This paper focuses on the e/i theme vowel class of verbs in Slovenian to bring together two seemingly unrelated debates; (i) the debate on the status of derivational affixes as roots within the framework of Distributed Morphology and (ii) the debate on the correlation between theme vowel classes with certain argument structures in Slavic. Focusing on Slovenian, our core data will come from active l-participles that are used adjectivally as an unaccusativity diagnostic. We take these l-participles to create a list of 109 unaccusative verbs. We show that (i) no unaccusative verbs belong to the two largest theme vowel classes in Slovenian (a/a and i/i), whereas (ii) the two big theme vowel classes tend to get accusative arguments quite frequently. Most importantly, (iii) the e/i-class stands out since more than one half of the unaccusative sample falls into. The e/i-class is furthermore the only theme vowel class whose theme vowel surfaces in adjectival l-participles, the theme vowel class to which inchoatives belong and behaves uniformly with respect to stress. Based on the uniform behavior of the e/i-class which sets it apart from other theme vowel-classes, we will argue that the vowel of this class is better analyzed as a root.
{"title":"Lowest theme vowels or highest roots? An ‘unaccusative’ theme-vowel class in Slovenian","authors":"M. Simonović, Petra Mišmaš","doi":"10.16995/glossa.5809","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5809","url":null,"abstract":"This paper focuses on the e/i theme vowel class of verbs in Slovenian to bring together two seemingly unrelated debates; (i) the debate on the status of derivational affixes as roots within the framework of Distributed Morphology and (ii) the debate on the correlation between theme vowel classes with certain argument structures in Slavic. Focusing on Slovenian, our core data will come from active l-participles that are used adjectivally as an unaccusativity diagnostic. We take these l-participles to create a list of 109 unaccusative verbs. We show that (i) no unaccusative verbs belong to the two largest theme vowel classes in Slovenian (a/a and i/i), whereas (ii) the two big theme vowel classes tend to get accusative arguments quite frequently. Most importantly, (iii) the e/i-class stands out since more than one half of the unaccusative sample falls into. The e/i-class is furthermore the only theme vowel class whose theme vowel surfaces in adjectival l-participles, the theme vowel class to which inchoatives belong and behaves uniformly with respect to stress. Based on the uniform behavior of the e/i-class which sets it apart from other theme vowel-classes, we will argue that the vowel of this class is better analyzed as a root.\u0000\u0000","PeriodicalId":46319,"journal":{"name":"Glossa-A Journal of General Linguistics","volume":"57 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90020117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper investigates the relationship between loanword adaptation and phonological borrowing by looking at the Mexican Plautdietsch speech community. Plautdietsch borrowings from Mexican Spanish sometimes undergo loanword adaptation to fit the native phonological system (e.g. Spanish [peso] > Plautdietsch [pəɪzo] 'peso'), but some community members exhibit a borrowed pattern of deaffrication that targets native lexical items (e.g. [dit͡ʃ ]) 'German' > [diʃ]). I show that the output of /t͡ʃ/ deaffrication in Mexican Plautdietsch follows the phonological pattern of northern Mexican Spanish deaffrication, rather than an inherited pattern that adapts loanwords from High German and Russian. I propose that while some mechanisms of phonetic and phonological interpretation are similar for both loanword adaptation and phonological borrowing, the novel Mexican Spanish pattern could have only entered the community due to the unique structure of phonological representation associated with advanced bilingualism. This prediction is borne out in the social distribution of deaffrication wherein men, who are expected to become advanced bilinguals, exhibit the innovation more than women. By adding a dimension of phonological representation to our models of loanword adaptation, we can expand the model's behavior to also account for outcomes involving the restructuring of the heritage language.
