<p> In this dissertation, I investigate how agreement, movement, and pronunciation determine surface position of a phrase. The main interest of this dissertation is in the question why in some cases an element is pronounced in the position where it is interpreted while in other cases, there is a discrepancy between the position for interpretation and the position for pronunciation. To investigate this issue, I will first discuss a relation between agreement and movement. Inspired by Reverse Agree (Wurmbrand 2012), I will clarify a condition of movement. Based on the suggested relation between agreement and movement, I will propose three different types of movement: phrasal movement, parasitic phrasal movement, and parasitic head movement. The crucial difference between phrasal movement and parasitic (phrasal/head) movement is that an element does undergo movement in the case of phrasal movement, while an element does NOT undergo movement in the case of parasitic movement. </p><p> Following the copy theory of movement, I assume that an element that undergoes phrasal movement leaves its copies in its base position and its destination along with other intermediate positions, unlike one that undergoes parasitic movement. Thus, PF needs to choose which copy to pronounce when there is more than one copy in a chain. Zooming in the issue of selection of copy for pronunciation, I will discuss PF constraints that play a role in copy-selection. Especially, adopting Landau (2007)&rsquo;s intuition that EPP is a pure PF requirement, I will argue that a high-copy privilege assumed in the previous studies are misled by pronunciation-wise reinterpreted EPP. Furthermore, I will argue that once we get rid of the effects of EPP, a low copy is rather preferred to be selected for pronunciation due to economy conditions. I will show how the interaction between the EPP as a PF constraint and an economy condition favoring low-copy pronunciation accounts for both (i) prevalent high-copy pronunciation and (ii) apparent lack of a high-copy privilege across languages. </p><p> Based on the system developed, I will provide a typological study in two representative cases of movement: (i) subject agreement/movement and (ii) wh-agreement/movement. This system provides a new approach for the typology of in-situ subjects and in-situ <i>wh</i>-phrases. In the proposed system, in-situ subject/<i>wh</i>-phrases are the results of either parasitic movement or low-copy pronunciation in phrasal movement. An in-situ phrase generated by parasitic movement does not have a copy in a higher position, so it cannot take a high scope. Furthermore, since the phrase does not undergo movement, it is insensitive to movement constraints (e.g. island constraints). By way of contrast, an in-situ phrase generated by a low-copy pronunciation in a movement chain shows &ldquo;high&rdquo; behaviors in addition to sensitivity to movement constraints. I will show how the two theoretically possible in-situ subjects/<i>wh</i>-phrases are realized in languages. </p><p> Furthermore, based on the definition of the EPP, I will propose various ways to satisfy the EPP. Instead of filling the specifier position of a functional head, I will argue that morphology can be inserted as a means of satisfying the EPP. In addition, I assume that morphology insertion as a way of satisfying the EPP includes a case of inserting an intonation morpheme, suggested by Cheng and Rooryck (2000). This additional way to satisfy the EPP accounts for a range of otherwise puzzling prosody relevant phenomena: i) acceptance of inverse scope reading in so-called rigid scope languages with the help of prosody; ii) ameliorating the intervention effects in Korean and Japanese with the help of prosody. Finally, by reviewing previous studies, I will show how the proposed system accounts for exceptional low-copy pronunciation.</p><p>

