Search found 225 matches

by Rory
Fri May 25, 2018 2:20 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Grand Phonological Theory of Everything
Replies: 13
Views: 9738

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...
by Rory
Mon May 21, 2018 5:44 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Grand Phonological Theory of Everything
Replies: 13
Views: 9738

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...
by Rory
Sun May 20, 2018 4:26 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Grand Phonological Theory of Everything
Replies: 13
Views: 9738

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...
by Rory
Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:20 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Good syntax books
Replies: 32
Views: 16040

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...
by Rory
Fri Feb 09, 2018 3:58 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Good syntax books
Replies: 32
Views: 16040

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...
by Rory
Fri Sep 16, 2016 5:38 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: "Sound–meaning association biases"
Replies: 25
Views: 7651

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...
by Rory
Wed Sep 14, 2016 7:44 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: "Sound–meaning association biases"
Replies: 25
Views: 7651

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...
by Rory
Wed Sep 14, 2016 7:07 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: "Sound–meaning association biases"
Replies: 25
Views: 7651

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...
by Rory
Tue Aug 30, 2016 8:57 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: What shape is he vowel space, really?
Replies: 15
Views: 4591

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...
by Rory
Mon Aug 29, 2016 11:30 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: What shape is he vowel space, really?
Replies: 15
Views: 4591

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...
by Rory
Thu Jul 07, 2016 7:00 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Request for information: Siberia
Replies: 8
Views: 6363

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...
by Rory
Wed Mar 30, 2016 5:01 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Existence of [tʃwV] and [tɕjV]
Replies: 23
Views: 5654

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...
by Rory
Tue Mar 29, 2016 1:52 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Existence of [tʃwV] and [tɕjV]
Replies: 23
Views: 5654

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...
by Rory
Mon Dec 01, 2014 10:16 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: English words with four CONSONANTS!!! in the coda
Replies: 18
Views: 4634

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...
by Rory
Sat Apr 12, 2014 1:25 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: What's the deal with Russian stress?
Replies: 18
Views: 3703

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...
by Rory
Mon Sep 30, 2013 12:30 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Graduate programs in Romance Language Studies
Replies: 35
Views: 6750

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 ...
by Rory
Sun Sep 29, 2013 7:16 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Graduate programs in Romance Language Studies
Replies: 35
Views: 6750

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...
by Rory
Tue Mar 26, 2013 6:39 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Palatal Stops
Replies: 37
Views: 7521

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...
by Rory
Thu Mar 21, 2013 8:05 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Palatal Stops
Replies: 37
Views: 7521

Re: Palatal Stops

Qwynegold wrote:
Nortaneous wrote:They really should add ȶ ȡ ȵ ȴ to IPA.
The alveolo-palatals? They removed those from IPA and they're now transcribed t̠ʲ d̠ʲ n̠ʲ l̠ʲ IIRC.
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).
by Rory
Sat Mar 16, 2013 8:01 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Schwa-schwi merger
Replies: 52
Views: 12852

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...
by Rory
Thu Mar 14, 2013 10:02 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Schwa-schwi merger
Replies: 52
Views: 12852

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...
by Rory
Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:59 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Schwa-schwi merger
Replies: 52
Views: 12852

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...
by Rory
Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:50 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Palatal Stops
Replies: 37
Views: 7521

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...
by Rory
Thu Mar 14, 2013 2:55 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Schwa-schwi merger
Replies: 52
Views: 12852

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?
by Rory
Thu Mar 14, 2013 2:53 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Palatal Stops
Replies: 37
Views: 7521

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...