{"title":"Mechanisms of sub-phonemic change in prescriptive bilingualism: The case of Mexican Plautdietsch","authors":"Roslyn Burns","doi":"10.16995/glossa.5744","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5744","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the relationship between loanword adaptation and phonological borrowing by looking at the Mexican Plautdietsch speech community. Plautdietsch borrowings from Mexican Spanish sometimes undergo loanword adaptation to fit the native phonological system (e.g. Spanish [peso] > Plautdietsch [pəɪzo] 'peso'), but some community members exhibit a borrowed pattern of deaffrication that targets native lexical items (e.g. [dit͡ʃ ]) 'German' > [diʃ]). I show that the output of /t͡ʃ/ deaffrication in Mexican Plautdietsch follows the phonological pattern of northern Mexican Spanish deaffrication, rather than an inherited pattern that adapts loanwords from High German and Russian. I propose that while some mechanisms of phonetic and phonological interpretation are similar for both loanword adaptation and phonological borrowing, the novel Mexican Spanish pattern could have only entered the community due to the unique structure of phonological representation associated with advanced bilingualism. This prediction is borne out in the social distribution of deaffrication wherein men, who are expected to become advanced bilinguals, exhibit the innovation more than women. By adding a dimension of phonological representation to our models of loanword adaptation, we can expand the model's behavior to also account for outcomes involving the restructuring of the heritage language.","PeriodicalId":46319,"journal":{"name":"Glossa-A Journal of General Linguistics","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73005539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Grosu & Hoshi (2019:20), in their rejoinder to Kitagawa (2019), propose that apparent violations of island constraints in the so-called internally-headed relative clauses are accounted for by considering them as reduced doubly-headed relative clauses. This paper shows that this claim by Grosu and Hoshi is not empirically sustainable, and further that it misses the discourse function of doubly-headed relative clauses. A discussion of gapless light-headed externally-headed relative clauses is also presented so as to identify how this construction type interrelates with internally-headed relative clauses and doubly-headed relative clauses.
{"title":"Internally-headed and doubly-headed relatives in Japanese -- How are they related to each other?","authors":"C. Kitagawa, Shigeru Miyagawa","doi":"10.16995/glossa.5743","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5743","url":null,"abstract":"Grosu & Hoshi (2019:20), in their rejoinder to Kitagawa (2019), propose that apparent violations of island constraints in the so-called internally-headed relative clauses are accounted for by considering them as reduced doubly-headed relative clauses. This paper shows that this claim by Grosu and Hoshi is not empirically sustainable, and further that it misses the discourse function of doubly-headed relative clauses. A discussion of gapless light-headed externally-headed relative clauses is also presented so as to identify how this construction type interrelates with internally-headed relative clauses and doubly-headed relative clauses.","PeriodicalId":46319,"journal":{"name":"Glossa-A Journal of General Linguistics","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79112521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper discusses a class of French à-infinitival constructions, where the missing direct object corresponds to an external argument, either being the antecedent noun in an attributive use, or else a raised argument in a subject or object predication or in the tough construction. We investigate the internal and external properties of these constructions and show that (i) the construction displays passive-like properties and (ii) control and raising verbs may intervene between the marker à and the missing object verb, as shown on the basis of a corpus study. We observe that while the construction as a whole behaves like a passive where the erstwhile logical object ends up being promoted to external argument, the logical subject is still accessible for control, both from within the à-infinitive and from outside. Building on Grover (1995), we analyse these double subjects by way of a two-step passivisation, where the direct object valency is lexically promoted to subject without concomitant subject demotion. Raising of the missing object as a secondary subject will make it available on the marker à, which finally promotes it to external argument, thereby completing the passivisation effect. The present analysis thus captures the full set of à-infinitival missing object constructions in a unified fashion, capturing its passive-like properties and the extended domain of locality.
{"title":"French missing object constructions","authors":"Gabrielle Aguila-Multner, Berthold Crysmann","doi":"10.16995/glossa.6478","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.6478","url":null,"abstract":"This paper discusses a class of French à-infinitival constructions, where the missing direct object corresponds to an external argument, either being the antecedent noun in an attributive use, or else a raised argument in a subject or object predication or in the tough construction. We investigate the internal and external properties of these constructions and show that (i) the construction displays passive-like properties and (ii) control and raising verbs may intervene between the marker à and the missing object verb, as shown on the basis of a corpus study. We observe that while the construction as a whole behaves like a passive where the erstwhile logical object ends up being promoted to external argument, the logical subject is still accessible for control, both from within the à-infinitive and from outside. Building on Grover (1995), we analyse these double subjects by way of a two-step passivisation, where the direct object valency is lexically promoted to subject without concomitant subject demotion. Raising of the missing object as a secondary subject will make it available on the marker à, which finally promotes it to external argument, thereby completing the passivisation effect. The present analysis thus captures the full set of à-infinitival missing object constructions in a unified fashion, capturing its passive-like properties and the extended domain of locality.","PeriodicalId":46319,"journal":{"name":"Glossa-A Journal of General Linguistics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82937665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Grammont’s (1914) influential Law of Three Consonants (LTC) states that French schwa is obligatorily pronounced in any CC_C sequence to avoid three-consonant clusters. Later works have shown that schwa presence is also sensitive to the nature of the consonants involved, at least at the word and phrase levels. However the LTC is still generally considered as accurate under its original formulation to describe schwa-zero alternations at the stem level. The goal of the paper is to test whether the LTC should be relaxed even in this context. The paper presents two studies using judgment data to compare the behavior of schwa in derived words (stem-level phonology) and in inflected words (word-level phonology). The results of the two studies show that the nature of consonants involved in the CC_C sequence plays a role at both stem and word levels. Moreover, the same phonotactic asymmetries among consonant clusters are found in both contexts. The data therefore support a weaker version of the stem-level vs. word-level divide than what is usually assumed for French. This conclusion is strengthened by the results of a modeling study showing that a constraint-based grammar with the same phonotactic constraints across stem- and word-level phonologies provides a better fit to the judgment data from Study 1 and Study 2 than a grammar with different phononotactic constraints in the two morphosyntactic domains. The paper also replicates a number of earlier findings on the role of morphosyntactic domains, clash avoidance, and dialectal variation in schwa-zero alternations.
