here - Linguistic Society of America

Michael Adams (Indiana University) Session 70The American Blade: etymologies of a newspaper nameIn the American context, when a newspaper is named The [Placename] Blade by people whose first language is Swedish, Blade isan Americanism, a loan translation (Bladet > Blade) actuated on American soil. In other cases, however, Blade is not anAmericanism, but simply another English name brought to America by British settlers. Thus, Blade is a historically interestingonomastic example parallel to lexical examples, like dialectal leave ‘let’/let ‘leave’, of the typological and etymological problemsdescribed by Michael Adams in “Lexical Doppelgängers” (Journal of English Linguistics (2000)).Adebola Omolara Adebileje (Redeemer’s University) Session 72A socio-semantic analysis of nicknames used by Yoruba brides for in-lawsThis paper studies ten nicknames used by Yoruba brides to address their in-laws. Yoruba culture demands specialrespect from the bride as she relates with her husband’s family members. For instance, she should not call any of herin-laws by their names. So, she coins nicknames to show respect. A socio-semantic analysis of the ten nicknamesselected through observation and oral-interview reflect social implications, including the type of relationship thatexists between the bride and her in-laws; the physical description and behavioural disposition of individual in-laws asperceived by the bride; and that such names could be derogatory or complimentary.Eniola Olamide Adedoyin (Redeemer’s University) Session 72Semantic implications of authors’ names in creativity: a case study of Wole Soyinka’s name as reflected in his selected worksNames deal in a process of identification. They constitute language which could be individually, socio culturally, psychologicallyor group influenced. Often metaphorically used, names could reveal the thought of its users. This paper studies the impact ofauthors’ names in their creative use of language. We focus on the name of Africa’s world acclaimed author; Wole Soyinka;deriving the utmost import of meaning(s) embedded in his name and the inseparable presence of these meaning significations inhis works. We conclude that generic names absorb the creative faculty of an individual and ultimately find expression in hisperceptions.Jeffrey Adler (Rutgers University) Session 17Benjamin Munson (University of Minnesota)The effect of phonological neighborhood density on vowel production from children to adultsWe examined how phonological neighborhood density (PND, the number of words differing from a target word by one phoneme)affects children and adults' speech production. Previous research (Wright, 2004) found that high-PND words are produced withacoustically more peripheral vowels than low-PND words. If this effect were related to the size of the lexicon, we would predictchildren should not display the effect as strongly as adults. We found that both children and adults produced more peripheralvowels in high-PND words than in low-PND words. Hence, the effect of PND on speech production is not necessarily dependenton lexicon size.Colleen Ahland (SIL International) Session 6The status of Gumuz as a language isolateThe Gumuz language(s) of Ethiopia had been considered part of the Nilo-Saharan (NS) family since Greenberg’s 1963classification. Recently, there is doubt about Gumuz belonging to NS, with some suggesting it may be an isolate. I present newevidence that Gumuz may be related to Gwama (Koman), rendering it a possible member of the NS family or at least a member ofKoman which may or may not be NS. I also present a possible common source for sex-based gender prefixes in Gumuz and someNilotic languages. This last evidence is suggestive of membership within the broader Nilo-Saharan family.Michael Ahland (SIL International) Session 40Degrammaticalization in Northern Mao’s pronominal innovations: from subject prefix to full pronounPronouns in the Mao languages (Afroasiatic/Omotic/Mao) are highly innovative and have been problematic for reconstruction. InNorthern Mao (NM), only two of nine are transparently cognate with forms in sister languages. I show NM’s pronouns can onlybe reconstructed by examining verbs. Verbal subject prefixes fused with a preceding affirmative prefix /ha-/ and then formed newfree pronouns, bringing [ha] into the pronominal paradigm. A dual opposition then developed in these new pronouns. Finally, a124