Paul Grice, establishes four maxims speakers follow in conversing:
maxims of quantity, quality, relation, and manner. The maxim of quantity he
divides into two parts, saying that conversational participants must give
enough information to each other, but must not give too much. However, after
once establishing this maxim, Grice immediately casts doubt on its validity,
saying that its second part is adequately covered by the maxim of relation,
which states that what one says should be relevant — that is, that any remark
that would be considered overinformative would be discounted by its being
irrelevant, anyway, thus eliminating the need for the second half of the
maxim of quantity.
This dissertation, employing examples from both tape-recorded 'real'
conversations and conversations from short stories and novels, argues that
Grice's first intuitions were correct, namely, that the second half of the maxim
of quantity is both valid and necessary. Speakers refrain, at times, from
conveying to one another information that could be highly relevant to the
material at hand, the thesis maintains, for reasons that stem in large part from
consideration for one another. A lengthy review of the literature is included,
as well as a chapter distinguishing conversation from other sorts of verbal
interaction, and one on the nature of consideration and precedents from the
literature on human interaction for consideration as a valid form of
motivation. Transcripts of four 'real' conversations follow the text.
Dcx:toral dissertations 135
[43] Downing, Laura Jo 1990
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Problems in Jita Tonology
This thesis has two goals. First, it provides a detailed treatment of the lone
system of Jita, an Eastern Bantu language spoken in Northwestern Tanzania.
Secondly, it examines recent theoretical issues in Bantu tonology, especially
the interaction of tone and accent.
Since the syllable is the TBU of Jita, the syllable structure conventions of
Jita are discussed first as background to a discussion of the tone system. Using
a morale framework (Hayes 1989; Ito 1989), special attention is given to
accounting for compensatory lengthening in Jita, which occurs both as the
result of rcsyllabifying onsetless monomoraic syllables and before simplified
geminate nasals and pre-nasalized consonants.
Next, the lone paltems of verbs, nouns and noun-modifier phrases are
analyzed, and it is shown that much of the Jita tone system may be accounted
for by non-metrical rules, i.e. rules which refer to the tonal properties of
string adjacent syllables. Once it is determined which morphemes contribute a
high tone to the derivation, OCP-motivated deletion rules apply to eliminate
sequences of high tones on immediately adjacent syllables. Then all remaining
high tones shift one syllable to the right.
However, some tone patterns in Jita are derived from tone rules which
spread, reassociate or associate tones to syllables which are not string adjacent
either to the trigger of the rule or to a domain edge. Following Kenstowicz
(1989) and Sietsema (1989), I argue that these tone rules provide evidence for
the interaction of tone and metrical prominence (accent) in Jita, since only
metrical formulations of tone rules which target non string-adjacent elements
conform to the Locality Principle (Archangeli & PuUeyblank 1986a, b;
McCarthy & Prince 1986). It is further argued that in a theory in which accent
is equivalent to metrical prominence, the Ordering Hypothesis (Goldsmith
1982; Sietsema 1989, etc.) may not be maintained. According to the Ordering
Hypothesis, in languages in which tone and accent interact, all accentual
rules apply in a block before all tonal rules. However, evidence from Zulu and
Jita is presented which shows that non-metrical tone rules must precede
assignment of accent in those languages.
[44) Drame, Mallafe 1981
Advisor: Eyamba G. Bokamba
Aspects of Mandingo grammar
The present study attempts to provide a general description of the
Grammar of Mandingo. Since the language has not been submitted to extensive
linguistic investigation, the thesis will essentially be subdivided into three
major parts: (1) a general background description of the morpho-tonology of
the language; (2) a grammatical overview of simple sentences; and (3) an
examination of the structure of complex sentences. In particular. Chapter II
analyzes the morphology and the tonology of nouns, adjectives, verbs in an
attempt to uncover general properties characteristic of all major Mandingo
constituents. This chapter not only facilitates the reading of subsequent
chapters, but it offers a description that is crucial for the understanding of the
rest of the thesis.
136 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Chapter III examines the syntax of simple sentences. In particular, three
areas are covered in this chapter: (a) word order, (b) nominals such as
nominal possession marking and nominalized sentences, and (c) movement
transformations.
Chapter IV focuses on the syntax of complex sentences. Several questions
are raised including (1) whether Mandingo conjunction fits within the
Immediate Dominance/Non-immediatcd dominance dichotomy, proposed by Tai
(1969) and Sanders & Tai (1972), (2) can a unitary account be found for
Mandingo relative clause formation, that is, do the two relative clause types
exhibited in this language share the same deep structure, (3) what types of
complement clauses the language has, and what are their deep structures, (4)
whether or not single rule can account for all Mandingo complement types,
and (5) how can we account for the expletive pronoun 'it' which surfaces in
some complement clauses. A tentative solution is finally proposed that permits
the derivation of both relative and complement clauses by a single rule.
Chapter V concludes the thesis and discusses a number of theoretical
issues raised in the previous chapters.
It is our hope that this study, although by no means exhaustive, will
bring some insight into our knowledge of the structure of Mande languages,
and in so doing increase our understanding of African languages and the
nature of human languages in general.
[45] Du, Tsai-Chwun 1988
Advisor: Chin-Chuan Cheng
Tone and stress in Taiwanese
This study investigates two prosodic features, tone and stress, in
Taiwanese, which is a Southern Min dialect. As far as tone is concerned, in
addition to establishing the possible underlying tones of the dialect examined,
we present our arguments for the analysis of the three types of tone sandhi in
this dialect. We also propose a hierarchy binary tone feature system derived
from Clements (1981) for a phonological characterization of these Taiwanese
tones. Moreover, we examine the tone sandhi domain in this dialect and
discover that the domain is rate-sensitive. There is a linear relationship
between tone sandhi domain and speed of speech. When the speech speed
decreases, the tone sandhi domain reduces, and vice versa.
Previous claims of stress in Taiwanese are based on impressionistic views.
In the second part of this study, we conducted several acoustic and perceptual
experiments to discern what the possible cues for the presence of stress in
Taiwanese are. The results reveal that there were no identifiable acoustic cues
that could be used to argue for the linguistic significance of stress in
Taiwanese. Our experiments have proven that the previous impressionistic
view is incorrect and there is no stress in Taiwanese as far as linguistic
significance is concerned. Additionally, in the investigation of the intensity
data, we establish the vowel-intrinsic amplitude difference in Taiwanese.
Doctoral dissertations 137
[46] Dudas, Karen Marie 1976
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
The phonology and morphology of modern Javanese
As its title indicates, this dissertation will deal with the phonology and the
morphology of Modern Javanese. However, this very general statement of
subject matter may be somewhat misleading, and, thus, it seems that a certain
amount of clarification is in order.
First of all, the language to be dealt with is indeed spoken in modem-day
Java; however, the general label "Modem Javanese" covers a wide area and
needs some qualification. Modern Javanese speakers make use of two major
speech levels: Ngoko is used for informal every-day conversation, while
Krama is the level used in business or polite conversation (there are also a
number of sub-classes within each of these major levels). The two major levels
differ from each other mainly in their inventories of lexical items, but also to
some degree, in morphology. This dissertation will deal exclusively with the
Ngoko or informal speech. Furthermore, discussion will be based on data
collected in the course of two year's work with a single informant, Suharto
Prawirokusumo, a graduate student at the University of Illinois. He is a native
speaker of Javanese who grew up in the Surakarta area, where the dialect
which is generally accepted as Standard Javanese is spoken.
A second area in which clarification is necessary involves the degrees to
which the areas of phonology and morphology will be treated. Chapters 2 and
3 of this dissertation form an integrated whole in which a relatively detailed
generative analysis of the phonology of the language will be built up, step by
step. However, the remainder of the dissertation consists of four chapters
which are only loosely related, insofar as all deal with some facet of
morphology; no attempt will be made to build up a complete analysis of
Javanese morphology. There are good reasons for this departure from the
course followed with the phonology of the language. Not the least of these is
the fact that, at this time, there is no satisfactory theoretical framework
readily available for setting up any sort of complete morphological analysis;
generative linguists are still at a fairly early stage in their investigation of
the morphological aspects of language. At the same time, while a number of
the Javanese morphological processes are so straightforward that their
analysis would cause no difficulty, examination of each in turn would involve
a great deal of repetition and would probably turn out to be of little value.
Finally, it should be pointed out that I do not claim to be presenting
startling new data in this dissertation; nearly all Javanese constructions are to
be found in the various Javanese grammars and dictionaries which are
available. Nor can it be claimed that this is the first time any serious linguistic
analysis of Javanese has been attempted; to make such a claim would do
shameful disservice to a great deal of excellent work done in the past, most
notable, that of E. M. Uhlenbeck. What I would claim for the present work,
however, is that, by approaching the analysis of Javanese from a generative
point of view, I have been able to produce a more insightful and natural
analysis of the phonology of the language than any which has been offered in
the past. Furthermore, it is to be hoped that, in the course of discussions
contained in this dissertation, particularly those dealing with morphology,
some contribution has been made toward furthering linguists' knowledge of
the ways in which morphological processes may function in the grammars of
1 3 8 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
natural languages, and, in addition, how such processes may interact with
others contained in grammars.
[47] Dunn, Andrea S. 1990
Advisor: Georgia M. Green
The pragmatics of seleted discourse markers in Swahili
The dissertation is a description of several discourse markers in Swahili in a
pragmatic framework which assumes that speakers and hearers are rational
agents whose behavior, including verbal behavior, is plan-based and goal-
oriented. In this view, speech is coherent because the hearer can perceive the
relation of utterances to the speaker's plan in the discourse. Discourse markers
have a role in achieving coherent speech because their use guides the hearer
in inferring how the speaker probably intends the utterances which they
accompany to be part of her plan in the discourse. Each discourse marker has
a basic sense which the speaker predicates of an utterance in the discourse.
The hearer, believing that the speaker is cooperative, i.e. guided by the
Cooperative Principle (Grice, 1975), infers what intention he must impute to
the speaker in using the discourse marker that she used, when she used it,
such that he may preserve the overall assumption of the speaker's
cooperaliveness. Thus, the speaker's use of a discourse marker requires the
hearer to relate the utterance which it accompanies to his model of the
speaker's plan in the discourse, thereby realizing its coherence.
Three discourse markers are discussed in detail, and several others more
briefly. Chapter 2 discusses the use of sasa "now" to indicate that the speaker
intends the utterance prefaced by sasa to achieve a sub-goal of a goal which
she considers current in the discourse. Chapter 3 is the discussion of basi
'enough', both following and prefacing utterances. Basi indicates that the
speaker intends the hearer to interpret the utterance which it follows as
sufficient for the accomplishment of the speaker's super-ordinate goal. When
basi is utterance-initial the speaker intends the hearer to understand that
some other action is sufficient for the accomplishment of the sub-goal which
she intends the basi-prefuced utterance to achieve. The use of the DM maana
'meaning', discussed in Chapter 4, indicates that the speaker intends the
hearer to use the utterance which it prefaces as the basis for inferring the
reason or cause for a preceding action, event or idea. Chapter 5 begins with a
brief look at several other Swahili DMs (haya 'o.k.', nanihii 'whatchamacallit',
kumbe 'lo and behold') suggesting that they are also a means for the speaker to
indicate to the hearer how the utterances of which they are a part are related
to her goals and plans in the discourse. The chapter concludes with a
discussion of the implications of the view of DMs developed in the dissertation
for issues in pragmatics, lexicography and foreign language pedagogy.
[48] Evans, Dorothy Eaton 1992
Advisor: Chin-Chuan Cheng
Computational implementation of Underspecification theories:
Kiswahili example
The differences between Radical Underspecification theory (RUT) and
Contrastive Underspecification theory (CUT) have been discussed in the
literature (for example Archangeli 1988, Mester & Ito 1989, Dikken & Hulst
1988) comparing various aspects of these theories. This dissertation presents a
discussion of a computational implementation of these competing theories. The
Doctoral dissertations 139
test case of the Kiswahili phoneme set was given as an example. The computer
program, PUCA (Phonological Underspecification Computationally Assisted),
implemented in HyperCard 2.0 on the Macintosh computer, provides the user
of the program with the opportunity to enter any language's phoneme set and
then experiment with different underspecifications of that set, altering the
feature set as desired.
Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the dissertation. Chapter 2 covers
the literature which deals with the phonologies of Kiswahili,
Underspecification theories, concentrating on Radical and Contrastive, and
computationally implemented phonological rule testers. Chapter 3 provides a
description of the course of following the computer program through the
process of underspecifying the Kiswahili phoneme set using the feature set
suggested by Archangeli and Pulleyblank (1986). Chapter 4 continues the
description of PUCA, discussing the overall program design and considers
complement rule formation. Chapter 5 presents the results for both RUT and
CUT along with a comparison to the results obtained by Treece (1990). Chapter
6 concludes with a discussion of PUCA's current limitations and the future
directions for research and the development of the program.
[49] Farina, Donna Marie 1991
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
Palatalization and jers in Modern Russian phonlogy: An Underspecification
approach
Every student of Russian phonology is aware of the importance of
palatalization rules, and of the difficulties encountered in any attempt at
describing the surfacing of jers: both structuralist and SPE-type analyses have
tackled these problems in depth. In the following these topics are revisited,
taking advantage of recent theoretical developments in phonology: nonlinear
(syllable) theory, underspecification and lexical phonology. It is claimed: that
some palatalized consonants are part of the underlying system of Russian and
cannot be derived by rule, although most palatalized consonants are derived
before front vowels; that there is no underlying /y/, but only high back
nonround [y], a variant of /i/; that jers (i.e., "fleeting" vowels) are not
underlying vowels but are underlying segments without a syllable nucleus;
and that some (but not all) of the phonological rules involving jers are
syllable-based. This new approach, it is argued, describes better than former
ones the Russian phonological system as a whole, a system that contains rules
which represent the continuum from synchronic (productive) to historical
(morphologized).
The present work gives a revision of previous analyses of the
phonological system of Russian, using the concept of underspecification in
underlying representation (Archangeli (1984), Archangeli & Pulleyblank
(1986), Kiparsky (1985), Pulleyblank (1983. 1986), and Sohn (1987)); a
nonlinear, syllable-based view of phonology (Levin (1985)); and lexical
phonology (Kiparsky (1982a, 1982b), Halle & Mohanan (1985), Lieber (1981,
1987), Mohanan (1982, 1986), Mohanan & Mohanan (1984), Pesetsky (1979),
Pulleyblank (1986), and others). In particular, the role of the feature [-back]
in the Russian consonant and vowel systems, the status of jers in the
underlying system compared to that of vowels and consonants, and the
behavior of jers in phonological rules are examined.
140 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
First, the widely accepted generative view that all palatalized consonants
are derived by phonological rule is rejected in favor of the view that
palatalized consonants are present underlyingly, but only in some contexts;
contextual specification of the feature [-back] in underlying representation is
used for these underlying palatalized consonants. Secondly, barkening back to
structuralist analyses of Russian but using again the notion of contextual
specification, high back /y/ is eliminated from the underlying vowel
inventory, and [y] is considered an "allophone" of /I/.
Third, the assumption that jers are vowels is rejected, although they are
certainly part of the underlying system: rather, following Levin (1985), they
are equated structurally with glides in their lack of an underlying syllable
nucleus. Lastly, the structural reinterpretation of jers leads to a
reinterpretation of the functioning of jers in phonlogical rules: the
previously postulated generative rules of Jer Lower and Jer Deletion are
replaced by the single rule of Jer Vocalization, in which the surfacing of jers
is conditioned by syllable structure. It is argued that the present approach is
not merely translational (old rules are not just rewritten using a new
theoretical apparatus), but makes different generalizations that allow for a
better understanding of the role of jer and palatalization phenomena in the
phonological system of Russian as a whole.
[50] Farwell, David Loring 1985
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
The interpretation of functional relations
This thesis deals with the representation of the functional relations such
as agent, instrument, source and so on that are assigned to the various
participants in a situation. It can be viewed as an investigation of that
conceptual knowledge which defines what is and what is not a conceivable
situation and how such knowledge is applied in the interpretation of natural
language utterances.
The main body of the study concerns two interrelated topics. First, it
contains a discussion of those functional relations that are the most likely to
have universal application in the conceptual representation of situations. This
discussion includes a concise definition of each of the functional relations
proposed as well as a number of examples demonstrating the range of
situations that it is intended to cover. Second, there is a description of the way
in which this class of knowledge contributes to the interpretation of natural
language utterances. The approach requires that a distinction be made
between the literal interpretation of an utterance and its ultimate
interpretation. Functional structure directly determines the former
interpretation. However, the literal interpretation may be incomplete or ill-
formed and, as a result, further processing on the basis of domain specific
kinds of knowledge is required.
The general approach differs from others in thai functional structure is
viewed as but one of various levels or components of conceptual knowledge
that affect both the form of linguistic expressions as well as the complexity of
their associated conceptual representations. This enriched representation
allows for directed inferencing with respect to particular domains of
knowledge.
Doctoral dissertations 141
[51] Foster, James Maurice 1966
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
Some phonological rules of Modern Standard Ukrainian
Our purpose in this thesis is to provide an explicit and formal synchronic
characterization of the sound system of Modem Standard (Literary) Ukrainian
(MLU). We intend to supply a large part of the phonological component of the
generative grammar of MLU.
The plan of presentation usually followed by earlier Ukrainian
phonologists has been the following: 1) analysis of the underlying vowel
system of MLU, 2) examination of the various vowel alternations, 3) analysis of
the underlying consonantal system of MLU, and 4) examination of various
consonantal alternations. The procedure of discussing vowel alternations and
consonantal alternations separately has evidently been successful in the
respect that the reader can follow this presentation more easily than one in
which vowel and consonantal alternations are mixed. Since we intend to
review critically the analyses of earlier phonologists, it would aid our
presentation to follow closely the plan of these works. We will therefore adopt
the traditional separation of vowel from consonantal alternations in this
thesis.
Therefore, in Chapter II we will examine earlier accounts of the
underlying vowel system of MLU, then examine several vowel alternations in
order to test the adequacy of the traditional vowel system, and finally, make
any innovations in the system deemed necessary on the basis of the vowel
alternations studied. In Chapter in, we will continue analysis of the vowel
alternations discussed in Chapter II, offer our analysis of the vowel
alternations discussed in Chapter II, offer our analyses of these alternations,
and then examine other vowel alternations found in MLU. In Chapter IV, we
will review the underlying consonantal systems posited for MLU and then
examine consonantal alternations in the attempt to determine if any of the
underlying systems posited by earlier analysts are adequate. In Chapter V, we
will discuss certain alternations not discussed in earlier chapters, and make
any revisions in analysis which are necessary. In Chapter VI, we will discuss
problems in analysis for which we have no satisfactory explanation, or for
which a better analysis than ours seems likely. In Chapter VII, we will discuss
certain historical-comparative matters based upon the rules which we have
motivated in the preceding chapters.
[52] Foster, Joseph Frederick 1969
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
On some phonological rules of Turkish
In this dissertation a number of phonological phenomena of Osmanli
Turkish will be hauled over the coals, as it were. In some cases we will
formulate rules for processes for which this has not been done; in others we
will argue for revisions of rules that have previously been formulated. We
shall see in some cases that the recent revisions in phonological theory have
very desirable results in compelling us to rewrite certain rules in such a way
that the insight into the workings of the language is more adequately
reflected than in the old formulations. In one or two cases, on the other hand,
it may turn out that the theoretical revisions have less desirable
consequences. In still other cases it will be seen that no theory of phonology
142 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
seems to reflect what is going on, and, where possible, we will suggest
remedies. The main drift of the thesis can be summarized here rather briefly —
we will show that the first vowels of words behave rather strangely with
respect to a number of different rules — rules which at first glance would not
seem to have much in common with each other. We shall claim that this
phenomenon cries for explanation, and we shall hypothesize that an abstract
stress rule should be postulated to account for the strange behavior mentioned,
and finally, shall adduce some evidence to suggest that this abstract stress rule
is not just an artifact of an earlier stage of the language but has also some
psychological reality for modern Turks.
[S3] Fox, Robert Paul 1968
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
A transformational treatment of Indian English syntax
This study will attempt to show some of the areas of syntactic deviancy in
Indian English. The corpus of this study was taken from the files of the
Division of English as a Second Language at the University of Illinois. The
compositions of two hundred Hindi speakers who took the test in the twelve
year period from September 1954 to January 1966 were analyzed for
syntactically deviant sentences which, when found, were put on index cards
for further analysis. Each paper had been corrected by two members of the
Division at the time of the test, so the judgements about deviancy were not just
the writer's. The two hundred papers yielded almost five hundred syntactically
deviant sentences for analysis. These sentences excluded obvious transfers
from Hindi, such as the ordering of the adverbs of place and time, which is
place-time in English and time-place in Hindi. Only those sentences whose
deviancy could not be explained on the basis of obvious transfer make up the
corpus.
The deviant sentences found in the corpus were analyzed following the
system of transformational grammar proposed by Noam Chomsky in Syntactic
Structures and refined in this 1965 book. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. The
purpose of the analysis and, in fact, the purpose of this study is to show that
syntactic deviancy in the writing and probably in the speech of second
language learners occurs on the transformational level and not on the phrase
structure level. Speech is included with the writing here, even though the
corpus does not include the spoken language, because it is closely associated
with writing and second language learners tend to write what they say.
The second chapter of this study is devoted to an analysis of selected
samples sentences from the corpus in the attempt to prove that syntactic
deviancy is the result of the misapplication of obligatory or optional
transformations of the non-application of an obligatory transformation. It is
not the purpose of this study to propose new areas of transformational
analysis, or to formulate transformational rules, though this is necessary to
prove the thesis of this study from time to time. When new rules are proposed,
they are formulated in a tentative manner, and to account specifically for the
syntactic deviance under consideration.
The third chapter of this study is devoted to a contrastive analysis of
certain selected structures to further show that the area of syntactic deviancy
is on the transformational level and not on the phrase structure level. This
section will necessarily be limited as the writer is not a fluent Hindi speaker.
Doctoral dissertations 143
Yamuna Kachru's An Introduction to Hindi Syntax will be used as the main
source for Hindi syntax.
[54] Fukada, Atsushi 1987
Advisor: Georgia M. Green
Pragmatics and grammatical descriptions
The goal of the dissertation is to argue for the recent position that strictly
distinguishes between grammar and pragmatics and discuss its consequences.
By now it is clear that "raw" linguistic data contain many pragmatic elements,
whether they are speech act properties, implicatures, beliefs and intentions of
the speech participants, or what not. In analyzing such data linguists, in my
view, are constantly faced with two problems: one is how to distinguish
pragmatic matters from purely grammatical aspects of the data, and the other
is what to do with such pragmatic elements. The second problem has to do with
a proper conceptualization of the relationship between pragmatics and
grammar. In particular, linguists must have a clear conception as to what the
proper domain of each field is, and what the exact nature of the mode of their
interaction is. This is, in my opinion, one of the outstandingly important
empirical issues in current theoretical linguistics.
The first problem concerns ways of determining, in a given situation,
what is pragmatic and what is grammatical. If one decides to take the position
that denies the heterogeneous nature of raw linguistic data, this problem will
not arise at all. 1 will argue, however, that such a position cannot be seriously
maintained.
These are the two major issues this study addresses. The arguments in the
body of the thesis will take the form of analyses or reanalyses of some
problematic phenomena in Japanese and English where one's position on the
above issues will have a serious effect on resulting grammatical descriptions
of the phenomena. The highly controversial areas of Japanese grammar, i.e.
passives and causatives, issues concerning honorifics and politeness in
general, and an analysis of the English complement-taking verb have are
some of the major descriptive issues taken up in this study. In each case, it will
be shown that the position being argued for can provide solutions to the
controversies and/or lead to what seems to be the optimal over-all
descriptions.
[55] Gallagher, Mary 1969
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
Have and the perfect in English
The present study is a contribution to the analysis of the relationship
between have and the copula in English. The thesis is that have appears on the
surface as the result of a transformation. This transformation parallels
passivization and operates on structures that would otherwise yield the copula.
The analysis of several types of sentences containing have as Main Verb leads
to a consideration of the periphrastic perfect. It also leads to the discovery that
stative and non-stative uses of have are frequently distinguished by the
presence of Tense in the deep structure in a different sentence from that
containing have, or in the same sentence. It appears that no stative or
Habitual is generated with Tense.
144 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
The analysis presented here is limited to reduplicating types (The table
has a book on it), possessives (John has a book), and the periphrastic perfect
(John has written his book). Even within these limitations, it has not been
possible to avoid certain issues for which no resolutions can be proposed here.
[561 Garber, Anne Elizabeth 1987
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Tonal analysis of Senufo: Sucite dialect
Sucite, a Senufo language of the Gur language group, is spoken in
southwestern Burkina Faso. Its tonal system of three level tones and several
contour tones exhibits a considerable number of complex alternations.
This dissertation provides a descriptive analysis of the tonal alternations
in Sucite. With the help of the autosegmental approach and Clements (1981)
system of tone features, we propose a double tiered approach to tonal analysis
in the attempt to analyze the behaviour of the various types of Mid tone found
in the language.
The dissertation consists of an introduction and six chapters. In Chapter 1,
we provide a brief description of the sound system, the morphology, and
syntax of Sucite. Chapter 2 describes the tone and morphology of the verb and
introduces the concept of two tiers for tonal analysis. The discussion of noun
tone and morphology in Chapter 3 brings to light the need to re-examine the
accepted universal of associating tones to segments from left to right. Chapter
4 is a description and analysis of the tonal behaviour of verbs and verbal
particles when preceded by nominal and verbal elements of various tones. In
Chapter 5, we examine how the nominal elements affect each other tonally
within a noun phrase. Both tonal behaviour across word boundaries and tonal
alternations within complex nouns are examined and analyzed with the use of
the double-tiered approach. In particular, this chapter highlights the need for
several different types of underlying representations for Mid tone. Chapter 6
discusses the tonal behaviour of the adverb phrase, question formation, and
the noun class clitic, the latter of which poses special analytical problems.
Finally, the ordering of the tonal rules presented in the thesis is discussed.
[57] Geis, Jennie Elinor 1970
Advisor: Chin-Wu Kim
Some aspects of verb phrase adverbials in English
This thesis will attempt to provide a syntactic analysis according to a
specific model of transformational-generative grammar of a subset of the
constructions which traditional grammarians have grouped together under
the term "adverb" or "adverbial." Although I will actually consider only a few
kinds of adverbial constructions — locatives, instantive and frame adverbials,
and duralive, instrumental, and manner adverbials — it is hoped that some of
the generalizations made about these adverbials will carry over to other types.
The model of transformational grammar which I will be working with
considers both superficial adjectives and superficial adverbials to be
represented in deep structure as predicates, in the same way that superficial
verb phrases are represented. Other models of transformational grammar
make claims about the deep-structure constituency of superficial adjectives
and adverbials which are quite similar to the claims made about their
structure by traditional grammar — that adjectives and adverbials are distinct
Doctoral dissertations 145
deep-structure categories fundamentally different from those elements that
are verbs in surface structure. In these models, the semantic similarities
among verbs, adjectives, and adverbs must be spelled out by interpretive
semantic rules; on the other hand, the model which as been adopted here, in
which the deep structure assigned to sentences are far more abstract than
those assigned by models utilizing semantic interpretation rules, spells out
these similarities in deep structure, specifically in the initial phrase marker
which is the semantic representation of the sentence.
The abstract model, which I will refer to as "generative semantics," has
been developed in recent word by Ross, Lakoff, McCawley and others. My
intention is to show that the facts about the semantic content and syntactic
behavior of adverbials can be handled more consistently and more
insightfully within the model of generative semantics, where adverbials and
adjectives, as well as other "modifying" elements, such as negatives and
quantifiers, are represented in the deep-structure phrase marker as verbs. In
the following chapters I will give an analysis of adverbial phrases showing
that it is necessary to relate place, time, manner, and instrumental adverbials
to verb phrases synchronically.
[58] Gerdemann, Dale 1991
Advisor: Erhard Hinrichs
Parsing and generation of Unification grammars
In this dissertation, it is shown that declarative, feature-based,
unification grammars can be used for efficiently both parsing and
generation. It is also shown that radically different algorithms are not needed
for these two modes of processing. Given this similarity between parsing and
generation, it will be easier to maintain consistency between input and output
in interactive natural language interfaces. A Prolog implementation of the
unification-based parser and DAG unifier is provided. The DAG unifier
includes extension to handle disjunction and negation.
The parser presented in this thesis is based on Stuart Shieber's extensions
of Barley's algorithm. This algorithm is further extended in order to
incorporate traces and compound lexical items. Also, the algorithm is optimized
by performing the subsumption test on restricted DAGs rather than on the full
DAGs that are kept in the chart. Since the subsumption test can be very time
consuming, this is a significant optimization, particularly for grammars with
a considerable number of (nearly) left recursive rules. A grammar which
handles quantifier scoping is presented as an example of such a grammar.
For generation, the algorithm is modified in order to optimize the use of
both top-down and bottom-up information. Sufficient top-down information is
ensured by modifying the restriction procedure so that semantic information
is not lost. Sufficient bottom-up information is ensured by making the
algorithm head-driven. Generation also requires that the chart be modified so
that identical phrases are not generated at different string positions. It is
shown how readjustments to the chart can be made whenever a duplicate
phrase is predicted. The generator in this thesis does not perform equally well
with all types of grammars. Grammars employing type raising may cause the
generator to go into an unconstrained search. However, given the
independently motivated principles of minimal type assignment and type
raising only as needed, it is shown how such unconstrained searches can be
avoided.
146 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Finally, suggestions are made as to how unification grammars can be
developed in order to handle difficult problems such as partially free word
order, bound variables for semantic interpretation and resolving feature
clashes in agreement.
[59] Habick, Timothy 1980
Advisor: Hans Henrich Hock
Sound change in Farmer City: A sociolinguistic study based on acoustic data
This dissertation reports the findings of a survey of the dialect of Farmer
City, Illinois, involving spectrographic analysis of the recorded speech of a
sample of 40 individuals from two opposing teenage peer groups and two older
generations. A group of 7 speakers from three generations of a family from
Somerset, Kentucky, is also included in the sample in order to help determine
the influence of the Kentucky dialect on the speech of Farmer City. Migration
patterns suggest that such influence could be strong.
The data collected in Farmer City and Somerset were analyzed
spectrographically and used to construct a representation of the phonemic
system of each speaker in the two-formant acoustic space. These charts serve
as a basis for comparison from a sociolinguistic point of view and for the
identification of a major systemic phonological change in progress. The facts
concerning this change, that of the generalization of /uw/-fronting to other
back vowels, are examined in light of the predictions made by several current
theories of sound change. A basic orientation to sound change theory is
provided in a chapter that surveys the history of the field from the
Neogrammarians in the nineteenth century to the present-day lexical
diffusionists.
The detailed data analyses and sociolinguistic correlations are preceded
by chapters devoted to methodological considerations. The techniques used to
identify and interview the 20 members of the two teenage peer groups are
outlined in the first chapter on methodology. The social polarization between
these groups, as illustrated in a sociometric diagram, is based on an attitudinal
difference: one group (the 'rednecks') is oriented towards academics and
sports; the other (the 'burnouts') is known for a marked disinterest in most
aspects of the school as well as for an alleged involvement with drugs. The
unambiguous nature of this social division is supported by an appendix of
interviews, in which members of both groups discuss their feelings
concerning the social structure of the school. As expected, these social
distinctions are reflected in differences in the speakers' phonological systems
and in their participation in ongoing sound changes.
After a review of the procedures following in recording, analyzing, and
charting the data, the issue of the acoustic variability of phonemic systems is
considered in detail. It is concluded that the size and shape of the phonemic
system in two-formant acoustic space varies from speaker to speaker as a
function of fundamental frequency and social forces (both determining
articulatory setting) as well as of the invariant characteristics of the vocal
tract. An understanding of the causes and consequences of acoustic variability
is crucial when spectrographic data are to be used for dialectological research.
Aspects of acoustic variability are reconsidered in an additional chapter
in which the relationship between articulatory setting and sound change is
explored. A consideration of the socially-determined articulatory setting
Doctoral dissertarions 147
characteristic of each peer group proved helpful in understanding at least one
aspect of their phonemic systems.
The most important ongoing sound change observed in Farmer City has
provided an example of how a dialect in the path of a sound change may
incorporate that change into its phonological system in novel ways, /uw/-
fronting is a characteristic of many Southern and South Midland dialects, but
the younger generations have generalized this feature to several other back
vowels. This has given their vocalic systems a unique collapsed appearance
that is found neither in the older generations of Farmer City nor in the
Kentucky speakers.
Finally, it is noted that the sound changes documented in Farmer City
exhibits the rule-governed behavior with respect to conditioning
environments that is predicted by the variable rule theory of William Labov;
no evidence for random decomposition of word classes or 'lexical diffusion' was
observed.
[60] Hackman, Geoffrey 1976
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
An integrated analysis of the Hindi tense and aspect system
The genesis of this dissertation was a proposed attempt to isolate and
codify the presuppositions associated with various forms in the tense and
aspect system of Hindi. The anicles which gave impetus to this proposal are
cited briefly in Chapter II (e.g. Fillmore 1971, Lakoff 1971, etc.). Having made
the decision the next step was to find a thorough analysis of the system of
tense and aspect with a principled inventory of the forms contained therein.
The search for such an analysis was long and, for the most part, fruitless. At
the same time, dissertations and articles were appearing which questioned the
nature, representation, and viability of the notion 'presupposition' (e.g.
Morgan 1973, Rosenberg 1975). As a result of these influences, the analysis
presented below was made to fill the vacuum.
In this dissertation certain inadequacies of both traditional and modern
treatments of the Hindi tense and aspect system are cited. Several works
dealing with English tense are reviewed and compared. Two descriptive models
are developed to analyze the tense and aspect systems of Hindi. The first
isolates elements of form and units of meaning and shows that meaning form
correspondences are quite systematic. The second uses a time-line device to
illustrate graphically the meanings associated with the three aspects of the
Hindi verb — imperfect, perfect, and progressive.
The question of tense and aspect has generated a tremendous volume of
response in linguistic literature. Only a very limited number of articles
dealing with the complexities of time reference have been reviewed here.
Chapter II treats several of these, ranging from a descriptive account of the
chronological system of the English verb (Diver 1963) to the generative-
semantic account of McCawley (1971).
The third chapter presents an overview of the tense and aspect system of
Hindi. The descriptive method used by Diver (1963) is modified and applied to
Hindi data in Chapter IV. In Chapter V the account of tense presented in
Reichenbach (1966) is discussed. This chapter is primarily concerned with
tense usage in simple sentences but deals with complex sentences in those
cases where a given configuration can only be so expressed. Chapter VI
148 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
extends the notion of transcription further to account for all complex
sentence tense behavior. The important claims made and their basis arc
presented in summary in Chapter VII. Suggestions for further research are
presented here as well.
[61] Haddad, Ghassan F. 1984
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
Problems and issues in the phonology of Lebanese Arabic
This study is both exploratory and analytic in nature. In other words, it
attempts to discuss issues in the phonology of LA, which though distinct from
each other, share the common factor of being rarely dealt with in the
literature. The thesis is divided into four chapters.
Chapter I discusses three of the most productive rules in the language:
Stress Assignment, Syncope and Epenthesis. It compares a segmental and a
metrical analysis of these rules, and discusses their ordering. In addition, it
deals with various related issues of general interest to the linguist. Among
these is the question of "sonority", its role in the organization of the syllable,
and its interaction with Epenthesis and Assimilation.
Chapter II provides the first attempt at analyzing the verbal system of a
modern Arabic dialect within the framework of McCarthy's (1979) Prosodic
Theory. Apart from this goal, the present chapter investigates and confirms
the tri-directional affinity among vowel melody, transitivity, and the perfect-
imperfect correspondences. For the purposes of this chapter, the writer has
compiled a complete list of all the available strong and defective triradical
verbs.
Chapter III presents the first attempt at exploring the application of rules
on the phrasal level in Arabic. It is divided into three sections. Dealing with
the word-level, section 3.1. gives a detailed analysis of the anomalous behavior
of the feminine suffix in nouns, adjectives, and perfect verbs. Arguments are
presented to show that the underlying structure of this suffix is /-it/. It is
concluded that in order to understand the behavior of this morpheme, it is
necessary to retrieve grammatical information about the stem of the word.
The same conclusion is reached in the next two sections, both of which
deal with the phrasal level. In section 3.2. three types of phrases shared by
most Lebanese speakers are discussed. These are feminine constructs,
prepositional phrases, and definitive relative clauses. In section 3.3. data from
eight Lebanese informants are analyzed, and it is shown that in spite of the
variability they display, each pattern is governed by a natural and well-
constructed grammar. This variability is shown not to be of the sociolinguistic
type, and the proposal is made that it may be the outcome of two cognitive
styles. The first is related to "tolerance of ambiguity", and the second to "field
dependence-independence".
Chapter IV discusses the issue of the neutralization of contrast between
/i/ and /u/ in LA. An attempt is made to study the phonetic distribution of
these two vowels, and the proposal is made that all instances of [u] are derived
from /i/ by rule. This thereby reduces the phonemic inventory of the vowel
system in the language into five vowels: /i/, /a/, /ii/, and /uu/.
Doctoral dissertations 149
[62] Hajati, Abdul-Khalil 1977
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
ke-Constructions in Persian: Descriptive and theoretical aspects
In view of the last two decades of developments in linguistic theory,
particularly in the United States, it might perhaps seem out of place to assert
that this project assumes a generative transformational framework. But ever
since its inception in 1957 (Chomsky, 1957), transformational theory has
witnessed so many revisions, expansions, extensions, and bifurcations that it
makes the choice of any one proposal over the other competing theories very
difficult, if not impossible. This difficulty is simply due to the fact that any
preference will inevitably raise a great deal of controversial issues requiring
empirical justifications which go far beyond the scope of this study.
To evade the controversial issues and make the work feasible, therefore, I have
arbitrarily decided to start out with Chomsky (1965) as a general frame of
reference along with some other proposals for its expansion. Some of the most
important concomitant assumptions of this theoretical framework which
underlie this study are very briefly the following.
A. Every sentence of a language has a surface structure and a deep structure,
both of which may be represented by node-labelled trees (Green, 1974).
B. Sentences with different meanings have different deep structures.
C. A grammar has four systems of rules:
i) A system of Phrase Structure (PS) Rules, which generate possible
deep structures;
ii) A system of Lexical Insertion (LI) Rules, which map lexical materials
onto the outputs of PS Rules, deriving "deep structures" of sentences;
iii) A system of Transformational (T) Rules, which map "deep
structures," through intermediate stages, onto their "surface
syntactic structures;" and
iv) A system of Phonological (P) Rules, which relate the surface
syntactic structures, through intermediate stages, onto their
"surface phonetic representations."
D. A grammar has a Lexicon that supplies all the idiosyncratic information
regarding the lexical items in terms of their phonetic phonological, syntactic,
and semantic properties.
E. In addition to PS-Rules, LI-Rules, T-Rules, and P-Rules, defining well-
formedness conditions on successive stages of derivations, linguistic theory
also requires constraints on deep structures (Perlmutter, 1971), constraints on
derivations (Ross, 1967; Postal, 1971; G. Lakoff. 1969, 1970b, 1971; etc.), and
constraints on surface structures (Ross, 1967; Perlmutter, 1971).
F. And finally linguistic theory must ultimately aim for explanatory adequacy,
i.e., it must provide a principled basis, independent of any particular
language, for the selection of descriptively adequate grammar of each
language (Chomsky, 1964, 1965).
In light of these theoretical assumptions, I propose to investigate some
descriptive and theoretical aspects of Modern Standard Persian syntax.
150 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1 992)
[63] Hale, Everett Austin 1966
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
Verbal Complementation in ZiiritUtsch
The problem addressed here is that of giving a well motivated, coherent,
and explicit account of the syntactic capabilities of the speakers of ZiiritUtsch
to construct and interpret sentences containing verbal complements. Verbal
complements are viewed as those nonadverbial sentential structures in terms
of which verbs are subcategorized. The topic approached in terms of the
structure of Zuritiilsch itself and not primarily as a topic in the contrastive
analysis of Zuritiitsch and standard German. The topic is treated in two
chapters, Chapter II and Chapter IIL Chapter II is concerned with the
underlying structures of the base which must be posited in order to explain
the relevant capabilities of ZiiritUtsch speakers. Chapter III is concerned with
the transformations required for the mapping of these base structures onto
their corresponding surface structures. The base phrase markers are required
as input by the semantic component. The phrase markers of the surface
structure are required as input by the phonological component. Neither of
these interpretive components will be dealt with in this study.
Inasmuch as the writer is not himself a fluent speaker of ZUrilUtsch, all
of the evidence to be presented here concerning the language was gained
through work with an informant. Examples taken from written sources were
checked with an informant before being presented as grammatical ZuritUtsch.
The principal informant was the writer's wife, Margrit Kusier Hale.
[64] Halpern, Richard Neil 1980
Advisor: Frederic K. Lehman
An investigation of "John is easy to please"
In this thesis, I defend Noam Chomsky's transformational account of
"John is easy to please". Then, in light of an analysis of "John is an easy man to
please", based on the infinitival relative, I propose a speculative historical
hypothesis concerning the origins of "John is easy to please". In addition, I
attempt to explain the lexical government of object-shift and to account for
the synchronic occurrence of such sentences as "John is too smart to fool" and
"John is stupid enough to be fooled". In general, the emphasis is placed on
attempting to account for the occurrence of complex syntax, in particular, the
permuted structure found in "John is easy to please".
[65] Hamid, Abdel Halim M. 1984
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
A descriptive analysis of Sudanese Colloquial Arabic phonology
This thesis discusses in some detail the phonology of Sudanese Colloquial
Arabic. It attempts for the first time to present a thoroughly precise
descriptive analysis to the most prominent phenomena of the phonology of
this language under the recently developed approaches in the field of
phonological theory and shows the adequacy of these approaches in
generating the phonology of this particular dialect of Arabic.
It is concluded that besides utilizing the technical devices available under
the traditional approaches, the devices introduced by the recently developed
approaches can be utilized in a very efficient way.
Doc toral di ssertarions 151
This thesis consists of an introduction and six chapters. In the
introduction the main features of the study as well as its theoretical
framework are set forth.
Chapter 1 is devoted to some observations on the historical development
that has some significant consequences to the synchronic analysis which is
the major concern of the study.
Chapter 2 deals with stress assignment in Sudanese Colloquial Arabic
within two different perspectives; segmental and metrical and shows the
merits of both.
Chapter 3 discusses the inflectional phonology in great detail and states a
number of phonological rules to account for different processes arising from
the juxtaposition of morphemes.
