Romance Linguistics 2009: Selected Papers from the 39th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Tucson, Arizona, March 2009

Editorial page......Page 3
Title page......Page 4
LCC data......Page 5
Table of contents......Page 6
Foreword & acknowledgements......Page 10
List of contributors......Page 12
1. Romance linguistics......Page 16
2.1 Phonology......Page 18
2.2 Syntax......Page 21
2.3 Morphology and interfaces......Page 24
References......Page 26
Part I. Phonetics/Phonology......Page 28
1. Background......Page 30
2. The data......Page 33
2.1 General sociolinguistic observations......Page 34
2.2 Phonological distribution of DHS in the data......Page 35
3. Discussion: Implications for previous generative analyses......Page 37
References......Page 38
1. Introduction......Page 40
3. Methodology......Page 42
4.1 Extent of V-to-V assimilation influence in French......Page 44
4.2 Coarticulatory strength......Page 52
5. Discussion......Page 54
References......Page 55
Appendix B......Page 56
Appendix C......Page 57
1.1 The problem of the Portuguese palatal nasal......Page 58
1.2 The path to the palatal nasal in Portuguese and Spanish......Page 60
2.1 Speakers......Page 63
2.3 Procedures......Page 64
2.4 Measures......Page 65
3. Results......Page 67
4.1 Summary and significance of results......Page 69
4.2 Phonological implications......Page 72
References......Page 73
Appendix A. Portuguese tokens......Page 75
Appendix B. Spanish tokens......Page 76
1. Introduction......Page 78
2.1 Experimental methods and research hypotheses......Page 80
2.2 Results......Page 81
3.2 Results......Page 85
4. Against preservation of contrast as an explanatory factor......Page 87
References......Page 92
1. Introduction......Page 96
2.1 Participants......Page 99
2.2 Recordings......Page 100
2.3 Analysis......Page 101
3. Results......Page 102
4. Discussion......Page 105
5. Conclusion......Page 107
References......Page 108
1. Introduction......Page 110
2.2 Speech encoding in Dutch......Page 111
3. Experiment – speech encoding in Italian......Page 114
3.3.1 Structure of stimuli......Page 115
3.3.2 Frequency of stimuli......Page 116
4. Results and analysis......Page 117
5. Discussion......Page 119
6. Conclusions......Page 122
References......Page 123
Appendix: Stimuli......Page 124
1. Introduction: Level and downstepped phrase-final high pitch in Palenquero......Page 126
2. Palenquero tonic clitics......Page 127
3. Data collection for the present study......Page 129
4. The behavior of Palenquero phrase-final clitics......Page 130
5. Pitch polarity of phrase-final single enclitics: Examples......Page 132
6. Sequences of two or more clitics: Examples......Page 135
7. The OCP and a constraint-based analysis of Palenquero tonal polarity......Page 136
8. Against a floating-tone analysis......Page 139
9. Palenquero tonal polarity: African leftover or innovation?......Page 140
References......Page 141
1. Introduction......Page 144
2. The minimal word in Prosodic Morphology......Page 146
3. The evidence for the minimal prosodic word as a bimoraic foot in HR......Page 148
4. On the metrical system of Latin and its historical evolution into HR......Page 155
5. The status of prosodic word minimality in modern HR......Page 160
6. Conclusion......Page 163
References......Page 164
1. Introduction......Page 168
2. Vocalic length and consonantal voice......Page 169
3. Lengthening and devoicing: Simple opacity......Page 171
4. Interaction of multiple processes: Double opacity in Alsatian French......Page 173
5. OT-CC and legitimate paths......Page 175
6. Conclusion......Page 179
References......Page 180
Part II. Syntax......Page 182
1. Introduction......Page 184
2. The FS as an alternative focus structure......Page 186
3.1 What gets focused by the FS?......Page 189
3.2 The morphology of FS ser......Page 193
4. What is the FS?......Page 197
References......Page 200
1. Introduction......Page 202
2.1 Possessor propre......Page 204
2.2 Possessum propre......Page 205
3. The binding properties of son propre......Page 207
3.1.1 First case: Anaphoric son propre......Page 208
3.1.2 Second case: Logophoric son propre......Page 209
3.2 Possessum son propre: No anaphoric properties......Page 214
References......Page 216
1. Introduction......Page 218
2. The effect of person and number in clitic combinations.......Page 219
3.1 The Plural-Blocking Effect (preliminary version) (Alba de la Fuente 2007)......Page 222
3.2 The Least Leafy to the Left constraint (Heap 1998, 2005)......Page 224
4.1 Romanian......Page 225
4.2 Catalan......Page 226
5. The Plural-Blocking Effect (PBE)......Page 227
References......Page 229
1. Introduction......Page 232
