here - Linguistic Society of America

Thomas Brochhagen (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf) Session 17Elizabeth Coppock (University of Gothenburg)Only, at least, at most, more, and lessWe present a new analysis of at least and at most which not only meets the empirical desiderata laid out in previous work (Krifka1999, Büring 2008, Geurts and Nouwen 2007, Nouwen 2010, Cohen and Krifka 2011) but also captures their relationship to only,namely: only P asserts at most P and presupposes at least P (Beaver and Clark 2008, Coppock and Beaver 2012). We propose thatat least existentially quantifies over answers to the current Question Under Discussion ranked as strong as the prejacent, and atmost universally quantifies over stronger-ranked alternatives. More and less are treated analogously.K. Michael Brooks (University of California, San Diego) Session 47Bożena Pająk (University of Rochester)Eric Baković (University of California, San Diego)Learnability of complex phonological interactions: an artificial language learning experimentWhat inferences do learners make based on partial language data? We investigated whether exposure to independent phonologicalprocesses in a novel language would lead learners to infer their interaction in the absence of any direct evidence in thedata. Participants learned to form compounds in an artificial language exhibiting independently-triggered phonological processes,but the potential interaction between them was withheld from training. Unlike control participants trained on a near-identicallanguage without this potential, test participants rated critical items exhibiting the interaction as significantly more well-formedthan control items, suggesting that they were able to generalize beyond the observed language properties.Anja Bruhn (University of Potsdam/German Data Forum) Session 60Denis Huschka (German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin)/Rhodes University/German DataForum)Gert G. Wagner (Max Planck Institute for Human Development/German Institute for Economic Research(DIW Berlin)/Berlin University of Technology (TUB)/German Data Forum).The name letter effect: applying a psychological concept to naming habits; the case of Germany.In this study we examine parent-child-pairs applying the psychological concept of the name-letter-effect on given names inGermany. The concept suggests that people prefer letters appearing in their own name to letters not occurring in their own name.In psychological literature, this name letter preference is credited with having an influence on major life decisions such as choiceof (marriage) partner, job or place of residence. We analyze if there is a statistical valid proof for a parental preference of theirown name letters for the names of their children. Our preliminary results suggest a slight relationship for mother-children-pairs.Eugene Buckley (University of Pennsylvania) Session 90Prosodic structure in Southeastern Pomo stressWords in Southeastern Pomo (Moshinsky 1974, Goodman 1990) are stressed on the first syllable, excluding an epenthetic vowelin some initial clusters. In complex words such as compound nouns and reduplicated or directional verbs, the first element hasprimary stress, and the other is secondary. I argue that each element is a separate prosodic word with a left-aligned trochaic foot.The relative strength of stresses is determined by reference to a recursive PrWd, which is left-strong (Selkirk 1995). Phrasal stressis generally right-strong across independent PrWd units. Syllabification is permitted across words within the larger PrWd domain.Emmogene Budhai-Alvaranga (University of the West Indies, Mona) Session 81Studying language use and language choice of individuals: a biographical approachThe paper looks at three main aspects of a biographical orientation to language and relates them to a study done in a Jamaicancommunity. First, the approach is speaker-centred in nature, and this carries methodological implications for research. Second, itexposes the impact of language ideologies on language choice. Finally, it explores dimensions of language such as the role ofaspiration, desire, and emotion in language choice. In general, this paper shows that this approach can make specific contributionsto the exploration of language use in Caribbean situations, specifically those with Creole continuum.135