Sakha 'da(qany)': Negative Polarity, Conjunction, and Focus

This paper discusses the quantifier particle da(qany) in the Siberian Turkic language Sakha (also known as "Yakut"). Focusing on its distribution in negative polarity items (NPIs) and doubled coordination constructions, it is shown that it has a distribution which is far more restricted than similar elements in other languages. In order to account for the semantics of this element, it is argued in an exhaustification-based theory of polarity sensitivity, that da(qany)'s main semantic contribution is to mark the alternative of its host as obligatorily active.

Acoustic properties of word and phrasal prominence in Uzbek

Based on a large-scale corpus of experimental data produced by 8 native speakers of Tashkent Uzbek, we assess the presence of canonical word-final stress in real words spoken in three dialogue types: without focus, with contrastive focus, and with new information focus on the target. The first context provides baseline information regarding the manifestation of stress, in the absence of additional focus properties. By comparing the latter two contexts with the former, we are also able to assess the acoustic manifestation of the two types of focus. The most noteworthy properties of the final syllable are its relatively long duration and sharp falling contour, potentially serving as the cues to lexical stress, and enhanced by both types of focus. Due to the word-final position of stress, however, the patterns we observe could also be consistent with boundary properties, a possibility we consider as well. In addition, we briefly compare the prosodic patterns we observe in Uzbek with similarly collected data in Turkish. We find that the prominence patterns in Uzbek, while not particularly strong, are nevertheless stronger than those in Turkish, and also exhibit crucial differences. Implications for Turkic prosody more generally are also suggested.

Turkish palatalized consonants

This study aims to explore the nature of consonant-final Turkish roots that select suffixes with front vowels despite having a back vowel in their final syllable, thus seemingly violating palatal harmony. While there is little controversy that final laterals in such roots are palatalized, opinions vary about the phonetic and phonological nature of the other final consonants. We want to argue that all word-final (or occasionally penultimate) consonants of these roots are palatalized, and that this palatalization is the underlying cause of ‘disharmony’. The phonetic evidence supporting our claims comes from an experiment in which we matched 12 irregular roots with their regular counterparts and asked 10 native speakers of Turkish to read these words. We found that, compared to ‘regular’ roots ending with a plain consonant, the final consonants of ‘irregular’ roots have a significantly higher F2. The last vowels of ‘irregular’ roots were also found to have a somewhat higher F2 than the last vowels of ‘regular’ roots at their offset, but the difference fairly rapidly decreases at vowel midpoint, and at vowel onset F2 values are very similar in both ‘regular’ and ‘irregular’ roots. These combined results suggest that the final consonant of the ‘irregular’ roots has an underlying palatal secondary articulation, while fronting in the preceding vowels is likely due to co-articulation.

Wh-questions in Balkar

This paper deals with the properties of wh-questions in Balkar. It is shown that wh-in-situ structures in Balkar are island insensitive (with an exception of coordinate structures). I discuss the complement/adjunct asymmetry regarding intervention effects. I also consider embedded multiple wh-structures. In this paper, I discuss a puzzle that the Balkar data presents to the prominent theories of wh-questions, which do not explain the properties it shows.

Restrictions on genitive subjects in Kazakh relative clauses

This article investigates two RC subject case marking strategies in Kazakh based on novel data coming from the author's fieldwork. The two strategies are the nom-subject strategy, where the RC subject is nominative and there is no agreement marking with it, and the gen-subject strategy, where the RC subject is genitive and the agreement with it is marked, seemingly non-locally, on the noun phrase modified by the RC. The paper's goal is to offer new empirical data on the characteristics and restrictions on the gen-subject strategy: the gen-DP is RC external and the same restrictions apply to it as to possessors, for this reason the paper argues that the gen-DP is situated (and gets case) in the possessor position and it is not assigned genitive case within the RC. Thus, the seemingly non-local Agree relation can be accounted if the gen-DP is in clause-external possessor position.

