Skip to Content

Languages, Volume 9, Issue 5

2024 May - 34 articles

Cover Story: Using optimality theoretic analysis, this study discusses the problem of plural realization in Eastern Andalusian Spanish (EAS) that differs from all other accounts that assign the EAS plural an underlying suffixal /s/ synchronically. Using alignment constraints, we argue that plural /s/ does not appear in the underlying form synchronically in EAS, but instead the plural morpheme is represented by a floating [–ATR]PL feature that aligns to the right edge of the word and spreads to the left. It spreads to all mid vowels, low vowels in word-final position, and combines with word-final vowel epenthesis to account for pluralization in words with final consonants. We discuss the behavior of high vowels and focus particularly on the plural of words ending in a final stressed vowel that have been rarely discussed in the EAS literature. View this paper
  • Issues are regarded as officially published after their release is announced to the table of contents alert mailing list .
  • You may sign up for email alerts to receive table of contents of newly released issues.
  • PDF is the official format for papers published in both, html and pdf forms. To view the papers in pdf format, click on the "PDF Full-text" link, and use the free Adobe Reader to open them.

Articles (34)

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
2,732 Views
27 Pages

This paper examines the syntax of additive compound numerals in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), uncovering their unique properties related to number morphology, definiteness, and Case assignment within numeral–noun constructions. These properties...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
3,367 Views
21 Pages

This paper presents empirical evidence to support the so-called syntactization of discourse, that is, the projection of relevant pragmatic features in the narrow syntax. In particular, it analyses deictic inversion in English, a construction which is...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2,721 Views
31 Pages

What happens when recognized and diverse conditioning factors of linguistic variation are omitted from analysis and/or are not analyzed under a single analytical procedure? This paper explores the consequences of such a choice on data interpretation...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1,690 Views
20 Pages

Southern Min is generally known for not using classifiers [CL] for expressing definiteness/indefiniteness as it is associated with the bare classifier construction [CL N]. This paper offers evidence from Xiamen Southern Min (XSM) that the use of a sp...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
2,602 Views
18 Pages

Whilst study abroad (SA) periods hold much promise for foreign language development, increasing research suggests sojourners’ experiences are unique, and language development does not always follow a linear trajectory. For some learners, SA has...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
4,616 Views
19 Pages

Exploring Semanticity for Content and Function Word Distinction in Catalan

  • Neus Català,
  • Jaume Baixeries and
  • Antoni Hernández-Fernández

In the realm of linguistics, the concept of “semanticity” was recently introduced as a novel measure designed to study linguistic networks. In a given text, semanticity is defined as the ratio of the potential number of meanings associate...

  • Communication
  • Open Access
1,889 Views
16 Pages

In this communication, I focus on Shawi forms of address used in Peruvian State posters during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic took a heavy toll on the Peruvian Indigenous population. A recent study showed that Indigenous people had 3.18...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3,526 Views
46 Pages

The well-known deletion of coda sibilants in Old French (11th–14th centuries) induced a compensatory lengthening effect on the preceding vowel, generally described as applying uniformly where coda /s/ was lost. This study highlights and analyze...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
2,195 Views
22 Pages

This paper sets out to study the second person–number marking in the (indicative) simple past in the history of European Portuguese, with a particular focus on morphological innovations such as fostes tu, which are considered deviant. These inn...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2,638 Views
29 Pages

The aim of this study is to experimentally capture the semantic, syntactic, and phonological properties of recursive compounds in English. We asked 22 native speakers of English to judge the semantic, syntactic, and phonological properties of 20 recu...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
2,462 Views
21 Pages

In applied linguistics, there has been a growing body of L2 pragmatics studies that investigate the intricate relationship between language learners’ subjective pragmatic choices and various contextual factors. The current study contributes to...

  • Essay
  • Open Access
12 Citations
10,942 Views
11 Pages

BLC Theory proposes that individual differences (IDs) in language proficiency (in both native and non-native speakers) can poorly be mapped on a single proficiency scale. Instead, IDs can best be understood and studied in terms of two fundamentally d...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
3,860 Views
28 Pages

One of the traditional observations about English derivational morphology is that prefixes behave differently from suffixes and are rather close to lexemes. A word-based analysis of prefixes based on this observation has been proposed, but it faces a...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
2,108 Views
22 Pages

We investigated structural priming in adult native speakers, focusing on possessive constructions in German, where the two alternative structures involved differ in frequency. According to error-based learning approaches to priming, the less frequent...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
4,072 Views
30 Pages

