Multiple facets of constructional Arabic gender and ‘functional universalism’ in the DP

2018 ◽  
pp. 67-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdelkader Fassi Fehri
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Nominal Property ◽  
Classifier Languages ◽  
Or Groups

Rather than being confined to an intrinsic nominal property (of the low n), and expressing sex or animacy, gender is shown to be polysemous, contributing ‘unorthodox’ meanings such as quantity, perspective, evaluation, performativity, and interacting with various layers and categories in the nominal domain. It is then constructional, and distributed over the various syntactic projections, including RootP, nP, DivP, GroupP, and SAP (Speech Act Phrase). Appealing to data from Arabic varieties shows that gender plays the same role played by classifiers in South Asian classifier languages. Two alternating (and equivalent) modes of unitization are used in forming individual units or groups: (a) morphological gender builds singulatives or pluratives, and (b) pseudo-partitives contribute semi-lexical classifier structures. Close interactions between gender, classifier, and number (in addition to other interactions) make it difficult to account for linguistic variation through traditional typologies, and open the room for a more appropriate ‘functional universalism’.

Variation in Classifier Languages

2020 ◽  
pp. 255-305
Author(s):  
Li Julie Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Classifier Languages ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Bare Nominal ◽  
The One ◽  
Numeral Classifier ◽  
Nominal Arguments

Chapter 5 develops a uniform account of bare nominal arguments (i.e., bare numeral classifier phrases, bare classifier phrases, bare nouns) in classifier languages. It achieves that by extending the scope of discussion to more classifier languages. It starts with three points on which Mandarin and Nuosu Yi differ and which make this comparison interesting from the perspective of building a theory of cross-linguistic variation. Their differences are: (i) whether or not they have the function category D in their grammar, (ii) whether or not they freely allow numeral-less classifier phrases to appear in argument positions, as a result of applying covert argument formation operations unrestrictedly, and (iii) whether or not they allow one-deletion from the [one Cl N] phrase in the PF. Three parameters based on these differences account for the variation.

A New System of Cantonese one? Tone Perception and Production in Hong Kong South Asian Cantonese

2021 ◽  
pp. 002383092110460
Author(s):  
Alan C. L. Yu ◽  
Crystal W. T. Lee ◽  
Chen Lan ◽  
Peggy P. K. Mok
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Urban Neighborhoods ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
The South ◽  
Discrimination Accuracy ◽  
Ethnic Chinese ◽  
Hong Kong Cantonese ◽  
New System

Studies in language contact have identified many instances of linguistic variation and grammatical innovations introduced by speakers from multi-ethnic urban neighborhoods. This study focuses on the variety of Cantonese spoken by South Asian youths in Hong Kong, specifically their production and perception of Hong Kong Cantonese tones. Our findings show that the South Asian Cantonese speakers have a smaller tonal inventory than the canonical six-tone system of standard Hong Kong Cantonese and their tonal discrimination abilities are also more impoverished relative to their ethnic Chinese peers. Further analysis shows a positive correlation between tonal discrimination accuracy and tonal realization distinctness among the South Asian speakers, but not among the ethnic Chinese. These findings suggest that South Asian Cantonese speakers might have developed a distinct tone system from their ethnic Chinese peers.

scholarly journals A Cross-linguistic Study of Person Agreement in Imposter Constructions

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Kaori Furuya
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Object Relation ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Linguistic Study ◽  
Imposter Phenomenon ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Person Agreement

This paper provides an analysis of person agreement in the imposter phenomenon studied by Collins & Postal (2012). In the constructions, full DPs are used to refer to speech-act participants like personal pronouns. Nonetheless, person agreement caused by imposters morphsyntactically varies in a subject-verb relation and subject-object relation cross-linguistically. Moreover, members of the classes of imposters are also not identical among languages. These patterns differ from those of personal pronouns. The paper argues that dual properties of the person feature (semantic and morphological) do not always coincide, leading to agreement alternations in PF. Furthermore, the D head does not always involve the person feature value, which induces dialectal and cross-linguistic variation. The analysis shows that regardless of the cross-linguistic variations, the syntactic operation for agreement is uniform in imposter constructions.

