Deriving the Wug-Shaped Curve: A Criterion for Assessing Formal Theories of Linguistic Variation

In this review, I assess a variety of constraint-based formal frameworks that can treat variable phenomena, such as well-formedness intuitions, outputs in free variation, and lexical frequency-matching. The idea behind this assessment is that data in gradient linguistics fall into natural mathematical patterns, which I call quantitative signatures. The key signatures treated here are the sigmoid curve, going from zero to one probability, and the wug-shaped curve, which combines two or more sigmoids. I argue that these signatures appear repeatedly in linguistics, and I adduce examples from phonology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, phonetics, and language change. I suggest that the ability to generate these signatures is a trait that can help us choose between rival frameworks.

On the interplay between tense marking, aspect and temporal continuity in Udora Komi

The Udora dialect of Zyrian Komi lacks the morphological opposition between the present and future tenses that is found in other Komi dialects and the written standard. The morphemes corresponding to these tenses are, however, found in this dialect, with individual verbs showing a strong tendency to choose one of the two. This study shows that the two morphemes are not in free variation but rather carry various grammatical meanings, and that the variants are strongly connected to the lexical aspect of individual verbs. Due to the rigidity of the system, the authors refer to the variants here as conjugation types. The -as- conjugation type, which corresponds to the Standard Komi future marker, occurs with all transitive verbs and a majority of intransitive verbs. However, the study also identifies a group of intransitive verbs occurring with the conjugation type -e̮-. The verbs in the latter group can be analysed as temporally continuous. Additionally, there are other subgroupings that can be postulated, including verbs that describe involuntary actions. The system interacts in a predictable manner with Komi derivational morphology. The study also corroborates the previously proposed historical connection between this characteristic of verbal morphology in the Udora dialect and Old Komi. The authors suggest that the verbal morphology seen in these Komi varieties must predate the contemporary tense system. The study provides a new direction for analysing the development of the tense system in the Permic languages, as it is shown that the factors underlying the variation extend beyond transitivity. As a previously undescribed phenomenon, the study describes the use of the Udora conjugation types in narrative tense structuring and demonstrate parallels with Standard Komi.

The sounds of Tawrã (Digaru-Mishmi), a Tibeto-Burman language

The present study is a phonological analysis of the segments and tones of the Tawrã language (ISO 69-3: mhu; Glottolog: Diga1241), a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Arunachal Pradesh, India, and in Tibet, China. This paper, the first collaboration between a Tawrã-speaking non-linguist and a non-Tawrã-speaking linguist, attempts to clear up some confusion in the existing literature. For example, previous studies did not note that stop codas /-p, -k/ are in free variation with glides [-w, -j, ɰ], and that the morpheme, rather than the syllable, is the tone-bearing unit. Acoustic analyses provide justification for the phonemic representation of the vowels and the tones. Finally, the paper is designed to introduce Tawrã speakers to the recently standardized (2020) orthography, and to show how the letters and letter combinations function together as a system.

Word-stress free variation in Nigerian English

English, in the course of its progressive evolution and global spread, has had contacts with different languages (Hogg & Denison, 2006) which have led to the emergence of native and non-native varieties spoken in different countries of the world. This, in part, has resulted in variable pronunciations of English lexical items, such as anti- pronounced as /ænti/ or /æntaɪ/ at the segmental level and adult as /'ædʌlt/ or /ə'dʌlt/ at the suprasegmental level of stress (Hogg & Denison, 2006). In addition to this, phonological free variation in English has been motivated by phonetic processes, phonological changes and sociolinguistic factors, among others (Shitara, 1993; Mompean, 2010).

Liedkultur des 17. Jahrhunderts als Übersetzungskultur

ZusammenfassungIn our paper we analyse translations of Italian and French songs into German from the late sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century. The methods of translation employed range from a narrow focus on the words and music of the original song to free variation. Analysing the bimedial relationship of words and music is the principal focus of our study. We ask: What consequences does a translation have for the text-sound relationship? In the first part of the study, we develop a heuristic methodology that describes this phenomenon while taking into account the cultural context of each translation. In the second part, we put this model to the test by examining a prominent song collection: Heinrich Albert’s Arien oder Melodeyen (Königsberg, 1638–1650), which contains a large number of as yet unidentified French and Italian originals. Two case studies on the translation of an Air de Cour and an Italian aria, as well as reflections on the digital accessibility of song translation, conclude the paper.

Analyzing free variation with harmony – A case study of verb-cluster serialization

In German, a verb selected by another verb normally precedes the selecting verb. Modal verbs in the perfect tense provide an exception to this generalization because they require the perfective auxiliary to occur in cluster-initial position according to prescriptive grammars. Bader and Schmid (2009b) have shown, however, that native speakers accept the auxiliary in all positions except the cluster-final one. Experimental results as well as corpus data indicate that verb cluster serialization is a case of free variation. I discuss how this variation can be accounted for, focusing on two mismatches between acceptability and frequency: First, slight acceptability advantages can turn into strong frequency advantages. Second, syntactic variants with basically zero frequency can still vary substantially in acceptability. These mismatches remain unaccounted for if acceptability is related to frequency on the level of whole sentence structures, as in Stochastic OT (Boersma and Hayes2001). However, when the acceptability-frequency relationship is modeled on the level of individual weighted constraints, using harmony as link (see Pater2009, for different harmony based frameworks), the two mismatches follow given appropriate linking assumptions.