Chapter 4 discusses syncope as a phrasal rule and shows its operation
across boundaries as well its nature as a rule sensitive to certain syntactic
structures.
Chapter 5 deals with the assimilation processes within the word and
across word boundaries, indicating that these processes represent one of the
characteristics of Sudanese Colloquial Arabic and belong to the post-lexical
portion of the grammar.
Chapter 6 discusses the morphology of the verb in Sudanese Colloquial
Arabic showing the way whereby different verbal forms are derived and
accounts for the morphophonological processes involved in that derivation.
[66] Hatasa, Yukiko Abe 1991
Advisor: Howard Maclay
Transfer of the knowledge of Chinese characters to Japanese
Unlike many European languages, Japanese orthographic system is
complex, consisting of three types of scripts used to serve different functions
in a text. In particular, a great deal of efforts and time are spent on teaching
kanji (Chinese characters) to both native and non-native speakers of
Japanese. For instance, average Japanese children spend more than ten years
learning kanji to achieve functional literacy (Ishii, 1967). Since kanji are used
for content words in Japanese, many researchers and educators believe that
knowing more kanji entails better comprehension, and that the native
speakers of Chinese should be able to read Japanese better than those whose
native language do not have Chinese characters (Ezoe, 1985; Takebe, 1988).
This dissertation examined the validity of such belief and investigated the
way in which knowledge of Chinese characters is transferred to processing
Japanese. A scries of tests of kanji, grammar and reading in Japanese which
did or did not contain kanji were given to native speakers of Chinese and those
of English. The results showed that Chinese speakers transferred their
knowledge of kanji significantly in the tests of kanji and reading but not in
the tests of grammar. Also, the influence of the native language was not a very
strong factor in the reading tests. Furthermore, the results suggested that the
contribution of the knowledge of kanji might vary depending on proficiency.
152 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
[67] Hendricks, William Oliver 1965
Advisor: Howard Maclay
Linguistics and the structural analysis of literary texts
This is a programmatic study in the admittedly controversial area of the
application of linguistics to the analysis of literary texts. The study is divided
into two parts: Part I, the major part, consists of a review and critical
evaluation of past work in this area. The aim is to explore systematically an
area that is primarily noted for its lack of system, or well defined boundaries
and agreed upon goals and limitations. Part II represents an attempt to
integrate and build upon this work in order to achieve an adequate means of
analyzing short stories. Since prose fiction has been relatively neglected by
linguists interested in literary analysis, the analytic technique proposed in
Part II has certain limited claims to novelty. The technique is illustrated by
being applied to William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily."
The review in Part I is by no means an exhaustive treatment of linguistic
approaches to literary analysis. This would be a monumental task since this
general topic subsumes a wide range of activities. The attempt is made,
however, to present a rather complete review of work in one specific, well-
defined area. The essential purpose of this introductory chapter is to delimit
exactly the specific topic of this study.
The technique for analyzing short stories proposed in Pari 11 of this study
involves a radical extension of linguistics in certain respects. Here linguistics
is utilized as a model; extension is thus a matter of reasoning by analogy. The
position taken is in essential congruence with A. A. Hill's who has written, "My
position is that linguistic analysis forms a good analog for literary analysis,
that many of the problems of both types of activity are similar, and that it
would be as short-sighted to deny the similarities as it would to deny the
inevitable differences."
[68] Hermon, Gabriella 1981
Advisor: Georgia M. Green
Non-nominative subject constructions in the Government and Binding
framework
This study is an investigation of the principles required to account for
the behavior of non-nominative subjects in the Government and Binding
framework, a version of the Extended Standard Theory. Non-nominative
subjects are NPs which are not case marked with nominative case and which
do not trigger subject verb agreement. These NPs, however, may share certain
syntactic properties with nominative subjects. It is shown that in the
Government and Binding framework the principles and theories which
distinguish between subjects and non-subjects require an analysis in which
the non-nominatives are subjects in certain components and non-subjects in
others. In Imbabura Quechua, the language analyzed in greatest detail in this
thesis, non-nominative desideratives are treated as subjects by the binding
principles, the theory of control and the ECP. In other languages, such as
Huanca Quechua, non-nominatives are treated as subjects only by the ECP, but
not by the binding principles or by the theory of control.
An analysis is suggested to account for this variability. It is proposed that
these nominals be generated as D-structure objects and reanalyzed (by Move-
alpha) as subjects on the right-hand side of the grammar. This analysis is
Doctoral dissertations 153
generalized to other languages, such as Kannada, Modern Hebrew and Italian.
A variety of changes in the framework are proposed. The division of the right-
hand side of the grammar into two components, a binding component and an
LF component is motivated.
[69] Houston, John R. 1978
Advisor: Howard Maclay
The acquisition of English restrictive relative clauses by native speakers of
Arabic
Keenan and Comrie (1972) described a hierarchy of relative clause types
observed in natural languages. These were: subject, direct object, indirect
object, object of a preposition, possessor NP, and object of a comparative
particle. If a language allows relativization at a given point on the hierarchy,
it also allows relativization on all preceding positions on the hierarchy.
English and Arabic allow relativization on all positions of the hierarchy.
Multiple choice tests of comprehension of English restrictive relative
clauses were given to two groups from the Royal Saudi Air Force. The
sentences that were tested had the matrix NP in subject and object position and
the subordinated NP in the positions on the hierarchy. Fourteen sentence
types were tested.
Three hypotheses examined by Sheldon (1974) were examined to
determine their importance for second language learners: interruption, word
order, and parallel function. The sentence types were examined to discover
which types posed problems for the subjects. Errors were accounted for by the
subjects' use of various strategies for processing the sentences.
For relative clause sentences as a whole, interruption, word order, and
parallel function were significant factors. Possessive relative sentences were
significantly harder to process than non-possessives. Within the set of
possessive sentences, only word order was significant.
Strategies of Adjacency, First NP Subject were observed. Other strategies
and alternatives are presented to account for systemic errors.
A non-linear hierarchy of difficulty is proposed based on sentence type
and what the subjects were asked to identify. The hierarchy proceeds from
easy to hard:
1. Identify Matrix Object
2. Identify Subordinate Subject
a. one NP before verb
b. two NPs before verb
c. more than two NPs before verb
(1) non-possessive
(2) possessive
3. Identify Matrix Subject
a. non-interrupted
b. interrupted
(1) non-possessive
(2) possessive
4. Identify Subordinate Object
a. maintained word order
b. rearranged word order
154 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
(1) non-possessive
(2) possessive
[70] Irshied, Omar Musleh 1984
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
The phonology of Arabic: Bani Hassan — A Bedouin Jordanian dialect
This thesis is devoted to the study of selective phonological aspects of
Arabic phonology in general and Ban! Hassan dialect in particular. Basically,
an analysis of the phonological rules that are most often presented in general
analysis of Arabic phonology, both on the lexical level and on the phrasal
level is given, while we attempt to investigate the important issues that
characterize the Bedouin dialects in general and Bani Hassan Arabic in
particular.
The following notes will give a general overview of the organization of
this study. Chapter 1 presents the basic aspects of the language. Chapter 2
examines the lexical rules that apply inside the lexicon through the course of
word formation. It has been shown that most of these rules are cyclic,
structure preserving and may be sensitive to the properties of individual
words. Chapter 3 deals with the relatively more complicated phonology that
operates at the phrasal level. The rules that are discussed in this chapter apply
across word boundaries; they may introduce new structures ad segments not
found in the basic inventory of segments and finally, they should be without
lexical exceptions.
[71] Jake, Janice Lynn 1983
Advisor: Charles W. Kisscberth
Grammatical relations in Imbabura Quechua
This thesis examines certain aspects of the syntactic structure of
Imbabura Quechua within the framework of relational grammar. Specifically,
it examines the grammatical relations borne by nominals in the following
syntactic constructions: passive, dative movement, ascensions out of sentential
subjects and sentential objects, subject inversion, direct object advancement
in unaccusative clauses, and causative clause union. The analysis of these
constructions presented in this study provides support for the theory of
relational grammar and for the more central of the universal laws of
relational grammar.
The analysis of passive and ascensions out of sentential subjects and
sentential objects provides support for the use of constrained variables to
represent the candidate relation of relational rules. The examination of
ascensions in Imbabura Quechua also provides support for the claim that
certain initially intransitive clauses have direct objects but no subjects
(Perlmutter 1978).
An examination of the inversion construction in Imbabura Quechua
provides evidence for the inversion of subject nominals to indirect object,
although an inverted subject always occurs as a direct object. The interaction
of inversion and other rules shows that in Imbabura Quechua a nominal can
passivize in an inversion clause. This is a counter-example to the claim in
Perlmutter (1978) that inversion clauses do not allow passive and always
involve the advancement of a direct object to subject in an unaccusative
stratum.
Doctoral dissertations 155
The analysis of causative clause union constructions in Imbabura
Quechua presented in this thesis suggests that the principles determining the
syntactic structure of causative clause union constructions are not entirely
understood.
[72] Johnson, David Edward 1974
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Toward a theory of relationally-based grammar
This dissertation attempts to justify incorporating grammatical relations
as primitives into linguistic theory and to motivate the development of a
relationally-based theory, that is, a theory of grammar in which a significant
number of rules and constraints are based directly on the notion of
grammatical relations such as 'subject-of and 'direct-object-of.' Theories are,
as much as anything else, 'tools for investigation and communication' and
hence must be judged in part by the questions they lead one to ask. To the
extent that the observations and questions brought out in this study are
deemed interesting and valuable, this approach will be justified in at least this
one respect. At this stage of our metalinguistic knowledge, little more can be
asked of any linguistic theory — after all, the major contribution of
transformational grammar could well be judged in the future to be that it
inspired new questions and observations — questions and observations that
must be answered and explained by some totally unknown theory of language
still over the horizon. This thesis, then, can be looked upon as an effort to free
oneself from the conventional attitude regarding rules and grammatical
relations — in the hope of uncovering new facts, raising new questions, and
constructing valid generalizations that will lead, ultimately, to a deeper
understanding of the nature of human language.
This basic plan of the work is as follows. Chapter II is an evaluation of the
standard transformational approaches to defining grammatical relations.
Chapter III develops certain definitions and notation that will prove useful
throughout the rest of the study. In addition, as already mentioned, a brief
outline of a possible theory of relationally-based grammar is given. The
remaining two chapters are, for the most part, independent of the theory
sketched in Chapter III. The focus of Chapter IV is on evidence that supports
the contention that grammatical relations are central to the formulation and
application or rules at other than deep-structure levels and that a universal
characterization of grammatical relations is needed at relatively superficial
levels of the grammar. This chapter also introduces certain complications,
problems and conjectures concerning the phenomenon of 'Ergativity' —
problems and complications that must be handled by any adequate linguistic
theory but are not by any of the existing ones. Chapter V discusses a number
of topics including the relationship of cyclicity, globality and other
parameters to the property of the relation-changingness of a rule. Relation-
changing rules are classified in various ways in a search for meaningful
regularities. The final chapter is a brief summary and conclusion.
156 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
[73] Ka, Omar 1988
Advisor: Charles W. Kissebcrth
Wolof phonology and morphology: A non-linear approach
The object of this study is Wolof, an African language belonging to the
Northern West Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo family. Wolof is spoken
primarily in Senegambia, where it has become a lingua franca. The purpose of
the thesis is to provide an analysis of the phonology and morphology of the
language using the non-linear framework. In Wolof, such notions as vowel
length, complex segments, permissible syllable, and phonological phrase play
a significant role in the description of many aspects of Wolof phonology
(syllable structure, gemination and degemination, prenasalization, vowel
coalescence, vowel insertion, glide insertion, vowel harmony reduplication
processes, and stress assignment). Nonlinear representation of phonological
structure provide a way to account in a satisfactory fashion for these
processes.
The thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter sets the stage by
giving an overall presentation of Wolof phonology and morphology and by
sketching the main characteristics of the non-linear framework. Chapter 2 is
devoted to syllable structure, in particular the syllabification principles of the
language, the levels of assignment, and the treatment of complex segments
such as long vowels, geminates, and prenasalized consonants. Chapter 3 gives
an exhaustive account of vowel harmony in Wolof, emphasizing the existence
of neutral and opaque vowels, and describing vowel harmony as an external
sandhi rule.
Chapter 4 analyzes other phonological rules such as gemination,
degemination, vowel coalescence, vowel and glide insertions, and their
relationship with syllable structure. Chapter 5 accounts for reduplication in
non-linear terms, positing the existence of a morpheme template and
describing the relations between reduplication and other word formation
processes such as suffixation and nasal prefixation. The sixth and final
chapter discusses stress assignment using a metrical approach and the
different parameters proposed by Hayes (1981).
[74] Kamwangamalu, Nkonko 1989
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
Code-mixing across languages: Structure, functions, and constraints
In recent years researchers have investigated code-mixing from three
perspectives: psycholinguistic, syntactic, and functional. This study is
concerned mainly with the functional use and syntactic structure of code-
mixing (CM) across cultures and languages. From a functional point of view,
the study attempts to determine why bilingual speakers often engage in CM
when they interact with other bilinguals with whom they share the same
linguistic repertoire. From a syntactic point of view the study attempts to
determine whether there are universal constraints on CM. And, if there are,
why it is that the proposed universal constraints often prove vulnerable in
light of new data.
In an attempt to address these issues the study provides first a cross-
cultural and cross-linguistic typology of CM based on the three perspectives
mentioned, with a focus on the functional and syntactic perspectives.
Functionally, it is found that bilingual speakers mix the languages available to
Doctoral dissertations 157
them for various communicative purposes, such as marking social class
identity, education, and modernization. The use of CM to achieve functions
such as these is determined by the cline of bilinguality achieved by the
speaker, and by the number of variables in the context of situation, e.g. the
topic, the setting and/or the participants. These conclusions are further
supported by a case study of Lingala-French CM. The case study shows that like
bilingual speakers in other bilingual communities, functionally Lingala-
French code-mixers resort to CM in order to achieve functions such as those
mentioned above. Based on these conclusions it is argued that the use of CM in
bilingual communities should not be interpreted as symptomatic of linguistic
incompetence in one or other of the bilingual's languages, since bilinguals
are observed to resort to CM even if the message or information they convey
through CM can also be expressed in one language only.
Syntactically, an attempt is made to explain why the proposed constraint
on CM are often violated in light of new data. It is found that the data on which
most of those constraints are based represent triggered rather than natural or
self-occurring code-mixed speech. It is suggested that current methodologies
that consist of triggering CM in the speech of bilingual speakers be
abandoned, and that constraints be based on code-mixed data drawn from
spontaneous conversation between bilinguals in natural settings. In order to
determine the rules that govern CM a distinction is made between host
language and guest language. It is proposed that CM is governed by a Host
Code/Guest Code Principle. This principle says that in a code-mixed discourse
involving languages LI and L2, where LI is the host code and L2 the guest
code, the morphosyntactic rules of L2 must conform to the morphosyntactic
rules of LI, the language of the discourse.
[75] Kang, Seek Keun 1992
Advisor: Chin-Wu Kim
A morale study of some phonological phenomena in English and Korean
The purpose of the study is to present a more satisfactory account of some
phonological phenomena in English and Korean by employing the framework
of morale phonology.
In Chapter 1, I review CV phonology and present the representations and
the general principles of morale phonology. I also provide the morale and
syllabic structures in English and Korean.
Chapter 2 discusses the formal representation of ambisyllabic consonants
in terms of morale theory. I claim that the notion of ambisyllabicity capturing
the shared feature of a consonant has a real intuitive appeal and that
ambisyllabicity and gemination are not in complementary distribution among
languages; i.e., they should be given different representations. 1 also show
that the moraic representation of ambisyllabicity makes some better
predictions than the CV representation of it (e.g., Clements and Keyser 1983).
With the notion of ambisyllabicity, I reexamine English aspiration and
flapping.
In Chapter 3, I deal with various syllable weight-related issues. First, I
claim that there are two types of glide formation in Korean; i.e., one that is
optional triggers CL, and the other that is obligatory fails to induce CL.
Reanalyzing the /j/-deletion processes of Korean, I show that CL in Korean is
a mirror image rule. I also provide a reanalysis of the /l/-irregular predicates
158 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
in Korean, and assert that not /{/-deletion but Intersonorant /i/-deletion
induces CL. The pattern here is 'VCV -> V:CO'. I consider a case of this sort from
Middle English. In addition, I discuss some other consonant deletion rules
which happen to be related to CL.
Chapter 4 deals with interaction between phonological rules and
conditions. First, I reanalyze the so-called CC Shortening in English, claiming
that shortening here is the automatic disconnection, due to Structure
Preservation, of part of the long vowel, which occurs with the incorporation
of the consonant into the syllable. Second, 1 show that consonant cluster
simplification in Korean is directly related to the morale structure and the
'morified' syllabification process. Finally, 1 claim that no explicit orderings
among some phonological rules need be specified in the grammar, for they are
predictable by universal and language-particular principles.
In Chapter 5, I provide a brief overview of the thesis and discuss some of
the implication for linguistic theory.
[76] Kang, Yongsoon 1992
Advisor: Chin-Wu Kim
Phonology of consonant-vowel interaction: With special reference
to Korean and Dependency Phonology
This dissertation is a search for a more satisfactory explanation for
various consonant-vowel interaction phenomena. The theoretical framework
best suited for this purpose is judged to be Dependency Phonology (Anderson &
Ewen 1987.) Dependency Phonology assumes that a dependency relation holds
in every module of grammar, i.e. from the internal structure of a segment to a
syntactic structure. This idea is desirable by virtue of its simplicity,
consistency, and versatility.
In the first chapter, two current representational systems, i.e.
Undcrspecification and Feature Geometry, are reviewed and it is shown that
these frameworks are not quite adequate in explaining the consonant-vowel
interaction phenomena.
In Chapter 2, I present some basic principles and representations of DP.
In order to improve the representation of phonological rules, I adopt a theory
of undcrspecification and a convention of spreading. The former is done by
removing the articulatory gesture and the latter, by spreading components
instead of features. In the final section, a syllable structure of Korean in the
DP framework is suggested.
In Chapter 3, four phonological processes which involve consonant-
vowel interaction are explored. They are Palatalization, Labialization, Umlaut,
and Consonant and Vowel Harmony. It is shown that the DP model is better
than Feature Geometry in dealing with these phenomena since in DP
representations, consonant and vowels share common components which are
suitable for representing consonant-vowel interaction phenomena.
In Chapter 4, I deal with Korean word structure and some phonological
rules which are sensitive to a dependency relation between morphemes. I
examine in detail Intervocalic Voicing and Tensification. It turns out that
Tensification is more specific in the sense that if a certain phonological or
morphological condition is met then it applies, and if the condition is not met
when voicing takes place. Tensification in relative clause is also closely
Doctoral dissertations 159
examined and it is claimed that the seemingly same surface structure fV++ 1 N ]
has two different underlying structures: that of a relative clause and a sub-
compound. Only in the latter case, Tensification takes place. Finally, Causative
and Passive construction and allomorphy are investigated. It is claimed that it
has the mutual-governed structure and /-ki/ is the underlying form of the
variant.
Finally, Chapter 5 is a concluding chapter that summarizes and discusses
some theoretical implications of this study.
[77] Kapanga, Mwamba Tshishiku 1991
Advisor: Eyamba G. Bokamba
Variation and change in language: A case study of Shaba Swahili
Swahili has generally been perceived as a homogenous entity whose
norms are reflected in the variety spoken on the coast of East Africa. Any
deviations from these norms are perceived as trademark of colloquialism,
corruption, deterioration and/or sub-standardness. In the Zairian province of
Shaba, the variety of Swahili used is characterized by a multiplicity of
deviations at all grammatical levels. This being the case, this variety,
commonly known as Shaba Swahili (ShS), has been considered by many as a
colloquial, corrupt, deteriorated, and sub-standard or pidgin variety of East
African Swahili (EAS).
This dissertation provides an analysis of ShS, one of the very few non-
western languages classified as pidgin/creole (P/C). It shows that although
ShS fulfills some of the criteria used for the classification of P/C (i.e.
structural simplification and historical origin associated with slavery, trade,
etc.), it is not a P/C. It will be shown through the analysis of ShS that
structural simplification is not a properly of P/C only. Rather it is the
property of all languages found in contact situations; namely, link languages,
koines, foreigner talk, P/C, immigrant, and institutionalized varieties. Thus, all
the processes of language contact such as linguistic convergence, structural
simplification, interference, interlanguage, linguistic nationalism,
superstratum association, language attitudes, etc. will be evaluated to sort out a
new set of criteria for language categorization in contact situations.
This study attempts to demonstrate that ShS is a "meaning system" that
reflects the linguistic and socio-cultural context proper to new context of use.
It shows that the multilingual context of Shaba has created new norms, which
are nativized according to the linguistic, social, and cultural context of Shaba.
Thus, what has generally been regarded as its own rules and norms that are
distinct from those of EAS.
This dissertation also establishes that while linguistic variation is used to
show the extent to which people adhere to the norms of their vernacular
culture, this adherence is not automatic given the presence of members of
one's close-knit social network. It shows that though social variables such as
participants, age, topic, gender, ethnicity, education, etc. can determine a
speaker's linguistic behavior, they are each subconsciously assigned
hierarchical index markings of vitality. The social variables with the highest
indexation marking can over-rule the constraints of linguistic behavior
dictated by formality or informality during a speech event. Members of any
community arc aware of this indexation marking and are cognizant of the fact
that this indexation varies with the context of situation. These conclusions are
160 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
arrived at by providing both linguistic and attitudinal studies of the speakers,
their beliefs, values, and affiliations vis-i-vis the different varieties found in
their linguistic repertoire.
[78] Kenkel, James Michael 1991
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
Argumentation pragmatics, text analysis, and contrastive rhetoric
The contrastive rhetoric hypothesis (Kaplan, 1966) predicts that
language users across cultures will vary in the means they use to construct
coherent discourse. The problem for contrastive rhetoric research is to
develop a method for reliably describing this variation. To this end, a number
of methods of text analysis have been proposed that claim to describe the
linguistic and discoursal features crucial to coherent interpretations of text.
In this dissertation, I review these method and then present an alternative
adapted from argumentation pragmatics (Ducrot et al., 1980) and the model of
discourse structure proposed by Roulet et al. (1985). Ducrot's theory rests on
the observation that utterances in sequence are describable as having one of
two functions — that of being an argument for some conclusion or a
conclusion from some argument(s). Roulet proposes a hierarchical model of
discourse having three constituent types: acts, moves, and exchanges. To text
the contrastive rhetoric hypothesis, using this method of analysis, 1 analyzed
twenty lead editorials each from the The Times of India, The Singapore Straits
Times, and The New York Times. These texts represent three distinct varieties
of English from three different cultural settings (Kachru, 1986) and as such
allow for testing the contrastive rhetoric hypothesis. The results of these
analyses do not support the hypothesis that language users across cultures
vary in the means they use to construct coherent discourse.
[79] Kenstowicz, Michael John 1971
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
Lithuanian phonology
I have essentially two goals in this dissertation. First, 1 try to formulate a
description of a wide variety of data about the phonology of contemporary
Standard Lithuanian within the theoretical framework of generative
grammar, a framework which permits a surprising amount of insight into the
data. This goal is not trivial since, although there are several traditional
phonemic descriptions such as Senn's Handbuch der Litauischen Sprache,
Stang's Das Slavische und Baltische Verbum, and Otrebski's Gramatyka Jezyka
Litewskiego, the latter being by far the most informative, they fail, except for
fairly low level and transparent phenomena, to bring any significant
generalizations to bear upon the data. For this reason I do not present any new
additional data in this description, but rather provide an analysis of some of
the facts already given in the above works.
My second goal has been to confront the theory of generative phonology,
which as been most systematically presented in Chomsky and Halle's The
Sound Pattern of English, with a rather diverse set of data from still another
language. In some of the cases where the theory does not, in my opinion,
permit the proper insight into the data, I have attempted to extend it along
lines which will allow for such insight.
Doctoral dissertations 161
It should be admitted at the outset that these goals have only partially
been attained. With regard to the first, the description presented here is far
from complete, there being many aspects of the language which I have
omitted from consideration. Thus, derivational morphology is only touched
upon sporadically, and several of the nominal declensions and verbal
paradigms are not treated. In general I have concentrated on those
phenomena which either would be essential to any phonological description
of Lithuanian or those which are of inherent interest. However, in spite of
this limitation, I believe that most of the rules I have formulated would be
retained in essentially unaltered form if more data were considered. I
therefore feel that the description presented here is, on the whole, a fairly
faithful reflection of the phonological structure of the language. As far as the
second goal of confronting the theory with a fresh set of data is concerned,
here too it must be admitted that there are many features of the language
which I don't think are properly illuminated in my description. In some of
these cases this lack of insight can be attributed to the theoretical framework
within which the description is formulated and my inability to extend it in
such a way as to achieve the necessary insight.
[80] Khalil, Aziz M. 1984
Advisor: Sandra Savignon
Communicative error evaluation: A study of American native speakers'
evaluations and interpretations of deviant utterances written by Arab EFL
learners
This study is an attempt to investigate American native speakers'
evaluations and interpretations of grammatically and semantically deviant
utterances written by Arab EFL learners and to establish communicative
criteria that may be utilized in selective error correction and in the writing
and sequencing of teaching materials. The purpose of this study is threefold:
(1) to investigate the differences between judged intelligibility and
naturalness; (2) to investigate the extent to which error type (grammatical or
semantic) and immediate linguistic context affect the intelligibility,
naturalness, and interpretability of deviant utterances; and (3) to provide a
validation measure for judgments of intelligibility.
Two types of measures were used: Evaluation and Interpretation. The
former involved the evaluations of deviant utterances, presented both in and
out of context, on four-point scales of intelligibility and naturalness. The latter
required the selection from among four options of the best interpretation of
the meaning intended by the Arab writer.
This experiment included two factorial designs: a between-subject design
for naturalness and intelligibility and a within-subject design for
intelligibility and interpretation.
The subjects consisted of 240 American undergraduate students enrolled
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The results of t-iests
indicated that utterances were generally judged to be more intelligible than
they were natural. The ANOVA results showed that semantically deviant
utterances were judged to be less intelligible and interpretable than were
grammatically deviant utterances. Immediate linguistic context did not
influence native speakers' ability to interpret the writer's intent. Two factors
were noted that may account for this unexpected result: the limited amount of
context provided and the poor rhetorical quality of this context.
162 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Fisher's Exact Text results showed no association between the subjects'
performance on the two measures of intelligibility and interpretation. This
result raises questions as to the basis for judgments of intelligibility since
these do not appear to reflect native speakers' actual comprehension of the
meaning intended by the writer. Rather, they appear to indicate the extent to
which native speakers think they understand the meaning of the deviant
utterances.
The implications of these results for the methodology of communicative
error evaluation and classroom teaching are discussed.
[81] Khan, Baber Sultan Ali 1989
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
The Urdu case system
This dissertation analyses the complex Case system of Urdu within the
framework of Government and Binding (GB) theory. It concentrates both on
the word order and the phrase structure order of the language and on the
assignment of various Case to subject NPs in Urdu.
The flexible word order of Urdu has previously been explained in terms of
typological features and frequency count methods. Chapter two of this study
argues for an SOV order in terms of a directionality parameter associated with
the Case and Thela theories. A leftward directionality of Case and 0-role
assignment in Urdu accounts for the head final character of the language. The
principle of Case adjacency accounts for the obligatory occurrence of a
postposition with the indirect object and explains why direct object remains
adjacent to the verb.
The GB theory assumes the Verb-raising rule to be part of the Universal
Grammar. However, in Urdu, such a rule will produce an incorrect surface
word order due to the assumed order of the phrase structures. Chapter three
demonstrates that an alternative analysis, viz. INFL-lowering, not only allows
the correct word order but also explains the verb-agreement facts in Urdu.
The final chapter provides further evidence for the INFL-lowering rule
and explains how nominative, ergative, dative, and instrumental Cases are
assigned to subject NPs. It is argued that perfective morphology absorbs
accusative Case. Similarly, dative and unaccusative verbs are incapable of
assigning Case to their internal arguments. This invokes INFL-lowering which
assigns nominative Case to internal argument but the external argument is
consequently left Caseless. A postposition-insertion rule is, thus, required
which inserts an appropriate postposition in front of the subject NP to assign
it the necessary Case.
[82] Khoali, Benjamin Thakampholo 1991
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
A Sesotho tonal grammar
This dissertation is an account of the tonology of Sesotho. A phonological
component consisting of such subsystems as the theory of morale phonology,
metrical phonology, autosegmental phonology and prosodic phonology is
presupposed. Whenever relevant, I appeal to the principles and rules that
govern each of these subsystems.
Doctoral dissertations 163
The main contribution of this thesis is, however, the role played by
prosodic domains in the tonology of Sesotho. Four such domains are utilized to
constrain the application of tones rules for the language. These are the
syllable, the phonological Word (W-domain), the Clitic Group (C-domain) and
the Phonological Phrase (P-domain).
Tone rules in Sesotho can classified into two groups: assimilatory and
dissimilatory. Assimilatory rules involve spreading of H tones. There are two
types of such H tones: lexical H tones and grammatical H tones. Lexical H tones
assimilate by spreading one mora to the right whereas grammatical H tones
spread all the way to heads of metrical constituents. Dissimilatory processes, on
the other hand, involve various kinds of deletion and delinking of H tones.
Such dissimilatory processes are shown to be responses to violations of the OCP.
The responses to these violations of the OCP are different from one dialect of
Sesotho to the other.
Tone rules which have been found to be constrained by these prosodic
domains are: (1) Meeussen's Rule — a W-domain span rule, (2) Right Branch
Delinking — a W-domain and C-domain span rule, (3) High Tone Spreading — a
W-domain and a C-domain span rule, (4) Downstepping — a P-domain juncture
rule, (5) Left Branch Delinking — a W-domain limit rule, (6) H Tone Insertion —
a P-domain limit rule, (7) M Toning — a P-domain limit rule, and so forth.
The interaction between phonology and syntax is also discussed. It is
demonstrated that heads which are C-commanded by Chomsky-adjoined
constituents are at the ends of P-domains. Otherwise, the extreme right bracket
of a Xmax is the end of a P-domain. Independent syntactic evidence to support
the claim concerning the role played by tone in signalling Chomsky-adjoined
constituents is advanced.
[83] Kidda, Mairo Elinor 1985
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
Tangale phonology: A descriptive analysis
Tangale, a Chadic language spoken in Nigeria, exhibits a considerable
number of phonological alternations at the segmental and tonal levels.
In this dissertation, we attempt to present a descriptive account of the
alternations within the theory of generative phonology (Kenstowicz &
Kisseberth, 1976, 1979) enriched with the autosegmental representations
introduced in works by Leben (1971), Clements (1977) and Halle & Vergnaud
(1980), among others.
The dissertation is divided into four chapters: 1. An Overview, 2. Syllable
Structure, 3. Assimilatory Processes and 4. Tone. In Chapter 1, we present a
general survey of the Tangale dialects and dialect differences in terms of
lexical items and notable phonological rules. Then, we provide a brief
summary of the sound system of the language and some morphological and
syntactic processes that are relevant to our study. In Chapter 2, we examine
the alternations that are related to the syllable structure. These alternations
are accounted for in terms of the syllable theory sketched in Halle & Vergnaud
(1980) and later elaborated in Clements & Keyser (1983). Chapter 3 discusses
the two assimilatory processes: obstruent voicing assimilation and vowel
harmony. The vowel harmony system is described within the autosegmental
framework (Clements, 1977). Finally, in Chapter 4, we present descriptions of
164 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
the tone and tonal processes in the language. Like the vowel harmony, the
tone and tonal processes are described in terms of the autosegmental theory.
[84] Kim, Hyoung Youb 1990
Advisor: Chin-Wu Kim
Voicing and tensification in Korean: A multi-face approach
The purpose of this study is to present a more satisfactory explanation for
several morphologically and syntactically conditioned phonological
phenomena, in particular, voicing and tensification in Korean. I will propose
a multi-face model which enables these phonological phenomena to be
accounted for on the basis of their interaction with morph-syntaclic
structures.
Chapter I provides the basic phonological background against which this
study will be done, i.e., an inventory of underlying segments, the syllable
structure, and a set of basic phonological rules in Korean. Apparent exceptions
to rules of voicing and tensification will be noted.
Chapter II gives a critical review of the past studies done on voicing and
tensification in Korean. Inadequacies in these studies gives justification for
the present study.
Chapter III proposes a multi-face model as a theoretical framework for
this study. This model integrates interactions between phonology and syntax,
and between morphology and syntax as well as interactions between
phonology and morphology for a satisfactory analysis of the phonological
phenomena in question. It is argued that this model is an improvement over
the framework of prosodic phonology proposed by Nesper and Vogel (1986).
Chapter IV deals with analysis and description of voicing in Korean within
the multi-face model. It consists of two parts: First, I show that complex verbs
ending with -i or -ha belong to the noun incorporated forms. Even though
they show the same morphological structure as verbal compounds, I argue that
they should be distinguished from the verb compounds on the ground that
such phonological phenomena as palatalization and aspiration which apply
within complex verbs do not apply within verbal compounds. Second, I show
that compounds ending with -ki should be analyzed differently from those
ending with -/ in that compounds ending with -ki should be regarded as
phrases rather than words.
Chapter V deals with analysis and description of tensification in Korean
within the multi-face model. First, I argue that exceptional voicing in a noun
compound can be explained by analyzing the compound as a syntactic phrase.
Second, I treat tensification in the initial obstruent of the head noun in
relative clauses after the prospective modifier -(ii)l. Again I argue that the
syntax of the relative clause explains the reason why tensification occurs in
certain constructions but not in others. Third, I argue that some deverbal
compounds should be dealt with differently because they have tensification
which does not occur within the deverbal compounds. In order to account for
these exceptional compounds I assign different morphological structures from
other deverbal compounds.
Chapter VI discusses some theoretical implications of the results of this
study by way of the conclusion.
Doctoral dissertations 165
[85] Kisseberth, Charles W, 1969
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
Theoretical implications of Yawelmani phonology
This thesis has been written in accordance with a not unusual pattern.
Namely, it provides a reanalysis of the phonological component of a particular
grammar, but is interested in this particular grammar primarily for the light
it sheds on general phonological theory. Thus the description is by no means
exhaustive, but rather confined to those aspects of the phonological structure
which are of general relevance.
In Part I, we discuss the details of the analysis of Yawelmani. We begin
the details of the analysis of Yawelmani. We begin with those aspects of its
structure where we have no essential quarrel with Kuroda's analysis — the
rules of Vowel Harmony, Lowering, Echo, Shortening, and the nature of the
underlying vowel system. We then turn to the rules of Vowel Epenthesis and
Vowel Deletion, which are central to later concerns of this thesis, and the
underlying structure of suffixes. In these areas we do not follow Kuroda's
analysis, and will attempt to establish our motivations for not doing so. The
third chapter deals with the noun paradigms in Yawelmani and focuses
primarily on the "protective vowels" (to use Newman's terminology) and how
they are to be treated. Like Vowel Epenthesis and Vowel Deletion, the
protective vowels will figure in later discussion in Part II. The final chapter of
Part I deals with a number of phenomena which either further motivate other
parts of the analysis, or have some general interest of their own. In this
chapter in particular we discuss data not considered in Kuroda's monograph.
Part II centers around theoretical issues. First of all, we turn to the
extremely important question which Kiparsky has recently raised — namely,
"how abstract is phonology?" An example of a type of analysis which we feel
must be ruled out on general grounds is given. The principles which Kiparsky
proposes for eliminating such analyses are then investigated, and shown to
run afoul when confronted with the facts of Yawelmani. We are not able to
provide an answer to the general problem, but hope that discussion in this
chapter defines the range of possible answers to a certain extent. In the
second chapter of Part II, the notion of the "functional unity" of phonological
rules is investigated, and a wealth of evidence from Yawelmani is brought
forth in favor of amending phonological theory in order to recognize
functional sameness as well as structural sameness. Some very tentative
suggestions about how phonological theory might be amended to accomplish
this goal are made. Finally, we examine briefly the theory of markedness, and
attempt to establish (on the basis of the facts of Yawelmani) whether it can be
maintained in the form proposed in Chomsky and Halle's The Sound Pattern of
English (1968). Although this discussion is largely critical in nature, we hope
that it is not without a certain positive character to it.
[86] Kleiman, Angela Bustos 1974
Advisor: Georgia M. Green
A syntactic correlate of the semantic and pragmatic relations: The subjunctive
mood in Spanish
This dissertation is an attempt to characterize the interrelation between
semantic-logical aspects of the underlying representation of a sentence and
their formal expressions through the subjunctive mood. This relation is
166 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
investigated through an examination of Spanish, but the nature of the
semantic and pragmatic notions to be examined are not necessarily language
specific. This is not to say that other languages which have a distinct
subjunctive, for instance, will use that mood in exactly the same circumstances
where the Spanish speaker uses it, but that the information which determines
that the subjunctive be used in Spanish is the type of information which must
be available to speakers of any language regardless of the syntactic
mechanisms through which they express it.
This dissertation is divided into two main parts; the division is not formal
but determined by the nature of the phenomena investigated. The first part
(corresponding to chapter two) deals with uses of the subjunctive which are
predictable from syntactic and semantic properties of abstract verbs in the
semantic representation of the structures; the presence of the subjunctive is
determined by the syntactic phenomenon of rule government.
The second part of this dissertation (chapters three, four, and five) deals
with cases where the subjunctive alternates with the indicative as a function
in the differences in the semantic representation of the sentences, and of the
speaker's beliefs and attitudes when uttering the sentences.
[87] Krause, Scott Russell 1980
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
Topics in Chukchee phonology and morphology
The purpose of the following dissertation is to propose a relatively
complete generative description of Chukchee phonology and some of the more
salient topics of the inflectional morphology. In chapter one the phonological
phenomena which do not affect the syllabic structure of the language will be
examined, including a complex dominant-recessive vowel harmonic system
and an intricate network of consonantal assimilations and dissimilations.
Chapter two will deal primarily with those phonological and morphophonemic
processes which do affect the syllable structure, including numerous
instances of schwa epenthesis, various consonantal deletions and vocalization,
vocalic elisions, and even one example of metathesis. Chapter three will
concentrate on the inflectional nominal phenomenon of reduplication and the
entire complex inflectional verbal morphology.
During the explication of these various topics I shall attempt to fit them
within a theoretical framework and discuss any pertinent issues which may
apply, such as phonotactic conspiracies against highly complex consonantal
configurations, animacy hierarchies, the concept of ergativity, and the like.
Furthermore, I shall suggest alternate proposals when such theoretical
guidelines are lacking in the literature, for instance a specific type of non-
trivial global rule and a phonologically protective function for reduplication.
The examination of the Chukchee data was a bit unusual in some respects,
since Chukchee is a Paleo-Siberian language of only several thousand extant
speakers, and a native informant was therefore not available. Accordingly,
this thesis was accomplished almost exclusively through the examination of
the literature which has been written on the language, most notably the
extensive two volume grammar by Skorik, several theoretical papers by
Comrie, and the various dictionaries. Although the examination of the
inflectional morphology did not suffer appreciably from this manner of
investigation, certain phonological phenomena such as potentially stress
Doctoral dissertations 167
related topics did suffer (due to the scarcity of accentual marks) and must be
left to future investigations.
[88] Langacker, Ronald Wayne 1966
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
i4 transformational syntax of French
The purpose of this study is twofold. On the one hand, it is offered as a
modest but hopefully significant contribution towards the ultimate goal of an
adequate generative description of modern French. It is hardly necessary to
emphasize the very tentative character of the conclusions reached here. Those
generalizations that are made concerning the construction of French
sentences are almost certain to yield to deeper generalizations upon
subsequent investigation. On the other hand, this study is intended to provide a
certain amount of empirical evidence that may be taken into account in
evaluating various theoretical proposals made recently as to the nature of
grammatical organization in general.
The scope of the analysis is quite limited. In general, the policy has been
followed of excluding a topic from the description rather than treating it in an
obviously inadequate manner. It is believed that, at this early stage in our
growing understanding of language, a relatively careful examination of a few
specific problems will be of more value than a relatively superficial treatment
of a wide range of phenomena. Nevertheless, it is impossible to achieve a fully
adequate description of certain subsystems of French syntax viewing these in
complete isolation from the rest of the system. Therefore, it is necessary to
consider from time to time the effect, as well as can now be conceived, of
extending the analysis to cover a broader domain. In some cases, on the basis
of existing evidence, we must more or less arbitrarily select one analysis
where equally plausible alternatives are known. Here again we must await the
results of further investigation.
The problems considered fall into three fairly closely related areas. In
chapter II, sentential and infinitival complements to nouns and verbs are
discussed in some detail. Chapter III centers about those prenominal
expressions sometimes called "indefinites" in traditional grammars. In
particular, the relative merits of a constituent structure versus a
transformational source for sequences like chacun de ces livres 'each of those
books' are weighed. Finally, in chapter IV, we examine various pro forms with
respect to their derivation and placement.
The list of subjects excluded from the analysis is perhaps more
impressive, the most notable being conjunction and adverbs. Interrogatives
are not treated directly, since they have been discussed elsewhere, but they
are brought into the discussion in several places where they are relevant.
Other exclusions and oversimplifications are indicated throughout. At the very
least, one can hope that, as a result of this study, the nature and magnitude of
the problems facing the analyst of French syntax will be better appreciated.
[89] Lederman, Shlomo 1987
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
On the interaction of morphology and phonology: The Hebrew verbal system
This study develops and defends a detailed analysis of Hebrew verbal
morphology, within the framework of the prosodic theory of
168 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
nonconcatcnative morphology proposed by McCarthy (1979, 1981). Both
Biblical Hebrew and Modern Hebrew are covered, with occasional reference to
Mishnaic Hebrew. It is shown that the distinction between Pa'al as the "base"
non-derived binyan as against the "derived" binyanim is well founded at least
in formal morphological terms, i.e., Pa'al's two major CV-tiers being CVCVC and
CVVC vs. the derived binyanim's CVCCVC and CVVCVC CV-tiers (namely, the
same CV-tiers for all derived binyanim), and the no-affix vs. affixing
characterization of the base vs. the derived binyanim. As regards the
phenomenon of medial gemination in Hebrew, and Semitic in general, it is
argued that an Initial Tone Association analysis is to be preferred to the
earlier proposed Erasure analysis, and a new theory on the diachronic
development of medial gemination in Hebrew is proposed.
The question of the interaction of morphology and phonology is
addressed and it is shown that certain phonological rules which give rise
either to compensatory lengthening or assimilation strongly support the
hypothesis that roots and vowel melodies are represented on autosegmental
tiers independent of the CV segmental tier. It is shown that compensatory
lengthening and assimilation have a simple and natural explanation within
the prosodic theory, whereas these processes call for two-stage rules in a
purely segmental approach.