scholarly journals Classifiers as Count Syntax: Individuation and Measurement in the Acquisition of Mandarin

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy Li ◽  
David Barner ◽  
Becky H. Huang
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Syntactic Knowledge ◽  
Mass Nouns ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Classifier Languages ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
English Speaking

The distinction between mass nouns (e.g., butter) and count nouns (e.g.,table) offers a test case for asking how the syntax and semantics ofnatural language are related, and how children exploit syntax-semanticsmappings when acquiring language. Virtually no studies have examined thisdistinction in classifier languages (e.g., Mandarin Chinese) due to thewidespread assumption that such languages lack mass-count syntax. However,Cheng and Sybesma (1998) argue that Mandarin encodes the mass-count at theclassifier level: classifiers can be categorized as “mass-classifiers” or“count-classifiers.” Mass and count classifiers differ in semanticinterpretation and occur in different syntactic constructions. The currentstudy is first an empirical test of Cheng and Sybesma’s hypothesis, andsecond, a test of the acquisition of putative mass and count classifiers bychildren learning Mandarin. Experiments 1 and 2 asked whethercount-classifiers select individuals and whether mass classifiers selectportions of stuff or groups of individual things. Adult Mandarin-speakersindeed showed this pattern of interpretation, while 4- to 6-year-olds hadnot fully mastered the distinction. Experiment 3 tested participants’syntactic sensitivity by asking them to match two syntactic constructions(one that supported the mass or portion reading and one that did not) totwo contrasting choices (a portion of an object and a whole object). Adevelopmental trend in syntactic knowledge was observed: adults were nearperfect and the older children were more likely than the younger childrento correctly match the contrasting phrases to their correspondingreferents. Thus, in three experiments we find support for Cheng andSybesma’s analysis, but also that children master the syntax and semanticsof Mandarin classifiers much later than English-speaking children acquireknowledge of the English mass-count distinction.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 334-343
Author(s):  
Li Julie Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Language Variation ◽  
Functional Category ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Number Marking ◽  
Classifier Languages ◽  
Nominal Arguments

Chapter 7 summarizes the major claims of this work and offers avenues for future research. The five claims are (i) bare numeral containing phrases have identical D-less structures in classifier and number marking languages; (ii) for classifier languages, it is not necessary to assume a functional category D to account for nominal arguments; (iii) the Universal DP Hypothesis is inadequate to account for cross-linguistic variation and makes different predications about classifier languages than those in this book; (iv) article determiners in classifier languages are expected; and (v) language variation is due primarily to four factors (outlined in the book).

scholarly journals Complexity in Egophoric Marking: From Agents to Attitude Holders

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Bergqvist ◽  
Dominique Knuchel
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Epistemic Authority ◽  
Participant Roles ◽  
The One

AbstractThe present paper considers attested variation found in egophoric marking systems in order to discuss the role of such variation for the defining features of egophoric marking viz. a speech-act participant's epistemic authority subject to his/her involvement in an event. Austin Hale's (1980) pioneering description of egophoric marking in Kathmandu Newar (called "conjunct/disjunct" by Hale) has largely shaped our conception of what such systems look like, but in recent years, research on comparable systems has revealed that egophoric marking systems vary with respect to every purportedly defining feature of such systems. The one remaining variable that appears constant is the epistemic authority of the speech-act participants. When attempting to analyze and compare egophoric marking, one should consider all relevant cross-linguistic variation in order to determine what features are defeasible, and which ones are not. In this paper we explore the range of participant-roles that can be associated with egophoric marking focusing on "secondary" egophoric markers that map onto undergoers, affected participants, and the attitudes of the speech-act participants. It will become clear that these less prototypical instances of egophoric marking bridge such systems to a seemingly unrelated grammatical constructions, known as "ethical datives".