{"title":"Not only size matters: limits to the Law of Three Consonants in French phonology","authors":"Benjamin Storme","doi":"10.16995/glossa.5882","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5882","url":null,"abstract":"Grammont’s (1914) influential Law of Three Consonants (LTC) states that French schwa is obligatorily pronounced in any CC_C sequence to avoid three-consonant clusters. Later works have shown that schwa presence is also sensitive to the nature of the consonants involved, at least at the word and phrase levels. However the LTC is still generally considered as accurate under its original formulation to describe schwa-zero alternations at the stem level. The goal of the paper is to test whether the LTC should be relaxed even in this context. The paper presents two studies using judgment data to compare the behavior of schwa in derived words (stem-level phonology) and in inflected words (word-level phonology). The results of the two studies show that the nature of consonants involved in the CC_C sequence plays a role at both stem and word levels. Moreover, the same phonotactic asymmetries among consonant clusters are found in both contexts. The data therefore support a weaker version of the stem-level vs. word-level divide than what is usually assumed for French. This conclusion is strengthened by the results of a modeling study showing that a constraint-based grammar with the same phonotactic constraints across stem- and word-level phonologies provides a better fit to the judgment data from Study 1 and Study 2 than a grammar with different phononotactic constraints in the two morphosyntactic domains. The paper also replicates a number of earlier findings on the role of morphosyntactic domains, clash avoidance, and dialectal variation in schwa-zero alternations.","PeriodicalId":46319,"journal":{"name":"Glossa-A Journal of General Linguistics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78434524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sluicing has traditionally been analyzed as an operation involving wh-movement and deletion (Merchant 2001). French is a language that has both fronted and wh-in situ strategies; on the surface, however, it seems that French sluices do not involve (overt) movement, in spite of this being an available option. For nearly all wh-words, the in situ and moved forms are the same; the exception is que/quoi ‘what’— que is found in fronted wh-questions alone, while quoi is found in situ. In sluicing, only quoi surfaces, suggesting that French may be a challenge for the movement-and-deletion approach (Dagnac 2019). By formalizing an analysis within a late insertion approach to the syntax-morphology interface, I argue that not only do sluices in French involve full structure, but that they involve movement as well. I assume that the wh-word is initially represented in the syntactic derivation as an abstract feature bundle. The morphological form is determined in the mapping of syntax to morphology by locality-dependent Vocabulary Insertion (VI) rules that are sensitive to C. These rules apply only after ellipsis occurs. Following Thoms (2010), I argue that C is targeted in sluicing, and as a result destroys the context that would trigger que. This analysis is able to capture sluicing in French, while explaining the behavior of quoi more generally.
