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Meredith Johnson (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Session 95Bryan Rosen (University of Wisconsin-Madison)Mateja Schuck (University of Wisconsin-Madison)Evidence for a VP constituent in HocąkWe present evidence of a verb phrase (VP) constituent Hocąk, contributing to the ongoing debate on configurationality in Siouanlanguages. First, word order restrictions in Hocąk are crucial to disambiguate subjects and objects, suggesting subject-objectasymmetries and thus a VP. Second, coordination targets a constituent that excludes the subject; namely, a VP. Third, locativeadjuncts obligatorily modify objects; that is, they obligatorily scope over the VP. Lastly, ellipsis in Hocąk targets the verb,object(s) and adjunct(s) to the exclusion of the subject, suggesting a VP constituent. We discuss the implications of this data forthe syntax and morphology of Hocąk.Dianne Jonas (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main) Session 27Embedded verb second in Faroese: a diachronic perspectiveWhile the Scandinavian languages are uniformly verb-second, they exhibit well-known variation with respect to embedded clauseword order. This paper is concerned with occurrences of verb-second in Faroese subject-initial embedded clauses through adiachronic study of older Faroese texts that exhibit this type of word order variation in embedded clauses. Based on an analysis ofthe structure of Faroese non-finite clauses, it is argued here that such embedded subject-initial verb-second clauses involve the C-domain and are thus verb-second clauses rather than exhibiting optional/residual verb movement to INFL/Tense. A comparison ismade with similar earlier texts in Danish and Norwegian.Gunlög Josefsson (Lund University) Session 27From a gender to a classifier language: the case of West JutlandicIn this talk I argue that a variety of Danish, West Jutlandic, has changed from being a gender language/variety to what is bestunderstood as a classifier language/variety. What is commonly referred to as gender in West Jutlandic – neuter vs. commongender – is a matter of selection, and the choice gives rise to different interpretations. Furthermore, the alleged gender feature isexpressed through a small class of independent prenominal items. Agreement is practically absent. If the analysis is on the righttrack, it indicates that gender systems can be the source of classifier systems.Sun-Ah Jun (University of California, Los Angeles) Session 29Jason Bishop (University of California, Los Angeles)Prosodic priming in relative clause attachmentThis study explored prosody’s role in the resolution of relative clause (RC) attachment ambiguities, using the structural primingparadigm. Before reading and resolving the RC attachment of a sentence (e.g. Someone shot the servant of the actress who was onthe balcony), Subjects heard three prime RC-sentences whose prosodic phrasing was manipulated. Results show subjects’attachment preferences for silently-read targets were influenced by the prosodic manipulation, but the expected pattern was foundonly for subjects with prominent “autistic”-like traits. The results support the Implicit Prosody Hypothesis (Fodor 1998), butindicate a more complex picture of the relevant prosodic representations involved.Hyun Kyoung Jung (University of Arizona) Session 34Applicative-causative interaction in Hiaki and KoreanThe Hiaki/Korean productive causative can follow, and thus scope over, the benefactive applicative. However, with the samenumber of arguments, the reverse order – productive causative followed by applicative – is not allowed. This study shows that theapparent morphological constraints on the interaction of applicative and causative in Hiaki and Korean are in fact due to the sizeof the complement that causative and applicative heads take – Causatives embed a Case-licensing VoiceP, which applicativescannot. The analysis explains the distinct status of productive and lexical causatives and the seemingly opposite restrictions onsuffix ordering in Chichewa.Tom Jusek (University of Oxford) Session 34Comparing conventional and alternative normalisations for acceptability judgementsWhen measuring grammatical acceptability, syntacticians can use different measurement methods (we included an N-Point Scale,a Minimum-Maximum-Normalisation method, and Magnitude Estimation); but ratings need to be normalised to be meaningful.How to best normalise has not been previously investigated. We have thus compared different normalisation methods164