Phonetics/Phonology Colloquiua
Lacey Wade (University of Pennsylvania)
Title: "Expectation, experience, and phonetic convergence"
Monday, March 7 | 3:00 pm | See email for Zoom link
Language Universals Workshop
Jon Sprouse (NYU Abu Dhabi)
Title: "Three (or four) vignettes about movement and experimental syntax"
Friday, March 11 | 12:00-1:30 pm | Sever Hall 214
Abstract: I'd like to discuss three (or four) sets of experimental studies currently in progress in my lab. The theme that unites these studies is that each is an attempt to address theoretical debates about syntactic movement that appear to be primarily driven by empirical uncertainty. My hope is that these vignettes will help generate discussion about our beliefs about theories of movement. I also hope to highlight the work being done by the students, postdocs, and collaborators in my lab, because I am truly fortunate to be able to work with them!
Tan Awarded NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant
We are very happy to report that Tamisha L. Tan has been awarded an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant for her dissertation project entitled Prefixal Agreement, Verb Classes, and Serialization in Amarasi. Congratulations, Tamisha!
Abstract: This project focuses on the detailed documentation and study of Amarasi (ISO: aaz), an under-studied language spoken in West Timor, Indonesia with rapidly decreasing intergenerational transmission. By conducting on-site fieldwork with native speakers, Tan will investigate the language’s morphological systems and their interface with other syntactic and phonological phenomena from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective. Through close study of subsystemic alternations in verb class, valency, voice, and serialization, this project aims to shed light on issues such as i) the structural status and historical origin of subject agreement and semi-idiosyncratic verb classes; ii) the distribution of pronominal elements in Amarasi and their intersection with the development of case and alignment; and iii) the grammaticalization of valency- and category-changing derivational morphology and their relationship to the abstract representation of lexical items.
In addition, this project aims to provide a solid empirical foundation for future research into variation across Timoric languages, contributing to our knowledge of typological patterns found in and around the region. Finally, it is a goal of the project that the resulting data, processed in close collaboration with native speaker consultants and publicly archived, will be multifunctional and suitable for adaptation into community-facing literary, pedagogical, and reference material, facilitating local efforts at language maintenance and preservation.