It is argued that the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) holds for both
Biblical and Modem Hebrew as a constraint against identical adjacent root
melody elements. Apparent OCP violations, both in Biblical and Modern
Hebrew, are explained as rising from a major dichotomy between the verbal
and nominal systems in Hebrew. It is shown that all apparent OCP violations
belong to the nominal paradigm, and owing to the different lexical
representation of nouns vs. verbs, it is shown that these apparent
counterexamples actually do not violate the OCP.
The existence of multiradical denominative verbs in Modem Hebrew is
presented as problematic for a rigid Pi'el CVCCVC CV-tier for Modern Hebrew.
These are argued to be outside the verbal system proper.
[90] Lee, Cher-Leng 1990
Advisor: Chin-Chuan Cheng
Recovery and translation of zero anaphoric subjects in Chinese
In reading a narrative, it is crucial to know who the writer is referring
to. When the subject of each sentence is made explicit, this task of identifying
the referent is simple. However, in a discourse-oriented language like Chinese,
there is no grammatical requirement to have a subject in each sentence, and
so zero subjects are the norm rather than the exception. There could be
several entities present in a discourse made up of clauses with zero subjects.
The reader will have to decide which entity is being referred to in each clause.
The first part of this dissertation examines the cues that help readers identify
the correct referent; the second part investigates how these zero subjects are
translated into English where the subjects are usually made explicit.
It is proposed that the topic continuity of the relevant passage is
important to recover the referents of zero anaphoric subjects. The recovery
process begins at the predicate of the zero subject, then continues to the
closest subtopic continuity, and then the next until the referent is found. Thus,
recovery is said to be a bottom-up process. Principles that help decide whether
Doctoral dissertations 169
the most recent entity, the opening entity of the passage, or any other entity
present is the referent are derived. This is done through the application of the
topic continuity, discourse analysis, semantic matching and contextual
knowledge.
An examination of the translation of the zero anaphoric subjects into
English reveals that not only noun phrases, pronouns, and new nouns are
used, but passives, cohesive devices such as coordination and subordination
are used as well. The reasons that decide one usage or another can be that of
specification, non-specification, or connection. The topic continuity again
plays an important role, especially in the rearrangement of clauses and
editing of a particular passage. In order to restructure the translated clauses,
the topic continuity of these clauses has to be identified before dealing with
the details of each clause. Thus, the restructuring of translation is a top-down
process.
[91] Lee, Han-Gyu 1992
Advisor: Georgia M. Green
Some interaction of syntax and pragmatics in a study of
pragmatic morphemes in Korean
This thesis has two goals, describing the uses of some selected Pragmatic
Morphemes (PMs) in Korean and giving an account of their syntactic
behaviors in the GPSG framework. First, according to the Cooperative
Principle, 1 describe how the speaker uses a PM and how the hearer
understands it. 1 claim that a PM has one sense and its various uses are
inferred from that sense according to the Gricean CP. When the speaker uses a
PM in his utterance, he assumes the hearer believes he has goals, and he
expects her to be able to figure out its uses which are relevant to his goals in a
way indicated by its sense because he believes she assumes he does not use it
without any purpose. The hearer believes that the speaker used that PM in
support of his goals, and can infer from its sense how it is relevant to his goal
at the moment.
I deal with four PMs out of many in Korean. The PM com 'a little' is used to
show the speaker's politeness to the hearer by implicating that he is
minimizing the threat to her face, or to insult her by belittling her ability.
The speaker uses the PM tul (plural marker) to indicate that an event he is
describing occurred more than once, or that each referent of a subject of his
utterance is involved in an event. The PMs puthe 'from' and kkaci 'to' are used
to show that the speaker never expected an event/situation he is describing to
occur.
Second, the morpho-syntactic behavior of PMs are analyzed within the
GKPS (1985) version of GPSG. A new type of 'Near-HEAD' features is proposed
for PMs, following the GPSG multi-headed approach to coordination. Near-head
features are instantiated along head nodes like standard HEAD features in GKPS
(1985), but they must observe an additional restriction that a node with them
comes last in a local tree. The near-HEAD feature analysis predicts correctly
that PMs are located on the lexical head of a phrase and that they appear on
the final conjunct in coordination. However, 1 suggest that PMs can be treated
through HEAD features, if we give up the GPSG claim that coordination is
multi-headed.
170 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
[921 Lee, Sang Oak 1978
Advisor: Ching-Wu Kim
Middle Korean tonology
This research deals with various aspects of tonal phenomena in Late
Middle Korean (15c.-16c.) MK tonology has been studied before by several
native and foreign scholars. Two things distinguish this study from previous
ones. (1) Scope — previous works are not inclusive but rather fragmentary. MK
tonology is systematically organized and comprehensively discussed within
the overall framework of MK from tonogenesis to tonal derivation to tone
decay in one place for the first time. (2) Methodology — the present study
adopts the framework of explanatory and generative phonology, while most
previous works were carried out in the tradition of descriptive linguistics. In
particular, approaches suggested by McCawley in tone typology and Goldsmith
in tone derivation are applied to illuminate the nature of MK tone system.
In tone typology, this study demonstrates that MK tone is one of
McCawley's "some tonal systems that come close to being pitch accent systems
but don't quite make it." In particular, it demonstrates that MK has rules
assigning pitch depending on the accent locations, behaving like a pitch-
accent language up to this point, but that MK then requires morphophonemic
and phonetic tone rules which are characteristic of a tone language. Previous
studies classified MK either as a pitch-accent language or a tone language, not
an intermediate between the two. Nevertheless, a revision of McCawley's model
is also suggested.
In tone derivation, the present study first establishes that there are only
two underlying tonemes. High and Low, in MK, not three. High, Low, and
Rising, as MK tone markings suggest. It is demonstrated that Rising is
underlyingly a sequence of Low-High. It also establishes that the basic tone
melody in MK is L.H., thereby naturally explaining the absence of a falling
tone in MK. It next discusses the reasons why the concept of mora, rather than
that of syllable, must be employed in the description of MK tone. A detailed
account of generation and derivation of MK tone is then given in sequence via
four types of rules:
1. Pitch assignment rules
2. Morphophonemic tone rules
3. Phonetic tone rules
4. Rhythmic rules
In several places in the course of tone derivation and in a separate
chapter, the autosegmental theory of tone proposed by Goldsmith is applied to
show how it contributes to a more natural explanation of MK tonal data, and to
discuss some theoretical implications of MK data for the theory. In particular,
the need of segmentalization before the application of rhythmic rules is
demonstrated and a part of the Universal Tone Association Convention is
rejected on the basis of the analysis of MK tonal phenomena. As possible
origins and evolution of tone in MK, Chinese borrowing and inherent Altaic
origin are considered. But it is concluded that more plausible origins are an
internal development from neighboring segments as appears to have
happened in Jingpho; and a contour tone development by syncope,
desyllabication, and contraction as has happened in many other languages.
Some suggestive MK data are given and discussed.
Doctoral dissertations 171
Finally, it is suggested that perturbation and decay of MK tone was caused
by the leftward movement of ictus.
[93] Leskosky, Richard John 1976
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
Linguistic structuring and the cinema: A study in method
This dissertation will deal with the application of various linguistic
concepts to the study of the cinema and the use of linguistic methods in the
analysis of the film. Currently, many film theorists are appropriating
linguistic terms and concepts (seemingly haphazardly) as tools in their
research — often not without some violence to the linguistic concepts. This
dissertation will not attempt to rectify these errors as such, except insofar as it
attempts to present a valid linguistic interpretation of the cinematic data.
This dissertation is organized as follows. The present chapter will briefly
survey some of the uses of the cinema/language metaphor as encountered in
writings on the film and then will be given over to the definition of basic
terms used throughout the succeeding chapters.
Chapter II will present a review of previous literature using linguistic
concepts in approaching the cinema. The main concentration will be on the
two major periods of such research — namely, on the work of Russian linguists
and film makers in the 1920's and 1930's and on the current (from about 1960
to the present) work in this area consisting of three main approaches which
may be characterized as structural, semiological, or psycholinguistic,
respectively, depending on their orientation.
Chapter III will discuss the uses of language within the film. This takes
two forms: spoken language (as in dialogue) and written language (as in the
printed titles which still sometimes appear between scenes in films). The
concept of redundancy will be discussed in relation to the semantic overlap
between soundtrack and image track, and a paradigm of the possible uses of
language within the film will be set forth.
Chapter IV will investigate the structural parallels between language and
film. It will be demonstrated how current syntagmatic attempts at structuring
the sequence of a film are insufficient for the task and how a transformational
generative model akin to that used to describe human language provides an
adequate description of the phenomena under consideration.
Chapter V will discuss the Firthian concepts of contextualization and
context of situation in relation to the cinema. It will be explained how these
concepts can be used to organize all the other systems of the film, including
the structural system of Chapter IV. This will then be demonstrated with two
examples.
Chapter VI will provide a conclusion and a summation of the preceding
chapters.
[94] Livnat, Michal Allon 1984
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Focus constructions in Somali
The purpose of this study is to provide a syntactic analysis of focus
constructions in Somali in the framework of transformational-generative
172 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
grammar. The emphasis is on NP focus constructions with the focus marker
baa — a very common construction in Somali.
Focus is a predominant phenomenon in Somali. One constituent in every
indicative affirmative sentence must be marked by a focus marker as the focus
of the sentence. The focus marker may occur in either an unconjugated form
or in a conjugated form where it is coalesced with a subject clitic. The analysis
proposed in this study accounts for the distribution of the various forms of the
focus marker.
The main problem which the thesis addresses is that focused non-subject
noun phrases are marked by a focus marker which agrees with the subject of
the sentence. Thus it may appear as if Somali exhibits an unusual phenomenon
of agreement between subjects and objects.
The analysis which is proposed in this study makes it unnecessary to
postulate such an agreement. According to this analysis any focused NP,
regardless of its grammatical relation is extracted out of its clause and moved to
a position in COMP where it is marked by the invariable unconjugated form of
the focus marker. The conjugated form of the focus marker is the outcome of
phonological rules which coalesce the focus marker with a subject clitic and
are independent of the analysis of the focus.
One important consequence of the analysis is that a logical subject which
is marked as the focus by the focus marker is not the grammatical subject of
the sentence. Hence sentences in which the logical subject is focused are
grammatically subjeclless.
An analysis of the presence and distribution of subject clitics is proposed
and the role of subject clitics in various types of clauses is discussed.
[95] Lowenberg, Peter Harper 1984
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
English in the Malay archipelago: Nativization and its functions in a
sociolinguistic area
This study analyzes and compares the non-native varieties of English in
the countries of the Malay Archipelago — Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
This region constitutes a sociolinguistic area by virtue of extensive shared
sociocultural and linguistic features dating from the pre-colonial era.
However, political, economic, and demographic developments during the
colonial and post-colonial periods have created distinct sociolinguistic contexts
for the use of English in each of these countries.
The basic theoretical premise is that realistic interpretation of non-
native varieties of English requires a pragmatic and functional approach to
the use and usage of language. From this perspective, a non-native variety of
English is nativized to the degree that differences in its forms and functions
from those in other varieties of English reflect acculturation into a specific
sociocultural context and contact and interaction with other languages in
multilinguals' linguistic repertoires.
Several important aspects of nativization are illustrated. First,
nativization originates largely from the transfer of linguistic features from
other languages and from creative innovation as an inevitable result of the
use of English in non-native contexts. Second, much nativization can be linked
to a number of sociolinguistic functions of language, including register, style,
Doctoral dissertations 173
and the expression of identity. Third, the degrees and types of nativization of
English in a sociolinguistic setting are determined by the range of domains in
which English is used and the number of speakers who use English in those
domains. Fourth, changes in the sociocultural and linguistic settings of
language use are generally reflected in altered patterns of nativization.
The analysis in this study is primarily textual, based on a wide range of
written texts from each country rather than on close observation of verbal
interaction. Implications of this research are discussed for several crucial
issues in linguistic theory and its applications, including language planning
and language pedagogy.
[96] Ley, Artha Sue 1966
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
Historical rules in the development of Modern French from Latin
The analysis presented in this dissertation is a set of ordered phonological
rules which represent the major sound changes that occurred during the
development of the French language. These rules are part of the phonological
component of a transformational grammar of the type described by N.
Chomsky in Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1965). A
brief sketch of the theory and structure of a transformational grammar is
given in Chapter I of this dissertation.
There are many handbooks and articles written on the development of
French phonology which have been used as sources of data for this
dissertation. However, the analysis presented here differs substantially from
the analyses found in the literature. These differences are discussed in detail
in Chapters 11 and III.
The purpose of this dissertation is to determine (1) what regularities
underlie the changes that occurred during the development of pronunciation
in the French language, (2) what phonological rules may be formulated in
order to express these developments, and (3) to what extent the descriptive
order of the rules, which is determined by the simplicity criterion, reflects the
apparent chronological order of the rules.
[97] Lu, Zhiji 1991
Advisor: Chin-Chuan Cheng
A quantitative model in dialect sub grouping: The case of Modern Wu dialects
This thesis is intended to present a new model for the comparative study
of dialects with the quantitative measurements, and under this new model, the
subgrouping of the Modem Wu dialects, one of the major groups of Chinese
dialects, is carried out, based on the syllable initials.
An overview is given on the previous approaches in the literature of the
dialectology — namely, the traditional approach, structural approach and
generative approach. Each approach has been applied to the case of the Wu
dialects to accomplish the task of subgrouping. But none of them can overcome
the difficulty of synthesizing the isoglosses, since they ignore the concrete
processes of sound changes, and thus fails to determine the degree of
associations among a number of related dialects. To study the sound change in
process, based on the theory of lexical diffusion, initials a new route for
quantitative study into dialect comparison.
174 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Following the methodology in Hsich (1977), Cheng (1972), Lu & Cheng
(1985), Cheng (1986, 1988), Lu (1986a, 1987a. 1987b, 1987c, 1988, 1989, 1990), the
thesis proposes a new model, namely, the systematic quantitative comparative
model. Since sound change is carried out by means of lexical items, the
comparison of quantity of the influenced lexical items in the course of sound
change will reveal the degree and scope of sound change in process. Under
this new model, the syllable initials of more than 2,700 characters pronounced
in 33 localities of the Wu dialects are collected and grouped with the reference
of the Ancient Chinese to provide a large database for the systematic
comparison. Then, the procedure designed for dialect comparison, which
includes correlational analysis, cluster analysis and principal components
analysis, is followed to carry out the subgrouping of these 33 localities. The
results are presented and discussed.
[98] Lutz, Richard David 1985
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
The effect of pronoun type on first and second language perceptual strategies
in Hindi
In this thesis I will present empirical evidence that there is a general
preference on the part of Hindi speakers to reassert the referent after a shift
in sentence topic. While not a hard and fast rule, it can be shown that pronoun
type (full or zero) also affects pronominal assignment, and may be one source
of difficulty encountered by L2 learners of Hindi. Strong empirical evidence
of this is presented in chapter 4.
The investigation presented here will necessarily span both syntactic
theory as well as psycholinguistics. Before an understanding of how LI and L2
speakers of Hindi process zero pronouns can be reached, a general discussion
of the phenomenon will be provided. Chapter 2 will review treatments of
pronominalization in general and in Hindi in particular. I will explore the
distributional pattern of zero pronouns and demonstrate that this distribution
cannot be explained completely by standard sentence-level processes. While
syntactic deletion processes such as equi-NP-Deletion (Subbarao 1974) account
for certain clear-cut examples of absent surface pronouns, there are
numerous cases of zero anaphora which do not appear to be syntactically
controlled, but rather, are the result of discourse-level pragmatic processes. I
will then discuss the role of topic in zero pronominalization. In particular,
such discourse-related notions as topic chain (adapted from Dixon 1972) appear
to be useful in accounting for the distribution pattern of a large number of
zero pronouns. The remainder of the chapter reviews research done on first
and second language processing of pronouns, and outlines the perceptual
strategies used in assigning antecedents to pronouns.
Chapter 3 provides corroboration of the role of topic flow as a predictor of
zero pronouns. It contains the description and results of an experiment which
tests the preferred patterns of distribution of zero pronouns at the discourse
level as judged by LI Hindi speakers. It establishes topic chain as a strong
factor in the occurrence of zero anaphoric processes.
In chapter 5 I present the results of an experiment that contrasts the
strategies used by LI Hindi speakers with that of L2 students in the process of
studying Hindi in secondary schools. The data indicate that such clues as
verbal agreement are used by L2 learners, even at relatively low levels of
proficiency in Hindi, in the assignment of reference to pronouns, and that
Doctoral dissertations 175
even such pragmatically difficult cases as the use of honorific pronouns are
processed successfully by L2 learners at moderate levels of proficiency. On the
other hand, discourse-level clues, while used by LI Hindi speakers in
processing anaphora, are not used by L2 learners until a very high level of
proficiency is attained.
Chapter 5 contains a brief recapitulation of the results of the L2 vs. LI
experiment, and a discussion of their implications for a general theory of L2
acquisition.
[99] Magura, Benjamin Jameslai 1984
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
Style and meaning in African English: A sociolinguistic analysis of South
African and Zimbabwean English
This study presents an analysis of the style and 'meaning' of the variety
of English used in the sociocultural context of South Africa and Zimbabwe. The
focus is primarily on the African or Black English variety.
It is argued that the Blacks in this region have developed a variety of
English that deviates in several ways from, what is traditionally referred to as
the 'standard' variety. Such deviations are essentially due to cultural and
linguistic contact. The new variety thus developed has a set of functions which
are not necessarily identical to those contexts in which the 'standard varieties'
are used. It is also a variety developed for communication among non-native
users of English. In short, the emerging Black variety has a style and meaning
system appropriate for the African local situation.
It is shown that deviation in this variety is a result of many productive
linguistic processes. These range from direct translation from local African
languages, to various types of collocations, semantic shifts, caiques, and
innovations in lexicalization. These deviations are also evident at the
discoursal level where they reveal a close relationship with discourse patterns
in African languages.
The study provides a historical context for understanding the
development of a Black English variety. It has passed through three basic
stages. The first stage was when English education was restricted to very few
Blacks who were expected to attain near-native fluency, and whose only other
communicants in English were native speakers of English. This group's
English showed an obsession with the flamboyant style of the great English
literary works. The second stage was greatly influenced by missionary
education, and thus echoes themes and linguistic style with a religious flavor.
Even then, the goal at this stage is near-native fluency. The third stage marks
a period when English education and use is no longer a privilege of a few. It is
this stage that shows distinct features of Black English in this region. The
feature at each stage are exemplified through literary works by Black artists
such as: Plaatje, Dhlomo, Brutus, Mphahlele, Themba, Mungoshi. The study is
organized in five major chapters: Chapter 1 is an overview of the study.
Chapter 2 discusses various Africanization processes which make African
English a distinct variety of English. Chapter 3 provides the sociolinguistic
profile and gives an analysis of discourse in African English. The final
chapter concludes with a summary and recommendations for further study
and research. There is also an extensive bibliography.
1 7 6 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
[100] Makino, Seiichi 1968
Advisor: Henry R. Kahane
Some aspects of Japanese nominalization
The present thesis attempts to describe Japanese nominalizations in the
framework of transformational grammar. Our major concern is to describe
nominalizing processes formally. We are not concerned with writing a set of
elaborate base rules, nor are we concerned with writing transformational
rules of other syntactical aspects than the nominalization or those aspects that
are closely concerned with writing transformational rules of other syntactical
aspects than the nominalizations or those aspects that are closely related to
them. We, therefore, refer the reader to such Japanese transformational
grammars as Inoue (1964), Isami (1964-66), Duroda (1965), Soga (1966) and
Ueda (1965) for the information on the over-all grammatical structure of
Japanese.
The present thesis is organized in the following way. Chapter 1 discusses
traditional Japanese grammatical theories in contrast to our transformational
theory and discusses our position within transformational theory. Chapter II
deals with the problem of how to describe the basic categorical distinction of
adjective, adjective-verb, and verb, in order to simplify our description in the
succeeding chapters. In Chapter III we sketch our concept of nominalization
which is further formalized in Chapter IV. Chapter IV, in which we discuss the
problems of Japanese nominalizations in detail, is the central chapter of the
thesis. In Chapter V, the final chapter, we discuss typical nominal compounds
and attempt to show how to derive them in terms of the nominalizing processes
discussed in the previous chapters.
[101] Makiuchi, Masaru 1972
Advisor: Seiichi Makino
A study of some auxiliary verbs in Japanese
This is a study on so-called auxiliary verbs in Japanese, including rare,
sase and nine fe-form verbs, which is made within the framework of the
theory of generative transformational grammar.
Basic to this thesis is answering the question as to what extent the
semantics of these verbs have their bases on syntactic structures. It is
observed, first of all, that any instance of the auxiliary verbs investigated
shows a semantic dichotomy, which we present in terms of semantic features:
rare (or the passive construction) has the dichotomy of [-nAffective], sase (or
the causative construction), of [-hCoercive], and each re-form verb
(construction) of a particular contextual feature. It is found that such a
semantic dichotomy is not independent of the syntactic structure, but
dependent on it to a large extent. The two readings of [-i-Affective] of the
passive construction, for instance, stem from the differences in the deep
structure. In addition, the specific verb-verb sequence serves to disambiguate
the two-way ambiguous readings: the sequence of rare followed by (fe) sima-u
allows only the reading of {-Expected} for (fe) sima-u; the sequence of sase-
rare permits only the reading of [-i-Coercive] for sase and [+Affective] for rare.
However, it is also found that in some limited number of cases the
syntactic structure is not the sole basis for the semantic findings. In these
cases, it is claimed that it is necessary to take into account such factors as
presupposition and/or knowledge of the speaker.
Doctoral dissertations 177
Finally, various observations concerning seleclional restrictions on the
verb-verb sequences tell us that these restrictions are independent of the
syntactic structures, and that they belong to the problems of language
independent, rather than of language particular.
[102] Marshad, Hassan Ahmed 1984
Advisor: Eyamba G. Bokamba
An approach to code elaboration and its application to Swahili
The purpose of this dissertation is to propose a theoretical model which
makes it possible for languages like Swahili to acquire technical registers. A
two-prong approach is suggested to build up the necessary terminology, and at
the same time, cultivate the essential technical rhetoric to support the terms
generated.
The first two chapters are designed to provide background information.
Chapter I has, in addition to the preliminaries, an outline of the basic
structure of Swahili needed in order to familiarize the reader with word
formation processes, agreement patterns and sentence construction in this
language. Chapter II focuses on language issues in Kenya where English is the
official language and Swahili the ceremonial national language. A historical
perspective of the evolution of the present Kenya language policy is
presented. Also, various factors that have, in one form or another, impeded the
ascendancy of Swahili as the official language of the country are examined.
Chapter III provides a framework for viewing language planning (LP)
activities. Components of LP considered are: orthography, morphology, syntax
and lexicology. Under each, recommendations are given that will, to a certain
extent, contribute to the strengthening of Swahili as an efficient
communicative tool in the domain of science and technology.
Chapter IV concentrates on the proposed approach to code elaboration. It
is suggested that technical registers in languages such as Swahili can be
developed in two phases. The first phase involves liberal adoption of terms
(not available in the target language) from English. Arguments are given to
show that this is a pragmatic way for a developing language to acquire rapidly
and at a minimum cost a systematic growth of these registers. Included are
discussions on issues related to nativization of the loan terms.
The objective of the second phase is indigenization (local coinage) of
some of the terms relevant to primary and secondary school curricula; the
main reason for this is the consideration that indigenous terms may have a
pedagogical value in the basic cycle of education. For this phase, a conceptual
framework is developed in order to facilitate the process of creation of a viable
indigenous technical register. It is argued that it is only by starting at the
concept level, not at the term level, that pitfalls and frustrations associated
with "term translation" can be avoided.
Chapter V treats the technical rhetoric aspect of registers. Swahili, like
any other language, has the necessary rhetoric elements (conjunctives,
logical elements, special purpose verbs). But, like it is in all developing
languages, these elements need to be made more rigorous and precise. For this,
cluster analysis and semantic grid techniques are proposed as a method for
charting the semantic field of these elements. By the use of such techniques,
local lexical elements can be standardized and thus be matched precisely with
178 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
those from an international source; and in this way, translation of scientific
texts from any international source will be facilitated.
Chapter VI consists of a summary and implications of the proposed model.
[103] McCawley, Noriko Akatsuka 1972
Advisor: Michael Geis
A study of Japanese reflexivization
This is a study in the syntax and semantics of Japanese Reflexivization. In
Chapter I, it is shown that Japanese Reflexivization has two aspects, language-
specific and language-independent. The former is the subject-antecedent
condition and the latter is the command condition. The domain for Japanese
Reflexivization is not confined to the simplex sentence as its English
counterpart. It goes down into embedded sentences just like English simple
pronominalization. Japanese has reflexive possessives, which English does not
have. Despite those facts, the native speaker of Japanese somehow feels that
languages like English make much more extensive use of reflexives. Chapter II
is an attempt to explain why that is the case. A syntactic constraint called the
Like-NP Constraint is proposed.
A grammar of a human language is a tightly organized system. In Chapter
111, it is shown that the study of Reflexivization sheds light on the treatment of
Japanese passives. Currently, there are two opposing hypotheses. According to
the one, all instances of passives are derived from the same complex deep
structures. According to the other, there are two types of passives in Japanese
and one has a complex deep structure and the other has a simplex deep
structure. First, it is shown that various semantic-syntactic facts including
facts about reflexivization argue strongly against the uniform treatment.
Then, it is argued that the current non-uniform treatment, too, is inadequate
in an important way and a new analysis is proposed.
Chapter IV treats backward Reflexivization in emotive causatives in
which the subject-antecedent condition appears to be violated. First, it is
demonstrated that all of the current analyses of emotive causatives are wrong.
Then, it is shown that backward Reflexivization in emotive causatives is
actually part of a more general problem, namely, backward Reflexivization in
non-agentive causative constructions. In Chapter V, it is claimed that
backward Reflexivization is actually an instance of ordinary forward
Reflexivization in which the true antecedent has been deleted in the course of
the derivation. The subject-antecedent condition is claimed to be still operative
here.
1 have made the following assumptions throughout the thesis. First, case
markers do not exist in the deep structure and are introduced by a
transformation. The reader is referred to Kuroda (1965b) and Kuno (1972).
Second, the VP node does not exist. Third, Japanese is a SOV language and
English is a SVO language both on the deep and surface levels. In addition, I
have ignored the topic marker wa, which occurs in many of the examples
instead of the subject marker ga. The difference in meaning between
sentences with ga and sentences with wa in its place is discussed with great
insight in Kuno (1972).
Doctoral dissertarions 179
[104] McMurray, Alice 1978
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
English nominalizations and derivational morphology: A transformational
analysis
This dissertation investigates the type of category change referred to by
traditional grammarians as transposition, and assumes a productive,
transformational approach to the relation between multimorphemic items and
the stems on which they are based (e.g. writer, write; destruction, destroy).
The scope of the investigation is limited to nominalizations in English, with
emphasis on the generation of derived nominals.
Considering nominals in the larger framework of transposition allows
the current transformational and nontransformational approaches to be seen
as two intuitively valid positions which have been represented throughout the
history of linguistics; this allows the question to be viewed as a continuing
theoretical issue, rather than as a strictly contemporary problem resulting
from the existence of two competing theories.
By investigating derived nominals within the framework of all nominals,
the differences between derived and other kinds of nominals can be specified,
and the common assumption of both generative and interpretive semantics
that all nominals are generated by the same means is shown to be invalid. It is
shown that, whereas nominals such as writer can be derived
transformationally by the minimally powerful means of prelexical combining
rules, derived nominals such as destruction require a more powerful means of
derivation, in which target structures of the surface must play an active role.
[105]Menn, Lise 1976
Advisor: Howard Maclay
Pattern, control, and contrast in beginning speech: A case study in the
development of word form and word function
This study follows linguistic aspects of the developing communicative
competence of a child named Jacob from a first observation when he was
twelve months and eight days old until he was twenty months and twenty-two
days old. At the time of the first observation, he babbled freely, but had only
one vocalization that was recognized as a 'word'. Jacob's native language, and
that of this parents and the investigator, was American English.
The study focused on the acquisition of phonology: the sound patterns of
those of the child's utterances considered to be words, the way in which those
patterns were related to one another, and the way in which they were related
to the sound pattern of the language he was learning, English.
In defining the area of study, it was necessary to consider in detail the
notion of 'word' in very early child speech. This topic proved to be of interest
in its own right, and it became the subject matter for chapter 2 of this work.
Chapters 3, 4, and 5 roughly follow the usual mode of description of the
phonology of a non-tone language: first, phonetics and phonemic structure,
then phonological rules, and last, suprasegmental phonology.
180 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
[106] Mmusi, Sheila Onkaetse 1992
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) effects and violations:
The case of Setswana verbal tone
This dissertation is an autosegmental analysis of the tonal patterns
manifested in the verbs of Setswana, a Southern Bantu language spoken in
Botswana and South Africa. Verbal tone in this language is very complex
because the tonal patterns fluctuate, depending on many factors. These factors
include, but are not limited to, for example, the syntactic environment in
which the verb occurs, and the type of morpheme, high or toneless, that
precedes the verbslem. The matter is further complicated by the fact that
there are two types of verbstems in Setswana, namely, high-toned versus
toneless (low-toned). All of these factors taken together result in the
variability of verbal tonal patterns attested in this language.
The aim of this study, is to offer an analysis of what may be viewed in the
literature on tonal studies as evidence that Setswana verbal tonal patterns
violate the phonological principle termed the Obligatory Contour Principle
(OCP). The OCP is assumed to be a universal principle by most authors who
subscribe to its existence. According to this principle identical features cannot
exist side by side. In the case of Setswana tone, the implication is that a
sequence of high tones is prohibited. The very presence of these tonal
sequence in Setswana presents a case that the OCP does not hold for this
language. We disprove this fact by appealing to a weaker version of the OCP
whereby sequences of singly-linked high tones are allowed whereas
sequences of multiply-linked high tones are not allowed. The conclusion
reached is that the OCP is a parametrical principle whose manifestation is
dictated by any particular language.
[107] Mobaidin, Hosam Eddin Zakaria 1988
Advisor: Howard Maclay
Tense and aspect transfer errors: A new analysis of transfer errors in English
compositions of Jordanian university students
This study is an attempt to provide a better understanding of the role of LI
transfer in a relatively neglected area, namely, that of tense and aspect. In
particular, this thesis investigates the role of transfer from Arabic into
English with regard to forms and functions of the English tenses and aspects.
The study provides a contrastive analysis of the Arabic and English tense
and aspect systems. The analysis is conducted in terms of both form and
function. The results of the contrastive analysis are checked against errors
found in ninety-four compositions written by Jordanian university students.
Ten of these error types are discussed in detail.
The study reveals that the investigation of the role of transfer in the area
of tense and aspect should take into consideration both form and function.
Moreover, the study supports the view that language transfer should be looked
at, not as a simple mechanical process, but rather as a complicated
phenomenon that interacts in intricate ways with developmental factors of L2
language learning.
The study lends support to Schachter's (1983) approach to language
transfer, which acknowledges transfer as a constraint on hypothesis testing.
Doctoral dissertations 181
[108] Mochiwa, Zacharia Salimu Marko 1988
Advisor: Ladislav Zgusta
Depletion as both a syntactic and semantic phenomenon: The case of Swahili
This thesis is an investigation of both the syntactic and semantic behavior of
verb-noun sequences which convey syncategorematic meanings. In terms of
their syntactic patterning, the constituent elements In each of these
sequences — which are referred to as multiword lexical units — are frozen
although not at the same degree. To express this syncategorematic meaning a
transitive verb loses its transitivity whereas the noun loses all features which
are characteristic of linguistic forms belonging to this category as well as
those which are characteristic of nouns functioning as objects of their verbs.
Consequently, the nouns cannot participate in any of the morphosyntactic
processes they are subjected to, either as nouns or object nouns. The inactivity
of the constituent elements of multiword lexical units is — it is contended —
indicative of their syntactic opacity. To the extent that categorial labels such
as verb, noun and adjective etc. are functional — that is to say, the linguistic
forms themselves bearing them are not inherently verbs, nouns, adjectives
etc. — linguistic forms which do not function as nouns as revealed in
multiword lexical units cannot be treated as nouns; instead they are treated as
particles.
In terms of their semantic patterning, multiword lexical units express
noncompositional meanings. That is to say, one cannot derive the meaning of
any one multiword lexical unit on the basis of its constituents. This points to
the fact that multiword lexical units are also semantically opaque. There is,
therefore, a clear correlation between syntactic and semantic opacity.
On the basis of these findings three conclusions are drawn. First,
multiword lexical units are not syntagmas because they violate the principle
of syntagmatic interdependences characteristic of any syntagma, in which
the whole depends on the parts and the parts on the whole in terms of both
form and function. Second, multiword lexical units have to be treated as lexical
units in the dictionary because to the extent that they are not syntagmas, they
are opaque both syntactically and semantically. In other words, instead of
entering it either under the noun or the verb, a multiword lexical unit has to
be treated as an entry. Treating any such unit as a subentry of either of its
constituent parts makes the inevitable claim that there is a semantic
relationship between the unit and the constituent parts under which it
appears. That the claim is untenable is demonstrated by the noncompositional
nature of the meanings multiword lexical units express. Third, to the extent
that these sequences behave just like single words, their constituent parts are
comparable to the syllables of a word. Consequently the internal structure of
multiword lexical units is not comparable to that of sequences expressing
either literal meanings or nonliteral ones which are derived from the literal
ones.
[109] Moffett, Elizabeth Jean 1966
Advisor: Henry R. Kahane
A glossary of the Spanish Inquisition
The ensuing study is a contribution of the studies pursuant to the
semantic notions set forth by Jost Trier. According to his theory, no word has
182 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
an independent meaning but is a representative of the sum-total of the
meanings of all other words which share its same semantic field. Every word
brings an influence to bear upon another word, and this influence must be
reckoned with in the understanding of the meaning-content of a word. So, in
the study under consideration, as is evident in Chapters 111 and IV, the total
word-complex comprising this field plays a role in the determination of the
connotations accompanying each individual word.
This, then may be viewed as an application of Trier's theory to the
semantic field of the Inquisition. It is an attempt to demonstrate that the
meaning of each word in the glossary must be interpreted in the context of the
whole semantic field in which it occurs.
The glossary included in this work is a compilation of terms used in Spain
referring to the Inquisition. It focuses mainly on expressions in currency
during the sixteenth century (the earliest being 1464, the latest, 1660) with a
preponderance ranging from 1550-1580. They have been culled from
documents written by those involved in the Inquisition during this period (a
fuller discussion of the sources used will be found in Chapter II).
In the quotations of the glossary, the spelling as well as punctuation of
the original documents were retained. For this reason many apparent
inconsistencies in both will be obser'ed. It was during the sixteenth century
that the Spanish language became standardized and with it came unification of
spelling, but some documents still reflected the instability that had been
present earlier. No attempt has been made to list these spelling variants
separately in the entries. In a study whose orientation is semantic rather than
phonetic this seemed irrelevant.
The main entry is presented in the written form of the standard language
whether or not it actually occurs in the records. Where a variant of the word
occurs in the quotation, it is listed after the main entry. Variant is to be here
understood as a morphemic alternation.
The definitions have been established by means of the context in
conjunction with certain contemporary and modem lexica. These are listed in
Chapter II.
The words are arranged alphabetically by single word entries. Phrases
are listed under the entry of the head constituent. An attempt has been made to
cross reference all words with lexical meaning in each group.
Chapter III is a catalog of all expressions used in the glossary, grouped
according to semantic sub-fields.
Chapter IV contains an analysis of the entire vocabulary and the role of
its constituents in the total picture of the Inquisition as presented in this
study.
[110] Morrow, Phillip Robert 1989
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
Varieties of business English: A linguistic analysis of written texts
The spread of English as an international language has resulted in the
development of several varieties of English that are used by particular groups
for specific functions. Among these varieties, one that has gained
considerable prominence is Business English. This prominence is evidenced
Doctoral dissertations 183
by the growing number of non-native speakers who use English on a regular
basis for the conduct of business and by the increase in pedagogical materials
for teaching Business English. But despite this interest in Business English
there is a lack of empirical research to investigate the fundamental questions
concerning the description of Business English.
This dissertation draws on research from several general areas of
linguistic inquiry: Text Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Ethnography and
Sociolinguistics. The Literature Review in Chapter 2 discusses the research in
these areas which pertains most directly to the questions and concerns of this
study. Since the primary goal of this study is the analysis and classification of
one variety of texts — Business English — the review begins by examining some
of the concepts and notions that have been used to classify texts: genre, text
type and register.
An analysis of written business texts is presented in Chapters 3 and 4. The
analysis presented in Chapter 3 is a comparative quantitative analysis of
selected linguistic features and structures in business and non-business texts.
Chapter 4 presents a qualitative analysis of some salient features of business
texts from selected genres.
The findings of this study have implications for issues related to the
typological classification of texts and for the pedagogical purpose of teaching
Business English to non-native speakers of English. The final chapter
(Chapter 5) draws together the analyses presented in the preceding chapters
and summarizes their contribution toward answering the central questions
related to the typological classification of texts and the pedagogical concerns.
[Ill] Nakazawa, Tsenuko 1991
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
A logic feature structure and unification with disjunctive and negative values
This dissertation proposes a unification-based formalism to provide a
common basis for a computational realization of different linguistic theories,
GPSG, HPSG, and LFG in particular, both as a means of theory testing and for
the purpose of developing natural language processing systems. A logical
language, called LED, is proposed to describe feature structures and unification
as common components across different theories.
The goal of formalism is to provide an efficient computational solution to
the unification problem while allowing enough expressive power for common
linguistic concepts, such as disjunctive and negative values, and value
sharing. The semantics of disjunctive and negative values is reevaluated as
constraints on instantiation of unspecified values, and the semantics of
negative values is defined in such a way that the satisfiability is monotonic
with respect to the subsumption order. An intuitive correspondence between
disjunctive and negative values e.g. 'first- OR second person' and 'NOT third
person', is formally captured as logical equivalence, and further extended to
complex values.
Underspecification, a central notion in unification-based formalisms and
theories, is viewed as a property of the description of feature structures,
rather than structures themselves. A special purpose atomic value, called
'unspecified value', is proposed as a primitive expression of LED. This value
plays a crucial role in stating disjunctive values in terms of logically
equivalent negative values in the underspecified description of feature
184 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
structures. Furthermore, this value makes it possible to express obligatory
instantiation of values without specifying a particular value, a long-standing
problem for which no coherent computational solution has been given.
Any formulas of LFD can be converted to a clausal form similar to Horn
clauses, called negative definite clauses, whose satisfiability can be computed
in polynomial time. A preprocessed form, called a prefix closure, of formulas to
specify value sharing is proposed. Although the conversion of formulas into
negative definite clauses could expand the size of input formulas
exponentially, thus nullifying the computational efficiency of the clauses, the
computational advantage of the proposed approach is shown in the context of
consecutive unification operations.
[112] Nelson, Cecil Linwood 1984
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
Intelligibility: The case of non-native varieties of English
This study examines the concept of intelligibility from several points of
view: interpretive, linguistic, and pedagogical. It is shown thai intelligibility
is a sociolinguistic notion; i.e., it is grounded in the structure of language, and
finds its meaning and applicability in the use of language among participants
in speech activity. It is shown to be the most felicitously interprelable with
reference to the levels of language, from narrowest phonetic detail to broadest
cultural assumptions. Two empirical investigations are reported on. The first is
an examination of a non-native variety text, Kanthapura, by the Indian writer
Raja Rao. The intelligibility of the text is examined, though no attempt is made
to quantify its degree. This investigation contributes to the growing literature
on non-native varieties of English, and speaks for the legitimacy of the "new
Englishes." The second empirical study is a phonetic investigation of the
timing differences between interstress intervals of zero and one unstressed
syllable in the Indian and American English of twelve informants. The
hypothesis, that significant deviation in timing across the varieties exists, is
borne out. An attempt at verification of this difference in the perception of
linguistically unsophisticated native and non-native listeners indicates that
the difference is not salient enough to override other features of speech in
determining overall intelligibility. Finally, implications of research in
intelligibility for various linguistic enterprises are discussed.
[113] Newmeyer, Frederick J. 1969
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
English aspectual verbs
This work is an explication of part of the linguistic competence of every
speaker of English. I feel that the theory of transformational-generative
grammar, whose goals were first defined in Chomsky (1957), provides the best
means of characterizing this competence and have assumed its fundamental
correctness throughout. In addition, I have drawn upon the theoretical
advances of Lees (1960), Katz & Postal (1964), and Chomsky (1965).
Unless stated explicitly otherwise, the specific theoretical framework will
be that of Chomsky (1965). In other words, I assume that there exists a well-
defined level called deep-structure which is equivalent to neither surface-
structure nor semantic representation, but is intermediate between them. I
assume, along with Chomsky, that there exist transformational rules, which
Doctoral dissertations 185
map deep-structures onto surface -structures, and there exist interpretive
rules, which map deep-structures onto semantic representations.
Furthermore, I adopt his assumption that it is at the level of deep-structure at
which selectional relations between lexical items are defined, that at this level
"strict subcategorial and selectional restrictions of lexical items are defined by
transformational rules associated with these items." (p. 139)
I have not adopted in the main body of this work any specific proposals
for alteration of the grammatical model made since Chomsky (1965). However,
I did not do so only because Chomsky (1965) was the most detailed exposition of
grammatical theory available, rather than because 1 agreed with it on all
points. In the section entitled "Concluding Remarks" I will show how evidence
from Chapters 11 through VI points toward the incorrectness of Chomsky
(1965) on several basic issues.
[114] Obeidat, Hussein AM 1986
Advisor: Eyamba G. Bokamba
An investigation of syntactic and semantic errors in the written composition
of Arab EFL learners
This study is an attempt to investigate the syntactic and semantic errors
in the writing of Arab students studying English as a foreign language and to
examine the relevance of these data to L2 universals.
The study is based on 150 compositions selected from the written English
of first and second-year English majors at Yarmouk University in Jordan. The
compositions are analyzed and a number of deviations are identified, sorted out
and classified according to their type, level of structure and source of
interference inter- or intralingual. Thirteen categories of syntactic and
semantic errors are found to be problematic and explained. The study reveals
that mother tongue interference plays a major role in students' writing.
Unlike previous studies which have generally focused on structural
errors, this research specifically shows that deviations are due to several
factors: linguistic and non-linguistic. First the deviations identified here are
shown to be common to all ESL/EFL learners and not particular to Arab EFL
learners. Second, it is argued that the processes of foreign language learning
are not any different from second language learning. Third, the study
suggests that certain categories of errors can not be explained in reference to
a particular language rather by allusion to universal parameters that
language learners in general possess as part of their language faculty.
