Search found 225 matches
- Fri May 25, 2018 2:20 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Grand Phonological Theory of Everything
- Replies: 13
- Views: 10026
Re: The Grand Phonological Theory of Everything
Based in my work on syntax, though, I'm not sure a formal theory of phonology that overgenerates is necessarily a problem provided the unattested patterns can be ruled out by other, non-formal means - e.g. a particular system that is formally permissible might be unacquirable in practice due to the...
- Mon May 21, 2018 5:44 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Grand Phonological Theory of Everything
- Replies: 13
- Views: 10026
Re: The Grand Phonological Theory of Everything
But why should a theory of phonology have to account for sign language? I mean, linguistics obviously should. But it's kind of like expecting acoustics and vision to work the same. There are similarities (both because of physics and because of neurons), but also important differences. Well, alice o...
- Sun May 20, 2018 4:26 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Grand Phonological Theory of Everything
- Replies: 13
- Views: 10026
Re: The Grand Phonological Theory of Everything
All known theories of phonology either overgenerate (i.e. they predict languages which are actually impossible), undergenerate (i.e. they fail to account for some kinds of attested phenomena), or both. Stephen Anderson's 1985 book on the history of phonology characterized the field as moving between...
- Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:20 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Good syntax books
- Replies: 32
- Views: 16587
Re: Good syntax books
No idea what the evidence is for minimalism being "the dominant paradigm." The majority of syntax work published in major linguistics journals is minimalist; the great majority of syntax training in American universities is minimalist. This doesn't mean that there aren't exceptions, or that minimal...
- Fri Feb 09, 2018 3:58 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Good syntax books
- Replies: 32
- Views: 16587
Re: Good syntax books
As you know, minimalism is the dominant paradigm. Good introductions include Adger's Core Syntax: A Minimalist Approach and Radford's Minimalist Syntax . What these books might not mention is the more recent work on syntactic interfaces with morphology and semantics. Most minimalists adopt distribut...
- Fri Sep 16, 2016 5:38 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: "Sound–meaning association biases"
- Replies: 25
- Views: 7712
Re: "Sound–meaning association biases"
I don't know how much of a role they played. However, I have reasons to believe that their presence on the paper is not just a matter of courtesy.[...] This isn't a linguistics paper, and it's not especially surprising to see linguists unilaterally defend people who work on natural language process...
- Wed Sep 14, 2016 7:44 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: "Sound–meaning association biases"
- Replies: 25
- Views: 7712
Re: "Sound–meaning association biases"
Søren Wichmann and Harald Hammarström are among the authors. They are definitely "actual linguists" I don't doubt that they are. What I want to know is how much of a role they played in writing this paper. Did they even write any part of it, or are they simply listed as authors because they provide...
- Wed Sep 14, 2016 7:07 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: "Sound–meaning association biases"
- Replies: 25
- Views: 7712
Re: "Sound–meaning association biases"
Does anyone have access to the actual article? I'm curious how much of an effect they're finding. You can access the article here . I haven't read the article fully, just skimming, but I think I can help answer some of your questions. If the effect is very large it would be a bit surprising that no...
- Tue Aug 30, 2016 8:57 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: What shape is he vowel space, really?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 4746
Re: What shape is he vowel space, really?
He's actually Scottish, from what I understand from his website: https://web.archive.org/web/20080511160138/http://www.cix.co.uk/~morven/about.html Rory shouldn't need to ask, anyway; he's met me twice, both times at ZBB meets! Hi Geoff! That's embarrassing, I didn't realise you'd changed your user...
- Mon Aug 29, 2016 11:30 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: What shape is he vowel space, really?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 4746
Re: What shape is he vowel space, really?
Most of you will point to something like this and reply "it's a quadrilateral; why do you need to ask?" However, there may well be grounds for treating it as triangular; see here for one argument. (There's lots other interesting stuff on that blog, btw.) Note, too, that DependencyPhonology treats v...
- Thu Jul 07, 2016 7:00 am
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: Request for information: Siberia
- Replies: 8
- Views: 6738
Re: Request for information: Siberia
What a great idea! Siberia is a fascinating area. I have uploaded maps of the geographic distribution of indigenous Siberian groups here: http://imgur.com/a/MipW7 The first map is the distribution circa the 17th century, before the Russians had really expanded. The second map shows the situation aro...
- Wed Mar 30, 2016 5:01 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Existence of [tʃwV] and [tɕjV]
- Replies: 23
- Views: 5710
Re: Existence of [tʃwV] and [tɕjV]
I realize I'm late to this party, but there's a well-known language with [tʃwV] - American English! There's a sound change in progress where /tw/ clusters are being produced as [tʃw]. It's not very well documented, but if you listen out for it you'll notice it. (I particularly remember a particular...