2. Background......Page 233
3. Problems with shell approach and an alternative syntactic analysis......Page 235
4. The morphosyntactic alignment principle......Page 238
5. The Syntax/Semantics mapping......Page 242
References......Page 244
1. Introduction......Page 246
2. Null objects in Romanian vs. parasitic gaps......Page 247
3. Genderless pronouns in Romance and Romanian......Page 251
4. Consequences for the analysis of Romanian “neuter” nouns......Page 261
References......Page 262
To agree or not to agree......Page 264
1. Introduction......Page 265
2.1 Person......Page 266
2.2 Number......Page 269
2.3 Where is the gender of null subjects?......Page 271
3. Agree revisited......Page 272
4. A constraint on the output of Agree......Page 275
5. Conclusion......Page 278
References......Page 279
1. Introduction......Page 282
2. Factors involved in subject expression in Spanish......Page 284
3. Dialectal variation and language contact......Page 287
4.2 Method......Page 289
4.3 Results and discussion......Page 293
5. Conclusion and directions for future research......Page 295
References......Page 296
1. Introduction......Page 300
2. OF genitive constructions......Page 301
3. Theoretical framework......Page 305
3.1 Minimalist analyses of DP......Page 306
3.2.1 Arteaga (1995)......Page 307
3.2.2 Delfitto & Paradisi (2009)......Page 308
4. A new proposal......Page 309
References......Page 313
1. Introduction: V2 and fronted subordinate clauses......Page 316
2. Old French as a V2 Language......Page 317
3. Empirical study: The effect of fronted clauses on word order in Old French......Page 322
3.1 Results and discussion: Old French literary and historical texts......Page 323
3.2 Results and discussion: Old French legal texts (1251–1271)......Page 326
4. Fronted subordinate clauses in Old Occitan......Page 328
Primary Sources: Old French......Page 333
Secondary Sources......Page 334
Part III. Morphology, and interfaces......Page 336
1. Introduction......Page 338
2.1 Tense and aspect suffixes......Page 340
2.2 Conjugation classes, theme vowels and stem allomorphs......Page 341
2.3 Theme vowels in other Portuguese-based creoles......Page 342
3. Inflectional categories in creoles......Page 343
3.1 Inherent vs. contextual inflectional......Page 344
3.3 Summary......Page 346
4. The survival of formal inflection in Indo-Portuguese......Page 347
References......Page 349
1. Introduction......Page 352
2. Phonological motivation for the presence of an accretion......Page 354
3. Nature of the accretion......Page 355
4.1 The role of Corrlex constraints......Page 357
4.2 The role of Uniform Exponence......Page 362
5. Problems with stratal approaches......Page 364
References......Page 365
1. Introduction......Page 368
2.1 Main wh-questions......Page 370
2.3 Embedded wh-questions......Page 371
2.4 Functional vowels......Page 372
2.6 On the distribution of the “interrogative vowel”......Page 373
3. Cross-linguistic data......Page 374
4. On the occurrence of functional preverbal vowels with object clitics......Page 375
4.2 Functional vowel + vowel-initial clitic......Page 376
4.3 3sg feminine subject clitic + another clitic......Page 377
5. On the occurrence of the preverbal vowel with auxiliaries......Page 379
6. Conclusions......Page 381
References......Page 382
1. Introduction......Page 384
2.1 Assertions with no focus......Page 387
2.2 Assertions with focused gradation quantifiers......Page 389
2.3 Summary......Page 390
3.1 Exclamations with no focus......Page 391
3.2 Identifying exclamatives......Page 392
3.2.1 Gradation exclamatives......Page 394
3.3.1 Semantic neutralization......Page 395
3.3.2 Syntactic neutralization......Page 397
4. A semantic analysis of gradation exclamatives......Page 398
5. Conclusion......Page 400
References......Page 401
1. Introduction......Page 402
2. The Portuguese PPC in synchrony......Page 404
3. The PPC in diachrony......Page 406
3.1 The source construction of the PPC......Page 408
3.2 ter across constructions......Page 409
3.3 The diachronic path to the iterative interpretation......Page 410
4. The perfect path revisited......Page 415
References......Page 417
1. Introduction......Page 420
2. Data......Page 421
3. Previous accounts......Page 422
4. Grammaticalization theory......Page 424
5. Grammaticalization of commencer/cominciare: Synchronic analysis......Page 426
6. Grammaticalization of commencer/cominciare: Diachronic analysis......Page 427
7. Differences between commencer and cominciare......Page 432
8. Conclusion......Page 434
References......Page 435
Index of subjects, terms and languages......Page 438
The series CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY......Page 442