Finally, it is argued that limiting the scope of error analysis to linguistic
structure and psycholinguistic factors in an attempt to construct a theory of
language learning is in itself not sufficient. One must consider other factors as
well. For instance, a focus on the communicative function of the language in
its sociocullural context in addition to other non-linguistic factors is equally
important for a more comprehensive theory of language learning.
The theoretical and pedagogical implications of these results for foreign
language learning/teaching are discussed.
186 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
[ 1 15] O'Bryan, Margie Cunningham 1973
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
The history and development of the verbal system of Early Middle Indie
Between the periods of Old Indic and Early Middle Indie (represented here
by Sanskrit (Skt.) and Pali (Pa.) respectively), heavy restrictions developed on
surface consonant cluster and on syllable structure in general. Although
these changes caused considerable restructuring in the language as a whole,
their most interesting effects can be seen in the verbal system of Pali, where
extensive reinterpretation of the derivational processes, both morphological
and phonological, were necessitated. The changes which took place between
Sanskrit and Pali continued to have a tremendous effect throughout the entire
history of the development of the Indic languages. However, it is not practical
to extend the scope of this study beyond the Early Middle Indic period without
sacrificing a thorough and detailed interpretation of one aspect of the
language for a more superficial survey of a greater amount of data. It is thus
the purpose of this study:
(1) to show how the above-mentioned changes led to restructurings in
the verbal system;
(2) to show how certain processes involved in the derivation of verbal
forms were reinterpreted to conform to this restructuring;
(3) to consider the theoretical implications of the topics under
discussion.
[116]0dden, David Arnold 1981
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Problems in tone assignment in Shona
In this work, I provide a synchronic grammar of tonal phenomena in the
Karanga dialect of Shona, a Bantu language of Zimbabwe. This investigation is
taken out within the framework of autosegmental phonology. In the first
chapter, I review the literature on tone in Shona, and sketch the
morphological structure of the language. In the second chapter, I investigate
a number of tonological phenomena which are conditioned in part by word
boundaries. I argue that the Elsewhere Condition is a necessary principle of
language based of an analytical problem which develops in this chapter. I also
argue that rule exception features may be assigned by rule, and demonstrate
that the Unordered Rule Hypothesis is falsified by the data of Shona.
In the third chapter, I consider problems which occur in accounting for
the tonal rules of nominal prefixes. I argue for an autosegmental treatment of
tone, based on a problem of stateability in the Associative Lowering rule. 1 also
argue that the Elsewhere Condition is the only condition which properly
assigns a disjunctive relationship between Associative Lowering and
Associative Raising. In the fourth chapter, I discuss tonal problems in verbal
prefixes. I motivate three central rules which account for the majority of
forms, and argue that abstract contoured tones must be allowed at various
stages of the grammar to account for violations of the conditions on the three
core rules of prefixed tonology. 1 then discuss how the tone of verbal prefixes
can be predicted by reference to morphosyntactic conditions.
In the fifth chapter, I discuss tonal alternations in verbal stems. I discuss
the tone pattern of H toned verb stems in assertive verbal forms, and consider
a number of analyses which account for this pattern. I then discuss the tone
Doctoral dissertations 187
pattern of nonassertive verbs, and argue there for an abstract tonal melody
HHLB, which is associated with the verbal stem. I argue for various
refinements of the mapping rule and the rule inserting this tonal melody.
Finally, I consider a number of idiosyncratic tonal melodies employed in the
perfective, subjunctive, and instrument nominalizations. I attempt to put these
melodies in historical perspective with data from other Bantu languages.
[117] Ogura, Masako 1978
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Roles of empathy in Japanese grammar
The grammatical status of Japanese simplex sentences containing deictic
giving verbs, kureru and yaru 'give,' and motion verbs, kuru 'come' and iku
'go,' cannot be adequately analyzed by subcategorial or seleclional
information alone. The speaker's empathy toward participants of events or
state described by the sentences plays a crucial role in analyzing these
sentences. This dissertation deals with empathy related phenomena appearing
in sentences which contain giving and motion verbs.
First, the empathy related principles are formulated based on the concept
of relative empathy. These principles are used in the discussions throughout
the rest of the dissertation. It is then demonstrated that the choice of the
giving verbs, kureru and yaru, depends solely on the rank between the giver
and the receiver of the concreted object or the favor in the speaker's inner
feeling empathy hierarchy. It is further demonstrated that the nature of the
goal of motion is not sufficient to determine the proper motion verbs in a
certain discourse. The rank of the goal in the speaker's empathy hierarchy
determines the correct motion verbs when the speaker's location at time of
utterance or time of reference is not relevant to the motion.
It is also shown that the choice of the proper giving verbs and motion
verbs in the embedded sentences is determined by the speaker's empathy
hierarchy and/or referent of the matrix subject's empathy hierarchy,
depending upon the nature of the embedded clause and the matrix predicate.
Finally sentences involving double NP deletion from a single clause are
observed. By looking into the process of recovering the underlying structure,
two separate constraints are proposed, on recovering the underlying
structures of clauses which contain empathy verbs and for clauses which do
not. A comparison of these two constraints then reveals that empathy
hierarchy expressed by the clause is as important as the Universal NP
Accessibility Hierarchy in formulating these constraints. It is concluded that
the concept of empathy, which is a semantic/pragmatic notion, is an essential
element in discussing the structure of sentences.
[118] Okawa, Hideaki 1989
Advisor: Peter Cole
Tense and time in Japanese
This study deals with questions of tense and aspect in present-day
Japanese, such as whether Japanese is an aspect language or a tense language
or something else, what kinds of temporal relationships there are between the
times indicated in the superordinate and subordinate clauses in the complex
sentence, and what factors determine the temporal relationships.
188 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Japanese has only two tenses, or tense forms, which are the nonpast tense
(a.k.a. the ru-form) and the past tense (a.k.a. the fa-form) and these two have
to play a number of roles. Some analysts contend that the tense forms are
aspect formatives which indicate perfective and impcrfective aspects. Other
researchers, who are the majority, claim that the tense forms, particularly in
the subordinate clause, can be tense or aspect. Our position is closer to the
latter since we retain the concepts of tense and aspect for Japanese but there
is a fundamental difference between the common approach and ours. Our
approach sticks to the orthodox definition of tense: whenever tense forms can
designate times, they are tense. This definition is accepted by many analysts
but is forgotten in their analyses of subordinate tense.
Chapter 1 introduces the two tenses and their basic characteristics.
Chapter 2 examines Kunigiro's Aspect Theory, which claims that Japanese
is an aspect language and the two tense forms are aspect markers, even in the
simple sentence. We will refute this theory and demonstrate that Japanese
embraces both tense and aspect. Our concepts of tense and aspect are a little
different from those that have been maintained by most analysts.
Chapter 3 is devoted to scrutiny of the tense forms in the complex
sentence. Several works, including traditional and more recent ones, will be
introduced and examined. During the course of analysis, our approach will be
introduced.
Chapter 4 deals with more basic concepts of tense and aspect. This chapter
also mentions major factors involved in determination of relationships
between the two limes in the complex sentence, such as combinations of
tenses, types of conjunctions, types of constructions, and meaning.
[119]0Isen, Margaret S. 1986
Advisor: Georgia M. Green
Some problematic issues in the study of intonation and sentence stress
The two issues examined are: the assumption that there exists an
intonation pattern that can be characterized as "normal" or "neutral"; and the
issue of whether intonation can have any effect on the form taken by the
syntactic structure of the utterance to which it is assigned.
In regard to the first issue, neutral and normal intonation are shown to
be two distinctly different types of intonation patterns according to their
functions. Neutral intonation is defined as the intonation that is "normally" or
"regularly" applied to an utterance, without reference to sentence structure or
speaker intentions. It is then shown that neutral intonation cannot exist
because stress, an integral part of intonation, is always assigned in a
meaningful manner and so intonation must always be meaningful, too. Normal
intonation is shown to exist, but it can only be defined in such an inexact way
as to render it useless as an empirical standard. In demonstrating this, it
becomes clear that neutral/normal intonational form and neutral/normal
function are not necessarily found in the same intonation pattern, as has been
assumed by others.
In regard to the second issue, it is shown that intonation does indeed have
the capacity to influence the shape of the syntactic structure chosen by the
speaker in forming an utterance. The primary motivations behind such
influence are style and ease of articulation. Speakers will frequently opt to
Doctoral dissertations 189
employ a noncanonical syntactic structure if by using such a structure a more
easily articulated or stylistically preferable intonation pattern can also be
used.
This dissertation also gives detailed reports of two studies which support
the above claims. One of these studies shows that the intonation pattern
identified as the "normal" pattern is actually very commonly used and is
assigned to utterances of all types and all lengths with significant consistency,
thus giving support to the contention that this can indeed be called the
"normal" pattern. The second study gives evidence that the judgments as to the
semantic equivalency of different types of utterances can be strongly affected
by stress placement.
[120] Onn, Farid Mohamed 1976
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
Aspects of Malay phonology and tonology
This dissertation is a descriptive study of a dialect of Malay spoken
predominantly in the southern State of Johore, in Peninsular Malaysia (JM). It
is concerned with synchronic aspects of Malay phonology and morphology. Its
two main objectives are first, to attempt to describe some selected variety of
phonological and morphological alternations found in the language and to
make that description be as revealing of the processes of Malay phonology and
morphology as possible, and second, to argue for a difference in status
between phonological rules and morphological rules based solely on the facts
of Malay. Specifically, the object in the second case is to show that the
relegation of morphological rules to a set of "readjustment rules" as proposed
in the standard theory of generative phonology (cf. Chomsky & Halle, 1968: 9-
11 and 371-372) not only causes some important generalizations to be missed
but also is inconsistent with the role played by morphological processes, such
as reduplication in languages like Malay.
The discussion of the Malay data is organized into five chapters. Chapter I
presents the vowel and consonant phonemes of JM. The distinctive features of
the JM phonemes are presented with motivations for their selection. Chapter
II discusses some general phonological processes. Of particular interest are the
cases of vowel lengthening and vowel reduction, both of which present
problems of rule ordering. The discussion on morphology begins in Chapter
III focusing first on the morphological structure of the language; later, some
general morphological processes, such as affixation, reduplication, and
rhyming, are examined. Chapter IV is devoted to a discussion on dialectal
variation. Attention is drawn, specifically, to variation that occurs in the
process of vowel nasalization, since this presents a case of variation that leads
to different ordering of rules in the dialects under consideration. Chapter V
discusses the theoretical implications of rule ordering and, in particular, the
claim that the application of some phonological rules may be intermixed with
morphological rules, such as reduplication (cf. Anderson 1974), is examined. It
is argued that in order to capture the generalizations present in the
morphophonemic processes, like vowel lengthening, vowel nasalization,
reduplication, etc., in a more insightful manner, the theory of generative
phonology must be extended. In this regard, the analysis proposed in the
present study will demonstrate that the proposals that global rules should be
added to the theoretical machinery are fully motivated. Particularly in the
analysis of reduplication, the decision to adopt the global rule treatment
190 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
eliminates indiscriminate use of rule ordering, and also strengthens the
theory which claims that all morphological processes apply before all
phonological processes (cf. Wilber 1973, Kiefer 1973, and Cearley 1974).
[121] Ourso, Meterwa 1989
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Lama phonology & morphology
Lama is a Gur language of the Oriental Subgroup spoken in the districts of
Keran and Doufelgou (Defale') as a native language. It has received little
attention in the field of linguistics and particularly within the framework of
generative grammar.
This dissertation is a detailed description and analysis of the interaction
between phonological rules and morphological rules in Lama.
The dissertation consists of 5 chapters. The first, introductory chapter
locates the language in terms of geographical and typological affinities with
the other Gur languages of the Central Gur language family. In Chapter 2, we
provide a description and an analysis of the sound system. Of particular
interest are the sections on consonant alternation and Advanced Tongue Root
(ATR) vowel harmony. Chapter 3 considers syllabification rules in the light of
CV-phonology. Chapter 4 gives a detailed account of the general tone rules in
the language (high tone spread, contour tone simplification, low tone
deletion), and concentrates on the tonal rules of noun morphology. Of
particular relevance is the interaction between the tones of noun roots and
the tones of noun-class suffixes. Chapter 5 is an analysis of the tonal system in
the verb morphology. It is shown that while Meeussen's rule applies in the
language generally, its application in noun morphology differs from its
application in verb morphology. Another important section in Chapter 5 is the
section on the interface between phonology and syntax particularly in the
perfective aspect.
[122] Pandharipande, Rajeshwari Vijay 1981
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
Syntax and semantics of the passive construction in selected South Asian
languages
The present study is intended as a contribution to the study of syntax and
semantics of the Passive construction in six South Asian languages (i.e., five
Indo-Aryan languages — Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Kashmiri, Punjabi, and one
Dravidian language — Kannada). The major points of focus are as follows:
(1) Chapter II describes, compares, and contrasts the linguistic features of
the Passive construction in the above languages.
(2) Chapter III examines the adequacy of the definitions of Passive proposed
in Relational Grammar (i.e., Johnson 1974, Keenan 1975, Postal & Perlmutter
1974) and points out that (a) relational categories (subject, etc.) are not
discrete entities and that their properties vary from language to language
therefore, they cannot be treated as the 'foundation' of the syntactic structure
of language, and (b) neither subject-demotion nor object-demotion is complete
in Passive in the above languages.
(3) In Chapter IV the functions which are performed exclusively be Passive
sentences are determined. It is argued with evidence that syntax, semantics.
Doctoral dissertations 191
and pragmatics play a role in determining these functions in the above
languages. Evidence is also provided for assuming the existence of the Passive
rule in the above languages.
(4) Chapter V points out that exceptions to Passive are regular and systematic
across the languages under focus, i.e., they express a volitional act, while
verbs which undergo Passive typically express a volitional act. It is claimed
that Passive in the above languages may be labelled as a governed rule (Green
1976) since it admits a semantic class of verbs in its structural description. It is
also proposed that exceptions can be used as a parameter to define constraints
on syntactic rules.
(5) Chapter VI focuses on the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of the
postpositions/suffixes which mark the agent in the Passive sentences in the
above languages. The conditions which determine the choice of
postpositions/suffixes are discussed.
(6) Finally, theoretical/empirical implications of the discussion of the above
topics are discussed in Chapter VII.
This study is also important for the study of (a) the typology of the Passive
construction and (b) the hypothesis about 'India as a linguistic area' (Emeneau
1956, Masica 1976).
[123] Patterson, Trudi Alice 1990
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Theoretical aspects of Dakota morphology and phonology
This thesis investigates some morphological and phonological processes
in Dakota, an American Indian language. It attempts to show that recent
revisions of and additions to the theories of morphology and phonology will
more adequately account for certain problematical processes in Dakota. A
recent innovation. Lexical Phonology, is shown to be an effective way to
account for the high degree of interaction between the morphological and
phonological processes. It is argued that inflectional and derivational
morphology are carried out in the same component. Extensions in
phonological theory involving the content and internal structure of segments
is shown to be of significant value in the construction of certain phonological
rules of Dakota. The syllable structure of Dakota is discussed and is shown to be
relevant for the characterization of certain morphological processes,
specifically reduplication and infixation.
[124] Pearce, Elizabeth Hastings 1985
Advisor: Hans Henrich Hock
Language change and infinitival complements in Old French
This study presents an analysis of infinitival complements constructions
in Old French which differ syntactically from their Modern French parallels.
The analysis is formulated in the terms of the Government and Binding
framework and it has the aim both of accounting for the constructions in
question on the basis of the evidence available from textual sources and of
providing indications as to the means of describing the subsequent evolution
of the constructions.
192 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
The material evidence on which this study is based includes the results of
an original study of circa 40,000 lines of material from Old French texts.
Organized subsets of the data ar displayed in an Appendix.
The analysis distinguishes three types of infinitival complements in Old
French. The causative construction in Old French (the type: il me I'a fait voir
('he made me see it')), unlike its Modem French counterpart, il is shown as
occurring with Impersonal and Order verbs as well as with Causative and
Perception verbs. Two non-causative infinitival complement constructions are
analyzed and distinguished especially in terms of pronoun placement
characteristics, as: // me viendra voir ('he will come to see me') versus //
oubliera de moi voir ('he will forget to see me'). In the former construction,
the pronoun complement in its weak form precedes the main verb and, in the
latter construction, the pronoun complement in its strong form precedes the
infinitive.
The analysis proposes that the construction characterized by the
presence of the strong pronoun is to be described as including an S'
complement, whereas the constructions with weak pronouns are to be
described as including VP complements. It is further proposed that the
subsequent evolution of French indicates an increase in the use of S'
infinitival complements, with the remaining causative constructions
appearing as relic VP infinitival complement types.
The study is divided into two parts: Part One includes a general discussion
of the treatment of syntactic change in the Government and Binding
framework, and Part Two consists of three chapters devoted to the analysis of
the Old French infinitival complements and of comparative data from Modern
Romance, especially Italian.
[125] Pingkarawat, Namtip 1989
Advisor: Frederic K. Lehman
Empty noun phrases and the theory of control with special reference to Thai
This dissertation deals with theories and principles that assign referents
to empty noun phrases. The major principles are: Control Theory, Binding
Theory, and pragmatic principles. These principles are ranked in terms of the
order in which they are applied in the attempt to assign an antecedent to an
element. This hierarchical order is based on their domains of application.
The control relation is argued to be a local relation. Three types of control
relations are proposed: Rigid Control, where no lexical NP can occur in place
of a pro, Thematic Control, where only coreferential lexical NPs can occur in
place of a pro, and Non-rigid Control, where lexical NPs can occur without
restriction.
The principle of Argument Inheritance is proposed to account for the
coreferentiality of the arguments in the adjunct /law-clauses with those in the
matrix clause. The adjunct /iom -clauses inherit the argument structures from
the matrix clauses. The principle of Argument Inheritance is distinguishable
from the Control Theory in several respects.
Doctoral dissertations 193
[126]Pyle, Charles Robert Jr. 1971
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
On the treatment of length in generative phonology
This thesis can be viewed as the initial step in an attempt to determine the
validity, or more precisely, the initial step in an attempt to determine what the
correct explanation of the dual behavior of long segments is.
The first step in this undertaking is to determine the range of ways in
which long segments can manifest this dual behavior. Until recently it has
been presupposed that the permutations are very simple. The usual assumption
is that some languages have one representation exclusively and others have
the other exclusively. In other words, in a given language long segments act
uniformly either like clusters or like single segments throughout the
language. This view was called into question by Michael Kenstowicz in his
dissertation on Lithuanian phonology, the relevant parts of which were later
published in the form of a paper entitled "On the Notation of Vowel Length in
Lithuanian." (Kenstowicz, 1970). He argued that long vowels in Lithuanian act
both like single segments and like clusters, which clearly invalidates the usual
assumption. Once it is clear that this position must be abandoned, we must
attempt to ascertain the range of possibilitfes which a theory of length must
account for. In Chapters I and II, we pursue this issue. In Chapter I, we discuss
in some detail the behavior of long vowels in West Greenlandic Eskimo (W.G.).
We show that long vowels, as in Lithuanian, act both like single segments and
like clusters in W.G., then we consider two relatively simple theories which
one might propose to explain the behavior of length and argue that they are
inadequate on the basis of data from a variety of other languages. Chapter II is
devoted to establishing that long consonants also exhibit this dual behavior in
a single language, namely Amharic. We argue that the two theories considered
in Chapter I, are also incapable of accounting for the behaviour of long
consonants. In the course of this argument, we have occasion to discuss some
of the complexities of long consonants in other languages.
Having acquired in the first two chapters a general idea of the
capabilities which an adequate theory must have, in Chapter III we take up
several topics of relevance to determining what this theory is like. First, we
propose that three types of processes naturally treat long segments like single
segments which, if true, ought to be explained by the theory of length. Second,
we examine three possible theories, which superficially seem to be reasonable
possibilities. We argue that two of them are inadequate largely on the basis of
the fact that they assume that there is one length feature, which we show to be
necessary for a natural explanation of certain alternations. Third, we propose
the hypothesis that all length alternations are accounted for by feature
changing rules. And, finally, we suggest that the dual behavior of long
segments is only one facet of a much more general phenomenon.
[127] Radanovic'-Kocic', Vesna 1988
Advisor: Hans Henrich Hock
The grammar of Serbo-Croatian clitics: A synchronic and diachronic
perspective
This dissertation represents an analysis of Serbo-Croatian clitics from
both synchronic and diachronic perspectives.
194 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Serbo-Croation clitics are second-position clitics and include auxiliaries,
pronouns, and sentential particles.
The major issues addressed in the synchronic analysis include: the
definition of clitics, the origin of clitics and their underlying position,
placement of clitics, the definition of 'second position', and the formulation of
Clitic Ordering filler.
The most important outcome of this analysis is the treatment of clitics as a
phonological phenomenon and statement of their placement in terms of the
prosodic structure of the utterance. Such an analysis makes it possible (1) to
distinguish clitics from other elements which appear slressless at the surface
level, by defining clitics as words which lack stress at the underlying
phonological level; (2) to account for the fact that clitics display
characteristics of both independent words and affixes, by showing that clitics
behave as independent words at the syntactic level, while the feature [+clitic]
has relevance only at the phonological level; (3) to explain why words which
belong to different syntactic categories exhibit identical surface behavior, by
showing that their peculiar placement in the clause is a result rather than a
cause of the fact that they are all clitics; (4) to define 'second position' in terms
of prosodic structure.
The major goal of the diachronic analysis is to show how simple clitics
(belonging to VP and enclitics on V) became special clitics (belonging to the
clause and stucking up in second position). The evidence of various phases of
Serbo-Croation history suggests the following hypothesis: From V-initial
structures in which sentential clitics (particles, SC) were followed by the
verbal enclitics (VE) the clause second order SC-VE was generalized to all other
structures. As a consequence, the category of phrasal clitics was in fact
eliminated. The only remaining phrasal clitic, the possessive dative, therefore
was likewise given up.
[128] Ransom, Evelyn Naill 1974
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
A semantic and syntactic analysis of noun complement constructions in
English
In this thesis I will try to show the necessity of analyzing certain noun
complement constructions in terms of 1) the meanings of the embedding
predicate and 2) the modalities of the complement. It is only in this way that
one can adequately describe the similarities and differences in the meanings
of the constructions and in the restrictions on them. The meanings of the
embedding predicate are sketched only to the extent needed for discussing
certain restrictions: the distinction between performative and
nonperformative, between acts and events, and states and evaluations, and
between emotive and nonemotive.
The basic modalities distinguished are power, occurrence, truth and
future truth. Each of these is divided into necessity or possibility.
The restrictions on the constructions have to do with the type of
complement subject and predicate required, the range of complement
negation, and the choice of that or infinitive complementizers.
Doctoral dissertations 195
[129] Riddle, Elizabeth Marion 1978
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Sequence of tenses in English
The main thesis of this dissertation is that Sequence of Tenses (SOT) is not
an actual rule of English grammar. I argue that the deep and surface structure
tenses are the same in cases formerly thought to be examples of SOT. This is
done on the basis of a study of the contexts in which the past and present
tenses occur in both main clauses and SOT environments. Pragmatic factors,
including the speaker's purpose in uttering the sentence determine tense
selection. The speaker may choose the past tense over the present to avoid
conveying certain implications associated with the use of the present tense,
which would be misleading or superfluous to the intended communication.
I also argue that the past tense means only 'true in the past' in some
possible world. The notion 'no longer' true is conversationally implicated
rather than entailed. I show that the same factors condition tense selection in
main clauses and SOT environments. This allows a unitary treatment of
"normal" and "deviant" uses of the past tense in all types of structures, thus
eliminating much of the need or desirability of a rule of SOT.
Finally, I argue against a claim that SOT is ordered after Raising in the
cycle to prevent it from applying in raised structures. Such an ordering
statement assumes that SOT is a rule. As part of my evidence against the
rulehood of SOT, I show that tenscless/verbless structures have a different
discourse function from tensed clauses. From there, I argue that infinitives (as
well as other tenseless/verbless structures) are not marked for tense
underlyingly. I support Smith's (1976) claim that the have which occurs in
infinitives is a relational element indicating anteriority rather than a tense. It
is suggested that the occurrence of have is pragmatically conditioned. Have
occurs underlyingly only in those infinitives where the temporal relationship
between the higher and lower verbs is not inferable. The import of these
conclusions is that SOT in infinitives is ruled out on grounds other than
ordering, and so there is no reason to consider it a syntactic rule of English.
[130] Rose, Kenneth Richard 1992
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
Method and scope in cross-cultural speech act research:
A contrastive study of requests in Japanese and English
The Cross Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP), the most
ambitious speech act research to date, focused on western languages and
cultures and employed questionnaires in data collection. The results showed
conventionally indirect requests to be the most favored for all languages
studied, and hints the least frequent. Japanese interaction is said to be hearer-
oriented, thus vague and indirect, so a study of requests in Japanese should
reveal a greater preference for hints. However, since questionnaires do not
reflect the negotiated nature of actual interaction, they may not be a valid
means of data collection in Japanese. To address these issues, a discourse
completion test (DCT) and a multiple choice questionnaire (MCQ) were
administered to speakers Japanese and English. The DCT showed Japanese to be
more direct than Americans. There were also significant differences between
the DCT and MCQ results for both languages. Both groups chose to forego
requests more frequently on the MCQ than on the DCT, and Japanese also chose
196 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
to hint more frequently on the MCQ than on the DCT. These results argue
against the use of elicited data, particularly in non-Western contexts.
[131] Rosenberg, Marc Stephen 1975
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Counter/actives: A pragmatic analysis of presupposition
Logical properties of verbal predicates have been of interest to linguists
working in the generative framework since the observation by Kiparsky and
Kiparsky that complementizer factive predicates (e.g. regret, be aware) which
are judged to cause their embedded complements to be presupposed to be true,
and counterfactive predicates (e.g. pretend) which are judged to cause their
embedded complements to be presupposed to be false, are analyzed.
Work by linguists such as the Kiparskys, Karttunen, Keenan and Morgan
is discussed and two types of definitions of presupposition are analyzed:
semantic or logical definitions which are based on formal language
definitions by logicians such as Van Fraassen, and pragmatic definitions
which view presuppositions of both types are found to be deficient in
rigorously accounting for the presupposition judgments made by speakers of
natural languages. No comprehensive definition is formulated. Rather, a rule
of thumb is proposed.
Three classes of predicates which have been termed factive in the
literature are investigated: (1) cognitive predicates which attribute mental
attitudes to people and which are non-specific as to information source (e.g.
know, be aware); (2) sensory verbs which report sensory events and slates
(e.g. see, taste, sound); (3) emotive predicates which report emotional states
and reactions. The presupposition judgments associated with these three
classes of predicates are explained by pragmatic principles reflecting
speakers' knowledge of the conventional use of language and of the normal
workings of the world. Three pragmatic principles are formulated: The
Principle of Complete Knowledge (PCK), that people are expected to know
certain things about themselves; The Principle of Sensory Information (PSl),
that sensory input is normally taken to be accurate; The Principle of Emotional
Reaction (PER), that emotional reactions occur as responses to real states and
events (not imagined or hypothetical ones). These principles and Gricean
maxims of conversation offer explanatory accounts of the presupposition of
factives. Presupposition judgments are normal judgments but not necessary
ones. Misrepresentation and knowledge based on error are possible. Lexical
representations of factive lexical items which include presupposition features
are shown to be inadequate. Evidence from several languages (Hidatsa, Papago,
Spanish) is given in support of a conception of presupposition as part of a
more universal phenomenon in language: the existence of grammatical
mechanisms for providing hearers with information about a speaker's
conviction to the truth of matrix and embedded propositions.
Pretend as a putative counterfactive predicate is discussed, and it is
argued that a logical account of pretend as a predicative containing an
incorporated negative is incorrect. Claims that speakers systematically vary in
their interpretation of pretend-scnlcnccs according to parameters described
logically (internal vs. external negation, entailment vs. presupposition) are
shown to be incorrect based upon two informant surveys (N=64). An
explanation of informant variation in terms of contexts imagined during the
Doctoral dissertations 197
judging of sentences is advanced in support of the non-homogeneous dialect
classes found.
The investigation of lexical counterfactivity is continued with reference
to data from Toba-Batak (Sumatra) and Chinese. It is shown that putative
counterfactives in these languages are better characterized in pragmatic
terms than in logical ones. A paragon hypothetical counterfactive in English
is discussed and it is argued that surface disparities resulting from opposite
patterns of negatives for factive-containing and counter-factive containing
sentences could not be tolerated by a natural language whose purpose is to
permit efficient communication.
[132]Rugege, Geoffrey 1984
Advisor: Eyamba G. Bokamba
A study of Kinyarwanda complementation
The purpose of the study is to provide a detailed description of the
Sentential Complement Structure of Kinyarwanda, a Lake Bantu language
spoken in Rwanda, Uganda and Eastern Zaire around the shores of Lake Kivu.
In addition to providing a description of the basic complement structures
of the language, the thesis deals with two theoretical problems. The first
problem concerns the question of whether complementizers are to be
represented in the deep structure or whether they are to be introduced by
transformation. Evidence from the data we have presented suggests that, since
complementizers have semantic content in this language, they must be in the
deep structure.
The second problem that is investigated here concerns the effect of
movement rules like Raising on complement structures. It is shown that
movement rules violate Island Constraints, in the sense of Ross (1967). This
apparent violation of Ross' Constraint is explained in terms of language
typologies, Kinyarwanda belonging to that group of languages that violate
Ross' Constraint.
[133] Russell, Dale William 1987
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Cheyenne verb agreement in GPSG
This is an analysis of the verbal agreement system of Cheyenne, a
member of the Algonquian family of Amerindian languages, in terms of the
Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG). Agreement in this theory
works by a mechanism of feature matching among nodes of a tree diagram
which represents the structure of units of the language, either words or
individual morphemes.
A necessary prerequisite for such a treatment is a reanalysis of what
have previously been called directionality markers, as instead marking the
person and grammatical relation of one argument of the clause. In addition,
the marking function of each verbal agreement affix is formulated explicitly,
in terms of features, to provide a precise mapping from the agreement
features at the level of the word to lexical features which occur on the nodes of
the agreement affixes themselves.
The internal structure of the word is then described by rules analogous to
the rules of syntax describing the structure of sentences. In particular.
198 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Feature Instantiation Principles license the occurrence of features on nodes of
the trees of word structure just as they do for sentence structure. It is seen to
be the Foot Feature Principle of GPSG that plays a crucial role in an account of
verb agreement.
Also within the word, rules of Linear Precedence determine the order of
the elements of the word. This is true not only in trivial ways, such as the
ordering of prefixes before stems, but also in ordering morphemes according
to features of person, number, animacy, and obviation. This, along with the
reanalysis of directionality markers, provides a re-interpretation of the
Algonquian person-animacy hierarchy, in terms of left-to-righl order rather
than logical precedence.
The account of verbal agreement given here thus provides evidence for
rules of syntax operating within the word, with the morphological component
viewed as a word-syntax.
[134] Saciuk, Bohdan 1969
Advisor: Henry R. Kahane
Lexical strata in generative phonology (with illustrations from Ibero-
Romance)
The purpose of this dissertation is to study the role that the different
components of the lexicon play in generative phonology, and to sketch a
proposal for dealing with these phenomena.
Previous treatments of this aspect of phonology are reviewed and their
relevant observations are incorporated into the theory proposed here, but the
present proposal is based to a large extent on data from three Ibero-Romance
languages — Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan. I have drawn most heavily from
Spanish and least from Catalan. This is due in part to the existence of several
studies of Spanish done in the framework of generative phonology.
Although most of the data from these Ibero-Romance languages would be
the same for the majority of their dialects, the examples given here are
transcribed according to the pronunciation of Standard Mexican Spanish, the
Paulista dialect of Portuguese, and the Oriental dialect of Catalan.
It is assumed that the reader of this work is acquainted with the theory of
generative phonology as exposed in Chomsky & Halle, The Sound Pattern of
English (1968), Postal, Aspects of Phonological Theory (1968), and in Chapter 1
of McCawley, The Phonological Component of a Grammar of Japanese (1968).
For this reason, this dissertation does not contain an Introduction that would
explain the precepts of generative phonology.
[135]Sadock, Jerrold M. 1968
Advisor: Henry R. Kahane
Hypersentences
This thesis deals with part of a model of human linguistic capability. In
each of the first three sections I will present evidence which demonstrates the
necessity of assuming a different sort of abstract constituent in deep structure
which differs in some rather striking ways from most other underlying
constituents. In the first place, each of the constituents for which I will argue
is entirely abstract in that no surface structure form is ever directly traceable
to any of these underlying constituents. Secondly, they are all odd in that the
Doctoral dissertations 199
relationship which they bear to the rest of the deep structure is not at all
obvious. All that seems clear is that these constituents must be outside of the
remaining sentential structure. Finally, they differ from other abstract
grammatical entities in that they are either universally present or, at least,
are universally possible. There exist arguments that they are to be postulated
as occurring in the underlying representation of every sentence of every
natural language. This conclusion will follow from a simplifying assumption
about these three different sorts of constituents which will be presented in the
fourth section. The remainder of the thesis will be concerned with providing a
more detailed theory through the investigation of some of the predictions
which the theory makes and subsequent modification of the theory to make it
conform to the data which are available from human languages. These
modifications will in general involve an increase in the specificity of the
theory.
[136] Saltarelli, Mario Donate 1966
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
A phonology of Italian in a generative grammar
This is intended as an introduction to the study of Italian pronunciation.
It covers briefly the XVI century descriptivists, the XIX century historical
phonologists, the phoneticians, phonemics and normative grammar. Although
the material is intended to be comprehensive, critical attention is paid to
works of insightful support to the proposal made in the dissertation. Chapter I
serves as an introduction to studies on Italian pronunciation. Chapter II is
designed to pave the way for the grammatical formulations proposed in
Chapter III.
Chapter III provides the phonological component of a grammar of Italian.
It includes most of the morphology, morphophonemics, and general
phonological processes. The framework for the phonological description
adopted is a distinctive feature theory as proposed by Halle in The Sound
Pattern of Russian (The Hague, 1959). Since a substantial number of the rules
of phonology are formulated on phrase-structure, a sketch of the syntactic
bases has been developed as a separate work by the author and is assumed in
this dissertation. The syntactic analysis accepts, in general, the generative-
transformational view of description in the form proposed in N. Chomsky's
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (Cambridge, 1965).
[137] Schaufele, Steven William 1991
Advisor: Hans Henrich Hock
Free word-order syntax: The challenge from Vedic Sanskrit to contemporary
Formal Syntax Theory
Vedic Sanskrit, the early Indo-European language spoken by the Aryan
invaders of India in the 2nd millenium B. C. E., is a language showing little if
any evidence for levels of syntactic organization between that of lexical items
and that of maximal projections of those items. But the large corpus of Vedic
literature does show evidence that Vedic grammar routinely generated NPs,
PPs, and VPs into which words were organized.
On the surface, however, this heirarchical organization is obscured by
the ease with which Vedic grammar generated discontinous constituents. Most
of the discontinuities in the Vedic grammar generated discontinuous
200 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
constituents. Most of the discontinuities in the Vedic corpus result from
phenomena common to a wide variety of languages, e.g., topicalization,
pronominal fronting, particle placement, and focussing, which in Vedic are
defined in such a way as to encourage discontinuity. In addition, phrases,
insofar as they partook of nominal character, were defined by the grammar as
'scramblable', i.e., they could be freely discontinuous within their mothers
without such discontinuity apparently needing any pragmatic justification
other than the language-user's mere desire to take advantage of the options
allowed by the grammar.
An attempt is made to develop consistent descriptions of Vedic discontinuity
in each of two formal syntactic theoretical frameworks, the Revised Extended
Standard Theory also known as Government & Binding or Principles &
Parameters Approach (PPA), and Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG). The PPA
analysis is hampered by constraints built into the theory as a result of the
study of languages with stricter constituent-order such as English, to the point
that violence needs to be done to either the data or the theory. On the other
hand, LFG proves capable of describing every attested clause with little
difficulty, but appears to be no more capable than PPA of explaining why
certain logically possible constituent orders occur very rarely if at all.
Suggestions are offered for further research in the areas of both theory and
fieldwork.
[138] Schmerling, Susan Fred 1973
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Aspects of English sentence stress
This dissertation is organized into six chapters. The first discusses the
approach to sentence stress of Chomsky & Halle (1968) and that of two of their
precursors, Newman (1946) and Trager & Smith (1951). Following a review of
the different approaches and the claims made by the various authors, a
detailed critique of the cyclic treatment of Chomsky and Halle is presented, in
which it is shown that such a treatment is unmotivated and beset with serious
difficulties. Chapter II is a review and critique of more recent approaches to
sentence stress by Joan Bresnan and George Lakoff and a third approach, by
Dwight Bolinger, which, while not new, has only recently become widely
known to generative grammarians. Chapter III is a discussion of a concept
which has received little serious discussion but has been extremely important
in discussions not only of stress itself but also of syntax, the concept of
"normal stress". It is shown in this chapter that this notion is one which is
incapable of characterization in any linguistically significant way and thus
that treatments of stress (and other phenomena) which depend on it are
without empirical basis. The "positive" chapters of this dissertation are
Chapter IV, where the question of what items in an utterance are assigned
stress is discussed, and Chapter V, which deals with relative stress levels.
Chapter VI contains a summary and polemics.
It is the thesis of this work that sentence stress assignment is governed
by several different principles of different natures. Some of these principles
are outside the scope of any current theory. Consideration of sentence-stress
phenomena indicates, then, that it is impossible to view all phonological rules
as belonging to an "interpretive" component of the grammar. Their
relationship between the pronunciation of a sentence and other properties is
as complex, and as deserving of respect, as the relationship between the
Doctoral dissertations 201
"meaning" of a sentence and other properties, and we are still very far from
having an adequate theory of linguistic competence.
[139] Schwarte, Barbara Sue 1981
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
The acquisition of English sentential complementation by adult speakers of
Finnish
The study reported on here was an investigation into the acquisition of
English sentential complementation by adult native speakers of Finnish. A
written test consisting of six production tasks and a small comprehension
section was administered to forty-three Finnish students studying English at
the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. The production tasks covered nineteen
aspects of complementation, which were classified into thirteen
subcategorization categories and six syntactic categories. There were three
administrations of the test over a nine-month period.
The analysis of the data consisted of two parts. The first part was a cross-
sectional analysis to determine the invariant hierarchy of difficulty for the
nineteen complement categories. To determine the hierarchy of difficulty, the
ordering-theoretic method developed by Bart and Krus (1973) was utilized. The
cross-sectional hierarchy of difficulty determined for the Finnish speakers in
this study was then compared with the cross-sectional hierarchy of difficulty
determined for Puerto Rican Spanish speakers in a study by Anderson (1976).
The second part of the study looked at the students' use of complement
structures over a nine-month period. Longitudinal data were compiled for
twenty-three of the students. For these twenty-three students, individual
rankings of the nineteen categories, based upon the percentage correct, were
made for each testing. The ranking obtained on each testing for a student were
then compared with each other to determine if there was much variation in a
student's ranking from one testing to the next. An analysis was also made to
determine if there was much variation when one student's longitudinal
ranking was compared with another student's longitudinal ranking. Finally,
the individual longitudinal rankings were compared with the cross-
sectionally-dcrived hierarchy of difficulty to determine if the individual
longitudinal rankings corresponded with the cross-sectionally-derivcd
hierarchy of difficulty.
The most important findings of this study were 1) the existence of
variation in the second language acquisition process and 2) the fact that such
variation was obscured by the cross-sectional group data. It was found that
over time there was a great deal of variation in the individual rankings; that
is, the rankings for a student changed from one testing to the next. Not only
was there variation over time for individual rankings, but there was also
variation when one student's individual longitudinal ranking was compared
with the other students' individual longitudinal rankings. Thus, the language
learning process seems to be very individualistic.
[140] Scorza, Sylvio J. 1972
Advisor: Ladislav Zgusta
Indirect discourse and related phenomena in Xenophon
The Latin name oratio obliqua and its English counterpart, indirect
discourse, have reference to a link between the construction so named and
202 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1 992)
some speech act. The syntactic structure, however, and the choice of lexical
items for sentences embedded in either direct or indirect discourse are
generated by the speaker purporting to make a report on someone's speech or
thought. The extent of the adherence is entirely dependent of the capability
and the desire of the reporter to produce a sentence similar in lexical items
and syntax to the one he claims to reproduce. His claim, therefore, is
technically a pretense, but it is acceptable, for we know the circumstances
under which all such claims are made.
Certain other phenomena, formerly excluded from the range of indirect
discourse, are treated by the user of the language under the same syntactic
rules and thus are shown to be part of a larger category of constructions
relating to indirect claims of reported speech and thought.
Rules of indirect discourse in ancient Greek produced transformations in
the mood of the embedded verb, to an optative, and infinitive or a participle.
Selectional restrictions of the verb of discourse determined which change, if
any, took place. In some embeddings the case of the subject was also liable to
change. An area of distinction between indirect and direct discourse was in
the determination of person assignment. Only the former depends on identity
tests with the noun phrases of the hypersentence.
Many of the transformations for embedded questions are determined by
the same rules as for embedded declarative sentences. Yes-no questions are
subject to a rule introducing a special conjunction, and other questions using
interrogative pronouns and adverbs may find their question work made into
the equivalent relative.
If the theory of a deleted hypersentence of communication at the highest
node of every sentence can be accepted, including the idea that the NPs of the
reporter and the hearer start out without person assignment, then the basis of
direct and indirect discourse must be the embedding and reembedding of such
sentences under new hypersentences.
Some sentences which are embedded in English, including most of the
sentences of discourse, have in the past been theorized to have an it-S option.
In the Greek of Xenophon the alternative appears to be between a
demonstrative pronoun and S.
It has often been demonstrated that adjectives ought to be included with
verbs, but nouns of verbal derivation are more of a problem. They function as
subjects and objects in sentences, yet they can also take a direct object
themselves. This dissertation illustrates their further use as verbs of discourse.
[141]SelIner, Manfred Bernhard 1979
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Towards a communicative theory of text
This dissertation studies the textual function of language. A theory of text
is identified as one that specifies all the acceptable, usable texts of language.
The purpose of Chapter I is to contrast the doctrines of generative-
transformational theory to the assumptions that underlie this textlinguistic
study. These are identified as the act-view of language that sees language as
activity of speakers/writers with a purpose and recipients as individuals that
try to find out what was in their heads.
Doctoral dissertations 203
Chapter II starts out with a Grundlagendiskussion of observations that a
comprehensive theory of text will have to account for. These observations are
set in relation to several "text-models," which are shown to be in need of
revision. Finally, I characterize a "rational," and "non-absolute" position on
textuality.