- Tue Mar 29, 2016 1:52 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Existence of [tʃwV] and [tɕjV]
- Replies: 23
- Views: 5710
Re: Existence of [tʃwV] and [tɕjV]
I realize I'm late to this party, but there's a well-known language with [tʃwV] - American English! There's a sound change in progress where /tw/ clusters are being produced as [tʃw]. It's not very well documented, but if you listen out for it you'll notice it. As for [tɕjV], there are some nice exa...
- Mon Dec 01, 2014 10:16 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: English words with four CONSONANTS!!! in the coda
- Replies: 18
- Views: 4676
Re: English words with four CONSONANTS!!! in the coda
This kind of question is relatively easy to answer with regex searches of corpora. A quick search of English CELEX reveals the following (most of which have already been mentioned): adjuncts attempts conjuncts contexts exempts glimpsed instincts jinxed mulcts pre-empts precincts pretexts prompts scu...
- Sat Apr 12, 2014 1:25 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: What's the deal with Russian stress?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 3734
Re: What's the deal with Russian stress?
I don't have a specific answer or specific knowledge about Russian stress, but stress is a phonological marking of a syllable as prominent. Different languages will phonetically implement stress in different ways, which is why it is not really possible for an English speaker to listen to another lan...
- Mon Sep 30, 2013 12:30 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Graduate programs in Romance Language Studies
- Replies: 35
- Views: 6843
Re: Graduate programs in Romance Language Studies
Finally, a note of caution - the academic job market is terribad. Especially in the humanities, and especially in language departments. If you are okay with a semi-nomadic lifestyle, low pay, long hours, and undiagnosed mental health problems, then by all means, become a professor. But don't say I ...
- Sun Sep 29, 2013 7:16 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Graduate programs in Romance Language Studies
- Replies: 35
- Views: 6843
Re: Graduate programs in Romance Language Studies
Allow me to attempt to summarize where you are and what you want: Where you are: You have a BA in French and Spanish and fairly good grades. What you want: You want to become a professor, teaching "all aspects of foreign languages, including literature". Initially, I thought that the best option for...
- Tue Mar 26, 2013 6:39 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Palatal Stops
- Replies: 37
- Views: 7647
Re: Palatal Stops
For instance, in my own dialect historical /ktʃ/ has become /kʃ/, a sound change whose analysis would be more complex if one analyzed the historical phonemes as being /kc/ instead. There has also been a sound change in the opposite direction of /nʃ/ to /ntʃ/ (except when the /ʃ/ receives stress), a...
- Thu Mar 21, 2013 8:05 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Palatal Stops
- Replies: 37
- Views: 7647
Re: Palatal Stops
No, they were never in the IPA to begin with. I've never seen them used outside of Chinese dialectology (although my experience is limited).Qwynegold wrote:The alveolo-palatals? They removed those from IPA and they're now transcribed t̠ʲ d̠ʲ n̠ʲ l̠ʲ IIRC.Nortaneous wrote:They really should add ȶ ȡ ȵ ȴ to IPA.
- Sat Mar 16, 2013 8:01 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Schwa-schwi merger
- Replies: 52
- Views: 12986
Re: Schwa-schwi merger
Also, is OT really the mainstream now? I mean I know I'm just basically out of that loop but from my casual thought experiments it has never seemed supportable. It's been the mainstream for a long while. Everyone acknowledges that (classical) OT doesn't work, but the majority opinion is that it's b...
- Thu Mar 14, 2013 10:02 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Schwa-schwi merger
- Replies: 52
- Views: 12986
Re: Schwa-schwi merger
Random question: If I have only one phoneme for schwa-schwi, with the default realizations of [ə̝] initially, [ɨ̞] medially, and [ə] morpheme-finally, what should I consider its form as a phoneme? Should I call it /ə/ or /ɪ/? That's when you go neutral and use hearts instead. /♥/ If that kind of re...
- Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:59 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Schwa-schwi merger
- Replies: 52
- Views: 12986
Re: Schwa-schwi merger
I am not getting into a discussion of "well, are phonemes of any sort real in the first place?" That's probably a good idea. I cannot form actual contrasts between [ə] and [ɨ̞], even though I have both phones. So, another question: how do you know that those are different phones? By which I mean, o...
- Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:50 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Palatal Stops
- Replies: 37
- Views: 7647
Re: Palatal Stops
highly intellectual post The point is, assuming I don't have the time to read a detailed phonological description, I'd still like to be able to look at an IPA transcription of something and be able to pronounce it in such a manner that native speakers would not like at me like I was some sort of me...
- Thu Mar 14, 2013 2:55 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Schwa-schwi merger
- Replies: 52
- Views: 12986
Re: Schwa-schwi merger
Another question masquerading as an answer: What evidence do you have that it is a phoneme? (What evidence do we have that anything is a phoneme?
- Thu Mar 14, 2013 2:53 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Palatal Stops
- Replies: 37
- Views: 7647
Re: Palatal Stops
because in a phonology, unless the language contrasts these two and one has to be parsed differently, you don't know which is meant. In a phonology it doesn't matter which one is meant, because they're not contrastive. Looking at a phonological description of German, I can't tell if the /S/-sound i...