<p> Wix&aacute;rika, also known as Huichol, is an endangered Uto-Aztecan language spoken in Mexico. Published works on Wix&aacute;rika include articles and brief sketches on different aspects of the grammar; however, much about the language remains unknown. This dissertation presents a systematic description of simple clauses in Wix&aacute;rika, based on eight hours of naturally recorded speech and elicited materials. Using a functional-typological perspective, I explore Wix&aacute;rika&rsquo;s morphosyntactic devices to express different types of events. In keeping with the study of clause types, I also explore the language&rsquo;s morphological devices for modifying the number of arguments. Wix&aacute;rika has five devices that add a core argument into the clause: causatives <i>-tia, -ta, -ya,</i> applicative <i> -ri(e),</i> vowel alternation, lability, and suppletion. Similarly, the language has five devices that reduce the number of arguments: reflexive/reciprocal pronoun prefixes, passive suffixes (<i>-rie, -ya, -wa, -riwa, -tsie</i>), middle voice prefix (<i>yu-</i>), and noun incorporation.</p><p> The overall analysis discusses the implications of the language&rsquo;s system in existing typological theories. Wix&aacute;rika shows to be devoid of any clear-cut boundary between clause types, as proposed in typological studies (Hopper &amp; Thompson 1980; Giv&oacute;n 1984; Stassen 1997; N&aelig;ss 2007; Kittil&auml; 2002). Of particular interest are the prefixes <i> ta-/ti-</i> since they provide more evidence of this scalar nature; the speakers use these prefixes to encode the &lsquo;effectiveness&rsquo; of the action (Cf. Grimes 1964; Iturrioz &amp; G&oacute;mez 2006). These prefixes are explored in relation to other components of transitivity (e.g., the number of arguments and their encoding, tense/aspect/mood, polarity, the individuation of actor and undergoer, and the prefixes <i>ti-/te-</i> &lsquo;distributive subject&rsquo;) in expressing different degrees of transitivity. I show that these components lack co-variation (Cf. Hopper &amp; Thompson), particularly with the prefixes <i>ta-/ti-.</i> However, the presence or absence of the prefixes <i>ta-/ti-</i> and/or the (de)transitivization devices express different degrees of transitivity. Particularly interesting is the fact that Wix&aacute;rika has a tendency to polysynthesis, not common in Southern Uto-Aztecan languages. Therefore, this study not only contributes to a growing understanding of the grammatical system of Wix&aacute;rika but also will clarify the evolution and intra-genetic relations of the Uto-Aztecan family.</p><p>

<p>The study of short-a (e.g., the vowel in words such as bat, bad, bang, ban) in New York City English (NYCE) has a long history, and with many different descriptions of this complex system (e.g., Babbitt 1896; Trager 1930; Labov 1966/2006; Cohen 1970; Labov 2007). It is complex due to the fact that it is not just a matter of following environment but instead includes a number of phonological, grammatical, and lexical conditions that determine which tokens of short-a are tense (fronter and higher) and which are lax (backer and lower). There are several other short-a systems in varieties of North American English. Most common perhaps is the nasal short-a system where short-a is tense before nasals and lax elsewhere. While older work found the complex NYCE short-a system to be used only by white speakers, recent work has shown that some people of color also use this system (e.g., Becker 2010; Newman 2014). Work in Manhattan suggests the complex NYCE short-a system is being lost (e.g., Becker and Wong 2009), but work done in other boroughs suggests that language change is taking a different or at least a slower path (Newman 2014). More work in parts of the NYCE dialect area outside of Manhattan is needed to understand the breadth of variation. To this end, I interviewed twenty English speakers from Jersey City, NJ, born between 1918 and 1984, including three Filipino Americans, one Latino, four black speakers, and twelve white speakers. They were all either born in Jersey City or moved there by the age of five. While recent research assumed a single, invariable system for the NYCE short-a, the body of work that first described the system showed immense amounts of variation. Assuming that there is a single, unerring version of the NYCE short-a system gives improper results in regards to how much the NYCE short-a system may have changed. For instance, Labov (2007) says that short-a before velar nasals is always lax, but Labov, Yeager, and Steiner (1972) said that this environment varied so much that they could not put it in the tense or lax category with full certainty. Recent work has used variability before /?/ as evidence of loss of the system, but past work shows this variation to have been there all along. In order to study the complex short-a system of NYCE fully, I composed a paradigm of 33 word classes of short-a words based on environments that past research had found to be important. These included following environment, lexical status (lexical versus function word), syllable status (open versus closed syllable), position in the word (word-initial versus not), morphemic status, and lexical exceptions. In creating this word class paradigm, I noticed a pattern: Environments described as invariable, like those before voiced stops or voiceless fricatives in closed syllables, are the environments where short-a occurs frequently; in contrast, environments that had been described as variable, such as those before voiced fricatives or voiced affricates, are ones where short-a is much less common. This finding suggests frequency may play a role in determining which word classes are invariable and which are variable. The type of short-a system used by the speakers in Jersey City fell along ethnic lines. White speakers used a complex NYCE short-a system while the speakers of color used a nasal system. Variation was found within both systems. My research shows the need to take a detailed, historically informed approach when studying the NYCE short-a system. If we fail to take into account past variability, we risk misinterpreting variation within our data. If we fail to account for all present variability, we risk overlooking important differences between and among speakers.