Chapter III is an analysis of the communicative function of the agentless
"werden"-passive in German. This analysis is performed under the assumption
that speakers/writers act "rationally" and that they choose the form thai best
suits their intentions. In the course of this study, several ways of exploitation
are identified which are then contrasted to the exploitation of man by
speakers and writers of German.
Chapter IV gives a statement of the major findings of the dissertation, as
well as its shortcomings. The conclusion is that the passive is used for more
than one function and that there is indeed one context that can support the
claim of a substitutional relationship of passive and man.
[142] Sereechareonsatit, Tasanee 1984
Advisor: Frederic K. Lehman
Conjunct verbs and verbs-in-series in Thai
This dissertation deals with two general types of verb phrases in Thai:
conjunct verbs and verbs-in-series. Conjunct verbs in Thai have received
little attention in previous works; the classification and analysis of conjunct
verbs in this study is, therefore, primary. I conclude that all conjunct verbs
function like verbs and are most adequately treated at the lexical level.
In Thai, verbs-in-series appear as two different types of constructions:
serial verbs and compound verbs. Serial verb sequences can have any of the
following interpretations: sequential, purposive, unordered, and simultaneous.
A preferred interpretation is determined by considering the semantic
information and the speech context. The shared subject constraint holds in all
cases of serial verbs in Thai.
I present a classification of compound verbs in Thai. Four types of these
verbs — directional compound verbs, culminative compound verbs, modal
compound verbs, and aspectual compound verbs — are analyzed.
[143] Sheintuch, Gloria 1977
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Same rule in a transformational theory of syntax
This dissertation is concerned with the assessment of the significance of
the notion "same rule" for syntactic theory. Several possible interpretations of
and explanations for the notion "same rule" are examined, and the range of
the interpretations is narrowed down, such that assuming a general
framework of Transformational theory of syntax constrained by
considerations of language acquisition which is assumed to be, to some degree,
innately controlled, "same rule" is taken to represent a "significant
generalization" in the grammar internalized by a speaker.
The intuitively-based criteria involving similarities and differences in
properties of rules, used by linguistics for decisions about the sameness of two
rules (within a given language) which arc identical in some properties, but
different in others, are examined. It is found that the various criteria can be
204 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
ordered in terms of a hierarchy of predominance relationships in
determining rule "sameness", and how rules can differ from each other.
It is argued that the interpretation of "same rule" as a significant
generalization in the grammar of a speaker cannot make sense across two or
more languages, if one does not assume that the "same rule" is an innate
universal — that is, that there exists a universal inventory of rules from which
each language draws some subset, serving as a constraint on linguist theory.
The hypothesis of "innate inventory of universal rules" is assessed in the
light of some cross-linguistic works reviewed in this dissertation. It is found
that none of the works come up with some formulation of a universal rule that
can be empirically validated against the diversity of natural languages. Also, it
is found that the criteria used by linguists to determine cross-linguistic
"sameness" or universal rules are arranged in a hierarchy that is the inverse
of that for language-internal analysis. Other deficiencies of the hypothesis
are pointed out: the substantive constraint in terms of universal inventory of
rules is redundant to certain formal constraints, is unable to constrain the
grammar sufficiently, and implies that there are no generalizations among
the universal rules, so that it does not call for explanations for why certain
rules, and not others, are possible in grammars.
In conclusion, it is suggested that the current conception of "universal
rule" is a dubious notion, and that some new kind of constraint — a universal
predominance hierarchy of properties in which rules can differ, if developed
adequately, could restrict the power of Transformational theory in a more
significant, efficient, and descriptively adequate manner than a universal
inventory of rules.
[144] Shell, Robert Larry 1972
Advisor: Georgia M. Green
The analysis of cleft and pseudo-cleft sentences in English
This work is divided into eight chapters. In Chapter II the cleft sentence
construction is compared to a construction which is outwardly similar to it.
This chapter is not a critique of a previously proposed analysis of the cleft
sentence construction, but rather serves to demonstrate some of the unique
characteristics of this construction which differentiate it from a similar
looking construction. Chapter III discusses an analysis of the cleft sentence
construction which was proposed in Lakoff (1965). Many of the defects of this
analysis are seen to be the same ones that are found in the analysis presented
in Chapter II. In Chapter IV the cleft sentence construction is compared to
another outwardly similar construction. Again, the purpose of this chapter is
not to criticize a previously proposed analysis of the cleft sentence
construction, but rather to show some additional characteristics of this
construction. In Chapter V reasons are given for believing the cleft sentence
construction to be closely related to another construction — the pseudo-cleft
sentence. In Chapter VI I discuss the nature of the subordinate clause of the
pseudo-cleft sentence construction and present an analysis of cleft and
pseudo-cleft sentences which overcomes some of the problems of previously
proposed analyses. Chapter VII deals with the analysis of the cleft and pseudo-
cleft sentences presented in Chapter VI. Chapter VIII points out various
problems that are yet to be solved.
Doctoral dissertations 205
[145] Shim, Seok-Ran 1991
Advisor: Chin-Wu Kim
Word structure in Korean
The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature of morphological
structure of words in Korean and to examine the interaction of morphological
properties with other components of grammar. In order to provide the
adequate model for word structure of Korean, I adopt a morphological model
which is proposed in recent developments in morphology (e.g. Lieber 1980,
Williams 1981; 1981a, Selkirk 1982, Di Scuillo & Williams 1987). In this
morphological model, some syntactic notions, such as certain notions of X-bar
theory, a head of a word and argument structure are extended to the theory of
word structure.
Chapter 2 gives an overview of word formation models proposed within
the framework of the lexicalist theory. Several word formation models of
Korean are examined. This chapter also introduces some of major theoretical
assumptions upon which the analyses given in this study depend.
In Chapter 3, the morphological properties of compounds in Korean are
discussed. Two different sets of primary compounds are compared and the
difference between them is argued to be attributed to the different word
structure. The analysis of synthetic compounds is also given. It is shown how
the word structure model which incorporates the Argument Linking Principle
proposed by Lieber (1983) allows an adequate account of synthetic compounds.
Finally, it is argued that the difference in internal word structures can make
predictions on Sino-Korean tensification.
Chapter 4 discusses the morphology of passive, causative suffixes,
nominalization and the negative morpheme an. An attempt is made to provide
the lexical representations of passive and causative morphology using the
notion of conceptual structure proposed by Jackendoff (1987). By providing
the lexical representations of passive and causative morphology, it is claimed
that the coincidence of affixal forms can no longer be regarded as a total
accidental phenomena. The distinction between the gerundive urn and ki is
discussed. The morphology of negative morpheme an is also examined. It is
shown that the difference in meaning between two negative types can make
predictions about cooccurrence restrictions of the two negative versions.
Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes the topics discussed and examines some
consequences and implications.
[146] Silitonga, Mangasa 1973
Advisor: Georgia M. Green
Some rules reordering constituents and their constraints in Batak
This study is an attempt to describe reordering transformations and their
constraints in Batak. Not all reordering transformations will be discussed here
and I will restrict myself to the investigation of chopping rules.
The study is devoted to the justification of the claims about the order of
constituents on the deep structure of Batak. 1 would like to claim the following:
(1) Batak has predicate-first word order as opposed to predicative-second
word order, and
206 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
(2) at least the reordering rules discussed here should operate on VOS
order.
In my attempt to justify (1) and (2) 1 would like to introduce and discuss
briefly the following rules: Topicalization, Passive and Relative Clause
Formation. For a better exposition of the syntactic phenomena that I am going
to discuss below, I assume the correctness of (1) and (2).
[147] Skousen, Royal 1972
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Substantive evidence for morphological and phonetic regularities in
phonology
In this work, I will consider whether there is any substantive evidence
for the principles of unique underlying representations and phonetically-
plausible rules. I will examine various examples of morphological alternation
from English, French, and Finnish and show that in these cases the traditional
generative phonological solutions are incorrect.
In the following chapter, I discuss the notion of substantive evidence
more fully and give examples from English to show how substantive evidence
can be used to determine which regularities are captured by speakers. In
chapter 3, I deal with the French verb system and argue against the traditional
generative phonological analyses that try to account for vowel alternations in
irregular verbs by postulating unique underlying vowels and phonetically-
plausible rules (which look like the original historical rules). In chapter 4, I
consider three putative rules in Finnish that every generative phonologist
who has worked on Finnish has postulated and show that there is no
substantive evidence for these rules. In chapter 5, I consider the illative suffix
in Finnish and argue that several analogical changes show that certain
historical, phonetically-plausible rules are no longer captured by speakers. In
each of these chapters, I will show that there is substantive evidence for rules
that relate surface forms to each other. In these cases, substantive evidence
indicates that speakers account for morphological alternation by means of
surface patterns of alternation. In chapter 6, I consider the conditions under
which speakers fail to capture phonetically-plausible regularities. And
finally, in chapter 7, I discuss various attempts to limit the abstractness of
generative phonological solutions on the basis of substantive evidence.
[148] Smith, Jesse Robert 1971
Advisor: Hans Henrich Hock
Word order in the older Germanic dialects
Throughout this study I will consider word order to be a feature of
grammar which is neither completely free nor completely fixed. Complete
freedom of word order would mean, among other things, what every possible
order was equally meaningful for every sentence and, therefore, that order
was completely non-significant. A rigidly fixed word order would mean that a
given set of grammatical circumstances would require a definite word order
and that no other order was possible. Neither of these situations exists in the
Germanic dialects studied here. What does seem to be the case is that for every
set of grammatical circumstances there is a most expected order which will be
called the unmarked order. When this order is used no special emphasis or
attention is called to the elements of the sentence. For the same set of
Doctoral dissertations 207
grammatical circumstances there are one or several alternate orders possible
which do focus attention upon specific elements or upon the sentence itself.
Such orders will be called marked orders.
One of the basic assumptions on which this thesis stands or falls is that
the one crucial feature of sentential word order is the position of the verb
alone. The position of the verb, then will serve as the basic determiner of word
order pattern classification in this study. An examination of the documents of
the ancient Germanic dialects reveals that four types of word order patterns
will suffice to classify all sentences encountered. The verb may be in initial
position, second position, third or later non-final position, and final position.
[149] Soheili-Isfahani, Abulghasem 1976
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
Noun phrase complementation in Persian
The goal of writing this dissertation is to present a syntactic as well as a
semantic analysis of some major aspects of NP complementation in Persian. We
begin the discussion with a brief introduction to classification of Iranian
languages, approaches to Persian syntax, and a review of the earlier research
on NP Complementation in Persian.
We review the earlier research conducted by Iranian and non-Iranian
scholars on the phenomenon of NP Complementation in Persian. The review
shows that while it is generally accepted by both traditionalists and
transformationalists that a noun phrase complement forms part of the
predicate, there is no consensus among the researchers as to whether it is
generated underlyingly in prc-verbal or post-verbal position. Obviously, this
controversy has developed as a result of adopting the transformational
approach which, based on the underlying assumption of its goal of linguistic
inquiry, deals with two levels of representation in the treatment of NP
Complementation in Persian. This controversy is pursued in the
transformational analyses of Persian Complementation presented by Moyne-
Carden and Tabian. In this study, we take the position that NP complements in
Persian are generated pre-verbally in the underlying representation.
[150] Sohn, Han 1976
Advisor: Chin-Chuan Cheng
A cineradiographic study of selected Korean utterances and its implications
The general purpose of this study is to reveal and quantify the
physiological activities of the vocal tract during the articulation of the three
types of Korean stops (tense unaspirated, lax slightly aspirated, tense
aspirated) at three different points of articulation at a normal conversational
speed, to see how well the various articulators serve to separate the Korean
stop categories.
It may be noted that most investigators have been concerned with
coarticulatory configurations of articulators such as the tongue (the most
important supralaryngeal articulator) and the lips, jaw, velum, pharynx, etc.,
for both meaningful and meaningless phoneme sequences, but restricted in
length to that of an isolated syllable. The general finding has been that there
is considerable forward coarticulation between adjacent phones, with the
degree of coarticulation apparently dependent upon the rate of utterance.
208 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
phonetic structure, and, more lentalively, syllabic structure and the position
within a word.
Specifically, this study attempts to analyze the following:
( 1 ) the phonetic nature of the Korean stop consonants;
(2) the relevance of various phonological features: e.g., tense/lax,
aspiration, heightened subglottal pressure, etc.;
(3) the physiological correlates of the concept "word boundary";
(4) utterance-initial phenomena;
(5) comparison of the findings of this study with others; and
(6) various aspects of the theoretical implications of the results.
[151]Sohn, Hyang-Sook 1987
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
U nderspecification in Korean phonology
It is the purpose of this work to argue that the uniqueness of a sound is
characterized by some, not all, distinctive features, departing from the SPE
view of a segment as an unordered set of all the features supplied by universal
grammar. By eliminating redundant features from underlying representation
and specifying only unpredictable features, underspecification system
constrains possible types of phonological processes in a given grammar.
A variety of arguments for feature underspecification are adduced from
both vowel and consonantal phenomena of Korean phonology. The least
marked vowel is completely unspecified and due to its featureless
representation in the melody plane it is the highest in the hierarchies of both
the epenthesis and deletion processes. Resorting to feature underspecification,
phenomena of free variation, vowel metathesis and several vowel merger
processes are recognized as a single process of simply degeminating the
branching structure of the nucleus. Under this generalization, the product of
merger of two feature matrices automatically follows, the union of two
matrices being the underspecification for a third vowel. In chapter 4 separate
processes of tensification, neutralization, and nasal assimilation are also seen
to be all conditioned by a single denominal adjective morpheme.
The present study addresses the issue of the structure of features in the
melody plane and their relation with other planes of representation.
Postulation of feature-sized morphemes for the light ideophone [+low] and the
denominal adjective [+constricted glottis] strongly argues for the
representation of a feature with no skeletal position. On the other hand,
evidence from /s/ -irregular verbs provides significant support for the
asymmetrical representation of a skeletal slot with no feature specification.
This study also argues that glides in Korean are not a part of the onset but a
part of the nucleus node, hence providing an insight into possible and
impossible diphthong structures. This gives added support for the claim that
glides and vowels are nondistinct underlyingly.
As for the organization of the lexicon, the present study deploys both
phonology- and morphology-based arguments against the organization of
word formation processes in tandem, in favor of non-linear, simultaneous
morphological processes. Within this view, phonological rule application is
sensitive to the types of morphological structure in the lexicon, rather than
depending on their stratum-oriented domain specification.
Doctoral dissertations 209
[152] Sridhar, Shikaripur Narayanaro 1980
Advisor: Charles E. Osgood
Cognitive determinants of linguistic structures: A cross-linguistic
experimental study of sentence production
The present study is intended as a contribution to the study of the
relationship between language and thought in the area of sentence
production.
The basic hypothesis of this study is that a number of crucial properties
of language are determined by the structure of human perception and
cognition (Osgood 1971). The structural properties investigated include: the
identifying and distinguishing functions of nominal modifiers, spatial deixis,
unmarked constituent and clause ordering, marked structures such as Passive,
Topicalization, Right Dislocation, among others. The independent cognitive
variables include: Figure/Ground and Agent/Patient relations, perceptual
scanning strategies of vertical and horizontal arrays, distinction between
fresh and familiar perceptions, inherent and induced perceptual salience of
entities, among others.
This hypothesis, translated into a number of specific sub-hypotheses, was
tested cross-linguistically, using a sentence production format. The cognitive
distinctions were embodied in a color film consisting of 70 "scenes" which
showed an actor and some everyday objects (blocks, balls, etc.) in various
action and stative relations. The composition of the scenes and their sequence
was manipulated to create cognitive presuppositions — e.g., focus on the object
of action was induced by zooming, or by the animacy, or by the greater
relative size of the object, and so on. The film was shown in 10 communities
around the world and subjects (300 native speakers of ten languages) were
asked to "simply describe" each scene in a simple sentence. The ten languages
are: Cantonese, English, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Japanese, Kannada,
Slovenian, Spanish, and Turkish. The data (21,000 sentences) were (i)
transliterated in the Roman script, (ii) translated morpheme-by-morpheme,
and (iii) freely translated into idiomatic English by linguistically trained
native speakers.
The analysis of data reveals several fascinating correlations between
cognitive inputs and linguistic structures, including: (1) nominals denoting
figures of state and agents of action precede those denoting grounds and
patients, except in "presentative" contexts; (2) people prefer to express
changes of state overwhelmingly more often than accompanying constant
slates; (3) vertical arrays are described such that the object on top is located
with reference to that below, leading to the use of the unmarked "above"
rather than the marked "below"; (4) in horizontal arrays, objects closest to the
perceiver (ego) are located with reference to those further from ego,
resulting in a preference for "in front of" over "on back of"; (5) the order of
clauses expressing perceptual events corresponds to the sequence of events in
perception; (6) entities rendered salient by virtue of their intrinsic
meaningfulness (e.g., humanness), or perceptual focus, tend to be expressed at
or near the beginning of the sentence, leading to (a) Passives or Topicalized
sentences; (7) "surprise subject" contexts lead to disruption of normal word
order: Verb-Subject order in SVO languages (except English) and with the
subject immediately preceding the verb in SOV languages; (8) the degree of
referential elaboration (measured in terms of the number of adjectival
modifiers) depends on the degree to which the intended referent is presumed
210 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
to be novel to the listener; the number of adjectives decline continuously with
each subsequent mention of a given entity; (9) the nature of referential
expressions (including the choice of adjectives and noun phrases) depends on
the nature of perceived or inferred alternative members of the same category
from which the intended referent is to be distinguished; furthermore, given a
choice among distinguishing features, speakers prefer inherent, perceptual
features (e.g., color, size, shape) to abstract relational features (e.g., position).
This study, therefore, demonstrates the existence of performance
universals which cut across differences between language. In addition, it
contributes to the study of comparative syntax by demonstrating the common
functional bases of different surface structures across languages. Finally, by
demonstrating that various aspects of sentence structure are determined by a
variety of cognitive principles (including perceptual, altentional, and
pragmatic principles), it contributes to a functional, explanatory theory of
language performance.
[153] Steffensen, Margaret Siebrecht 1974
Advisor: Howard Maclay
The acquisition of Black English
In this dissertation, the developing language of two children, Jackson and
Marshall, will be analyzed, focusing primarily on the emergence of dialectal
characteristics. The age period covered for Jackson was 20 months to 26
months, 2 weeks; for Marshall, 17 months, 2 weeks to 26 months, 1 week. The
dialect spoken in their homes will be examined in Chapter Two for the
characteristics of Black English (hereafter BE) that have been identified in
the linguistics literature and it will be demonstrated that both children are
being raised in BE speech environments. In the following three chapters,
their speech will be analyzed for the emergence of these features,
concentrating particularly on those involving the noun phrase, the copula
and the verb phrase. The development of negation will not be discussed in this
study. It will be argued that the differences between their development and
that of children acquiring the Standard dialect are trivial, although in the
case of the copula one structure already conforms to the adult BE pattern.
However, even in this instance it can not be argued that this is different from
the pattern of acquisition in the Standard dialect because there have been no
studies directed specifically to the distribution of the copula in the Standard.
[154] Stein, David Neil 1975
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
On the basis of English iambic pentameter
This essay is a report on the search for a better way to describe the most
common form of English metric verse: iambic pentameter, also called blank
verse and, if rhymed, heroic verse. The thesis of this essay is that once an
adequate theory of English rhythmic and timing characteristics has been
formulated, a theory of meter can be derived from it. That is, I believe that a
metric type is a particular stylized form of rhythm extant in English non-
poetic utterances. The features of English rhythm are what the poet
manipulates when composing his metered verse. I suggest in this essay that
the principles of English rhythm as enumerated by Andre Classe (1939) and
the specific characteristics of isochrony of the intervals in the speech stream
as investigated by Use Lehiste (1971, 1973a, 1973b, 1973c) provide a sufficiently
Doctoral dissertations 211
rich and well-substantiated theory of English rhythm in non-metercd
discourse, so that I may motivate a theory of iambic pentameter.
The essay is organized in the following way: Chapter One discusses three
suggested bases from which lines of iambic pentameter have been thought to
be derived: temporal bases in the form of isochronous intervals; syllabic-stress
bases in the form of a string of feet; and accentual-stress bases described as a
string of two types of abstract positions, weak and strong. Chapter Two
investigates a topic raised in Chapter One — the metrical status of minor
category words and morphemes: auxiliaries, prepositions, pronouns,
derivational suffixes, etc. Chapter Three examines a variety of iambic
pentameter in which lines are said to contain an "inverted" foot — a trochee
replacing an iamb; that is, in place of the expected unstressed-stressed syllabic
sequence (the iamb), the poet substitutes a stressed-unstressed syllabic
sequence (the trochee). Chapter Four is concerned with the motivation of a
theory which will describe in a non-ad hoc manner the distribution of
inversion in a line of iambic pentameter. The essay concludes with a list of
prospective areas that are opened to further investigation as a result of this
study.
[155] Steinbergs, Aleksandra 1977
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
The phonology of Latvian
The dissertation deals with the major phonological processes of Latvian.
Chapter One provides a detailed description of the sound segments of Latvian
and goes on to discuss those phonological processes which occur generally
throughout the language and are not limited to any particular type of word.
Chapter Two describes rules which apply in nouns and/or adjectives. Some of
these rules also apply to verbs and are further discussed in the third chapter.
The third chapter goes on to describe morphophonological rules that affect
verb endings and roots. A detailed discussion of the underlying forms of
personal endings and tense markers argues for a less abstract set of forms for
these endings than has been posited in earlier treatments. Finally, the
reflexive verbs are dealt with in detail.
The last chapter describes the tonal dialects of Latvian and gives phonetic
descriptions of the tones. Data from the central tonal dialect illustrate the
distribution of the tones on various types of morphemes. It is shown that,
despite some claims that there are no languages with tones on unstressed
syllables (made particularly by Kurylowicz), Latvian does have unstressed
syllable tones. As well, in addition to the kind of lexical tone found on roots and
most derivational endings, there is a type of tone I have called 'morphological'
that occurs on groups of inflectional endings which may have different
phonological forms. Finally, some rules are given for placing predictable
tones.
[156] Stock, Roberta 1976
Advisor: Howard Maclay
Some factors affecting the acquisition of a foreign language lexicon in the
classroom
It would be useful if the foreign language pedagogue could determine
which words were difficult for the language student to learn and why.
212 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
However, the literature in the field of language pedagogy deals, for the most
part, with only such pedagogical issues as a) when should new words be
introduced; b) what is the best method for teaching and practicing new words;
and c) what are the criteria to be used when selecting items to be taught, and
not with the issue of difficulty.
This dissertation considered this notion of difficulty and isolated factors
associated with the physical shape of the word (i.e. pronunciation, length),
grammatical characteristics (i.e. category, gender) and meaning in order to
see what their effect was on the rate of acquisition and the length of
retention. In addition, factors not directly intrinsic to specific items were
considered: subjective feelings, native language interference, usefulness, etc.
Finally, two specific methodological approaches (audio-lingual and
situational) were analyzed in light of three criteria: a) experimental evidence;
b) treatment of problematic items; and c) facilitation of learning.
It was concluded that some factors had more effect on the acquisition of a
foreign language lexicon in the classroom and that a tentative hierarchy
could be postulated:
a) A successful methodology would have the most positive effect on
acquisition. This includes such considerations as ordering, criteria
for selection of items, etc.
b) Factors caused by the juxtaposition of two or more items (i.e.
antonyms, similar-sounding words) have more effect (usually
negative) on acquisition than those factors intrinsic to individual
items (i.e. difficulty of pronunciation).
c) Non-intrinsic factors (i.e. subjective feelings ) have more of an
effect (positive and negative) on acquisition than intrinsic ones.
d) Intrinsic factors have the least effect on acquisition.
Methodology was considered a factor since if a method is successful, it will
neutralize the effect of the negative factors and utilize the effects of the
positive ones.
[157] Stucky, Susan U, 1981
Advisor: Charles W. Kisscberth
Word order variation in Makua: A phrase structure grammar analysis
The purposes of this dissertation are two-fold. The first is to examine one
aspect of the syntax of a largely undescribed Bantu language, Makua. The
aspect under consideration is the syntactic property loosely (and perhaps in-
advisedly) termed free word order. The second purpose is to provide a formal
treatment of this part of Makua syntax. The analysis is cast within that version
of phrase structure grammar as developed by Gerald Gazdar at the University
of Sussex. This version of phrase structure grammar embodies two trends in
linguistic theory: 1) a movement away from transformations and towards base-
generation and 2) the incorporation of a compositional semantics of the sort
advocated by Montague and others.
It is argues that even though Makua exhibits a certain degree of order
freedom, it is inappropriate to analyze this order as free at the word level or
free at the constituent level. Rather, certain constituents and words enjoy
freedom while others do not. The analysis proposed consists of a set of rules
with specific properties which depend, in part, on the existence of certain
Doctoral dissertations 213
constituents, e.g. the presence of a verb phrase in some orders but not in
others. Other rules are motivated by constraints on the distribution of such
constituents as sentential complements and infinitive complements (but not
infinitives themselves). Additional supporting evidence for the separate rules
comes from the formalization of verb agreement and from the analysis of the
syntax of relative clauses. It is concluded that this multi-rule approach
renders both scrambling rules or linear concatenation rules not only
superfluous for an analysis of Makua syntax, but inadequate as well.
It is of no small importance to syntactic theory that a general account of
order can be given in a grammar consisting entirely of phrase structure
rules, because such grammars were thought (by early advocates of
transformational grammars) to be not only inelegant, but inadequate on
descriptive grounds. In addition, the kind of analysis provided for Makua is
suggestive of a general approach to order freedom, which, unlike other formal
proposals for such languages, requires the addition of no fundamentally
different rule type (e.g. scrambling transformations (Ross (1967)) or linear
concatenation rules (Hale (1979) and Lapointe (1980)). Because linguistic
theories tend to be ephemeral in nature, the most lasting contribution may
well be the presentation of data from a heretofore unstudied language. It is
hoped that the thesis presents a significantly large body of data to aid in our
general understanding of human language.
[158] Subbarao, Karumuri Venkata 1974
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
Noun phrase complementation in Hindi
This dissertation deals with the following aspects of noun phrase
complementation in Hindi: structure of the noun phrase, the various
complementizers, relevant transformational rules such as Equi-NP Deletion,
Subject Raising, Extraposition and yah 'it'~ aisa 'such' Deletion. It also
considers the constituent status of the ki and the ka-na complements. In
addition, some aspects of the structure of the participles in Hindi are discussed.
It is shown that the underlying word order of constituents of the noun
phrase in Hindi is S NP or S N, just as in many other irrefutably verb-final
languages. It is also shown that the underlying word order of the constituents
subject, object and verb is independent of the direction in which the embedded
S is moved. Evidence is presented to show that the claim that all rightward
movement rules are upward bounded cannot be a universal because an
embedded S in Hindi can be moved rightward unbounded.
Strong evidence in support of the claim that the grammar must include
global rules is presented from two rules — Unbounded Extraposition and yah 'it'
~ aisa 'such' Deletion.
It is demonstrated that Hindi provides counter-evidence to Ross's claim
that subjects have "primacy" over objects. Evidence is presented to show that
the claim that factive complements do not permit 'raising' holds for Hindi too.
It is argued that deletion or movement of an NP from the embedded
sentence in certain structures results in participialization. It is shown that the
existing pruning conventions are inadequate in capturing the intuitions of
the native speaker in some cases.
214 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Significant new data concerning the postpositions in Hindi is presented
and it is shown that the postpositions that occur in sentence adverbials are
different from those that occur with a class of verbs called "oblique verbs." It
is argued that the postpositions that occur in sentences with oblique verbs are
inserted by the Postposition Insertion rule. It is also shown that the rule that
deletes the ke liye with a purposive interpretation can be treated as a global
rule.
[159] Sung, Li-May 1990
Advisor: Peter Cole
Universals of Reflectives
The locality conditions on reflexives vary widely from language to
language. In English, a reflexive (e.g. himself) must take a local antecedent. In
contrast, in Asian languages like Chinese, a reflexive (e.g. ziji) can take an
antecedent indefinitely far from its antecedent. Futhermore, in European
languages, a reflexive is bound in a less restricted domain than in English, but
not in an indefinite domain as in Chinese. The purpose of this dissertation is to
develop a unitary analysis of locality conditions on the binding of reflexives
among languages within the general framework of Government and Binding
theory. The core idea explored here is that reflexives in all languages obey the
same locality conditions and that apparent long distance reflexives involve
local successive cyclic head movement.
Chapter 1 provides a general idea of the ways in which languages seem to
be different with respect to long distance reflexives in terms of locality
conditions. I suggest that long distance binding between reflexives and their
antecedents is in fact local binding in much the same way that a local relation
holds between wh-elements and the original and intermediate movement sites.
In chapter 2, taking Chinese as a starting point, I propose that the
differences between ziji 'self and ta ziji 'himself in Chinese hinge on whether
the reflexive form is x° or x'"^". x° reflexives like ziji will involve head
movement from INFL to INFL, thus licensing long distance binding. In
contrast, x'"^'' reflexives like ta ziji or himself adjoin to x'"^'' projections.
Therefore, x^^^" reflexives can have only local antecedents.
Chapter 3 explores the idea of proposing a simple set of principles
governing feature percolation to allow a unified treatment of a number of
related phenomena. I argue that four sets of data arc to be accounted for by the
proposed Feature Percolation Principles. The sets of data are (1) the
differences in "blocking effects" of long distance reflexives in East Asian and
European languages; (2) the so-called "sub-command" facts in East Asian
languages; (3) the that trace effects in English and other languages; and (4)
Pro-drop parameter among languages.
In Chapter 4, I first discuss a number of problems with the x^/x'"^"
hypothesis. I then compare the head movement analysis proposed in this
thesis with a number of previous approaches to long distance reflexives. I
argue that these alternative proposals are inadequate conceptually and
empirically and, as a result, the head movement analysis is to be preferred.
Doctoral dissertations 215
[160] Surintramont, Aporn 1979
Advisor: Frederic K. Lehman
Some deletion phenomena in Thai
This dissertation is an explication of a part of the linguistic competence of
every speaker of Thai. It examines the topic of deletion in the grammar of
Thai. This work will be devoted to justifying two specific types of deletion
phenomena — free deletion and anaphoric deletion.
In Chapter 2 we re-examine two arguments which have appeared in the
literature of Thai grammar for two free deletion transformations: UNSPECIFIED
AGENT DELETION in "passive" sentences and the OBJECT DELETION in sentences
containing transitive verbs. We argue that they should be treated as one rule
of deletion based upon the similarity in the semantic properties of the deleted
terms.
Chapter 3 to Chapter 5 are devoted to another type of deletion phenomena
— anaphoric deletion. One particular phenomenon is dealt with in detail,
namely, the deletion of pro-forms in a variety of sentence constructions. The
purposes of this detailed investigation is to establish the nature and the
properties of the deleted terms, to propose the transformational rule or rules
involved in the phenomenon and the conditions under which they may
operate, and lastly, to hypothesize how the antecedent of the deleted as well as
the non-deleted anaphors is found.
In the last chapter. Chapter 6, we summarize the findings of our
investigation of deletion phenomena in Thai grammar.
[161]Tegey, Habibullah 1977
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberlh
The grammar of clitics: Evidence from Pashto (Afghani) and other languages
Grammarians and linguists have long recognized the existence of a set of
problematic morphemes, "clitics." With the appearance of words in the
transformational mold by Browne and Ferlmutter, interest in these
morphemes increased. Nevertheless, the grammar of clitics has remained a
poorly understood area. An extensive examination of clitics in Pashto and
other languages not only offers some answers to the many questions that exist
about the grammar of clitics, but also serves to clarify some central issues
relative to the nature of grammars in general.
In a consideration of the general constraints on cliticization and zero
pronominalization, which are commonly entirely parallel in function, it is
established that for an NP to undergo cliticization or zero pronominalization it
must be contextually identifiable, must be noncontrastive and nonfocused, and
must be nonconjoined. In fact these three constraints derive from a single
principle: An NP can undergo cliticization or zero pronominalization only
when it carries "given" information — i.e. information that is provided by
context.
Moreover, in Pashto and several other languages, cliticization and zero
pronominalization together can account for structures that on the face of it
might look like the outputs of various NP reduction processes such as Equi NP
Deletion or Rclativization, which in English are accounted for by separate
rules.
2 1 6 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
One group of clitics in Pashto, which are placed in "second position" in
simplex sentences, reveal that both stress and morphological structure have
relevance for a syntactic rule, clitic placement.
In complex sentences, the placement rule for these clitics operates within
each simplex clause in a manner parallel to its operation in simple sentences.
Certain apparent counter-examples are explained by showing that a sentence-
initial head noun plus relative clause in fact lies outside the clause where the
clitics originate, presumably having undergone an "Extraction" rule.
The placement rule for these clitics interacts with a vowel coalescence
rule, providing strong evidence for the interdependence of the different
components of the grammar — i.e. a clitic placement rule must apply after the
application of a vowel coalescence rule.
The data in hand indicates that three common views relative to clitics and
clitic placement rules are not accurate. First, it is not the case that all clitics
which are moved to a certain position in the clause and which occur in a fixed
order relative to one another are subject to a filter-like constraint on clitic
orders. Second, contrary to what the literature to date has usually implied, it is
not the case that all clitics subject to clitic placement rules in a given
language move to the same position in the clause. And third, contrary to
Perlmutter's claim, clitic placement rules may have to refer not only to the
"cliticness" of the item but also to its syntactic function.
Finally, an examination of the components of the traditional definition of
clitics serves to pick out certain inadequacies or obscurities in such concepts
as "phonological word," "lean on," etc., and points towards a fuller
characterization of "clitic."
[162] Tegey, Margaret Elisabeth 1989
Advisor: Howard Maclay
The learning of coreferential NP reductions by adult Persian speakers
The main purpose of the study was to validate empirically several key
hypotheses in second language learning theory, a secondary purpose being to
obtain a description of what is hard and what is easy for the learner. The study
first sought to validate the central hypothesis that a second language learner
operates according to a coherent linguistic system, one intermediated between
his native language and the target language and distinct from both. Like other
studies in this line, it looked, then, for the systematicity in the learner's
performance as evidence of a coherent linguistic system in use. To discover
the systematicity in the apparently random student production, this study
examined the operation of selected syntactic processes (the coreferential NP
reductions of pronominalization, deletion, and relativization) in as many
environments and sub-environments as possible. The use of several
environments, defined as narrowly as possible is the key to finding patterning
in the learner's performance — performance which viewed as a whole seems
random. If the environments are fine enough, the learner's errors will, it is
hoped, emerge as not random after all, for it will be seen that he makes more
errors in, say pronominalization in Environment A than he does in
Environment C; in other words, he makes errors systematically.
Looking at difficulty orderings and by doing some analysis of the types of
errors made, this study attempts (a) to discover whether there is evidence of
systematicity, and thus support for the claim that the language learner
Doctoral dissertations 217
possesses a coherent intermediate linguistic system, and, as a practical
offshoot, to provide descriptive information as to what the learner's system is
like; (2) through comparison of the rankings for two or more groups, to give
some indication of whether there is anything approaching consistent
difficulty orderings for the categories across different groups of learners,
providing support for the existence of universal tendencies in second
language learning; and (3) in some instances, through an examination of the
patterning or the difficulty orderings and through an analysis of error types,
to provide a glimpse into what processes lie behind what is happening.
[163]Teoh, Boon Seong 1989
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
Aspects of Malay phonology revisited — A non-linear approach
This dissertation re-examines the phonological system of Malay within a
non-linear framework. CV-phonology and the generative theory of the
syllable developed by Clements & Keyser (1983) and the hierarchical
representation of phonological structure developed by Sagey (1986), are used
in the analysis. This study examines the vowel system of Malay and provides
syllabification rules as well as restrictions on vowel co-occurrences, vowel
sequences and diphthongs in Standard Malay. The basic syllable structure of
Malay is generated by an ordered series of three syllabification rules. We
claim that Malay is a Type III language as classified by Clements & Keyser
(1983), namely of CV(C) type in which every syllable must have an onset. This
necessitates a new interpretation of the status of the glottal stop in Malay. The
general rule that glottalizes /k/ to [7] by removal of the point of articulation
features in syllable codas is then analyzed. In Malay two vowel-initial suffixes
/-an/ and /-i/ geminate a preceding consonant and begin with a homorganic
glide after high vowels of the root word. Our analysis posits an empty X-sIot for
these suffixes which links to the preceding segment. With stems ending in a
velar we incorrectly predict blockage of glottalization by geminate
inalterability (Hayes 1986). We discuss the rules of glottal formation and
gemination and show how phonological representation can restrict rule
application and account for the phonetic facts in Malay. In analyzing Malay
we found that it does not allow geminates and we offer an explanation that
relies on a minimal readjustment in the autoscgmental linkings to make the
representation conform to the Universal Grammar and language-particular
constraints. We conclude the study by surveying the Malay dialects. The
phenomenon of oral depletion, i.e. obstruents /p,t,k/, -> [7] and /s,f/ -> [h] in
syllable coda in the Kelantan and Terengganu dialects is analyzed. The data
from the Malay dialects are the first case reported in the literature, to the best
of our knowledge, in which changes of /p,t,k/ to [7] and /s,f/ to [h] co-occur
in the same grammatical system.
[164] Thayer, Linda Jean 1974
Advisor: Herbert Stahlke
A reconstructed history of the Chari languages — Comparative Bono-Baginni-
Sara segmental phonology with evidence from Arabic loanwords
A language has many aspects. In defining its relationship to other
languages, many factors are involved. To say that members of a group of
languages are genetically related to one another is to say they had a
historically common origin. The object of this work is to reconstruct the
218 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
parent language of the present day Chari languages. In preparation for
reconstructing the CHARI parent (Chapters 2, 3, and 4), I will show the
characteristics common to this group of languages as a whole in terms of
sound correspondences and sound changes. A language that does not share the
present day sound correspondence patterns (and thus does not share the
historical sound change patterns) is not a Chari language.
This work deals primarily with the sound systems of Chari languages. By
mass comparison of the corresponding sound of cognate vocabulary items, I
work out tables of sound correspondences (Chapter 3, Tables 1 through 10).
These tables are based on natural classes of phonological segments as
determined by the way in which the individual segments behave in various
environments. By comparing the behavior of sound correspondences, I
reconstruct the CHARI proto-language and the intermediate proto-languages,
and derive the history of Chari sound changes, discussing possibly alternative
historical explanations.
The following chapters will depict the common history of Chari sound
changes (Chapters 3, 4, 5) and will reconstruct a number of Chari vocabulary
items (Chapter 6). The Appendix adds a lengthy section on Arabic loanwords in
the Chari languages. Both segmental (consonants and vowels) and
supersegmental (tone, stress, length) data are taken up. But first, the long,
careful, and tedious process of reconstructing the Chari language history
begins in Chapter Two with a phonological description of each language.
[165]Treece, Rick Everett 1990
Advisor: Eyamba G. Bokamba
Deverbal nominals in Kiswahili: Underspecification morphology and the
lexicon
This study provides an explicit account of the lexical entries and rules
required to generate five common types of Kiswahili nouns based on verbal
roots and stems, as illustrated by the data below, all derived from -kata 'cut'.
a. Action Nominals in -o: mkato/mikato 'cul(s)'
b. Transitive Verbals in -a: mkata/wakata 'cutter(s)'
c. Relic Agentives in -i: mkati/wakati 'cutter(s)'
d. Productive Agentives
in -aji: mkataji/wakataji 'cutter(s)'
e. Patient Nominals in -e: mkate/mikate 'lump(s), loaf/loaves'
Underspecification Theory as developed by Archangeli & Pulleyblank (1986) is
adopted to aid in this descriptive task. A rigorous analysis of the Kiswahili
phoneme set is provided in this framework, with underspecified and fully
specified representations of all phonemes as well as explicit default and
complement rules. A detailed account of various types of prefix allomorphy is
included, both for inherent nouns and for derived nominals.
The apparent simplicity of the data above is deceptive, even disregarding
the account provided of the stem and suffix allomorphy associated with the
Relic Agentives. Issues confronted in the description include semantic drift,
blocking, percolation, questions of derivational source, and archaic roots. A
particular focus of the study is to streamline the lexical entries by avoiding
the explicit specification of redundant features of all kinds.
Dcxtoral dissertations 219
An innovation in the research is the application of the principles of
Undcrspecification Theory beyond the phonology to capture redundancies in
and among the morphological, semantic, and syntactic features and
representations. To develop and illustrate this approach, a set of four binary
morphological features is proposed to capture the Kiswahili noun-class system.
A further innovation is the use of Lexical Cross-References (LXRefs) which
capture generalizations relating to morphological complexes while allowing
redundant information to be filled in automatically.
[166] Tsitsopoulos, Stamatis 1973
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Slress in Modern Greek
This study will examine the placement of primary stress in Modem Greek
(hereafter MG) utterances. 'Primary stress' is not to be confused here with the
notion 'Main Stress' as formulated for English in N. Chomsky and M. Halle's The
Sound Pattern of English (hereafter referred to as SPE). In fact, the
mechanisms for stressing MG utterances bear very little resemblance to the
framework of SPE. For one thing, any connection between stress and
constituent structure is confined within word boundaries: it is only word-
internal syntactic intricacies that may have a bearing on the position of
stress, and then only indirectly. Far more important is the reliance of stress
rules on surface syllabic arrangements and the phonological nature of
inflectional endings. Furthermore, each word in MG has at most one slress.
Specifically, words belonging to the major parts of speech (Nouns, Verbs,
Adverbs, Adjectives and Participles) have exactly one stressed syllable;
pronouns, articles, and undeclined particles can have one or none, depending
on their lexical classification. Any objectively detected stress gradations
among various syllables of a given utterance are under the control of either
performance factors or intonation contours. In other words, the notion
'degree of stress' is peripheral to the basic perception, as well as the
methodological principles of generative phonology. The gap between the 'least
stressed' and the 'least unstressed' syllables is a quantum one. The present
analysis will not venture beyond this binary distinction, and thus for its
purposes 'stress' will be synonymous to 'primary stress'.
[167] Tsutsui, Michio 1984
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Particle ellipses in Japanese
In this study I consider two kinds of particle ellipsis, syntactic particle
ellipsis and conversational particle ellipsis. Syntactic particle ellipsis
(discussed in Chapter 1) is the type of particle ellipsis caused by certain
syntactic conditions. Only case particles are ellipted under these conditions.
When one of these conditions is satisfied, the naturalness of case particle
ellipsis (or retention) varies from "totally natural" to "totally unnatural"
depending on the particle and the function it performs. To describe this
phenomenon, I hypothesize that there is a hierarchical relation among case
particles which perform different functions regarding their ellipsis and
retention. Statistical data supports this hypothesis.
