ABSTRACTS

Abstracts will be posted here as they are received.

Paolo Acquaviva (University College Dublin): 'Italian plurals in -a as lexical derivations

Italian plural nouns in -a are exceptional because (1) they switch from masculine to feminine in the plural: il braccio [m.sg.] - le braccia [f.pl.] 'the arm / the arms'; (2) their ending -a is nowhere else an exponent for plurality (unlike Rumanian 'neuters'); (3) they don't normally block regular masculine plurals in -i: i bracci; (4) their meaning can differ from that of regular plurals, ranging from totally predictable (e.g. uova, simply 'eggs') to totally lexicalized (fondamenta 'foundations of building'), in a way that precludes any unitary interpretation in terms of collective nouns; (5) a complex NP like [il braccio e il dito] 'the arm and the finger', whose two Ns both become feminine in the plural, triggers masculine singular agreement: apparently, the switch in gender (i.e., [fem] if [pl]) is not an automatic property of the morphosyntactic context. In addition, pronouns anaphoric on irregular plurals may agree in gender but not in number(le uova costano 50 centesimi l'una), but this mismatch appears much less natural in other instances (??volevo due uova, me ne hai data una). This apparent variability, too, calls for an explanation.

One or another of these irregular properties may be explained away, but clearly it would be preferable if all of them could be viewed as different facets of the same phenomenon. And because the irregularity often involves a lexicalized, often idiosyncratic meaning, the relation between a singular like braccio and its 'irregular' plural braccia seems best described as one between two lexemes, not two forms of the same lexeme: derivation, not inflection, even though a derivation that makes use of an inflectional category like number.

Plurals in -a are thus much more than inflected forms with a particular exponence: they are in fact lexical plurals, as opposed to inflectional ones. Their ending is exceptional in the Italian inflection, because it is not inflectional. They don't compete with (and hence don't block) regular plurals, but are rather distinct stems endowed with inherent plural number, whose interpretation is often opaque and to some extent lexicalized - as is often the case with pluralia tantum. The feminine gender represents a morphological reflex of this inherent property, which is not determined by the syntactic context: that's why two conjoined singulars fail to automatically trigger feminine plural agreement. Semantic plural number represents its interpretive reflex: on closer inspection, it turns out that the coreference between a singular pronoun and an irregular plural requires the pronoun to be interpreted distributively, with reference with more than one referential index.

If braccia is really derived from braccio/bracci by the addition of some inherent properties, we may ask ourselves what these are properties of. Hardly of the root, which is always identical with the base. Possibly of the 'element' that extends the root and turns it into a plural; but then every irregular plural should block the regular one, which is less richly specified. These additional properties seem to characterize the whole derived lexeme, not just its root or its extension. So perhaps plurals in -a provide also, among much else, an argument for thinking that the list of morphological exponents must include, besides the atomic signs (roots and affixes), some pre-packaged combinations of them, in contrast with contemporary theorizing within Distributed Morphology.

Richard Ashdowne (Oxford): 'The Vocative's Calling? The Syntax of Address in Latin'

Since antiquity the vocative has often been regarded as not being a ‘proper’ case. Inasmuch as the Latin vocative exhibits some morphologically distinct forms, an account is needed of the conditions for their use. Recent work has focussed primarily on the sociolinguistic condition influencing a speaker's use of address forms, but relatively little attention has been paid to an arguably more fundamental issue, namely whether the vocative actually expresses address, and if it does, what can be said about the syntactic/structural conditions for its use.
In this paper, reporting on work in progress, I examine a number of existing theories about address and the Latin vocative, testing them against a substantial corpus of data drawn from the works of Plautus, Terence, Cicero, Petronius and Seneca. I show that these theories have universally to be regarded as inadequate or even unsatisfactory, and I suggest some avenues for the development of possible alternatives.

Odile Cyrille-Thomas (Salford): 'For an equational and contrastive approach to clefting'

The aim of this paper is to provide an account for French clefts within the Minimalist framework. Crucially, we argue that clefts have focusing/contrastive and equational properties. In (1), ce garçon is given focus over the rest of the clause, leading to the possibility of a contrastive effect. At the same time, there is a semantic parallel between a cleft and an equative construction containing a pseudo-cleft, as in (2):

We show that the traditional analyses do not capture all the semantic properties of clefts. The relative-like approach in (3) is rejected, as it fails to reflect any contrastive effect:

We also reject equative analyses of clefts (e.g. Hedberg 2000 for English) which do not capture the contrastive effect of clefts either.

