LEFT-RIGHT ASYMMETRIES IN WORDS: A PROCESSING-BASED ACCOUNT by Yoshihiko Asao February 1, 2015 A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University at Buffalo, State University of New York in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics UMI Number: 3683004 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI 3683004 Published by ProQuest LLC (2015). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 Contents Abstract vii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Organization of the thesis . 2 2 Background 4 2.1 Introduction . 4 2.2 The Performance-Grammar Correspondence Hypothesis (PGCH) . 5 2.3 Emergent view of word . 7 2.3.1 Phonological word . 12 2.3.2 Why canonical word? . 15 2.4 Conclusion . 17 3 Data and previous approaches 18 3.1 Introduction . 18 3.2 Suffixing preference: the data . 19 3.2.1 Are the data reliable? . 28 ii 3.2.2 Overall frequency asymmetry or boundedness asymmetry? . 31 3.3 Previous accounts . 37 3.4 Psycholinguistic accounts . 40 3.4.1 Greenberg (1957) . 40 3.4.2 Cutler et al. (1985), Hawkins and Cutler (1988), Hawkins and Gilli- gan (1988) . 42 3.4.3 Hall (1988, 1992) . 45 3.4.4 Himmelmann (2014) . 46 3.4.5 Acquisition-based accounts . 47 3.5 Phonology-based accounts . 51 3.6 Historical accounts . 53 3.6.1 Givón (1979) . 54 3.6.2 Bybee et al. (1990) . 56 3.7 Formal accounts . 57 3.8 Conclusion . 59 4 A probabilistic account 61 4.1 Introduction . 61 4.2 Background . 62 4.2.1 Probabilistic nature of language processing . 62 4.2.2 The incremental nature of word recognition . 63 4.2.3 Processing of a morphologically complex word . 63 iii 4.2.4 The issue of segmentation . 66 4.3 Why prefixes are difficult . 68 4.3.1 Morpheme length . 70 4.3.2 Morpheme predictability . 73 4.3.3 Additional cues for word boundaries . 75 4.3.4 Interim summary . 76 4.4 A simulation study . 80 4.4.1 Language model . 80 4.4.2 Parsing . 83 4.4.3 Procedure . 87 4.4.4 Experiment 1: English . 88 4.4.5 Experiment 2: Reverse English . 92 4.5 The problem of linkage . 98 4.5.1 Phonological cues and the grammatical status of affixes . 99 4.5.2 Inflection vs. derivation . 100 4.6 Conclusion . 102 5 Typological minorities 103 5.1 Introduction . 103 5.2 Walman . 109 5.3 Swahili . 113 5.4 Japhug rGyalrong . 116 iv 5.5 Tariana . 118 5.6 Conclusion . 120 6 Grammatical categories 122 6.1 Introduction . 122 6.2 Data . 126 6.3 Discussion of some grammatical categories . 130 6.3.1 On pronominal affixes on verbs . 131 6.3.2 Adverbial subordinator . 144 6.3.3 Stronger suffixing preference in case marking? . 146 6.4 Further discussion . 150 6.4.1 Unusual sources of grammaticalization . 150 6.4.2 On the Head Order Principle . 152 6.4.3 Givón’s approach revisited . 156 6.5 Conclusion . 162 7 More asymmetries 163 7.1 Introduction . 163 7.2 Phonological asymmetries in affixation . 166 7.2.1 Insights from the Prosodic Hierarchy theory . 167 7.2.2 AUTOTYP database . 175 7.3 Asymmetries in clitics . 179 v 7.4 Asymmetries in compounds . 185 7.4.1 Asymmetries in frequency . 187 7.4.2 Phonological asymmetries in compounds . 191 7.5 Bracketing paradoxes . 192 7.5.1 Classification of bracketing paradoxes . 193 7.5.2 Hay’s (2003) account on bracketing paradoxes . 199 7.5.3 Bracketing paradox beyond a word . 201 7.6 Discussion . 204 7.6.1 Hawkins and Cutler (1988) . 205 7.6.2 Himmelmann (2014) . 206 7.7 Conclusion . 207 8 Conclusion 208 8.1 Future directions . 210 8.1.1 More sophisticated measures of processing difficulty . 210 8.1.2 Finite State Morphology . 212 8.1.3 Left-right asymmetries in phonology . 212 References 215 Appendix 232 vi Abstract This thesis presents a novel account of the suffixing preference and related phenomena based on language processing. The suffixing preference refers to the typological fact that suffixes are more common than prefixes in the world’s languages. This thesis argues that pre- fixes are avoided in languages because they are difficult to immediately recognize in language comprehension, due to their short length, unpredictability, and the lack of phonological cues. This idea is demonstrated by a simulation program based on a probabilistic model of mor- pheme segmentation, using corpus data of typologically diverse prefixing languages in the world, as well as a hypothetical language. We also argue that our processing-based account is compatible with the fact that there are considerable variations about the suffixing preference between languages, as well as between different grammatical morphemes. It is argued that our account can also explain the asymmetry in phonological integration of