Conversational particle ellipsis (discussed in Chapters 2, 3 and 4) is
another type of particle ellipsis which takes place in conversation even if
none of the conditions for syntactic particle ellipsis are satisfied.
22 0 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Chapter 2 discusses the ellipsis of the topic marker wa in conversation.
Here, I show that the ellipsis of wa marking X is natural if the speaker and the
hearer maintain close contact with the referent of X at the moment of speech.
Chapter 3 presents some general rules of case particle ellipsis in
conversation. In one of these rules I claim that the ellipsis of the case particle
(CP) of an NP-CP is unnatural if the NP-CP conveys the idea of exclusivity, i.e.,
the idea "not others but X" or "X and only X."
Chapter 4 discusses the ellipsis of the case particles ga and o in
conversation. Here, I demonstrate that the ellipsis of ga in an utterance is
natural if the speaker believes the utterance carries a certain kind of
information. I also show that the position of an UP-ga or NP-o in a sentence
affects the naturalness of the ellipsis of ga or o.
This study reveals that statements like "recoverable particles can be
ellipted" cannot explain the ellipsis of particles, that the ellipsis of particles is
a matter of degree of naturalness rather than naturalness versus
unnaturalness, and that various aspects of language, including phonology,
syntax, information and situation, have bearing on the ellipsis of particles.
[168] Valentine, Tamara 1986
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
Aspects of linguistic interaction and gender in South Asia
This study is a cross-cultural and cross-linguistic investigation of
language use and language structure within the non-Western context of India.
It especially focuses on the relationship between gender and communication
in two languages: Hindi, an Indo-Aryan language of India, and Indian English.
Primarily examining the creative fiction writings of Indian authors of
Hindi and Indian English, this study examines the following major points of
focus.
First, this study examines how males and females are represented in the
Hindi language and Indian English. Several aspects of linguistic sexism are
examined: among others, linguistic gaps, symmetries, and non-parallelisms
exhibited by masculine generic formations, masculine marked terms, and
homogenized and universalized forms. These occurrences reveal the lexical
faults of ambiguity, exclusiveness, and inequity in the languages.
Second, this study is concerned with the dynamics of gender differences
in conversational style in Hindi and Indian English written and spoken cross-
sex conversations. The interactional patterns which emerge reveal how
discoursal work is done in continuous verbal exchanges which leads to
effective or non-effective communication. The conversational strategies and
patterns examined include the rates of successful initiation of discourse topic,
both with question and with statement forms, the development and flow of
discourse topic, and the use of various regulatory linguistic devices which
coordinated verbal interaction. It is suggested that Indian authors/users of
English are influenced by their native sociocultural and linguistic contexts,
hence these formal characteristics of Hindi are transferred into English.
Moreover the social dimension gender is being transcreated.
Third, this study questions why in previous studies on varieties of English
the social dimension gender has not been included to help distinguish non-
Doctoral dissertations 221
native varieties further from standard English varieties. In order to attempt to
answer this question the concepts of transference and creativity are
introduced and discussed. The following claims are made. An examination of
gender in Indian English helps to further explain and distinguish the non-
nativeness of this variety and contributes to the creative innovations in terms
of the formal characteristics, the socially-determined speech functions, and
the sociocultural components involved in the transcreational process.
Furthermore, to fully understand the process of transference the traditional
social and cultural categories of India from which female-types are derived
are discussed.
Research and descriptions of the relationship of gender and language in
native as well as in non-native contexts, provide insight into a global
understanding of language use across cultures, languages, and regions of the
world, contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms of social
differentiation across languages, further the study of male-female
communication, and raise issues concerning lexicographical research,
intelligibility and interpretability, the training of language specialists, the
teaching of English and non-English language and literature, and the
understanding and appreciation of native and non-native texts in creative
writings.
[169] Vanek, Anthony Ladislav 1969
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
Syntactically oriented phonological analysis
As indicated by its title, the topic of this thesis is subject-verb agreement.
At first glance the scope of the topic appears to be extremely limited, being
concerned merely with the determination of the syntactic machinery that
assigns some property, or properties, of the subject noun phrase to the verb of
the sentence. But even this apparently simple task requires us to examine a
wide variety of phenomena which have direct bearing on agreement. In the
first place, it is necessary to determine exactly what is the constituent "noun
phrase" that functions as the subject with respect to agreement. Second, we
must direct our attention to the "verb" in order to ascertain the structure of
the verbal complex at the point in the derivation when the agreement rules
apply; specifically, we must reanalyze the constituent which has been
referred to as the verbal auxiliary. Third, we must pose the question of
whether agreement is a "surface phenomenon," as it has been generally
thought to be by traditional grammarians. Last, we should consider the
relationship of the syntactically derived structure of the inflected verbal form
to its internal structure which is the input to the phonological component.
The analysis of the phenomenon of subject-verb agreement and the
arguments presented in support of our assumptions are based primarily on
data from Czech, although occasional reference will be made to other Slavic
languages whenever it is felt that consideration of related problems may shed
light on the analysis. The scope of the analysis is quite limited, but it is
impossible to view the grammar of subject-verb agreement entirely in
isolation from the rest of the grammar of Czech. Therefore, it has been
necessary to extend the analysis in certain areas to encompass relevant related
areas of syntax.
222 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
[170] Wahab, Abdul 1986
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
Javanese metaphors in discourse analysis
This study focuses on three major issues: exploring the possibility of
separating Javanese metaphors into universal and language-specific,
proposing a model of understanding metaphors, and determining the domain
wiihin which metaphors are interpreted. A separation of Javanese metaphors
into universal and language-specific is necessary to answer the question
"Why are some metaphors readily interpretable while others are not when
viewed from different cultural background?" The proposed model begins with
the given utterance and is followed by three components: shared predictions,
experimental gestalts, and semantic and pragmatic interpretations.
The essential premise is that understanding metaphors requires a
pragmatic approach by applying principles of discourse analysis, i.e. the
principle of local interpretation and the principle of analogy, and by taking
into considerations context of situation, coherence, and cohesion. Two major
semantic theories of metaphor (interaction theory and comparison theory)
are reviewed in this study to determine whether the domain with which
metaphors are interpreted is semantic or pragmatics.
Six Javanese rhetorical forms are described because these rhetorical
forms contain metaphorical expressions as their basic elements. The
description of these rhetorical forms include their physical forms and
communicative functions.
The analysis in this study is primarily based on a wide range of written
and oral texts from Central Java and the western part of East Java. Directions
for future research are suggested for further study.
1171] Wahba, Wafaa Abdel-Faheem Batran 1984
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
WH-construction in Egyptian Arabic
This study investigates certain aspects of the syntax of S-structure and
the syntax of Logical Form (LF) as manifested by the behaviour of wh-
questions in the grammar of Egyptian Arabic. The framework within which
this thesis is written is that of Government-Binding theory, as set forth by
Chomsky (1981a). Wh-operations in EA have the option of appearing under the
Complementizer node or in their base position (in-situ). The fact that the
grammar of EA allows movement in both the syntactic component, i.e., SS, and
the interpretive component, i.e. LF, provides us with the opportunity to
contrast the Syntax of SS with the syntax of LF as exhibited by the same
construction, wh-questions in this case.
The first half of this thesis examines the behaviour of wh-questions at SS,
where the questioned site is obligatorily marked with a coindexed resumptive
pronoun. I show that the latter is syntactically bound to its antecedent via a
wh-movement rule which observes Subjacency. The second part of the thesis
deals with the syntax of LF as exhibited by the behaviour of wh-phrascs-In-
situ. The data examined provide strong support of the existence of a nonovcrt
movement rule at LF, and, hence, for the level itself. The LF movement rule
affords a uniform account of several generalizations which might otherwise
Doctoral dissertations 223
be describable via a conjunction of unrelated properties. It captures the
similarities that hold between movement in Syntax and movement in LF.
The interaction between SS movement and LF movement with respect to
the wh-island constraint, which I show to apply at both levels, provides
empirical evidence concerning two separate issues. These issues center on the
nature of Subjacency as a constraint, i.e., whether it is a constraint on
movement or a constraint on representation, and the successive cyclic nature
of Move alpha. I argue that evidence from EA shows: (a) Subjacency is a
constraint on a movement process, as opposed to a constraint on the output of a
given level of representation, and (b) Move alpha applies in successive cyclic
steps and not in an unbounded step. This study also provides crosslinguistic
evidence for the status of the Empty Category Principle as a principle of
Universal Grammar.
Finally, another theoretical point of interest for which this study
provides compelling evidence is that Subjacency applies at the LF level in EA.
The fact that Subjacency applies both to syntactic as well as interpretive rules
in EA provides more support of the universality of the Subjacency principle.
Subjacency holds at LF in the grammar of Iraqi Arabic (Wahba, forthcoming)
and in Tengale (Kidda 1983). The former has movement at the LF level only.
However, LF movement in Chinese freely violates Subjacency, a situation
which has been assumed to be true of all the languages with LF movement that
have been studied so far, including Japanese, Turkish (Hankamer 1975), and
Ancash Quechua (Cole 1982). Thus, there are some languages which observe
Subjacency at LF, as well as at SS, and others which only observe Subjacency at
SS. This kind of parametric variation is to be expected, as some languages may
generalize a universal constraint holding at one level to another level. This
means that Subjacency acts as a universal constraint at SS and a language
specific constraint at LF. This assumption, in turn, explains the difference
between EA, Iraqi Arabic, and Tengale, on the one hand, and Chinese,
Japanese, Turkish, and Ancash Quechua, on the other.
[172] Wallace, William David 1985
Advisor: Hans Henrich Hock
Subjects and subjecthood in Nepali: An analysis of Nepali clause structure and
its challenges to Relational Grammar and Government and Binding
Both Early and Modem Nepali use a variety of nonbasic clause structures,
including dative-subject (inversion) clauses, obligational (gerundive) clauses,
passive clauses, and, in Early Nepali, ergative clauses. The properties of basic
clause subjects are split in these clauses between two NPs — the 'logical',
nonnominative subjects and the grammatical nominative subject. This
distribution can be explained by assuming that an NP which controls subject
properties shares some functional or configurational feature with basic clause
subjects. The acquisition of subject properties by ergative agents has affected
basic clause syntax in the Nepali perfective tense.
In a Relational Grammar of Nepali, subject properties are of two types:
morphological (word order, verb agreement, case assignment,
nominalizations) and syntactic (reflexivization, conjunctive participle
control, EQUI control, conjunction reduction, EQUI deletion, subject-raising,
object-raising). NPs are assigned morphological properties through
hierarchical processing; the highest ranking term relation in the clause
controls the subject property.
224 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Syntactic properties are controlled absolutely by a specific class of NPs.
Where a complement clause contains no final /, the complement clause itself
serves as the NP controlling a syntactic property in the matrix clause. The
process of morphological clause union supports this analysis. The Nepali data
thus show that nonbasic clauses may be analyzed as 'subjectless', i.e., having
no final /, rather than 'impersonal' with a dummy NP as the clause final /.
The Government and Binding framework provides interesting insights
into Nepali clause structure. All nonbasic clauses can be analyzed as having an
empty category in the subject position, while other NPs occur as VP
complements. However, certain principles of GB may be sensitive to both
configurational and functional properties of NPs. At certain levels of the
grammar, two NPs differently situated and functionally distinct cannot be
distinguished by certain grammatical processes. Thus the Nepali data show
that modifications must be made in the GB binding theory and control theory.
[173] Warie, Pairat 1979
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
Some sociolinguistic aspects of language contact in Thailand
This thesis is an attempt to study some aspects of language contact in
Thailand. A portion of this dissertation will take up the study of Thai-English
code mixing (CM), hoping that this aspect of the two languages in contact will
be of value both in terms of its theoretical implications for language change
and for its applied implications with reference to language attitude and
educational considerations.
Although my main focus is the study of CM in Thai with special reference
to English, I will also provide a brief sociolinguistic profile of Thailand, as this
is essential to a better understanding of CM. Chapter two will take up this topic.
In Chapters three and four a brief historical background of language
situations in Thailand will be presented. Such discussion is crucial to an
understanding of the language attitudes of Thai people towards the use of the
mixed language.
It is also hoped that the study of CM will yield some important evidence
concerning processes of nativization used by Thai speakers. An attempt is also
made to answer the following questions: 1) To what extent are English words
absorbed into the Thai structure? 2) What, if any, change has been initiated to
the Thai structure as a result of such mixing? 3) To what extent does the study
of English-Thai mixing support the current views of language change
exemplified in Weinreich, Labov and Herzog (1968), Labov (1966, 1972), Wang
(1969), and Wang and Cheng (1970), as opposed to the Neogrammarians' theory
of sound change?
[174]Wentz, James Paul 1977
Advisor: Howard Maclay
Some considerations in the development of a syntactic description of code-
switching
This dissertation is organized around the notion that "code-mixing" and
"code-changing", which together we will refer to as "code-switching", are
important manifestations of language contact, and whether or not our
particular formulation of the difference is theoretically workable in a broad
Doctoral dissenations 225
range of cases of bilingualism, the concept of categorizing types of code-
switching date is, we feel, ultimately a sound one.
Chapter I is an outline of the essential information needed for
understanding how code-switching functions as a social phenomenon. In
effect, this chapter illustrates how we found code-switching was used by the
children in our study for such socio-linguistic purposes as distinguishing
roles, situations, and various stylistic parameters. In Chapter II one specific
mode of discourse, narrative, is examined with regard to code-switching. It is
determined that code-switching occurs relatively infrequently in the
narrative style among these children, and that it is likely that code-changing
is much more relevant to narrative than is code-mixing.
Chapter III is the heart of our philosophy of bilingualism. We attempt to
accurately define and distinguish between borrowing and code-switching.
Notions such as "dominance" are discussed within our theoretical framework,
and the prospect of accurately defining such vague concepts in terms of the
bilingual in the real world is explored.
Chapters IV and V concentrate on the theoretical implications of the
central claims of this dissertation. Principally, the concepts of "code-mixing"
and "code-changing" are further defined and tested. The notion of the "bicodal
word constraint" is set forth, and it is concluded that many of the aspects of
bilingualism are actually aspects of language in general.
Finally, Chapter VI illustrates how the study of code-switching may lead
not only to positing "Monolingual Codes" as Chapter V suggests, but also to
rethinking such phenomena as ellipsis and identity in monolingual
repertoires. Chapter VI is in essence a step in the direction of practical
application of the ideas developed in the course of the entire dissertation, and
it is intended to suggest that general linguistics may be well served by
considering bilingual data as extremely valuable material for furthering
research on syntax.
[175]Wible, David Scott 1990
Advisor: Peter Cole
Subjects and the clausal structure of Chinese and English
The purpose of this dissertation is to develop explanations of some
syntactic differences between Chinese and English. The core idea explored is
that the absence of subject-verb agreement (i.e. AGR) in Chinese and its
presence in English has wide-ranging consequences, most fundamentally in
the clausal structure of the two languages. Support for this idea comes
primarily from the explanations which it allows for a variety of syntactic
phenomena and, where possible, through testing the predictions that it entails
for other languages which pattern cither with Chinese or with English with
respect to agreement.
The principles and parameters framework developed in Chomsky 1981
and Chomsky 1986a,b and pursued in the works of a number of other linguists
provides the overall theoretical orientation. Parameterization plays a minimal
role in the analyses proposed in the dissertation and relevant cross-linguistic
distinctions follow largely from the interaction of principles of universal
grammar (UG) with the divergent inventories of syntactic formatives in the
languages considered, specifically from the availability of Agr in English as
opposed to its absence in Chinese.
226 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
In chapter 2 some problematic differences between Chinese and English
regarding constraints on the movement of subjects are examined. An account
of these facts is proposed which traces the cross-linguistic variation to a
difference in the clausal structure of the Chinese and English at S-structure.
Specifically, subjects appear inside the VP in Chinese but outside the VP in
English. This cross-linguistic difference is attributed to the demands placed on
subjects in English by subject-verb agreement, demands which predictably
are absent from Chinese due to the lack of agreement.
Chapter 3 is a study of a variety of problems posed by the non-gap topic
(NGT) construction of Chinese. It is shown that these sentences raise problems
for 8 -theory. Case theory, and x-bar theory as well as the ECP and notions of
licensing. The analysis proposed in chapter 2 is extended to account for NGTs;
it is shown how this analysis entails an explanation for the differences
between Chinese and English with respect to this construction. Predictions
concerning NGT constructions in a variety of other languages are also tested.
The fourth chapter gives an account of why subjects in Italian pattern
with Chinese rather than English with respect to the movement phenomena
examined in chapter 2. Languages like Italian pose a prima facie counter
example to the analysis of chapter 2, which ties long distance extraction of
subjects to the presence or absence of agreement in a language. This would
seem to predict that Italian, a language with subject-verb agreement, would
pattern with English rather than Chinese. It is shown that this is only
apparently the prediction and that other properties of Italian account for the
subject extraction facts straightforwardly in a manner consistent with my
analysis of Chinese and English.
[176] Wilbur, Ronnie Bring 1973
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
The phonology of reduplication
In the analyses of many languages, reduplicated forms are often
associated with irregular behavior. It is the prime interest of this dissertation
to consider how to account for this behavior. Chapter One will present
background information on Reduplication which is intended to familiarize the
reader with the various types of Reduplication. Chapter Two will present
examples of the types of "exceptional" behavior which reduplicated forms
display. Chapter Three will discuss the methods which are currently used to
analyze the "exceptional" behavior of reduplicated forms. In Chapter Four, I
will present what I believe is the generalization which underlies this
behavior and attempts to formulate this generalization within the current
framework. Chapter Five suggests some revisions which can better
accommodate this generalization. I will also consider the implications of this
discussion on the status of Reduplication as a morphological process in the
phonological theory.
[177] Wilkinson, Robert Webster 1971
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
Sentence types and complement types in English
In this dissertation I will concern myself with the relationship between
complement types and declarative sentences. I hope to present a unified and
insightful account of the syntactic and semantic relationships between initial
Doctoral dissertations 227
S and S introduced by various recursive embedding phrase structure rules,
specifically the initial S which is the deep structure for declarative sentences.
Explication of and justification for these ideas and claims of course constitute
the content of the remaining chapters of this dissertation.
Chapters II and III will be devoted to developing a formalism for handling
independent declaratives and the complements in question in a unified way in
the grammar. For the most part, the data on which this formalism is initially
based is semantic in nature. Chapter IV sets forth the reasons for which the
deep structure head noun fact analysis impedes a uniform analysis of
independent declarative sentences and all the complement types which can be
shown to be syntactically and semantically related to declaratives. After this
the first argument against the adequacy of the deep structure head noun fact
analysis as an explanation for semantic factivity is presented. A possible
alternative analysis in terms of head noun act is introduced. In chapter VI it is
shown that this "act" analysis will not save the general deep structure head
noun analysis of factivity. The remainder of chapter VI is devoted to further
refutation of such deep structure head noun analyses. Finally, in chapter VI
we have a resume of the arguments of the two preceding chapters with a
discussion of how the theory presented and exemplified in the first part of the
dissertation can handle the problems brought up in them. A concluding
summary and statement of the results of the dissertation and their
significance is included.
[178] Willis, Bruce Edward 1969
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
The alternation of so-called learned/popular vocabulary in a phonological
description of Latin American Spanish
This thesis consists of a phonological description of a portion of a dialect
of modem Latin American Spanish. It is conducted within the framework of
generative grammar. The description presented will incorporate abstract
underlying representations and a number of phonological rules which
account for various alternations in Spanish. The primary goal of this thesis is
to show the relationship which exists between traditionally termed 'learned'
vocabulary and 'popular' vocabulary. Traditional 'learned' vocabulary is
generally not discussed in any detail in descriptions of Spanish because of its
relatively uninteresting phonological development, but these forms can be
accounted for historically and also synchronically. This thesis will present an
analysis which covers a large portion of the vocabulary in which we find so-
called 'learned' forms alternating with the 'popular' forms in related words.
The aim of the thesis is to explain the synchronic relationship which exists
between this learned and popular vocabulary without resorting to an ad hoc
listing of the categories in which the morphological alternations occur. I shall
propose a system in which roots and formatives will carry certain
morphological features and certain phonological rules will be sensitive to the
combinations of these formatives and roots. A second purpose of this
investigation is to present a large body of data to test our phonological theory.
It is hoped that detailed analyses of languages other than English will shed
light on the adequacies and possible inadequacies of the universal theory.
Problems will arise within this work and some solutions may be proposed.
228 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
[179] Wise, Kathleen Theresa 1979
Advisor: Howard Maciay
Levels of unity in production of long utterances in Laura
This dissertation focuses on unities in production of long utterances in a
22-month old, Laura, at other levels than the usual linguistic levels. The
unities are partially modelled in real-time, using the Witz-Easley neo-
Piagetian cognitive paradigm. Approximately 1,000 hours were involved in
videotape analysis of the utterances.
The content of major chapters is as follows:
-IV establishes that Laura's language functioning is variable and
complex.
-V discusses prosodic production, utterances in which many words in
Laura's phrases exist in "embryonic form," as "whiffs" in the ongoing
prosody, and utterances which are phrases often heard in adult speech.
Prosodic production is a significant level of emergence for words, and
suggests a conceptualization of long term memory of phrases as holistic
entities.
-VI enlarges the picture of development of prosodic production by
adopting a holistic-organismic perspective of the child. Developments in
language functioning, such as prosodic production, are seen as a direct
expression of expansions in Laura's "total effort" behind every
utterance, her organismic-body-total.
-VII delineates four other levels of unity in Laura's production of long
utterances. These are: Unifying motor flows, integrated complexes of
motor activities in which one feels a single flow of energy at the 5-10
second level; pitch holding and intonational pushing, continuously re-
emerging pitch heights across a phrase, and energy tension in the
intonation contour to proceed forward over time throughout the phrase;
carrying of meaning throughout the phrase, meaning processes held
over periods of 5-10 seconds; and still-motor imaginal activity, a complex
of thought processes and motor behavior preceding and leading directly
into Laura's verbal production.
In essence, the dissertation seeks to understand and conceptualize some of
Laura's language production processes in real-time.
[180] Wong, Maurice Kuen-Shing 1982
Advisor: Chin-Chuan Cheng
Tone change in Cantonese
The phenomenon known as bianyin, or 'tone change', in Cantonese as
spoken in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China involves an alternation between
any of the six non-high tones and the high rising tone — or, for a very limited
number of morphemes, the high level tone. This study gives an analytical
account of the various types of tone change from both the synchronic and
diachronic perspectives. After a description of the tone alternations, the
Cantonese syllable and tone in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 works out an analysis of
the regular cases and proposes an assimilation rule and a deletion rule in the
synchronic grammar of Cantonese. Chapter 3 discusses the irregular cases of
tone change and the various general tendencies, semantic and morphological.
Doctoral dissertations 229
that favor the occurrence of the changed tone. Chapter 4, bringing in
comparative evidence from Taishan, Bobai, Mandarin and other dialects,
presents the hypothesis that the changed tone historically derived from [ji55]
— and [tsi35] — suffixation, and the diachronic changes involved are similar to
the synchronic rules that account for the regular cases. Chapter 5 presents a
quantitative analysis of all Cantonese morphemes that can undergo tone
change. With the aid of the Dictionary on Computer (compiled by William S-Y.
Wang and his associates), it is found that there are phonetic tendencies that
favor tone change — namely, low tones favor tone change more than the mid
tone, and low rising tone favors tone change (to a high rising tone) more than
the other two low tones; and possibly also, long vowels favor tone change more
than short vowels, and non-high vowels favor tone change more than high
vowels. Chapter 6, based on William Labov's sociolinguistic studies of
synchronic variations within a speech community, presents a quantitative
analysis of data elicited under different stylistic contexts. The results show that
the optional changed tone occurs more frequently in informal styles than in
formal styles, and its occurrence is governed by a hierarchy of constraints
similar to the phonetic tendencies found in the implementation of the
diachronic change across the lexicon. Chapter 7 concludes the study with a
discussion of the implications of the findings on theories of linguistic change.
[181] Wongbiasaj, Soranee 1980
Advisor: Frederic K. Lehman
On movement transformations in Thai
This dissertation is an investigation of the class of movement
transformations in Thai. The main objective is to find out whether or not there
are any limitations on this class of transformations, and in case there are, to
see how the class is limited. The next objective is to explain why the class of
movement transformations in Thai is limited in such a way.
The first objective is carried out by considering four constructions: the
passive construction, the topic-comment construction, the quantifier-final
construction, and the noun complement-final construction. I argue that the
last two of these constructions have undergone movement transformations.
Quantifier Floating and Noun Complement Extraposition, respectively. The
other two are argued to be essentially base-generated instead of being derived
by movement transformations, as claimed by some previous Thai linguists
(Chaiyaratana 1961, Bandhumedha 1976, for instance). In particular, I argue
that the passive sentence in Thai is generated in the base with thUuk (or doon)
'to be affected by' as a main verb and with a clause embedded under thUuk (or
doon). I also argue that the topic-comment sentence in Thai is generated in the
base with the topic in the initial position.
In the last chapter, other movement transformations that are likely to
exist in Thai grammar are taken into consideration. It is found that none of
these transformations involves movement of a whole NP. To achieve the
second objective of this study, an explanation for such a limitation on the class
of movement transformations in Thai is offered, with reference to the major
characteristics of the language, namely, lack of the overt morphological
marking on verbs and very little on noun phrases, and the pervasive use of
zero anaphora. It is suggested for future research that other major
characteristics of Thai, such as verb serialization, be considered in relation to
limitation on movement transformations in the language.
230 Snidies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
[182] Xu, Debao 1992
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Mandarin Tone Sandhi — and the Interface Study between
phonology and syntax
This dissertation investigates the domain and mode of application of
Mandarin third tone sandhi (TS henceforth), in terms of which it is intended
to explore the characteristics of the interface between phonology and syntax.
The general result is that TS applies cyclically both in the lexicon and at
the phrase level. In the lexicon, it follows the model of lexical phonology. At
the phrase level, its domain is partially constrained by the left end of a X"'^''"^
(branching maximal projection), but finally defined by its unique condition:
two by two subgrouping convention and its interaction with other phrasal
phonological rules such as sentential stress assignment, secondary stress
deletion, last cycle formation, 'marked' stress rules, rate of utterance, and so
on.
The significance of the study is that it exemplifies the similarities
between phrasal phonology and lexical phonology. On one hand, cyclic
application is the characteristic of both phrasal TS and lexical TS. The rule (of
TS) applies from right to left cycle by cycle both in the lexicon and at the
phrasal level. On the other hand, phrasal TS operates in the same mode as
lexical TS does. That is, after the application of TS in a cycle, the cycle
boundary is deleted and the output of the cycle joins the next cycle as its input
to create a new context for next TS (hence exactly the same model proposed by
lexical phonology). This implies that the prosodic structure of a sentence is
organized in the same way as that lexical structure does: namely, either with
the right cycle (s) embedded in the left ones (such as Mandarin TS) on a par
with the word composed of prefix + base ([prefix [base]]), or with the left cycle
(s) embedded in the right ones (such as tone sandhi in Cantonese) on a par
with the word formed by base + suffix ([[base] suffix]). The discovery of these
similarities has significant impact on linguistic theory.
[183] Yates, Robert Allen 1990
Advisor: Howard Maclay
A parameters approach to second language research: Testing a directionality
prediction of the null subject parameter
This study applies insights from present linguistic theory (Chomsky 1981,
1986) to predict what the influence of the first language (LI) is on the
acquisition of linguistic competence in a second language (L2). Present
linguistic theory claims that differences in languages can be captured by a
small number of principles and parameters. Parameters are principles which
have several values. Differences in languages are the result of how these
values are set for a particular language. The parameter tested in this study is
the null subject parameter. This parameter identifies the differences between
a language like English which requires overt subject pronouns and a
language like Spanish which allows null subject pronouns.
An analysis of the different types of parameters is made. This study
presents an analysis of three types of parameters. Based on this analysis it is
predicted that Spanish speakers learning English will acquire the properties
of the null subject parameter in English before English speakers acquire the
Doctoral dissertations 231
properties of the null subject parameter in Spanish. Two different judgment
tasks were administered to Spanish speakers learning English and English
speakers learning Spanish. The results of the first task, a written
grammaticality judgment task administered to classroom learners, confirmed
the directionality prediction. The scores on judging sentences in the target
language by Spanish speakers learning English were higher than the scores
by English speakers learning Spanish. The results of a second task, a
coreferential judgment task administered to highly proficient L2 speakers of
Spanish and English, did not confirm the results of the written grammaticality
judgment task. Both groups of advanced L2 speakers appeared to transfer
interpretations from LI sentences to equivalent L2 sentences.
Although these results raise questions about the status of the null
parameter in L2 acquisition, they provide evidence that the LI does influence
the acquisition of a second language.
[184] Yen, Sian-Lin 1965
Advisor; Robert B. Lees
Studies in the phonological history of Amoy Chinese
As the title of this dissertation would indicate, the main portion of the
present study concerns the reconstruction of the phonological history of
Amoy Chinese — more specifically, a reconstruction of Old Amoy, the
phonological changes that have taken place in its history, and the
chronological order of these changes. The period covered by our studies is
from circa 700 A.D. down to the present time. The materials utilized for our
reconstruction are mainly lexical items borrowed from a certain identifiable
dialect at a certain identifiable date.
First, we shall concern ourselves with the problem of the date at which
the words that now constitute the superstratum, 'literary layer,' of Modern
Amoy were introduced into this language from Ancient Chinese. In Chapters II
and III we shall discuss, first, the phonemes of Modern Amoy and its
morpheme structure rules; then, the problem of how to represent tones of this
language in our phonological representations; and finally we shall discuss
various types of phonological boundaries and sketch syntactic rules that
introduce these boundaries into our phonological representations of Amoy
utterances. In Chapters IV and V we present the phonetic correspondence
between Ancient Chinese and Modem Amoy. Ancient Chinese forms are cited
in the orthography proposed for this language in Chapter 111. In Chapter IV
we shall present a set of (partially) ordered phonological rules, by means of
which one can derive Superstratum words from their respective etymons in
Ancient Chinese in the maximally economical way. Finally, in Chapter VII, we
attempt a reconstruction of Amoy Chinese of c. 700 A.D. — i.e. around the time
when there was a large-scale borrowing of Ancient Chinese words into Amoy.
Our reconstruction is based on the systematic phonetic differences that we
have found between Substratum initials and finals and their corresponding
initials and finals in Superstratum when compared through the medium of
Ancient Chinese or, in a few cases, Archiac Chinese initials and finals. With
the help of various rules that we have formulated in the preceding chapter —
which are, with some exceptions that we have noted, phonological changes
that occurred within the history of Amoy Chinese, and hence must have
affected both words from Old Amoy and those from Ancient Chinese — we
should be able to project the phonetic differences that now exist between
232 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Substratum and Superstratum of Modem Amoy back on Ancient Chinese of c.
700 A.D., and reconstruct Old Amoy of approximately the same period.
[185]Yeoh, Chiang Kee 1979
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
Interaction of rules in Bahasa Malaysia
In this dissertation I will investigate interaction of rules, such as, Object-
creating rule (i.e. Transitivization, Objectivization, or Dative Movement) with
Passivization and also Passivization with Relativization, which can
systematically advance an NP, for example, an Instrumental, from an
inaccessible to an accessible position, that is, to Subject position whence it can
be relativized. On account of the fact that, in Bahasa Malaysia, Object-creating
rule is regarded as essential to making an inaccessible NP, such as. Oblique
Object, accessible to Passivization; and Passivization is seen as absolutely
necessary to making an inaccessible Direct Object accessible to Relativization,
interaction of rules such as these which confirm Johnson, Keenan and
Comrie's hypotheses will be fully discussed.
This thesis is organized as follows: In Chapter I, inadequacies of the
description of some aspects of Bahasa Malaysia syntax are pointed out. Chapter
II concerns the simple sentences in Bahasa Malaysia. Various types of simple
sentences such as equative, ascriptive, locative, intransitive, stative and
transitive are examined and discussed. The claim that it is optional to prefix the
active marker /meng-i-/ to a transitive verb of an active sentence is falsified.
In Chapter III, five types of Passives in Bahasa Malaysia are critically
examined and discussed. Inadequacies of the past treatments of some passive
constructions, especially the 1st and 2nd Person Passive, are pointed out; and
syntactic similarities found among the various types of Passives are clearly
illustrated. Since Indirect Object and Oblique Objects such as Benefactive,
Locative and Instrumental are not passivizable, interaction of rules, such as
Object-creating rule with Passivization, is extensively discussed. It is shown
that Bahasa Malaysia is in harmony with the Relational Constraint proposed in
Johnson (1974), that is, if an Oblique Object can be systematically advanced to
Subject position. Indirect Object and Direct Object can also be systematically
promoted to Subject position.
The last chapter illustrates that, as far as Keenan and Comrie's
Accessibility Hierarchy (AH) is concerned, only two NP positions in Bahasa
Malaysia, that is those of Subject NP and Poss-NP, can be relativized directly.
The other NPs lying in the hierarchy gaps between the Subject NP and the
Poss-NP are relativizable only after they have been systematically advanced to
an accessible position by interaction of rules. Since only the Subject NP and
the Poss-NP can be relativized directly, it is concluded that Bahasa Malaysia not
only poses a problem but also presents a good counterexample to Keenan and
Comrie's AH as far as direct relativizability of an NP is concerned. This is
simply because direct relativizability of a low NP position, in this case, does not
entail direct relativizibility of all higher NP positions on the AH.
Doctoral dissertations 233
[186]Yokwe, Eluzai Moga 1987
Advisor: Charles W. Kisscberth
The tonal grammar of Bari
This thesis presents a comprehensive description of the tonal system of
Bari, an Eastern Nilotic language spoken around Juba in the Sudan. In
particular, the thesis attempts to thoroughly describe both the tonal structure
of the Bari word as well as the tonal interactions that result from the
juxtaposition of words in sentences.
The tone of verbal roots as well as the tonal properties of the extensive
system of verbal derivation in Bari is presented in detail. Bari verb roots are
shown to display "melodic" tone: there are just two (underlying) tonal patterns
— H and LHL — regardless of the syllabic length of the root. Some verbal
suffixes are "toneless" whereas other suffixes contribute a tone to the tonal
tier of the word. Bari noun roots are "non-melodic": each syllable of the noun
root selects from the underlying inventory of tones independently of the
other syllables. The tonal properties of noun suffixes are complex and
straightforward rules governing the tone of derived nouns are not possible.
The bulk of the thesis details the effect that the tone of one word has on
an adjacent word. Two principal rules operate across word boundaries: High
Tone Spread and High Tone Lowering. A rule of Contour Simplification applies
to the output of these two rules. It is shown that the rule of High Tone
Lowering must apply iteratively across the sentence in a left-to-right manner.
Evidence in favor of iterative rather than (syntactically) cyclic rule
application is presented in detail.
[187] Yoon, Hye Suk 1989
Advisor: Peter Cole
A restrictive theory of morphosyntactic interaction and its consequences
In this dissertation, I develop a theory of morphosyntactic interaction
based on a principled distinction between Rule Systems and Grammatical
Components. It is argued that while morphological and phrasal rules belong to
distinct rule systems, they do not define distinct components. In contrast to the
proponents of Strong Lexicalism, I develop a theory in which the components
of syntax and lexicon are freed from inherent association with either phrasal
or morphological rules. Rather, the lexicon and syntax stand in a "level-
ordered" relationship with the objects defined by rules of the lexicon acting as
atoms of the syntactic rule system.
The assignment of rules, morphological or phrasal, to either component,
is made on the basis of the properties exhibited by rules, such as interactivity
with other rules of the component and the XO vs. XP status of objects defined by
rules. In contrast to much recent work, the decision to treat a certain type of
morphology as syntactic is not made on the basis of an a priori methodological
guideline.
The criteria I employ to assign a certain piece of morphology to syntax
are more stringent than those countenanced in alternative approaches. It is
argued, however, that this restrictive approach reveals a truer picture of how
morphology and syntax interact. This is because morphology determined to be
syntactic by the restrictive criteria always evince independent signs of being
syntactic.
234 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
A comparative study of the morphosyntax of nominalizations and
antipassives in different languages bears out the significant conceptual and
theoretical advantages of the restrictive view of morphosyntactic interaction
proposed in this work.
[188] Yu, Ella Ozier 1991
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Theoretical aspects of noun classes in Lama
Lama is a Gur language spoken in the districts of Keran and Doufelgou of
Togo. Other than earlier research by A. Prosl (1964b), the field of linguistics
has not given much attention to Lama. More recently, though, dissertations by
Ourso (1989) and Aritiba (1989) have contributed significantly.
This dissertation provides an analysis of the noun class system and
agreement phenomena in Lama (Kante variant). Furthermore, the
incorporation process for borrowed nouns and the agreement phenomena for
left-dislocated coordinate NP structures support the analysis that Lama noun
classes, for the most part, are not semantically or phonologically based.
The dissertation contains six chapters. The introductory chapter
classifies Lama with respect to geographical and typological categories and
discusses relevant research and methodology. Chapter 2 presents the
reanalysis of the noun class system and Chapter 3 summarizes the agreement
phenomena of nouns and their constituents. The fourth chapter contains an
analysis of the borrowing process for nouns and Chapter 5 discusses
agreement in left-dislocated coordinate NP structures. The final chapter
summarizes the findings of this research and proposes further research areas.
[189] Zamir, Jan Roshan 1982
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
Variation in Standard Persian: A sociolinguistic study
This research aims to investigate variation in Tehran! Persian (Standard)
in relation to its socio-cultural dimensions. The primary objective is to
investigate stratification of glottals and glides and the general tendencies of
these features towards linguistic change, as well as the social mobility of
speakers. The secondary objective is to investigate the sociolinguistic
properties of two social dialects of Persian in Tehran, which until now have
gone virtually undescribed: Jaheli and Armenian Persian.
The analysis is based on quantitative measurements of the data collected
from seventy-eight native speakers with consideration to age, education, sex,
religion, and ethnic membership.
To account for variabilities, four variable rules were advanced: (y)-
inserlion, (7)-insertion, change of glottal to glide, and (7)-deletion rules. Style
and religion most strongly co-vary with the linguistic variables; education
and age also closely correlate. In comparison, sex shows a lesser degree of
correlation with the variables.
This inquiry further offers a number of interpretations for certain
previously unresolved issues in Persian linguistics: (a) Two types of glides —
"underlying" and "derived" are distinguished, (b) A distinction is also
advanced for "underlying" and "derived" glottals. Derived glottals can change
to glides; the underlying cannot, (c) The two rules of (y)-inscrtion and (7)-
Doctoral dissertations 235
insertion appear to reflect a functional unity of P-rules and provide a case
example of a "conspiracy of phonological rules" (Kisseberth, 1979). (d) The
change of glottal to glide is a new innovation and still is "in progress."
The social dialect of Jaheli is shown to make use of an elaborate speech of
give-and-take with overt phonological characteristics. Some features of Jaheli
are emulated by other members of the community also to express certain
values and chauvinistic sentiments.
Armenian Persian appears to provide a rather "marked" sociolinguistic
case study. Unlike that of all other subsequent generations of dialect speakers
in Tehran who yield to the prestigious dialect of Tehran, this variety has
remained unbending.
Finally, the results here could be used for the preparation of teaching
materials and bilingual lexicographical works.
[190] Zhou, Xinping 1990
Advisor: Chin-Chuan Cheng
Aspects of Chinese syntax: Ergativity and phrase structure
This thesis is a study of various aspects of Chinese syntax from a
government-and-binding perspective. The purpose of this work is to argue
that a range of grammatical problems of Chinese syntax such as the variable
position of subject, word order variation, locative inversion, definiteness
effects, quantification and scope effects of inverted subjects can be explained
if it is recognized that Chinese has both unergative (accusative) and ergativc-
type structures. In the unergative (accusative) structure, the subject NP bears
the role of an internal argument of the verb and as such occupies the object
position at D-structure and is either moved or unmoved to the spec (IP)
position at S-structure in accordance with a set of well-formedness principles
of the grammar.
Chapter One introduces some basic notions of Government-Binding
theory and the theories of ergativity in general, and argues for a unified
theory of grammatical mapping between the argument structure and syntactic
structure, which accounts for a comprehensive range of ergative phenomena
across languages.
Chapter Two provides arguments for taking contrastive word order in
Chinese as the primary syntactic diagnostics for ergativity in this language
and explores the unergative-ergative alternations with regard to word order
variations. It proposes a theta-theoretic condition, the 0-polarity condition
which regulates the distribution of arguments and adjuncts in this language.
A scrutiny is devoted to the difference in categorical projection with respect to
functional categories and lexical categories.
Chapter Three explores the range of ergativity in Chinese in phrasal
syntax, with emphasis on the displaced subject and locative inversion
construction. It argues for a type-oriented approach to ergativity across
languages. Alternative analyses are provided for some syntactic problems
related to the Chinese ergative constructions, ranging from the syntactic
nature of postverbal agentivc subject to the scope and extraction effects in
presentational construction.
Chapter Four examines the syntactic nature of complex predicates in
Mandarin and the ergative phenomena on the word level, focusing on the
236 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
headedness condition of causative verb compound predicates as well as the
thematic structure of such predicates.
[191] Ziv, Yael 1976
Advisor: Georgia M. Green
On the communicative effect of relative clause extraposition in English
In this dissertation I will investigate some possible correlations between
the form of sentences and the communicative purposes which these sentences
may serve. For such a study to offer interesting and significant results it would
have to involve a large variety of sentences differing from each other in
several aspects related to form, and it would have to focus on various
communicative functions that these different sentences may fulfill. General
observations concerning the nature of the relationship between the form of a
sentence and the way it may function in linguistic communication may be
arrived at only on the basis of an extensive investigation of this kind. Such a
study, however, although desirable, is presently beyond my capacity.
Therefore, I decided to examine only an arbitrary sub-set of syntactically
related constructions — sentences related by Right Movement Rules — with
respect to their various communicative functions. However, after studying in
detail sentences related by only one such rule — relative clause extraposition —
I realized that it would not do justice to the other constructions involving
Right Movement Rules to include them in this thesis without examining them
equally carefully. The scope of the present study will, therefore, be restricted
to an investigation of only two types of constructions related by the syntactic
process of relative clause extraposition. I will be most concerned with the
purposes for which speakers may use sentences with restrictive relative
clauses (extraposed and unextraposed) in communication with each other;
more specifically, 1 will deal with the differences between the appropriateness
of such sentences with regard to conveying particular communicative
intentions of speakers.
