The Comparative Phonology of Konsoid

This study compares the phonology of Konso, Diraytata and Mosittacha languages which belong to the Konsoid subgroup in the Lowland East Cushitic family. The aim is to identify and describe the phonological similarities and differences that exist among these languages. The classification of the languages’ sound systems, gemination, phonotactics and syllable structures are carried out in order to determine the major pattern of differences and similarities. Some major sound changes are discovered and the merger of voiced obstruents into voiceless counterparts is another major finding observed in these languages.

Extraction types

This chapter provides a descriptive introduction to unbounded dependency constructions, and to the range of filler-gap dependency patterns they allow. These are two very different topics. The former concerns the repertoire of syntactic constructions in which extraction takes place, and their grammatical idiosyncrasies, whereas the latter concerns the types of interaction between fillers and gaps. We survey of the various kinds of interrogative, declarative, and subordinate UDCs that exist in English. The resulting picture is one of astonishing richness and complexity. There are three major families of UDCs which sub-divide into smaller families, each with their peculiar syntactic, pragmatic and phonological similarities, as well as their idiosyncrasies. Such idiosyncratic meaning and structure must be stipulated somewhere in the grammar, regardless of which theory one adopts. The chapter next focuses on the nature of the linkage between fillers and gaps, and shows that these can interweave and create complex dependencies, beyond what is recognized in the literature.

Areal features in Gongduk, Bjokapakha and Black Mountain Mönpa phonology

This paper argues that certain phonological similarities between the three Trans-Himalayan languages Gongduk, Bjokapakha (Tshangla) and Black Mountain Mönpa are areal features and discusses the historical and ethnolinguistic implications of this assumption. The similarities between Gongduk and Bjokapakha indicate a situation of areal convergence of recent data. This contact scenario explains certain aberrancies of Bjokapakha with regard to other Tshangla varieties. The attestation of some of the phonological features in Black Mountain Mönpa is analysed as the result of early contact between Gongduk and Black Mountain Mönpa, i.e. dating back to the time before the arrival of the East Bodish peoples in Central Bhutan.

An Interrogation of the Phonological Similarities between Somor and Aror Sub-Dialects of the Tugen Dialect in Kenya

The paper sets out to find the extent of the phonological similarities of Somor and Aror sub-dialects of the Tugen dialect. Phonological and semantic structures are many and varied and cannot be studied within such a limited time. Thus the study focused on tone and length in Tugen sub-dialects. The selected structures were epenthesis, vowel deletion, fusion, demonstratives, negation, possessives and definiteness. In semantics, the study focused on meaning in general. Stratified and random sampling procedures were used to get samples of Somor and Aror speakers from the population of those who practice in the selected domains in Torongo and Kapuskei locations of Baringo County. The data for the study was a Swadesh list of one hundred and fifty words and fifty sentences. These were drawn from the fields of education, domestic life, religion, health and administration. Data was collected by use of language performance test, which were recorded, on an audiotape. These words were written in gloss and transcribed using the IPA symbols. This was in preparation for the phonological and semantic analysis, which was done by using Natural Generative Phonology and Descriptive Linguistics. This study adds knowledge in the area of theoretical linguistics of Nilotic languages and Kenyan languages in general.

Mappa Mundi: An Interactive Artistic Mind Map Generator with Artificial Imagination

We present a novel real-time, collaborative, and interactive AI painting system, Mappa Mundi, for artistic Mind Map creation. The system consists of a voice-based input interface, an automatic topic expansion module, and an image projection module. The key innovation is to inject Artificial Imagination into painting creation by considering lexical and phonological similarities of language, learning and inheriting artist’s original painting style, and applying the principles of Dadaism and impossibility of improvisation. Our system indicates that AI and artist can collaborate seamlessly to create imaginative artistic painting and Mappa Mundi has been applied in art exhibition in UCCA, Beijing.

Another AI? Artificial Imagination for Artistic Mind Map Generation

This article presents a novel real-time, collaborative, and interactive AI painting system, Mappa Mundi, for artistic Mind Map creation. The system consists of a voice-based input interface, an automatic topic expansion module, and an image projection module. Imagination is one of the most important factors which makes an artistic painting unique and impressive. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, more and more researchers try to create painting with AI technology. However, lacking imagination is still a main problem for AI painting. This research proposes a novel approach to inject rich imagination into a special kind of painting- Mind Map. Lexical and phonological similarities of respective seed words are first considered, then the system learns and inherits the artist's original painting style, and further applies Dadaism and impossibility of improvisation principles into the process. Several metrics for imagination evaluation are then developed later in the article. The result show that this proposed method can increase the imagination of painting and also improve its overall quality.

