HDLS 13: Challenges to Common Beliefs in Linguistic Research

A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (19 April 2019) | Viewed by 24569

Special Issue Editors

Department of Linguistics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
Interests: phonetics; phonology; laboratory phonology

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Guest Editor
Educational Linguistics, Department of Language, Literacy, & Sociocultural Studies, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
Interests: language ideology; language planning and policy; language acquisition; deaf education, and critical ethnography

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Guest Editor
Center on Cognition and Language, Rochester Institute of Technology, National Technical Institute of the Deaf, Rochester, NY 14623, USA
Interests: Clinical neuropsychology; cognitive psychology; psycholinguistics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the decades, the High Desert Linguistics Society (HDLS), organized by graduate students at the Department of Linguistics, the University of New Mexico, has been holding biennial international linguistics conferences and has published a series of conference proceedings, developed into pivotal and ground-breaking studies in linguistics.

Over the decades, language has been studied and understood as a system based on the assumption how it is generated and how language works under rules. Studies presented at HDLS, on the other hand, have focused on looking at how the organization of language is based on the cognitive, functional, typological orientations rather than the generative perspective of language. For example, studies in linguistic typology and language documentation have found that syntactic information has been found to be correlated with morphological information and strongly related with its functions [1]. The mechanism of speech production and perception has been studied in terms of how speakers and listeners actually a variety of lexical factors that contribute to the speech process [2]. Languages, which has never been documented before or not been studied extensively (e.g., indigenous languages in the US, Mexico, South America and major varieties of English, French, Spanish), have special and uncommon functions of morphological and syntactic varieties and finds to be distinctive in cognitive and typological features as it compared to languages which have been extensively studied [3]. Sign languages, formed and structured differently from spoken languages, also have been explored by looking at the cognitive and typological functions of gestures and the timing and coordination [4]. In addition, due to the special Spanish-English bilingual linguistic environment of New Mexico, the sociolinguistic variation in speech production and perception has been widely addressed in HDLS [5]. With regards to the variety of topics presented in HDLS, in this Special Issue of Languages, conferences presenters (formal presentation, poster presentation, panel discussion) will be cordially invited to submit their manuscripts with topics including, but not limited to,

  • bilingualism (multilingualism)
  • cognitive linguistics
  • gesture
  • language documentation of undocumented or under-studied languages
  • morphosyntax
  • phonetics
  • phonology
  • psycholinguistics
  • semantics
  • signed language linguistics
  • sociolinguistic variations
  • syntactic theories in functional and typological perspectives
  • usage-based linguistics

This special issue will provide conference presenters with an opportunity of developing their original research, being peer-reviewed by a group of scholars in their areas of studies. The deadline for the manuscript submission is March 31, 2019 (Schedule is subject to change.).

[1] Croft, W. (2002). Typology and universals. Cambridge University Press.

[2] Tomasello, M. (2006). Usage-based linguistics. Cognitive Linguistics: Basic Readings, 34, 439.

[3] Hale, K., Krauss, M., Watahomigie, L. J., Yamamoto, A. Y., Craig, C., Jeanne, L. M., & England,

  1. C. (1992). Endangered languages. Language, 68(1), 1-42.

[4] Armstrong, D. F., Stokoe, W. C., & Wilcox, S. E. (1995). Gesture and the nature of language. Cambridge University Press.

[5] Cacoullos, R. T., & Travis, C. E. (2010). Variable yo expression in New Mexico: English influence. Rivera-Mills & Villa, 185-206.

Mr. Daejin Kim
Mr. Martin Andrew Watkins
Dr. Peter Hauser
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Linguistic Typology
  • Cognitive Linguistics
  • Morphosyntax
  • Usage-based linguistics
  • Phonological Typology
  • Phonetics & Phonology
  • Sign Language Linguistics
  • Sociolinguistics

