Abstract:A large amount of sentence-processing work has focused on revealing how the parser incrementally integrates each incoming word into the current linguistic representation. It is often explicitly or implicitly assumed that the structure endorsed by the parser should determine the ultimate interpretation of the sentence. The current study investigates whether the interpretive bias in sentence comprehension necessarily tracks the parsing bias. Our case study concerns the locality bias in nonlocal dependencies, specifically Mandarin wh-in-situ scope dependencies. Our findings suggest a misalignment between parsing and interpretative decisions at the global level. In particular, for Mandarin wh-in-situ constructions that involve scope ambiguity, there is a locality bias in parsing, but an antilocality bias in interpretation. Building upon the rational speech act framework, we propose a Bayesian pragmatic analysis to account for these findings. Under our proposal, the seeming conflict between parsing and interpretation will ultimately disappear because parsing preferences will be naturally embedded under the pragmatic reasoning process to generate the ultimate interpretation. The current study therefore makes novel contributions, both empirically and theoretically, to addressing the broader question about the relationship between parsing and interpretation.
{"title":"When parsing and interpretation misalign: A case of WH-scope ambiguity in Mandarin","authors":"M. Xiang, Zhewei Dai, Suiping Wang","doi":"10.1353/lan.2023.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2023.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:A large amount of sentence-processing work has focused on revealing how the parser incrementally integrates each incoming word into the current linguistic representation. It is often explicitly or implicitly assumed that the structure endorsed by the parser should determine the ultimate interpretation of the sentence. The current study investigates whether the interpretive bias in sentence comprehension necessarily tracks the parsing bias. Our case study concerns the locality bias in nonlocal dependencies, specifically Mandarin wh-in-situ scope dependencies. Our findings suggest a misalignment between parsing and interpretative decisions at the global level. In particular, for Mandarin wh-in-situ constructions that involve scope ambiguity, there is a locality bias in parsing, but an antilocality bias in interpretation. Building upon the rational speech act framework, we propose a Bayesian pragmatic analysis to account for these findings. Under our proposal, the seeming conflict between parsing and interpretation will ultimately disappear because parsing preferences will be naturally embedded under the pragmatic reasoning process to generate the ultimate interpretation. The current study therefore makes novel contributions, both empirically and theoretically, to addressing the broader question about the relationship between parsing and interpretation.","PeriodicalId":17956,"journal":{"name":"Language","volume":"99 1","pages":"1 - 37"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42807337","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Arunachalam, Nick Bednar, Lindsay Burns, María Cobo Nieto, Laura Wagner
Abstract:This article describes a novel program of language science engagement, called CogSciDIY: Language Science. This program combines features from citizen science and participatory-action research in an innovative way to promote science understanding. Language science is rarely covered in these domains, so the program provides a unique opportunity for nonlinguists to learn more about the field. Using an interactive online platform, members of the general public assisted a research team in identifying a research question, designing an experiment to test that question, and interpreting the results of the experiment. The program provided guided support for the participants to learn about both language science content and the scientific method more generally. User outcomes in the form of participation analytics and an internal evaluation survey suggest that this program has promise for helping the general public to better understand the scientific dimensions of language study.
{"title":"Show don't tell: Engaging the public in language science through a participatory experiment","authors":"S. Arunachalam, Nick Bednar, Lindsay Burns, María Cobo Nieto, Laura Wagner","doi":"10.1353/lan.0.0277","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.0.0277","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article describes a novel program of language science engagement, called CogSciDIY: Language Science. This program combines features from citizen science and participatory-action research in an innovative way to promote science understanding. Language science is rarely covered in these domains, so the program provides a unique opportunity for nonlinguists to learn more about the field. Using an interactive online platform, members of the general public assisted a research team in identifying a research question, designing an experiment to test that question, and interpreting the results of the experiment. The program provided guided support for the participants to learn about both language science content and the scientific method more generally. User outcomes in the form of participation analytics and an internal evaluation survey suggest that this program has promise for helping the general public to better understand the scientific dimensions of language study.","PeriodicalId":17956,"journal":{"name":"Language","volume":"99 1","pages":"e1 - e17"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44312514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:We present a comparative analysis of English and Hungarian reprise fragments. We argue that reprise fragments should be afforded the same theoretical treatment as standard (i.e. nonreprise) fragments. Assuming that standard fragmentary answers and questions are remnants of an ellipsis operation that applies to a clause, this entails that reprise fragments are also remnants of clausal ellipsis. We show that the prevailing approach to standard fragments, which assumes that the remnant of ellipsis always undergoes movement (Merchant 2001, 2004), cannot be plausibly extended to explain the crosslinguistic reprise-fragment data. We argue that a theory is required that restricts antecedents to interrogatives and that allows—but crucially does not require—movement of the remnant. Under this account, the differences observed between English and Hungarian reprise and standard fragments follow from independent syntactic differences in how standard and reprise questions are formed in these languages. We therefore provide new evidence to support theories of ellipsis identity that state that only questions make for suitable antecedents for clausal ellipsis (so-called Q-equivalence approaches) and to support sententialist analyses of clausal ellipsis that permit ellipsis to occur around designated constituents (so-called in-situ approaches).
