LINGUIST List 7.519

Tue Apr 9 1996

Qs: Italian, Quantifiers, Interruptions, Macro-Siouan

Editor for this issue: T. Daniel Seely <dseelyemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. Keith Carlson, Italian phonology
2. Ken Nakatani, Q:Logic & Quantifier
3. Natalie Melanson, interruptions in conversation
4. Steven Schaufele, general sources on Macro-Siouan?

Something has been puzzling me about italian phonology. I'm looking 
specifically for a constraint-based approach to this problem, and 
welcome any optimality-theoretic solutions.

the facts:
(1) vowels in stressed, open syllables are predictably long word-internally, 
e.g. 'vi:.no 'wine'.
(2) vowels in stressed, open syllables are predictably short word-finally 
(despite stress), e.g. par.le.'ro 'I will speak', cit.'ta 'city'.
(3) if a word-final vowel is stressed, then the onset of the following 
syllable closes the preceding syllable, e.g. par.le.'ro[b] # be.ne 'I 
will speak well' (gemination of [b]), cit.'ta # s.por.ca 'dirty city' 
(resyllabification of [s]). 
this is known as *radoppiamento sintattico*.

analysis:
the predictable lengthening of vowels, as in (1), as well as the gemination 
of [b] and the resyllabification of [s] in (3) point to the satisfaction 
of the Weight to Stress Principle: the best stressed syllables are heavy 
(bimoraic).

problem:
why can't vowels be heavy at the edge in order to satisfy the WSP, as they 
are word-internally? It is odd that moras that 'sprout' (i.e. are not 
underlying) word-internally govern vowels, as in (1) , while those that 
sprout word-finally can only govern consonants, as in (3), otherwise they 
do not sprout at all, as in (2).

will post any satisfying answers received.
thanks in advance.
j
RESPOND TO: jamessensoryc.com

Dear colleagues,

Here's a question on "quantifier".
It seems that within formal logic "every", "all" and "each"
are usually treated uniformly as a universal quantifer.
I'm wondering whether there are papers treating them separately.
Does anyone know about it? I'll be very glad if anyone give
me the information on it. Thanks!

Ken Nakatani <knakatanfas.harvard.edu>

I have just begun working on interruptions in conversation, i.e. cutting 
a speaker off before she or he has finished speaking. I think I have 
found most of what has been written on the subject, but maybe someone 
out there knows of very recent work that hasn't been listed in the 
bibliographies yet. I would appreciate your help in completing 
my own bibliography. I would also be interested in knowing if anyone 
else is working on interruptions, and if so, from which perspective. 
My own approach is discourse analysis. 
Thanks.

Dear Colleagues,

I'm looking for general resources on the comparative and historical
grammar of the Macro-Siouan languages (including Caddoan and Iroquoian).
I'm familiar with Chaffe's 1976 book on the subject, but would like to
know of anything more recent. Note that i am particularly interested not
in treatments of individual languages -- i have several of those, and
have no trouble finding others -- but in general overviews of the entire
family, focussing on inter-language relationships.

I'll post a summary if it seems warranted.

Best,
Steven
- -------------------
Dr. Steven Schaufele
712 West Washington
Urbana, IL 61801
217-344-8240
fcoswsprairienet.org