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ejective to velar fricative is more plausible than the reverse since sufficient glottal pressure is difficult to maintain during productionof fricatives (Maddieson 1984). This study contributes to the reconstruction of Proto-Agaw and Proto-Cushitic and deepens ourunderstanding of sound changes involving glottalization.Ji Fang (Palo Alto Research Center) Session 14Peter Sells (Stanford University)A formal analysis of the verb copy construction in ChineseBased on historical evidence, facts of aspect attachment and of adjunct distribution, we propose that the verb copy construction (VCC)in Chinese is analyzed as a double/multiple-headed coordinated VP, with each VP as a co-head (in contrast to the single-head analysesof Huang 1982; Gouguet 2004, 2005). We further propose that the first VP stands in a subsumption relation (Zaenen & Kaplan 2002,2003) to every other VP. Our account predicts that the argument structure of V must be fully satisfied in the first VP, with all otherVPs introducing adjuncts, and it correctly allows extraction from only the first VP.Nicolas Faraclas (University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras) Session 85Jesús Morales Ramírez (University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras)Pier Ángeli Le Compte Zambrana (University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras)Intonation in Crucian EnglishlLexifier creoleUsing acoustic analysis, we document the intonation patterns of Crucian in order to determine how these intonation patterns compareto those found in other dialects of Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creole (ACELC).Ashley W. Farris (Indiana University) Session 50Doubly-derived environment blockingI highlight a phonological blocking effect not previously discussed, doubly-derived environment blocking. The phenomenon isnoteworthy because a sound that is allowed to occur, whether faithful or derived, is blocked when it is too distant in terms of featuresor derivational steps from the input. Although this effect does not result in opaque outputs, it seems to require an account motivatedby opacity effects. I argue that faithfulness-based extensions to optimality theory, such as local conjunction, can easily account for theeffect. However, markedness-based extensions, like comparative markedness, cannot. [NIH-DC00012 & 001694]Rolando Félix Armendáriz (University of Sonora) Session 95Preferred argument structure in Warihío & YaquiDu Bois 1985, 1987b, 2003 establishes some restrictions in the informational flow in discourse, what he calls ‘preferred argumentstructure’. The restrictions that have certain predictive value are: (1) Avoid more than one lexical core argument per clause. (2)Avoid lexical agents (A's). (3) Avoid more than one new core argument per clause. (4) Avoid new lexical mentions in A function.Such predictions seem to be confirmed by the languages of the present study. However, methodological issues--signaled by Englandand Martin 2003--appear when different narrative genera are compared, especially life stories and folk tales.Ted Fernald (Swarthmore College) Session 104Ellavina Perkins (Navajo Language Academy)Negative polarity items in NavajoCross-linguistically, a range of environments license negative polarity items (NPIs). Hale and Platero's (2000) ‘negative polarityconstruction’ consists of a verb containing an enclitic -í after its stem (e.g. nayiisnii'-í-da 's/he didn't buy anything'). We show that thisconstruction occurs strictly within negative scope. We identify a minimizer, lá'í ndi, which is grammatical in the same environment.We argue that expressions like haida 'anyone', conceptually linked to the enclitic -í, are a different variety of NPI. Making sense ofthe distribution of these expressions is a part of the job of descriptive linguistics where theoretical considerations have made acontribution.Fernanda Ferreira (Bridgewater State College) Session 93Popular Brazilian Portuguese as a semi-creole: Evidence from complex pluralsPrevious studies of Popular Brazilian Portuguese (PBP) propose that patterns of plural suffixation parallel those found in Portuguesebasedcreoles, making the case for its classification as a semi-creole (Holm 1998, 2004). Alternatively, Naro and Scherre 2000 and119