Program as for Nov. 28, 2019 [LINK]
Plenary speaker (See below for abstracts)
Michael Barrie and Moonhyun Sung (Sogang University)
"Pseudo Noun Incorporation in Blackfoot"
Youngah Do (The University of Hong Kong)
"Biased learning of phonological variation in line with typological principles"
Daiki Hashimoto (University of Tokyo)
"Exemplar and category: Sociolinguistic priming and cumulative usage effect"
Pseudo Noun Incorporation in Blackfoot
Michael Barrie (Sogang University) and Moonhyun Sung (Sogang University)
We examine a construction in Blackfoot (Algonquian) that has properties of Pseudo Noun Incorporation (PNI) in the sense of Massam (2001) and Dayal (2011). We take as a starting point Bliss’ (2018) analysis of bare nouns in Blackfoot. We verify some of her diagnostics for PNI including scope, number neutrality and adjacency with the verb. We observe that the object that has undergone PNI has more freedom than in Bliss’ original discussion; however, it does not have the full range of movement as a DP (a full noun phrase). We propose that the PNI object is able to undergo short scrambling, as found in many languages; however, the left-periphery is reserved for full DPs that participate in information structure (topic and focus).
Biased learning of phonological variation in line with typological principles
Youngah Do (The University of Hong Kong)
Research on learning biases in phonology has produced fruitful results (see Moreton & Pater 2012 for a review) but work in this field has predominantly assumed categorical phonology. Results from categorical pattern learning provide insights into phonological learning biases, but natural language phonology does not purely exhibit categorical patterns. In fact, variable patterns are prevalent in languages. If the goal of the learning bias research program is to link laboratory evidence to language acquisition and typology, it becomes equally imperative to understand the role of learning biases in the context of learning probabilistic and nondeterministic variable patterns. This talk presents series of artificial language learning studies with a primary focus on the learning of phonological patterns characterized by inherent variability. Studies with adult learners show that participants modulate the probabilistic distributions of variants toward phonetically better grounded patterns (i.e., rounding harmony over disharmony and intervocalic voicing over devoicing). We propose that learning of phonological variation is substantively biased. A study with preschoolers show that participants mirrored the overall variant dominance in their input while they chose phonetically better grounded patterns more frequently than in input, suggesting biased learning of variable patterns. Overall, the results suggest operable substantive bias for learning of variable phonological patterns both among adults and among preschoolers. I will discuss the implications of the presented studies to language acquisition, sound change, and typology.
Exemplar and category: Sociolinguistic priming and cumulative usage effect
Daiki Hashimoto (the University of Tokyo) [Full Abstract]
Many linguists used to compare the abstractionist view with the episodic view. As there is a plenty of evidence for both views, Pierrehumbert (2001) proposed a hybrid model called Exemplar Theory. This model posits both abstract representations (e.g., phonological category, lexical category, and social category) and episodic representations (i.e., exemplars with fine phonetic detail.). The aim of this talk is to outline Exemplar Theory and review several arguments for Exemplar Theory. Following the literature review, this talk provides two of my own studies with regards to New Zealand English (NZE), which are amenable to the prediction.