Whamit!

Speaker: Amanda Michel (MIT)
Title: A Variable Account of Norwegian Stress
Time: Tuesday, December 8th, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: The stress system of Norwegian has traditionally been argued to be fixed/predictable with a robust set of exceptions. Much of the analysis of Norwegian stress is based on loanwords, as the inventory of native word shapes is limited. In this talk, I will present my ongoing work with my former advisor (Anya Hogoboom, College of William & Mary). We put forth an alternative account in multiple steps. We first seek to explain stress variability diachronically, looking to the placement of stress on the donor word for a given loanword. We then propose a variable model of the stress phonology utilizing MaxEnt and find that speakers are sensitive to the distribution of stress assignment via a nonce word production experiment.

Speaker: Sabine Iatridou (MIT)
Title: Superlatives meet Definiteness in Bulgarian and Greek
Time: Thursday, December 11, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: The aim of this paper (joint work with Artemis Alexiadou and Roumyana Pancheva) is to enrich the debate on the nature of absolute and relative readings of superlatives with data from Bulgarian and Greek and explore possible conclusions from them. We investigate three phenomena exhibited by definite DPs: polydefiniteness, clitic doubling, and clitic left dislocation, and show that the first two preclude relative readings, while the latter allows relative readings in contexts of contrastive topicalization. This leads us to conclude that the absolute-relative distinction in superlatives is a case of a genuine semantic ambiguity, with definiteness playing a central role, but also that there is an important role for context. Our findings also reveal similarities and differences among clitic doubling, clitic left dislocation, and polydefiniteness, in both Bulgarian and Greek.

On November 22rd and 23rd, Hani Al Naeem, Christopher Legerme, Cora Lesure, Vincent Zu (MIT Chemical Engineering postdoctoral associate), and Jacob Kodner (Harvard Linguistics graduate student) taught over 50 ninth through twelfth grade students at Splash, a weekend extravaganza of courses organized by MIT ESP (Educational Studies Program).

Hani and Christopher offered “Sounds in Motion: Exploring the Science of Speech”; Cora offered “Rhyme and Reason: Exploring the Linguistics of Poetry”; Vincent offered “Linguists vs. Machine: Who Had the Telescope?”; and Jacob offered “The Beauty and Complexity of Language: Introduction to Linguistics”. The courses were designed by each instructor and developed and vetted through a collaborative process. Maya Honda observed all of the classes and attests to the great job everyone did sharing their knowledge and passion for linguistics with the Splash students.

Speaker: Juan Cancel (MIT)
Title: Cross-Categorial Syncretisms: Theoretical Predictions and Empirical Observations
Time: Thursday, December 4th, 5pm - 6pm
Location: 32-D769

Abstract: Syncretisms and their generalizations have been the topic of much discussion in the morphological literature for a few years already (ex: Caha 2009, Starke 2017, Zompì 2023, etc). Nonetheless, a kind of syncretism that hasn’t been addressed much in that same literature are syncretisms that span the paradigms of different lexical categories (ex: nouns and verbs). In this presentation, I will be looking at these ‘cross-categorial syncretisms’ in terms of Distributed Morphology (Halle and Marantz 1993), argue about why we should expect them to exist, and make note of what specific features we would expect to behave as such. Finally, I will go over various examples from language families such as Turkic, Inuit-Yupik-Unangan, and Uralic in order to show not only that they indeed exist, but that they seem to behave in ways that comply with our theoretical frameworks as well.

Speaker: Tam Berulava (MIT)
Title: Case-Matching Effects in Long-Distance Wh-Questions in Georgian
Time: Tuesday, December 2nd, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: I will present an ongoing project on long-distance wh-questions in Georgian, focusing on the interaction between cross-clausal wh-movement and case. Building on recent claims that Georgian lacks true cross-clausal wh-movement and instead uses only proleptic question constructions, I argue that genuine wh-extraction from embedded clauses is in fact available, but its distribution is tightly constrained. In particular, I show that acceptability systematically tracks (i) the case configuration between the matrix subject and the extracted wh-phrase and (ii) the structural size of the embedded clause, giving rise to robust “case matching” effects in long-distance questions. These effects indicate that the extracted wh-phrase is, in some way, visible to the matrix-level case-assigning algorithm, raising the natural question of how—and why—such cross-clausal visibility is possible.

Speaker: Johanna Alstott (MIT)
Title: A cautionary note on word learning paradigms and presupposition triggering
Time: Thursday, December 4, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Cross-linguistically, predicates with both initial-state and change-of-state components tend to encode them as presupposition and assertion, respectively. Bade et al. (2024) argue on the basis of a series of artificial word learning experiments that this cross-linguistic tendency reflects conceptual biases privileging changes-of-state over initial-states. In their experiments, they gauged how participants encoded the initial-state and change-of-state entailments of a nonce verb wug, and they interpret their results as suggesting that participants generally encoded the initial-state entailment as a presupposition and encoded the change-of-state entailment as the assertion. This finding, they argue, favors their conceptual-bias hypothesis over competing accounts. In this talk (joint work with Athulya Aravind), we further test the validity of Bade et al.’s paradigm via an additional experiment where we both try to replicate their original effect and, in parallel, ascertain whether their results generalize to a nonce initial-state/change-of-state predicate other than the one that they test. We not only fail to extend Bade et al.’s results to our new nonce word but also fail to replicate their original effect: our participants overwhelmingly treated Bade et al.’s wug and our new nonce word as non-presuppositional. A closer look at Bade et al.’s original studies suggests that non-presuppositional construals were common there, too, and we discuss several reasons why this could have been the case. All told, our outlook is pessimistic: adult artificial word-learning tasks do not, in fact, illuminate the mechanisms of presupposition triggering.

Speaker: Iva Kovač (Vienna/UMass Amherst)
Title: Scope in NPI licensing
Time: Wednesday, December 3rd, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Licensing of weak NPIs like any is subject to at least three scope-related constraints: certain elements, such as every, may not take scope between the NPI and its licenser (Linebarger 1980, 1987), the NPI must scope below its closest licenser (Homer 2020, Barker 2022), and it must be c-commanded by its licenser on the surface (Ladusaw 1979, 1980). In this talk, I bring these three constraints together by drawing a connection between NPI licensing and conditions that apply to scope taking of regular quantifiers (Fox 1995, Mayr & Spector 2010) and their linear order (Bobaljik & Wurmbrand 2012). I propose that NPI licensing is computed incrementally and explore an implementation in terms of Quantifier Raising and an interplay between spell-out domains and interface (LF and PF) principles regulating copy choice. In brief, under certain clearly defined conditions, NPIs like any disambiguate scope relations by marking narrow scope (Barker 2018), but syntactic domains force them to do so locally. If on the right track, this approach provides an argument in favour of an architecture of grammar where PF and LF domains can be distinct and PF has access to LF.

Speaker: Paul Meisenbichler (MIT)
Title: Reference to individuals across worlds and constraints on de re phenomena (Part 2)
Time: Wednesday, November 26th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: I will continue our discussion from November 12 about how certain ideas from counterpart theory (CT, see Lewis 1986) could contribute to our understanding of de re/de dicto phenomena. The central tenet of CT is the ontological assumption that individuals exist in only one world. In CT, reference across worlds must therefore be established in an indirect way (i.e. as a relation between an individual in one world and its counterparts in other worlds). In some of the recent literature, it has been suggested that blocking (direct) transworld reference could help us understand some well-known constraints on transparent/opaque readings (e.g. Percus (2013), Sauerland (2014), Cable (2018)). I want to explore these proposals and discuss whether adopting a counterpart ontology is a move worth pursuing.

Speaker: Heidi Durresi (MIT)
Title: Comparing different predictions of learnability on typology
Time: Monday, November 24th, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: Stanton (2016) is not only an argument for learnability shaping typology, but also that the Gradual Learning Algorithm (GLA; Boersma 1997, Magri 2012) is the vehicle for it. In this talk, I will discuss some preliminary ideas on comparing the typological predictions of alternative learning models on pathological stress patterns. Learning strategies discussed include Error-Selective Learning (Tessier 2007) and Expectation Driven Learning (Jarosz 2015).

Speaker: James Cooper Roberts (MIT)
Title: Part is part (plus pragmatics)
Time: Thursday, November 20th, 5pm - 6pm
Location: 32-D769

Abstract: In this work, I argue that the natural language item part (and its translational equivalents) is the same as the mereological notion of PROPER PART, full stop. While this seems trivially true, state-of-the-art semantics often assumes this is not the case; Link (1983) posits two parthood relations for part of an individual and part of a plurality (MATERIAL vs. ATOMIC parts), and those who assume one relation posit additional constraints on the transitivity of parthood (Moltmann, 1997; Wagiel, 2021). The latter is done in service of the observation that parts of atomic individuals seemingly cannot be part of a plurality. For example, a world where only Jerry Seinfeld’s hand is completely covered in paint is not a verifying case for (1).

(1) Part of the New Yorkers are completely covered in paint.

I will argue against the approaches outlined above, opting to instead include parts of atoms in the denotation of plural partitives. The interpretation we get for (1), I propose, is actually the result of pragmatics rather than semantics (Grice, 1975’s MAXIM OF QUANTITY). This position is bolstered by the fact that the “inclusive” reading of a plural partitive becomes available under negation and epistemic uncertainty (cf. plurals, Sauerland et al. 2005).

[This is a practice talk for my upcoming presentation at OASIS 5.]

Speaker: Rotsuprit Saengthong (MIT)
Title: Clause Size Reduction by Projection Feature
Time: Tuesday, November 18th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: I will present an ongoing project on clausal complementation. I have observed that when tested with restructuring diagnostics as used in Wurmbrand (2001), clauses containing functional elements (e.g., C and T) behave like full CPs in some environments, but in other environments, they behave as if they are smaller than expected given the presence of those functional elements. Such variation is evident in Thai control constructions, where infinitival complements contain the same morphemes as full CPs, yet lack the defining properties of CPs. For instance, certain clauses include C and T morphemes but behave syntactically like vPs. These facts suggest that the mechanisms of structure building—specifically Merge and Labeling/Projection—may operate differently in such environments. I propose that in Merge (α, β), there may be what I tentatively call a Projection feature, which determines which head is selected for projection. I further argue that clausal reduction arises as a consequence of this operation.

Speaker: Amy Li (MIT)
Title: A phonetic correlate of velar palatalization: shorter front cavity
Time: Monday, November 17th, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: I will start this talk by practicing presenting the poster that I will bring to the ASA (poster abstract below).

Velar palatalization is a common sound change involving a velar stop becoming a palatal affricate or fricative before a front vocoid. To gain insight into its phonetic mechanisms, we test two hypotheses about factors conditioning velar palatalization by comparing similar languages with and without the change: (1) the conditioning vowels are fronter in languages with the change, resulting in fronter closure of the velar through coarticulatory assimilation; or (2) languages with the change have stronger coarticulation of velar stops with following segments, resulting in greater fronting preceding front vocoids. Specifically, we compare two Chinese languages, Mandarin, which underwent velar palatalization in the 16th-17th centuries ({k, kh, x} became {tɕ, tɕh, ɕ} before high front vowels), and Cantonese, which has not undergone the change in the last millennium. Our results support hypothesis (1) but not (2). We find that Mandarin speakers produce [i] and [y] with a higher front cavity resonance (third formant for [i] and second formant for [y]), implying a shorter front cavity. Velar coarticulation, measured by locus equation slope, does not differ significantly between the two languages. This suggests that the phonetic preconditions of velar palatalization lie in an especially front articulation of the conditioning vocoid.

Then, I will discuss two new hypotheses in response to my results: (1) the conditioning vowels have small enough front cavities in languages with the velar palatalization change that that they can be considered coronal, so coarticulation of the velar consonant with this coronal vowel results in the coronal output of the change; and (2) the conditioning vowels have shorter front cavities in languages with the change due to longer tongue constrictions, which facilitate frication given coarticulation with the velar consonant. I will share some of my attempts to test these new hypotheses. Finally, I will present my planned next steps of the project, including making new recordings comparing (some varieties of) Cretan Greek, in which {k, kh, x} became {tɕ, tɕh, ɕ} before [i] and [e], and standard modern Greek.

Speaker: Daniar Kasenov (NYU)
Title: Nonce word wellformedness and abstract URs: the case of Russian yers
Time: Thursday, November 13th, 5pm - 6pm
Location: 32-D769

Abstract: Nonce word studies are part of the toolbox to probe productivity, especially of non-automatic phonological alternations, such as Russian vowel-zero alternations (Russian yers). Existing work (Gouskova, Becker 2013; Becker, Gouskova 2016) shows that Russian speakers extend phonotactic tendencies regarding which words do and do not undergo the alternations to nonce items. Becker and Gouskova argue that the results support Gouskova’s (2012) diacritic-based account of Russian yers against approaches that rely on abstract contrasts between vowels. In this talk, I wish to explore how a proponent of the abstract UR approach might account for Becker and Gouskova’s results without ignoring the experimental results altogether. I present preliminary results that a simple bigram model over URs and SRs might do the trick (cf. Scheer’s 2019 argument that the effects reported by Becker and Gouskova are “lexical”).

Speaker: Paul Meisenbichler (MIT)
Title: Reference to individuals across worlds and constraints on de re phenomena
Time: Wednesday, November 12th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: In this LFRG, I want to lead a (mostly informal) discussion on the role that counterpart theory (CT, see Lewis 1986) should play in our approaches to de re/de dicto phenomena. The central tenet of CT is the ontological assumption that individuals exist in only one world. In CT, reference across worlds must therefore be established in an indirect way (i.e. as a relation between an individual in one world and its counterparts in other worlds). In some of the recent literature, it has been suggested that blocking (direct) transworld reference could help us understand some well-known constraints on transparent/opaque readings (e.g. Percus (2013), Sauerland (2014), Cable (2018)). I want to explore these proposals and discuss whether adopting a counterpart ontology is a move worth pursuing.