As will become evident during the course of this thesis, the
communicative effects of the syntactic process of relative clause extraposition
are closely related to the principles of word order in a given language. Hence,
languages which differ in word order are likely to manifest different
characteristics with respect to relative clause extraposition. I will, therefore,
restrict myself here to an examination of sentences with restrictive relative
clauses in English. (But cf. Ziv and Cole (1974) and Ziv (forthcoming) where
Modern Hebrew is investigated with respect to relative clause extraposition
and other related phenomena.) The present thesis should be considered
exploratory; it docs not aim at offering definitive conclusions, but rather at
encouraging inquiry in the area of form-function correlation. Hopefully, the
results of this investigation may serve as a starting point for a more
comprehensive study of this kind.
The thesis is organized as follows: In Chapter I, I delineate the scope of
the structures under investigation, discuss the theoretical framework within
which this research is conducted and present the kinds of questions with
which I will be most concerned. Chapter II deals with various communicative
functions of sentences with restrictive relative clauses that modify generic
head noun phrases. In this context the differences between sentences with
extraposed and sentences with non-extraposed restrictive relative clauses are
examined. Chapter 111 serves as a continuation of Chapter 11; it takes up the
Doctoral dissenations 237
question of the relation between conditional if sentences and sentences with
restrictive relative clauses on generic heads. It is shown that an account of the
relation between these structures in derivational terms is ad-hoc in several
respects and consequently a new account for the affinity between these
sentences is called for.
Chapter IV is on par with Chapter II. In Chapter II the communicative
functions of sentences with restrictive relatives on generic heads are
investigated, whereas in Chapter IV some communicative functions of
restrictive relative clauses on indefinite no-generic heads are examined. In
this context it is shown that in order to characterize some form-function
correlations adequately, the pragmatic correlates of the relevant propositional
content must be taken into consideration.
Chapter V consists of a brief summary of the conclusions from the
previous chapters, a discussion of the overall communicative effect of relative
clause extraposition and a discussion of some unresolved problems and
suggested topics for further research.
Master's Thesis Abstracts
[192] Abdo, Daud A. 1967
On primary stress in Modern Literary Arabic
In this paper I shall deal with the primary stress of words in Modern
Literary Arabic (henceforth MLA). I shall first mention briefly some attempts
to account for the primary stress of words in MLA and show in what way they
fail. Then I will try to give some rules to account for this stress correctly.
[193] Akatsuka, Noriko 1969
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
NP Movement and some related syntactic phenomena in Japanese
Ross's quite insightful and stimulating Ph. D. dissertation Constraints on
Variables in Syntax motivated this paper. His dissertation is a search for
universal constraints on syntactic variables. The complex NP Constraint and
the Conjoint Structure Constraint are proposed as putatively universal, and the
Sentential Structure Constraint as language-specific. Also, the type of
syntactic rules affected by those constraints are said to be reordering
transformations which chop the specified NP and permute it around a
variable. I would like to investigate whether or not Ross's claims are justified
in Japanese.
First, I would like to discuss "NP scrambling" in Japanese, which does not
exist in the grammar of English. Second, I will touch on three Japanese
reordering transformations which make crucial use of variables: NP Shift,
Topicalization, and Cleft-Sentence. Their behavior with regard to Ross's
constraints will be investigated. Third, I would like to analyze the Japanese
rule of Reflexivization.
[194] Awoyale, Yiwola 1974
Gerundive structures in Yoriibd and the notion of "target structures"
The hypothesis of target structures is that each language has a relatively
small set of "target structures" — a set of constraints which apply at some
relatively superficial level, as a sort of filter on derivations. The correctness of
such a hypothesis may explain why in natural language diverse underlying
structures are mapped onto the same or similar superficial structures.
Whether such structures are similar in all languages, or each language has its
own unique set, is not quite clear at the moment until comparative studies are
conducted. It is a fact that the underlying structures may be the reason why
we have so few superficial word order patterns in natural languages. The
possibilities are so few that one would expect diverse structures to converge on
the surface. Yet the convergence is not random; it has to be systematic,
otherwise there would be no possible explanation for such a phenomenon.
This further implies that the rules that create such structures would be
expected to share some properties too. And finally, the correctness of the
notion of target structures should throw some light on the phenomena of
opacity and transparency in grammar.
These structures are the type which assume the same configuration at the
surface but which derive from very different logical or semantic structures.
There are at least four ways to deal with this phenomenon. Each of the
240 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
prevailing approaches will be looked at here in relation to the Yoruba data
after the data itself has been presented.
[195] Baker, C. LeRoy 1965
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
Definiteness and indefiniteness in English
My purpose in this paper is to give a formal characterization of the
notions of definiteness and indefiniteness which are found in virtually all
traditional English grammars. My aim is to develop a system of rules which
will predict the correct English articles on some other basis than simply that
of freely choosing between, say, and and the. Many transformational
grammars have dealt with articles by means of rules such as
1) DET -> (a, an, the) o r 2) DET ^ [+def].
These grammars are then forced to include a set of context-restricted rules in
their phrase structure which prevent occurrences of definite noun phrases in
sentences where only indefinites can occur, and vice versa. The viewpoint I
have adopted as a working hypothesis is precisely the reverse, namely, that
articles in English are highly predictable on the basis of other, more
fundamental, grammatical relations expressed in the phrase structure, and
hence need not be specified independently in the phrase structure at all.
As a result of this kind of work, I have arrived at a rough analysis for
English in which nouns need not be distinguished as between definite and
indefinite in the phrase structure rules. The following is a brief summary of
the generalizations which 1 will eventually draw in the course of this paper.
I. All indefinite noun phrases arise from underlying existential
sentences.
II. There is a large and well-defined set of occurrences of definite
article plus noun in which the definite article can be analyzed
as the overt marker for the presence, in the same or in a
previous tree, of an existential containing the same noun.
III. The difference between those indefinites which are given a
specific interpretation and those which are given a non-
specific interpretation is explained by a mechanism associated
with certain embedding rules which delete previously existing
reference markers.
[196] Barker, Milton E. 1969
Muong Clause Structure
The purpose of this paper is to describe the internal structure of clauses
in Muong. Muong is a language spoken by a minority group of approximately
400,000 people in North Vietnam, mainly in Hoa Binh province. The analysis
presented in this paper is based on the author's knowledge of the Muong
language gained while residing in the Muong refugee village of Hoa Binh,
near Baumethuot, South Vietnam, from 1961-1963 and 1966-1969. Examples
given are drawn from recorded text material.
Master's theses 241
[197] Boyle, Mary Et 1988
Advisor: Michael Kenstowicz
Applying machine learning algorithms to phonology
Consider the problem of discovering a rule characterizing a given
sequence of events (objects) and being able to predict a plausible continuation
of the sequence. This prediction is nondcterministic because the rule doesn't
necessarily tell exactly which events must appear next in the sequence but
rather determines a set of plausible next events. It is assumed that the
individual events in the sequence are characterized by a set of attributes and
that the next event depends solely on the values of the attributes for the
previous events in the sequence. The attributes are either initially given or
derived from the initial ones through a chain of inferences.
This paper describes briefly an inductive incremental learning program
AQ 15 that learns attributional descriptions from examples, and the
representation models used to describe syllable structures and the results of
applying AQ 15 in this domain.
The evaluation will be done from the viewpoint of classification accuracy
of the induced rules on new forms and complexity of the rules. Examples will
be taken from the major phonemic groups with known syllabification. The
induced rules will be tested for accuracy against the known data.
The data is represented utilizing the encoded concepts of the sonority
hierarchy and syllable structure (onset, nucleus, and coda). The program
would then be able to induce the appropriate syllable parsing rules given a
handful of examples.
[198] Carlsen, Joanne 1970
Notes on adverbials in Greek and English
The complex and subtle nature of adverbials has long presented problems
to any linguist attempting to deal with them. In his thesis (1969) Mike Geis
proposed that most adverbial clauses fall into the larger and better defined
categories of relative clauses and complement clauses. The merit of such a
proposal rests not only on the validity of the arguments which support it, but
also on the usefulness of the ideas which motivate it. In this case, the
motivation is to place adverbials into a category which we know something
about and which, therefore, gives us some sort of basis for judging the various
and odd ways adverbials act.
I am not interested here in whether Geis' proposal and thesis are
successful or not. That I subscribe to his general approach will be obvious
from my own. What I intend to do in this paper is to explore in Greek and
English the reactions of two classes of verbs which I have isolated because of
their distinct reaction to certain features of adverbial clauses. In so doing, 1
also will explore the nature of why and /7ecaM.re-clauses. Lastly, I shall explore
Greek there-where clauses. This is not a paper on Greek adverbials, or on
English adverbials, but rather a paper on whatever I can find out about
adverbials in the fields I explore. I expected Greek to extend or verify, where it
differed from English, our description of the behavior of adverbial facts — and
this is in fact what happened. In the case of there-where clauses, however,
which occur frequently in Greek, but only rarely in English, I concentrate on
describing the Greek data.
242 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
[199] Chen, Ching Hsiang 1969
Advisor: Michael Geis
Something to add to Chinese conditions box
This paper is written in response to Ross's dissertation in which he
proposes that there should be constraints on syntactic rules which make
crucial use of variables. These constraints could either be language universal
or language particular. He further suggests that the present theory of
grammar should be so revised as to incorporate a condition box for each
language so that a generalization could be made about the language-particular
conditions on the rules of the language.
The necessity of using variables in syntactic rules and the necessity of
restrictions on the variables so that the rules will drive correct results are
well-stated in Ross's work. What I want to add is that the kind of language-
particular constraints somehow classifies the type of language as a "rigid-
word-ordering" language as in the case of Chinese.
I limit the scope of this paper to those rules which involve reordering
transformation and feature-changing rules. The paper is organized in the
following way. In section II, I will discuss some reordering rules, which lead to
the conclusion that certain constraints on them are necessary to be included
in the Chinese condition box. In section III, 1 will disuss some feature-
changing rules and try to state the constraints which seem to be operating on
them. In this section Pronominalization will be discussed in greater length
and the condition on "backward" Pronominalization will also be explored.
Section IV is a brief conclusion.
[200] Colberg, Thomas 1975
Movement rules and negation
In many proposed derivations, various operations seem to have moved
negatives and/or sentential elements containing negatives out of their
original positions in deep or logical structure. In the first two substantive
sections of this paper, rule ordering provides technically correct explanations
of the pattern of sentence acceptability. In the third, rule ordering is
inadequate. Since the solution in the third case also suffices in the first two, it
is preferred over rule order. The remainder of the paper takes up other cases
involving negatives that show similarities to the first three.
[201] Cuceloglu, Emily Y. 1967
Subject pronouns in direct address: Judeo-Spanish
This study will examine pronominal phenomena in Spanish along two
basic lines. One is the dialect study, since its starting point in empirical data is
a series of Judeo-Spanish texts consisting mainly of folk-tales told by Sefardic
Jews in Istambul to M. L. Wagner and transcribed by the latter in the early
twentieth century. Pronominal usage will be compared with standard Spanish,
specifically with the results found by T. A. Wilson in his M.A. thesis
investigating choice and non-choice of the explicit pronoun in Spanish-
American Spanish as found in three plays and the conversational parts of a
novel. His data differ from ours in three obvious respects: a) time — mid-
twentieth century, b) nature of materials — written rather than oral, c) dialect
Master's theses 243
— Spanish-American. For this reason we will also consider briefly Spanish
usage of the time of the exile of the Jews from Spain, and we will choose a text
which is informal and colloquial, in so far as such is available from that
period. However we will not attempt an extensive dialect comparison between
the Spanish-American materials and the Judeo-Spanish. We will assume that
the Spanish-American data represent standard Spanish in all relevant aspects.
Secondly, we will try to account for the results where appropriate, with
such rules as would form part of a grammar purporting to properly generate
Spanish. In the process of arguing for these rules we hope to show how and
why previous analyses are adequate or inadequate.
[202] Donaldson, Susan Kay 1971
Movement in restrictive relative clauses in Hindi
The particular research with which this paper is concerned has to do
with the matter of what roles rules of movement may play in determining the
surface shape of restrictive relative clauses in Hindi. While much remains
inconclusive about generalizations to be gained from this study, I think we
can say that word order in Hindi is more restricted than in a thoroughly
inflective language, but at the same time more free than in a language which
determines syntactic relationships solely from word order. This greater
freedom is exercised by the speaker in his choice of position with the S for the
relative clause, and in his choice within the clause for the relative pronoun. It
appears that the grammar contains the necessary mechanism for moving the
clause containing the presupposition to either sentence-initial or post-main
clause position from wherever it arises, and that this movement can be
vacuous in case the underlying order is that of the surface manifestation.
[203] English, James B. 1971
French: How to predict the stress
The purpose of this paper is to show that French can adequately be
described by positing only seven vowels instead of fourteen (seven tense and
seven lax). I will discuss vowel alternation and then propose another
interpretation of French stress without attempting to analyze the former
problem. The paper concludes that stress is always ultimate in French due to
the existence of a stress rule much like that of Spanish (Harris 1969) and the
rule PSVD, which deletes all vowels after the stress.
[204] Foster, James Frederick 1967
Advisor: Henry R. Kahane
Over Konyunctiveyt in AR talk: About subjunctiveness in Germanized Ozark
English
The purposes of this paper are threefold: a) to present data about the uses
of the so-called konyunktiv verb forms of the Germanized Ozark dialect of
American English, b) to give a reasonable description of this data in the
context of a transformational generative grammar, and c) to point out and
discuss as yet unsolved problems in accounting for the data in a descriptively
and/or explanatorily adequate way. I have used myself as an informant where
possible, as I speak this dialect quasi-natively. With my honored father I have
also consulted as this is his native dialect. My final authority has been the
Lady Peter Scharmer, Sr., of near Scranton, Arkansas, who was born and
244 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
reared in the district and who has never been out of it for more than a few
days at a time — unlike my father and me — both of whom have travelled
considerably in other areas.
[205] Gilpin, Mariellen O. 1965
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
A partial grammar of English superlatives
There are two primary goals of an optimal grammar of superlatives in
English: to account for the phenomena of superlativization in a maximally
simple, productive set of ordered rules, and to relate those rules to more
general phenomena in the grammar. Specifically, if we can find a
grammatical basis for the native speaker's intuition that the comparative and
superlative are related in some way, justifying in some sense the traditional
paradigm tall, taller, tallest/ beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful, the
resulting grammar will be so much the closer to achieving the second goal of
linguistic theory. It is clear upon the most cursory examination, however, that
such a relationship is not a simple or obvious one. This paper will attempt to
show that deep similarities do exist, and to point out where they may be found.
[206] Hammerschlag, Doris 1967
On the notions subject, predicate, and universals
It seems that some linguists may be overlooking the need for
observational and descriptive adequacy in their grammars. A quick look at the
past studies of Malayo-Polynesian languages shows that there is a tendency
either to try to make the languages look exactly like English or to neglect the
possibility that they might have anything at all in common with English. We
cannot attack languages with the view that they are identical or that they are
completely different.
The similarities we do find by working on the languages individually will
be more substantial for the support of universals than those found by basing
analyses on English. And, of course, we wish to describe the differences
between languages as well as the similarities among them. Basing new
grammatical descriptions on English is just as sinful as basing description of
English on those of Greek and Latin.
[207] Hutchinson, Arno M. Jr. 1966
Classical Greek phonology: Vowel contractions
The purpose of this paper is to lay a foundation for the diachronic study
of Ancient Greek phonology from a transformational generative grammar
approach. It was felt that before we should launch into the broader area of
diachronics we ought first to get a fair idea of the phonological system of one
dialect in one period. For this purpose we chose what is, perhaps, the best
studied dialect. Classical Attic.
It may be in place at this point also that we should explain why we have
chosen to approach Ancient Greek phonology through transformational
grammar. It might be concluded by some that such a well studied language as
Ancient Greek could serve as little more than a practice board for scholars in
transformational grammar. In actual fact I believe that this relatively new
Master's theses 245
approach can contribute a great deal to our better understanding of language
in general.
[208] Ito, Katsutoshi 1968
Advisor: Henry R. Kahane
The nature of wa and its relation to Japanese negation
The postposition wa has long been supposed to be simply a topicalizer of a
sentence. The purpose of this paper is to show that wa has a function of
bringing "contrast" into a sentence and that the contrastive function of w a
can most adequately be described by assuming a "shadow sentence" in the
underlying structure. We will argue that the introduction of a shadow
sentence in the underlying structure will provide adequate description of
such postpositions as ma 'also' and dake 'only' and the occurrence of wa in
negative sentences.
[209] James, Dorothy J. 1966
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
A phonological cycle in Siane
The purpose of this paper is to show the value of ordered rules and the
need for a cyclical application of a subset of those rules in the phonological
component of a transformational-generative grammar of Siane, a language of
the New Guinea Highlands. Motivation for each rule and its specific ordering
is given in sections two and four, and motivations for a phonological cycle is
shown in section three. In the appendix the ordered rules are listed together
followed by the full derivation of every example not fully derived in the body
of the paper.
[210] Janjigian, Sona 1972
The PIE consonant shift in Armenian dialects
The consonant shift from Proto-Indo-European in Classical Armenian is
similar to the consonant shift that independently took place from PIE in
Germanic. As in the Germanic languages, secondary and tertiary shifts took
place in the various dialects of Armenian. Some scholars including Gharibian
and his followers postulated that some of the Modern Armenian dialects
evolved through sister dialects of Classical Armenian rather than directly
from it. In doing so, they rejected the consonant shift phenomenon.
In earlier versions of this paper I tended to agree with Gharibian's view.
However, I have come to realize that Classical Armenian is the older dialect
that underwent the first consonant shift. Because of the absence of earlier
written documents in Armenian it is impossible to follow the various stages of
the development of Armenian consonantism extending from the PIE period to
the first translation of the Bible in the fifth-century AD. Gharibian's view can
best be refuted by considering the historical background of Armenia and the
nature of the internal and the external influences to which the speakers of
Armenian became exposed. Following this a brief discussion of the
consonantal outcome in Classical Armenian will be given and then the
problem will be discussed in more detail.
246 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
[211]Jessen, Marilyn 1969
Advisor: Frederic K. Lehman
The comparative construction in Shan
Shan or Thai Yai is a language (or group of dialects) spoken in the Shan
States of Burma and Yunnan, with some speakers in the Mae Hong Son area of
northwest Thailand. It is usually grouped together with Thai and Laotian into
the Kadai or (Kam-Thai) family. The number of speakers of Shan is estimated
to be around 1,350,000.
This paper is an attempt to give a grammatical characterization of the
comparative construction(s) in Shan within the framework of a
transformational-generative grammar. Much of what is to be presented here
will be of a purely observational nature, either because any deeper a
treatment of it would be well beyond the scope of this paper or because the
writer knows just too little about it to say anything of interest or significance.
However, it can only be hoped that the many problems hinted at or left
unsolved in the course of what follows will provide starting points and
motivations for others beginning work on the Shan language.
[212] Jolly, Richard John 1968
Advisor: Henry R. Kahane
The Plautine noun phrase
Most previous studies of Latin word order have taken the view that,
although Latin word order is "freer" than most languages, certain patterns or
regularities can be noticed which would allow one to formulate what I would
call nothing more than "rules of thumb." Since Latin grammars have
neglected to discuss word order in anything other than generalities, this is the
one area in which the grammars can be supplemented and it is also the topic to
which I direct this paper.
1 have chosen the comedies of Plautus as the basis of my study. With
Plautus we can establish structural description of a spoken Latin ideolect at a
fixed period of time. The general scope of this paper will be to present the
predominant patterns observed in the noun phrase and to indicate various
problems involved in the structural description.
[213] Kajiwara, Hideo 1985
Advisor: Seiichi Makino
A study of stative expressions
There are two ways to describe an object. One can speak of an object
actively, as in "A dog is running toward us", or statively, as in "That dog is
ferocious." In this thesis I compare active and stative expressions in English
and Japanese. In particular, I offer examples to show that determining
whether a phrase is active or stative depends on context. I will focus on the
stative verbals used in English and in Japanese, and the relationship between
ASPECT and STATE.
This thesis consists of five chapters including a conclusion. In chapter
one I discuss the claims of six linguists, namely Lakoff, Kuno, Alfonso, Martin,
Teramura and King. This leads to twenty-three questions for discussion. I
divide these questions into five categories, and in chapter two I discuss the
first three of these. In chapter three 1 address three questions concerning
Master's theses 247
stative and nonstative verbals. This requires making some additional
definitions. In chapter four I analyze the remaining question concerning the
relationship between stative transitive verbs and the Japanese nominative
case-marker GA. I tie these results together in the concluding chapter.
[214] Kim, Sun Boo 1982
Advisor: Howard Maclay
Acquisition of English as a Second Language for Korean children in
declarative and interrogative sentences
This research will investigate the second language acquisition processes
of two Korean children in their performance of declarative and interrogative
utterances in English. In declarative utterances, the acquisition order of
grammatical morphemes will be studied, based on Brown's (1973) framework
that represents the semantic relationships of Fillmore's (1968) case grammar.
In interrogative utterances, inversion of yes/no questions, WH-questions, and
do-support including models are to be investigated.
This research on second language acquisition was based on the
hypothesis that (1) high frequency of input would not play an important role;
(2) semantics would be a significant consideration but not imitation; (3)
development of intelligence or perception would be one of the most important
factors; and (4) ego-centrism or nearness would influence second language
acquisition for pre-school children.
[215] Koul, Omkar N. 1971
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
Coordinating conjunctions in Hindi
In An Introduction to Hindi Syntax Y. Kachru devotes a brief section to
the discussion of conjunctions in Hindi. While making some remarks on the
coordinate conjunction structures in Hindi, she refers to the "general rule"
that the strings conjoined by conjunctions must have 'like' structures.
The nature of deep structure constraints on coordinatedly conjoined
sentences in Hindi has not been studied in any work so far. Both
transformational and deep structural constraints must be formulated to apply
to all conjuncls of a coordinate structure in Hindi. It is equally important to
study different types of coordinately conjoined structures for determining the
deep structure of sentences or parts of sentences which can be conjoined by
the coordinate conjunction morpheme 0 r. Here I Intend to make some
remarks on the different types of coordinated conjoined structures, and to
point out some deep structural and transformational constraints on such
structures which can be conjoined coordinately with 0 r.
[216] Langacker, Ronald W. 1964
Some embeddings and interrogatives of French
The purpose of this paper is to propose a theory accounting for selected
portions of the grammatical structure of French. These include a large but by
no means inclusive body of interrogative expressions, a number of related
generalized transformations projecting the output of the rules comprising this
theory into an infinite set, and a fairly elaborated though admittedly rough
constituent structure component describing a finite set of strings together
248 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
with their structural descriptions, constituting the domain over which the
transformational rules are defined.
As with any theory, its claims are only tentative and approximate. There
are no complete descriptions, and there is always some artificiality and
oversimplification involved in dissecting out some part of the body of data in
order to describe fully that part. Therefore the rules presented here do not
constitute a closed system. They are obviously inadequate in many respects,
and an attempt has been made to point out some of these inadequacies as well
as to indicate possible ways of extending this theory to account for a fuller
body of data. The noun expansion rules, for example, clearly will not survive
deeper analysis as they stand, although it is hoped that they will have
contributed something towards a satisfactory treatment. The scheme of verb
classification is proposed more seriously. Although naturally incomplete, the
main outlines of it are probably valid.
[217] Leich, Harold M. 1971
Patterns of verbal accentuation in Slovene
The aim of this paper is to investigate the basic pattern and broad outlines
of the accentual system of the standard Slovene conjugation, particularly in
light of the hypothesis of M. Halle, who has claimed (1971) that accentual
phenomena on the surface level of Slavic languages are the result of two
distinct components or levels in the grammar — the morphology and the
phonology. More specifically, Halle claims that information associated with
individual lexical elements determines where stress will be marked in the
underlying phonological representations of words; the phonological rules, in
turn, determine the pitch or stress contour of the phonetic representation of
the word, on the basis of the morphological marking or stress-assignment.
Halle, in his paper, discusses largely accentual alternations of the nominal
paradigms of the Slavic dialects; he also deals primarily with the phonological
rules involved in producing these phenomena, largely leaving aside the
question of the morphological rules which determine the input to the
phonological component proper, and the problem of how the lexicon is to be
marked by features which determine the original accenting of underlying
representations. The purpose of this paper is, in part, to discover whether
Halle's theory, and the rules he proposes, can account for the accentual
patterns found in the Slovene verbal system, and also to see what
morphological rules, of the type Halle mentions, must be posited in the
grammar of Slovene to explain the certain accent-classes found in verbal
conjugation.
L218] Leskosky, Richard J. 1973
Intensive reflexes
While reflexive pronouns have been analyzed and found to have
important implications for transformational grammar study, the closely
related phenomenon of the intensive reflexive has been ignored, perhaps on
the assumption that in itself it is uninteresting or that it at least has nothing to
contribute beyond the insights garnered from the study of the other reflexive
pronouns. This paper will examine some of the facts of intensive reflexives,
relate these to other facets of the grammar, and raise some other questions
without providing any answers to them.
Master's theses 249
[219] Li, Angela W. 1970
Advisor: Michael Geis
On some Chinese syntactic rules
This paper is divided into two sections: Section I is to show whether the
Chinese Topicalization Rule is subject to the constraints which Ross proposes
in his dissertation. Section II is to present some data in order to get a clearer
idea about the Chinese Relative Clause Formation by applying the Constraints.
The four constraints are: the Complex NP Constraint, the Coordinate Structure
Constraint, the Sentential Subject Constraint and the Left Branch Condition.
Ross claims that the first two of these are universal. He made a further survey
to find out the differences between the rules which are subject to the
Constraints and the rules which are not subject to the Constraints.
In this paper I will test two Chinese rules to see if the Constraints operate
in Chinese and to see whether or not we have to add some other constraints to
the language-particular grammar. I have chosen two Chinese rules. They are:
A. Topicalization Rule, B. Relative Formation Rule. The reasons I have chosen
these two rules are because 1) topicalization is a chopping rule, 2) the Chinese
Relative Formation Rule is still a mystery. If the Constraints also apply to it, it
is very strong evidence to support that it involves movement; otherwise it does
not.
[220] Malstrom, Jean Marie 1974
The oral narrative ability of children in grades one, four, and seven
This is a study of the development of elementary school children's ability
in oral narration at three-year intervals. My purpose in this study is to
examine stories told by children on three grade levels, with a view to
improving their training in this area. Teachers of language arts often find the
teaching of composition, oral or written, the most difficult part of their
program. It calls for creativity, which is the result of hard work. I believe that
if we know what grasp of the structures of language and of narrative
discourse a child has acquired at various levels of schooling, we can help him
to make the best use of the former to improve his performance in the latter.
And so, I undertook this project to see how I might work with others to achieve
such a goal.
[221]McCloy, William B. 1971
Advisor: Chin-Wu Kim
Some unsolved problems in Korean phonology
The purposes of this paper are: 1) to describe the synchronic phonology
of Korean in such a way as to be optimally efficient both in descriptive and
explanatory adequacy — aiming to illustrate the basic symmetry of the
phonological system and the inter-relatedness of phonological rules; 2) to
describe the historical sound changes that have led to present forms; 3) to
relate Korean to its ancestral (and "sister") language; and 4) to evaluate and
describe all the above in terms relevant to our understanding of universals in
language. The task of the generative-transformational linguist extends beyond
the already difficult tasks to which taxonomic linguists have always devoted
themselves — observation and description: what happens in language and how.
Now linguists are beginning to try to find out why things happen in language
(the realm of interpretation) as witnessed particularly by recent concern to
250 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
describe "function" and "motivation" in linguistic patterning and change. I
personally feel strongly that it is important to keep on looking for the what,
how, and why even when simple answers are far from immediately apparent.
For this reason I present in this paper not mainly solutions but problems. I
feel that even though satisfactory answers have not been found for these
phonological enigmas in Korean, a look at some possible or partial solutions
can be beneficial — perhaps even illuminating to others who will continue the
search for solutions.
[222] Meshon, Steven Philip 1966
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
A linguistic study of sound and meaning in poetry
My central thesis is that if literary analysts, critics, critical readers,
readers for simply enjoyment, etc., can make a statement about "musicality" of
verse, i.e., "the hissing of the striking snake," "rapid flowing rhythms and
sounds," "the babbling of the brook," "a general feeling of soft whispering
sounds," etc., the sound-meaning connections can, much of the time, be taken
as evidence of a very real linguistic phenomenon which is little understood,
and upon which much elaboration is needed. I would like to provide several
descriptive techniques by which one can, in part, account for sonority of
English verse. My study will not necessarily lead to a rigid proceduralist
approach toward sound in poetry, but hopefully will offer insights in the
understanding of sonority and sound analysis. I believe that such a view
toward poetic analysis, appreciation, and perhaps criticism will help lift the
awesome, mysterious authority from one of a poet's chief tools — sound.
My paper is divided into three parts. The first is a collection of
misconceived or only partly appropriate statements that literary specialists
have claimed in reference to sound and sound effects. The second chapter
deals with phonemic selectivity and phonemic distribution, as seen by Yeats's
"Leda," and how this sonnet deviates from the prosaic norm. Chapter three
presents a sketch of how syllabification can effectively be used by the poet to
set up patterns of sonority.
L223] Minow, Martin 1966
Random generation of sentences from context free and context sensitive
phrase structure grammars
This paper describes a set of computer programs which generate
sentences from context-free (CF) and context-sensitive (CS) phrase-structure
grammars. The paper is divided into three main sections: introductory
comments on the linguistic assumptions reflected in the CS programs,
descriptions of the overall structure of the programs and their use, and a
series of appendices giving more detailed information. Future publication of
flow diagrams, program listings, and sample output is planned.
The discussion which follows deals only with the CS and transformation
programs. The CF program will be dealt with separately as it is completely
independent of the CS programs and models a different type of grammar.
Master's theses 251
[224] Nakano, Keiko 1971
Advisor: Seiichi Makino
Notes on transitivity and subcategorization of verb-verb compounds in
Japanese
In this paper, first I would like to show how the transitivity-
intransitivity of verb-verb compounds in Japanese should be treated. Then,
following Newmeyer, how these verb-verb compounds can be subcategorized
in Japanese.
One of the big differences between English and Japanese is that some
action takes two separate verbs in English but one compounded form in
Japanese. Since the surface forms are distinctive in transitivity, we are
interested in the transitivity when two verbs are compounded. Japanese
sentences which have verb-verb compounds will be tested in this paper.
[225] Neeld, Ronald 1971
Pronouns and constraints on coreference
The occurrence of pronouns and the determination of what antecedents
they refer to is one of the most difficult questions in linguistics. Vast amounts
of pulp and pen-ink have been spent on discussion of the phenomena, yet no
firm conclusions have been reached. In addition to the intricacy of the
relation of anaphora to other grammatical phenomena, there is enormous
difficulty in making judgments of relative grammaticality, as well as
substantial cross-dialect variation. All statements made at this time must
therefore be highly tentative. In this paper I wish to take one approach to the
representation of anaphora in a grammar and explore some of the
consequences. It should be recognized that the approach here is no more
firmly supported than any other discussion of the topic, and probably a good
deal less so than many.
[226] Paik, Keumja 1973
Advisor: Chin-Wu Kim
Tonal characteristics of Kyongsang dialect of Korean
The Kyongsang dialect in the Southeastern province of Korea has been
regarded as a tone language by many Korean linguists. Although some argue
whether the Kyongsang dialect is a 'registered tone language with contour
overlap' or 'registered tone language without contour overlap', most Korean
linguists presupposed that the Kyongsang dialect is a tone language since the
dialect meets the traditional definition of a tone language as it has 'lexically
contrastive pitch'.
Will the Kyongsang dialect still be a tone language in the light of a new
concept of a tone language by McCawley? In this paper I will give some
supporting evidence that indicate that the Kyongsang dialect is more a 'pitch-
accent' language than a 'true tone' language.
[227] Peng, Wei-San Lily 1972
Explanation of the tonal change from Middle Chinese to the modern dialects
Several recent papers have discussed the tonal changes in the evolution
of Middle Chinese (MC) into Modem Chinese dialects. Cheng and Wang (1971a)
252 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1 992)
discussing the Chao-zhou dialect and Cheung (1971) the Chang-sha dialect,
dealt with the internal causes of these phonological changes. In this paper I
will, in the same way, discuss the internal causes for the change of Middle
Chinese tone III with unvoiced aspirated initials into tone II in the modern
Nan-chang dialect.
[228] Pratt, Mary 1971
Advisor: Herbert Stahlke
Tone in some Kikuyu verb forms
This paper deals first and mainly with some processes of tone assimilation
governing the tonal configuration of affirmative verb forms in Kikuyu. The
first part of the paper deals with tonal assimilations triggered by high and low
tone verb stems, pronouns, prefixes and suffixes respectively. With the
support of evidence from verb-noun constructions, it is suggested that the
assimilation processes in question are most naturally viewed as cyclic and that
a linear approach leads eventually to false claims about the nature of the
assimilations. Subsequently it is shown that the assimilation rules fall into two
classes according to their behaviour in forms where vowel coalescence is
operative. More light is shed on this dichotomy by the presentation of a rule of
dissimilation operative under rather special circumstances. Various means of
expressing the dichotomy are discussed and all found wanting.
The data for this paper has been taken from L. E. Armstrong's Phonetic
and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu and from the Kikuyu-English Dictionary edited
by T. G. Benson, the latter serving mainly as a source for verifying the former.
All the examples given here are attested in Armstrong or Benson. In a few
cases, mostly involving the tone of initial pronouns, the isolation examples
cited by Armstrong differ unpredictably from the identical forms quoted later
in the book in verb-noun constructions. When in doubt, 1 have adopted the
forms given in the verb-noun examples.
[229] Satyanarayana, Pulavrthi 1969
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
On the syntax of Hand in Hindi
This paper deals with the syntactic analysis of the verb hond in Hindi,
which is translated as 'to be', 'to become', 'to have', etc. in English. The main
body of the text has been divided into four sections. The first section is a brief
survey of previous work done on hond, along with some comments about
deficiencies. The second section attempts to give motivations for establishing
different hond's. The third section, following the current transformational-
generative grammatical model, formulates deep structures underlying the
several surface hond's established in the second section. The fourth section
comprises some concluding remarks.
[230] Shih, Celia Mou-Pin 1972
Question words in Chinese
This paper discusses two important points concerning the transformation
theory on interrogations. One is that the so-called 'question formation rule' is
the process of transforming the questioned elements from the underlying
level to an intermediate stage which is the replacement of lexicon entries
without involving the movement of those questioned elements. The 'question
Master's theses 253
formation rule', apart from the 'question movement rule' is an obligatory
transformational process in all languages. With this analysis, we can account
for the derivational history of interrogations in a more general way.
Another point is that the question formation rule can actually apply in
sentences to almost anything, as far as the different grammatical categories
are concerned. The questioned elements on the underlying level will be
represented by a dummy element with a list of features from which all the
WH-words in the language can be derived. The analysis here of using a dummy
element as the questioned strings in the underlying structure of interrogation
has a more general insight into some linguistic facts on language structure
than the theory of WH-marker many linguists have proposed. It provides more
consideration on the aspects from phonological, semantic, and syntactic
viewpoints.
[231]Shih, Katherine I-Ping 1972
Advisor: Chin-Chuan Cheng
Phonetic nature of even-tone split in Chinese
Tone plays a very significant role in Chinese. In this paper, I will
concentrate my attention on one phenomenon in tone change, which is called
tone split. There are four tones in Mandarin Chinese: Tone I, Tone II, Tone III,
and Tone IV, which are also called Ying Ping (Yin Even), Yang Ping (Yang
Even), Shang (Rising) and Qu (Going), respectively. Certainly this is not the
only tone system in Modern Chinese dialects, nor in that of the ancient
Chinese. However, in comparison with MC tone categories — which are Ping
(Even), Shang (Rising), Qu (Going) and Ru (Entering) — we find that the Even
tone in Middle Chinese is split into two tones: Yin Even and Yang Even in
Mandarin. This paper is focused on the tone split in Even tone. I shall discuss
the correspondences between Middle Chinese and Mandarin Chinese and try to
give some credible explanations.
[232] Shimizu, Katsumasa 1969
Some classes of noun modifiers in Japanese
The aim of the present study is to examine the syntactic structure of noun
modifiers in Japanese in terms of generative grammar, the basic theory of
which was systematically and successfully developed by N. Chomsky, and to
attempt to formulate the rules to generate them.
In the past ten years, study of the theory of a language has developed
remarkably and many attempts have been made to apply the theory of
generative grammar to languages other than English. The application to
Japanese is by no means new. In the present study, however, we would like to
consider the generation of noun modifiers in terms of the assumption that
they are mainly generated by the process called relativization.
[233] Skousen, Royal 1971
Topics in Finnish phonology
In closed syllables most consonant clusters ending in a stop will be
altered. Any liquid or nasal before a double consonant will not affect gradation
of the geminate consonant cluster. In addition, gradation cannot apply to an
initial consonant cluster. In general terms, it appears that liquids and glides do
254 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
not affect gradation: p^v, t->d, and k->0. We could write three separate rules
for this gradation process, one for each stop. If k is preceded by either a liquid
/ or /•, or /i and followed by a front unrounded vowel, then k->j.
The problem is that we need a natural explanation for these and other
rules in Finnish. This paper will consider several natural solutions to
problems in Finnish phonology.
L234] Su, Maria Shu-Hsiang 1971
Chinese classifiers
A long time ago people had noticed the difference between classifiers and
nouns; however, classifiers were usually put into the category of nouns. Li
Jing Syi called them "measures" because they denote the quality of nouns.
Now, "measures" are widely adopted by grammarians. Some grammarians
called them "adnouns" or "auxiliary nouns." Whatever they called them, one
thing they wanted to make clear was that they are not nouns but they are used
with nouns. We call them "classifiers" in this paper because we emphasize the
fact that they separate nouns into different categories according to their
semantic regularities. Also, we are not concerned with so-called "measures for
verbs" since they are quite different from those of nouns. Furthermore, we
put emphasis on what Chao called "Individual measures."
[235] Surintramont, Aporn 1973
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Some aspects of underlying syllable structure in Thai
Word games are interesting to phonologists in general for the reason that
they are a phenomenon of language which may reveal phonological rules
operative in the language and thus may be helpful to phonologists in working
with the language. To others, namely anthropologists, sociologists and
psycholinguists, this kind of verbal play is meaningful for its deviation from
common linguistic usage. This deviation sometimes expresses the
characteristics of the society and its culture: it is a particular manner in
which society, due to conventional regulations or cultural taboos, chooses to
express its experience.
In this paper, we wish to investigate some phonological aspects of Thai
through this word game. We hope that the evidence from the game will help us
to gain a clearer understanding of the nature of the underlying structure of
Thai syllables going beyond what has been proposed in the literature. Our
tentative proposals concerning the phonological constraints on syllable
structure will involve aspects of tone in Thai. Additionally, we will try to
postulate some phonological rules to account for the neutralization of tone as
noted by Haas (1956).
We are unable to determine independently on phonological grounds
which of the words or syllables in the sentence string will be exchanged in
the word game. Semantics surely plays a crucial role in Thai puns as well as in
English. But what we will try to show is how this exchange is done. Our study is
based on data collected from a group of Thai students at the University of
Illinois.
Master's theses 255
[236] Tsitsopoulos, Stamatis 1966
Aspects of Modern Greek phonology
According to the generative theory of language, the phonological
component of a grammar consists of ta set of partially ordered rules that
related surface structures (i.e. the final outputs of the syntactic component) to
phonetic interpretation. These rules are divided into redundancy,
transformational and phonetic, applied in this order. The first group fills in
for each segment the features that were left unspecified in the lexicon by
virtue of their non-phonemic character. The third group transforms binary
features into multi-valued ones, thus yielding a phonetic transcription.
In this paper we will be mainly concerned with rules of the second type.
More specifically, we will discuss a set of cyclical rules whose application
entails the following procedure:
Rules apply first, in their marked order, within the innermost
pair of labeled brackets. When the end of the cyclical rules is
reached, (i.e. at the end of a cycle), the aforementioned brackets
are erased and the same set of rules applies over again within the
presently innermost pair. Where no more brackets are left in the
utterance, we pass to the post-cyclical rules.
[237] Walsh, Robert Emmet 1971
The Intrusive Velar in the Romance present tense
The appearance in certain Spanish verbs of an unexpected -g- in the first
person singular present indicative and throughout the present subjunctive
poses a vexing problem for the historical investigator. The occurrences of this
intrusive velar element can be grouped into three categories — those of the
types tengo, salgo, and caigo.
In this paper we observe the very similar development of tened, valed,
cadeo, etc. in other Romance languages. After a cursory examination of the
Spanish dialects, we describe the situation in Castilian. Each of the major
problem areas will be examined, with pertinent data from the various
Romance languages playing an important role.
[238] Wentz, James P. 1972
Advisor: Herbert Stahlke
Kanuri verb morphology
Kanuri is an East-Saharan language spoken by the Kanuri of Bornu
Province just west of Lake Chad in northeast Africa. Most of the nearly two
million speakers of this language live in Yerwa and Dikwa and the country
surrounding these cities. Since most of the data under analysis have been
taken from Lukas' grammar, our discussion will center around the Yerwa
dialect which he studied. Although much would be gained no doubt from an in-
depth crosslinguistic study comparing the various dialects of Kanuri, our
primary concern in this paper is for the synchronic phonology of Kanuri
alone. In particular, we will limit discussion mainly to the verbal morphology
and the rules needed to generate the various verb forms in Kanuri.
256 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1 992)
[239] Wilson, Dan A. 1965
Advisor: Robert B. Lees
Disjunctive conjunction in English: An outline
This paper consists of a basic study of the syntax of conjunction with BUT,
and a brief examination of the semantic necessities involved. The problem of
conjunction appears, at first glance, to be quite simple syntactically, and quite
complex semantically. Although I believed this to be the case when I began
developing this paper, the gradual evolution of the content considerably
altered my opinion. I feel that when all of the syntactic complexity of
conjunction is resolved, the semantics will be extremely simple.
The discussion of some "counterexamples" to this thesis will serve both to
introduce its content and to illustrate the "semantic" difficulties involved in
conjunction in general, though conjunction with BUT is the only kind about
which this paper makes claims of reasonable accuracy.
[240] Yingphaibul, Duanngarm 1984
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
Contextualized language teaching: English texts for military school in Thailand
This paper is an attempt to use sociolinguistic insight to design
appropriate courses and texts for the military school in Thailand. The research
is based on the Royal Thai Armed Forces Preparatory Academy, which is
considered the gateway to the higher level of other military schools such as:
The Air Force Academy, The Royal Thai Army School, The Naval School, and
The Police Academy.
This research will focus only on the teaching of English in a special area,
namely, English for military purposes. In the case of English for military
purposes, the designed program will permit the Precadets and Cadets to read
textbooks in their specific field of study. Moreover, as officers-to-be, they are
also to be trained to perform their jobs properly in English when needed.