Further, we find that the analysis in (4) unsuitable:

Although this topicalisation-like approach reflects the focus/contrast property of clefts, through movement to the specifier of a [+Foc] C°, it does not capture the equative property of clefts, as topicalisation does not have this equational property.

We argue for an alternative approach, illustrated in (5):

The focused constituent is the subject of a small clause (PredP), which reflects the semantic parallel between a cleft and an equative construction, while the contrastive effect is captured by further movement of the focused constituent to SpecFocP.

This approach allows us to clearly distinguish between topicalised and cleft constructions in terms of equational properties, while showing their parallel through the Checking of a Focus feature in both cases.

Francisco Dubert García (Santiago): 'Una nueva aproximación a las variedades sociolectales en Galicia'

Con esta comunicación quiero presentar una hipótesis a cerca de cómo creo que está organizada la variación sociolectal en Galicia (insisto en que se trata de una hipótesis de trabajo y no el resultado de un estudio empírico). Para ello, primero acometeré una reflexión sobre el lugar teórico que ocupan las variedades lingüísticas. En segundo lugar, analizaré algunas de las hipótesis elaboradas por otros autores y trataré de señalar los problemas que a mi juicio presentan. Finalmente, presentaré mi hipótesis. En mi comunicación, defenderé que la organización del espacio sociolectal que intuyo puede ser descrita con la ayuda de algunas de las herramientas terminológicas creadas por la criollística (términos como continuo sociolectal, acrolecto, mesolecto y basilecto). Mi opción por tales útiles teóricos se debe a que en la sociedad gallega conviven estrechamente dos lenguas muy similares, el gallego y el castellano, que se interfieren continuamente y que, durante muchos años, se repartieron las funciones comunicativas e incluso llegaron a ser empleadas por distintos grupos sociales.

Anthony Lodge (St Andrews): 'Reallocation and prototype theory in early-modern Paris'

Martin Maiden (Oxford): 'The curious history of the Dalmatian verb, 1878-1897'

Gladis Massini-Cagliari (Oxford / Universidade Estadual Paulista): 'Diphthong and Hiatus in Medieval Portuguese profane cantigas'

In this paper, we propose a study of Medieval Portuguese vocalic sequences and their position in syllable domain. Diphthongs and hiatuses are mapped from a corpus of a hundred profane cantigas, from two manuscripts: Cancioneiro da Ajuda and Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa. Three glossaries are also used as research fonts. Diphthongs and hiatuses occurrence and glides status are discussed from a phonological point of view. We show how diphthongs and hiatuses formation is almost always predictable, unless in the case of vowel sequences that occur in pretonic syllables. In these cases, data is opaque, in a synchronic approach, but can be explained from a diachronic viewpoint.

Chris Pountain (Cambridge): 'Gender without Sex: the semantic exploitation of the masculine/feminine opposition in the history of Spanish'

The exploitation of gender when not referring to sex in Spanish has taken place in different degrees during the language's evolution. Such exploitation is not to be confused with, though it is complemented by, the accidental development of gender pairs through coincidental phonetic development (e.g. moral (m.) / moral (f.)). At the top end of the scale we have the masculine/feminine = tree/fruit contrast (e.g. manzano/manzana), which is systematically exploited in a way which suggests that this opposition is still productive today. Gender distinctions based on collectivity and size are also numerous (e.g. charco/charca, barco/barca), though less systematic, while 'unprincipled' gender differences (e.g. cuchillo /cuchilla) appear to be completely idiosyncratic, as are the many gender contrasts occasioned by ellipsis and metonymy (e.g. derecho / (mano) derecha, mañana (f.) / mañana (m.)). The latter distinctions are correspondingly less productive, though there is some evidence that they continue to be exploited from time to time. It seems, then, that the more clearcut the basis for the gender opposition is, the more propensity it has to undergo analogical extension and therefore to become more systematic and productive. At the same time, it is at the less well-defined, and hence less systematic, end of the scale that the rather more random extension of gender oppositions appears to create new kinds of semantic contrast. What is especially interesting about such creativity in the use of gender oppositions is that the process of the creation of new semantic contrasts is constrained by pragmatic and structural need. This, I surmise, is what explains the lack of take up of oppositional possibilities within the derivational morphology of Spanish. Lack of pragmatic motivation may also account for a number of cases where we can see that gender contrasts, even if established, have been abandoned. These changes are examined as potential examples of exaptation (Lass, 1990) and capitalization (Pountain, 2000).

