Volume 20, Winter 1998

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    Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 20, Winter 1998
    (University of Calgary, 1998-01) Blair, Leslie; Burns, Christine; Rowsell, Lorna V
    The editors of this volume, Leslie Blair, Christine Bums and Lorna Rowsell are pleased to present the twentieth issue of the Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics published by the department of Linguistics at the University of Calgary. The papers contained in this volume represent works in progress and as such should not be considered in any way final or definitive.
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    Using digital technology in a voice lesson
    (University of Calgary, 1998-01) Bell, Donald M
    Using new technology requires the pedagogue to research the areas of physiology and acoustics that pertain to phonation. The technology of vocal amplification through sound systems becomes clearer to the user when an analysis defines the results and shows that microphones do not correct vocal faults - they merely amplify them. Some sound systems synthetically add in harmonics. In such cases, the singer is noted as a better recording studio singer than performing artist. Experience tells us that it is better to bring all the tools a voice requires - a full range of harmonics and a pleasing vibrato - with us, rather than rely on recording technology to supply the missing elements. The following sections demonstrate some applications of digital technology to vocal analysis and pedagogy.
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    The University of Calgary phonetic inventory: an instructional tool for students and teachers of phonetics
    (University of Calgary, 1998-01) Mills, Timothy Ian
    This article is an overview of a multimedia phonetics program being developed at the University of Calgary under the supervision of Doctor Michael B. Dobrovolsky as an instructional supplement to introductory phonetics courses. The program's name is the University of Calgary Phonetic Inventory, or UCPI. UCPI is a program being developed under funding to Professor Dobrovolsky of the Linguistics department from LEE, the University of Calgary's Learning Enhancement Envelope program. As a tool to help develop the phonetic perception of budding linguists, UCPI will provide students with a large quantity of transcription practice through exposure to digitally recorded word lists in different languages. It will also include a series of tutorials to guide them systematically through the topics covered in an introductory phonetics course.
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    Var mı, yok mu? ("Does it or doesn't it exist?"): the Altaic dilemma (or: Aru, nai?)
    (University of Calgary, 1998-01) Mills, Timothy Ian
    This paper is an overview of arguments for the relatedness of the two languages demonstrated in the title - Turkish and Japanese - and the series of language groups between the two, including the rest of the Turkic languages, the Mongolian and Manchu-Tungus families, and Korean, the close sister of Japanese. The Altaic family is a hypothesized genetic unity including the subfamilies of Turkic, Mongolian, and Manchu-Tungus, as well as the fringe languages of Japanese and Korean. The great geographical expanse of these languages encourages scepticism until one considers that Indo-European is said to reach from Icelandic to Hindi. Having had less attention in studies of historical linguistics than lndo-European, the existence of the Altaic family is still hotly debated among scholars.
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    Reflexivity and Chinese anaphors: a review of Reinhart and Reuland's Reflexivity
    (University of Calgary, 1998-01) Baggaley, Valerie
    As a departure from Standard Binding Theory, Reinhart and Reuland (1993) argue that binding is about the reflexive properties and interpretation of predicates. This paper provides a summary of this theory of reflexivity and then applies it to Chinese data. Reinhart and Reuland's Condition A and Bare applied to Chinese anaphors and, in several instances, fail to predict the correct results. The binding conditions are found to be too restrictive for they predict ungrammatical sentences, when in fact, the sentences are grammatical; hence reflexivity fails to capture the full range of reflexivity in Chinese.
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    The acquisition of voicing contrasts in word-initial obstruent stops
    (University of Calgary, 1998-01) Onslow, Jacquie
    This paper presents two different perspectives on the acquisition of voicing in word-initial stops, in order to determine the patterns that children follow when acquiring the voicing contrasts of a language. The first contains a discussion based on voice onset time (VOT), the most commonly used method of testing voicing contrasts in speech. According to Macken and Barton (1980), "VOT refers to the time interval between the release of stop closure and the onset of vocal fold vibration." The last perspective is based on the underspecification theory presented from a nonlinear point of view, a more recent approach to phonology that relies heavily on distinctive features, in this case the features [voice] and [spread] under the laryngeal node.This paper will also argue that cross-linguistically the voiceless member of a stop pair is more common than the voiced member, and it is also acquired earlier by children. The evidence from languages like English, where the voiced member is predominant in both children's and adult output speech, challenges this statement. Therefore I think that it is important to address this statement with respect to the English language.
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    On superiority effects in Russian
    (University of Calgary, 1998-01) Karpacheva, Olga
    In this paper I argue that Russian is a [-multiply filled Spec,CP] language: in Russian multiple wh-questions only one wh-word appears in Spec,CP, the rest are adjoined to IP. However, unlike other [-multiply filled Spec,CP] languages, Russian exhibits Superiority effects, which, according to Rudin (1988) are characteristic of [+multiply filled Spec,CP] languages, but not of [multiply filled Spec,CP] ones. I show that, given a few assumptions, the Russian data can be accounted for by the Weak Crossover Principle which was used by Hornstein (1995) to explain Superiority effects in a number of languages. To the extent that the analysis is successful, it provides evidence that a [-multiply filled Spec,CP] language can be subject to the Superiority Condition.
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    Italian word-initial consonant clusters in Optimality Theory
    (University of Calgary, 1998-01) Bortolin, Leah
    Despite the attention given to optimality theory (OT), only a small portion of prosodic theory has been addressed under this framework. It is my intention to discuss the implications of OT when it is applied to word-initial consonant clusters in Italian. Davis (1990) describes the restrictions placed on Italian word-initial consonant clusters by outlining syllable formation constraints and a language specific minimal sonority distance which is measured between two adjacent consonants. In this paper, I demonstrate that OT theory cannot apply a sonority hierarchy (or margin hierarchy) within the onset consitituent. That is, the theory cannot compare two adjacent elements within one constituent. By adding an affinity constraint, possible onsets and possible nuclei can be established under OT. Furthermore, lists of possible C1s and C2s can be provided; however, the model cannot ensure that minimal sonority distancing will be fulfilled.