This article questions the common usage of the concept of “linguistic variety” and the usual view of vernacular speech as the expression of a speaker’s identity. The term “variety” in linguistics has an ambiguous status: it is used to describe “linguistic representations” (social constructs) as well as actual linguistic practices. An alternative way of understanding the function of varieties in the sociolinguistic space is proposed: we explain how varieties relate to speech styles in a way that captures the social significance of linguistic variation. A case study about vowel lengthening in the French spoken in Belgium is then presented. Through both a quantitative and qualitative analysis, it is shown how marked regional variants are used to produce a particular social meaning, even among middle-class speakers.

Depuis une douzaine d’années, un certain nombre de principes ont été énoncés en phonologie générative pour tenter de rendre compte de l’adaptation et de la modification des mots d’emprunt. A l’aide des données qui ont été recueillies dans une étude détaillée de la phonologie des emprunts du québécois de la région de Montréal (cf. Nicol 1979), où l’anglais (A) constitue la langue d’origine (LO) et le québécois (Q) la langue emprunteuse (LE), nous essaierons de démontrer que tous les principes de ce genre, et en particulier ceux qu’ont émis Hyman (1970) et Kaye et Nykiel (1979), semblent faire de mauvaises prédictions dans nombre de cas. Ceci nous amènera à examiner des alternatives plus concrètes à ces contraintes phonotactiques abstraites que l’on a proposées dans le cadre de la phonologie générative transformationnelle.

This article aims to examine to what extent English and Jordanian Arabic (JA) have the same classification of N + N compounds based on their degree of compositionality. It also attempts to propose a universally applicable classification of compositionality in N + N compounds. I suggest a modified version of the degree of compositionality based on previous classifications by Fernando (1996), Dirven and Verspoor (1998), and Kavka (2009). The new classification is based on the semantic contribution of the head and the non-head to the meaning of the whole compound. After I have applied the new scale to the JA data, I argue that English and JA have compounds that exhibit the four degrees of compositionality; namely completely compositional, semi-compositional, semi non-compositional and completely non-compositional. The article concludes with some recommendations for future research.

This article is concerned with the role of media representations of language use in the promotion of language ideologies and in identity construction. It focuses on media representations of Chiac, a traditionally low-status variety of Acadian French. We consider performances of this variety in the adventures of an animated superhero, Acadieman, presented in a cable TV show running on Rogers TV from 2005 to 2009. We first contextualize Acadieman in terms of the linguistic and cultural contexts in which Chiac is spoken. We then consider how particular social meanings are created through contrasts between Chiac-speaking characters and speakers of other varieties. While the juxtaposition of varieties is at one level quite humorous, on another level it draws on complex indexicalities and valorizes the local variety and, by extension, its speakers. Finally, we argue that the Acadieman phenomenon provides a discursive space within which present-day Acadian identities can be negotiated.

Perhaps the most remarkable trait of human language is the way it adapts spontaneously to the particular experience the speaker wants to express. Thanks to our mother tongue, the linguistic means are available to render more or less faithfully whatever we intend to communicate regardless of the particular nature or quality of the message. This is remarkable first of all because, in itself, raw experience is strictly private and incommunicable, a fact Northrop Frye (1971:124) depicts quite vividly in the following passage:

The introduction of empty nuclear positions in syllable structure goes back to the early 80s. Since then, empty nuclei have been proposed in phonological analyses to account for vocalic epenthesis (vowel/Ø alternation). The analysis of Gen put forth in this article argues for empty nuclei although no vowel/Ø alternation can be observed in the language. Nevertheless, on the basis of the tonal patterns of Gen, it is shown that empty positions must be part of the underlying representation of syllables in the language. Another aspect of the study deals with consonant clusters. Thus far, all analyses supporting empty positions within a cluster have also referred to the absence of cooccurrence restrictions among the consonants surrounding the empty vowel. This paper provides new insights since, in Gen, the consonant clusters in which empty nuclei are proposed are typical of those observed in branching onset languages (like French, Italian and English) or in languages having light diphthongs. We argue that all attested consonant clusters in Gen are heterosyllabic.

Transformational grammar has attempted to outline the systematic nature of language structure while also stressing the creative aspect of language. Language is systematic in that speakers use a finite number of means to make up their messages, and yet it is creative in that there are an infinite number of individual different messages which are possible in any natural language. In natural languages, however, there is not a perfect one-to-one correspondence between possible messages—intended or perceived—and possible linguistic realizations, as there exists in conventional or artificial languages. Often it is found in natural languages that a single linguistic form may have two or more meanings. Homonymy, whether it is lexical or syntactic, is an important notion, not only because syntactic ambiguity plays a central role in linguistic theory, but also because its study gives us a better understanding of the systematics of language and of the way we attach meaning to linguistic representations. Hence, the importance of evaluating how speakers deal with syntactic ambiguity in their attempts to understand and to be understood.

Stowell (1981) demonstrates that nominal phrases in VP or PP are subject to certain constraints which are not pertinent in the domain of NP or AP. Nominal phrases in VP or PP are obligatory and they must be realized in a position which is adjacent to the head of the phrase (i.e., in a phrase marker; “V° NP” or “P° NP”). In contrast, nominal phrases in NP or AP are optional and do not have to be adjacent to the head. There is a systematic exception to this generalization in the lexically determined class of nouns known as Bare NP adverbs (cf. Larson 1985). Nominal phrases headed by one of this class of nouns appear optionally in VP and they are not required to be adjacent to the verb.