廣東省大埔縣高陂鎮與湖寮鎮客家話小稱詞調查研究

<p>本研究調查廣東省大埔縣湖寮鎮與高陂鎮客家話小稱詞（綴/調），採用依調類分類的152個客家話常用單音節詞根語素做為調查字表，每個鎮選取兩位發音人調查，調查結果總結如下：（一）湖寮與高陂客家話小稱詞均以詞根語素後接小稱詞綴的方式呈現，小稱詞綴為[(t)ə31]。當小稱詞綴前的詞根語素為[-m, -n, -ŋ, -p, -t, -k]等輔音結尾時，小稱詞綴為[mə31, nə31, ŋə31, pə31, tə31, kə31]。當詞根語素以[a]結尾時，高陂鎮與湖寮鎮小稱詞綴使用[lə31]，高陂鎮烏槎村則使用[ə31]。（二）高陂客家話有[35]及[55]兩個出現於詞根語素的連讀變調（均非本調），前者出現於陰平調字，後者則出現於去聲調字。湖寮客家話只有一個出現於陰平調字詞根語素的連讀變調[55]（亦非本調）。湖寮與高陂客家話上聲調字與入聲調字均透過後接小稱詞綴來形成小稱詞，詞根語素無連讀變調產生。（三）湖寮客家話陰入調詞根語素後接小稱詞綴時有[tə31]或[tə55]兩種形式，這種自由變異顯示出小稱詞綴形態演變的過渡階段。（四）就整個音系而言，高陂客家話讀為[am, ap]韻者，湖寮客家話則讀為[aŋ, ak]韻，且只出現於韻核為[a]時，這種變化與發音簡化、元音舌位高度、鼻音發音位置前後，以及漢語方言韻尾演變有關。（五）大埔縣小稱詞綴的形態演變過程為[tə55] &rarr; [(t)ə55/31] &rarr; [(t)ə31]。最後，本研究將高陂與湖寮客家話小稱詞的調查結果與東勢客家話小稱詞的相關研究相互連結，企圖為東勢客家話小稱調的來源提供更合理的解釋。</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><p>This study targeted to investigate the diminutives of Hakka dialects spoken in Gaopi and Huliao townships in Dapu County, Guangdong. The word list used for the fieldwork survey included 152 common monosyllabic stems. Two speech informants in each township joined the study. They were asked to read the lexical tones, the sandhi tones, and the diminutives in their own dialects. The results are summarized as follows. First, diminutives are formed in the two townships by stems plus diminutive suffixes [(t)ə31]. When stems end with [-m, -n, -ŋ, -p, -t, -k], diminutive suffixes will surface as [mə31, nə31, ŋə31, pə31, tə31, kə31]. When stems end with [a], the diminutive suffix emerges as [lə31]. Second, two sandhi tones [35/55] occur in Gaopi Hakka, but only one sandhi tone [55] occurs in Huliao Hakka. Both [35] and [55] are not lexical tones in these two Hakka dialects. Third, two diminutive suffixes are used to form diminutives for Yinru stems in Huliao Hakka, and such free variation shows a transitional stage between diminutive suffixes. Fourth, [am, ap] rimes in Gaopi are systematically changed to [aŋ, ak] rimes in Huliao. This change may result from ease of articulation, vowel height, place of nasals, and coda development in Chinese dialects. Fifth, diminutive suffixes in Dapu Hakka undergoes a series of changing stages, that is, [tə55]&rarr;[(t)ə55/31]&rarr;[(t)ə31]. Finally, this study links the results to the diminutives in Dongshi Hakka, and attempts to offer reasonable explanations for the origin of the diminutive tones in Dongshi Hakka.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

Resumption and Optionality in Arabic Definite Restrictive Relatives

The present study examines the claim that definite relative clauses in Modern Standard Arabic exhibit free variation between resumptive pronouns and gaps. The implication of such a claim presents a problem for minimalist syntax that does not tolerate true optionality. To solve this problem, the study argues that the original claim is incorrect and that despite similarities in the PF outputs, resumptive relatives are syntactically different from gapped relatives. While the latter is derived from a standard VSO structure, I propose, the former is derived from a topic-comment structure that already contains an RP. Thus, the fact that resumptive relatives contain resumptive pronouns has nothing to do with relativization, as is generally assumed. The study demonstrates that both resumptive relatives and gapped relatives are derived by movement in contexts that do not involve islands. As it turns out, resumption in relatives is used only as a last resort strategy to save structures in which movement is genuinely blocked, such as islands, from crash. Altogether the study concludes that the variation observed does not reflect true optionality, a finding that supports robust economy principles of minimalist syntax.

A Constraint-based Analysis of Velar Affrication in Najdi vs. Hijazi Arabic

This paper attempts to account for the velar affrication in Najdi Arabic (NA) and its absence in Hijazi Arabic (HA). While NA consistently alters /k/ into [ts], and /ɡ/ into [dz], HA retains the velars and as such is more faithful to standard Arabic. The analysis follows from an Optimality-Theoretic (OT) framework (Prince and Smolensky, 1993) explicating different constraint interactions and introducing new markedness constraints. It is argued that the realizations of the velars as [k] and [ɡ] are in free variation distribution with their allophonic affricate counterparts [ts] and [dz], respectively, although the two variants of the same phoneme alternate under phonologically conditioned contexts.

Nuer Tonal inventory

The tonal system of Nuer has been a matter of much uncertainty. Here we present empirical evidence in favor of a three toneme system with some typologically rare features. One of them is an intriguing case of allotony based on the phonation of the vowel: the High toneme has a falling allotone over modal vowels. Moreover, the Rising toneme has four allotones: a rising, a mid, a low and a falling allotone. The falling allotone of the Rising toneme also occurs only on modal vowels in specific contexts. We suggest that some of the allotonic variation is motivated by tonal contour simplification. We also point out the role of free variation in some of the allotonic alternations, and the constraints that put limits on the free variation between allotones.