Speaker: Ogloo Jurkhaichin (MIT)
Title: The Nature of ‘Edge’: Evidence from Cross-clausal A-movement in Mongolian
Time: Thursday, November 6th, 5pm - 6pm
Location: 32-D769

Abstract: Syntactic operations are bounded by phases, in which the edge is typically taken to be the highest specifier (Fox & Pesetsky 2005; Rackowski & Richards 2005; Bošković 2016, a.o.). In this talk, I will argue that the edge need not be only the highest specifier; a lower specifier of the clausal periphery may also act as an escape hatch for further syntactic movement. This is evidenced by the novel observation that Mongolian permits cross-clausal A-movement to escape phases in which the highest specifier is an Ā position (contra Gong 2022, 2023). In particular, given the Ban on Improper Movement, I propose to posit a lower A-specifier that facilitates subsequent cross-clausal A-movement.

Speaker: James Morley (MIT)
Title: An “Only-You” restriction in Chamorro and the problems it poses for the theory of hierarchy effects
Time: Tuesday, November 4th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: This talk investigates a person-animacy restriction - henceforth PAR - in Chamorro (Malayo-Polynesian; Austronesian), previously reported in Chung (1998, 2014, 2020) but which has otherwise been subject to little theoretical attention. Chamorro’s PAR prohibits internal arguments from ‘outranking’ external arguments with respect to the hierarchy in (1).

Chamorro-specific person-animacy hierarchy 2nd person > 3rd person animate pronouns > 3rd person animate lexical nouns > Inanimate

Chamorro instantiates what Stegovec (2019, i.a.) calls a *3>2 or “Only-You” person restriction: although 2nd and 3rd person have their distributions constrained by the restriction, 1st person does not. In this talk I make two kinds of argument. First, I argue that this restriction should not be reduced to a language-specific morphological restriction, pace Chung (2014), but should rather be treated as (at least partly) syntactic in nature. The null hypothesis is thus that it should be explained by the same mechanisms postulated elsewhere to capture other syntactic PARs. Second, I argue that this has not been achieved. More specifically, current theories of PARs are either logically incompatible with the Chamorro data, or else incur conceptual or empirical problems when amended to accommodate it. I then sketch some preliminary ideas about how to go about solving this.

Speaker: Thomas Truong (MIT)
Title: Plural superlatives and cumulativity
Time: Wednesday, November 5th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: In this talk I will present some ongoing work on the interactions between plurals and superlatives.

To do so, I examine a unique reading of sentences containing plurals and superlatives.

(1) Rafa climbed each of the tallest mountains that his students climbed.

Under one reading of (1), the truth conditions require us to look at each of the students, check which mountains each student climbed, and then take the tallest mountain climbed for each of the students.

I will break down this construction. I claim that this reading is generated as a case of cumulative readings, where the superlative operator is in the scope of the cumulativity operator.

I show that if we assume the ** operator (Krifka 1986, Sternefeld 1998, Beck and Sauerland 2000) to derive cumulativity along with an account of superlatives following Heim (1999), covert movement outside of a relative clause seems to be necessary to derive the correct LF for the relevant interpretation of sentence (1).

Speaker: Gasser Elbanna (Harvard)
Title: A model of speech recognition reproduces behavioral signatures of human speech perception and reveals mechanisms
Time: Monday, November 3rd, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: Humans dexterously extract meaning from variable acoustic signals and can faithfully repeat back novel utterances—hallmarks of spoken communication. Speech perception is thought to subserve these downstream tasks via transforming sound into robust perceptual representations. Yet progress on the nature of these representations and their mechanisms has been limited by the lack of (i) stimulus-computable models that replicate human behavior and (ii) large-scale behavioral benchmarks for comparing model and human speech perception. In this talk, I will present our work on developing candidate artificial neural network models of human speech perception along with new behavioral experiments to compare phonetic judgments in humans and models. Our models reproduce patterns of human responses and confusions alongside recapitulating key behavioral signatures of human speech perception. I will also show how our models enable us to investigate the role of contextual integration and its directionality in speech perception.

Speaker: Cooper Roberts (MIT)
Title: A rational solution to an agreement-interpretation puzzle
Time: Thursday, November 6 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: In some Indo-European languages, a fraction partitive (FP) which embeds a plural DP licenses an optional-agreement phenomenon—-in the appropriate syntactic position, an agreeing predicate can copy the features of either the fraction (1b) or the complement (1a). This is puzzling enough if we assume FPs have a DP-within-DP structure (as do Ionin et al., 2006; Benbaji-Elhadad & Wehbe, 2024; a.o.), which under a Locality-governed model of Agree (Chomsky, 1995) would predict that the fraction is the sole target of Agreement. The plot thickens when we observe that the two agreement possibilities yield different interpretations. (1a) is true in a world where, for example, two out of six walls are covered in mold (I call this the COUNT reading). (1b), on the other hand, is true in a world where, given a plurality of walls which have a cumulative surface area of 12m^2, 4m^2 are covered in mold (a MEASURE reading).

(1) [Italian]
a. un terzo delle pareti sono coperti di muffa
‘A third(m.sg) of the walls(f.pl) are covered(f.pl) by mold’
*MEASURE, COUNT
b. un terzo delle pareti `e coperto di muffa
‘A third(m.sg) of the walls(f.pl) is covered(m.sg) by mold’
MEASURE, *COUNT

The goal of this study is to give a theoretical account of the alternation in Italian-like languages while also explaining why some languages in the family lack the equivalent to (1b) (American English). Following the tenet of One Form/One Meaning, I pursue an analysis where measure and count FPs are structurally-distinct. Specifically, I assume that count FPs are the structurally-simpler of the two, bearing a syntax where the complement is actually the head (see Selkirk 1977) and the semantics are s.t. cardinality functions win over other measurement possibilities (Barner & Snedeker, 2005; Bale & Barner, 2009; Wellwood, 2019; Wagiel 2021). To get the measure FP, I posit a special operator TOTAL which takes the bare FP structure and makes two important contributions. First, TOTAL re-merges the fraction via projecting movement (Bhatt, 2002) to make it the new head of the structure. Second, TOTAL changes the “matrix” parameter of evaluation for measure functions to one where cardinality will lose to other forms of measure. Crucial evidence from this proposal comes from Russian, where FPs which include the part-word chast’ lose the agreement-optionality and necessarily have a measure reading. I interpret this item as a realization of TOTAL and conclude that it can be optionally-overt in some languages.

Gĩkũyũ has two types of backcopyingː (1) optional backcopying (i.e., backcopied and non-backcopied variants are in free variation) when prenasalized stop formation (/Nt, Nɾ/ → [ⁿd], /Nʃ/ → [ᶮdʒ], /Nk, Nɣ/ → [ᵑg]) and foot reduplication interact; (2) obligatory backcopying when prenasalized stop formation, foot reduplication, and Meinhof’s law (NC₁…N₂(C) → N₁…N₂(C)) interact.  To account for the obligatory backcopying cases, I propose that the distinguishing factor lies in the onset’s ratio of nasality in the base vs. the reduplicant. On a ratio-of-nasality scale of [t, k, ɾ, ʃ, ɣ] = 0, [ⁿd, ᶮdʒ] = 1, [n] = 2, a Distantial Faithfulness constraint penalizes segments in RED that differ too much from their Base correspondents. Consequently, Base-Reduplicant pairs like [ᶮdʒ]…[ʃ] are acceptable because their nasality distance is ≤1, whereas [n]…[ɾ] is disfavored because the ‘distance’ is 2.

Speaker: Yvette Yi-Chi Wu (Harvard)
Title: Verb classes and affix ordering in Seediq
Time: Thursday, October 30th, 5pm - 6pm
Location: 32-D769

Abstract: This talk looks at verbal morphology in Seediq, with supplementary data from other Formosan languages. I will focus on the ordering of “voice” morphology with respect to derivational and TAM morphology, which allows us to examine the interactions of infixation, reduplication, stress-conditioned suppletion, and more. I show that the actor voice (AV) infix is located in the middle field (below perfective Asp and above Voice), which goes against theories where voice is high (e.g. in T or C). I also attribute apparent allomorphy of AV to regular argument structural morphology in Seediq (cf. Ross 1995, Chen 2020), and discuss the implications this has on verb classes and (anti-)causative structures.

Speaker: Vsevolod Masliukov (MIT)
Title: Participial Complementation in Russian
Time: Tuesday, October 28th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: In this talk I will present a syntactic analysis of Russian sentences such as (1), which feature participles marked with the so-called ‘Predicate instrumental case’ (Bailyn 2001). I will argue that these participial clauses are arguments with a PredP (small clause structure, Bowers 1993 et seq.) built on top, whose subject is raised to the structural case licensing position in the matrix clause. I will also compare the properties of these constructions with participles used as adnominal adjuncts, which always require case matching, (2) and finite complements of the same class of verbs (3).

(1) Ona nikogda ne vide-l-a Maš-u plač-ušč-ej. she never NEG see-PST-F.SG M.-ACC cry-PTCP.IPFV-F.SG.INSTR ‘She has never seen Masha crying.’

(2) Ona nikogda ne vide-l-a [plač-ušč-uju Maš-u] . she never NEG see-PST-F.SG cry-PTCP.IPFV-F.SG.ACC M.-ACC Lit.: ‘She has never seen crying Masha.’

(3) Ona nikogda ne vide-l-a, [kak Maša plač-et]. she never NEG see-PST-F.SG COMP M.NOM cry-NPST.3SG ‘She has never seen Masha cry.’ (lit.: ‘how Masha cries’)

Speaker: Bergül Soykan (MIT)
Title: Limitations on meta questions: insights from Turkish
Time: Wednesday, October 29th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: In this ongoing work, I present data on the basic patterns of Turkish meta questions (MQs) and show that Turkish appears to allow meta-meta questions as in (1), which Trinh, Fox, and Bassi (2025) predict to be problematic according to their recent NELS talk. They claim that speech act verbs are phase heads, and complements of phase heads are spelled out (á la Chomsky 2001), which implies that there can be only one silent speech act verb in every (audible) sentence. (1)   A1: Ela gel-ecek mi? come-Fut PolQ [IA ask [whether Ela will come]]      B1: Ela nere-ye gel-ecek mi? wh-MQ where-Dat come-Fut PolQ [where1 youB ask [whether Ela will come where1]] A2: Ela nere-ye gel-ecek mi mi? pol-MQ *[whether youB ask [where1 IA ask [whether Ela will come where1]]]

I suggest that the difference between Turkish and English MQs results from 1) their distinct question-formation strategies (e.g., English uses wh-phrases in situ only for MQs, while in-situ-ness is the default form of all questions in Turkish) and 2) from differences in their Spell-Out domains. Given that Turkish always uses wh-in-situ for constituent questions, I propose that C is the phase head in Turkish, not the speech-act verb (or any other v). Also, revising Krifka (2014) and Woods and Vicente (2021), I assume the following structure in (2) for Turkish questions, where Force P indicates whether an utterance has question force [+Q] or not [-Q], and say is the speech act for all utterances that is merged when needed. Thus, I offer a solution to the seeming issue in Turkish MQs along the lines of Trinh, Fox, and Bassi’s (2025).

(2)   A1: Ela gel-ecek mi? come-Fut PolQ [whether1 [Ela will comeF mI1 ForceP[+Q]] Cthat] B1: Ela nere-ye gel-ecek mi? wh-MQ where-Dat come-Fut PolQ [where2 [whether1 [Ela where2 will comeF mI1 ForceP[+Q]] Cthat] sayA] A2: Ela nere-ye gel-ecek mi mi? pol-MQ [whether3 [where1 [whether1 [Ela where1 will comeF mI1 ForceP[+Q]]F mI3 Cthat] sayA]ForceP[+Q]]

Later, I provide evidence from embedded clauses with an overt C head for the interpretation layers of MQs in Turkish. Finally, if time allows, I share cross-linguistic data from various languages, supporting that the Spell Out domain and question-formation strategies are the two parameters that affect MQ layering.

Speaker: Ivy Sichel (UC Santa Cruz)
Title: How resumptive pronouns ameliorate island violations - evidence from Hebrew
Time: Thursday, October 30, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: While some resumptive pronouns (RPs), in some languages, ameliorate island violations (Hebrew, Irish, Lebanese Arabic, among others), not all do (Vata (Koopman 1982), Welsh (Tallerman 1983), Nupe (Kandybowicz 2007)). The variation in this domain is perplexing: what is it that allows RPs to ameliorate island violations in the languages in which they do, and how might this be parametrically constrained? According to the ‘Classic View’ (Chomsky 1977, Borer 1984, McCloskey 1990), the repair is only indirect: RPs are associated with a distinct, non-movement, derivation (1a), in which an island violation is simply not incurred. By now, however, it has become clear that RPs are at least sometimes compatible with movement derivations, even in languages which exhibit island repair (Aoun, Choueiri & Hornstein 2001, Sichel 2014). This raises the possibility that an RP that repairs an island violation is similarly compatible with movement, and that the repair is direct, due to the realization of the gap as an RP within a movement derivation (Perlmutter 1972, Pesetsky 1998). The present study argues for the ‘Classic View’ based on the syntax of RPs in high positions in Hebrew RCs - because in this situation, the RP is not realizing the gap at the foot of the chain. This suggests that languages with island-sensitive RPs lack the non-movement RC structure. Along the way, I will develop a particular view of movement-compatible RPs, according to which RPs directly realize a position in an A-bar movement chain, regulated by Economy of Pronunciation.

