POP (AY20-22)

Title: A crosslinguistic study of prosody of particles: Japanese and Bantu languages


Overview

This 3-year project investigates what role functional words such as particles play in the prosodic grammar. Japanese is a language that uses pitch to distinguish meaning between words; the word [ámé] with two high-pitched syllables means ‘candy’, whereas [àmê] pronounced with a low pitch followed by a high pitch means ‘rain. Functional words are often short (less than three syllables), and prosodic effects of these words are yet to be fully understood. Building upon previous studies, this project focuses on prosodic effects of functional words in nominal as well as verbal domains in four types of languages based on the presence of tone and the position of particles:


(a) Standard Japanese with pitch accent and suffixal particles,

(b) Aizu Japanese without pitch accent and suffixal particles,

(c) Xitsonga with tone and prefixal particles,

(d) Swahili without tone and prefixal particles.


Comparing and contrasting these four types of languages will elucidate to what extent particles influence prosodic patterns in sentence phonology.

Members:

    • Seunghun Lee (PI, ICU)

    • Toshio Matsuura (Co-PI, Hokusei Gakuin)

    • Daisuke Shinagawa (Co-PI, TUFS, AA-ken)


    • Yuko Abe, Dr. (Consultant, TWCU)

    • Kristina Riedel, Dr. (Consultant, U Free State)


    • Michinori Suzuki (RA, 2020.4.1-present)

    • Honoka Asai (RA, 2020.4.1-2021.3.31)

    • Le Xuan Chan (RA, 2020.4.1-present)

    • Kotone Sato (RA, 2020.6.1. - present)

    • Keitaro Mitsuhashi (RA, 2021.4.1. - present)


Research Outcome

<papers>

  • Lee, Seunghun J. and Elisabeth Selkirk (2021, in print) A modular theory of relation between syntactic and phonological constituency. Oxford University Press.

  • Lee, Seunghun J. (2021) Aspects of Xitsonga tone. In Kaji, Shigeki (ed.) Afurikashogo no Seichoo·Akusento (Tone and Accent in African Languages) [アフリカ諸語の声調・アクセント]. The Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. pp. 303-322. http://repository.tufs.ac.jp/handle/10108/99925

  • Crous M. Hlungwani, Seunghun J. Lee and Vicent Maswanganyi (2021) Xitsonga (S53). In: Seunghun J. Lee, Yuko Abe, and Daisuke Shinagawa (eds.) Descriptive materials of morphosyntactic microvariation in Bantu vol. 2: A microparametric survey of morphosyntactic microvariation in Southern Bantu languages Tokyo: ILCAA. pp. 135-191. (doi: 10.15026/99965)

  • Netshisaulu, N. C., Salphina Mbedzi and Seunghun J. Lee (2021) Tshivenda (S21). In: Seunghun J. Lee, Yuko Abe, and Daisuke Shinagawa (eds.) Descriptive materials of morphosyntactic microvariation in Bantu vol. 2: A microparametric survey of morphosyntactic microvariation in Southern Bantu languages Tokyo: ILCAA. pp. 77-133. (doi: 10.15026/99964)

  • Lee, Seunghun J., Daehan Won and Shigeto Kawahara (2021) COVID-19 Myth Busters in World Languages: A Case for Broader Impacts of Linguistic Research during the COVID-19 Crisis. Reports of the Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies 52: 1-11. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/40022522489/

  • Abe, Yuko, Seunghun J. Lee, and Daisuke Shinagawa (2020) A Morphosyntactic Survey of Microvariation of Southern Bantu languages: A pilot case of collaborative linguistic research in African contexts. Korea Association of African Studies (KAAS) Conference on the Second Half of 2020. December 4, 2020. pp. 29-42.

  • Lee, Seunghun J. & Crous Hlungwani (2020) Effects of morphology in the nativisation of loanwords: The borrowing of /s/ in Xitsonga. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, Vol. 60, 71-90 (https://doi.org/10.5842/60-0-797)

  • Lee, Seunghun J. & William G. Bennett (2020) Foreword. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, Vol. 60, i-ii (doi: 10.5842/60-0-869)


<edited volumes>


<Presentations>

  • Lee, Seunghun J. (2021) Intonation of Xitsonga Pronouns. The 58th Annual Meeting of Japan Association for African Studies (JAAS). May 23, 2021. Hosted by Hiroshima University, Held in Zoom.

  • Lee, Seunghun J. (2021) The prosody of weak and strong pronouns in Xitsonga. Roundtable Prosody of Pronouns. May 19, 2021. University of Frankfurt am Main (hosted by Frank Kügler).

  • Lee, Seunghun J. (2021) Reading of the book chapter by Lee & Selkirk (to appear) "A modular theory of the relation between syntactic and phonological constituency" The Phonology-Morphology Circle of Korea. May 15, 2021 @ Zoom.

  • Asai, Honoka, Chan, Le Xuan, Sato, Kotone, Suzuki, Michinori, Lee, Seunghun J. (2021) A preliminary study of the prosody of Japanese DP with two adjectival modifiers. 言語学フェス2021. January 24, 2021.

  • Seunghun J. Lee (2020) Voice quality research using the Electroglottography (EGG). SNU Workshop on Empirical and Laboratory Linguistics (SWELL): 2020 Winter Workshop. December 23, 2020.

  • Abe, Yuko, Seunghun J. Lee, and Daisuke Shinagawa (2020) A Morphosyntactic Survey of Microvariation of Southern Bantu languages: A pilot case of collaborative linguistic research in African contexts. Korea Association of African Studies (KAAS) Conference on the Second Half of 2020. December 4, 2020. pp. 29-42.

  • Lee, Seunghun J. (2020) Acoustics of vowel phonation in Burmese Mon. The 34th General Meeting of the Phonetic Society of Japan. September 26-27, 2020.

  • Lee, Seunghun J. and Céleste Guillemot (2020) Voiceless nasals in Drenjongke (Bhutia). International Webinar on Languages of North East India Organized by the Centre for Naga Tribal Language Studies, Nagaland University, Kohima Campus. August 8, 2020.

  • Guillemot, Céleste, Seunghun J. Lee and Jeremy Perkins (2020) The retroflex tongue position in Drenjongke (Bhutia). 2020 Summer Southeast Asia Conference Program. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Korea, June 19, 2020.

  • Guillemot, Céleste and Seunghun J. Lee (2020) Phonetic Variation of a Phonological Target: Voiceless Nasals in Drenjongke. 日本音韻論学会2020年度春期研究発表会 The Spring Meeting of the Phonological Society of Japan 2020. June 19, 2020.

  • Lee, Seunghun J. (2020) Voicing and phonation in African languages using Electroglottograph. The 57th Annual Meeting of the Japan Association of African Studies. Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. May 23-24, 2020.