here - Linguistic Society of America

Lori Mclain Pierce (University of Texas at Arlington) Session 105Nathan Eversole (University of Texas at Arlington)Collaborative databasing using FLEx: a case study in ChoctawThis poster is a case study of utilizing a collaborative database via remote server to document and analyze Choctaw, a WesternMuskogean language spoken in Mississippi and Oklahoma. It examines the advantages and disadvantages of using a collaborativeFLEx database, as well as proposes ways in which multiple researchers or members of a community might overcome theseobstacles. Benefits from this collaborative method include facilitating the documentation of features of Choctaw, such as narrativestructure, switch reference, focus and verb grades.Marc Pierce (University of Texas at Austin) Session 75Robert Hall and the Kensington Rune StoneSince its 1898 discovery, the Kensington Rune Stone has been controversial. Although very few academics have accepted it asauthentic, the stone has always had numerous defenders among the general public. One of the vanishingly rare linguists whoaccepted the stone as a genuine runic artifact was the late Robert A. Hall. Here, I first briefly summarize the debate over thestone’s authenticity and Hall’s arguments in favor of his position. I then contextualize Hall’s views within the history ofScandinavian linguistics in North America.Keith Plaster (Harvard University) Session 20Ossetic footprints: sequential voicing in OsseticOssetic possesses a process of sequential voicing in compounds, as in k’æx-væd ‘footprint’ (< k’æx ‘foot’ + fæd ‘mark’). I showthat sequential voicing applies to an unnatural class of segments: /f, t, ts, k/ are voiced at the beginning of the second member ofcompounds while the other voiceless segments (including /q, x, s/) are not. In addition, I provide an analysis of the Osseticprocess and show that this unnatural class arose due to a series of sound changes in the history of Ossetic, adding a language tothe cases documented by Mielke (2004, 2008).Andrew R. Plummer (The Ohio State University) Session 74Bolzano-Lewis possible worlds semantics: an improvement over its successorsFoundational assumptions within Montague’s (1974) style of possible worlds semantics (PWS) force the meaning of a declarativesentence -- the proposition it expresses -- to be the set of possible worlds at which that proposition is true, with the (problematic)consequence that distinct sentences having the same truth conditions mean the same thing. I discuss the history of a PWSapproach precursory to Montague’s, stemming from the work of Bolzano (1837) and Lewis (1923), that is free from thisconsequence while still providing all the theoretical tools present-day semanticists need (Pollard [2008, 2011]; Plummer andPollard [2012]).Robert Podesva (Stanford University) Session 53Jeremy Calder (Stanford University)Hsin-Chang Chen (Stanford University)Annette D’Onofrio (Stanford University)Isla Flores-Bayer (Stanford University)Seung Kyung Kim (Stanford University)Janneke Van Hofwegen (Stanford University)The status of the California Vowel Shift in a non-coastal, non-urban communityThis study investigates three dimensions of the California Vowel Shift (CVS) — fronting of back vowels, nasal pattern of TRAP,and LOT-THOUGHT merger — in 32 speakers from Shasta County, California, a Northern, inland community. While allspeakers participate in the shift, younger speakers show more advanced patterns. Additionally, speaker gender and orientation totown versus country condition the backing of TRAP. Data suggest that as the CVS spreads from urban centers, certain CVSfeatures retain associations with the metropolis while others become more widespread indices of California authenticity. ShastaCounty speakers use this difference to negotiate non-urban, but nevertheless Californian, identities.194