Speaker: Filipe Kobayashi (Paris Lodron University of Salzburg)
Title: Syntactic constraints on fake indexicals in relative clauses (joint work with Caroline Gardner, Franziska Keller, Anita Riedl and Susi Wurmbrand)
Time: Thursday, October 23rd, 5pm - 6pm
Location: 32-D769

Abstract: Fake indexicals (i.e., bound occurrences of 1st and 2nd person pronouns) have a much more restricted distribution when they are bound by relative pronouns than when they are directly bound by an indexical pronoun (Kratzer 2009; Charnavel, Meadows and Sportiche 2025). Contra previous claims that the licensing of fake indexicals in these sentences is tied to verbal agreement or subjecthood, we argue for a new generalization: a relative pronoun can bind a fake indexical only if it is the highest argument in its clause. We then propose an account of this generalization grounded on a particular theory of how relative pronouns are able host person features.

Speaker: Ioannis Katochoritis (MIT)
Title: Micro-variation is a conspiracy: Condition C, Case and Wholesale Late Merge in Balinese vs. Malagasy
Time: Tuesday, October 21st, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: (joint work with Lena Lohninger)

This talk aims to illustrate the idea that microvariation is an epiphenomenonal conspiracy of the derivation. The focus will be two Malayo-Polynesian languages, Balinese and Malagasy, which share the Austronesian voice/pivot system: one (any) argument per clause is promoted to a syntactically and pragmatically salient status by becoming the so-called pivot.

When the internal argument becomes the pivot, the so-called Object Voice forms a non-canonical passive: the internal argument A-moves high to map into the surface subject, while the agent is not demoted to oblique, but remains a syntactically core argument that is licensed via strict right-adjacency to the verb.

However, the two languages differ with respect to Condition C: while Balinese pivot movement obligatorily reconstructs, and thus feeds connectivity, Malagasy pivot movement does not obligatorily reconstruct, and can thus bleed connectivity. To account for this apparent microparameter, we suggest that, while Malagasy allows Wholesale Late Merge (Takahashi & Hulsey 2009) of the pivot’s restrictor to the high landing site, Balinese does not.

We then provide two possible reasons for this: first, Balinese Object Voice still assigns accusative case to its internal argument, while Malagasy has lost this capacity, with the pivot being only licensed with nominative at the landing site; this forces pivots in the former, but not in the latter, to be early merged entirely at their base position. Evidence will come from asymmetries in multiple extraction, resumptive pronouns, quantifier scope and the inventory of Object Voice morphemes. Second, Balinese, but not Malagasy, exhibits DP-internal head movement to derive the suffixal nature of its determiner, which would be completely countercyclic under any tenable formulation of the Extension Condition.

Speaker: Giuseppe Varaschin (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
Title: From descriptions to epithets: A structurally uniform account of definites
Time: Wednesday, October 22nd, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Slurs are nominal expressions that contribute meaning on both the truth-conditional (TC) and use-conditional (UC) dimensions, functioning as constraints on utterance contexts (Kaplan 1999; McCready 2010; Gutzmann 2015, i.a.). When such expressions appear as complements of definite determiners, as in the Brazilian Portuguese example in (1), they exhibit a systematic ambiguity (Saab 2022). On one reading — the definite-description reading — the DP refers to the unique individual satisfying the property denoted by the NP (in this case, being rural). On the other — the epithet reading — the descriptive property need not hold; it suffices that the referent have epistemically accessible properties that are contextually inferable from that property (e.g. driving a tractor, having a rural accent, wearing rural clothes). (1) O jeca chegou.   the JECA arrived   ‘The hillbilly arrived.’

Prior analyses derive this split via structural ambiguity inside the DP (Patel-Grosz 2014; Orlando & Saab 2020, i.a.). In this talk I defend a structurally uniform alternative, where the interpretive differences between descriptive and epithet readings follow from two main ingredients: (i) an optional type-shifting operation — encoded by a syntactic EX feature (Gutzmann 2019) and correlated with prosodic deaccenting (Umbach 2002) — that moves NP content from the TC to the UC dimension; and (ii) the presence or absence of a pronominal index associated with the D head (Schwarz 2009; Jenks & Konate 2022). Under the epithet derivation, the NP property is mapped to a contextually determined superset that serves as a constraint on assignments for the index introduced by D; this mapping to a superset (defined by epistemically accessible properties) accounts for the misdescription tolerance characteristic of epithet readings. Because the property is shifted from the TC to the UC dimension where it is a function on contexts, it cannot address relevant QUDs. I show that the same interpretive mechanism also accounts for referential readings of definite descriptions (Donnellan 1966; Gutzmann & McCready 2014, i.a.). Drawing on novel Brazilian Portuguese data involving modification, iteration, binding, and ellipsis, I argue that this analysis is not only conceptually simpler but also more empirically adequate than structural-ambiguity accounts. A key consequence is that DP structure is essentially uniform across definites of all types (slurs, ordinary definites, epithets, and referential pronouns), with variation reducible to fully interpretive lexically-anchored features: whether D supplies a pronominal index, and whether triggers of UC-shifting (correlated with deaccenting) are present on NP nodes.

Speaker: Bingzi Yu (MIT) and Michael Kenstowicz (MIT)
Title: Tones and tone sandhi in Chengdu Mandarin
Time: Monday, October 20th, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: Chengdu Mandarin is a variety of Mandarin Chinese spoken in southwestern China. Like Standard Mandarin, it has four citation tones, but the tone contours and sandhi patterns differ notably. The table below summarizes the etymological correspondences between tones in the two dialects:

In this talk, we will present acoustic description of both the citation tones and tone sandhi in Chengdu Mandarin based on recent recordings and propose a constraint-based account that captures most of the observed sandhi patterns. In addition, we raise some interesting yet unsolved puzzles. Among them, we will focus on the phonological representation of the Chengdu dipping tone (T4 in the table above) and its unusual sandhi behavior.

Speaker: Ido Benbaji-Elhadad (MIT) & Omri Doron (UMass Amherst)
Title: Saving FACE: Fragment answers, copy theory, and radical trace conversion
Time: Tuesday, October 14th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Jacobson (2016) observes that fragment answers to which-questions seem to have different felicity conditions than fully spelled out answers and even ones with VP ellipsis, as demonstrated in (1). Jacobson takes this fact as evidence against an analysis of Fragment Answers as the result of Clausal Ellipsis (FACE, in short; Merchant, 2005), and proposes an analysis that treats them as connected to their preceding questions via a special syntactic relation. But FACE has its merits: (i) It explains why fragments seem sensitive to constraints on movement and morphosyntactically connected to their hypothesized “original position”; and (ii) it unifies fragment answers, VP ellipsis and sluicing under the same recoverability conditions. In this talk, we propose a novel account of Jacobson’s puzzle which does not give up FACE, and instead points at the parallelism constraint on ellipsis as the source of infelicity in (1a). Specifically, assuming trace conversion (Fox, 1999), we propose that the mismatch between the trace left by which Math professor and the one left by Mary prevents them from satisfying parallelism. In doing so, we argue for a modification to the process of trace conversion.

(1) Q: Which Math professor left the party early?
a. #Mary, but she’s not a Math professor.
b. Mary left the party early, but she’s not a Math professor.
c. Mary did, but she’s not a Math professor.

Speaker: Lorenzo Pinton (MIT)
Title: VP-ellipsis and parasitic gaps: observations on temporal modifiers and parallelism
Time: Wednesday, October 15th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: As the title suggests, in this LFRG I present ongoing work on PV-ellipsis and Parasitic Gaps. I discuss novel data involving parasitic gaps (henceforth PGs) in VP-ellipsis constructions. In particular, I present a series of minimal pairs and claim that the grammatical contrasts are mainly accounted for by the combination of a local parallelism condition on ellipsis in the style Takahashi and Fox (2005)/Fox and Katzir (2011), and Nissenbaum’s (1998; 2000) theory of PGs. First, the contrast between (1a) and (1b) is introduced to show that adjuncts with a PG cannot appear in the clause containing ellipsis, in contrast with adjuncts with no gap:

(1) a. *This is the song that John listened to, and this is the song that Mary did [listen to] after reading about. b. This is the song that John listened to, and this is the song that Mary did [listen to] after having a coffee .

More data in (2) show that there are actually instances in which a PG-adjunct can appear in the elided clause, but only if another PG-adjunct is present in the antecedent:

(2) a. This is the song that Rosa listened to after reading about, and this is the song that Karl did [listen to] before hearing about. b. *This is the song that Rosa listened to after turning on the radio, and this is the song that Karl did [listen to] before hearing about .

A third - semantic - constrast will also be introduced tin the talk. After considering observations from Hartman (2011) on the size of elided phrases, I will show the need for a silent element that merges in the same position as adjuncts that do not contain a PG. This need can be implemented either with a tense restrictor analysis of temporal modifiers (as for example presented in von Fintel and Heim (2011)) or with a silent pronominal version of temporal adjuncts, as long as this is restricted to non-PG adjuncts.

Speaker: Janos Egressy (UCLA)
Title: Size-sensitive Sequence of Tense in Hungarian
Time: Tuesday, October 7th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: In Sequence of Tense (SOT) Analyses (e.g. Ogihara 1995), it has been argued that past-under-past configurations (e.g. John said that Mary was pregnant) have a simultaneous reading if the embedded past head undergoes “deletion” under agreement with the matrix past head: While the deletion does not affect the verb form, the reading becomes John said: ‘Mary is pregnant’. If no such deletion happens, the embedded past tense remains backshifted compared to the matrix past tense, so the reading remains John said: ‘Mary was pregnant’. Previous SOT research has claimed that the availability of this deletion rule is a parameter for entire languages, e.g. English has such a rule but Japanese does not, so the simultaneous reading is never available for Japanese clauses. This paper shows that Hungarian exhibits language-internal SOT-variation in past-under-past configurations: While speech-reporting clauses are Japanese-like, i.e. obligatorily backshifted, non-speech-reporting clauses are English-like, i.e. they have a simultaneous reading. My syntactic analysis proposes a size-difference between the clause types: speech-reporting clauses are structurally larger. Hence, the availability of deletion-under-Agree can be described as a case of Williams Cycle (Williams 2003) or size-dependent opacity in Agree (Keine 2020).

(This talk is a practice talk for NELS.)

Speaker: Yiannis Katochoritis (MIT)
Title: Long-distance agreement on Procrustes’ bed: a revival of spec-head
Time: October 9, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Long-distance agreement (LDA) refers to the phenomenon where a matrix verb may (optionally) agree in φ-features with an embedded argument of its complement clause, otherwise showing default agreement with the entire complement clause. Spanning a clausal boundary and appearing to involve no displacement of the embedded goal, LDA has been one of the core empirical arguments in favor of the operation Agree, which dissociates agreement from movement.

This talk has a double aim: first, to present a previosuly unnoticed observation; that is, (almost) all geographically diverse LDA languages share fundamental typological properties: they are verb-final, with a (full or split) ergative alignment, and with default SOV order; moreover, LDA-transparent embedded clauses are always either restructuring VPs or nominalized/participial TP/CPs; and once a potential LDA goal somehow overtly fronts to the left of the matrix verb, LDA (usually) becomes obligatory.

Second, I attempt to account for this empirical picture through little bits of Kayne’s (1994) Antisymmetry, Bobaljik’s (2008) m-case hierarchy, and the magic power of pied-piping. Specifically, I will suggest a unified analysis of LDA as local feature-checking in a (covert) spec-head configuration, which may allow for iterative feature-copying under recursive merge. Depending on two parameters, the specifier of the agreeing verbal head is filled either directly by the moving DP goal or by the complement clause that pied-pipes the goal at its edge. Hence, LDA is derived via Merge, not Agree. This will eventually yield a typology of (at least) four types of LDA systems, among which I will (struggle to) intergrate the outlier named Algonquian.

The analysis hinges on two crucial premises: one, LDA often features movement properties/constraints; two, the optionality of LDA is only apparent, as it obligatorily interacts with scope and/or information-structure, reducing to the reflex of independently motivated syntactic processes. Thus, I will distinguish between two types of agreement: narrow-syntactic agreement feeds LF or further syntactic operations, and involves downwards valuation by some interpretable feature, (plausibly) under spec-head. This contrasts with uninterpretable agreement, which is pushed post-syntactically, at early PF, and may operate from a distance, via upwards valuation (though still c-command-based).

Speaker: Zhouyi Sun (MIT)
Title: Magri and Anttila (submitted), “Probabilistic phonology is intrinsically categorical”
Time: Monday, September 29th, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location:32-D831

Abstract: We say that an implicational universal (x, y) → (x̂, ŷ) holds for a (probabilistic) phonological grammar G if the probability of realizing the underlying form x̂ as the surface form ŷ is at least as high as realizing x as y (G(y | x) ≤ G(ŷ | x̂)). I’ll try to present the general technique in Appendix F of the manuscript for exploring principles governing implicational universals in MaxEnt phonology, and then discuss two resulting properties developed in §§4–5, both of which are argued to be problematic.

Speaker: Elise Newman, Cora Lesure, Norvin Richards, Cooper Roberts (MIT), Peter Grishin (Brown University)
Title: What’s new with the Passamaquoddy working group
Time: Thursday, October 2, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: In this talk, we (the Passamaquoddy working group) will each present a part of our research on the Passamaquoddy language, based on our most recent findings from our summer field trip. Topics include: argument-introduction, group-formation, agreement, coordination, and our language revitalization efforts.

