Enriching a Scienti C Grammar with Links to Linguistic Resources
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Vowel Quality and Phonological Projection
i Vowel Quality and Phonological Pro jection Marc van Oostendorp PhD Thesis Tilburg University September Acknowledgements The following p eople have help ed me prepare and write this dissertation John Alderete Elena Anagnostop oulou Sjef Barbiers Outi BatEl Dorothee Beermann Clemens Bennink Adams Bo domo Geert Bo oij Hans Bro ekhuis Norb ert Corver Martine Dhondt Ruud and Henny Dhondt Jo e Emonds Dicky Gilb ers Janet Grijzenhout Carlos Gussenhoven Gert jan Hakkenb erg Marco Haverkort Lars Hellan Ben Hermans Bart Holle brandse Hannekevan Ho of Angeliek van Hout Ro eland van Hout Harry van der Hulst Riny Huybregts Rene Kager HansPeter Kolb Emiel Krah mer David Leblanc Winnie Lechner Klarien van der Linde John Mc Carthy Dominique Nouveau Rolf Noyer Jaap and Hannyvan Oosten dorp Paola Monachesi Krisztina Polgardi Alan Prince Curt Rice Henk van Riemsdijk Iggy Ro ca Sam Rosenthall Grazyna Rowicka Lisa Selkirk Chris Sijtsma Craig Thiersch MiekeTrommelen Rub en van der Vijver Janneke Visser Riet Vos Jero en van de Weijer Wim Zonneveld Iwant to thank them all They have made the past four years for what it was the most interesting and happiest p erio d in mylife until now ii Contents Intro duction The Headedness of Syllables The Headedness Hyp othesis HH Theoretical Background Syllable Structure Feature geometry Sp ecication and Undersp ecicati on Skeletal tier Mo del of the grammar Optimality Theory Data Organisation of the thesis Chapter Chapter -
Using 'North Wind and the Sun' Texts to Sample Phoneme Inventories
Blowing in the wind: Using ‘North Wind and the Sun’ texts to sample phoneme inventories Louise Baird ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, The Australian National University [email protected] Nicholas Evans ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, The Australian National University [email protected] Simon J. Greenhill ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, The Australian National University & Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History [email protected] Language documentation faces a persistent and pervasive problem: How much material is enough to represent a language fully? How much text would we need to sample the full phoneme inventory of a language? In the phonetic/phonemic domain, what proportion of the phoneme inventory can we expect to sample in a text of a given length? Answering these questions in a quantifiable way is tricky, but asking them is necessary. The cumulative col- lection of Illustrative Texts published in the Illustration series in this journal over more than four decades (mostly renditions of the ‘North Wind and the Sun’) gives us an ideal dataset for pursuing these questions. Here we investigate a tractable subset of the above questions, namely: What proportion of a language’s phoneme inventory do these texts enable us to recover, in the minimal sense of having at least one allophone of each phoneme? We find that, even with this low bar, only three languages (Modern Greek, Shipibo and the Treger dialect of Breton) attest all phonemes in these texts. -
Abstract: Crossing Morpheme Boundaries in Dutch
Abstract: Crossing morpheme boundaries in Dutch On the basis of Dutch data, this article argues that many differences between types of affixes which are usually described by arbitrary morphological diacritics in the literature, can be made to follow from the phonological shape of affixes. Two cases are studied in some detail: the difference between prefixes and suffixes, and differences between 'cohering' and 'noncohering' suffixes. Prefixes in many languages of the world behave as prosodically more independent than suffixes with respect to syllabification: the former usually do not integrate with the stem, whereas the latter do. Dutch is an example of a language to which this applies. It is argued that this asymmetry does not have to be stipulated, but can be made to follow from the fact that the phonotactic reason for crossing a morpheme boundary usually involves the creation of an onset, which is on the left-hand side of a vowel and not on its right-hand side, plus some general (symmetric) conditions on the interface between phonology and morphology. The differences between 'cohering' and 'noncohering' suffixes with respect to syllable structure and stress in Dutch is argued to similarly follow from the phonological shape of these affixes. Once we have set up an appropriately sophisticated structure for every affix, there is no need any more to stipulate arbitrary morphological markings: differences in phonological behaviour follow from differences in phonological shape alone, given a sufficiently precise theory of universal constraint and their interactions. Keywords: Dutch phonology, phonology-morphology interface, prosody 1 Crossing Morpheme Boundaries in Dutch 1. Introduction Asymmetries in phonological behaviour between types of affixes are not uncommon in languages of the world.1 For instance, prefixes in a given language may behave quite differently from suffixes. -