Experimentally Induced Single and Repeated Personal Name Confusions: The Impact of Phonological and Semantic Similarity

Three experiments investigated a common but intriguing phenomenon, that is, repeated personal name confusion, a phenomenon at the border between language and memory. The purpose of those experiments was to evaluate the impact of the semantic and phonological similarities on name confusion and to compare repeated naming confusions (i.e., repeatedly confounding two names) with single confusions (i.e., confounding two names only once) in a same experimental paradigm. In all experiments, participants (64 middle-aged participants for each experiment) were asked to memorize the association between 16 names and 16 faces (face-name learning task). In Experiments 1 and 2, the two studied variables were the phonological similarity between the confused names and the semantic similarity between the two bearers of the confused names (using a visually derived semantic code in Experiment 1 and an identity-specific semantic code in Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, the impact of those two semantic similarities between the bearers of the confused names was taken into account, whereas the phonological similarity was not taken into account. First, results showed a main effect of the phonological and semantic similarity on name confusion (more confusions when the names were phonologically related or when the bearers of the names were semantically related). Second, we found that (1) the combination of the phonological and the semantic similarity and (2) the combination of the two semantic similarities led to an increase of name confusions. Third, in the three experiments, we found that the semantic and phonological similarities had a similar impact on repeated and single confusions. Finally, results showed that participants always made more single than repeated confusions, except in the case when the bearers of the confused names shared two semantic features.

Towards a phonological typology of Uralic languages

The paper focuses on phonological similarities between Uralic languages. The study is based on a dataset which includes 33 word-prosodic and segmental features of 28 Uralic languages or main dialects, including all traditional subgroups of the language family. In statistical analysis clustering and dimension reduction techniques such as multidimensional scaling are applied. This methodology enables to explore distinctive subgroups of languages as well as calculate distances between languages and language groups. As a result we present a quantitative phonological typology. The main division appears between western and central-eastern phonological types of the Uralic languages. The detected phonological subgroups coincide with the traditional ones, i.e. Finnic, Saami, Mordvin, Mari, Permic, Hungarian, Ob-Ugric and Samoyedic. The Hungarian subgroup (Standard Hungarian, Csángó Hungarian) and the Ob-Ugric subgroup (Northern Mansi, Eastern Mansi, Northern Khanty, Eastern Khanty) are internally stable. However, their interrelation and relationship with other groups is ambiguous; according to our results, Hungarian is typologically closer to the Western Uralic language groups (i.e. Finnic and Saami), whereas Ob-Ugric languages form a distinct branch of Central-Eastern Uralic. In general, the results reveal a significant influence of multiple areal connections on the phonological formation of Uralic languages.Аннотация. Карл Паюсалу, Кристел Уйбоаэд, Петер Помози, Эндре Немет и Тибор Фехер: К фонологической типологии уральских языков. В статье рассматриваются фонологические сходства между уральскими языками. Исследование основывается на выборке данных, которая включает 33 просодических и сегментных признака, которые применяются к 28 уральским языкам или их основным диалектам. Эта выборка покрывает все традиционно выделяемые группы уральской семьи. Для статистической обработки данных используются методы кластерного анализа и многомерного шкалирования. Такой подход позволяет исследовать выявленные подгруппы языков и рассчитывать расстояния между языками и языковыми группами. Результатом анализа является квантитативная фонологическая типология. Основная граница разделяет западный и центрально-восточный типы уральских языков. Выявленные фонологические подгруппы языков совпадают с традиционными: прибалтийско-финская, саамская, мордовская, марийская, пермская, венгерская, обско-угорская и самодийская. Венгерская подгруппа (стандартный венгерский и чангошский диалект) и обско-угорская подгруппа (северный мансийский, восточный мансийский, северный хантыйский, восточный хантыйский) демонстрируют внутреннюю стабильность. Однако их собственные взаимоотношения и отношение к другим подгруппам неоднозначны: наши результаты показывают, что венгерский язык типологически ближе к западно-уральской группе (т. е. прибалтийско-финским и саамским языкам), тогда как обско-угорские языки оказываются четко выделяемой ветвью центрально-восточных уральских языков. В целом, результаты раскрывают существенное влияние разнообразных ареальных связей на становление фонологии уральских языков.Ключевые слова: уральские языки, прауральский язык, фонология, типология, просодия слова, лингвистические ареалыKokkuvõte. Karl Pajusalu, Kristel Uiboaed, Péter Pomozi, Endre Németh ja Tibor Fehér: Uurali keelte fonoloogilisest tüpoloogiast. Artikkel keskendub uurali keelte fonoloogiliste sarnasuste võrdlemisele. Analüüsitav andmestik hõlmab 33 sõnaprosoodilist ja segmentaalset tunnusjoont 28-st uurali keelest või põhimurdest, mille hulgas on keeli kõigist traditsioonilistest allrühmadest. Statistilises uuringus rakendatakse klasteranalüüsi ja multidimensionaalsest skaleerimist. Nii eristatakse olulised allrühmad ja arvutatakse kaugused keelte ja keelerühmade vahel, saades uurali keelte kvantitatiivse fonoloogilise tüpoloogia. Esmane lahknemine ilmneb geograafiliselt läänepoolsete ning kesk- ja idapoolsete uurali keelte vahel. Nende sees tulevad esile traditsioonilised allrühmad: läänemeresoome, saami, mordva, mari, permi, ungari, obiugri ja samojeedi. Ungari (ungari kirjakeel, csángó) ja obiugri (põhjamansi, idamansi, põhjahandi, idahandi) on sisemiselt stabiilsed, kuid suhe nende kahe rühma vahel on ambivalentne. Meie tulemuste põhjal on ungari tüpoloogiliselt lähedasem läänepoolsetele uurali keeltele (st läänemeresoomele ja saamile), obiugri keeled moodustavad aga eraldi allrühma kesk- ja idauurali keelte hulgas. Saadud tulemused näitavad areaalsete kontaktide tähtsust uurali keelte fonoloogilise eripära kujunemises.Märksõnad: uurali keeled, proto-uurali, fonoloogia, tüpoloogia, sõna prosoodia, keeleareaalid