Speaker: Yvette Yi-Chi Wu (Harvard)
Title: Morphological decomposition in Austronesian voice: evidence for intermediary movement
Time: Tuesday, September 23rd, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: This talk takes a morphological starting point to Austronesian voice, and argues in favor of positing several distinct syntactic projections whose various combinations give rise to surface voice alternations (cf. Pearson 2005, Travis 2010). In particular, this includes 1) the functional projection E(vent), responsible for (non-)finite and (ir)realis marking, and 2) functional projections M(iddle)T(opic) (cf. LaCerda 2020) and Appl (cf. Georgala 2012), responsible for argument advancement as a sort of “leapfrogging” movement (Bobaljik 1995). Evidence comes from affix ordering of verbal morphemes, morphological decomposition in indicative and irrealis voice paradigms, and the distribution of voice markers in clausal complementation in Seediq and other Formosan languages. This is ongoing work as part of a dissertation on Austronesian voice in Seediq [Taiwan; Atayalic], and its implications on movement within the extended Voice domain.

Speaker: Juan Cancel (MIT)
Title: A Reanalysis of Syllabic and Rhythmic Gradation in Nganasan As A Single Consonant Gradation Process
Time: Monday, September 22nd, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: The literature on Avam Nganasan (Helimski 1998; Wagner-Nagy 2018) has argued that the language exhibits two kinds of Consonant Gradation: Syllabic Gradation (SG), in which an onset consonant alternates in voicing depending on whether a syllable is open or closed as in ɟi.kə ”mountain” vs. ɟi.gə-ʔ ”mountains”, and Rhythmic Gradation (RG), in which an onset consonant alternates in voicing depending on whether it aligns with the left-edge of a foot or not as in (nɨ-rə)(gɨ) ”woman-like” vs. (ɲotə)-(rəku)”grass-like”.

In contrast to the description above, this analysis will argue in terms of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 2004) that we should instead reanalyze SG and RG as a single Consonant Gradation process. In particular, it will argue that Consonant Gradation in Nganasan involves a special fortition process that occurs on the onset of a foot-medial open syllable in combination to other cross-linguistically attested lenition processes such as intervocalic and postnasal voicing This reanalysis not only clearly explains why the single consonant alternations in both in SG and RG happen to be the same - they would just be the same instantiation of intervocalic voicing - but it also serves as the ground for reanalyzing in more concrete terms some of the problems involving the homorganic nasal alternations that Vaysman (2009) looked at such as the apparent NT → T → D chain-shift that we see in RG or the cases of counterbleeding that we see in words such as (ɟi.gə)-(tə.nu) ”mountain-LOC.SG”, where we have a voiced onset in an unexpected environment.

Speaker: Elise Newman (MIT)
Title: Some thoughts on clefts and wh-fronting
Time: Tuesday, September 16th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: To kick off the new semester of syntax square, I want to explore a question: why do some languages primarily use clefts for question-formation when wh-fronting should be a possibility? I don’t know the answer, but I’m hoping that by making the question more concrete, we can start to see a path towards an eventual solution. I’ll explore questions in two languages, Tagalog and Passamaquoddy, which both have the following in common: they use different strategies for DP-questions than non-DP questions. Tagalog uses a pseudo-cleft strategy for DP questions but a regular fronting strategy for non-DP questions; Passamaquoddy uses different clause type for each one. I’ll revisit some properties of clefts and relatives clauses in each case and show that while the behavior of and restrictions on non-DP wh-phrases are fairly straightforward to understand, the behavior of DPs is less obvious.

Speaker: Yurika Aonuki (MIT)
Title: On the QUD sensitivity of a third reading
Time: Wednesday, September 17th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: We provide the first experimental evidence for the hypothesis that transparent readings are sensitive to the QUD (Question Under Discussion) (Schwager (Kaufmann) 2009; Percus 2020; Benbaji-Elhadad 2023; Mayr and Schmitt 2023, 2024), using third readings (Fodor 1970) in attitude reports. In particular, we test Mayr and Schmitt’s (2023, 2024) claim that there is difference in transparent-reading-licensing abilities even among QUDs about the attitude holder’s mental state. Our results have consequences for (replacement) theories of transparent readings and shed light on how a QUD about someone’s mental state can be manipulated.

The 12th TripleA workshop for semantic fieldworkers was held at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan on September 10-12, 2025. The following members of our community presented at the conference:

• James Cooper Roberts (3rd year), Yizhen Jiang (3rd year) & Haoming Li (4th year): How to talk about groups in a language without group nouns: The case of Passamaquoddy
• Junri Shimada (PhD 2009)[Meiji Gakuin University] & Abdul-Razak Sulemana (PhD 2021)[University of Ghana]: Embedded tenses in Bùlì
• Tim Jantarungsee, Christopher Davis & Yasutada Sudo (PhD 2012)[UCL]: Selectional restriction in Mlabri ingestion verbs

Speaker: Aljoša Milenković (Harvard) and Kevin Ryan (Harvard)
Title: Stress-weight and stress-tone interaction in South Slavic folk verse
Time: Monday, September 15th, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: We analyze the distribution of stress, tone and syllable weight in the epic decasyllable, a traditional verse form of South Slavic folk poetry. The meter imposes strict distributional constraints on tone and weight in stressed syllables. The stress-modulated nature of tone and weight mapping places the epic decasyllable in the category of hybrid meters of the interactive type (in the sense of Ryan 2017). The contribution is twofold: we demonstrate that hybrid meters can display multiple interactive mappings in parallel (in this case, stress-weight and stress-tone) and offer evidence for stress-tone interaction, previously undocumented in hybrid meters. This is also, to our knowledge, the first demonstration of tone-sensitivity in an Indo-European meter. We provide a MaxEnt model for the epic decasyllable. Building on recent work in MaxEnt metrics (Hayes & Schuh 2019; Henriksson 2022), we discuss different methods for incorporating ordinary language baselines in MaxEnt analyses of metered verse.

Speaker: Eric Baković (UC San Diego)
Title: A computational typology of vowel harmony patterns
Time: , 3:30pm - 5pm
Location: 32-141

Abstract: We propose a typology of vowel harmony patterns using Boolean Monadic Recursive Schemes (BMRS; Bhaskar et al. 2020, Chandlee & Jardine 2021). BMRS describe input-output maps as logical transductions using conditional IF…THEN…ELSE… syntax, and unite computational universals from formal language theory with substantive universals from phonological analysis. We identify how different computational structures (extension) and basic predicate types (intension) systematically derive distinct harmony patterns. Our typology emerges from varying the presence, type, and scope of redundancy conditions within BMRS harmony functions. When potential targets fail to receive or propagate harmonic features, redundancy conditions override harmony in predictable ways by blocking feature reception, halting feature propagation, or preventing both reception and propagation, depending on their type and scope within the function. This proposal builds upon recent work relating phonological generalizations to specific BMRS structures, offering a unified computational account of typological variation in vowel harmony without the representational assumptions of traditional approaches.

Course announcements in this post:

• Topics in Semantics (24.979)
• Topics in Phonology (24.964)

24.979: Topics in Semantics

• Instructor: Amir Anvari & Martin Hackl & Viola Schmit
• Time: Thursday, 2pm-5pm
• Room: 32-D461

The very basic observation that expressions can refer to semantic objects raises two general questions. The first concerns the mapping, i.e., how a particular expression with a given conventional meaning actually gets to pick a particular semantic object (an entity, a function, etc.)? This issue is raised, for example, by pronouns, but also by expressions without overt pro-forms whose values seem to be (partially) dependent on the context. The second question concerns the status of the semantic objects that are being picked out themselves. We often take them to be given (as in standard model theoretic semantics), setting aside e.g. issues concerning how the context might contribute to individuating these objects. The seminar will consist of various explorations and case studies, which we hope will bring these foundational issues into sharper focus. Issues we hope to discuss include:  What are grammatically relevant notions of identity or similarity and distinctness? When do we take two expressions to refer to the same semantic object? When can we use expressions that intuitively relate to identity, like pronouns or operators like same? When do we take two expressions to refer to different objects? And when are those grammatical devices licensed that intuitively seem to relate to distinctness, like different, plurals or numerals?

• Instructor: Adam Albright
• Time: Wednesday, 10am-1pm
• Room: 32-D461

Speaker: Yiannis Katochoritis (MIT)
Title: Long-distance agreement on Procrustes’ bed: a revival of spec-head
Time: , 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Long-distance agreement (LDA) refers to the phenomenon where a matrix verb may (optionally) agree in φ-features with an embedded argument of its complement clause, otherwise showing default agreement with the entire complement clause. Spanning a clausal boundary and appearing to involve no displacement of the embedded goal, LDA has been one of the core empirical arguments in favor of the operation Agree, which dissociates agreement from movement.

This talk has a double aim: first, to present a previosuly unnoticed observation; that is, (almost) all geographically diverse LDA languages share fundamental typological properties: they are verb-final, with a (full or split) ergative alignment, and with default SOV order; moreover, LDA-transparent embedded clauses are always either restructuring VPs or nominalized/participial TP/CPs; and once a potential LDA goal somehow overtly fronts to the left of the matrix verb, LDA (usually) becomes obligatory.

Second, I attempt to account for this empirical picture through little bits of Kayne’s (1994) Antisymmetry, Bobaljik’s (2008) m-case hierarchy, and the magic power of pied-piping. Specifically, I will suggest a unified analysis of LDA as local feature-checking in a (covert) spec-head configuration, which may allow for iterative feature-copying under recursive merge. Depending on two parameters, the specifier of the agreeing verbal head is filled either directly by the moving DP goal or by the complement clause that pied-pipes the goal at its edge. Hence, LDA is derived via Merge, not Agree. This will eventually yield a typology of (at least) four types of LDA systems, among which I will (struggle to) intergrate the outlier named Algonquian.

The analysis hinges on two crucial premises: one, LDA often features movement properties/constraints; two, the optionality of LDA is only apparent, as it obligatorily interacts with scope and/or information-structure, reducing to the reflex of independently motivated syntactic processes. Thus, I will distinguish between two types of agreement: narrow-syntactic agreement feeds LF or further syntactic operations, and involves downwards valuation by some interpretable feature, (plausibly) under spec-head. This contrasts with uninterpretable agreement, which is pushed post-syntactically, at early PF, and may operate from a distance, via upwards valuation (though still c-command-based).

Speaker: Yiannis Katochoritis (MIT) and Magdalena Lohninger (Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg)
Title: Austronesian pivots: topics or subjects? A Malayo-Polynesian typology
Time: Thursday, September 4, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: A long standing debate on the Austronesian voice system is whether pivots–the pragmatically and syntactically most salient clausal argument- are V2-like topics or derived subjects. By investigating micro-variation across the Malayo-Polynesian branch (Tagalog, Balinese, Malagasy, Acehnese, Standard Indonesian), this talk proposes that the syntactic status of pivots varies across languages, though in a unidirectional manner, ranging from pure topicalization to argument-structure alternation. We focus on the A/A’ status of pivots (weak crossover and reconstruction), their subjecthood properties (obligatory control and their impact on licensing of non-pivot agents) and info-structural effects (formal and pragmatic discourse restrictions). Crucially, this variation is not arbitrary but aligns pivots on a continuous cline from topichood to subjecthood, with intermediate stages in-between.

We suggest that this cline results from an ongoing process of topic-to-subject grammaticalization, instantiated as topic-to-subject lowering. We examine four stages of this reanalysis, showing that they stand in an implicational hierarchy, each step incrementally feeding into the next. In stage 1 (Tagalog), the pivot is an obligatory topic, driven by information-structure, but already exhibits some A-movement properties due to the status of Malayo-Polynesian languages as discourse-configurational systems. In stage 2 (Balinese), the pivot acquires a surface-subject status, and its (high) landing site is re-interpreted as a case-assigning position; in Object/Theme Voice, this triggers the voice domain to become a non-canonical passive, which enforces the in-situ (non-demoted) agent to be licensed via strict verbal adjacency. In stage 3 (Malagasy), the voice domain loses its ability to case-license its internal argument with accusative. In the last stage (Acehnese, Standard Indonesian), the topic flavor and discourse restrictions on pivot promotion disappear.

Finally, we address the status of Malayo-Polynesian pivots with respect to the two other typical subject properties, namely, imperatives/hortatives and anaphor binding. Though these diagnostics are sensitive to independent confounds and seem to only target the agent, we show that, once these caveats are dispensed with, they align with obligatory control in targeting the surface subject, whether the agent or not. Relevant case studies on the matter will be the Tagalog non-volitive construction and the several passive-like constructions of Indonesian-type languages.

Whamit! will be on semi-hiatus over the summer, as usual. We will continue to publish breaking MIT Linguistics news as it happens. Weekly posts will resume in the Fall.

Thanks to our editors, contributors, and of course all our readers! See you all in the Fall!

Sad news has reached us of the death on May 10 of John Frampton, an important figure in linguistic research on both syntax and phonology for several decades, and a beloved member of the MIT Linguistics community — though he was neither faculty nor an alum of our department. John was an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Northeastern University (across the river from us). In the 1990s, John became fascinated with recent developments in theoretical linguistics and started attending classes at MIT, most notably Chomsky’s famous Thursday afternoon lectures — where he was a prominent participant, the sharpest mind in the room, it always seemed. Always seated next to his friend, colleague, and linguistics collaborator Sam Gutmann (also a member of the mathematics faculty at Northeastern), whose interests had turned in the very same direction, John could be counted on to spot every error in Noam’s presentation, and (more important) every unsuspected consequence and interesting road not taken as well — roads that he explored in numerous influential papers over many years. In more recent years, John’s interests turned to phonology, where he was a strong advocate for rule-based phonological systems, authoring the monograph Distributed Reduplication (MIT Press) and many other publications. Many linguists who use LaTex to write their papers will also know John as the author of ExPex, a widely used, enormously flexible package for numbering and formatting example sentences and other illustrative material — specifically designed for linguistics.