Tackling the Augmentative Puzzle in Turkish

This paper deals with the suffix -cIk in Turkish, and argues that the suffix -cIk has an augmentative meaning, as well as a diminutive meaning which has been mentioned in the literature extensively. The different meanings of the suffix -cIk are due to two different structures that I propose. While the structure of the diminutive is made of one single morpheme -cIk, that of the augmentative suffix is composed of two morphemes: -cI and -k. I offer phonotactic and morphological evidence that shows -k has its own life. I also show strict categorical selection properties for the diminutive and augmentative suffix: The augmentative one can only be attached to adjectival bases that express negative orderings. The diminutive -cIk, on the other hand, attaches to nouns. I capture this contrast using the nanosyntax model of spellout.

Towards a unified analysis of correlatives and indefinites in Balkar

In this paper we consider two morphosyntactically similar constructions in Balkar: correlative clauses and wh-indefinites. They both consist of three elements: (i) an interrogative pronoun, (ii) a verb marked by the conditional suffix -sa, and (iii) the particle da 'even'. We demonstrate that despite superficial similarities there are certain semantic and syntactic differences between them. Specifically, the correlatives are interpreted definitely and are merged as clausal adjuncts and the whindefinites function as indefinite NPs and are merged as arguments of the main predicate. We develop an analysis that maintains the contribution of wh-expressions and the particle da and argue that the point of divergence is the -sa marked element. While in correlatives it is a true verbal predicate, in wh-indefinites it is a grammaticalized marker that denotes a choice function.

Vowel Harmony and Other Morphological Processes in Turkish

Vowel harmony appears to be a regular phonological process in Turkish, but nevertheless is not exceptionless. Due to these exceptions, it cannot be considered as part of the active phonology of Turkish. An analysis is proposed in which morphology and lexicon control vowel harmony and other processes similar in this regard. Morphology is unlike other modules of grammar in requiring access to all of syntactic, semantic, and phonological properties to function. One of the roles of morphology is to give commands to the phonology during formation of a complex word, such as "Carry out vowel harmony!" The phonology need not account for why such a command does not accompany certain suffixes, why it does not apply to all roots, nor why other commands only accompany a few suffixes. More generally, there is no need for phonology to access morphological information in a modular model of grammar.

Abstract knowledge of emphatic reduplication in Turkish

This study investigated whether native speakers of Turkish have abstract knowledge regarding the principles guiding the selection of appropriate reduplicative forms in emphatic reduplication in Turkish. 14 native speakers of Turkish completed the study. The participants were asked to reduplicate 48 non-words in 4 experimental conditions where the number of segments and the phonological features of the word forms were manipulated. The 4 experimental conditions had VCV (e.g. /ukɑ/), CVC (e.g. /lɔt/), CVCV (e.g. /gεʒi/), and VCCV (e.g. /ɔhfɑ/) sequences. Each condition included 12 items. In each of the CVC, CVCV, and VCCV conditions, the base forms for 6 items did not include consonants used productively as interpolated consonants {p, m, s}. The next 6 conditions included {p, m, s} either as the first, or the second consonant in the base form of the non-word. The results indicated that the interpolated consonant in Turkish was taken from the set of {p, m, s}. Moreover, the interpolated consonant was sometimes identical to the second consonant of the base, but never to the first consonant. The most frequently produced interpolated consonant was {p}. In the VCV, and VCCV conditions, {m} was preferred over {s}. In the CVC, and CVCV conditions, {s} was preferred over {m}. The results demonstrate that Turkish native speakers were able to extend the reduplication strategies they employed in real words to non-words.

Multi-script morphological transducers and transcribers for seven Turkic languages

This paper describes ongoing work to augment morphological transducers for seven Turkic languages with support for multiple scripts each, as well as preliminary work adding IPA transcription systems. Evaluation demonstrates that our approach yields coverage equivalent to or not much lower than that of the base transducers.