A. Research Papers (Peer-Reviewed)
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ItemExamining Main Clause Similarity and Frequency Effects in the Production of Tagalog Relative Clauses( 2022-11-28)This study investigates two possible factors in the well-known subject preference in the acquisition and processing of relative clauses (RCs): (i) an effect of similarity between declarative and relative clauses and (ii) an effect of frequency of certain RC types. Two production experiments were conducted with adult and child speakers of Tagalog, a verb-initial language with a Philippine-type voice system. One experiment elicited declarative clauses and the other elicited relative clauses; both had two animacy conditions: animate-animate (animate agent and patient) and animate-inanimate (animate agent, inanimate patient). Experiment 1’s results show a preference for patient voice in the animate-animate condition only. Experiment 2’s results show a preference for the relativization of the agent in the animate-inanimate condition only. We suggest that the interplay of a patient voice preference in Tagalog with a general preference for the relativization of agents – the source of which remains undetermined – may explain these results.
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ItemThe Dynamics of Language Shift among Lawa-Speaking Families in Northern Thailand( 2022-11-28)This paper examines Lawa language shift, vitality, and endangerment on the family level in Northern Thailand using a six-question set adapted from the five key questions of the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS). Data was taken from 1,061 participants from six Lawa villages in Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son Provinces. Though never used as a vernacular, Lawa maintains a role as a home language/community language. The results show different degrees of vitality across villages, from fluency to near extinction. This study anticipates that Western Lawa speakers will shift to Northern Thai and Central Thai gradually in every village, while Eastern Lawa speakers will shift more quickly. Thus, linguistic vitality will continue to worsen due to less intergenerational language transmission.
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ItemIdentifying (In)Definiteness in Vietnamese Noun Phrase( 2022-08-29)This paper aims to settle the issue of whether những, các, một are articles in Vietnamese as argued by Nguyen T. C. (1975), Nguyen H. T. (2004), a.o. First, we adopt Dayal (in prep.)’s cross-linguistic questionnaire of (in)definiteness since this questionnaire offers us a set of useful tests to diagnose definiteness and indefiniteness from a crosslinguistic perspective. Second, we broaden up the empirical landscape by contrasting the interpretation of nominal constructions which have the so-called overt (in)definite markers (các-CLF-N, những-CLF-N, and một CLF N) with that of nominal constructions without them (including bare N and CLF-N, numeral(>1)-CLF-N), in order to see if the (in)definiteness effect truly comes from the presence or absence of these three markers, or from something else. We then conclude that (i) những and các are plural markers, (ii) only một seems to be a likely candidate for an indefinite article, and (iii) bare nouns and numerals are not genuine indefinites: the former denotes kinds, while the latter can be interpreted as definite, which sets Vietnamese apart cross-linguistically.
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ItemNotes on Kodi Phonology( 2022-08-29)This paper describes aspects of the phonology of Kodi, an Austronesian language of Sumba, Indonesia. Based on the analysis of recordings of an elicited word list, the description covers the segmental phonology, syllable structure, stress and the spreading of palatalization and labialization features. A pervasive feature of Kodi is a number of morphophonological processes that result in most words alternating between a longer and shorter form. These include antepenultimate vowel reduction, paragoge and apocope, as well as productive synchronic metathesis of a word-final vowel and the preceding consonant. When a word with identical vowel qualities in the two final syllables undergoes metathesis, it results in a double vowel. By measuring hundreds of vowel lengths in our data, we show that double vowels are phonetically distinct in length from stress-induced vowel lengthening in Kodi.