His daughter Prof. Stephanie Ann Frampton is an MIT colleague, a member of the Classics faculty in the Literature section and co-chair of the Program in Ancient and Medieval studies. She writes that John spent his last months, aware that his health was failing, finishing papers on prosody in Winnebago and Arabic, and adds: “Whether he was in agreement or disagreement with trends of linguistic theory among the faculty, John took enormous inspiration from being a member of the linguistics community at MIT for over three decades.” We in turn took enormous inspiration from John, who followed his intellectual passions wherever they led him with the most rigorous honesty, sparkling creativity, and insistence that the results should make sense. A great loss, we will miss him.

His daughter requests “in lieu of flowers, please send donations to the ACLU in his memory: https://action.aclu.org/give/make-gift-aclu-someones-memory”.

Speaker: Soledad Chango (MIT) & William Pacheco (MIT)
Title: Prosody in Salasaka Kichwa & Developing Inquiry and Research in Eastern Keres Ki:wa-Dialect
Time: Thursday, May 15th, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: This week’s LingLunch will consist of two presentations by MIT Indigenous Language Initiative (MITILI) students:

Title: Prosody in Salasaka Kichwa (Soledad Chango, MIT)
Abstract: This thesis investigates the prosodic features of Salasaka Kichwa, focusing on the interaction between pitch, stress, and syntactic structure in both natural and elicited speech. Adopting a descriptive and analytical approach, it examines how pitch peaks align with informational focus and morphosyntactic elements such as topic and question particles—particularly -mi and -chu. Data was collected from ten native speakers (ages 13–65), including the author, in the Salasaka community, through a combination of read-aloud tasks and spontaneous speech, yielding approximately 150 utterances. Prosodic analysis was carried out in Praat and annotated using ToBI-style conventions. The results show that in non-interrogative utterances, nuclear pitch accents consistently fall on the final element of the verb phrase—typically the object in SOV or the verb in SV constructions—reflecting the language’s head-final syntax. This default pattern shifts when focus particles like -mi are present, which attract the pitch peak regardless of their position. In interrogative utterances, suffixes such as -chu override default prosodic alignment and compete with other morphemes like -wan, often determining the placement of nuclear stress. This study contributes to the documentation of an underrepresented variety of Northern Quechua and offers empirical insight into the syntax-prosody interface in head-final languages. It also situates Kichwa within broader conversations on language endangerment, standardization, and revitalization.

Title: Emerging Questions: Developing Inquiry and Research in Eastern Keres Ki:wa-Dialect (William Pacheco, MIT)
Abstract: As a first-year student in the MITILI program and a Kewa Pueblo educator — I approach theoretical linguistic research as both a learner and a community member. In this casual talk, I will share the questions and observations that are shaping my developing research on Eastern Keres (Ki:wa dialect), grounded in a commitment to community use and knowledge continuity. Drawing on my background in education and language revitalization, I’ll reflect on areas of linguistic interest that have emerged through teaching and listening: the complexity of the Keres verb conjugation system (which has been described as having between 12 and 30 classes), consonant clusters and sibilants, and semantic uses of reflexive prefixes. Rather than presenting findings, this talk will be a preview of the fieldwork I will be conducting this summer, with the goal of supporting both deeper linguistic analysis and practical outcomes in curriculum and teacher development for my community.

Speaker: Si Berrebi (MIT)
Title: Absolute neutralization in Modern Hebrew? An experimental study
Time: Monday, May 12th, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: In a controversial analysis, Chomsky and Halle (1968) proposed that the underlying representation of the English word “nightingale” contains /x/, a velar fricative that never surfaces in the language. This state of affairs, where an underlying segment is never pronounced, is referred to as “Absolute Neutralization”, and the possibility of such neutralization has been under debate at least since Kiparsky’s 1968 “How abstract is phonology?”. In this presentation, I will discuss a phonological case study from Modern Hebrew for which the simplest analysis assumes an abstract pharyngeal consonant that never surfaces. I will present two experiments that aim to probe Hebrew speakers’ phonological knowledge in order to distinguish between an absolute-neutralization analysis and competing accounts.

Speaker: Jad Wehbe (MIT)
Title: Redundancy and presuppositional exhaustification
Time: Thursday, May 8th, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Recent work has argued that different truth-value gaps, such as homogeneity and implicatures, are in fact presuppositions, based on similarities in their pragmatic status and their projection properties (Fox, 2018; Bassi et al., 2021 a.o.). Nevertheless, these inferences seem to differ from presuppositions in some ways: (i) as evidenced by the Hey, wait a minute! test, homogeneity and implicatures don’t interact with the common ground in the same way as presuppositions (Spector, 2013; Bassi et al., 2021) and (ii) homogeneity and implicatures project differently from presuppositions in some environments, like the scope of certain quantifiers (Spector, 2013; Križ, 2015; Chatain and Schlenker, 2023). In this talk, I argue that under the view that homogeneity and implicatures are due to a syntactically represented presuppositional exhaustification operator pex, (i) follows from an independently needed redundancy constraint which requires that presuppositions due to pex are obligatorily accommodated with the A operator. I then show that on a modular view of presupposition projection, this result can be exploited to account for at least some of the differences in projection.

Speaker: Hani Na’eem (MIT)
Title: The Nature of Emphasis Harmony in Jordanian Arabic
Time: Monday, May 5th, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: Most varieties of Arabic retain a set of uvularized or pharyngealized coronals (e.g. /tˤ, sˤ, ðˤ/) – called emphatics – which contrast with their non-uvularized – or plain – counterparts (e.g. /t, s, ð/). These emphatics trigger a type of back harmony, most salient on the low front /æ/ vowel, turning it into back [ɑ]. In Jordanian Arabic (JA), the extent and magnitude to which this harmony process affects its trigger’s context have seen notable disagreement, contributing to a scarcity of formal analyses that highlight the underlying mechanism behind the process. In this talk, I report on in-progress work attempting to establish/confirm/reaffirm empirical facts about the harmony pattern in JA and couching it within a theory of harmony systems attested cross-linguistically. Making provisional assumptions about the pattern – particularly regarding the transparency of certain segments – I specifically outline possible analyses within three models: (i) Generalized Alignment constraints (McCarthy, 1997), (ii) Optimal Domains (Cole and Kisseberth, 1994), and (iii) Agreement by correspondence (Rose and Walker, 2004). The aim is to discuss the validity of such analyses for the JA data and their implications for how we conceive of the harmony process, its phonetic basis and the grammatical principles governing how it applies.

Speaker: Nadine Bade (University of Konstanz)
Title: Shared Mechanisms Behind Local and Global Implicatures: Evidence from Priming
Time: Friday, May 2nd, 3:30pm - 5pm
Location: 32-141

Abstract: The mechanisms underlying implicature derivation remain a topic of active debate. Competing theoretical accounts make distinct predictions about the role of different types of alternatives in implicature computation. Recent experimental work has begun to address this issue using priming paradigms (Chemla & Bott 2016; Rees & Bott 2018; Waldon & Degen 2021; Marty et al. 2024). In this talk, I present an extension of the existing priming paradigm that includes both matrix and embedded (downward-entailing) contexts, as well as conditions that manipulate the visual salience of alternatives. The findings suggest that both embedding and visual highlighting influence the rate at which implicatures are derived. I will discuss the implications of these results for theories of implicature and alternative-based reasoning.

Speaker: Noa Bassel (UMass Amherst/MIT)
Title: Toward a simpler binding theory
Time: Tuesday, April 29th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Classical Binding Theory has been successful at capturing basic facts about the distribution of DPs. It has also raised some long standing concerns at the empirical and conceptual level. These include high-profile violations of Principles A, B, and C that are nonetheless grammatical, and questions on these principles’ explanatory adequacy. This talk explores whether broader empirical coverage may be achieved by reducing the number of principles.

Specifically, I will show that many known counterexamples to the Binding Theory dissolve when we collapse its principles to a single rule based on default disjointedness. Building on ideas by Heim (1989) and Sauerland (2013), I will propose that covaluation between local DPs requires an identity statement at the level of presupposition (in anaphors) or assertion (in full DPs).

Speaker: Cooper Roberts (MIT)
Title: Agreement determines the interpretation of fraction partitives in some languages, but why?
Time: Wednesday, April 30th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: This LFRG presents in-progress work on the syntax-semantics of fraction partitives (e.g., one-third of the cakes). In several Indo-European languages (but not American English), FPs are ambiguous between two readings if the complement is plural. On one reading, the FP is understood to denote a subplurality of the plural individual denoted by the complement. On the other, it can refer to any subpart of the plural individual measuring a fraction of that individual along some non-cardinal dimension. I call these readings count and measure, respectively. Apart from the cross-linguistic variation previously mentioned, this ambiguity is particularly interesting as Agreement determines which reading is licensed. If a DP-external element (e.g., a verb) Agrees with the phi-features of the complement, only the count interpretation is available. If that element Agrees with the fraction, only the measure interpretation is available.

While I ultimately will not offer a satisfying treatment for FPs, this talk outlines the relevant data and theory which may yield useful in understanding the alternation. Ideally, this session will mostly be discussion and deliberation. I welcome any thoughts!

Speaker: Cynthia Zhong (MIT)
Title: Coronal consonant typology in Japanese
Time: Monday, April 28th, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: In Japanese, the voiced coronal consonants /z/ and /d/ used to contrast before high vowels /i/ and /u/, forming a 4-way distinction among /zi, di, zu, du/. A merger that began around the 16th century neutralized these contrasts to different extents in different regions in Japan, and today we could observe 4, 3, 2, and 1-way contrasts across various Japanese dialects. Furthermore, in the same high vowel contexts, there are asymmetries in the number of contrasts available for voiced coronals versus voiceless coronals. One notable example of asymmetry is found in Standard Tokyo Japanese, which maintains a 4-way contrast among voiceless coronals /si, ti, su, tu/ but neutralizes the continuancy contrast between /d/ and /z/, resulting in a 2-way contrast [(d)ʑi, (d)zɯ] in voiced coronals. In this talk, I will present generalizations about the typology of Japanese coronal consonants that I gathered from the Japanese linguistics literature, then I will discuss a sketch of an analysis for the realization of coronals in Standard Japanese using the P-map (Steriade, 2008). The hope is that some of the constraints proposed and the general structure of analysis would be extendable to other dialects of Japanese.

Speaker: Adam Przepiórkowski (Warsaw / MIT)
Title: Concord as Insatiable Agree
Time: Thursday, April 24th, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: The aim of this talk is to present an analysis of concord – nominal agreement in case and phi features – as insatiable Agree (e.g., Deal 2023, 2024; Clem and Deal 2024). On this approach, typical modifiers do not agree with nominal heads directly but are flagged with the relevant features by a higher functional head (e.g., D or K). This provides an immediate account of some otherwise puzzling facts about the number of exponed cases in overt case-stacking languages (e.g., as discussed in Richards 2013 and Pesetsky 2013 with respect to Lardil) and allows for a straightforward analysis of heterogeneous case patterns in Slavic and Finnic. I will argue that this approach to concord is theoretically superior to the current alternatives (Norris 2014, 2018; Bayırlı 2017), which require ad-hoc feature percolation principles. Moreover, given an appropriate rule of exponence of stacked feature bundles, it is immune to Norris’s 2018 Estonian challenge for case-stacking approaches to nominal concord. Empirically, this approach predicts some of the typological generalizations discussed in Bayırlı 2017 (when a language has both phi features and case, it may exhibit concord in phi features alone, but not in case alone) and naturally accounts for cross-linguistic observations in Norris 2018.

A draft manuscript on which this talk is based is available at https://tinyurl.com/4k97try2; at one point the slides will appear there as well. (There’ll be no paper handouts.)

Speaker: Zachary Feldcamp and Ido Elhadad-Benbaji (MIT)
Title: Structure matters: missing implicatures and their consequence for the theory of alternatives
Time: Wednesday, April 23rd, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: A central component to theories of conversational implicature is the delimitation of the set of alternative sentences that could have been uttered, but were not. Yet there is considerable disagreement about the mechanism underlying the computation of alternative utterances and the kind of objects that alternatives are claimed to be. Examining the domain of English aspect marking, we provide a novel case of implicatures disappearing when syntax independently rules out the alternatives required to generate them, and argue that this data supports a theory in which alternatives are syntactic objects, computed by an algorithm that appeals to the notion of structural complexity (Katzir 2007; Fox & Katzir 2011) but challenges theories in which alternatives are semantic objects, as in the focus theory (Rooth 1992), and the conceptual alternatives theory (Buccola et al. 2022).

Speaker: Philip Shushurin (Higher School of Economics, Moscow)
Title: How to do voice restructuring in a language without voice: Transitivity Concord in Chechen.
Time: Tuesday, April 22nd, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: The paper presents an analysis of a construction known as Transitivity Concord in Chechen. I argue that this construction presents a novel and previously undescribed type of Voice Restructuring. In the Transitivity Concord Construction, certain matrix transitive verbs impose a requirement to embed a strictly transitive structure.

(1) Asa kniga j-esa d’a-j-ol-ira
I.erg book f-read prf-f-begin-rpst
‘I began reading the book.’

(2) *So/*Asa ida d’a-d-oli-ra
I.abs/I.erg run prf-n-begin-rpst
‘I began running.’

