This paper explores the hypothesis that children pay more attention to phonological cues than semantic cues when acquiring grammatical patterns. In a series of artificial allomorphy learning experiments with adults and children we find support for this hypothesis but only for those learners who do not show clear signs of explicit learning. In…

In the English lexicon, laryngeal alternations in the plural (e.g. "leaf" ~ "leaves") impact monosyllables more than finally stressed polysyllables. This is the opposite of what happens typologically, and would thereby run contrary to the predictions of "initial-syllable faithfulness." Despite the lexical pattern, in a wug test we found…

Karbi is a Tibeto-Burman (TB) language spoken by half a million people in the Karbi Anglong district in Assam, Northeast India, and surrounding areas in the extended Brahmaputra Valley area. It is an agglutinating, verb-final language. This dissertation offers a description of the dialect spoken in the hills of the Karbi Anglong district. It is…

Traditional flat-structured bigram and trigram models of phonotactics are useful because they capture a large number of facts about phonological processes. Additionally, these models predict that local interactions should be easier to learn than long-distance ones because long-distance dependencies are difficult to capture with these models.…

North Kyungsang Korean (NKK) is a pitch accent language in which each word has one of a restricted set of possible tonal patterns, and where the tonal pattern of a given lexical word is not fully predictable. This dissertation reports on a corpus study of accent patterns in existing words and the results of a study in which NKK speakers were asked…

Analyzes a child's use of word-level phonological constraints in multi-word utterances. The selection and avoidance patterns and modifications of adult forms indicated the presence of a syllable sequencing constraint that governed grammar and word combinations. (Author/CB)

The seven working papers on linguistic theory contained in this volume include: "Two Properties of the Intransitive Resultative Construction" (Yoichi Miyamoto); "Multiple Subject Construction in Korean: A Functional Explanation" (Youngjun Jang); "Constraints on Noun Incorporation in Korean" (Hangyoo Khym);…

An analysis of Old English phonology examines two traditional sound changes, the First and Second Frontings, that have been analyzed by different linguists with rather abstract theories. These analyses are refuted, and a more concrete and realistic treatment is proposed for each. Examination of Anglo-Frisian Brightening, or First Fronting, raises…

Some Japanese examples of several common phonological phenomena (whispered vowels, nuclear friction, and consonant-vowel articulation) are examined. The segmental and transformational characterizations of these and related phenomena are reassessed and it is shown that by paying more careful attention to phonetic detail and abandoning conventional…

Four working papers in linguistics are presented. "Basic Configurations of Pragmatic Structuring" (Robert A. Dooley) presents evidence for basic or unmarked pragmatic configurations in three Brazilian languages: Topic-Comment in Mbya Guarani, Comment-Topic in Hixkaryana, and Focus-Presupposition in Xavante. "The Syllable Structure…

A microgenetic approach to studying grammatical morpheme learning uses longitudinal data from two children learning English in different ways. Eight general attributes of morphological systems are proposed that will promote or inhibit the emergence of filler syllables during development. (Contains 86 references.) (Author/LB)

This study of 15 Hebrew-speaking preschool children with specific language impairment and 2 comparison groups tentatively supported the notion that grammatical morphemes were less difficult for subjects if they take the form of stressed and/or lengthened syllables and if they appear in a language in which nouns, verbs, and adjectives must be…

Six working papers on phonology, primarily concerning less commonly taught languages, are presented are in this volume. Titles include: "Non-Uniqueness Condition and the Segmentation of the Chinese Syllable" (Benjamin Ao); "Theoretical Consequences of Metathesis in Maltese" (Elizabeth Hume); "Cs and Vs or Moras: The Case…

Paraphrase, as it reflects the processes of remembering rather than those of forgetting, implies that language is best transmitted in one form and stored in another. The dual representation of linguistic information that is implied by paraphrase is important for storing information that has been received and for transmitting information that has…

This paper points out some linguistic and stylistic features of Black English as spoken by children and discusses the occurrence of particular language patterns. Examples of distinct intonation patterns, paralinguistic effects, language rhythm, and other phonological features are all considered. A statistical survey of particular age-group usage…