Lexical Category-Governed Neutralization to Coronal and Non-Coronal Place of Articulation in Latent Consonants: The Case of Shipibo-Konibo and Capanahua (Pano)

This study documents and accounts for the behavior of the place of articulation of latent segments in the Panoan languages Shipibo-Konibo and Capanahua. In these languages, the lexical category of the word governs the place of articulation (PoA) of latent consonants. Latent segments only surface when they are syllabified as syllable onsets. They surface as coronal consonants when they are part of verbs; but they occur as non-coronal consonants when they belong to nouns or adjectives. In non-verb forms, by default, they are neutralized to dorsal in Shipibo-Konibo, and to labial in Capanahua. The analysis proposed consists in using the well-known markedness hierarchy on PoA, |Labial, Dorsal > Coronal > Pharyngeal|, and harmonically aligning it with a morphological markedness hierarchy in which non-verb forms are more marked than verb forms: |NonVerb > Verb|. This creates two fixed rankings of markedness constraints: one on verb forms in which, as expected, coronal/laryngeal is deemed the least marked PoA, and another one on non-verb forms in which the familiar markedness on PoA is reversed so that labial and dorsal become the least marked places of articulation. The study shows that although both Panoan languages follow the general cross-linguistic tendency to have coronal as a default PoA, this default can be overridden by morphology.

Naturalness of verbs in Kupang Malay language

This paper investigates the naturalness of verbs in Kupang Malay Language (KML). It is introductory research that aims at knowing which verb is more natural: active verbs or passive verbs. The researcher conducted the current study using Morphological Naturalness (MN) Theory proposed by Mayerthaler (1981). Data of KML were taken randomly from Alkitab Bahasa Kupang, Tapaleuk column in Pos Kupang Newspaper, and directly from KML speakers. After gaining data, it was discussed using the descriptive qualitative method. The finding of the current research is as follows. Most active verbs in KML have got morphological markedness while passive verbs have not got markedness at all. Therefore, it is stated that passive verbs in KML are more natural than active verbs. The finding of the current research is proposed to be a pilot project in investigating the origin of KML, as an Austronesia language.

Morphological and semantic markedness revisited: The realization of plurality across languages

The paper investigates two related questions that concern the realization of plural morphology on nouns across languages. The first question is whether markedness in the sense of complexity in form goes hand in hand with complexity in meaning. In other words, since plural nouns are formally more complex than singular nouns, does that mean that they differ in interpretation? On the basis of experimental and theoretical investigations the claim is supported that plurals, although morphologically more complex than singulars, are semantically unmarked across languages. The second question is what regulates the presence of plural morphology in numeral-noun constructions across languages, in light of the proposal that plural appears on nouns in such constructions only if it is semantically unmarked. The paper offers an explanation of this distribution by adopting a dual system of agreement, which distinguishes between CONCORD and INDEX features. By looking at these two questions, the paper makes a contribution to the discussion of the relationship between semantic and morphological markedness.

Ergativity in Neo-Aramaic

Ergativity is found in dialects of Neo-Aramaic that are spoken in regions where there has been extensive contact with Iranian languages, especially Kurdish, over many generations. All such Neo-Aramaic dialects are split ergative, with ergativity found only in verbs with the perfective stem or resultative participles, and the marking of ergativity is by cross-referencing on the verb. The constructions include a type that conforms to split-S morphological ergativity and an assortment of hybrid variations in which there are differing degrees of levelling with the nominative—accusative morphosyntax of imperfective stem verbal forms. These hybrid systems exhibit the alignment of argument cross-referencing but not the morphological markedness of cases characteristic of nominative—accusative systems, morphological markedness of cases based on transitive properties of dynamicity and punctuality rather than argument structure and various degrees of reduction of the distribution of the unmarked absolutive marking of the object in transitive clauses.

Agreement attraction in Serbian

Asymmetric number attraction effects have been typically explained via a privative markedness account: plural nouns are more marked than singular ones and thus stronger attractors. However, this account does not explain results from tripartite systems, in which a third number value is available, like paucal. Here we tested whether attraction effects can be driven by specific markedness sub-components, such as frequency/naturalness of use, using Serbian, in which participles can agree with masculine subjects in singular, plural and paucal. We first conducted a naturalness judgment task, finding the following naturalness/frequency pattern: singular,plural<paucal. In a subsequent forced-choice task, we presented participants with preambles containing a singular, a plural or a paucal headnoun (the castle[Sg] /two castles[Pauc] /the castles[Pl]) modified by singular/plural/paucal attractors (with the window[Sg] /with two windows[Pauc] /with the windows[Pl]). Three options were provided to complete the sentence (resembles[Sg] /resemble[Pauc] /resemble[Pl] gothic architecture).Both accuracy and reaction times (RTs) were collected. Accuracy data reflected the naturalness/frequency pattern, with paucal being the strongest attractor, and plural and singular attracting equally. However, reaction times showed a difference between singular and plural, suggesting co-influence of both frequency/naturalness and morphological markedness. We emphasize the necessity of re-defining markedness and testing attraction through different markedness sub-components (i.e. frequency/naturalness) to explain attraction cross-linguistically.

INCIDENTAL ACQUISITION OF GRAMMATICAL FEATURES DURING READING IN L1 AND L2

The present study explores the initial stages of incidental acquisition of two grammatical properties of verbs (subcategorization and [ir]regularity) during reading in first language (L1) and second language (L2) German using an adjusted self-paced reading paradigm. The results indicate that L1 speakers are superior to L2 speakers in the incidental acquisition of grammatical knowledge (experiments on subcategorization), except when the new knowledge interferes with previously acquired knowledge and mechanisms (experiments on [ir]regularity): Although both populations performed equally well regarding the acquisition of the subcategorization of verbs from the input (i.e., whether the verbs are transitive or intransitive), they differed with respect to the regularity status of new verbs. L1 speakers (in contrast to L2 learners) seem to disprefer irregularly conjugated verb forms in general, irrespective of their conjugation in the previous input. The results further show that the syntactic complexity of the context and morphological markedness positively affect the incidental acquisition of new words in the L2, triggering learners’ shift of attention from the text level to the word level.

The role of morphological markedness in inclusive/exclusive pronouns

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