A portion of this study will look at the sociolinguistic background of the
people involved, namely, the Precadets and the English language instructors
in the Royal Thai Armed Forces Preparatory Academy. In addition, teaching
materials used in this institute, including textbooks and supplementary
activities designed for the Precadets will be discussed in detail.
An attempt is also made to answer the following questions:
( 1 ) What will be the appropriate texts for the Precadets?
(2) What will be the appropriate approach for teaching ESP to the
Precadets?
(3) What implication can be found in the Precadets' achievement and
failure in relation to Bernstein's theory of the varieties of language?
(4) What an be done in order to prevent such a failure in learning the
language of the Precadets?
[241] Yoon, Young Ja 1968
Advisor: Theodore Lightner
Phonological rules in Korean
The purpose of this paper is to describe the phonological behavior of
Korean within the framework of generative phonology. Only the obligatory
Master's theses 257
phonological rules of Modem Korean will be discussed; thus, no optional rules
will be introduced. The conclusion includes a list of the phonological rules
which have been discussed in the paper. The dialect used in this study is my
native dialect of Seoul. Neither dialectal nor ideolect differences will be
considered.
[242] Zimnie, John Anthony 1975
A contrastive analysis of sentential noun phrases in English and French
Contrastive analysis has long figured as a pedagogical tool in the foreign
language classroom. Yet the nature of its contribution remains a subject of
controversy. On the one hand its value is seen to lie entirely in its explanatory
power: problems areas identified through error analysis and shrewd classroom
observation are traced to their source via an investigation of the contrasts that
exist between the target and native languages. A more powerful claim is that
contrastive studies are themselves capable of predicting which errors will
occur through a careful comparison of the structure and rules of the two
languages. This claim has been criticized for numerous reasons: e.g., areas of
greatest contrast are not necessarily those of greatest difficulty to the learner;
and vice versa, while it may be claimed that similarities between LI and L2 will
facilitate learning, experience shows that when the two languages share a
great many features, interference is frequently maximized and confusion on
the learner's part increased.
This paper deals with the current controversy. I assume that a great
number of errors made by American students of French are absolutely
unavoidable. These include mistakes regarding the grammatical gender of
French nouns, agreement between noun and adjective, the proper shape of
verb stems and endings, and to a certain extent correct word order, e.g., ADJ +
N in English versus both ADJ + N and N + ADJ in French. These errors are the
result of imperfect memorization of a vast amount of information idiosyncratic
to French. There are errors, however, which from the generative standpoint
are the result of differing transformational histories of roughly equivalent
sentences in the native and target languages. It is with the prediction of this
kind of error that I am concerned. To that end a discussion of sentential
subjects and complements in French and English is presented. The results of
this comparison will indicate that beyond some initial similarities, the
treatment of sentential elements in the two languages differ markedly.
[243] Ziv, Yael 1973
Relative clause extraposition: Some observations
In this paper I have attempted to investigate some aspects of extraposition
of relative clauses. In the first part I have attempted to show that extraposition
of relative clauses applies only to restrictive relative clauses. I have also tried
to explain why this should be the case. The second part of this paper is devoted
to the analysis of some sentences with extraposed relative clauses. It is claimed
that some such sentences are more acceptable than others, and there are
attempts at discovering the factors which play a crucial role in determining
the acceptability of such sentences. The third and last part of this paper deals
with the relations between restrictive relative clauses that modify generic
NP's and the matrix sentences.
RESEARCH IN PROGRESS UP TO AUGUST 1992
Alho, Irja
Advisor: Erhard Hinrichs
Topic: Partitive case, quantification, and aspect in Finnish
Alidou, Hassana
Advisor: Eyamba G. Bokamba
Topic: Bilingualism and language policy: The impact of French
language policy in Niger
Bhatt, Rakesh
Advisor: James H-S Yoon
Topic: Word order and case in Kashmiri
Bott, Sandra
Advisor: Molly Mack
Topic: Speech intelligibility and bilingualism: The effects on age of
acquisition
Branstine, Zoann
Advisor: Charles Kisseberth
Topic: Spirantization, Underspecification, and Feature Geometry
Bundrick, Camille
Advisor: Georgia Green
Topic: An inference-based account of restrictive relative clauses
Chang, Feng-Ling (Margaret)
Advisor: C. C. Cheng
Topic: Implementations of a Concept/Semantics based lexical database in
CALL lessons
Choe, Sookhee
Advisor: Chin-Wu Kim
Topic: Phonetic representation in Generative Grammar
Darzi, Ali
Advisor: James H-S Yoon
Topic: More Alpha in Persian and the theory of grammar
Dimbamio, Boniface
Advisor: Charles Kisseberth
Topic: Aspects of tone in Chikongo
Diop, Aziz
Advisor: Charles Kisseberth
Topic: Pulaar non-linear phonology: Empirical justification for some
approaches to phonological theory
Hancin-Bhatt, Barbara
Advisor: Gary Dell
Topic: Phonological constraints and computation in second language
sound segment production
Honegger, Mark
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Topic: On the analysis of adjuncts and semantic relations
260 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Hsieh, Kuei-Lan
Advisor: Seiichi Makino
Topic: An analysis of nominal compounds in Sinoo-Japanese
Hsu, Jai-Ling
Advisor: Braj B. Kachru
Topic: Englishization of Taiwan Chinese
Kishe, Anne
Advisor: Eyamba G. Bokamba
Topic: Englishization of Swahili
Kovach, Ed
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Topic: Finite state morphological parsing using register vector
grammars
Kuo, Pinmin
Advisor: C. C. Cheng
Topic: Discourse connectives and discourse structure in Mandarin
Chinese
Lai, Chiu-Yeuh
Advisor: Ladislav Zgusta
Topic: The nature of Chinese writing and entry dialect in Chinese
dictionaries
Leary, Steve
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Topic: On thematic relations and subcategorization
Lee, Jang-Song
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Topic: Semantics of Korean noun phrases in discourse representation
theory
Lee, Kang-Hyuk
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Topic: P-Kimmo: A prolog implementation of the two level model
Lu, Wen-Ying
Advisor: Georgia M. Green
Topic: Sentence-final particles in Modem Mandarin Chinese as attitude
markers
McClanahan, Virginia
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Topic: Interaction of grammar and pragmatics in Korean negation
Mishra, Mithilesh
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Topic: Phonology and morphology of Mailhili
Monareng, William
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Topic: Some aspects of Northern Soto Tonology: Setswapo dialect
Research in progress 261
Murphy, M. Lynne
Advisor: Georgia M. Green
Topic: The organization of antonymy: The semantics and pragmatics of
gradable adjectives
Nash, Jay
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Topic: Aspects of Ruwund grammar
Niang, Mamadou
Advisor: Charles W. Kisseberth
Topic: Syllable weight hierarchy and Pulaar stress patterns: A metrical
approach
Rau, Nalini
Advisor: Georgia M. Green
Topic: Verb agreement in Kannada
Safieh, Ismail
Advisor: Jennifer Cole
Topic: Metrical structure of Arabic verse: A reanalysis of its rythmic
elements
Smith, Allison
Advisor: Yamuna Kachru
Topic: Revision strategies of L1/L2 English-speaking writers using
computer grammar checkers
Takizawa, Naohiro
Advisor: Ladislav Zgusta
Topic: A study of Ars Grammaticae laponicae Linguae (1632) by Diego
Collado and its sources
Tsiang, Sarah
Advisor: Hans H. Hock
Topic: The discourse function of subordinating constructions in
classical Sanskrit narrative texts
Tu, Wen-Chui
Advisor: C. C. Cheng
Topic: A quantitative classification of Tsou, Rukai, and Taiwan Formosan
WiHiams, Tim
Advisor: Georgia M. Green
Topic: An account of control in infinitival complements
Wu, Mary
Advisor: Jerry Morgan
Topic: Determiner-measure compounds, prenominal de-modifiers and
anaphora possibilities in Mandarin Chinese with computer
implementation
AUTHOR INDEX
Abasheikh (1)
Abdo [MA] (192)
Abdo (2)
Abdul-Karim (3)
Abu-Salim (4)
Ahn (5)
Ajolore (6)
Akatsuka [MA] (193)
Alghozo (7)
Awoyale [MA] (194)
Awoyale (8)
Bader (9)
Baker [MA] (195)
Barjasteh (10)
Barkai (11)
Barker [MA] (196)
Bamitz (12)
Bentur (13)
Bems (14)
Bhatia (15)
Biava (16)
Bolozky (17)
Bouton (18)
Boyle [MA] (197)
Burt (19)
Carlsen [MA] (198)
Carreira (20)
Cassimjee (21)
Cerron-Palomino (22)
Cervin (23)
Chang (24)
Chao (25)
Chen, C. H. [MA] (199)
Chen, C. H. (26)
Cheng (27)
Chishimba (28)
Cho, E. (29)
Cho, S. (30)
Choi (31)
Chung (32)
Chutisilp (33)
Colberg [MA] (200)
Cole (34)
Cuceloglu [MA] (201)
Cureton (35)
D'souza (36)
Dabir-Moghaddam (37)
Dalgish (38)
de Souza (39)
De Urbina (40)
Dolezal (41)
Donaldson [MA] (202)
Donaldson (42)
Downing (43)
Drame (44)
Du (45)
Dudas (46)
Dunn (47)
English [MA] (203)
Evans (48)
Farina (49)
Farwell (50)
Foster, James [MA] (204)
Foster, James (51)
Foster, Joseph (52)
Fox (53)
Fukada (54)
Gallagher (55)
Garber (56)
Geis (57)
Gerdemann (58)
Gilpin [MA] (205)
Habick (59)
Hackman (60)
Haddad (61)
Hajati (62)
Hale (63)
Halpern (64)
Hamid (65)
Hammerschlag [MA] (206)
Hendricks (66)
Hatasa (67)
Hermon (68)
Houston (69)
Hutchinson [MA] (207)
Irshied (70)
Ito [MA] (208)
Jake (71)
James [MA] (209)
Janjigian [MA] (210)
Jessen [MA] (211)
Johnson (72)
Jolly [MA] (212)
Ka (73)
Kajiwara [MA] (213)
Kamwangamalu (74)
Kang, S. (75)
Kang, Y. (76)
Kapanga (77)
Kenkel (78)
Kenstowicz (79)
Khalil (80)
Khan (81)
Khoali (82)
264
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Kidda (83)
Kim, H. Y. (84)
Kim, S. B. [MAI (214)
Kisseberth (85)
Kleiman (86)
Koul [MA] (215)
Krause (87)
Langacker [MA] (216)
Langacker (88)
Lederman (89)
Lee, C. L. (90)
Lee, H. G. (91)
Lee, S. O. (92)
Leich [MA] (217)
Leskosky [MA] (218)
Leskosky (93)
Li [MA] (219)
Livnat (94)
Lowenberg (95)
Loy (96)
Lu (97)
Lutz (98)
Magura (99)
Makino (100)
Makiuchi (101)
Malstrom [MA] (220)
Marshad (102)
McCawley (103)
McCloy [MA] (221)
McMurray (104)
Menn (105)
Meshon [MA] (222)
Minow [MA] (223)
Mmusi (106)
Mobaidin (107)
Mochiwa (108)
Moffett (109)
Morrow (110)
Nakano [MA] (224)
Nakazawa (111)
Neeld [MA] (225)
Nelson (112)
Newmeyer (113)
Obeidat (114)
O'Bryan (115)
Odden (116)
Ogura (117)
Okawa (118)
Olsen (119)
Onn (120)
Ourso (121)
Paik [MA] (226)
Pandharipande (122)
Patterson (123)
Pcarce (124)
Peng [MA] (227)
Pingkarawat (125)
Pratt [MA] (228)
Pyle (126)
Radanovic-Kocic (127)
Ransom (128)
Riddle (129)
Rose (130)
Rosenberg (131)
Rugege (132)
Russell (133)
Sacuik (134)
Sadock (135)
Saltarelli (136)
Satyanarayana [MA] (229)
Schaufele (137)
Schmerling (138)
Schwarte (139)
Scorza (140)
Sellner (141)
Sereechareonsatii (142)
Sheintuch (143)
Shell (144)
Shih, C. [MA] (230)
Shih, K. [MA] (231)
Shim (145)
Shimizu [MA] (232)
Silitonga (146)
Skousen [MA] (233)
Skousen (147)
Smith (148)
Soheili-Isfahani (149)
Sohn, Han (150)
Sohn, Hyang-Sook (151)
Sridhar (152)
Steffensen (153)
Stein (154)
Steinbergs (155)
Stock (156)
Stucky (157)
Su [MA] (234)
Subbarao (158)
Sung (159)
Surintramont [MA] (235)
Surintramont (160)
Tegey, H. (161)
Tegey. M. (162)
Teoh (163)
Thayer (164)
Treece (165)
Tsitsopoulos [MA] (236)
Author index 265
Tsitsopoulos (166)
Tsutsui (167)
Valentine (168)
Vanek (169)
Wahab (170)
Wahba (171)
Wallace (172)
Walsh [MA] (237)
Warie (173)
Wentz [MA] (238)
Wentz (174)
Wible (175)
Wilbur (176)
Wilkinson (177)
Willis (178)
Wilson [MA] (239)
Wise (179)
Wong (180)
Wongbiasaj (181)
Xu (182)
Yates (183)
Yen (184)
Yeoh (185)
Yingphaibul [MA] (240)
Yokwe (186)
Yoon, H. S. (187)
Yoon. Y. J. [MA] (241)
Yu (188)
Zamir (189)
Zhou (190)
Zimnie [MA] (242)
Ziv [MA] (243)
Ziv (191)
LANGUAGE INDEX
Af gha n i
Tegey, H. (162)
Amharic
Pyle (126)
Arabic
Abdo (Ph.D. 2 and MA 192)
Abdul-Karim (3)
Abu-Salim (4)
Alghozo (7)
Haddad (61)
Hamid (65)
Houston (69)
Irshied (70)
Khali! (80)
Mobaidin (107)
Obeidat (114)
Wahba (171)
Armenian
Janjigian (MA 210)
Yokwe (186)
Basque
De Urbina (40)
Batak
Rosenberg (131)
Silitonga (146)
Berber
Bader (9)
Cantonese
Sridhar (152)
Wong (180)
Catalan
Saciuk (134)
Chari Languages
Thayer (164)
Cheyenne
Russell (133)
Chiluba
Kamwangamalu
Chimwiini
Abasheikh (1)
Chinese
Chen (Ph.D 26 and MA 199)
Cheng (27)
Chao (25)
Du (45)
Lee. C. L. (90)
Li (MA 219)
Lu (97)
Peng (MA 227)
Shih, C. (MA 230)
Shih, K. (MA 231)
Su (MA 234)
Sung (159)
Wible (175)
Xu (182)
Yen (184)
Yoon, H. S. (187)
Zhou (190)
Chu kchee
Krause (87)
Czech
Vanek (169)
Dakota
Patterson (123)
English
Baker (MA 195)
Barnitz (12)
Berns (14)
Biava (16)
Bouton (18)
Boyle (MA 197)
Chang (24)
Cho, S. (30)
Choi (31)
Coiberg (MA 200)
Cole (34)
268
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Cureton (35)
dc Souza (39)
Dolezal (41)
Donaldson (42)
Farwell (50)
Foster, James (MA 204)
Fukada (54)
Gallagher (55)
Geis (57)
Gilpin (MA 205)
Habick (59)
Halpern (64)
Hendricks (66)
Houston (69)
Johnson (72)
Kang, S. K. (75)
Kenkel (78)
Khalil (80)
Leskosky (Ph.D. 93 and MA
218)
Malstrom (MA 220)
McMurray (104)
Menn (105)
Meshon (MA 222)
Minow (MA 223)
Mobaidin (107)
Morrow (110)
Newmeyer (113)
Obeidat (114)
Olsen (119)
Ransom (128)
Riddle (129)
Rose (130)
Rosenberg (131)
Sadock (135)
Schmerling (138)
Sheintuch (143)
Shell (144)
Sridhar (152)
Steffensen (153)
Stein (154)
Stock (156)
Wible (175)
Wilkinson (177)
Wilson (MA 239)
Wise (179)
Yates (183)
Ziv (Ph.D. 191 and MA 243)
English — International
Varieties
Chishimba (28)
Chutisilp (33)
D'souza (36)
Fox (53)
Kenkel (78)
Lowenbcrg (95)
Magura (99)
Nelson (112)
Valentine (168)
Warie (173)
Yingphaibul (MA 240)
Finnish
Schwarte (139)
Skousen (233)
Sridhar (152)
French
English (MA 203)
Kamwangamalu (74)
Langacker (Ph.D. 88 and MA
216)
Loy (96)
Pearce (124)
Zimnie (MA 242)
German
Sellner (141)
Smith (148)
Greek
Carlsen (MA 198)
Huchinson (MA 207)
Tsitsopoulos (Ph.D. 66 and MA
236)
Hebrew
Barkai (11)
Bentur (13)
Bolozky (17)
Lederman (89)
Sridhar (152)
Hindi
Bhatia (15)
Donaldson (MA 202)
Fox (53)
Hackman (60)
Koul (MA 215)
Lutz (98)
Pandharipande (122)
Satyanarayana (MA 229)
Subbarao (158)
Valentine (168)
Language index
269
Hungarian
Sridhar (152)
Italian
Saltarelli (136)
Japanese
Burt (19)
Fukada (54)
Hatasa (67)
Ito (MA 208)
Kajiwara (MA 213)
Makino (100)
Makiuchi (101)
McCawley (103)
Nakana (MA 224)
Ogura (117)
Okawa (118)
Rose (130)
Shimizu (MA 232)
Sridhar (152)
Tsutsui (167)
Javanese
Dudas (46)
Wahab(170)
Jita
Downing (43)
Kannada
Bhatia (15)
Pandharipande (122)
Sridhar (152)
Kanuri
Wentz (MA 238)
Kashmiri
Bhatia (15)
Pandharipande (122)
Kejia
Chung (32)
Kikuyu
Pratt (MA 228)
Kiny arwanda
Rugege (132)
(Ki)Swahili
Dunn (47)
Evans (48)
Kamwangamalu (74)
Kapanga (77)
Marshad (102)
Mochiwa (108)
Treece (165)
Korean
Ahn (5)
Chang (23)
Cho, E. (29)
Cho, S. (30)
Choi (31)
Kang, S. (75)
Kang, Y. (76)
Kim, H. Y. (84)
Kim, S. B. (MA 214)
Lee, H. G. (91)
Lee, S. O. (92)
McCloy (MA 221)
Paik (MA 226)
Shim (145)
Sohn, Han (150)
Sohn, Hyang-Sook (151)
Yoon, H. S. (187)
Yoon, Y. J. (MA 241)
Lama
Ourso (121)
Yu (188)
Latin
Jolly (MA 212)
Latvian
Steinbergs (155)
Lingala
Kamwangamalu (74)
Lithuanian
Kenstowicz (79)
270
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Makua
Stucky (157)
Malaysian
Hammerschlag (MA 206)
Onn (120)
Teoh (163)
Yeoh (185)
Mandingo
Drame (44)
Mara thi
Bhatia (15)
Pandharipande (122)
Muon g
Barker (MA 196)
Nepali
Bhatia (15)
Pandharipande (122)
Wallace (172)
Oluluyia
Dalgish (38)
Pali
O'Bryan (115)
Persian
Barjasteh (10)
Dabir-Moghaddam (37)
Hajati (62)
Soheili-Isfahani (149)
Tegey, M. (162)
Zamir (189)
Portuguese
de Souza (39)
Saciuk (134)
Punjabi
Bhatia (15)
Pandharipande (122)
Quechua
Cerron-Palomino (22)
Hermon (68)
Jake (71)
Russian
Farina (49)
Sanskrit
O'Bryan (115)
Schaufele (137)
Sesotho
Khoali (82)
Serbo-Croatian
Radanovic-Kocic (127)
Sets wana
Mmusi (106)
Shan
Jessen (MA 211)
Shona
Odden (116)
Siane
James (MA 209)
Slovenian
Leich (MA 217)
Sridhar (152)
Somali
Livnat (94)
Spanish
Carreira (20)
Colberg (MA 200)
CiJcelogiu (MA 201)
Kleiman (86)
Moffett (109)
Saciuk (134)
Sridhar (152)
Language index
27]
Walsh (MA 237)
Willis (178)
Yates (183)
Sucite
Garber (56)
Tangaie
Kidda (83)
Thai
Chutisilp (33)
Pingkarawat (125)
Sereechareonsatit (142)
Surintramont (Ph.D. 160 and
MA 235)
Warie (173)
Wongbiasaj (181)
Turkish
Foster, Joseph (51)
Sridhar (152)
Ukrainian
Foster, James (51)
Urdu
Khan (81)
Venda
Cassimjee (21)
West Greenlandic Eskimo
Pyle (126)
Wolof
Ka (73)
Xenophon
Scorza (140)
Ya welmani
Kisseberth (85)
Yoruba
Ajolore (6)
Awoyale (Ph.D. 8 and MA 194)
Ziiritiitsch
Hale (63)
REGION INDEX
Lfrica
Tanzania
Downing (43)
Algeria
Dunn (47)
Bader (9)
Evans (48)
Mochiwa (108)
Botswana
Stucky (157)
Mmusi (106)
Treece (165)
Burkina Faso
Togo
Garber (56)
Ourso (121)
Yu (188)
Chad
Thayer (164)
Zaire
Kamwangamalu (74)
Egypt
Kapanga (77)
Abdo (Ph.D. 2 and MA
192)
Rugege (132)
Wahba (171)
Treece (165)
Ethiopia
Zambia
Pyle (126)
Chishimba (28)
Gambia
Zimbabwe
Dram6 (44)
Magura (99)
Odden (116)
Kenya
Abasheikh (1)
Asia (Far East)
Dalgish (38)
Marshad (102)
China
Pratt (MA 228)
Chao (25)
Treece (165)
Chen (Ph.D. 26 and MA
Cheng (27)
199)
Nigeria
Lee. C. L. (90)
Ajolore (6)
Li (MA 219)
Awoyale (Ph.D 8 and
MA 194)
Lu (97)
Kidda (83)
Shih. C. (MA 230)
Wentz (MA 238)
Shih, K. (MA 231)
Su (MA 234)
Rwanda
Sung (159)
Rugege (132)
Wible (175)
Xu (182)
Senegal
Yen (184)
Dram6 (44)
Yoon, H. S. (187)
Ka (73)
Zhou (190)
Somalia
Hong Kong
Abasheikh (1)
Sridhar (152)
Livnat (94)
Wong (180)
South Africa
Japan
Cassimjee (21)
Bems (14)
Khoali (82)
Burt (19)
Mmusi (106)
Chung (32)
Fukada (54)
Sudan
Hatasa (67)
Hamid (65)
Ito (MA 208)
Thayer (164)
Kajiwara (MA 213)
Yokwe (186)
Makino (100)
274
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Makiuchi (101)
McCawley (103)
Nakano (MA 224)
Neeld (MA 225)
Ogura (117)
Okawa (118)
Rose (130)
Shimizu (MA 232)
Sridhar (152)
Tsutsui (167)
Korea
Ahn (5)
Chang (24)
Cho, E. (29)
Cho, S. (30)
Choi (31)
Kang. S. (75)
Kang. Y. (76)
Kim, H. Y. (84)
Kim, S. B. (MA 214)
Lee, H. G. (91)
Lee, S. 0. (92)
McCloy (MA 221)
Paik (MA 226)
Shim (145)
Sohn. Han (150)
Sohn, Hyang-Sook (151)
Yoon, H. S. (187)
Yoon, Y. J. (MA 241)
Israel (Hebrew-speaking
regions)
Barkai (11)
Bentur (13)
Bolozky (17)
Hajati (62)
Lederman (89)
Sridhar (152)
Jordan
Alghozo (7)
Irsheid (70)
Mobaidin (107)
Obeidat (114)
Lebanon
Abdul-Karim (3)
Haddad (61)
Pakistan
Khan (81)
Saudi Arabia
Houston (69)
Turkey
Foster, Joseph (51)
Sridhar (152)
Asia (South East)
Taiwan
Du (45)
Burma
Jessen (MA 211)
Asia (Middle East)
Afghanistan
Tegey. H. (161)
Iran
Barjasteh (10)
Dabir-Moghaddam (37)
Hajati (62)
Soheili-Isfahani (149)
Tegey, M. (162)
Zamir (189)
Iraq
Abdo (Ph.D. 2)
Israel (Arabic-speaking
regions)
Abdo (Ph.D. 2 and MA 192)
Abu-Salim (4)
Alghozo (7)
ndia
Berns (14)
Bhatia (15)
D'souza (36)
Donaldson (MA 202)
Fox (53)
Koul (MA 215)
Hackman (60)
Kenkel (78)
Lutz (98)
Nelson (112)
O'Bryan (115)
Pandharipande (122)
Satyanarayana (MA
Schaufele (137)
Sridhar (152)
Subbarao (158)
Valentine (168)
Indonesia
Dudas (46)
Rosenberg (131)
Silitongo (146)
229)
Region index
275
Wahab (170)
Malaysia
Hammerschlag (MA 206)
Lowenberg (95)
Onn (120)
Teoh (163)
Yeoh (185)
Nepal
Bhatia (15)
Pandharipande (122)
Wallace (172)
Papua New Guinea
James (MA 209)
Singapore
Kenkel (78)
Sellner (141)
Smith (148)
Greece
Carlsen (MA 198)
Hutchinson (MA 207)
Scorza (140)
Tsitsopoulos (Ph.D. 166 and
MA 236)
Greenland
Pyle (126)
Hungary
Sridhar (152)
Italy
Jolly (MA 212)
Saltarelli (136)
Thailand
Chutisilp (33)
Pingkarawat (125)
Sereechareonsatit (142)
Surintramont (Ph.D. 169 and
MA 235)
Warie (173)
Wongbiasaj (181)
Yingphaibul (MA 240)
Vietnam
Barker (MA 196)
Europe
Czechoslovakia
Vanek (169)
England
Dolezal (41)
France
English (MA 203)
Langacker (Ph.D. 88 and MA
216)
Loy (96)
Pearce (124)
Zimnie (MA 242)
Finland
Schwarte (139)
Skouscn (Ph.D. 147 and MA
233)
Sridhar (152)
Germany
Berns (14)
Spain
Carreira (20)
Cuceloglu (MA 201)
De Urbina (40)
Moffett (109)
Saciuk (134)
Walsh (MA 237)
Switzerland
Hale (63)
USSR
Farina (49)
Armenia
Janjigian (MA 210)
Latvia
Steinbergs (155)
Lithuania
Kenstowicz (79)
Siberia
Krause (87)
Yugoslavia
Leich (MA 217)
Radanovic-Kocic (127)
Latin America
Brazil
de Souza (39)
Chile
Kleiman (86)
276 Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Ecuador Stock (156)
Hermon (68) Wilkinson (177)
Jake (71) Wilson (MA 239)
Wise (179)
Mexico Yates (183)
Sridhar (152) Ziv (Ph.D. 191 and MA 243)
Willis (178)
USA (Native American regions)
Peru
Cerron-Palomino (22) Kisseberth (85)
Patterson (123)
USA (English-speaking regions) Russell (133)
Wilber (176)
Baker (MA 195)
Barnitz (12)
Biava (16)
Bouton (18)
Boyle (MA 197)
Carlsen (MA 198)
Cho, S. (30)
Choi (31)
Colberg (MA 200)
Cole (34)
Cureton (35)
Donaldson (Ph.D. 42)
Farwell (50)
Foster, James (MA 204)
Fukada (54)
Gallagher (55)
Geis (57)
Gilpin (MA 205)
Habick (59)
Halpern (64)
Hendricks (66)
Johnson (72)
Kang, S. (75)
Kenkel (78)
Khalil (80)
Leskosky (MA 218)
Malslrom (MA 220)
McMurray (104)
Menn (105)
Meshon (MA 222)
Minow (MA 223)
Morrow (110)
Newmeyer (113)
Olsen (119)
Ransom (128)
Riddle (129)
Rose (130)
Rosenberg (131)
Sadock (135)
Schmerling (138)
Sheintuch (143)
Shell (144)
Steffensen (153)
Stein (154)
AREA OF CONCENTRATION INDEX
Computational Linguistics
Evans (48)
Nakazawa (111)
Discourse Analysis
Choi (31)
Hendricks (66)
Kenkel (78)
Morrow (110)
Rose (130)
Sellner (141)
Wahab (170)
Historical Linguistics
O'Bryan (115)
Pearce (124)
Randanovic-Kocic (127)
Schaufele (137)
Smith (148)
' Thayer (164)
Language Acquisition
Ajolore (6)
Biava (16)
Cho, S. (30)
de Souza (39)
Khalil (80)
Menn (105)
Mobaidin (107)
Obeidat (114)
Schwarte (139)
Steffensen (153)
Stock (156)
Tegey. M. (162)
Wise (179)
Yates (183)
Lexicography
Dolezal (41)
Morphology
Abasheikh (1)
Barjasteh (10)
Dalgish (38)
Lederman (89)
McMurray (104)
Patterson (123)
Shim (145)
Treece (165)
Orthography
Bentur (13)
Hatasa (67)
Phonology
Abdo (Ph.D. 2 and MA 192)
Abdul-Karim (3)
Abu-Salim (4)
Ahn (5)
Alghozo (7)
Bader (9)
Barkai (11)
Bolozky (17)
Carreira (20)
Cassimjee (21)
Chao (25)
Cheng (27)
Chung (32)
Downing (43)
Du (45)
Dudas (46)
Evans (48)
Farina (49)
Foster, James (Ph.D. 51)
Foster, Joseph (52)
Garber (56)
Haddad (61)
Hamid (65)
Irshied (70)
Kang, S. (75)
Kang, Y. (76)
Kenstowicz (79)
Khoali (82)
Kidda (83)
Kim, H. Y. (84)
Kisseberth (85)
Krause (87)
Lee, S. O. (92)
Loy (96)
Lu (97)
Mmusi (106)
Odden (116)
Oisen (119)
Onn (120)
Ourso (121)
Pyle (126)
Saciuk (134)
Saltarelli (136)
Schmerling (138)
Skousen (Ph.D. 147)
Sohn, Han (150)
Sohn, Hyang-Sook (151)
Stein (154)
Steinbergs (155)
Teoh (163)
278
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Tsitsopoulos (Ph.D. 166)
Wilbur (176)
Willis (178)
Wong (180)
Xu (182)
Yen (184)
Yokwe (186)
Pragmatics
Burt (19)
Donaldson (Ph.D. 42)
Farwell (50)
Fukada (54)
Lee, H. G. (91)
Ogura (117)
Rosenberg (131)
Psycholinguistics
Lutz (98)
Sridhar (152)
Semantics
Chang (24)
Hackman (60)
Kleiman (86)
Moffett (109)
Sociolinguistics
Berns (14)
Cerron-Palomino (22)
Chishimba (28)
Chutisilp (33)
D'souza (36)
Habick (59)
Kamwangamalu (74)
Kapanga (77)
Leskosky (Ph. D. 93)
Lowenberg (95)
Magura (99)
Marshad (102)
Nelson (112)
Valentine (168)
Warie (173)
Wentz (Ph.D. 174)
Zamir (189)
Syntax
Awoyale (Ph.D. 8 and MA 194)
Barnitz (12)
Bhatia (15)
Bouton (18)
Chen (Ph.D. 26 and MA 199)
Cho. E. (29)
Cole (34)
Curelon (35)
Dabir-Moghadda (37)
Dram6 (44)
Fox (53)
Gallagher (55)
Gels (57)
Gerdemann (58)
Hajati (62)
Hale (63)
Halpern (64)
Hermon (68)
Houston (69)
Jake(71)
Johnson (72)
Khan (81)
Langacker (Ph.D. 88 and MA 216)
Lee. C. L. (90)
Ue, H. G. (91)
Livnat (94)
Makino (100)
Makiuchi (101)
McCawley (103)
Mochiwa (108)
Nakazawa (111)
Newmeyer (113)
Okawa (118)
Pandharipande (122)
Pingkarawaat (125)
Ran.som (128)
Riddle (129)
Rugege (132)
Russell (133)
Sadock (135)
Scorza (140)
Sereechareonsat (142)
Shell (144)
Sheintuch (143)
Silitonga (146)
Soheili-lsfahani (149)
Stucky (157)
Subbarao (158)
Sung (159)
Surintramont (Ph.D. 160 and MA
235)
Tegey, H. (161)
Tsutsui (167)
Vanek (169)
Wallace (172)
Wahba (171)
Wible (175)
Wilkinson (177)
Wongbiasaj (181)
Yeoh (185)
Yoon, H. S. (187)
Yu (188)
Area of concentration index 279
Zhou (190)
Ziv (Ph.D. 191 and MA 243)
INDEX OF ADVISORS
Bokamba, Eyamba G.
Dram6 (44)
Kapanga (77)
Marshad (102)
Obeidat (114)
Rugege (132)
Treece (165)
Cheng, Chin-Chuan
Chao (25)
Chen (26)
Chung (32)
Du (45)
Evans (48)
Lu (97)
Shih, K. (MA 231)
Sohn, Han (150)
Wong (180)
Zhou (190)
Cole, Peter
De Urbina (40)
Okawa (118)
Sung (159)
Wible (175)
Yoon. H. S. (187)
Geis, Michael
Chen (MA 199)
Li (MA 219)
McCawley (103)
Green, Georgia M.
Dunn (47)
Fukada (54)
Hermon (68)
Kleiman (86)
Lee, H. G. (91)
Olsen (119)
Shell (144)
Silitonga (146)
Ziv (191)
Hinrichs, Erhard
Gerdemann (58)
Hock, Hans Henrich
Cervin (23)
Habick (59)
Pearce (124)
Radanovic-Kocic (127)
Schaufele (137)
Smith (148)
Wallace (172)
Kachru, Braj B.
Herns (14)
Chishimba (28)
Chutisilp (33)
Cureton (35)
D'souza (36)
de Souza (39)
Fox (53)
Kamwangamalu (74)
Koul (MA 215)
Leskosky (93)
Lowenberg (95)
Magura (99)
Meshon (MA 222)
Nelson (112)
Valentine (168)
Warie (173)
Wilkinson (177)
Yingphaibul (MA 240)
Zamir (189)
Kachru, Yamuna
Barjasteh (10)
Bhatia (15)
Choi (31)
Dabir-Moghaddam (37)
Donaldson (42)
Hackman (60)
Hajati (62)
Kenkel (78)
Lutz (98)
Morrow (110)
Pandharipande (122)
Rose (130)
Satyanarayana (MA 229)
Soheili-Isfahani (149)
Subbarao (158)
Wahab (170)
Yeoh (185)
Kahane, Henry R.
Foster, James (MA 204)
Ito (MA 208)
Jolly (MA 212)
Makino (100)
Moffett (109)
Sacuik (134)
Sadock (135)
282
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22:2 (Fall 1992)
Kenstowicz, Michael
Abdul-Karim (3)
Abu-Salim (4)
Alghozo (7)
Bader (9)
Barker (MA 196)
Carreira (20)
Cerron-Palomino (22)
Farina (49)
Haddad (61)
Hamid (65)
Irshied (70)
Kidda (83)
Krause (87)
Onn (120)
Schwarte (139)
Sohn, Hyang-Sook (151)
Stein (154)
Steinbergs (155)
Teoh (163)
Wahba (171)
Kim, Chin-Wu
Ahn (5)
Chang (24)
Geis (57)
Kang. S. (75)
Kang, Y. (76)
Kim. H. Y. (84)
Lee, S. O. (92)
McCloy (MA 221)
Paik (MA 226)
Shim (145)
Kisseberth, Charles W.
Abasheikh (1)
Bentur (13)
Bolozky (17)
Cassimjee (21)
Cole (34)
Dalgish (38)
Downing (43)
Dudas (46)
Garber (56)
Jake (71)
Ka (73)
Khoali (82)
Lederman (89)
Livnat (94)
Mmusi (106)
O'Bryan (115)
Ourso (121)
Odden (116)
Patterson (123)
Pyle (126)
Skousen (147)
Schmerling (138)
Surintramont (MA 160)
Stucky (157)
Tsilsopoulos (166)
Tegey, H. (161)
Wilbur (176)
Xu (188)
Yokwe (186)
Lees, Robert B.
Abdo (Ph.D. 2 and MA 192)
Baker (MA 195)
Barkai (11)
Bouton (18)
Foster, James (51)
Foster, Joseph (52)
Gallagher (55)
Gilpin (MA 205)
Hale (63)
James (MA 209)
Kisseberth (85)
Langacker (88)
Loy (96)
Newmeyer (113)
Sailarelli (136)
Vanek (169)
Willis (178)
Wilson (MA 239)
Yen (184)
Lehman, Frederic K.
Halpern (64)
Jessen (MA 211)
Pingkarawat (125)
Sereechareonsatit (142)
Surintramont (160)
Wongbiasaj (181)
Lightner, Theodore
Cheng (26)
Yoon, Y. J. (MA 241)
Maclay, Howard
Ajolore (6)
Barnitz (12)
Biava (16)
Cho, S. (30)
Hatasa (67)
Hendricks (66)
Houston (69)
Kim. S. O. (MA 214)
Advisor index 283
Menn (105)
Mobaidin (107)
Steffensen (153)
Stock (156)
Tegey. M. (162)
Wentz (174)
Wise (179)
Yates (183)
Makino, Seiichi
Kajiwara (MA 213)
Makiuchi (101)
Nakano (MA 224)
Morgan, Jerry
Burt (19)
Cho. E. (29)
Farwell (50)
Johnson (72)
Khan (81)
McMurray (104)
Nakazawa (111)
Ogura (117)
Ransom (128)
Riddle (129)
Rosenberg (131)
Russell (133)
Sellner (141)
Sheintuch (143)
Tsutsui (167)
Yu (188)
Osgood, Charles E.
Sridhar (152)
Savignon, Sandra
Khalil (80)
Stahike, Herbert
Awoyale (8)
Pratt (MA 228)
Thayer (164)
Wentz (MA 138)
Zgusta, Ladislav
Dolezal (41)
Mochiwa (108)
Scorza (140)
FACULTY MEMBERS
DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1993-94
ANTONSEN, ELMER H.: Professor & Head (historical, comparative, and synchronic
Germanic linguistics; runic inscriptions; phonology, morphology, and
orthographies).
BAMGBO?E, AYO: (U. of Ibadan, Nigeria): Miller Visiting Professor (African and
sociolinguistics).
BENMAMOUN, ELABBAS: Visiting Assistant Professor (Arabic and Semitic linguis-
tics).
BOKAMBA, EYAMBA G.: Professor (African linguistics, Bantu syntax, socio-
linguistics: multilingualism, language variation, code switching, language
planning and policy).
CHAO, RUTH: Visiting Assistant Professor (phonetics).
CHENG, CHIN-CHUAN: LAS Jubilee Professor (computational linguistics, quanti-
fying dialect affinity, and Chinese discourse analysis).
COLE, JENNIFER: Assistant Professor (phonology and computational linguistics).
DONCHIN, RINA: Lecturer (Hebrew language and literature, teaching methodol-
ogy).
DOWNING, LAURA: Visiting Assistant Professor (phonology, historical linguis-
tics).
GREEN, Georgia M.: Professor (syntactic theory, pragmatics, discourse under-
standing).
HOCK, HANS HENRICH: Professor (general historical. linguistics, Indo-European,
historical and synchronic Sanskrit studies. Old English syntax).
KACHRU, BRAJ B.: Center for Advanced Study and LAS Jubilee Professor (socio-
linguistics. World Englishes, multilingualism, and language and idealogy).
KACHRU, YAMUNA: Professor (applied linguistics, discourse analysis, pedagogi-
cal grammar, and Hindi).
KIM, CHIN- WOO: Professor (phonetics, phonology, morphology, Korean linguis-
tics, and stylistics).
KISSEBERTH, CHARLES W.: Professor (phonology and tonology).
M ACL AY, HOWARD S.: Professor (psycholinguistics and applied linguistics).
MORGAN, JERRY L.: Professor (syntax, pragmatics, morphology, computational
linguistics, natural language processing, and Albanian).
PANDHARIPANDE, RAJESHWARI: Associate Professor (Hindi language and litera-
ture, language of religion, syntax and semantics of Sanskrit, Hindi and
Marathi, sociolinguistics, Asian mythology, Hinduism).
YOON, JAMES: Assistant Professor (syntax, morphology, Korean and Japanese
linguistics).
ZGUSTA, LADISLAV: Center for Advanced Study Professor (lexicography and
Indo-European linguistics).
ZUCCHI, ALESSANDRO: Assistant Professor (semantics, syntax interface, and Ro-
mance linguistics).
KetD0ktUr
1004
The annual T^t^slztttV of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign appears each summer and contains information on the preceding aca-
demic year, including Departmental Personnel, Honors and Recognitions, Instructional
Programs, Research and Service, Public Events, Individual Recognition and Projects, and
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Beginning with the 1994 issue, we would like to feature a new section. News from
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Spring 1992
IN PREPARATION:
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TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF
LINGUISTIC RESEARCH AND TEACHING
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
at Urbana-Champaign
Special Issue of
STUDIES IN THE LINGUISTIC SCIENCES
Volume 22, Number 2, Fall 1992
CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xv
Part I: Perspectives on Linguistics in the Midwest and at
Illinois
Introduction: Henry Kahane and Braj B. Kachru 3
Linguistics in the Midwestern Region: Beginnings to 1973:
Braj B. Kachru 7
History of the Department of Linguistics at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Henry Kahane 3 7
The European Emigree: Henry Kahane 3 9
The Tale of an Eager then Lonely then Contented Dinosaur:
Charles E. Osgood 4 2
How to Find the Right Tree to Bark Up: Robert B. Lees 5 9
Three Linguistic Reincarnations of a Kashmiri Pandit:
Braj B. Kachru 6 5
A Sense of Perspective: Charles W. Kisseberth 7 5
Part II: Memorial Tributes to a Builder: Henry R. Kahane
Introduction 8 5
Memorial Tribute to Henry R. Kahane 8 7
Elmer H. Antonsen 8 7
Roberta Kahane Garner 8 9
Charles Kahane 9 1
Morton W. Weir 9 2
Larry R. Faulkner 9 4
Ladislav Zgusta 9 5
Braj B. Kachru 9 7
Part III: Graduate Student Research 1964-1992
Introduction 103
Ph.D. Dissertation Abstracts 105
Master's Thesis Abstracts 23 9
Research in Progress up to August 1992 25 9
Author Index 263
Language Index 267
Regional Index 27 3
Area of Concentration 27 7
Index of Advisors 28 1
UNIVERSirr OF ILLINOIS-URBANA
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