LINGUIST List 9.1513

Thu Oct 29 1998

Qs: Diphthong, Tone acquisition, Unaccusativity

Editor for this issue: Jody Huellmantel <jodylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Joaquim [** iso-8859-1 charset **] Brand\227ode Carvalho, Swedish diphthongization
2. sean.zhu, First langauge tone acquisition
3. Bert Peeters, Unaccusativity

I know that in Malmoe (and Lund?) Swedish long vowels undergo
diphthongization according to the following pattern (E = mid low front
vowel, = mid high rounded front vowel) :

(a) /i:/ > [ei], /e:/ > [Ee], etc.
(b) /y:/ > [y], /:/ > [oe]
(c) /u:/ > [eu], /o:/ > [Eo], etc.

Can someone tell me what occurs with the long 'inrounded' u of standard
Swedish? Does it exist in these dialects, and does it also undergo the
above diphthongization? If so,
(1) is 'inroundness' preserved in the diphthong nucleus ?
(2) what is the off-glide?

Thank you very much for your help.


Joaquim Brandao de Carvalho
1, rue Henri Poincare
75020 Paris
France
Tel./fax : 01 43 64 34 18
(If calling from outside France,
please replace the prefix '01' with '331'.)

Departement de linguistique
Faculte des Sciences Humaines et Sociales - Sorbonne
Universite Rene Descartes - Paris V

jbrandaoidf.ext.jussieu.fr

I am wondering if readers could recommend research on tone acquisition
by children. I'm quite interested in this area but only know that Li &
Thompson did some pioneering work twenty years ago. Any help with the
information on the sources would be appreciated. I will post a summary
if I get enough responces.

sean zhu

I have started to look at unaccusativity in a broad range of 
typologically different languages, to try and improve on what
others have said regarding its semantics. Would those who know
of languages that are said to have unaccusative verbs please 
tell me which verbs are (or can be) unaccusative, and why these
verbs (rather than others) are deemed to be unaccusative? It does
not matter which language(s) you work on or know of (accusative
or ergative, fixed word order or non-configurational...), all
information (including if at all possible references to the
literature) is welcome.

Thanks to all. I'll summarize if there is sufficient interest.

Bert Peeters
 
- 

Dr Bert Peeters - School of English & European Languages and Literatures
University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-82, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Tel.: +61 (0)3 6226 2344 / Fax.: +61 (0)3 6226 7631
E-mail: Bert.Peetersutas.edu.au
http://www.utas.edu.au/docs/humsoc/modern_languages/peeters/peeters.htm
http://www.utas.edu.au/docs/humsoc/modern_languages/french/welcome.htm