I argue that this condition is in fact a requirement on the matrix verb to contain an agreeable (Absolutive) Direct Object in the embedded clause with which it establishes a long-distance Agree relation. The embedded verb in such a construction is shown to be syntactically deficient, despite bearing agreement morphology. The construction is analyzed in terms of Pietraszko (2021), Bryant, Kovac and Wurmbrand’s (2023) system whereby the embedded structure is featurally dependent on the matrix structure in terms of the ID feature. I depart from this system in assuming that (a) the embedded verb’s deficiency needs not be conditional on its case assigning potential (Absolutive assignment is very low in Chechen) (b) the voice dependency might be encoded as just ϕ. Furthermore, I assume that v and Voice are featurally dependent in Chechen which results in automatic feature transmission between the two heads.
I discuss the TCC’s implications for both the theory of restructuring and infinitives.”

Speaker: Yasutada Sudo (UCL)
Title: Specific indefinites and dynamic presuppositions
Time: Friday, April 18th, 3:30pm - 5pm
Location: 32-141

Abstract: This is an attempt to explain the exceptional scope behavior of specific indefinites in terms of ‘dynamic presuppositions’—presuppositions with anaphoric content in addition to propositional content. It is also claimed that puzzling interpretive properties of ‘certain’ indefinites are straightforwardly explained as dynamic presuppositions with functional anaphora.

Speaker: Adam Przepiórkowski (Warsaw / MIT)
Title: Cases are partially ordered: Evidence from Estonian
Time: Thursday, April 17th, 5pm - 6pm
Location: 32-D769

Abstract: Caha 2009 et seq. argues that cases are universally totally ordered: NOM < ACC < GEN < PAR < obliques, with obliques also totally ordered. Arguments for this include case syncretisms and morphological containments in various languages, including Estonian. The aim of this talk is to present arguments from Estonian for a partial ordering, where in particular GEN(initive) and PAR(titive) are unordered: NOM < ACC < {GEN, PAR} < obliques. Some of the arguments are morphological (syncretism, containment), but I also adduce a syntactic argument, from covert case stacking in so-called pseudopartitives (‘piece of bread’, etc.). This provides support for the views that case hierarchies are only partially ordered (e.g., Bárány 2021, Graf 2019, Zompì 2019), as well as for the view in Zompì 2023 that *ABA is not violated as long as there exists at least one path between the two A items that does not violate *ABA.

Speaker:Oddur Snorrason (QMUL) and Zhouyi Sun (MIT)
Title: How are Icelandic degree questions moving many phrases
Time: Tuesday, April 15th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Icelandic, despite being a language which does not permit Left Branch Extraction in general, allows an exceptional way of forming degree questions in addition to the standard pied-piping structure, as shown in (1):

(1) a. Hvað  ertu        __ gamall?
           what  are.you         old
           ‘How old are you?’

      b. Hvað skrifaðir þú    __ langa bók?
          what  wrote      you         long book
          ‘How long a book did you write?’

More interestingly, evidence from parasitic gaps and reflexive licensing suggests that the apparently in-situ containing phrase is undergoing movement as well.

In this talk, we sketch a derivation in which both the degree operator and its containing phrase move simultaneously, drawing a comparison with Fox and Nissenbaum’s (2018) proposal for English pied-piping. We suggest that the difference between the English and Icelandic patterns can be reduced to distinct PF conditions. Finally, we show why alternative approaches, such as direct subextraction, remnant movement (with the left branch as a remnant), and covert pied-piping with distributed deletion, fail to account for the Icelandic data.

Speaker: Michael Kenstowicz (MIT) & Sixing Cui (Central China Normal University, Wuhan)
Title: The replacement of Beijing Mandarin neutral tones in AABB reduplications: part 2
Time: Monday, April 14th, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: Earlier research (Cui 2012, 2021) suggests that when Mandarin disyllabic adjectives of the form AB such as [dàfang] 大方 ’generous’ are reduplicated to AABB [dàdà-fāngfāng] 大大方方, the B syllable is placed in a stressed position. Mandarin neutral tones (T0) are banned from stressed syllables (as well as the initial syllable of a word or phrase).  What tone is assigned to a T0 syllable when a disyllabic AB base with a final neutral tone is reduplicated to AABB? We present the results of a study that poses this question for six Beijing Mandarin native speakers. Our results indicate that the tone that is associated with the T0 character/morpheme helps the speaker choose among the four possible substitutes for the T0: specifically when the original tone of the B morpheme is T3 or T4 the speaker is significantly more like to substitute T3 or T4 while original T2 is more likely to change to T1.  We see this as a conflict between faithfulness to the original (remote) base and a markedness preference for a H tone in a stressed syllable. We then investigate whether there are traces of the original tone in the acoustic properties of the neutral tone of the AB base form. Finally, we consider possible phonetic correlates of the underlying metrical structure of the AB and AABB words.

Speaker: Zhouyi Sun and Peter Grishin (MIT)
Title: Ordering postsyntactic operations within domains
Time: Thursday, April 10th, 5pm - 6pm
Location: 32-D769

Abstract: In Distributed Morphology (Halle and Marantz 1993, et seq.), a number of postsyntactic morphological operations are proposed, such as Impoverishment, Fission, and Vocabulary Insertion (henceforth VI), among others, raising the question of how these operations are ordered (Arregi and Nevins 2012, Kalin 2022, Hewett 2023, a.o.). One underexplored aspect of this question (though see Kalin 2022) involves the distinction between what we can call “hypercyclic” vs. “non-hypercyclic” ordering: Given a set of postsyntactic operations a, b, and c ordered a ≺ b ≺ c (where ≺ is read ‘precedes’), under the hypercyclic derivation you apply operations a, b, and c in that order at each node, from bottom up, while under the non-hypercyclic derivation you first apply operation a from bottom up (within the domain), and then b, and then c. For a continuous sequence of syntactic terminal X, Y, and Z, in the order from bottom up, the hypercyclic derivation dictates the order Xa ≺ Xb ≺ Xc ≺ Ya ≺ Yb ≺ Yc ≺ Za ≺ Zb ≺ Zc, whereas the non-hypercyclic derivation Xa ≺ Ya ≺ Za ≺ Xb ≺ Yb ≺ Zb ≺ Xc ≺ Yc ≺ Zc. Here, we argue (i) for the order of operations given in (1), and (ii) this order is non-hypercyclic, examining data from verb agreement in Algonquian languages which evidence crucial interactions between Impoverishment, Fission, Displacement, and VI (e.g. contextual allomorphy).

(1) Impoverishment ≺ Fission ≺ Displacement ≺ Vocabulary Insertion (VI)

Speaker: J. Cooper Roberts (MIT)
Title: Honorification as omnivorous Agree in Kikai Amami
Time: Tuesday, April 8th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Japanese (Japonic > Yamato) is well-known for its complex systems of honorification, both of clausal arguments (sonkeigo) and discourse participants (teineigo). However, the honorific systems of the related Ryukyuan languages have received comparatively little attention. This Syntax Square will consider the interaction of addressee and subject honorification in Kikai Amami (Japonic > Ryukyuan > Northern > Amami), an endangered language spoken in Kagoshima-ken, Japan. Briefly, both kinds of honorification can be realized by a single suffix -ee, whereas Japanese has separate morphological processes for addressee and argument. A blocking effect is also observed in certain dialects of Kikai Amami if the subject is of a certain animacy status. I will also present (a draft of) an analysis of this honorification system in Generative terms. This analysis has three key ingredients: representation of speech-act participants in the syntax (Ross, 1970; a.o.) Honorification as Agree (following Miyagawa, 2017, 2022; a.m.o) and (plausibly binary) HON features (contra Wang, 2023).

Speaker: Nina Haslinger (MIT)
Title: Strengthening under quantifiers: Gap projection rules vs. supervaluationism
Time: Wednesday, April 9th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: In line with the goal of moving to a more informal, interactive format for the LFRG, this will not be a talk presenting results, but an attempt to start a discussion and figure out the theoretical options in an ongoing debate together.

I want to look at a recent line of work on strengthened meanings under quantifiers, which makes use of the idea that exhaustification results in trivalent meanings that follow a Strong Kleene projection pattern, and explore an alternative account of some of the basic data motivating this approach, based on a supervaluation principle.

The core data points I am interested in involve embedded strengthening of some to a ‘not all’ interpretation in sentences like (i)/(ii) (e.g. Chemla & Spector 2011). At first sight, an LF along the lines of (iii) with a standard bivalent exhaustifier is problematic for at least two reasons. First, without further stipulations it leads us to expect strengthening under negative quantifiers (‘no student’) as well, but such readings are marginal. Second, with a non-monotonic embedding environment such as (ii), it seems possible to get embedded strengthening in the UE (‘at least two’) component without also strengthening the DE (‘at most two’) component (Bassi et al. 2021, Gotzner & Benz 2022).

(i) Every student did some of the reading. possible reading: ‘Every student did some, but not all of the reading.’ (ii) Exactly two students did some of the reading. possible reading: ‘There are two students who did some, but not all of the reading, and it is not the case that there are three students who did some of the reading.’

(iii) {every student / exactly two students} [1 [exh [[some of the reading] [2 [t_1 did t_2]]] ]]

One currently popular account of this pattern (Bassi et al. 2021) makes use of the idea that exh triggers presuppositions that project following a Strong Kleene pattern (cf. George 2008, Fox 2013). An analogous puzzle arises for homogeneity effects triggered by definite plurals, as in (iv)-(vi), whose projection pattern has been studied experimentally in Križ & Chemla (2015) and Romoli et al. (2024). Motivated by these similarities, the presuppositional exhaustification account has been extended to definite plurals (Guerrini & Wehbe to appear, Paillé 2023).

(iv) Every boy opened the presents. (v) Exactly two boys opened the presents. (vi) No boy opened the presents.

For the plural case, Križ & Spector 2021 have developed an alternative account that relies on a supervaluation principle applying to a set of ‘candidate meanings’ that involve stronger and weaker interpretations of the plural. One reason why this account is conceptually attractive is that, since the truth-value gap comes about ‘after’ composition, there is no need to specify gap projection rules. There are also subtle empirical differences from the Strong Kleene pattern (Križ & Chemla 2015) that seem to favor this approach.

However, since their approach does not make use of exh, it does not lead us to expect an analogy with scalar strengthening as in (i)/(ii). I will discuss a way of extending this approach to exhaustification, so that the core projection facts motivating the presuppositional exhaustification approach are derived without using trivalent meanings in the composition. This provides the background for us to discuss the empirical pros and cons of both approaches, and potential ways of combining their core insights.

Speaker: Christopher Legerme (MIT)
Title: Non-Optimization and Locality in Phonology
Time: Monday, March 31st, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: Drawing on recent proposals from Storme & Otilien (2022) and Lahrouchi & Ulfsbjorninn (2024), I discuss various linguistic patterns of Haitian Creole (HC) to illustrate how different grammatical architectures account for “null alternations” and apparent “non-optimizing” behavior in the language. For instance, in HC the alternation between the two forms of the definite determiner, la and a, has traditionally been analyzed as a case of phonologically conditioned suppletive allomorphy: la surfaces after consonant-final stems, while a appears after vowel-final stems. However, it is often pointed out that this distribution fails to align with phonotactic optimization, as it results in marked VV and CC sequences that contrast with the language’s strong preference for CV syllables. The la ~ a alternation resists resolution when treated in isolation; instead, it forces us into a broader look at the nature of grammatical representation and the theoretical constructs invoked to explain the interaction of phonetic silence and phonological locality. Therefore, we will turn to the broader landscape of null alternations, patterns in HC where phonological material is variably silenced depending on structural context. Along the way, we consider two competing approaches: a parallel OT architecture that invokes morphological optimization (Storme & Otilien 2022), and a representational framework rooted in skeletal licensing and floating segments (Lahrouchi & Ulfsbjorninn 2024). The la ~ a alternation, when situated among the broader set of null alternations in the language, offers a critical vantage point for evaluating competing theoretical commitments. While the theories to be discussed each capture important properties of the puzzles for which they were developed to explain, I argue that a phonological rather than morphological or “morphonological” account offers a better unified explanation for locality disruption and the structural conditions on segment realization in HC.

Speaker: Amy Rose Deal (UC Berkeley)
Title: Pseudo-de re, generalized
Time: Thursday, March 6th, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Let’s call an element of an attitude report “exportable” if it can be replaced with a co-extensional element salva veritate. In linguistic semantics, the long-standing analysis of exportable terms in attitude reports runs on acquaintance: the attitude holder is acquainted with the referent of the exportable term (under a guise/description). Serious problems for the acquaintance requirement have been known about since the 1970s. Some recent attempts to grapple with them have called for a wholesale replacement of the acquaintance-based semantics; others have called for an acquaintance-based semantics for some cases but not others. I present an argument for a theory of the second type, wherein there is indeed a non-acquaintance-based semantics available for exportable terms (“pseudo-de re”), which is indeed highly generalized, but which can in certain linguistic phenomena be productively contrasted with true acquaintance-based semantics.

Speaker: Ben Flickstein and Ezer Rasin (Tel Aviv)
Title: Towards a phonological feature system for birdsong
Time: Monday, February 10th, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: A foundational assumption in theoretical phonology is that phonological representations are built from distinctive features, typically stated in articulatory terms. Those features define natural classes that phonological processes typically apply to or are conditioned by. Even though birdsong shares important properties with human phonology, the dominant approach in birdsong research has not yet explored the possibility that the sound patterns of birdsong could be tied to cognitive, articulatory-oriented features. This presentation of an ongoing research project reports on a preliminary attempt to create such a feature system for the song of canaries.

Course announcements in this post:

• More Advanced Syntax (24.955)
• Topics in Syntax (24.956)
• Topics in Semantics (MIT 24.979/Harvard LING 207R)
• Topics in Computational Phonology (24.981)

24.955: More Advanced Syntax

• Instructor: Elise Newman & Sabine Iatridou
• Wednesdays, 10am-1pm
• Room: 32-D461

This class is a requirement for the syntax specialization and strongly recommended for those interested in the syntax-semantics interface.

