Volume 24, Fall 2002

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Browsing Volume 24, Fall 2002 by Subject "Linguistics"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    The acoustic correlates of Blackfoot prominence
    (University of Calgary, 2002-09) Van der Mark, Sheena
    Blackfoot, an Algonquian language spoken in Alberta and Montana, has been described as a pitch accent language (Frantz and Russell 1989; Frantz 1991; Kaneko 1999). Pitch accent languages mark phonetic prominence with a difference in pitch on the prominent syllable. Beckman (1986) has shown that Japanese (a prototypical pitch accent language) differs from English (a prototypical stress language) in that fundamental frequency (pitch) is the only variable that marks prominence in Japanese, whereas several variables mark prominence in English. These variables include fundamental frequency (F0) peak, amplitude peak, average amplitude, total amplitude and duration. Based on Beckman's analysis of Japanese, we would expect Blackfoot, as a pitch accent language, to mark prominence only with F0, thus patterning with Japanese. However, this analysis shows that in addition to F0, average amplitude was also correlated with prominence in Blackfoot, amplitude peak, total amplitude and duration were not. These results suggest that Blackfoot is different than Japanese in how prominence is marked. However, the results are similar enough to justify the classification of Japanese as a pitch accent language.
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    The acquisition of English onsets: the case of Amahl
    (University of Calgary, 2002-09) Hanson, Rebecca
    The acquisition of English onsets by one English-learning child is examined in close detail, with particular focus on the acquisition of /s/ and /s/-clusters. The observation that target /s/ in harmony environments is sensitive to the feature [labial] as opposed to [coronal] and [dorsal] provides support for a feature geometry model in which [labial] versus [lingual] is a possible distinction, e.g. Brown (1997). Further, the unique behavior of target /s/ in the developing phonology motivates the proposal that physiological factors, such as articulatory difficulty, can have consequences in the grammatical system. In particular, it is proposed that a constraint against lingual continuants, which require a precise physical coordination that may not have yet developed, can account for the patterns in the child's acquisition of /s/ clusters. A comparison with the acquisition of /f/, a non-lingual continuant, and that of /l/, another lingual continuant, provides further support for this proposal. The conclusions reached here are consistent with notion of a phonological system grounded in independent, functional principles as argued for in, for example, Goad (1997).
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    Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 24, Fall 2002
    (University of Calgary, 2002-09) Dobrovolsky, Michael; Edwards, Jodi
    The editors of this volume, Jodi Edwards and Michael Dobrovolsky are pleased to present the twenty-fourth 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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    Knowledge and performance: an examination of the role of explicit linguistic knowledge in L2 phonological acquisition
    (University of Calgary, 2002-09) Mah, Jennifer
    A major challenge facing adults acquiring a second language is the mastery of the second language (L2) phonology. Previous work by Han (1992) shows that even advanced students who have been deemed by native speakers to be fluent in their second language may have failed to completely master the L2 phonological system, resulting in an audible non-native accent. The present paper explores a possibility suggested by Han (1992): that explicit knowledge of the L2 phonology is required to successfully establish the appropriate phonological representations and achieve native-like performance with respect to the L2 phonology. Japanese utterances produced by a native speaker of English were recorded after four months of classroom exposure and examined for accuracy in timing control and spectral accuracy of long and short vowels, and timing control of geminate and singleton consonants. The results were then presented to the subject, and a second sample of utterances was recorded after a further two months of classroom exposure. Although the subject showed evidence of having established separate phonological representations for the Japanese length distinctions (as indicated by t tests), her performance was still distinct from that of a native speaker. Furthermore, the subject was not able to make use of the explicit knowledge gained from the results of the first round of recording, as the subject's performance did not show any significant change in the second round of recording. These results suggest that the knowledge of Japanese length contrasts may have been useful to the learner in establishing the appropriate phonological representations, but not in gaining control over the finer articulatory details of these in six months.
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    The neural substrates of phonological processing: an examination of neuroimaging research
    (University of Calgary, 2002-09) Edwards, Jodi
    Despite the use of standardized testing techniques designed to isolate phonological processes, previous attempts to localize the neural regions associated with phonological processing have produced highly variable results. The purpose of the present research is to integrate the results of a broad range of neuroimaging studies in order to identify the neural correlates of phonological processing. The present study applies the word production model proposed by Indefrey and Levelt to a sample of fMRI and MEG studies investigating phonological processing.The hypothesis of the present study is that the regions of activation found in the fMRI and MEG studies will parallel the neural regions in the cortical network described by Indefrey and Levett. This finding would suggest that current evidence for the localization of phonological processing is not inconsistent, but merely reflects activation in the various cortical regions corresponding to the different stages of phonological processing.
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    On a systematic component of meaning in idioms
    (University of Calgary, 2002-09) McGinnis, Martha
    It has traditionally been assumed that the meaning of some or all phrasal idioms is non-compositional. However, I argue here that the aspectual meaning of idioms is completely systematic: there are no special aspectual restrictions on idioms, and moreover, the aspectual properties of an idiom are compositional, combining the aspectual properties of its syntactic constituents in the usual way. I show that this observation supports the theory of Distributed Morphology (Halle & Marantz 1994).
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    Resultatives, particles, prefixes and argument structure
    (University of Calgary, 2002-09) Mezhevich, Ilana
    In this paper, I discuss the argument status of postverbal DPs in English resultative constructions, English verb-particle constructions and Russian prefixed verbs. I argue that postverbal DPs in English resultative constructions on the one hand and verb-particle constructions and Russian prefixed verbs on the other hand have different argument status. As shown by various studies, English resultatives are syntactically derived constructions (Carrier and Randall 1992; Neeleman and Weerman 1993; Levin and Rappaport Hovav 1995, among others), whereas Russian prefixed verbs are lexically derived (Townsend 1975; Brecht 1985, Zaliznjak and Shmelev 1997, among others). I assume that lexical derivation as opposed to syntactic derivation is less productive and may change a verb's meaning in an unpredictable way. As a result, Russian prefixed verbs and English verb-particle constructions often have different meaning from their base verbs and may have different arguments.