{"title":"Quoi-sluices in French","authors":"Megan Gotowski","doi":"10.16995/glossa.5793","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5793","url":null,"abstract":"Sluicing has traditionally been analyzed as an operation involving wh-movement and deletion (Merchant 2001). French is a language that has both fronted and wh-in situ strategies; on the surface, however, it seems that French sluices do not involve (overt) movement, in spite of this being an available option. For nearly all wh-words, the in situ and moved forms are the same; the exception is que/quoi ‘what’— que is found in fronted wh-questions alone, while quoi is found in situ. In sluicing, only quoi surfaces, suggesting that French may be a challenge for the movement-and-deletion approach (Dagnac 2019).\u0000By formalizing an analysis within a late insertion approach to the syntax-morphology interface, I argue that not only do sluices in French involve full structure, but that they involve movement as well. I assume that the wh-word is initially represented in the syntactic derivation as an abstract feature bundle. The morphological form is determined in the mapping of syntax to morphology by locality-dependent Vocabulary Insertion (VI) rules that are sensitive to C. These rules apply only after ellipsis occurs. Following Thoms (2010), I argue that C is targeted in sluicing, and as a result destroys the context that would trigger que. This analysis is able to capture sluicing in French, while explaining the behavior of quoi more generally.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46319,"journal":{"name":"Glossa-A Journal of General Linguistics","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87109180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper focuses on subject distribution in Greek and Chilean Spanish, both null subject languages, as evidenced in the oral production of monolingual and bilingual speakers. Narratives elicited from 40 monolinguals and 76 bilinguals of different types, namely, first-generation immigrants, heritage speakers and L2 speakers, were analysed to explore potential differences in expressing subject reference between the groups in monolingual and contact settings. The qualitative analysis of contexts of topic continuity and topic shift showed no overextension of the scope of the overt subject pronoun, expected to be found in the bilingual performance according to the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011, 2012) and previous research. The findings also show that the redundancy of lexical subjects observed in topic continuity contexts mostly involved felicitous (pragmatically appropriate) constructions. Moreover, while null subjects in topic shift were also found to be felicitous in both monolinguals and bilinguals, cases of ambiguity were observed in the bilingual performance in this discourse context.
{"title":"(In)felicitous use of subjects in Greek and Spanish in monolingual and contact settings","authors":"A. Giannakou, Ioanna Sitaridou","doi":"10.16995/glossa.5812","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5812","url":null,"abstract":"This paper focuses on subject distribution in Greek and Chilean Spanish, both null subject languages, as evidenced in the oral production of monolingual and bilingual speakers. Narratives elicited from 40 monolinguals and 76 bilinguals of different types, namely, first-generation immigrants, heritage speakers and L2 speakers, were analysed to explore potential differences in expressing subject reference between the groups in monolingual and contact settings. The qualitative analysis of contexts of topic continuity and topic shift showed no overextension of the scope of the overt subject pronoun, expected to be found in the bilingual performance according to the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011, 2012) and previous research. The findings also show that the redundancy of lexical subjects observed in topic continuity contexts mostly involved felicitous (pragmatically appropriate) constructions. Moreover, while null subjects in topic shift were also found to be felicitous in both monolinguals and bilinguals, cases of ambiguity were observed in the bilingual performance in this discourse context. \u0000\u0000","PeriodicalId":46319,"journal":{"name":"Glossa-A Journal of General Linguistics","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74505887","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This squib highlights a fundamental tension between the representations required for case syncretism versus the representations required for case priority. Case syncretism is captured with a feature decomposition based on the patterns established in Caha 2009. However, a different decomposition is required for case priority relations, which are instantiated in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS) numeral constructions and in BCS and German relative constructions. The squib proposes that this conflict can be resolved by introducing two levels of representation into the case system, where priority is determined by set structures in the syntax, while syncretism is analyzed following post-syntactic set unification.
{"title":"Two representations of case: Evidence from numerals and relatives","authors":"Anna Grabovac","doi":"10.16995/glossa.5822","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5822","url":null,"abstract":"This squib highlights a fundamental tension between the representations required for case syncretism versus the representations required for case priority. Case syncretism is captured with a feature decomposition based on the patterns established in Caha 2009. However, a different decomposition is required for case priority relations, which are instantiated in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS) numeral constructions and in BCS and German relative constructions. The squib proposes that this conflict can be resolved by introducing two levels of representation into the case system, where priority is determined by set structures in the syntax, while syncretism is analyzed following post-syntactic set unification.","PeriodicalId":46319,"journal":{"name":"Glossa-A Journal of General Linguistics","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87957376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Glossa’s Special Collection New perspectives on the NP/DP debate brings together syntactic analyses of various phenomena of complex nominals, shedding light on the central problem of their syntactic category label. In this paper, we survey arguments and analyses offered in the Special Collection, classifying their underlying assumptions and highlighting their relevance to syntactic theory more generally.