It explores many topics, all of which have the property that they have not been taught in the 24.951/24.952 classes of the previous two years. Each topic will be covered in at most two class sessions. Registered students will be required to write three snippets. The first snippet has to be on a topic taught in the first 4 weeks, the second on a topic of the second 4 weeks, and the third on a topic taught in the last 4 weeks.

The topics we plan to cover include (subject to change):

• The Plural Pronoun Construction
• Polydefiniteness
• Allocutive agreement
• Asymmetric coordination
• Puzzles about the perfect
• Temporal adverbials
• Syntax of comparatives
• Expletives
• Ergativity
• V-initial languages
• Ne-que construction
• Imperatives
• Selection/subcategorization
• NP ellipsis and ne-cliticization
• Long distance agreement

This class is offered biannually, so if you are considering taking it, please note that the next time it will be offered will be in the ’26-’27 academic year.

24.956: Topics in Syntax

• Instructors: Peter Grishin & David Pesetsky
• Mondays, 2-5pm
• Room: 32-D461

MIT 24.979/Harvard LING 207R: Topics in Semantics 

• Instructors: Athulya Aravind & Kathryn Davidson
• Thursdays 9:45-11:45AM
• Room: Harvard Boylston 303; MIT 32D-461

Experimental methodologies have increasingly been employed within the field of linguistics to collect data in service of theory building, especially understanding points of variation across languages, understanding the process of language acquisition, and understanding how linguistic representations interact with other aspects of cognition. In this course we’ll survey the field of experimental semantics and its interfaces with syntax and with pragmatics with an eye toward giving students coming in with foundational graduate-level background in theoretical linguistics a framework for reading current experimental literature in syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and for developing their own experimental designs. We plan to explore experimental and developmental case studies from well-established areas of formal semantics, including presupposition and anaphora, connectives, quantification and modality, with the possibility of incorporating additional topics based on student interests.

24.981: Topics in Computational Linguistics

• Instructor: Adam Albright
• Tuesdays, 2-5pm
• Room: 32-D461

Computational modeling can usefully inform many aspects of phonological theory. Implementing a theory provides a more rigorous test of its applicability to different data sets, and requires a greater degree of formal precision than is found in purely expository presentations. By training models on realistic training samples, we can test whether a posited analysis can actually be learned from representative data, and we can observe what proportion of the data is actually accounted for by that analysis. Modeling also provides a direct means of testing whether a proposed formal device facilitates the discovery of generalizations, or whether it hampers learning by greatly increasing the size of the search space. Finally, modeling has played an increasingly important role in modeling gradient experimental data, since it provides a way of comparing human behavior with statistical properties of linguistic input, filtered through a possibly non-trivial learning procedure.

This class is intended to provide an introduction to the theory and practice of computational models of phonology.  We will discuss recent theoretical work informed by computational implementations, and tools for modeling phonological knowledge of various kinds.  Special attention will be paid to the relation between formal learning models and empirical data concerning early phonological acquisition.

January at MIT is a quiet month, without regular classes and regularly scheduled events — so you might not hear from us again until the new semester begins in February 2025.  Of course, we will report any interesting events as they happen, even before the start of the new semester.  Meanwhile, we wish you a Happy New Year, and hope to welcome you back to Whamit next semester.

Speaker: Stanislao Zompì (Universität Potsdam) and Zhouyi Sun (MIT)
Title: Augmenting Vocabulary Insertion: From Monotonic to Output-driven
Time: Thursday, December 5, 5-6pm
Location: 32-D769

Abstract: It has been argued that *ABA in root suppletion patterns can be reduced to the principle of monotonicity: given a partial order among feature bundles, if two feature bundles x and z are mapped to the same value, then any y between x and z in terms of the given order must also be mapped to the same value (Graf 2019; Moradi 2021). We show that Underspecification/Overspecification combined with Pāṇinian ordering as rules for Vocabulary Insertion are both inherently monotonic. In other words, previous works deriving *ABA using these approaches all implicitly share the monotonicity thesis.

However, given the independently motivated featural successive containment relations in the domains of Case (Nom ⊂ Acc ⊂ Dat) and Gender (Neu ⊂ Msc ⊂ Fem) in Germanic languages, we find monotonicity falls short in capturing attested paradigms, and therefore both Underspecification and Overspecification undergenerate. Monotonicity in the form as explicitly posited by Graf (2019) or implicitly assumed by many others may thus not be a desirable property for language. Our survey further suggests that the empirical picture instead aligns with an concept that’s properly weaker that monotonicity—Output-driven (Tesar 2014; Magri 2018a,b), which requires monotonicity not between any two feature bundles with the same output, but only between any feature bundle and the output it maps to.

We propose an optimization-based approach to Vocabulary Insertion which allows for and penalizes feature addition and deletion, with penalties tied to specific features. Realization of a feature bundle is determined by minimizing the penalty incurred to reach a feature bundle associated with a dedicated Vocabulary Item. We argue it generates—and only generates—output-driven mappings, fitting the empirical picture.

Speaker: Oddur Snorrason (QMUL)
Title: Pseudo-ABA patterns in pronominal morphology (Middleton 2021)
Time: Thursday, November 21, 5pm - 6pm
Location: 32-D769

Abstract: I‘ll be presenting Middleton‘s (2021) paper on the pseudo-ABA patterns of morphology found in pronominal forms. Apparent ABA patterns in languages like Babanki, Malayalam, Yoruba and Tok Pisin challenge proposed containment relationships for prominal morphology (see Harbour 2016, Middleton 2020). In this paper, Middleton shows how the problematic data can be dealt with in an analysis which adopts spanned exponents (Svenonius 2012), while null allomorphy and impoverishment analyses overgenerate.

Dear friends of MIT Linguistics,

Sadly, we have been on hiatus for some weeks.  We are excited to share the news that will now be publishing a number of backdated issues to catch up with all we’ve been doing at MIT Linguistics in the meantime — and that we are now back! That said, January is always a quiet month at MIT (no regular classes, reading groups, or talks), so you might not hear from us for a while once again.  But once the new semester starts in February 2025, you will be hearing from us regularly, as before.

-the Editors

Speaker: Christopher Legerme (MIT)
Title: Sulemana (2024) on Passives without Morphology
Time: Thursday, October 10th, 5pm - 6pm
Location: 32-D769

Abstract: For this week’s Morphun, I’m looking forward to presenting a cool recent paper by an alum of our department, Dr. Abdul-Razak Sulemana, who investigated passive constructions without morphology in Buli (Gur, Ghana).  Despite lacking passive morphology, Sulemana argues that Buli exhibits true passive constructions with implicit arguments. We will explore the key evidence used in support of this analysis, including:

1. Semantic interpretation of implicit agents
2. A-movement of internal arguments
3. Compatibility with by-phrases

Speaker: Chelsea Tang (MIT)
Title: Overapplication in Reduplication in Gikuyu: Evidence for Back-Copying?
Time: Monday, October 7th, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: Back-copying is an overapplication phenomenon where the reduplicant creates an environment for a phonological process to apply, after which the base “back-copies” from the reduplicant. Many scholars (McCarthy, Kimper, and Mullin 2012; Kiparsky 2010; Inkelas and Zoll 2005, among others) have argued that this phenomenon does not exist, thus presenting an overgeneration problem for Parallel Optimality Theory (OT) as proposed by McCarthy and Prince (1995). This presentation offers evidence from Gĩkũyũ that back-copying (possibly) exists. If confirmed by native speakers, this data will pose a serious challenge to both serialist and cyclic theories of reduplication. The attested back-copying patterns will also provide strong empirical support for Parallel OT.

Speaker: Alma Frischoff and Ezer Rasin (MIT and Tel Aviv University)
Title: On the absence of crucially-simultaneous phonological interactions in natural language
Time: Thursday, October 10th, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Theories of phonology should be able to generate attested types of interactions between phonological processes – including opaque interactions – and at the same time explain why certain conceivable types of interactions are unattested. We draw attention to three universals regarding unattested opaque interactions, which have been identified and defended in previous literature. These universals are expected in a rule-based theory of phonology where rules must apply serially and can never apply simultaneously. We propose to unify the three universals under a general universal called No Simultaneity, which states that there are no crucially-simultaneous phonological interactions in natural language. We then argue that this universal has important implications for theories of phonology, by showing that certain phonological theories that aim to generate opaque interactions in parallel are too permissive and over-generate unattested interactions, contrary to recent proposals that opacity is not as tied to serialism as previously thought.

The Understanding Obviation workshop was held at McGill University from October 4-6 (co-organized by MIT alum Jessica Coon - PhD ‘10). MIT Linguistics was well represented in the workshop with the following talks:

• Peter Grishin (PhD ‘23 and current post-doc) and Elise Newman (faculty) presented a talk based on joint work with Giovanni Roversi (current graduate student) entitled: Obviation in Passamaquoddy-Wolastoqey: Dependent case?
• Jessica Coon (PhD ‘10) - with Stefan Keine, and Juan Vázquez Álvarez presented a talk entitled: Animacy and obviation in Ch’ol

The workshop was a great success and was full of interesting crosslinguistic questions and parallels (and perhaps not-so-parallels). Congratulations to all presenters for their work!

MIT Linguistics was well represented at the 29th iteration of the Sinn und Bedeutung conference, held between 17-19 September in Noto, Italy. Current students, faculty, and alumni presented talks and posters (posters mentioned for current students only, more at conference website):

• Danfeng Wu (PhD ‘22): Why “not numeral NP” requires “but” but not “not many NP”
• Sam Alxatib (PhD ‘13) - with Andreea Nicolae: FC with discourse referents: the curious case of ‘any’
• Jad Wehbe, Omri Doron (current graduate students): Diagnosing the presuppositional properties of global and embedded implicatures
• Jad Wehbe (current graduate student): On the scope of together
• Despina Oikonomou (PhD ‘16) - with Vina Tsakali, Alexandra Samarentsi, Benedict Vassileiou: Temporal interpretation in Directive Speech Acts: A competition between imperative and 2nd-person subjunctive in Greek
• Wataru Uegaki (PhD ‘15) - with Anne Mucha, Mary Amaechi, Tim Jantarungsee: Disjunction with additives
• Omri Doron (current graduate student) - with Omri Amiraz: Definite plurals in comparatives
• Patrick G. Grosz (PhD ‘11) - with Mailin Antomo, Lea Fricke, Tatjana Scheffler: Lying and commitment with (not-)at-issue emojis
• Orin Percus (PhD ‘97) - with Mora Maldonado: Another look at contrafactive predicates: The case of Spanish ‘creerse’
• Keny Chatain (PhD ‘21) - with Benjamin Spector: Readings of pronouns across connectives are sensitive to monotony
• Paul Marty (PhD ‘17) - with Omri Amiraz, Patrick Elliott, Guillermo Del Pinal, Jacopo Romoli: Homogeneity in non-monotonic contexts
• Adèle Hénot-Mortier (current graduate student): Redundancy under Discussion (Poster)
• Johanna Alstott (current graduate student): On “very”-intensified superlatives (Poster)
• Haoming Li (current graduate student): The case for the strong and conditional analysis of permission (Poster)
• Anastasia Tsilia (current graduate student): (In)direct evidential futures in Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian (Poster)
• Adèle Hénot-Mortier (current graduate student): Unifying the French evidential construction on di(rai)t que (Poster)

The following department members also presented talks in post-event workshops:

In the workshop: Does semantics have a too many tools problem?

• Ido Benbaji-Elhadad (current graduate student): Worlds, times and the fate of ontological symmetry
• Amir Anvari (faculty): Indefinites as Indexed Definites 
• Adèle Hénot-Mortier (current graduate student): “One tool to rule them all”? An integrated model of the QuD for Hurford sentences

In the workshop: Evidentials in non-canonical speech acts

• Michela Ippolito (PhD ‘02) - with Crystal Chen: `Gosh, how X is that?!’ The case of Exclamative-Interrogatives
• Danfeng Wu (PhD ‘22): Corrective markers ‘bing’ and ‘you’ in Mandarin Chinese

Congratulations to all presenters for their work!

In the series organized by Michel DeGraff entitled Language & Linguistics in Decolonization and Liberation Struggles in Haiti, Palestine, and Israel, earlier announced here:

Speaker: Camelia Suleiman (Michigan State University)
Title: Palestinian Women in Higher Education in Jerusalem: Between Nationalism and Neoliberalism
Time: October 9, noon-2pm
Location: Room E51-095

How do Palestinian women students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem resolve the tension between Jewish nationalism and neoliberalism? Based on ongoing ethnographic sociolinguistic research in the daily lives of Palestinian women, I find that students manage these tensions through the performative aspects of language. My analysis demonstrates critical consciousness of their collective identity.

Prof. Suleiman’s visit is co-sponsored by MIT’s MindHandHeart and by MIT Women’s and Gender Studies.

For suggested readings in preparation of Prof. Suleiman’s visit and for additional information about the seminar, please click here for the full description.

