Volume 28, Fall 2014

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Browsing Volume 28, Fall 2014 by Subject "Distinctive features (Linguistics)"

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    Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 28, Fall 2014
    (University of Calgary, 2014-09) Jones, Jacqueline; MacDonald, Danica; Windsor, Joseph W.
    No abstract available.
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    A comparison of Japanese and Blackfoot vowel devoicing
    (University of Calgary, 2014-09) St. Goddard, Rosalind
    This paper compares and contrasts the factors that contribute to devoicing in Japanese and Blackfoot. Japanese vowel devoicing has received rigorous discussion in linguistic literature. Tsuchida (2001) provides a particularly persuasive argument for Japanese vowel devoicing using the Optimality Theory Framework (Prince and Smolensky 2004); she argues that all Japanese voiceless fricatives are specified for [SG] and devoicing occurs when this [SG] feature is shared within a syllable. The notion that voiceless vowels carry the feature [SG] can also be extended to instances of Blackfoot vowel devoicing. Blackfoot voiceless vowels generally occur in two contexts: They occur word finally, and word-medially when they are followed by the palatal/dorsal sounds [x]/[ç], which are orthographically represented as . In contrast to Japanese voiceless fricatives, it appears that not all Blackfoot voiceless fricatives distribute the [SG] feature. The Blackfoot palatal fricative [ç] and the dorsal fricative [x] both trigger devoicing, whereas the fricative [s] does not. To explain this patterning of [x] and [ç], Reis Silva (2008) argues that [x] and [ç] are not fricatives, but rather preaspiration ([SG]) specified on certain obstruents. In this paper, I will discuss the constraints proposed in Tsuchida (2001), and extend/adapt those constraints to Blackfoot word final vowel devoicing. Additionally, In my analysis of Blackfoot word-medial vowel devoicing, I will adopt Reis Silva’s (2008) analysis that [x]/[ç] are not fricatives, but preaspiration specified on obstruents. Lastly, I argue that the word-medial vowel devoicing that occurs with [x] and [ç] is phonological rather than phonetic.
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    Negative concord in multiple negative constituent configurations in Ukrainian: a minimalist approach
    (University of Calgary, 2014-09) Filonik, Svitlana
    This study provides a minimalist account of derivation and interpretation of Ukrainian multiple negative constituent configurations, which have a Negative Concord (NC) reading. I argue that negative constituents, i.e., n-words, are Negative Quantifiers rather than Negative Polarity mechanisms, and provide an analysis of the mechanisms for checking their uninterpretable [NEG] features against the interpretable [NEG] features of the negative particle in structures with different word order. This analysis led me to the conclusion that both the operations Move/Move F and the operation Attract can adequately account for the considered Ukrainian data, while fitting into the economical mechanism of the Minimalist Program. However, I relied on the analysis of feature checking via the operations Move/Move F in the course of my further discussion on two approaches to interpretation of multiple negative constituents in NC languages. In this discussion, I used Ukrainian data to argue for the approach proposed by Brown (1999), which relies on the notions of indefinites as variables, feature deletion, copies, and reconstruction, as opposed to the approach proposed by Haegeman & Zanuttini (1991) and Haegeman (1995), which relies on the notion of Negative Absorption. Finally, I discovered that while differing in many respects from some NC languages, like Italian and West Flemish, Ukrainian NC configurations are derived and interpreted in the same way as those in other Slavic languages, namely Russian and Serbian/Croatian.