<p> Access to Universal Grammar (UG) and the ability for parameter setting under Principles and Parameters Theory are proposed to explain how first and second language acquisition is possible given Poverty of the Stimulus (POS) effects. Following from this position is the claim that interlanguage grammars are constrained by UG and are never &ldquo;rogue&rdquo; (inconsistent with the principles and parameters of UG), but empirical results have been inconclusive. This research approaches the question of access to UG in SLA from a new angle by examining the learnability of a rogue grammar. </p><p> This study examines English L1&rsquo;s ability to learn artificial grammars with four different settings for the Null Subject Parameter (NSP): two that match the setting in English but have different verbal paradigms, one that matches the setting in Spanish, and one that is rogue (a setting not found in any natural languages). The four artificial grammars were constructed by the researcher: the rogue quality arises from a violation of the Morphological Uniformity Hypothesis, which is an implicational universal related to the NSP. Four groups of learners were taught a small portion of one of the four different artificial grammars using computer-based, covert instruction. Learners then completed a Vocabulary Test, a Conjugation Test, a Grammaticality Judgment Task to measure NSP resetting, and a Co-Reference Judgment Task to test knowledge of the Overt Pronoun Constraint, which is attested to exhibit POS effects. Response data to the nearest millisecond was collected. </p><p> Since access to UG is claimed to &ldquo;fill in&rdquo; the gaps of impoverished input, learning a rogue grammar from impoverished input should be harder than learning a natural grammar from impoverished input because UG cannot &ldquo;fill in&rdquo; the gaps for the rogue grammar like it can for the natural grammar. Results demonstrating that the rogue grammar is harder to learn (lower accuracy rates and/or longer reaction times) than the natural grammars could suggest access to UG in adult SLA. </p><p> The comparative learnability of the four grammars is analyzed based on accuracy and response times. Results indicate that the two grammars sharing English&rsquo;s setting for the NSP were the easiest to learn, demonstrating transfer. There is some indication that the rogue grammar was harder to learn than the grammar with a Spanish-like setting for the NSP, but this is a tentative claim that should be more fully examined through further refinement of this study.</p><p>

M.A. (African Languages) / This is a study based on language contact in Moutse. The manner in which people speak different languages without any difficulty in understanding one another, called for this work. This work takes Moutse as a pot where different languages are melted and the results of this melting are expected thereof. Therefore the main purpose of this study is to see how languages come into contact in Moutse. The material collected during our research show that communication in Moutse is free and there are no language barriers. Above all there is no language which is better rated than other languages, and this is seen when people shift from language to language, when they mix and borrow. Through this study we further noted the prominent role played by the seNtwane and Ndebele languages as dominant languages and as languages that formed the greater percentage of the contents of the pot. But still the other languages were not undermined or made inferior, thus they still form part of the product of melting.

This thesis looks at two recent developments in phonology, feature geometry and underspecification. Three models for feature geometry (Bernhardt, Halle-Sagey and Clements-Hume) and principles of radical underspecification are studied using previously collected data from child substitutions which reflect normal and unusual substitution processes. The goal of the thesis is to determine the ability of the feature geometry models and underspecification to account for the differences between normal and unusual processes in a principled manner. The findings are that neither feature geometry nor underspecification when used alone provides a complete explanation for the difference between normal and unusual substitution processes. However, by incorporating principles of underspecification into the feature geometry models, the normal and unusual substitutions can be distinguished. Modifications to the feature geometries are recommended based on the findings.

