Presents a theory of phonological adjacency requirements. Locality theory is defined by a universal locality condition, which requires elements to be within a plane, the adjacency parameter, which in turn allows rules to impose further constraints on the maximal distance between interacting segments, and by transplanar locality, which bans certain…

This study examines certain tonal phenomena in Krachi, a language with two phonologically contrastive pitch levels. It is argued that the Krachi data are best analyzed as involving an upward shifting of the tonal register (upstep), and that upstep in Krachi provides evidence for the inclusion of a register tier in tonal theory. (65 references) (JL)

An analysis of a corpus of naturally-occurring data reveals that verb phrase preposing serves two functions in discourse: to affirm a speaker's belief in a salient proposition explicitly evoked in the prior discourse, or to suspend a speaker's belief in such a proposition. (29 references) (JL)

Explains the Greenbergian universals of modifier and adposition ordering as accidental side effects of diachronic derivation. An argument is made that disparate diachronic processes can conspire to give the effect of synchronic universals. For example, the ordering of modifiers may result from their generation by means of binding anaphor strategy.…

In communicating, conversationalists constantly make decisions about their interlocutors' state of knowledge and on the basis of these decisions make lexical, grammatical, and intonational choices about how to manage the "flow" of information. This paper focuses on how such decision making affects choices in relative clause constructions…

New conclusions emerge about Southern Tiwa, a Tanoan language of New Mexico, from a morphoyntactic analysis of the language, including nouns occur as serial predicates; nouns can license an argument in the role of possessor; and the verb agrees with all and only final terms. (47 references) (JL)