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Coyote Papers is a publication of the Linguistics Circle, the Graduate Student Organization of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Arizona.

ISSN: 2770-1662 (Online)
ISSN: 0894-4539 (Print)

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Recent Submissions

  • Table of Contents and Introduction (Coyote Papers Volume 14, 2005)

    University of Arizona Linguistics Circle (Tucson, Arizona), 2005
  • An ultrasound study of coarticulation and vowel assimilation in Korean

    Yun, Gwanhi; University of Arizona (University of Arizona Linguistics Circle (Tucson, Arizona), 2005)
    Ultrasound imaging experiments were conducted to study vowel-to-vowel coarticulation patterns involving the environment of vowel assimilation in Korean. Results showed that anticipatory coarticulatory effects occur and that vowel assimilation is truly phonological and that the degree of coarticulation is stronger in assimilated words than in non-assimilated words. These results imply that phonological rules might directly influence coarticulation in a phonology-phonetics unified grammar.
  • Resumptive pronouns are not optional: evidence from topic constructions of the possessor in Mandarin Chinese

    Wang, Jianyuan; University of Arizona (University of Arizona Linguistics Circle (Tucson, Arizona), 2005)
    In Mandarin Chinese topic constructions of the possessor, optional resumptive pronouns (RP) seem to occur. Meanwhile, the data also show a difference in the extractability of the possessor, i.e., the so-called subject-object asymmetry in extractability (Huang 1982). That is, when the possessor of a subject possessive phrase is topicalized/left-dislocated, a gap is grammatical, and an RP is also allowed; when the possessor of an object possessive phrase is topicalized, a gap is disallowed, and an RP saves the otherwise illicit extraction of the possessor. This paper first argues that the Chinese possessive phrase has a phrase structure that resembles the English counterpart, and adopts Abney’s (1987) DP-Hypothesis for the Chinese possessive phrase. Based on the Left Branch Condition (LBC; Ross 1986), the paper then proposes the Symmetrical Hypothesis, i.e., extraction of the possessor is equally illegal from either argument position. With respect to the occurrence of the seemingly optional RPs along with the extraction of the possessor from the subject possessive phrase, the paper posits two distinct possibilities for the extraction: extraction from the subject position directly, which is an argument position, or from the topic position instead, which is a derived position in the left periphery. LBC is at work with the former possibility, and therefore the subject-object asymmetry dissolves; LBC is violable in the latter possibility, given the specific nature of the left periphery (Rizzi 1997). The analysis for the latter possibility leads to the claim that the RP is in fact obligatory, and that the RP and the gap are in different derivations. Further data from Lu (1995) present a challenge to Huang’s asymmetry as well as the proposed Symmetrical Hypothesis. That is, when the possessor is 3rd person non-human, the extraction of the possessor from the object position renders the gap grammatical, but the RP ungrammatical. The analysis of the data finds that the animacy of the possessor plays an important role in eliciting the different grammaticality judgment here. As a result, the utterance of the 3rd person nonhuman RP is prohibited, hence the proposed No Pronunciation Rule. In this sense, Mandarin Chinese also has null RPs.
  • Is PROarb the same as pro? Evidence from Persian impersonal constructions

    Taleghani, Azita; University of Arizona (University of Arizona Linguistics Circle (Tucson, Arizona), 2005)
    This paper challenges the existence of PRO module in the grammar. Hornstein (1999) suggests that PRO does not exist and PROarb is identical to pro. Landau (1999), however, claims that PRO exists and PROarb is different from pro syntactically. The data provided here, along with the analysis to be presented, show that PROarb and pro function similarly in Persian imperson-al constructions. Persian does not have any overt DPs with appropriate semantics such as impersonal one in English. Therefore, the only feature combinations that are compatible with the semantics are those for the covert equivalent of one.
  • Distributed morphology without secondary exponence: a local account of licensing thematic licensing of vocabulary items and strong verb alternations

    Siddiqi, Daniel; University of Arizona (University of Arizona Linguistics Circle (Tucson, Arizona), 2005)
    This paper provides a Distributed Morphology (DM) approach to the thematic licensing of verbs and extends that approach to the licensing of strong verb alternations such as eat/ate. These verbal behaviors have been captured in the DM literature by limiting the morphological environments that condition the insertion of Vocabulary Items (c.f. secondary exponence). In this paper, I show that the verbs in question gain the features of the environment they appear in by undergoing fusion with the relevant heads. In this way, DM does not need to rely upon conditioning the insertion of irregular verbs, but need only rely upon the Subset Principle to license the insertion of these verbs.
  • Palatron: a technique for aligning ultrasound images of the tongue and palate