{"title":"Reprise fragments in English and Hungarian: Further support for an in-situ Q-equivalence approach to clausal ellipsis","authors":"J. Griffiths, Güliz Güneş, A. Lipták","doi":"10.1353/lan.2023.0000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2023.0000","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:We present a comparative analysis of English and Hungarian reprise fragments. We argue that reprise fragments should be afforded the same theoretical treatment as standard (i.e. nonreprise) fragments. Assuming that standard fragmentary answers and questions are remnants of an ellipsis operation that applies to a clause, this entails that reprise fragments are also remnants of clausal ellipsis. We show that the prevailing approach to standard fragments, which assumes that the remnant of ellipsis always undergoes movement (Merchant 2001, 2004), cannot be plausibly extended to explain the crosslinguistic reprise-fragment data. We argue that a theory is required that restricts antecedents to interrogatives and that allows—but crucially does not require—movement of the remnant. Under this account, the differences observed between English and Hungarian reprise and standard fragments follow from independent syntactic differences in how standard and reprise questions are formed in these languages. We therefore provide new evidence to support theories of ellipsis identity that state that only questions make for suitable antecedents for clausal ellipsis (so-called Q-equivalence approaches) and to support sententialist analyses of clausal ellipsis that permit ellipsis to occur around designated constituents (so-called in-situ approaches).","PeriodicalId":17956,"journal":{"name":"Language","volume":"99 1","pages":"154 - 191"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41761503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Minimalist parsing ed. by Robert C. Berwick and Edward P. Stabler","authors":"C. Chesi","doi":"10.1353/lan.2022.0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2022.0024","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17956,"journal":{"name":"Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44298459","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
While infixation and allomorphy have long been investigated as independent phenomena (see, e.g., Ultan 1975, Moravcsik 1977, Yu 2007 on infixation, and Carstairs 1987, Paster 2006, Veselinova 2006 on allomorphy), relatively little is known about what happens when infixation and allomorphy coincide. This paper presents the results of the first cross-linguistic study of allomorphy involving infixation, considering 49 case studies from 40 languages (13 language families). Allomorphy and infixation interact in consistent, systematic ways, suggestive of a universal architecture of the morphosyntax-phonology interface. More specifically, the findings support the type of serial architecture proposed by Distributed Morphology and related approaches (Halle and Marantz 1993, 1994, Embick 2010, Bye and Svenonius 2012), and run counter to fully parallel models (e.g., McCarthy and Prince 1993a,b, Prince and Smolensky 1993) and those that take infixation to be “direct” (e.g., Inkelas 1990, Yu 2007, Wolf 2008).
{"title":"Infixes really are (underlyingly) prefixes/suffixes: Evidence from allomorphy on the fine timing of infixation","authors":"Laura Kalin","doi":"10.1353/lan.2022.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2022.0017","url":null,"abstract":"While infixation and allomorphy have long been investigated as independent phenomena (see, e.g., Ultan 1975, Moravcsik 1977, Yu 2007 on infixation, and Carstairs 1987, Paster 2006, Veselinova 2006 on allomorphy), relatively little is known about what happens when infixation and allomorphy coincide. This paper presents the results of the first cross-linguistic study of allomorphy involving infixation, considering 49 case studies from 40 languages (13 language families). Allomorphy and infixation interact in consistent, systematic ways, suggestive of a universal architecture of the morphosyntax-phonology interface. More specifically, the findings support the type of serial architecture proposed by Distributed Morphology and related approaches (Halle and Marantz 1993, 1994, Embick 2010, Bye and Svenonius 2012), and run counter to fully parallel models (e.g., McCarthy and Prince 1993a,b, Prince and Smolensky 1993) and those that take infixation to be “direct” (e.g., Inkelas 1990, Yu 2007, Wolf 2008).","PeriodicalId":17956,"journal":{"name":"Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47431872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Since Aristotle first set out rules of natural priority, rhetoricians and linguists have sought to establish the ‘natural order’ of words, phrases, and clauses. Accounts of constituent order by classical rhetoricians and philologists and by modern linguists and psychologists have addressed word order within phrases and phrasal order within clauses. However, they have not tended to investigate clausal order within sentences, with the important but limited exception of narration sequences (They had a baby and they got married), which—as recognized from Dionysius (‘What is prior in time should also be prior in word order’) to Grice (‘Be orderly’)—exhibit a robust but defeasible iconic link between order of events and order of mention. For clauses exhibiting the rhetorical relation of contrast rather than narration, the literature is less perspicuous. It is on such cases that I focus here, inspired by behaghel’s second law (1932:4): ‘That which is less important (or already known to the listener) is placed before that which is more important (or unknown) … Old concepts are placed before new’.