{"title":"DP, NP, or neither? Contours of an unresolved debate","authors":"Andreas Blümel, Anke Holler","doi":"10.16995/glossa.8326","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.8326","url":null,"abstract":"Glossa’s Special Collection New perspectives on the NP/DP debate brings together syntactic analyses of various phenomena of complex nominals, shedding light on the central problem of their syntactic category label. In this paper, we survey arguments and analyses offered in the Special Collection, classifying their underlying assumptions and highlighting their relevance to syntactic theory more generally.","PeriodicalId":46319,"journal":{"name":"Glossa-A Journal of General Linguistics","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88421351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Research on emergent sign languages suggests that younger sign languages may make greater use of the z-axis, moving outwards from the body, than more established sign languages when describing the relationships between participants and events (Padden, Meir, Aronoff, and Sandler, 2010). This has been suggested to reflect a transition from iconicity rooted in the body (Meir, Padden, Aronoff, and Sandler, 2007) towards a more abstract schematic iconicity. We present the results of an experimental investigation into the use of axis by signers of Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL). We analysed 1074 verb tokens elicited from NSL signers who entered the signing community at different points in time between 1974 and 2003. We used depth and motion tracking technology to quantify the position of signers’ wrists over time, allowing us to build an automated and continuous measure of axis use. We also consider axis use from two perspectives: a camera-centric perspective and a signer-centric perspective. In contrast to earlier work, we do not observe a trend towards increasing use of the x-axis. Instead we find that signers appear to have an overall preference for the z-axis. However, this preference is only observed from the camera-centric perspective. When measured relative to the body, signers appear to be making approximately equal use of both axes, suggesting the preference for the z-axis is largely driven by signers moving their bodies (and not just their hands) along the z-axis. We argue from this finding that language emergence patterns are not necessarily universal and that use of the x-axis may not be a prerequisite for the establishment of a spatial grammar.
对紧急手语的研究表明，年轻的手语在描述参与者和事件之间的关系时，可能比更成熟的手语更多地使用z轴，从身体向外移动(Padden, Meir, Aronoff, and Sandler, 2010)。这反映了从植根于身体的象似性(Meir, Padden, Aronoff, and Sandler, 2007)向更抽象的图式象似性的过渡。我们提出了一项实验调查的结果，使用轴尼加拉瓜手语(NSL)的签字人。我们分析了从1974年至2003年间不同时间点进入签名社区的NSL签名者中提取的1074个动词标记。我们使用深度和运动跟踪技术来量化签名者手腕随时间的位置，使我们能够建立一个自动和连续的轴使用测量。我们还从两个角度考虑轴的使用:以相机为中心的角度和以签名者为中心的角度。与早期的工作相反，我们没有观察到x轴使用增加的趋势。相反，我们发现签名者似乎对z轴有总体偏好。然而，这种偏好只能从以相机为中心的角度来观察。当相对于身体进行测量时，签名者似乎几乎相等地使用两个轴，这表明对z轴的偏好很大程度上是由签名者沿着z轴移动他们的身体(而不仅仅是他们的手)所驱动的。根据这一发现，我们认为语言出现模式不一定是普遍的，并且x轴的使用可能不是建立空间语法的先决条件。
{"title":"Language emergence can take multiple paths: Using motion capture to track axis use in Nicaraguan Sign Language","authors":"Asha Sato, S. Kirby, M. Flaherty","doi":"10.16995/glossa.6151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.6151","url":null,"abstract":"Research on emergent sign languages suggests that younger sign languages may make greater use of the z-axis, moving outwards from the body, than more established sign languages when describing the relationships between participants and events (Padden, Meir, Aronoff, and Sandler, 2010). This has been suggested to reflect a transition from iconicity rooted in the body (Meir, Padden, Aronoff, and Sandler, 2007) towards a more abstract schematic iconicity. We present the results of an experimental investigation into the use of axis by signers of Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL). We analysed 1074 verb tokens elicited from NSL signers who entered the signing community at different points in time between 1974 and 2003. We used depth and motion tracking technology to quantify the position of signers’ wrists over time, allowing us to build an automated and continuous measure of axis use. We also consider axis use from two perspectives: a camera-centric perspective and a signer-centric perspective. In contrast to earlier work, we do not observe a trend towards increasing use of the x-axis. Instead we find that signers appear to have an overall preference for the z-axis. However, this preference is only observed from the camera-centric perspective. When measured relative to the body, signers appear to be making approximately equal use of both axes, suggesting the preference for the z-axis is largely driven by signers moving their bodies (and not just their hands) along the z-axis. We argue from this finding that language emergence patterns are not necessarily universal and that use of the x-axis may not be a prerequisite for the establishment of a spatial grammar.","PeriodicalId":46319,"journal":{"name":"Glossa-A Journal of General Linguistics","volume":"8 1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86651467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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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