Regional Variation of Saterland Frisian Vowels
REGIONAL VARIATION OF SATERLAND FRISIAN VOWELS Heike Schoormann, Wilbert Heeringa, Jörg Peters Institute of German Studies, University of Oldenburg, Germany [email protected], [email protected], joerg.peters@uni- oldenburg.de ABSTRACT thus includes closed short tense /i, y, u/ as well as open-mid long lax vowels /ɛː, œː, ɔː/ [9, 14, 18]. This paper reports on the acoustic investigation of As in other Frisian languages, the short tense vow- Saterland Frisian vowels, including their regional els are especially likely to undergo a merger and variation. The study aims at identifying merged become phonetic variants due to their low func- vowel categories as well as supplementary acoustic tional load and overall markedness [9, 21, 22]. dimensions, which enhance the discrimination of Moreover, language contact with High German spectrally adjacent categories. All vowels were eli- and Low German may further add to this develop- cited in a /hVt/ frame. Acoustic measurements in- ment. According to Fort [8] the merger is least ob- cluded vowel duration, mid-vowel F1 and F2, servable in Ramsloh, being the most conservative Vowel Inherent Spectral Change (VISC) [16], and of the three varieties. In addition, the number of the spectral rate of change [10]. Results confirm distinct diphthongal categories is disputed, ranging large inventories for the varieties of Saterland Fri- from 6 to 16 [3, 9, 14, 18]. sian, although some vowel categories have under- Figure 1: Monophthongs and diphthongs of Sa- gone a merger. The comparison of spectral features terland Frisian according to Fort [9]. /ə/ is re- of single vowel categories in the three varieties re- stricted to unstressed syllables. -
Morphosyntax of Verb Movement and Afrikaans Verbal Constructionsl
95 Morphosyntax of verb movement and Afrikaans verbal constructionsl Eric J. C. Vriends University of Stellenbosch 1 Introduction In his Morphosyntax of verb movement: a minimalist approach to the syntax of Dutch (1997) zwart argues for an alternative analysis to the traditional analysis2 of the word order variation that exists in West Gennanic subject initial main clauses and embedded clauses. This alternative analysis is a heavily revised version of the one Zwart presented in his 1993 dissertation. The revised version focuses on a smaller section of Dutch syntax than the preceding work and revolves crucially around a proposal of feature movement and the interaction between syntax and morphology. It also deviates from the traditional analysis in the assumption that the underlying word order for Dutch is SVO and that all functional projections are head initial. Zwart (1997) furthermore claims that the analysis presented for Dutch can be carried over to the other West Germanic languages. At least one of these languages, Afrikaans, is not discussed by Zwart and my main interest in this article is to see whether Zwart's proposed analysis holds when applied to this language. 2 A minimalist analysis of verb movement We will now familiarise ourselves with the relevant parts of Zwart's (1997) analysis of verb movement asymmetry in Germanic languages. First we will look at the assumptions Zwart makes for the underlying word order and the position of the heads in Dutch. Then we will look at the phenomenon of double (complementiser) agreement, which provides the empirical argument for Zwart to assume the existence of AgrS-to-C movement. -
Minority-Language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Other Publications from the Center for Global Center for Global Communication Studies Communication Studies (CGCS) 4-2003 Minority-Language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE Tarlach McGonagle Bethany Davis Noll Monroe Price University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/cgcs_publications Part of the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons Recommended Citation McGonagle, Tarlach; Davis Noll, Bethany; and Price, Monroe. (2003). Minority-Language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE. Other Publications from the Center for Global Communication Studies. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/cgcs_publications/3 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/cgcs_publications/3 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Minority-Language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE Abstract There are a large number of language-related regulations (both prescriptive and proscriptive) that affect the shape of the broadcasting media and therefore have an impact on the life of persons belonging to minorities. Of course, language has been and remains an important instrument in State-building and maintenance. In this context, requirements have also been put in place to accommodate national minorities. In some settings, there is legislation to assure availability of programming in minority languages.1 Language rules have also been manipulated for restrictive, sometimes punitive ends. A language can become or be made a focus of loyalty for a minority community that thinks itself suppressed, persecuted, or subjected to discrimination. Regulations relating to broadcasting may make language a target for attack or suppression if the authorities associate it with what they consider a disaffected or secessionist group or even just a culturally inferior one. -