References
Lass, Roger, 1990. 'How to do things with junk: exaptation in language evolution', in Journal of Linguistics, 26, 79-102.
Pountain, Christopher J., 2000. 'Capitalization', in John Charles Smith & Delia Bentley (eds), Historical Linguistics 1995, Volume 1: General Issues nd non-Germanic Languages (Amsterdam: Benjamins), pp.295-309.

Kim Schulte (Exeter): 'Foreign Etymology: an unusual trigger for phonological change in Romanian'

In Romanian historical phonology, the vowels /a/ and /e/ following word-initial and double /r/ (presumably trilled [r] at the time) regularly centralized to /î/ and /a/, respectively. (cf. Rothe, 1957:108f.)

Other instances of /r/ also trigger centralization of the following vowel, though more sporadically, and it is generally attributed to analogical extension of the process outlined above. (cf. Densusianu, 1975:199)

For the verbs with infinitive in /-rI/, this has lead to a phonological split throughout large parts of the inflectional paradigm and to the de facto creation of an additional conjugation, depending on whether or not the respective verb participates in the centralization process.

In this paper, a closer look is taken at which verbs have been affected by this 'sporadic' phonological development. Somewhat unexpectedly, 14 of the 16 verbs affected by the process are either Slavic or Hungarian borrowings; one is of unknown etymology, and only one can be derived from Latin, the ancestor language of Romanian. On the other hand, the vast majority of verbs not affected by the process (112 out of Uricaru & Goga's list of 3700 Romanian verbs) have a Latin etymon.

After presenting the basic data, this paper explores some potential causes, such as regional variation (cf. Chivu, 1997:131f.) and the possibility of a distinct realization of the /r/-phoneme in the donor languages. As neither of these explanations is fully satisfactory, it is then proposed that the analogical extension of this sound change, although originating in an internal phonological development, is sensitive to the feature [+foreign].

Though unusual, this case is not unique: in linguistic environments such as the Balkans or Transylvania during the past centuries, where a considerable number of speakers had a certain degree of competence in languages other than their mother tongue due to prolonged linguistic contact, the awareness that certain lexical items are loanwords can be reflected in differential morphological or phonological treatment. In the Balkan context, Romani maintains 'a structural dichotomy between inherited and borrowed vocabulary' (Matras, 2002:128) by adding a special morpheme to all borrowed verbs. Though under different socio-political circumstances, a process very similar to the one discussed in this paper can be observed with English words such as 'pump (shoe)' and 'cut(away coat)', borrowed into German during the early 20th century, but replacing the [a] with an [œ] without clear motivation other than the fact that it is an English loanword.

Based on such phenomena, this paper proposes that it is possible for a particular sound change to affect only etymologically foreign words, and that this is indeed the case for vowel centralization in the Romanian verbal system.

References:

Chivu, Gheorghe, Costinescu, M., Francu, C. & Ghetie, I.
Istoria limbii romane literare: epoca veche (1532-1780)
Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române, 1997.

Densusianu, Ovidiu
Opere II. Lingvistica. Histoire de la langue roumaine,
I. Les origines. II., Le seizième siècle.
Edited by Cazacu, B., Rusu, V., & Ôerb, I.
Bucharest: Editura Minerva, 1975

Matras, Yaron
Romani - A Linguistic Introduction
Cambridge: CUP, 2002

Rothe, Wolfgang
Einführung in die historische Laut- und Formenlehre des Rumänischen
Halle (Saale): Niemeyer, 1957

Uricaru, Lucia & Goga, M.
Verbes Roumains - Romanian Verbs - Verbe Românesti
Cluj: Editura Echinox, 1997

Roger Wright (Liverpool): 'Romance and Ibero-Romance in the Descort of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras'

The five initial stanzas of the poem known as the "descort" of the Provençal Troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, written probably in 1199, are presented in five different writing systems which are often said to be five different languages; the sixth and final stanza recapitulates these languages two lines at a time. This paper will consider the implications of this analysis, concentrating in particular on the fifth of these systems, which is intended to represent some kind of Ibero-Romance, often now described as Galician, Portuguese or Galician-Portuguese.