The concept of success in second language learning has received growing attention over the last few years. With the earlier dominance of the native speaker as a model and measure for success, learner language had previously been seen as inferior or deviant from the native speaker target and norm. However, with the arrival of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages [CEFR] (CoE, 2001), a shift in emphasis saw learner proficiency across all language use viewed in terms of what learners could do, rather than what they could not. Despite this more positive outlook, the CEFR, in its aim of being non-language specific to maintain applicability across language learning contexts, fails to effectively illustrate how its many descriptors and scales apply to learner language at different levels. Though it extensively documents what learners are able to do with their language, it fails to specify exactly how they can actually do it. The aim of this study was therefore to examine what makes B1, B2 and C1 learners successful in their speech in accordance with the CEFR. In being successful, learners’ spoken performance should correspond with the criteria presented in the CEFR’s descriptors and scales for their current proficiency level. Employing corpus linguistics methodology, speech was chosen as a focus for this study as it i) represents the skill by which learners are most commonly judged, and ii) represents an area that has not received as much attention in corpus linguistics and learner corpus research. Via the compilation of a 70,578 token learner corpus of speaking exam data, analysis examined learners’ use of their core vocabularies and the occurrence and realisation of can-do statements for speech. The study’s research questions asked: What percentage of the words used by successful B1, B2 and C1 learners came from the first 1000 and second 1000 most frequent words in English? What were the 20 most frequent words at B1, B2 and C1 and their notable collocations, colligations and functions? What were the 20 most frequent keywords at B1, B2 and C1 and their notable collocations, colligations and functions? What were the most frequent 3- and 4-word chunks at B1, B2 and C1 and their notable collocations and functions? and What CEFR indicators are present in terms of spoken interaction, spoken production and strategies at B1, B2 and C1 and how are they realised? Overall, the study ascertained that B1, B2 and C1 learners differed very little in their use of the 2000 most frequent words in English. Though B1 learners evidenced significantly fewer word types and tokens than their B2 and C1 counterparts, only 1 in 33 words at all three levels came from beyond the 2000 word vocabulary limit. The findings indicated that quantitative measures alone were not able to distinguish learners at different levels nor the changes for vocabulary range suggested in the CEFR. With 97% token coverage achieved, however, this core vocabulary of 2000 words did allow learners to be successful in their speech. In addition, frequent and keyword data alongside lexical chunk analysis established that lexis such as we, er, erm, think, so, like, a lot of, agree with you, exhibited several similarities and differences across the levels. They supported the argument that for learners to be successful in their speech, they need to be supplied with multifunctional lexis which not only aims to broaden their vocabularies, but which intends to deepen it too. By making learners more aware of what can be achieved with the vocabulary they already possess, transitions across proficiency levels can seem more within reach. Finally, analysis of CEFR can-do statements revealed several key points, in particular for successful pragmatics and discourse at B1, B2 and C1. It identified that the objective of interaction evolved across levels: B1 learners expressed their thoughts and opinions, B2 learners asked for the opinions of others and C1 learners, though demonstrating the same skills as B1 and B2 learners, sought mostly to elaborate more fully on the reasons for their thoughts. In terms of the combination of ideas, simplistic chains were evidenced via the use of conjunctions but whilst B1 learners concerned themselves mostly with simple addition of ideas, B2 and C1 learners looked towards utterances expressing cause-and-effect. In sum, the study demonstrated that some of the misconceptions about learner language do have a considerable impact on learner success. Progression across proficiency levels presented itself more in the flexibility and multifunctionality of lexis, rather than its complexity or level of difficulty. It concluded that by making expectations more realistic and not by presuming that learners would do more in their speech than any native speaker, more can be learnt about what learners are able to achieve. Also, by supplementing teaching with materials based on real examples of successful learner speech, learners can be presented with more relevant, more realistic and more attainable models of language use.