affixes, as well as parallel phenomena in clitics and compounds. vii Chapter 1 Introduction This thesis presents a novel account of the suffixing preference and related phenomena from a functional-typological perspective. The suffixing preference refers to the typological fact that there are more suffixes than prefixes in the world’s languages. A unique characteristic of our approach is that our claim is implemented as an explicit computational model. An external explanation of a linguistic fact often has a risk of being informal and ad hoc. A valid explanation should not arbitrarily pick an explanatory factor that happens to work, but produce an array of predictions that follow from its framework. A com- putational model is a way to achieve this goal. Our model will use probability. Recently there has been converging evidence that people are able to use probabilistic knowledge obtained from their previous experience in order to solve cognitive tasks (M. D. Lee & Wagenmakers, 2014). Our model is based on the assumption that people can use probabilistic knowledge in language comprehension. Stipulations about mechanisms specific to morphology or syntax are kept minimal. The second goal of this thesis is to present a comprehensive account of the suffixing pref- 1 erence as a typological phenomenon, instead of just arguing for the general preference. For example, while it is true that there is a general preference for suffixing, prefixing is not cat- egorically ruled out. In fact, we can find languages that rely heavily on prefixes in different corners of the globe. A unique feature of this thesis is that we conducted a computational study on those typologically diverse languages. The question why languages with apparent inefficient properties are still attested is not specific to the suffixing preference, but applies to any psycholinguistic account of typological facts. 1.1 Organization of the thesis Chapter 2 presents the theoretical positions that we will take in this thesis, which lays the foundations for the discussions in the later chapters. Chapter 3 is an extensive review of the data and existing approaches to explain the suffix- ing preference. Through this process, we will point out some aspects of the suffixing prefer- ence that a valid explanation needs to address. We will also point out some common pitfalls that functional approaches tend to fall into. Chapter 4 presents our novel approach to the suffixing preference. Our approach is psy- cholinguistic in the sense that it claims that the suffixing preference is due to the temporal nature of language processing. Unlike previous approaches, our approach is implemented as a computationally explicit model. The second half of this thesis will address additional issues to make our approach more comprehensive. 2 Chapter 5 will address the issue of prefix-rich languages. Although suffixes are more common than prefixes, there exist languages that rely heavily on prefixes. Thus, one might ask why such prefix-rich languages are thriving without difficulties, if the psychological dis- advantage of prefixes is real. Through analyses of prefix-rich languages such as Swahili, it is argued in this dissertation that real-world prefixing languages have properties that compensate for the difficulties associated with prefixes. Chapter 6 will discuss why the suffixing preference varies depending on grammatical categories. Psycholinguistic accounts predict only a general tendency towards suffixing. However, it is well known that the suffixing preference depends heavily on the grammatical categories of affixes. For example, while case markers show very strong suffixing preference, pronominal affixes on verbs show almost no suffixing preference. This chapter investigates whether the combination of historical and psycholinguistic factors can explain the typological pattern based on typological quantitative data. Chapter 7 will examine whether our discussion can be extended to clitics and compounds, as well as phonological asymmetries. Because our model does not rely on the grammatical status of affixes, it predicts that similar asymmetries can be found in other types of morpho- logical processes. This chapter discusses these predictions. 3 Chapter 2 Background 2.1 Introduction This chapter presents basic theoretical assumptions of this thesis, which lay the foundation for later chapters. This thesis takes a functional-typological approach. That is, we will regard grammatical facts as conventionalized functional preferences, rather than something that can be deduced from synchronic principles.