Speaker: Giovanni Roversi (MIT)
Title: Pronouns, DPs, and Omnivorous A-movement
Time: Tuesday, October 1st, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Some of us hope that one day we can reduce all instances of Movement to Agree. About Agree, we know that “omnivorous” patterns exist, where a probe will skip a more local goal to target one further away, if the less local goal has some special feature that the probe is interested in. If Movement is Agree, we should therefore expect “omnivorous” movement patterns, where out of two goals, a more featurally special one is favored for movement over a closer one. This is pretty much exactly what goes on in typical Ā-context: in object questions, C move the wh-object and skips the closer (non-wh) subject. And indeed, we’re used to thinking that Ā-movement can be non-local, but A-movement is strictly local. Given enough featural distinctions, however, there’s no principled reason why we shouldn’t expect omnivorous movement patterns to hold in the realm of pure A-movement as well (not even a little bit mixed A/Ā). I argue that a particular corner of Äiwoo grammar works exactly like this. Movement to spec,TP in this language favors pronouns over lexical DPs: T will skip a closer lexical DP goal to rather move an object pronoun. This also teaches us something about why and how syntax treats pronouns and full DPs differently, and I suggest that at least in this language, any explanations based on “greed” (“this pronoun needs to move because it’s deficient”) or any kind of “licensing” don’t work.

Speaker: Filipe Hisao Kobayashi (Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg)
Title: Structuring Concealed Questions
Time: Wednesday, October 2nd, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Concealed Questions (CQs) are DPs that can be naturally paraphrased as embedded questions, e.g., “I know [Ann’s birthday]” <=> “I know [what Ann’s birthday is]”. This talk, like most of the literature on CQs, is focused on two puzzles identified by Heim (1979): (i) the ambiguity of quantified CQs, and (ii) the ambiguity of nested CQs. I build on Romero (2005) and Frana (2017) to advance a novel account of these ambiguities that synthesizes these works’ main insights into a general theory of quantification over individual concepts. A key feature of my proposal is that the ambiguities identified by Heim are due to the internal structure of the NPs within CQs.

Speaker: Eyal Marco (Tel-Aviv University)
Title: Optimal Paradigms: A challenge from Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic
Time: Monday, September 30th, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: In this talk we will reevaluate Optimal Paradigms (OP), an extension to Optimality Theory proposed by McCarthy (2005). In OP, candidates are full inflectional paradigms and faithfulness constraints can require uniformity between all members within a candidate. According to OP, prosodic templates are not grammatical entities, and morphosyntactic categories like noun and verb are not available to the phonology. Instead, systematic phonological differences between categories are derived by special constraints that require uniformity between all members of an inflectional paradigm. One of the original cases McCarthy used to showcase OP with, comes from Moroccan Arabic. McCarthy proposed that a noun-verb asymmetry in the distribution of schwa in Moroccan Arabic can be predicted by OP using the different paradigm structures of nouns and verbs in the language. We will reevaluate this proposal using new fieldwork data from Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic, an endangered variety of Arabic that is closely related to Moroccan. We will see that if adjectives are added to the picture, OP can no longer predict the distribution of schwa in the different categories. The conclusion is that OP does not eliminate the necessity of templates or category reference in phonology, disputing the main original motivation for the theory.

Speaker: Andre Batchelder-Schwab (Boston University)
Title: Undocumented Whistled Languages in Africa
Time: Thursday, October 3rd, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Although a few dozen whistled languages are attested across the world, it seems that sub-Saharan Africa could easily double that number, including Akan-Twi, Kinande, isiXhosa, TshiVenda, and many more. While many of these systems conform to expected typologies, some could contribute evidence towards theories about speaker/hearer syntactic heads, sonority scales, and intelligibility. The presentation will end with a discussion on current directions in research on whistled language, and possible uses in orthography and tone acquisition.

Speaker: Irene Heim (MIT)
Title: A better dissertation
Time: Wednesday, September 25th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: I will revisit the transition from the second chapter to the third chapter of my 1982 dissertation “The semantics of definite and indefinite noun phrases”. My purpose is to isolate and throw light on some of the individual ideas in the dynamic package deal. I will not address (let alone remedy) any empirical problems (such as bathroom sentence, weak readings, proportion problem).

Prerequisites: Familiarity with the technical core and conclusion of chapter II of Heim 1982 (i.e., sections II.2, II.3, and II.8). Familiarity with how trivalent truth functions account for presupposition projection. The handout will be technically self-contained but not an introduction to this background material.

Speaker: Edward Flemming
Title: Generating and parsing f0 contours using a model of f0 production
Time: Monday, September 23rd, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: I will present ongoing work aimed at developing a framework for formulating phonetic grammars of tone realization that can derive complete fundamental frequency (f0) trajectories from phonological specifications.

The proposed framework consists of two main components: A model of f0 production that maps time-aligned tone targets to f0 trajectories, and a set of weighted constraints that select the optimal targets for a given phonological representation. The constraints can evaluate properties of both the underlying targets and the resulting f0 trajectory.

In addition to generating f0 contours, the model of f0 production can also be fitted to observed f0 contours to infer the underlying f0 targets, effectively parsing the f0 contour. This proves particularly valuable when analyzing tones with targets that are difficult to locate because they correspond to a turning point in the f0 contour that is not a local maximum or minimum (often referred to as ‘elbow’ targets).

This analytical approach will be illustrated through a study of variation in the realization of the Mandarin rising tone as a function of speech rate.

Speaker: Peter Grishin, Cora Lesure, Elise Newman, Norvin Richards, J. Cooper Roberts (MIT)
Title: What’s new with the Passamaquoddy Working Group?
Time: Thursday, September 26th, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: Passamaquoddy is an endangered Algonquian language spoken in parts of Maine, USA and New Brunswick, Canada (the dialect spoken in Canada is called Wolastoqey). In this Ling-Lunch, members of the Department’s Passamaquoddy Working Group—a coalition of faculty members, postdocs, and students interested in investigating the language and improving its vitality through pedagogy—will present some preliminary results of a recent fieldwork trip. Group members will discuss a variety of topics, including the syntax of the inverse and how it relates to control, different kinds of movement and its triggering of certain verb types, the syntax-semantics of container constructions, and more. Their findings not only improve our understanding of Passamaquoddy, but also inform linguistic theory in general. And hopefully some of you will be enticed to join us and explore some of these (or other) topics!

Speaker: Hedde Zeijlstra (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
Title: Pro drop and the morphological structure of inflection
Time: Tuesday, September 17th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: A central problem for pro drop theory is how to account for the distribution of argumental null subjects. A paradigmatic approach, in which the whole paradigm determines whether a language can have null subjects or not, undergenerates in that it does not predict the existence of partial pro drop languages. An approach in which the licensing of null subjects is determined per context overgenerates in that it is not obvious why e.g. English does not have null subjects in at least the 3rd person singular. This talk aims at repairing the overgeneration problem for contextual approaches. By contrasting the Romance pro drop languages with the Germanic languages and Standard French, we argue that only the latter express tense and agreement with the same underlying morpheme, which therefore contains features (tense) that are incompatible with the subject it would have to license: it is featurally overspecified. The question is then what determines the choice between a bi- or monomorphemic expression of tense and agreement, and we will argue that reasonable assumptions about the acquisition of morphological systems makes the right cut.

Speaker: Wenkai Tay (UCL)
Title: Compound vs phrasal resultatives: the view from Mandarin Chinese
Time: Wednesday, September 18th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: In this talk, I will argue against a uniform syntactic analysis of V-V compound resultatives and V-de phrasal resultatives in Mandarin Chinese. I propose instead that V-V resultatives are built in morphology while V-deresultatives are built in syntax. My proposal predicts that V-V and V-de resultatives will exhibit distinct behaviour with respect to a number of processes. (i) V-de resultatives are accessible to syntactic operations while V-V resultatives are not. (ii) Since obligatory arguments must be projected in a syntactic structure, V1 must project its arguments in V-de resultatives but not in V-V resultatives. Furthermore, it seems that these differences in argument structure between compound and phrasal resultatives are observed in languages other than Mandarin. These differences cannot be captured within a theoretical framework that makes no reference to the notion of a “word”. Therefore, to the extent that it is on the right track, my proposal provides evidence for an architecture of the grammar in which morphology and syntax are distinct subsystems.

Speaker: Runqi Tan (MIT)
Title: Direction of Coarticulation in Retroflex Fricative – a case study from Mandarin
Time: Monday, September 16th, 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: Abstract: In many Australian and Dravidian languages, retroflex and apical alveolar stops only contrast after vowels (e.g. Steriade 1995, 2001). This is because the primary cues to the contrast between retroflex and apical alveolar stops are located in the VC transitions (Anderson 1997), thus this contrast preferentially appears after a vowel, where the sounds are more perceptually distinguishable (Steriade 1995, 2001). The fact that the primary cues are realized on the preceding vowel follows from the fact that the retroflex stop has a stronger coarticulatory effect on the preceding vowel than the following vowel (Steriade 1995, 2001, Hamann 2003, Tabain et al. 2020). However, it is the following high front vowel that assimilates to retroflex sounds in Mandarin, a language with retroflex fricatives and affricates (Li & Zhang 2017), suggesting a stronger coarticulatory effect on the following vowel than the preceding vowel. In articulation, the characteristic flapping-out movement of retroflex stops does not happen to retroflex fricatives (Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996), which makes it possible for retroflex fricatives to have coarticulation on the following vowel. These observations lead to the hypothesis that the direction of coarticulation in retroflex fricatives differs from retroflex stops. This study conducted a phonetic experiment to test this hypothesis. The experiment explored F3 transitions in a pair of Mandarin fricative /s/ and /ʂ/. The lowering effect of F3 by /ʂ/ is the primary cue to the contrast between retroflex and alveolar sounds (Hamann 2003). Ten native Mandarin speakers (age from 20 to 30, 5 male speakers and 5 female speakers) were asked to read 15 VCV minimal pairs in a carrier sentence “wo du __ gei ni tiŋ” (I read __ for you to hear), where the C was /s/ or /ʂ/, and the two vowels in VCV were identical. Due to Mandarin CV syllable structure, in VCV structures, VC is necessarily between syllables and CV is within syllables. The stop study also allows C to be onset, which means that VCV also comes from two syllables, which is comparable to fricative study. F3 was measured in four positions in each VCV stimuli: midpoint of the first vowel (V1F3), endpoint of the first vowel (C1F3), beginning of the second vowel (C2F3) and midpoint of the second vowel (V2F3). The effect of place of articulation on F3 on left and right side of the consonant was calculated and compared by fitting a linear mixed effect model with consonant F3 as dependent variable, vowel F3 as independent variable, C as a fixed effect, and a random slope for sibilant place. The lowering effect of F3 is found on both sides of the retroflex fricative and does not differ significantly between the left and right side. This result confirms that the direction of coarticulation in Mandarin retroflex fricative /ʂ/ differs from that in retroflex stops. This difference leads to the prediction that retroflexion contrast in fricatives should not follow the same typology as retroflexion contrast in stops, as a result, different rankings of the markedness constraints and faithfulness constraints are expected for the two types of retroflex consonants. Keywords: retroflex fricative, coarticulation, phonetic cue.

Speaker: David Beaver (University of Texas at Austin)
Title: Presupposing practice
Time: Thursday, September 19th, 12:30pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: I will discuss reformulations of the notions of presupposition and accommodation, themselves based on a non-standard model of meaning, as developed in The Politics of Language (Beaver & Stanley, Princeton University Press, 2023). The goal is to develop a general model of transmission and change of ideology, including language practices, a model that can help explain how terrifying or divisive practices can be innocuously normalized, reinforced, and spread.

Building on work of Lynne Tirrell and others, the background to the theoretical developments includes cases of people, or entire peoples, referred to as if they were monsters, snakes, cockroaches, lice, parasites, or even, in the case of a concentration camp warden Victor Klemperer reported on, industrial raw materials. Standard tools of semantic theory were not designed with such issues in mind. I argue that a generalization of the notions of presupposition and accommodation can carry some of the weight.

The reformulation of presupposition hinges on three definitions:

1. Associative resonance: p(feature| instantiation of practice) − p(feature)
2. Effect probability: The probability that a certain feature of the context is an effect of an action instantiating a practice, p(instantiation of practice caused feature).
3. Presuppositional resonance: Associative resonance − Effect probability

The main goal of the LingLunch talk will be to discuss these definitions, their relationship to prior work on presupposition (and formal semantic theory more generally), and their application to difficult issues like presuppositions of divisive practices.

A secondary goal of the talk is to discuss an extension of accommodation that complements the changes in the notion of presupposition. Hearers accommodate not merely propositions, but practices, developing an increased tendency to behave in line with the practice. For example, if politicians and bureaucrats discussing a public health problem focus on the costs of alternative technologies that would potentially remediate the problem, their marginalization of human suffering carries a presupposition that it is reasonable to frame the issue in purely technocratic terms. What is accommodated is a tendency to treat a human life as a commodity. In response to sexist jokes, one may accommodate tendencies to discriminate based on gender.

In standard accounts of accommodation, the driving force is a driving desire to create common ground in the face of ignorance of a speaker’s assumptions. In the model I will discuss, however, accommodation is driven by a desire to avoid cognitive dissonance and find harmony, and these are in turn largely driven by a need to fit in with in-groups, and to mark oneself as distinct from out-groups.

MIT Linguistics research affiliate and alumn Hadas Kotek (PhD ‘14) is organizing a careers workshop series for linguists. The careers workshop will meet every other Tuesday at 5pm in room 32-D831, starting this Tuesday. All are welcome. Currently planned topics are below; Spring topics will include: resumes, networking, applying and interviewing, immigration considerations. Additional topics may be added based on audience request.

MIT alumn Pritty Patel-Grosz’s (PhD ‘12) work on dance in Gibbons has been accepted for publishing in the biology journal Primates. Pritty’s co-authored work offers a linguistically informed view of Gibbons’ dance behavior, showing it forms groupings based on isochronous rhythm.

The pre-print version can be found here: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.29.610299v1.full

The New York Times also offered a piece based on the work, found here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/14/science/gibbons-dancing-apes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Kk4.dsYX.XXFLiwNd-UiD&smid=url-share

Congratulations to Pritty and her collaborators!