Vol. XXIV Nr. 2
DOI: 10.31178/BWPL.24.2
Ewa Urbaniak
Taboo ritual in Spanish: A study of pragmatic strategies
Abstract:The aim of the present paper is to analyse the pragmatic structures that constitute the taboo ritual in Spanish colloquial conversations. The analysis is based on the assumption that, in the modern Spanish society, some of the topics are considered taboo and while speaking about them, a special ritual is required. I claim that this ritual is based on some pragmatic strategies that present important meanings and interactive functions. In order to confirm my hypothesis, a number of Spanish colloquial conversations are examined. By identifying the taboo topics and observing how they are introduced to the conversation, I present the pragmatic mechanisms that create the taboo ritual in modern Spanish.
Keywords: pragmatic strategies, interaction, taboo, ritual, Spanish
Doina Jitcă
Cognitive features for sentence stress pattern description
Abstract: The paper proposes cognitive features for describing sentence stress patterns produced by emphasized and non-emphasized intonational contours of utterances. Cognitive features consist in hierarchies of binary cognitive structures described in terms of the functional categories of the cognitive model proposed in the paper. The cognitive perspective of the model transforms weak-strong “metrical” structures used by Ladd (2008) into binary structures with one nuclear element and two structural levels: CU_argument-CU_predicate CU_emotional-CU_rational element. A set of rules are presented, for nucleus identification in both emphasized and non-emphasized contours. Intonational contours analysed in the paper correspond to some sentences also discussed in Ladd (2008). Cognitive analyses aim to assign different cognitive descriptions to different utterances even in the case of the same sentence when they produce different sentence stress patterns. We conclude that the prosody conveys non-linguistic meaning which must be understood at the cognitive or pre-linguistic level.
Keywords: sentence stress, prosody, cognitive model, predicate-argument, cognitive features
Eirini Ploumidi
The acquisition of the final coda position in the speech of a Greek-acquiring child
Abstract: This case study investigates the acquisition of the word-final coda in child Greek. The data show that the child has acquired the CVC syllabic form word-finally and that the acquisition process of the final coda consonant involves intra-child variation. Initially, the child realizes a Stop word-finally, instead of the target sibilant /s/, which is a morphological marker in Greek. We claim that the realization of [t] word-finally is morphologically driven and is not attributed to input frequency effects since Stops are prohibited as codas in Greek. We argue that the child’s grammar prohibits a marked segment for continuancy in the prosodically weak coda position. Therefore, Positional Neutralization occurs resulting in the realization of the unmarked [−continuant] [t]. Later, [ts] and [tθ] occur word-finally, before the child’s realizations become adult-like. We argue that as long as a final coda consonant occurs, the morphological information is evident in the child’s realizations.
Keywords: final coda position, fricatives, positional neutralization, child Greek, phonological acquisition.
Andrei A. Avram
An optimality-theoretic account of syllable restructuring in Early Bislama
Abstract: The paper looks at syllable restructuring in Early Bislama. The analysis is couched in the framework of Optimality Theory. The empirical evidence considered is from a corpus of pre-World War II records of Early Bislama, covering a period ranging from 1867 to 1935. It is shown that Early Bislama tends to disallow complex syllable margins and employs mostly vowel epenthesis and, to a lesser extent, consonant deletion as repair strategies for the resolution of etymological onset and coda clusters. Also discussed are the quality of the epenthetic vowels (minimally marked vs. contextually coloured), and the relevance of Early Bislama to the transformations undergone by otherwise stable features of English syllable structure.
Keywords: syllable restructuring, Optimality Theory, Early Bislama, onset clusters, coda clusters
Elena Lăcătuș
Romanian aspectual verbs and the causative alternation
Abstract: The aim of the present paper is to investigate the control/raising behaviour of Romanian aspectual verbs. Following Mourounas & Williamson’s (2019) proposal for English aspectuals, I show that in Romanian these verbs enter the causative alternation, a property which distinguishes them from both raising and control verbs and which can explain their hybrid behaviour. The aspectual verbs which merge with an infinitive and a subjunctive complement evince raising-like behaviour in their anticausative variant and control-like behaviour in their causative variant. Their anticausative variant is not marked and the verb does not project any Voice Phrase. In their causative variant, they project a thematic Voice Phrase which hosts an external argument, assigned an Agent-Initiator theta-role. Some of the verbs in the termina ‘finish’ class have a marked anticausative variant which projects an expletive Voice Phrase (Schäfer 2008) which hosts the voice marker se, whose presence signals the existence of a volitional, external argument in the structure. When these verbs occur with a supine complement they can only have an unmarked form, indicative of causative status, and they behave exclusively like verbs of control.
Keywords: aspectual verb, control, raising, causative alternation, marked anticausative, Romanian
REVIEWS
Larisa Avram, Anca Sevcenco & Veronica Tomescu (eds.). 2021. L1 Acquisition and L2 Learning. The View from Romance (Reviewed by Ioana Stoicescu)