scholarly journals LINGUISTIC VARIATION AMONG SOUTH ASIAN ENGLISHES: A CORPUS-BASED MULTIDIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Sadia Ali ◽  
Wasima Shehzad
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
American English ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Multidimensional Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
British English ◽  
Five Dimensions ◽  
The Press ◽  
Dimension 2

Pakistani English is considered to be a distinct variety of English on the basis of its comparison with British English and American English. However, this claim is partial as its distinction from other varieties of English particularly used in South Asia has not yet been established. Thus, there is a need to investigate the similarities and differences between Pakistani and South Asian Englishes, and to analyse how far Pakistani English is distinct from other South Asian Englishes. Therefore, the present study aims at analyzing the linguistic features of Pakistani English as a separate variety from other varieties of English used in India and Bangladesh. For this purpose, a corpus of Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi English newspaper reportage was developed and analyzed using Biber’s (1988) multivariate/ multidimensional approach. The findings indicated that Pakistani press reportage is different from Indian and Bangladeshi press reportage on all the five dimensions, especially on Dimension 2, in which Pakistani press reportage is narrative, while Bangladeshi press reportage is non-narrative in nature. On Dimension 3, the press reportage of Pakistan is highly explicit as compared to Indian and Bangladeshi press reportage. Further, the sub-categories of Pakistani press reportage also exhibit variation when compared to the sub-categories of Indian and Bangladeshi press reportage. The possible causes of linguistic variation among these countries are their culture and geographical origin. It is further suggested that South Asian Englishes are evolving rapidly and linguistic variation among them certainly be a worth researchable area. Keywords: Multidimensional analysis, Pakistani English, press reportage, South Asian Englishes, world Englishes. Cite as: Ali, S. & Shehzad, W. (2019). Linguistic variation among South Asian Englishes: A corpus-based multidimensional analysis. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 4(1), 69-92. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol4iss1pp69-92

Statistical gender indexicality in the grammar of vernacular Arabic varieties

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-238
Author(s):  
Ángeles Vicente
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Arabic Speaking

Abstract This paper studies how gender indexicality occurs in some vernacular Arabic varieties, as a phenomenon linked to linguistic variation. Its objective is to test the types of gender indexicality found in this context, and to describe the areas of grammar where they are applied, particularly concerning phonology and morphology. To do this, several different contexts within the Arabic-speaking communities have been analysed since the indexed form strictly depends on the background and may not be understood without an in-depth analysis of the social and cultural circumstances surrounding the speech-act. The analysed data, coming from specialized literature and fieldwork, show that some variants tend to index the gender of the speaker more than that of the addressee. Furthermore, gender indexicality in contexts of variation shows more often sex-preferential tendencies rather than sex-exclusive tendencies.

South Asian Stories: Firsthand Client Perspectives on Barriers to Accessing Speech-Language Pathology Services

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nidhi Mahendra
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Communication Disorders ◽  
Speech Language Pathology ◽  
Client Experiences ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Timely Access ◽  
Phenomenological Perspective ◽  
Case Vignettes ◽  
Language Pathology

This article details the experience of two South Asian individuals with family members who had communication disorders. I provide information on intrinsic and extrinsic barriers reported by these clients in responses to a survey and during individual ethnographic interviews. These data are part of a larger study and provide empirical support of cultural and linguistic barriers that may impede timely access to and utilization of speech-language pathology (SLP) services. The purpose of this article is to shed light on barriers and facilitators that influence South Asian clients' access to SLP services. I provide and briefly analyze two case vignettes to provide readers a phenomenological perspective on client experiences. Data about barriers limiting access to SLP services were obtained via client surveys and individual interviews. These two clients' data were extracted from a larger study (Mahendra, Scullion, Hamerschlag, Cooper, & La, 2011) in which 52 racially/ethnically diverse clients participated. Survey items and interview questions were designed to elicit information about client experiences when accessing SLP services. Results reveal specific intrinsic and extrinsic barriers that affected two South Asian clients' access to SLP services and have important implications for all providers.

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