Jeffrey Heath

Sex, Sound Symbolism, and Sociolinguistics

Two important general conclusions of sociolinguistics are that females tend to lead in linguistic changes and that vowel systems tend to rotate in fixed directions. We argue that these two results are linked in that females and males are attracted asymmetrically to different subjective poles of the vowel system, one being high front unrounded [i] and the other being somewhere in the back rounded area near {o o}. We therefore adapt Ohalas “frequency code” theory to the sociolinguistic study of phonetic variation. We argue that such a model is superior to one in which individual speakers are attracted to particular phonetic targets only by virtue of a logically prior attraction to a class or similar social category which happens to use the pronunciation in question. Our study is in line with more general efforts to construct causal models for correlations between variable aesthetic preferences and “hard” (nonsubjective) social categories such as sex. It is, however, an open question whether sex‐asymmetric preferences are wired‐in or by‐products of more general developmental phenomena sensitive to gender socialization patterns.

A grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

This is a comprehensive description of Tamashek Tuareg spoken in Mali. The varieties covered in this volume are those of Tamashek in the narrow sense, excluding Tawellemett but including the other Malian varieties (Goundam, Timbuktu, Gao, Ansongo, Kidal, and the Gourma area south of the Niger River including Gosi and the outskirts of Hombori).

A grammar of Koyra Chiini : the Songhay of Timbuktu

The series builds an extensive collection of high quality descriptions of languages around the world. Each volume offers a comprehensive grammatical description of a single language together with fully analyzed sample texts and, if appropriate, a word list and other relevant information which is available on the language in question. There are no restrictions as to language family or area, and although special attention is paid to hitherto undescribed languages, new and valuable treatments of better known languages are also included. No theoretical model is imposed on the authors; the only criterion is a high standard of scientific quality.

Hermit Crabs: Formal Renewal of Morphology by Phonologically Mediated Affix Substitution.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Linguistic Society of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Language. A grammatical affix undergoing phonetic erosion is sometimes abruptly replaced by a conveniently available lexical stem with which it shares one or more phonological segments. The new affix has the phonological shape of the old independent stem, but acquires the basic grammatical function of the old affix, though it may also bring in a portion of the stems own morphological and semantic idiosyncrasies. Because the old affixal form is eliminated, the historical process can easily be misdiagnosed as reflecting the gradual compression of an original syntactic construction which includes the relevant independent stem. Recognition of the system-renewing element in this particular type of stem-to-affix grammaticalization leads to awareness of the pivotal role of the inherited system in grammaticalizations, and to a general critique of historical models which see grammaticalization as a straightforward syntax-to-morphology compression.*

Uto-Aztecan Morphophonemics

0. In my view, PUA split first into northern PNUA and southern PSUA. PNUA became Takic, Numic, Tu, and Ho. PSUA became Taracahitic, Tepiman, Corachol, and Az. Some processes described below apply only to the *-na-class, a set of verbs with special thematic suffixes: causative *-naand *-ca(PSUA) or *I-naand *i-ca(PNUA), intransitive *-0(PSUA) or *-kiand *i-tai(PNUA). I plan to deal with the history of this class in another paper.

Syntactic and lexical aspects of nonconfigurationality in Nunggubuyu (Australia)

