View the meeting handbook - Linguistic Society of America
View the meeting handbook - Linguistic Society of America
View the meeting handbook - Linguistic Society of America
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circa 1900. I consider three hypo<strong>the</strong>ses about FOTM's nature: (1) a literal gloss <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> widespread pidgin, Chinook jargon (perhaps byFrancophone missionaries for French readers' interest); (2) a Métis French [MF] variety which became an interethnic lingua franca;and (3) a newly identified pidgin. Referring to structure and to context <strong>of</strong> use, I disprove (1) and show that (2) and (3) both apply. Insummary, FOTM represents MF used among non-Métis according to new, divergent norms.David D. Robertson (University <strong>of</strong> Victoria) Session 73A grammar <strong>of</strong> Chinook jargon personal namesOnomastics is an area <strong>of</strong> grammar usually excluded from linguistic descriptions. I address that gap for one language, analyzing <strong>the</strong>structural, pragmatic, and diachronic patterns in a corpus <strong>of</strong> personal names from Chinook jargon (CJ). CJ is an Indigenous-basedpidgin important in Pacific Northwest history (Hale 1846; Demers, Blanchet & St. Onge 1871; Jacobs 1932). Since onomastics <strong>of</strong>teninvolves morphological and phonological processes unknown in o<strong>the</strong>r areas <strong>of</strong> a language's grammar (viz. Weeda 1992, Lipski 1995,Robertson 2006), it is expected this study will shed new light on <strong>the</strong> workings <strong>of</strong> CJ.Stuart Robinson (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen) Session 16Split intransitivity in RotokasI describe a system <strong>of</strong> split intransitivity found in Rotokas, a Papuan (non-Austronesian) language spoken in Bougainville, Papua NewGuinea, and show that <strong>the</strong> language has a split-S system. Verb stems have a fixed (ra<strong>the</strong>r than fluid) classification that is largelypredictable from semantics. The semantic parameters discussed in <strong>the</strong> previous literature may be necessary but not sufficient. Theidentification <strong>of</strong> a single overarching semantic principle is unlikely, however, given that <strong>the</strong> default classification <strong>of</strong> verbs isoverridden by some syntactic processes. Split intransitivity in Rotokas is, <strong>the</strong>refore, nei<strong>the</strong>r a purely semantic nor a purely syntacticphenomenon.Guillermo Rodríguez (University <strong>of</strong> Pittsburgh) Session 27Alan Juffs (University <strong>of</strong> Pittsburgh)Using only word class: Evidence against shallow parsing in second language sentence processingRecent findings (Traxler 2005) support <strong>the</strong> claim that first language comprehenders incorporate words into sentences as soon aspossible based solely on syntactic information. We attempt to replicate Traxler's findings with 20 Spanish-speaking learners <strong>of</strong>English and 27 native speakers (NSs) using <strong>the</strong> self-paced, word-by-word (moving window) reading paradigm to determine whatinformation is used when reading ambiguous subordinate clauses. Measures <strong>of</strong> working memory (WM) capacity were also includedto determine whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>y interact with reading times in <strong>the</strong> disambiguating region. Results show that learners' performance is similarto NSs' and WM measures are not related to reading times.Rebecca Roeder (University <strong>of</strong> Toronto) Session 57Understanding Lansing: Mexican <strong>America</strong>n listeners in MichiganI investigate <strong>the</strong> claim that minority group members whose dialect is different from <strong>the</strong> mainstream are not as accurate as members <strong>of</strong><strong>the</strong> majority group in <strong>the</strong>ir perception <strong>of</strong> that dialect. Results are based on evidence from 22 Mexican <strong>America</strong>n residents <strong>of</strong> southcentral Michigan who were asked to listen to words in isolation, as pronounced during normal conversation by female speakers <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>dominant local dialect, and write down what <strong>the</strong>y heard. A comparison <strong>of</strong> perceptual accuracy and production results reveals aninteresting parallelism when compared to findings from similar studiesDorian Roehrs (University <strong>of</strong> North Texas) Session 51Complex determiners: A case study <strong>of</strong> German ein jederWith a single DP-level, <strong>the</strong> DP-hypo<strong>the</strong>sis makes <strong>the</strong> prediction that <strong>the</strong>re can be only one determiner. Combinations such as Germanein jeder '(an) every' are special: Not only may two determiners co-occur but <strong>the</strong> weak determiner precedes <strong>the</strong> strong one and <strong>the</strong>re isan apparent definiteness clash. I argue that, on <strong>the</strong> one hand, both elements are lexically independent <strong>of</strong> each o<strong>the</strong>r and that, on <strong>the</strong>o<strong>the</strong>r, <strong>the</strong>se elements behave as if compounded. In order to reconcile <strong>the</strong>se paradoxical properties, I propose that <strong>the</strong>se two elementsform a ‘late’ compound-like element where ein intensifies <strong>the</strong> distributive reading.159