Oliver Bond

WALS in the university classroom: A review

Abstract The world atlas of language structures (WALS) originally appealed to the linguistics community as a resource for research. However, the relevance of the feature chapters to teaching environments and the user-friendly nature of the Interactive Reference Tool also make it suitable for university classrooms. Based on our experiences using WALS in two typology courses at the University of Manchester and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), we provide a review of WALS as a teaching and learning tool, including both its successes and frustrations. We note some methodological and technical issues with using WALS in the university classroom, including problems of over- and under-sampling, and a lack of coverage on typological rarities. However, we have also found that WALS has much to offer instructors and students in terms of its breadth of topic coverage, the linkage of the feature chapters with course reading assignments, the wealth of genealogical, geographical, and bibliographic information on individual languages, and the hands-on experience that the Interactive Reference Tool offers students.

Negation through reduplication and tone: implications for the Lexical Functional Grammar/Paradigm Function Morphology interface

Morphological marking of negation through verbal reduplication and tone is a typologically rare phenomenon attested in Eleme (Niger-Congo; Nigeria). Using Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) and Paradigm Function Morphology (PFM) to model first-hand data, I argue that reduplication is not a direct exponent of negation in Eleme, but an asemantic morphomic process, indirectly associated with the presence of a negative polarity feature in LFG’s m(orphological)-structure. While negative verb forms of this kind are typologically unusual, the data can be explained by independently motivated morphology-internal principles. The empirical facts thereby provide support for an m-structure, characterised by its own principles and rules, which interfaces with a bifurcated lexicon that separates content from form.

Aspectual and focal functions of Cognate-Head-Dependent Constructions: Evidence from Africa

Abstract Cognate Head-Dependent Constructions (CHDCs) are employed across numerous genera in Africa to signpost alternations in the aspectual characteristics of a predicate or the information focus of a clause. The co-occurrence of a finite lexical verb (the cognate head) and an etymologically related (deverbal) noun or non-finite verb form (the cognate dependent) in such structures is interpreted with reference to the scalar semantics of events and properties. Within this areal typology, CHDCs are employed to indicate either (i) a high point relative to a norm on a semantic scale or (ii) a conventionally low-ranked possibility, in order to implicitly contrast possible alternatives.