An aspect of the unravelling debate between proponents of ‘abstract’ phonology and ‘natural’ phonology focuses on the role of diachrony in justifying one’s descriptions and in underpinning one’s theories (insofar as they are meant to explain and predict). As a phonetologist who has no theoretical predilections for either transformational generative phonology (TGP) or Hooper’s natural generative phonology (NGP), my viewpoint leads me to view some of the issues raised in Piggott 1980, and in Hooper 1980 which replies to it, as either side-stepping what seem to me to be more fundamental issues or as addressing the issues discussed obliquely instead of head on. Although the fundamental position of developmental linguistics (or lectology) has been clarified at length in other writings, there may be some profit in making those points concrete in direct connection with an actual debate over an actual analysis. Piggott argues against the adequacy of Hooper’s NGP with data taken from Algonquin-Ojibwa. He contrasts Ojibwa nouns that exhibit the deletion of word-final glide plus lax vowel (e.g. anini ‘man’ vs aniniwag ‘men’) and Ojibwa verbs that exhibit the loss of word-final lax vowel but not a preceding glide (e.g. ni-wīndigōw ‘I am a Windigo’ vs ni-wīndigōwi-min ‘we are Windigos’).

In reconstructing prior stages of languages the comparative method (CM) has been primarily applied to phonology. Two standard statements on the CM in recent times illustrate this restricted application. In his article of 1950 on the comparative method, Hoenigswald defines “reconstruction by the comparative method (as) essentially a problem in phonemics, in which the place of allophones is taken by sets of sound correspondences that are partially alike (share one component) and in complementary distribution” (Joos 1957: 298). And in his comprehensive statement (1960:132), Hoenigswald states that “the comparative method is based on the principle that sets of recurring phoneme correspondences between two related languages continue blocks of positional allophones from the mother language.” Handbooks dealing with reconstructed languages reflect the limitation to the phonological component of language. For statements made about syntax are hesitant (Meillet 1967: 29). And one notable attempt to reconstruct a syntactic sequence in Proto-Indo-European, Schleicher’s fable of the horses and the sheep, has been generally condemned, even though it was given some recognition by Hirt (Meillet 1967: 29, Hirt 1939: 113-115). In contrast with the earlier hesitation about applying the CM to the syntactic component of language I would like to suggest that recent developments in linguistics have made it possible to apply the CM to at least some syntactic patterns in much the way historical linguists have been dealing with phonological patterns.

Freezing is the cover term for the restriction on extraction from constituents in a derived position. The traditional Freezing cases are illustrated here with topicalization in (1a), heavy-NP shift in (1b), and extraposition in (1c).

The goal of this article is to diagnose a verbal construction which has made it to common use in Austrian German and is typically unknown to many speakers of Federal German who have not been exposed to Austrian German. This construction is based on the verb gehen (‘go’) conjoined by a particle and the reflexive. An argument for its analysis as a degree-based sufficiency construction is developed, which is constructed by extending existing approaches in the literature on enough constructions and suggesting a meaning of the construction at hand, which is presuppositional in multiple respects. The results of diachronic corpus searches as well as the significance of the results of this work for the space of possibilities of the semantic change of motion verbs are discussed.

This article explores the realization of definiteness in Chuj, an underdocumented Mayan language. I show that Chuj provides support for recent theories that distinguish between weak and strong definite descriptions (e.g., Schwarz 2009, 2013; Arkoh and Matthewson 2013; Hanink 2018; Jenks 2018). A set of morphemes called “noun classifiers” contribute a uniqueness presupposition, composing directly with nominals to form weak definites. To form strong definites, I show that two pieces are required: (i) the noun classifier, which again contributes a uniqueness presupposition, and (ii) extra morphology that contributes an anaphoricity presupposition. Chuj strong definites thus provide explicit evidence for a decompositional account of weak and strong definites, as also advocated in Hanink 2018. I then extend this analysis to third person pronouns, which are realized in Chuj with bare classifiers, and which I propose come in two guises depending on their use. On the one hand, based on previous work (Postal 1966, Cooper 1979, Heim 1990), I argue that classifier pronouns can sometimes be E-type pronouns: weak definite determiners which combine with a covert index-introducing predicate. In such cases, classifier pronouns represent a strong definite description. On the other hand, I argue, based on diagnostics established in Bi and Jenks 2019, that Chuj classifier pronouns sometimes arise as a result of NP ellipsis (Elbourne 2001, 2005). In such cases, classifier pronouns reflect a weak definite description.

Les adverbes français se terminant en –ment ont évolué par un double processus de grammaticalisation. Une première grammaticalisation, d'origine romane, a été responsable de l'émergence de tels adverbes, tandis qu'un second processus (appelé (inter)subjectification) a entrainé des changements syntaxiques et sémantiques spécifiques. Selon Traugott, ces changements répondent aux principaux critères établis pour le processus de grammaticalisation (recatégorisation, amélioration de la portée syntaxique, sens plus abstraits, enrichissement pragmatique et unidirectionalité (Traugott 1995b, 2010; Traugott et Dasher 2002). Afin de prouver cette hypothèse, j'analyse ici une collection de tels adverbes qui ont au moins trois usages différents en français contemporain : sérieusement, honnêtement, franchement, apparemment, carrément, décidément, étonnamment et seulement. Outre l'analyse synchronique et diachronique de ces adverbes, je rapporte des régularités spécifiques (ou chaînes sémantiques, selon Heine et Kuteva (2002) observées au cours de leur évolution.