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3884 KiB  
Article
Constructed Action in American Sign Language: A Look at Second Language Learners in a Second Modality
by Kim B. Kurz, Kellie Mullaney and Corrine Occhino
Languages 2019, 4(4), 90; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages4040090 - 12 Nov 2019
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 6518
Abstract
Constructed action is a cover term used in signed language linguistics to describe multi-functional constructions which encode perspective-taking and viewpoint. Within constructed action, viewpoint constructions serve to create discourse coherence by allowing signers to share perspectives and psychological states. Character, observer, and blended [...] Read more.
Constructed action is a cover term used in signed language linguistics to describe multi-functional constructions which encode perspective-taking and viewpoint. Within constructed action, viewpoint constructions serve to create discourse coherence by allowing signers to share perspectives and psychological states. Character, observer, and blended viewpoint constructions have been well documented in signed language literature in Deaf signers. However, little is known about hearing second language learners’ use of constructed action or about the acquisition and use of viewpoint constructions. We investigate the acquisition of viewpoint constructions in 11 college students acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) as a second language in a second modality (M2L2). Participants viewed video clips from the cartoon Canary Row and were asked to “retell the story as if you were telling it to a deaf friend”. We analyzed the signed narratives for time spent in character, observer, and blended viewpoints. Our results show that despite predictions of an overall increase in use of all types of viewpoint constructions, students varied in their time spent in observer and character viewpoints, while blended viewpoint was rarely observed. We frame our preliminary findings within the context of M2L2 learning, briefly discussing how gestural strategies used in multimodal speech-gesture constructions may influence learning trajectories. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue HDLS 13: Challenges to Common Beliefs in Linguistic Research)
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11 pages, 1714 KiB  
Article
Examination of Manner of Motion Sound Symbolism for English Nonce Verbs
by David Ellingson Eddington and Janis Nuckolls
Languages 2019, 4(4), 85; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages4040085 - 1 Nov 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3151
Abstract
This paper offers cross-experimental verification of a previous study that found that English speakers considered velars, palatals, glides, and high vowels to be sound-symbolic of light and jerky movements. Heavy and smooth movements, by contrast, were associated with affricates, glottals, laterals, and non-high [...] Read more.
This paper offers cross-experimental verification of a previous study that found that English speakers considered velars, palatals, glides, and high vowels to be sound-symbolic of light and jerky movements. Heavy and smooth movements, by contrast, were associated with affricates, glottals, laterals, and non-high vowels. The present study sought to evaluate these findings through a novel experiment with English speaking subjects, who were asked to choose appropriate sound-symbolically constructed nonce verbs for sentences describing light, heavy, smooth, or jerky manners of motion. Our results support many of Saji et al.’s findings and also offer original insights. We find complex interactions between a sound’s potential for sound-symbolic effects, and its position in initial or second syllables of disyllabic nonce words. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue HDLS 13: Challenges to Common Beliefs in Linguistic Research)
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8 pages, 1165 KiB  
Article
An Exploratory Study of ASL Demonstratives
by Jill P. Morford, Barbara Shaffer, Naomi Shin, Paul Twitchell and Bettie T. Petersen
Languages 2019, 4(4), 80; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages4040080 - 22 Oct 2019
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4074
Abstract
American Sign Language (ASL) makes extensive use of pointing signs, but there has been only limited documentation of how pointing signs are used for demonstrative functions. We elicited demonstratives from four adult Deaf signers of ASL in a puzzle completion task. Our preliminary [...] Read more.
American Sign Language (ASL) makes extensive use of pointing signs, but there has been only limited documentation of how pointing signs are used for demonstrative functions. We elicited demonstratives from four adult Deaf signers of ASL in a puzzle completion task. Our preliminary analysis of the demonstratives produced by these signers supports three important conclusions in need of further investigation. First, despite descriptions of four demonstrative signs in the literature, participants expressed demonstrative function 95% of the time through pointing signs. Second, proximal and distal demonstrative referents were not distinguished categorically on the basis of different demonstrative signs, nor on the basis of pointing handshape or trajectory. Third, non-manual features including eye gaze and facial markers were essential to assigning meaning to demonstratives. Our results identify new avenues for investigation of demonstratives in ASL. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue HDLS 13: Challenges to Common Beliefs in Linguistic Research)
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11 pages, 294 KiB  
Article
Sounds over Symbols? The Role of Auditory Cues in Orthographically-Correlated Speech Behavior
by Shannon Grippando