    Mielke, Jeff; Baker, Adam; Archangeli, Diana; Racy, Sumayya; University of Arizona (University of Arizona Linguistics Circle (Tucson, Arizona), 2005)
    This paper describes a technique for aligning ultrasound images of the tongue to images of the palate, providing both a fixed point of reference and a means to consider the tongue in the context of passive articulators, thereby addressing two major challenges presented by ultrasound as a means of articulatory imaging, without compromising its portability.
  • Intonational meaning: why Mom can be both emotional and rational

    Good, Erin; University of Arizona (University of Arizona Linguistics Circle (Tucson, Arizona), 2005)
    This paper seeks to evaluate and quantify the acoustic cues utilized in the production and perception of intonational meanings in English. Although much previous work has started from observed contours and looked for their meaning based on the context where they were found (Ward and Hirschberg 1985, Gussenhoven 1984, Crystal 1969), the opposite approach is taken here. Arbitrary contours generated in a systematic way (detailed below) were presented to study participants, who were then asked to rate these items on a series of semantic scales (scales with antonyms on either end). The items were word-contour pairs consisting of one of four words in combination with one of twenty-seven contours. Contours were created on a grid which had three time points and three pitch levels. The words were chosen to have a variety of types of semantic/dictionary meanings. Participants’ ratings were used to determine the emotive meaning of the contours, and thus the degree to which the contours interrelate. As defined by Osgood (1957), the emotive meaning of an utterance or word does not relate directly to its dictionary meaning, but instead relates to the location of that utterance or word in the semantic space. By looking at what items cluster together in semantic space and comparing the acoustic and lexical/semantic characteristics of these items it is possible to understand which dimensions play a role in the assignment of meaning to intonational contours. Results show that the judgments on the semantic scales are influenced by both the intonational contours and the lexical items. Multivariate Analysis of Variance tests were performed to determine what acoustic characteristics contributed the most to the formation of clusters of items. It was found that the presence versus absence of High pitch points in the contour as well as the word used to convey the contour were the most influential factors for the participants. The approach taken here is able to uncover new shades of intonational meaning, as well as pinpoint the acoustic cues used to assess these meanings.
  • Tree maximization and the generalized extended projection principle

    Carnie, Andrew; Medeiros, David; University of Arizona (University of Arizona Linguistics Circle (Tucson, Arizona), 2005)
    In this paper we argue that a number of unexplained and stipulative properties of the grammar (such as the Generalized Extended Projection Principle, Binary Branching, Labeling) find a functional explanation, if we view them as correlates of a general desire for the grammar to maximize trees in such a way that they result in a Fibonacci-like sequence of maximal categories.
  • Some remarks on markedness hierarchies: a reply to Aissen 1999 and 2003

    Carnie, Andrew; University of Arizona (University of Arizona Linguistics Circle (Tucson, Arizona), 2005)
    This short squib examines some problems with the Markedness Hierarchy approach of Aissen (1993, 2003) with respect to case and agreement marking systems. It argues that this approach, based on overt morphological exponence of marked forms both misses important Markedness relations that are not expressed morphologically, and fails to account for certain morphological patterns.
  • Parallel lexical optimality theory

    Baker, Adam; University of Arizona (University of Arizona Linguistics Circle (Tucson, Arizona), 2005)
    Parallel Lexical Optimality Theory (PLOT) is a model I propose to account for opacity and related phenomena in Optimality Theory. PLOT recognizes three input interfaces and three output interfaces to the grammar. Interfaces are related to each other by constituency and by correspondence (McCarthy & Prince 1995). PLOT’s architecture provides sufficient power to account for opacity, but is not overly powerful, I argue. Additionally, PLOT interfaces neatly with Comparative Markedness (McCarthy 2002b) to explain the co-occurrence of derived environment effects and counterfeeding opacity. PLOT also makes more limited typological predictions than LPM-OT (Kiparsky 2003), on which PLOT is based, since PLOT recognizes only one markedness hierarchy for the grammar.