{"title":"Contrast and clausal order: On beyond Behaghel","authors":"Laurence R. Horn","doi":"10.1353/lan.2022.0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2022.0022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Since Aristotle first set out rules of natural priority, rhetoricians and linguists have sought to establish the ‘natural order’ of words, phrases, and clauses. Accounts of constituent order by classical rhetoricians and philologists and by modern linguists and psychologists have addressed word order within phrases and phrasal order within clauses. However, they have not tended to investigate clausal order within sentences, with the important but limited exception of narration sequences (They had a baby and they got married), which—as recognized from Dionysius (‘What is prior in time should also be prior in word order’) to Grice (‘Be orderly’)—exhibit a robust but defeasible iconic link between order of events and order of mention. For clauses exhibiting the rhetorical relation of contrast rather than narration, the literature is less perspicuous. It is on such cases that I focus here, inspired by behaghel’s second law (1932:4): ‘That which is less important (or already known to the listener) is placed before that which is more important (or unknown) … Old concepts are placed before new’.","PeriodicalId":17956,"journal":{"name":"Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42458158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This article describes a pedagogical innovation implemented in our introductory linguistics course. We supplement classic theory building with a series of labs, deployed through a co-requisite ‘lab’ course that meets weekly. This builds on two previously established teaching strategies: the implementation of hands-on activities in linguistics classrooms, and the lab sections traditionally utilized in the natural sciences. The labs aim to fulfill three goals: (i) to better represent the field of linguistics in our introductory course, (ii) to help students solidify theories and connect them to the real world, and (iii) to teach practical skills for linguistics research and more broadly.
{"title":"Furthering student engagement: Lab sections in introductory linguistics","authors":"Kaitlyn P. Harrigan, Anya Hogoboom, L. Cochrane","doi":"10.1353/lan.2022.0028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2022.0028","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article describes a pedagogical innovation implemented in our introductory linguistics course. We supplement classic theory building with a series of labs, deployed through a co-requisite ‘lab’ course that meets weekly. This builds on two previously established teaching strategies: the implementation of hands-on activities in linguistics classrooms, and the lab sections traditionally utilized in the natural sciences. The labs aim to fulfill three goals: (i) to better represent the field of linguistics in our introductory course, (ii) to help students solidify theories and connect them to the real world, and (iii) to teach practical skills for linguistics research and more broadly.","PeriodicalId":17956,"journal":{"name":"Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42466725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:In many cases of stress-dependent harmony the trigger is associated with a morpheme. We examine two instances of morphemic harmony where the triggering morpheme is mixed, that is, it consists of segmental material and floating features. The floating features cause stepwise raising of the stressed vowel, /a/ → [e], and /e/ → [i], /o/ → [u]. We examine in particular Felechosa Asturian, where the triggering masculine singular count morpheme usually has the exponent /-o/ and the floating features [+high] and [−low]. When the stressed vowel is mid, /-o/ raises it to high (/neɡɾ-o/ → [ˈniɣɾ-o]). When the stressed vowel is /a/, the suffix raises this vowel to [e] as predicted, but at the same time the triggering morph /-o/ raises to [u] (/blank-o/ → [ˈbleŋk-u]). This phenomenon, which we call harmony in situ, derives from the fact that, because raising is stepwise, one of the floating features cannot link to the stressed vowel, and thus it has to be realized on the trigger itself. Felechosa Asturian is compared to Ḷḷena Asturian, which does not present harmony in situ, and an optimality-theoretic analysis is provided.
{"title":"Stress-dependent harmony in Asturian and harmony in situ","authors":"J. Mascaró, Francesc Torres-Tamarit","doi":"10.1353/lan.2022.0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2022.0018","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In many cases of stress-dependent harmony the trigger is associated with a morpheme. We examine two instances of morphemic harmony where the triggering morpheme is mixed, that is, it consists of segmental material and floating features. The floating features cause stepwise raising of the stressed vowel, /a/ → [e], and /e/ → [i], /o/ → [u]. We examine in particular Felechosa Asturian, where the triggering masculine singular count morpheme usually has the exponent /-o/ and the floating features [+high] and [−low]. When the stressed vowel is mid, /-o/ raises it to high (/neɡɾ-o/ → [ˈniɣɾ-o]). When the stressed vowel is /a/, the suffix raises this vowel to [e] as predicted, but at the same time the triggering morph /-o/ raises to [u] (/blank-o/ → [ˈbleŋk-u]). This phenomenon, which we call harmony in situ, derives from the fact that, because raising is stepwise, one of the floating features cannot link to the stressed vowel, and thus it has to be realized on the trigger itself. Felechosa Asturian is compared to Ḷḷena Asturian, which does not present harmony in situ, and an optimality-theoretic analysis is provided.","PeriodicalId":17956,"journal":{"name":"Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45432057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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