Putting Frisian Names on the Map
GEGN.2/2021/68/CRP.68 15 March 2021 English United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names Second session New York, 3 – 7 May 2021 Item 12 of the provisional agenda * Geographical names as culture, heritage and identity, including indigenous, minority and regional languages and multilingual issues Putting Frisian names on the map Submitted by the Netherlands** * GEGN.2/2021/1 ** Prepared by Jasper Hogerwerf, Kadaster GEGN.2/2021/68/CRP.68 Introduction Dutch is the national language of the Netherlands. It has official status throughout the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In addition, there are several other recognized languages. Papiamentu (or Papiamento) and English are formally used in the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom, while Low-Saxon and Limburgish are recognized as non-standardized regional languages, and Yiddish and Sinte Romani as non-territorial minority languages in the European part of the Kingdom. The Dutch Sign Language is formally recognized as well. The largest minority language is (West) Frisian or Frysk, an official language in the province of Friesland (Fryslân). Frisian is a West Germanic language closely related to the Saterland Frisian and North Frisian languages spoken in Germany. The Frisian languages as a group are closer related to English than to Dutch or German. Frisian is spoken as a mother tongue by about 55% of the population in the province of Friesland, which translates to some 350,000 native speakers. In many rural areas a large majority speaks Frisian, while most cities have a Dutch-speaking majority. A standardized Frisian orthography was established in 1879 and reformed in 1945, 1980 and 2015. -
Verb-Second Intricacies: an Investigation Into Verb Positions in English
UNIVERSITY OF PRIŠTINA FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY Nenad Pejić Verb-Second Intricacies: An Investigation into Verb Positions in English Doctoral Dissertation Supervisor: dr Dragana Spasić Kosovska Mitrovica, 2011. УНИВЕРЗИТЕТ У ПРИШТИНИ ФИЛОЗОФСКИ ФАКУЛТЕТ Ненад Пејић Проблематика глагола као другог конституента: испитивање позиције глагола у енглеском језику Докторска дисертација Ментор: др Драгана Спасић Косовска Митровица, 2011. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………..…..1 1.1. The Problem ……………………………………………………………………..…..1 1.2. Generative Grammar ……………………………………………………….………..3 1.3. Germanic Languages ……………………………………………………….………..9 2. Syntactic Change ……………………………………………………………….……16 2.1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………...……16 2.2. Actuation and Diffusion of Change …………………………………………..……17 2.3. The Locus of Change ………………………………………………………………21 2.4. Language Change versus Grammar Change ………………………………….……23 2.4.1. The Logical Problem of Language Change …………………………………25 2.5. The Principles and Parameters Model of Change ……………………………….…27 2.5.1. Parametric Change ……………………………………………………..……31 2.6. Mechanisms of Syntactic Change …………………………………………….……33 2.6.1 Internal Mechanisms …………………………………………………………34 2.6.1.1 Reanalysis ……………………………………………………………35 2.6.1.1 1. Grammaticalization ……………………………………..…39 2.6.1.2 Extension …………………………………………………………..…40 2.6.2 External Mechanism …………………………………………………………42 2.6.2.1 Language Contact ……………………………………………………43 2.7. Theories of Syntactic Change ………………………………………………...……44 2.7.1. Structuralist Approach ………………………………………………………45 -
(In)Declinable Relative Pronoun and Its Syntactic Functions
It Beaken jiergong 77 – 2015 nr 3/4 165-174 A historical note on the (in)declinable relative pronoun and its syntactic functions Eric Hoekstra Summary The indeclinable relative particle of Old Germanic could be used for at least 3 syntactic functions: for the relativisation of (1) subjects, (2) objects and (3) preposi- tional complements, for example in Old English and Old Frisian. This is no longer the case in Modern English, Modern Dutch, Modern German or Modern Frisian. It is pointed out that the indeclinable relative particle retained all three functions in Frisian until around 1900, when it stopped being used for the relativisation of subjects and objects. All three functions were retained at least until the middle of the 20th century in the Dutch dialects of Marken and Volendam, which both border on the lake IJsselmeer as does the province of Fryslân. The indeclinable relative particle has been pushed back in Frisian by the declinable relative particle, a process which has its roots in Old Frisian. It is shown that the declinable relative particle (dy, dat in Frisian) has gradually taken over the function of subject and ob- ject relativisation. Historically, the indeclinable relative particle developed into the R-pronoun (Frisian dêr), and it is still used to relativize prepositional complements in Modern Frisian, thus retaining its third syntactic function. 1. Two types of relative pronouns It is the purpose of this article to establish that, for centuries now, Frisian distinguishes between two types of relative pronouns. One type of pronoun does not decline for gender, the other type does. -
