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Peter Graff (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Session 22Paul Marty (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)Donca Steriade (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)French glides after C-Liquid: the effect of contrast distinctivenessWe show that constraints on French glide-vowel alternations, earlier analyzed as consequences of syllabic well-formedness(Kaye and Lowenstamm 1984, Tranel 1987, Dell 1995), are due instead to perceptual distinctiveness. Glide formation (i→j,u→w/_V) is blocked in French after obstruent-liquid clusters (OL), for /i/, but not /u/. Results of a syllable division-cum-wug-testshow that this effect is independent of syllable structure: both tautosyllabic and heterosyllabic OL clusters block j. In a perceptionstudy, we identify the perceptibility of the liquid as the critical factor: OLj sequences are confusable with Oj, more than OLi withOi and more than OLw with Ow.Jason Grafmiller (Stanford University) Session 34Object-Experiencer verbs as true transitive verbsCorpus and experimental data of resultative predication, null object constructions, compound formation, and object-island effectsall fail to distinguish objects of verbs like amaze, annoy, or frighten, from canonical direct objects, arguing against recent analysesof English experiencer objects as obliques.. A detailed semantic analysis reveals a strong correlation between the distribution ofactive/passive uses across different verbs, the nature of the emotion denoted by the verbs, and the degree of abstractnessassociated with the verbs’ stimulus arguments, suggesting that the special character of Object-Experiencer verbs follows not fromstructural properties but from semantic and pragmatic factors.Lydia Grebenyova (Baylor University) Session 23Syntax of contrastive focus in child language: to move or not to moveContrastively focused R-expressions remain in situ in English while they are fronted in Russian, which raises questions as towhen and how children acquire these language-specific properties. This study presents elicited-production data showing thatEnglish-acquiring children (mean age 4;5) never front a focused constituent, while Russian-acquiring children (mean age 4;4)leave the contrastively-focused expressions in situ 33% of the time. I develop a parametric account and relate the Russianchildren’s errors in focus-fronting to the acquisition of multiple wh-fronting in Russian, arguing that those phenomena aregoverned by the same parameter. This supports independently motivated syntactic analyses of these phenomena.Laura Grestenberger (Harvard University) Session 17Middle Voice vs. reflexive pronouns: evidence from Rigvedic SanskritRigvedic Sanskrit has a middle voice construction with the NP tan½- “body” as direct object which develops into a reflexiveconstruction in which tan½- acts as a reflexive pronoun. To explain this diachronic development, I argue that predicates with aninalienably possessed “body part” argument are unaccusatives which take a R(elational)P complement in which the possessum(tan½-) c-commands the possessor. The use of the middle in these constructions confirms Embick (1998)’s claim that non-activevoice is assigned only in syntactic configurations in which v does not have an external argument and provides evidence thatreflexive predicates pattern with unaccusative predicates.Laura Grestenberger (Harvard University) Session 34The syntax of plural marking in German and English pseudo-partitivesSome dialects of German use plural marking to distinguish between measure phrases (MP) with a standard unit reading and MPwith a container reading in pseudo-partitive (and partitive) constructions with a numeral higher than “one”. In English bothreadings require plural marking. English furthermore allows ellipsis in pseudo-partitives, whereas German does not. I argue thatthese data point to a structural difference between pseudo-partitive constructions in both languages: In German, the measure nounheads NumP in the standard unit reading, whereas in English it heads its own M(easure)P and has interpretable number featuresthat contribute to number marking.Jessica Grieser (Georgetown University) Session 7[t]inking about Takoma: race, place, and style at the border of Washington, D.C.This study is a discourse analysis and variationist study of (th) and (dh)-stopping as they function in style-shifting in twosociolinguistic interviews of African American speakers, matched for age, from Takoma, a neighborhood in the District ofColumbia known for its high integration and cross-racial acceptance. Based on both statistical and discourse level evidence, I156