ConclusionOne way to formulate the issues is in terms of an up-or-down decision on whether such units as NP, VP, and S exist in Nunggubuyu. My view is that there is no evidence for VP, that NP is generally best considered in terms of appositional concatenation (with the possible exception of some demonstrative-noun combinations), and that S is needed but that its relationship to PNs (and INFL) is somewhat loose. However, much depends on whether the burden of proof is on those seeking to prove that units like VP exist, or on those sympathetic to the opposite position.Whether or not these syntactic units ‘exist’ in some sense, the syntax and lexicon are obviously sharply distinct from those of strongly configurational languages like English and the other European languages which have been the basis for all prominent formal theories. If it is decided that NP, VP, and S do exist in Nunggubuyu (using various fragments of evidence, or distinct modes of argumentation), then the challenge is to proceed to account for the various facts about syntax and lexicon reported above. If the underlying structures are like English, what is it that produces such unusual features as NEG-indexing (including subjects), case-spreading (from head noun to relative clause and within relative clauses from predicates to nouns), noun-class harmony in whole/part expressions, and so forth? Why are there no adjectives or adverbs (in the English sense)? Why do quantifiers take the unusual form they do?Hales suggestion (1983) is that Warlpiri has a lexical Structure (LS) resembling that of configurational languages, but differs in the way this LS is projected onto phrase structure (PS). However, this model with its optional ‘nonconfigurationality’ feature does not seem capable of capturing the close relationship between lexicon and syntax in radically NC languages (where, moreover, the various available tests for a subject-VP split do not yield positive results).Regardless of how we decide to model underlying structures in this language, NC syntax is a basic fact of observable surface structures. The various jobs that a grammar must do if speakers are to succeed in communicating must be carried out in this context. This includes the expression of complex concepts which are most easily handled by tightly knit phrasal structures, including possessor-possessum combinations, nominal conjunctions, and quantified nouns; there must also be some mechanisms for marking the scope of NEG and boundaries between main and subordinated propositions. Thus an alternative theoretical approach to NC languages is to accept the absence of tight multi-word phrasal units as a point of departure, then work (one by one) through the ways in which the language resolves the conflict between NC structure and the functional requirements just mentioned. While we have seen some ways in which the lexicon and the morphology may adjust to NC syntax, we know far too little about the cross-linguistic range of such possibilities (i.e., about the detailed typological ramifications of NC structure).

Understanding Arabic : essays in contemporary Arabic linguistics in honor of El-Said Badawi

Arabic, like any other natural language, has evolved throughout its long history, but its traditional mode of study has remained relatively unchanged and has continued to dominate the investigation of the language for some thirteen centuries. It has been perceived as a language immune to change on account of its intimate link to Islam; consequently, new ideas, findings, and approaches of modern linguistics have been routinely dismissed as irrelevant.One linguist, El-Said Badawi ventured to swim against the current and proposed a novel theoretical rendering of contemporary Arabic.

Uto-Aztecan *na-Class Verbs

0. Introduction 1.1. PNUA thematic suffixes 1.2. The PNUA intransitive paradigm 1.3. The distributive 1.4. The iterative 1.5. Perfective truncation 1.6. The PSUA intransitive paradigm 1.7. The element *-ka2.1. The PSUA transitive (causative) paradigm 2.2. The PNUA transitive (causative) paradigm 2.3. Some SoPa forms 2.4. SoPa i-n?aand i-na2.5. The iterative 2.6. The element *-yV2.7. Instrumental prefixes 3. PNUA and PSUA participles 4. Implications for UA subgrouping

Proto-Northern Uto-Aztecan Participles

CHOMSKY, NOAM, AND MORRIS HALLE. 1968. The Sound Pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row. HARMS, ROBERT T. 1966. Stress, voice, and length in Southern Paiute. IJAL 32:228-35. LOUNSBURY, FLOYD. 1964. Lecture to the Linguistics Club of the University of Texas. MCCARTHY, JOHN J. 1983. Phonological features and morphological structure. Papers from the Parasession on the Interplay of Phonology, Morphology and Syntax, ed. J. F. Richardson, M. Marks, and A. Chukerman, pp. 135-61. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. SAPIR, EDWARD. 1930. The Southern Paiute language: Southern Paiute, a Shoshonean language. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 65, no. 1:1-296.

Dyirbal ergativity: Counter-rejoinder to Dixon

Replies are made to factual and theoretical points raised by Dixon in his rejoinder (1979) to my paper criticizing the ergative-syntax analysis of Dyirbal (Heath 1979). I move from relatively picayune issues to larger ones, and conclude by calling for answers to remaining factual questions. The most significant new point concerns hints in Dixon s rejoinder that previous descriptions of the functions of Dyirbal antipassive rules are seriously incomplete.