This paper discusses the variety of propositional expressions in English: gerunds, infinitives, and indicative and subjunctive clauses. It is proposed that, by using a variety of situation semantics developed by Kratzer (1991a), one can assign different characteristic sorts of propositions to each class of expressions. On this theory, propositions are sets of possible situations, where situations are parts of worlds; a possible world is simply a maximal possible situation. A uniform analysis of subordination is also given. When these types of phrases are subordinated, they always denote functions from reference situations to propositions. Gerunds may be considered to denote sets of minimal situations. This allows an analysis which does not postulate an ambiguity of the idea that sometimes they denote sets of events but that other times they denote propositions (Vendler (1967)). The reference situation is used in giving a semantics for imperfectivity that allows gerunds, the progressive, and free adjuncts to be treated uniformly. For infinitives, in contrast, are argued to denote sets of situations which extend into the future from the reference situation, thus providing an understanding of the idea that they are future-oriented and irrealis (Bresnan (1972)). There are at least two kinds of subjunctive in English. Given a reference situation, one type denotes a set of situations incompatible with it. The other type requires its reference situation to be one in which something is obliged. Finally, with indicative clauses the reference situation is used as part of the analysis of sequence of tense phenomena. The proposition they result in is always persistent: it includes a supersituation of any situation in it. The characteristic propositions each type of phrase denotes lets us understand the selectional restrictions that a variety of propositional attitude verbs have.

When the subject of an infinitive or a gerund in English is phonetically null, the missing subject may behave as an anaphor and require an A-binder in a local domain, or may be A-free and be interpreted as a generic pronoun. Some speakers also allow the missing subject of an adjunct to have a specific referent without there being an A-binder. This thesis presents a unified analysis of missing subjects in English and examines some of its consequences. Borer (1989) argues that the position of a missing subject in English is occupied by pro, a pronominal without phonetic content. Pro is licensed by an anaphoric AGR, which is raised to C and finds an antecedent in the next clause up. Pro, coindexed with AGR, is thus coindexed with the antecedent. Her analysis explains the cases where missing subjects exhibit the anaphoric property. I propose (i) that pro is interpreted as a generic pronoun when the anaphoric AGR is not raised and does not have an antecedent other that pro itself, and (ii) that, in general, the interpretation as a generic pronoun is assigned to pro when it cannot inherit $\phi$-features from its licenser. This analysis extends to pro in the object position in Italian and the subject position in Finnish. The missing subjects in sentences as "To see him is to love him" and "To love is to exalt" need not be projected as a noun phrase in the phrase structure. Thus, the Projection Principle and the $\theta$-Criterion proposed by Chomsky (1981) cannot be maintained. In sentences other than this construction, missing subjects (and missing objects) must be projected as phonetically null noun phrases because the clause would otherwise denote a property or a relation, and the tense or the modality of INFL can be combined only with propositions. A missing subject with a specific referent that is not A-bound refers to the topic of the sentence. To explain control by topic, I adopt and modify Reinhart's (1982) proposal that the sentence topic is the address in the common ground of conversation where the sentence is assessed and stored.

Standard accounts of consonantal cooccurrence restrictions appeal to theories of the syllable which assume that the distribution and form of consonant clusters follow from the construction of prosodic units. These theories typically appeal to highly specialized conditions which are of little use in constraining other types of phonological phenomena. Moreover, these theories are unable to characterize restrictions which hold between separate syllables. This thesis presents a modular characterization of segmental cooccurrence restrictions. Here, independently motivated phonological and phonetic principles interact to constrain the form and distribution of consonant clusters--two examples discussed are the OCP and the effects of gestural overlap. I illustrate that such a modular theory of syllable-related phenomena adequately accounts for both the assignment of prosody to a string and the restrictions governing consonant cooccurrence. Since this theory does not appeal to positional distinctions like those encoded within the primitives onset and rime, it is free to constrain both tauto- and heterosyllabic clusters. Generalizations exhibited by English consonant clusters are discussed and accounted for in terms of (general) prosody-independent constraints. Extensive use of a machine readable pronunciation dictionary aided in determining the precise scope of these generalizations. Other issues discussed are (a) lack of release correlating with the presence of certain types of cooccurrence restrictions; (b) the role of consonant morafication in determining whether or not a language appeals either to stray erasure or epenthesis operations; and (c) the representation of s-stop sequences in English, given their participation in noncontiguous cooccurrence restrictions.