NGT classifier constructions

This paper seeks to find empirical evidence for categorical associations between classifier types and argument structure in Sign Language of the Netherlands (Nederlandse Gebarentaal – NGT), based on an influential proposal by Benedicto & Brentari (2004). In the light of (sign) language typology and possible modality effects, it is of interest to investigate whether the morpho-phonological similarities of sign language classifier predicates are associated with the same syntactic-semantic properties cross-linguistically. This paper offers three additions to the quest: data from another sign language, an empirical approach, and a more fine-grained distinction of verb types. In an elicitation study, signers produced classifier descriptions of verbs with different argument structures. Their responses were analyzed for phonological handshape and classifier type. Based on the results, I conclude that (i) NGT classifier constructions show categorical associations between argument structure and classifier type, that (ii) specifically, NGT handling and whole entity classifier predicates may take part in a transitive-intransitive alternation, and that (iii) with respect to NGT classifier constructions, we need to distinguish manner verbs from causative verbs.

Cohort and Rhyme Priming Emerge from the Multiplex Network Structure of the Mental Lexicon

Complex networks recently opened new ways for investigating how language use is influenced by the mental representation of word similarities. This work adopts the framework of multiplex lexical networks for investigating lexical retrieval from memory. The focus is on priming, i.e., exposure to a given stimulus facilitating or inhibiting retrieval of a given lexical item. Supported by recent findings of network distance influencing lexical retrieval, the multiplex network approach tests how the layout of hundreds of thousands of word-word similarities in the mental lexicon can lead to priming effects on multiple combined semantic and phonological levels. Results provide quantitative evidence that phonological priming effects are encoded directly in the multiplex structure of the mental representation of words sharing phonemes either in their onsets (cohort priming) or at their ends (rhyme priming). By comparison with randomised null models, both cohort and rhyming effects are found to be emerging properties of the mental lexicon arising from its multiplexity. These priming effects are absent on individual layers but become prominent on the combined multiplex structure. The emergence of priming effects is displayed both when only semantic layers are considered, an approximated representation of the so-called semantic memory, and when semantics is enriched with phonological similarities, an approximated representation of the lexical-auditory nature of the mental lexicon. Multiplex lexical networks can account for connections between semantic and phonological information in the mental lexicon and hence represent a promising modelling route for shedding light on the interplay between multiple aspects of language and human cognition in synergy with experimental psycholinguistic data.