Minding the Gaps
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MINDING THE GAPS: INFLECTIONAL DEFECTIVENESS IN A PARADIGMATIC THEORY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Andrea D. Sims, M.A. The Ohio State University 2006 Dissertation Committee: Professor Brian Joseph, Adviser Approved by Professor Daniel Collins Professor Mary Beckman ____________________________________ Adviser Linguistics Graduate Program ABSTRACT A central question within morphological theory is whether an adequate description of inflection necessitates connections between and among inflectionally related forms, i.e. paradigmatic structure. Researchers have recently used periphrasis and paradigmatic gaps to demonstrate the descriptive capabilities of paradigms, but in doing so have expanded the domain of inflectional structure into the traditional realm of syntax. This expanded structure is justified only if an adequate description of gaps not only allows for but also requires reference to paradigmatic structure. In this dissertation I argue that crucial evidence that paradigmatic structure underpins gaps is to be found in speakers’ reactions to inflectional defectiveness. I show through a series of experiments and distributional statistics that gaps in the genitive plural of Modern Greek nouns and the first person singular non-past of Russian verbs arose from speakers’ insecurity over competition between paradigmatic patterns of inflection. The appearance of the gaps can thus be adequately explained only with reference to the inflectional paradigm. I formalize this approach using a Word and Paradigm model incorporating multidimensional inheritance hierarchies. At the same time, historical causation is not to be confused with synchronic structure. The distributional patterns of the Modern Greek and Russian gaps resemble those which previous researchers have used to posit that gaps are optimal failures – ii synchronically epiphenomenal to productive word formation processes. However, a detailed analysis of speakers’ reactions to the Greek and Russian data shows gaps and productive inflectional forms to pattern differently. I interpret this to mean that the Greek and Russian gaps have become disassociated from their original causative factors, leaving the former as idiosyncratic facts of their respective languages. This conclusion throws previous gaps-as-epiphenomena accounts into doubt. This dissertation makes a substantive contribution on three levels. First, it adds a new type of evidence to the body of research on paradigmatic gaps by exploring speakers’ resolution strategies, beliefs about language structure, and how those beliefs shape defective inflection. Second, it suggests that paradigmatic predictability is a significant force in morphological systems, in ways that are not typically acknowledged even by paradigm-based models. Finally, while the historical development of gaps may be well motivated, the synchronic reality can be very different. This supports viewing language as a series of small-scale, overlapping generalizations. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is not possible to thank all of the people who deserve to be thanked here. There are simply too many people, who have helped to improve this project in too many ways. But I would like to acknowledge a number of people whose influence I have particularly felt, and for whose guidance, friendship, and help I have been particularly appreciative. First, I would like to thank my dissertation committee – Brian Joseph, Mary Beckman, and Daniel Collins. For providing unique and sometimes unexpected perspectives. For challenging me. For keeping me focused on the theory, but rooted in the data at all times. And perhaps most of all for believing that I could finish this dissertation on time, when I had started to lose faith. And to Brian in particular for shepherding me through my years at Ohio State, and for the constant mantra that language is about the speakers. Without that, this dissertation would have lost its way. I would also like to thank Charles Gribble, Rich Janda, and Keith Johnson, who were gracious enough to serve on one or several of my pre-dissertation committees. Each helped to shape my thinking and my research skills at critical stages. I am lucky to have been surrounded by a varied, talented, and supportive group of graduate students at OSU. I owe something to every grad student that I have known these past seven years, but to a few I owe more. To Robin Dodsworth, Jeff Mielke, and Wes Collins. As my friends and immediate predecessors, they showed me that it could iv be done, cheered me to the end, and set a high standard. To Jeff for those early, epic conversations in Oxley 225. To Tom Stewart, who with unbridled enthusiasm was the first person to set me on the morphological path. To Hope Dawson, for reminding me that historical linguistics is not dead. To Grant McGuire, for fixing my Russian experiment in a moment of despair and for much needed distraction, especially during the Tour de France. To Vanessa Metcalf, for watching over my life while I wandered Croatia. To Elizabeth Smith and Craig Hilts, who made sure I didn’t go over the edge during the final three months. To all 18 of my officemates, past and present, for all manner of things big and small. The Russian data in this dissertation was collected by a three person team that consisting of Maria Alley, Bryan Brookes, and me. Without their ideas and their efforts, the project would have been much the poorer. Not to mention that Masha and Bryan probably deserve medals for putting up with me and my controlling, nitpicking tendencies. A variety of people provided technical support for this work. Georgios Tserdanelis helped me to understand Greek noun usage and worked with me to develop questionnaire materials. Anton Rytting alerted me several times to resources which kept Greek data collection from becoming too burdensome. Shari Speer let me invade her lab meetings and ask basic methodological questions. Anastasia Smirnova and Larissa Bondarchuk translated parts of the Russian experiment on short notice. Jim Harmon v went beyond the call of duty to find me cables, microphones, and all manner of other equipment. I conducted part of my research at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in Greece. I received a very warm welcome there, and am deeply grateful to everyone from the Linguistics Section and the French Section. I would particularly like to thank Loukas Tsitsipis and Savas Tsohatzidis, both of whom went out of their way to ensure that my data collection was efficient and successful. And finally, there are three people who I owe so much that I hardly know where to begin. Thank you to my parents, for training me from birth to write my dissertation and supporting me at every step along the path. They were my first models of success in academia, and are still the best ones. Thank you to Jason. For being my technical consultant, my sounding board, my personal chef, a vanquisher of bad days, my best friend. For single-handedly moving us to new apartments not once but twice in the final three months of dissertation writing. For believing in me. For being my life. This dissertation was supported by a Presidential Fellowship (2005-2006) and an Alumni Grant for Graduate Research and Scholarship (2006), both awarded to me by The Ohio State University. This research was conducted under Ohio State University IRB protocol 2004B0214. vi VITA June 30, 1977 .......................................................... Born – Exeter, New Hampshire 1999 ......................................................................... A.B. in Anthropology, The University of Chicago 2001 ......................................................................... M.A. in Linguistics, The Ohio State University 2003 ......................................................................... M.A. in Slavic linguistics, The Ohio State University 1999-2000 ................................................................ Graduate Fellow, The Ohio State University 2000-2005 ................................................................ Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, The Ohio State University 2001-2002 ................................................................ Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow, The Ohio State University 2003-2004 ................................................................ J. William Fulbright Fellow, U.S. Student Program 2005-2006 ................................................................ Presidential Fellow, The Ohio State University vii PUBLICATIONS Research Publications 1. Sims, Andrea. 2003. “Resolving gender conflict in dialectal Croatian: Two predictions of frequency.” Daniel E. Collins and Andrea D. Sims, eds. The Ohio State University working papers in Slavic studies, v. 2: Slavic and Balkan linguistics in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Department of Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures. Columbus, OH: Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, 145-167. 2. Sims, Andrea. 2005. “Declension hopping in dialectal Croatian: Two predictions of frequency.” Geert Booij and Jaap van Marle, eds. Yearbook of Morphology 2005. Amsterdam: Springer, 201-225. 3. Sims, Andrea. 2006. “On avoidance strategies (and their potential implications for dialect loss).” Christian Voss and Dieter Stern, eds. Marginal Linguistic Identities (=Eurolinguistische Arbeiten 2). Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag, 245-260. Edited Volumes 1.