Acta Linguistica Academica

Gender variation in indeclinable inanimate nouns and gender markedness in modern Russian

Kirill Chuprinko — 2023-09-15

In this paper results of the large web-corpus study on gender of Russian inanimate indeclinable common nouns are presented. The study shows that gender variation is huge and supports inferences from previous research on the topic (Murphy 2000, Savchuk 2011). In most cases neuter gender is assigned as a default for indeclinables. However, morphophonological and semantic analogies influence feminine and masculine gender assignment either. A great variation is observed in the whole group of indeclinables and within particular nouns. This variation is nothing to compare with gender assignment of regular declinable nouns in Russian. These data support the idea that both masculine and neuter genders have special status in Russian gender system (Magomedova and Slioussar, to appear). The masculine to be chosen in cases of conflicting factors pointing at different genders. When there are no particularly strong cues at any gender, the neuter is assigned as default option.

Inflectional Classes without Class features

Jan Don — 2023-09-15

In this paper, we offer an account of the differences and similarities between the paradigms of Frisian verb-classes. Verb-classes in Frisian are an example of a more general phenomenon of inflectional classes that we encounter in many natural languages across the major word classes. Members of different inflectional classes show different paradigms. Traditionally, inflectional classes have been analyzed using class-features (see e.g., Marzi et al. 2020). However, such features suffer from being adhoc devices that seem to have no other function in the grammar than to code this difference. In the present analysis we propose that verbs from different classes show a difference in size. Using phrasal spell-out, we will show that morphological elements differ in the amount of morpho-syntactic structure that they may realize. These differences in size are key to a proper understanding of morphological class, rendering class-features superfluous.

Sound patterns, frequency and predictability in inflection

András Cser — 2023-09-15

The paper investigates the relations between phonological form and information content within Latin verbal inflection from two interrelated points of view. It looks at conditional entropy relations within the present paradigm to see how these relate to the textual frequency of the individual forms; and it seeks to answer the question to what extent the phonological form of stems and endings has the potential to lead to ambiguity in morphological marking. The latter issue is approached from the angle of the information content that word forms taken in themselves have about their morphological status. The broader question of potential ambiguity is broken down into two separate questions: one concerns stems where intra-paradigmatic ambiguity would be possible; the other concerns stems that include phonological material that could itself be interpreted as a morphological marker. The absence of potential ambiguity in the first sense, and its severe restriction in the second sense is interpreted here as an emergent mechanism to enhance the information content of verb forms.

Smaller syntax for English stative passives: A first report

David Embick — 2023-09-15

One of the basic questions in the theory of morphology concerns the nature of word for-mation: how morphemes are assembled into larger objects, and—- crucially—- whether there are distinct systems in which this occurs (lexicon versus syntax), or just one. Stative (a.k.a. ”adjectival”) passives like opened in the opened door, or flattened in the metal is flattened, have provided an interesting testing ground for questions of this type. Following a period in which such passives were argued to be formed lexically, much subsequent work has developed the idea that they are derived syntactically, in fully phrasal structures. This paper examines a number of properties of English stative passives which raise problems for a fully phrasal treatment. These include (but are not limited to) (i) modification asymmetries relative to eventive passives; and (ii) interactions with un- prefixation. The generalizations that are revealed suggest that stative passives are built syntactically, but without phrasal internal structure: what I call small(er) syntax. I provide a direct comparison of small-syntatcic and lexicalist approaches, and argue that the evidence favors the former type of approach. The implications of this argument for the syntax of Roots plays a prominent role in the theoretical discussion.

Acquisition and Processing of Word formation in German

Sabine Sommer-Lolei — 2023-09-15

Cognitive processing strategies can explain general word-formation preferences that influence the structures and their developments. They are based on simplicity, transparency, iconicity, salience, and frequency. We present and discuss evidence from our data on first language acquisition for how these cognitively based general preferences can explain the course of development of word formation and how they interact or compete. The analysis is based on the development of distributions of word formations in longitudinal data and panel data of child speech and their input from high and low socio-economic families. In order to evaluate the productivity of a word-formation pattern in child speech, we applied the mini-paradigm criterion. Age-of-acquisition effects will be presented according to our own processing studies and to literature.

The reanalysis of /g/ as a verb class marker: an exaptation case within the Catalan 2nd conjugation

Manuel Badal — 2023-09-15

In Old Catalan, some verbs like beure ‘to drink’ display a velar consonant in the forms that come from Latin perfectum, such as 3^rd *ˈbibwit > bec [ˈbek] ‘s/he drank’. This velar insert was initially a perfect marker. However, this consonant spread analogically from perfective to imperfective forms, through an exaptation process. In this paper, we compare two different verb classes, and we prove that the existence of syncretism between the first and the third persons of the present indicative (1^st beu [ˈbew] ‘I drink’ vs. 3^rd beu [ˈbew] ‘s/he drinks’) is a factor that accelerates the analogical velarization.In Old Catalan, some verbs like beure ‘to drink’ display a velar consonant in the forms that come from Latin perfectum, such as 3^rd *ˈbibwit > bec [ˈbek] ‘s/he drank’. This velar insert was initially a perfect marker. However, this consonant spread analogically from perfective to imperfective forms, through an exaptation process. In this paper, we compare two different verb classes, and we prove that the existence of syncretism between the first and the third persons of the present indicative (1^st beu [ˈbew] ‘I drink’ vs. 3^rd beu [ˈbew] ‘s/he drinks’) is a factor that accelerates the analogical velarization.