LINGUIST List 2.110

Tuesday, 2 Apr 1991

Misc: Morphology, Disagreement, Austronesian Conference

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1. Phil Bralich, Morphological Juncture
2. Ralf Thiede, disagreement query
3. Byron Bender, 6th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics

 I am looking for discussion and commentary on morphological
juncture. I have just finished a dissertation which proposes a new theory of
morphological juncture to replace the theories of word boundaries (Chomsky and
Halle 1968 et alia) and Lexical phonology (Mohanan 1986 et alia). In the 
dissertation I demonstrate that it is possible to extend word level X-bar thory
to morphology in a straightforward manner by modifying the condition on the pri
nciple of locality. This extension of phrase-level X-bar theory used at word
level can be used to predict the facts of the morphophonemic rules presented
in Chomsky and Halle (1968) and Mohanan (1986). The dissertation reanalyses
those rules in the new framework and demonstrates that the X-bar theory pre
dicts the facts without the problems of ad hocity and coutenrexampls of the 
previous twop theories. 

I am specifically looking for discussion and commetary on this project. I ma
also looking to try this theory on a polysynthetic language. I would like
recommendations about polysynthetic languages that are already rather well
described . Also the theory of morphological juncture presented in this
dissertation is quite compatible with ther requirements of programming language
and thus I suspect it could be useful to people who are programming morphology.

Phil Bralich
University of Hawaii
bralichuhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu

Michael Kac (<kaccs.umn.edu>) wrote in that
> Susan Fischer notes a class of existential constructions in English
> where Subject-Verb agreement can evidently be violated,
adding his example of "'Till there _was_ (*were) you." Two queries:
1) Is her research published, and can anyone supply bibliographic in-
 formation?
2) Is anyone aware of other studies on subject-verb disagreement _IN
 ENGLISH_?
I am trying to build a case that first and second personal PNs can in
certain contexts count as third person (namely, when they denote par-
ticipants in an event which is not identical with the speech event, &
when they are talked about as such).
I suspect this distinction also underlies the acceptability of 1st &
2nd pers. PNs in by-phrases of syntactic passives (e.g. "This letter
was signed by me personally" vs. "*This letter is being signed by me
personally"). Hence, what I am really after, of course, is also what
Thomas Roeper is working on: Are event models visible / productive in
formal grammar. But that's not my specific question (yet). Thanks,

Attn: B. W. Bender, Chair
Tel: (808)956-8374
Bitnet: t041320uhccmvs
Fax: (808)956-2191

March 27, 1991

FINAL CIRCULAR

Conference Program (preliminary draft). Convenors and
participants: please bring needed corrections to our
attention so that the final copy of the program (to be
distributed at registration on May 20) is as free of error
as possible. We have been short on staff and clerical
support, and have not been able to acknowledge all
communications individually. A "Y" in front of your name on
the program will confirm that your conference fee
has been received.

Paper Copy Service. As a service to those attending the
conference, each author on the program is invited to provide
the Copy Service with a reproducible copy of his or her
paper. Submission of such a copy should be accompanied by
authorization to reproduce it upon request for anyone at the
conference. Orders may be placed for copies in the Copy
Service Office by Wednesday noon, May 22, at the latest.
The Office will be open during conference hours through
Friday noon, May 24.

Handouts. Authors are responsible for the production and
distribution of any materials to accompany the presentation
of their papers. In most cases it will probably be best to
bring multiple copies with you; the Business Center at the
hotel charges 15" a page.

Audio-visual support. Overhead projectors and slide
projectors will be made available upon request. Please let
us know of your needs well beforehand.

April 19 deadline for hotel reservations. For the special
conference rates, one night's deposit must be received by
then. Forms for the three levels of accommodation were
enclosed with the Call for Abstracts, and are available
again upon request. Due to the press of time it is
recommended that the hotel be contacted directly: Toll
Free: 1-800-367-5170; FAX: 1-800-456-4329.

Conference fee. Rates are as follows, payable to
"University of Hawaii Foundation", with the notation
"6ICAL":
 Participant: $US 125
 Accompanying person: 50
 Student: 25
Payment of the conference fee includes a place at the
Conference Banquet on May 24.

Meeting of the On-going Committee for ICAL's. Prospective
hosts for future conferences should prepare proposals for
consideration by the Committee at this meeting, scheduled
for Wednesday noon, May 22, and send them to B. W. Bender,
who will convene the meeting.

PRELIMINARY CONFERENCE PROGRAM FOLLOWS

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 get austronesian-1991

to the address:

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[End Linguist List, Vol. 2, No. 110]