In the study of English denominal adjectives, scholarly attention has predominantly centred on those with Latinate suffixes (e.g., -al, -ary, and -ic/-ical), which are well-known as relational adjectives (RAdjs) and are extensively scrutinised in the...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
6,472 Views
19 Pages

Styling Authenticity in Country Music

  • Valentin Werner and
  • Anna Ledermann

Country music has become commercially successful both in the US and worldwide. It is perceived as a genre that values authenticity, which may be reflected in the choice of linguistic features, with (White) Southern American English (SAE) serving as t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
3,158 Views
18 Pages

African personal names have communicative contents that reflect the experiences and expectations of the name-giver as well as the bearer. Death-prevention names, for instance, provide some assurance and security that are vital for a child’s sur...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
3,101 Views
24 Pages

Using an optimality theoretic analysis, this study offers a conception of the problem of plural realization in Eastern Andalusian Spanish (EAS) where plural suffix /s/ was deleted diachronically that differs from other accounts that assign the EAS pl...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1,944 Views
27 Pages

The cause(s) of missing inflectional morphology in obligatory contexts by adult speakers of second language (L2) English is subject to ongoing discussion. Whatever the specific theory, however, the apparent asymmetrical production of the morpheme &ls...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
3,183 Views
22 Pages

Metaphorical Personal Names in Mabia Languages of West Africa

  • Hasiyatu Abubakari and
  • Samuel Alhassan Issah

Cultural philosophies, belief systems and experiences serve as superordinate cultural concepts that are reconceptualised and expressed using metaphorical personal names in Mabia languages. Metaphorical personal names are ‘vehicles’ that t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
8,118 Views
24 Pages

The purpose of this study is to present the state of the art of recent research on nonverbal communication in L2 classroom interaction, in particular on teachers’ and students’ gestures, and then focus on a case of gestures in an L2 Itali...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3,929 Views
27 Pages

According to the Phase Impenetrability Condition (PIC), phasal domains are opaque to further syntactic operations. Some researchers claim that the PIC applies in the phonological component of grammar (i.e., at PF). Others, however, claim that there i...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
12,510 Views
14 Pages

Making vocabulary stick in your memory involves dedicating attention to what needs to be learned. There are three main factors involved (focus, quantity, and quality) which can be expressed as six principles (focus, accuracy, repetition, time-on-task...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2,063 Views
15 Pages

Speech mixed with noise and speech that is of an unfamiliar variety both make the task of understanding more difficult. Children are often more negatively affected by these situations than adults. Numerous studies have examined the cognitive and ling...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
3,522 Views
21 Pages

This study investigates the effect of task demands on the predictive processing of morphosyntactic cues (word class, noun/adjective gender, case, and number) in reading among Heritage Speakers of Russian (N = 29), comparing them with Russian language...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2,565 Views
20 Pages

Use of Embedded Clauses in Heritage and Monolingual Russian

  • Maria Martynova,
  • Yulia Zuban,
  • Natalia Gagarina and
  • Luka Szucsich

This study investigates the production of clausal embeddings by 195 Russian speakers (67 monolingually raised speakers, 68 heritage speakers in the US, and 60 heritage speakers in Germany) in different communicative situations varying by formality (f...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
4,750 Views
15 Pages

The 2020 census reports that 61.2 million Latinxs live in the US, totaling around 19% of all residents, forming the country’s largest minority population. With the growing number of Latinxs, there has been a higher level of contact between Span...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
3,030 Views
28 Pages

Language Processing Units Are Not Equivalent to Sentences: Evidence from Writing Tasks in Typical and Dyslexic Children

  • Georgeta Cislaru,
  • Quentin Feltgen,
  • Elie Khoury,
  • Richard Delorme and
  • Maria Pia Bucci

Despite recent research on the building blocks of language processing, the nature of the units involved in the production of written texts remains elusive: intonation units, which are evidenced by empirical results across a growing body of work, are...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
2,740 Views
21 Pages

Previous research has shown that speakers’ visual appearance influences listeners’ perception of second language (L2) speech. In Québec, Canada, the context of this study, pandemic mask mandates and a provincial secularism law elic...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
1,997 Views
14 Pages

This article examines the metalinguistic commentary on address practices in a Finnish autobiographical novel series, the 26-volume Iijoki-sarja ‘Iijoki Series’ (1971–1998) by Kalle Päätalo. Our aim is to show how the forms...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2,701 Views
24 Pages

The effect of cross-linguistic similarity on the development of target-like categories in a second or additional language is widely attested. Research also shows that second-language speakers may access both their native and the second-language lexic...

XFacebookLinkedIn
Languages - ISSN 2226-471X