LINGUIST List 8.464

Sat Apr 5 1997

Qs: Names in corpora, Coronals, Valency

Editor for this issue: Susan Robinson <suelinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Kristine Hasund, Anonymisation of names in spoken corpora
2. Travis Bradley, coronal/noncoronal asymmetry
3. Thomas Stolz, valency dictionaries

Dear fellow linguists,

I am writing a report on anonymisation of first names in
transcriptions of spoken corpora, and I would like to get information
about the different conventions that are used to protect the identity
of informants.

If you are, or have been involved in transcriptions of spoken corpora,
I would be very grateful if you would answer the following questions:

1) To what extent have last names, first names and addresses been erased
from tape/video recordings and replaced by fictitious names in the
transcriptions?

2) If first names have been changed as well as last names and addresses,
what were the reasons given for doing so? (legal, ethical, or other)

3) Were names changed manually or automatically (eg by means of a
"search-replace" word processor function)?

Please reply to Kristine.Hasundhia.no

Regards,
Kristine Hasund

Dear Linguist Subscribers:

I am working on a problem concerning the assibilated /r/ in the
central highlands dialect of Ecuadorean Spanish, and I would greatly
appreciate any comments to a few questions.

Data from Arguello (1978) point towards a coronal/noncoronal asymmetry
with respect to word-internal syllable-final and syllable-initial /r/.
That is, the assibilated [R] only appears before _coronal_ segments,
as in pueR.ta, cueR.da, coR.neta, peR.la, peR.sona (vs. cuer.po,
hu=E9r.fano, =E1r.bol, ar.quitecto, gar.ganta, ur.gente). The [R]
appears after after _coronal_ segments, as in En.Rique, al.Rev=E9s,
Is.Rael. Finally, it appears in the tautosyllabic onset /tr/, as in
tRes, but not in onset groups in which the first C is a non-coronal,
as in pra.do, bra.zo, cruz, can.gre.jo, etc.

In the volume by Paradis and Prunet (1991) on the special status of
coronals, contributors attempt to explain certain coronal asymmetric
phenomena in many languages via underspecification of the Place node
for coronal segments. This explains certain instances of coronal
transparency, assimilation targeting coronals, etc.

However, as P&P indicate on p.23: "Mohanan (1989) maintains that
coronals also behave asymmetrically in the postlexical component,
where it is possible that they already have been specified. This
would imply that the special status of coronals is not due to the lack
of place features but to some other property. Cases where it could
be shown that coronals are already specified and yet behave
asymmetrically would be problematic for the theoretical position of
most contributors to this book."

My questions are:

(1) Assuming the assibilated /r/ data mentioned above involves a
phonetic implementation rule whereby [R] appears when a phonetic
timing requirement is met, i.e., where the /r/ appears with a
neighboring coronal, either before or after it, it appears that this
phenomenon constitutes evidence against the coronal underspecification
hypothesis. That is, by the phonetic implementation component,
coronals must be specified to satisfy the phonetic timing requirement.
If Place for coronals is underspecified at this point, the requirement
would not be satisfied. Does anyone know of examples in other
languages in which coronals seem to behave asymmetrically even after
Place specification?

(2) Does anyone know of references in which a gesture (specifically,
in the sense of Browman and Goldsteins model of articulatory
phonology) for the standard Spanish trill has been proposed? Is it
plausible, for example, to represent it as a series of alternating
[closed]~[critical] values for CONSTRICTION DEGREE with an [alveolar]
CONSTRICTION LOCATION for the TONGUE-TIP articulator?

Thank you very much for suggestions,
Travis Bradley



Travis Bradley
Department of Spanish, Italian
 and Portuguese
Penn State University
352 N. Burrowes Building
University Park, PA 16802

email: tgb114psu.edu

dear colleagues,
the bremen comitative research group is about to start a
large-scale comparison of verbal (and non-verbal) valency
in the languages of the world. of course, we are mainly
interested in valency-dependent comitatives and instrumentals.
for the time being, we are looking for specialized dictionaries
of verb valency structures in individual languages. therefore,
we'd like to ask you to bring to our attention any valency dic-
tionary (or detailed study of valency) published so far.
if there really are comparative studies of valency, please
give us a hint!
thanks in advance for your cooperation.

thomas stolz.
komitativ-projekt.
universitaet bremen.
fb 10: linguistik.
pf 330 440.
d-28 334 bremen

fax ++421-218-7801
e-mail stolzuni-bremen.de