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intensification (so/very/really great)—while considering ideological stance and possible transfer effects from the indigenous language.Together, these variables demonstrate that Nain Inuit English shares some traits with Newfoundland English and shows little influencefrom Inuktitut.Marisa C. Tice (Stanford University) Session 34Michael C. Frank (Stanford University)Preschool children spontaneously anticipate turn-end boundariesConversational skills are important for children because they enable them to ask questions, make and test linguistic predictions,and get feedback. But children's turn-timing is significantly longer than adults', even at age five. Are their slow gaps due to aninability to anticipate turn-ends or is it due to their need to prepare a coherent, linguistic response? We tested whetherpreschoolers anticipate turn-end boundaries by measuring their gaze to videos of dialogue. We find that preschoolers cansuccessfully project ongoing turn-end boundaries on time. Thus, their delays in responding must be due to the process offormulating a response.Maziar Toosarvandani (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Session 13Coordination and subordination in Northern Paiute clause chainingClauses are traditionally taken to combine either through coordination or subordination. Coordinators join clauses together asstructural equals, while subordinators locate one clause inside another. This discrete distinction is challenged by clausechaining—the linking of a sequence of nonfinite clauses with one finite clause—a phenomenon that has been claimed to haveproperties of both coordination and subordination (Good 2003, VanValin 2005:183f.). Drawing on my own fieldwork data, Iargue that all clause chaining in Northern Paiute—a highly endangered Uto-Aztecan language of the western United States—iseither coordination or subordination. While often superficially ambiguous, deeper properties of Northern Paiute clause chainssupport a discrete distinction between coordination and subordination, cf. Guaraní (Dooley 2010) and Korean (Kwon andPolinsky 2008).Harold Torrence (University of Kansas) Session 100Ivano Caponigro (University of California, San Diego)Carlos Cisneros (University of Chicago)Free relative clauses in Two Mixtec LanguagesWe investigate non-interrogative wh-clauses known as free relative clauses (FRs) in two Mixtec languages – NievesMixtec,spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico and Melchor Ocampo Mixtec, spoken in Guerrero, Mexico. FRs are clauses like the bracketedone in Juan bought [what Maria cooked]. While the literature on Mixtec languages does document interrogative wh clauses andrelative clauses, we know of no reference to or description of FRs in any Mixtec language.Sara Trechter (California State University, Chico) Session 95Spatial shift and Mandan positionalsMandan is replete with positional verbs of existence, related auxiliaries, and derived articles that typically indicate shape orposition . Although basic meanings of sitting, standing, and lying are attributed to these, their variable meanings and usage as wellas underlying conceptual system have remain undetermined since their first description. Drawing on Quintero’s (2004)description of Osage, recent fieldwork with the last fluent speaker, and textual analysis, the current paper clarifies the distribution,function and meaning of the Mandan positionals by focusing on their obligatory use with nouns of specific attributes, plural shiftsof figure and ground, and discourse effects.Erich Fox Tree (Hamilton College) Session 98Davis Jeffrey (The University of Tennessee, Knoxville)Comparative analyses of American indigenous signed language varietiesThis paper compares three distinct indigenous sign languages: Plains Indian Sign Language, Mesoamerican Meemul Tziij, andNavajo signing, to determine whether linguistic similarities are best attributable to: (1) common origin, (2) contact, or (3) sharediconic motivations and typological features of sign languages. All three explanations require revisions of established paradigmsregarding the nature of all sign languages, with the first two explanations also constituting significant challenges to the acceptedideas regarding the history of indigenous sign languages in the Americas. This study represents the first comparative analysis ofthe indigenous sign languages of these diverse geographic and cultural regions.210