Languages 2019, 4(3), 72; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages4030072 - 11 Sep 2019
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2409
Abstract
A recent series of studies found a correlation between orthographic length and speech duration: The more orthographic units in a written form, the longer the speech duration of that word, all else being equal. Modular and encapsulated speech production models argue that orthography [...] Read more.
A recent series of studies found a correlation between orthographic length and speech duration: The more orthographic units in a written form, the longer the speech duration of that word, all else being equal. Modular and encapsulated speech production models argue that orthography should not contribute to articulation when it is not directly and explicitly relevant to speech. Such models demand that other factors such as auditory cues must be contributing to the development of this behavior. If auditory cues are being used in the development of these speech patterns, individuals would be expected to be sensitive to these differences. The current study uses an ABX task to determine whether participants are sensitive to durational differences at lengths similar to those observed in the previously found orthographically-correlated speech behavior. The current results showed no sensitivity to the critical levels of speech duration. Participants only began to show sensitivity at four times the length of the lower-bound durational lengths previously observed in individual’s speech patterns. These results call into question whether audio cues are playing a significant role in the development of this speech behavior and strengthen the claim that orthography may be influencing speech in an interactive fashion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue HDLS 13: Challenges to Common Beliefs in Linguistic Research)
17 pages, 385 KiB  
Article
Bringing Purported Black Sheep into the Fold: Galician Inflected Infinitives and Puerto Rican Spanish Pre-Verbal Infinitival Subject Pronouns
by Esther Brown and Javier Rivas
Languages 2019, 4(2), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages4020040 - 18 Jun 2019
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3255
Abstract
This work reports the results of quantitative, variationist analyses of two typologically unusual constructions in order to explore the grammatical conditioning of subject expression in non-finite clauses. Both constructions, Galician inflected infinitives and (Puerto Rican) Spanish preposed, nominative infinitival subjects, have not been [...] Read more.
This work reports the results of quantitative, variationist analyses of two typologically unusual constructions in order to explore the grammatical conditioning of subject expression in non-finite clauses. Both constructions, Galician inflected infinitives and (Puerto Rican) Spanish preposed, nominative infinitival subjects, have not been widely studied. As a result, variable expression/omission of subject marking in these constructions is not yet fully understood. Using corpora of oral data, we extract 732 examples of infinitives in purpose clauses (headed by para) and employ a logistic mixed effect model to explore the linguistic conditioning of the overt/null variants. We find the appearance of overt subject marking to be conditioned nearly identically across the two distinct languages as well as across finite/non-finite clauses. We utilize this lack of difference to propose that the two construction types may be manifestations of one grammaticalization process. As such, we propose the Puerto Rican Spanish variation may provide a new synchronic source of data with which to explore the diachronic source of (Galician) inflected infinitives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue HDLS 13: Challenges to Common Beliefs in Linguistic Research)
20 pages, 3182 KiB  
Article
Levels of Reality
by Ronald W. Langacker
Languages 2019, 4(2), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages4020022 - 3 Apr 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4528
Abstract
Two fundamental aspects of conceptual and linguistic structure are examined in relation to one another: organization into strata, each a baseline giving rise to the next by elaboration; and the conceptions of reality implicated at successive levels of English clause structure. [...] Read more.
Two fundamental aspects of conceptual and linguistic structure are examined in relation to one another: organization into strata, each a baseline giving rise to the next by elaboration; and the conceptions of reality implicated at successive levels of English clause structure. A clause profiles an occurrence (event or state) and grounds it by assessing its epistemic status (location vis-à-vis reality). Three levels are distinguished in which different notions of reality correlate with particular structural features. In baseline clauses, grounded by “tense,” the profiled occurrence belongs to baseline reality (the established history of occurrences). Basic clauses incorporate perspective (passive, progressive, and perfect), and since grounding includes the grammaticized modals, as well as negation, basic reality is more elaborate. A basic clause expresses a proposition, comprising the grounded structure and the epistemic status specified by basic grounding. At higher strata, propositions are themselves subject to epistemic assessment, in which conceptualizers negotiate their validity; propositions accepted as valid constitute propositional reality. Propositions are assessed through interactive grounding, in the form of questioning and polarity focusing, and by complementation, in which the matrix clause indicates the status of the complement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue HDLS 13: Challenges to Common Beliefs in Linguistic Research)
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