Volume 18, Winter 1996
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Browsing Volume 18, Winter 1996 by Department "Linguistics"
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Item Open Access The acquisition of Yucatecan Maya prosody(University of Calgary, 1996-01) Archibald, JohnIn this paper I'm going to talk about some data that I gathered and analyzed while I was in Mexico. I had the opportunity to get involved with a research project at the Autonomous University of the Yucatan, headed by Dra. Barbara Pfeiler, that was looking at the acquisition of Yucatecan Maya. The Maya language family consists of 31 languages, spoken mainly in Guatemala and the south of Mexico by about 3.5 million people. Yucatecan Maya is estimated to have about 600,000 speakers. The influence of Spanish in the area is, of course, strong. Many of the people are bilingual and the issue of maintaining the Mayan language in the next generation is a hot educational topic. This will become an important factor when we look at some of the prosodic changes that seem to have happened to YM in the past century.Item Open Access Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 18, Winter 1996(University of Calgary, 1996-01) Bailey, Julie A; Pasquini, Ana; Rowsell, Lorna V; Smith, Laura CatharineThe editors of this issue, Julie Bailey, Ana Pasquini, Laura Smith and Lorna Rowsell, are pleased to present the eighteenth issue of the Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics published by the Department of Linguistics at the University of Calgary. The Papers published here represent works in progress and as such should not be considered in any way final or definitive.Item Open Access Chuvash gemination revisited(University of Calgary, 1996-01) Dobrovolsky, MichaelThis paper is concerned with the patterning and formal description of edge-geminate segments in Chuvash, a Turkic language spoken in the former Chuvash ASSR some 500 miles East of Moscow. I will try to draw together data that shows length alternations, stress, the selection of certain morpheme alternants, and word structure. The analysis is done in the framework of tiered phonology. In order to set the stage for the Chuvash data, I first survey the segmental inventory of Chuvash and then look at the way geminates are represented in current autosegmental work.Item Open Access One aspect of Cree syntax(University of Calgary, 1996-01) Watai, FumiIn this paper I will adopt the adjunct NP framework. developed by Jelinek (1984) and Baker (1991) wherein most NPs are generated in adjunct positions and coindexed with pronominal arguments. This theoretical framework. allows us to distinguish the components in A'-position from other components in A-position and to determine what makes freedom of word order possible. The goals of this paper are twofold: the first is to analyze the structure of Cree and to argue that Cree is a configurational language. and the second is to apply this Cree structural analysis to the so-called inverse construction in order to determine what kind of operation is involved in the inverse form and in Case and theta role assignment, in general.Item Open Access Shifting objects and procrastinating subjects*(University of Calgary, 1996-01) Carnie, Andrew; Bobaljik, JonathanWe claim that the Minimalist framework of Chomsky (1993) predicts VSO to be the unmarked word order in a language which has both verb raising and Object Shift (in the sense of Holmberg (1986)). This paper has two sections: In section l, we will show that object shift entails a subject positions lower than the specifier of AgrS. Thus, in a language with verb raising to AgrS, VSO order would be derived trivially. In section 2, we will show how this works in Irish, a language with both overt object shift and VSO matrix ordering.Item Open Access Sociolinguistic analysis of 'Serbo-Croatian'(University of Calgary, 1996-01) McLennan, SeanThe common objective analysis is that there is one language, 'Serbo-Croatian', of which there are three main dialects: Stokavian, Kajkavian, and Cakavian (the names are based on the word for 'what' in each dialect). There are, of course, differences in the dialects of Serbs and Croats - mainly in the phonology and lexicon. However, this is hardly clear cut. For one thing, the two variants are completely mutually intelligible, the variation being systematic, and, as with any language, there is a continuum of variation that does not adhere to the political boundaries in the area. Since, obviously, language and politics are so tightly entwined with each other in this area, it is necessary to look at the political history of the area in order to see how various influences have directed the development of the variants in Serbo-Croatian.Item Open Access Vennemann's bifurcation theory of the Germanic and German consonant shifts(University of Calgary, 1996-01) Smith, Laura CatharineVennemann presents a plausible alternative to Grimm's succession of Germanic and High German sound shifts. As part of his argumentation, Vennemann gives a systematic revision of the Proto-Germanic obstruent inventory which he reconstructs internally from Germanic data. He also looks beyond the Germanic data to posit a Paleo-Germanic obstruent system. While revising Grimm's traditional theory, Vennemann also reformulates Verner's Shift and how it would apply to his alternative glottalic approach.Item Open Access The 'whats' and 'whys' of the glottalic theory(University of Calgary, 1996-01) Bailey, Julie AThe focus of the present paper is the relatively new hotbed of controversy within lndo-European studies known as the 'Glottalic Theory'. This theory proposes a completely revised look for the Proto-Indo-European obstruent system which has consequently received polaric responses ranging from total respect to caustic rejection, both extremes being based at least in part on grounds of typology. This paper will look first at the traditional reconstructions to find out what prompted the proposed changes.