Contribution to the UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) 6.20B.10.3
Contribution to the UNESCO encyclopedia of life support systems (EOLSS) 6.20B.10.3 DOCUMENTING ENDANGERED LANGUAGES AND LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE Matthias Brenzinger Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan Tjeerd de Graaf Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, Japan and Frisian Academy, the Netherlands Keywords: endangered languages, ethnolinguistics, language documentation, language endangerment, language maintenance, language policy, language revitalization, language shift, mother tongue education Contents 1. Introduction 2. Language Endangerment and Endangered Languages 2.1 Extent and Types of Language Endangerment 2.2 Selected Case Studies of Endangered Languages 2.2.1 /Xam, a Physical and Cultural Genocide in South Africa 2.2.2 Ainu in Japan 2.2.3 Nivkh in the Russian Federation 2.2.4 North Frisian in Germany 2.2.5 Amazigh (Berber) Languages in Northern Africa 3. Language Documentation 3.1 Why study Endangered Languages 3.2 Documenting Endangered Languages 3.3 Assessing Language Vitality and Endangerment 3.4 Language Maintenance and Revitalization 4 Concluding Remarks Acknowledgments Bibliography Biographical Sketches Summary Several scholars predict that up to 90% of the world’s languages may well be replaced by dominant languages by the end of the 21st century, which would reduce the present number of almost 7,000 languages to less than 700. This review article attempts to describe processes that are underlying this severe threat to the majority of the languages currently spoken. However, the central focus of discussion will be on aspects related to the documentation and maintenance of the world’s linguistic diversity. The main causes of language endangerment are presented here in a brief overview of the world’s language situation. -
Finding Phonological Features in Perception
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Finding phonological features in perception Chládková, K. Publication date 2014 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Chládková, K. (2014). Finding phonological features in perception. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:01 Oct 2021 4 PERCEPTUALSENSITIVITYTOCHANGESINVOWEL DURATIONREVEALSTHESTATUSOFTHE PHONOLOGICALLENGTHFEATURE 4.1 pre-attentive sensitivity to vowel duration reveals native phonology and predicts learning of second- language sounds This section has been published as: KateˇrinaChládková, Paola Escudero, & Silvia Lipski (2013). Pre-attentive sensitivity to vowel duration reveals native phonology and predicts learning of second-language sounds. Brain and Language, 126 (3): 243-252. Abstract In some languages (e.g. Czech), changes in vowel duration affect word meaning, while in others (e.g. -
Strasbourg, 2 April 2004 MIN-LANG/PR (2004) 1 Second
Strasbourg, 2 April 2004 MIN-LANG/PR (2004) 1 EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES Second Periodical Report presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 15 of the Charter GERMANY SECOND REPORT submitted by the FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY under Article 15, paragraph 1, of the EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES 2003 SECOND REPORT submitted by the FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY under Article 15, paragraph 1, of the EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES 2003 2nd State Report Germany: European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages Table of Contents Nos. Part A General Situation and General Framework 1 - 104 Part B Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers 105 - 117 Part C Protection of Regional or Minority Languages under 118 - 207 Part II (Article 7) of the Charter Part D Implementation of the obligations undertaken with 208 - 1385 regard to the various languages D.2.1 Danish Danish in the Danish speech area in Schleswig- 252 - 357 Holstein Art. 8 252 - 278 Art. 9 279 - 282 Art. 10 283 - 302 Art. 11 303 - 337 Art. 12 338 - 347 Art. 13 348 - 353 Art. 14 354 - 357 D.2.2 Sorbian Sorbian (Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian 358 - 514 (Wendish)) in the Sorbian speech area in the Länder of Brandenburg and Saxony Art. 8 358 - 424 Art. 9 425 - 432 Art. 10 433 - 457 Art. 11 458 - 482 Art. 12 483 - 505 Art. 13 506 - 514 D.2.3 North North Frisian in the North Frisian speech area in 515 - 625 Frisian Schleswig-Holstein Art.