Re-thinking the Agent Control Hypothesis: inanimate subjects without a change of state

We present an event-related potentials (ERP) study that addresses the question of how pieces of information pertaining to semantic roles and event structure interact with each other and with the verb’s meaning. Specifically, our study investigates German verb-final clauses with verbs of motion such as fliegen ‘fly’ and schweben ‘float, hover,’ which are indeterminate with respect to agentivity and event structure. Agentivity was tested by manipulating the animacy of the subject noun phrase and event structure by selecting a goal adverbial, which makes the event telic, or a locative adverbial, which leads to an atelic reading. On the clause-initial subject, inanimates evoked an N400 effect vis-à-vis animates. On the adverbial phrase in the atelic (locative) condition, inanimates showed an N400 in comparison to animates. The telic (goal) condition exhibited a similar amplitude like the inanimate-atelic condition. Finally, at the verbal lexeme, the inanimate condition elicited an N400 effect against the animate condition in the telic (goal) contexts. In the atelic (locative) condition, items with animates evoked an N400 effect compared to inanimates. The combined set of findings suggest that clause-initial animacy is not sufficient for agent identification in German, which seems to be completed only at the verbal lexeme in our experiment. Here non-agents (inanimates) changing their location in a goal-directed way and agents (animates) lacking this property are dispreferred and this challenges the assumption that change of (locational) state is generally a defining characteristic of the patient role. Besides this main finding that sheds new light on role prototypicality, our data seem to indicate effects that, in our view, are related to complexity, i.e., minimality. Inanimate subjects or goal arguments increase processing costs since they have role or event structure restrictions that animate subjects or locative modifiers lack.

Verbs denoting change of state are a semantic-syntactic universal as they share common patterns in languages of different types. One of such patterns is their ability to take part in causative-inchoative alternation when one and the same situation codified by certain language units can be seen both from the viewpoint of the actor vs recipient (transitive model) and from the viewpoint of the recipient only, provided that the recipient is the only agent in the verb’s structure (inchoative model), unlike in passive constructions. In causative-inchoative alternation situations these verbs choose one of the three alternation types: a) suppletive (matar – morrer), b) anticausative, when the inchoative meaning is codified morphologically with the help of the pronominal particle se (espantar – espantar-se) and c) labile, when the inchoative meaning is optionally marked by se without any change in grammaticality or semantics. The present paper argues that the choice of pronominal or non-pronominal form of the verb in the inchoative meaning with an inanimate subject (A janela (se) quebrou) depends on the parameter of animate / inanimate subject in the corresponding transitive construction and, to a certain extent, on the graduality inherent to the verb’s semantics (the acceptability of quantification). It is also shown that Brasilian Portuguese reveals the tendency to realize the labile type of alternation when the subject of the inchoative verb is inanimate; in Old Portuguese, on the contrary, the anticausative type (marked by se) was more frequent.

This chapter is dedicated to an ambiguity characteristic of what we call defeasible causative verbs (of which ‘teach’ is an example). With agentive subjects, the change of state (CoS) encoded by these verbs (e.g. a learning process) can be entirely denied, giving rise to what we call the “zero-CoS” non-culminating reading of these verbs. With causer subjects, however, the same verbs seem to entail the occurrence of (a part of) the CoS (including in imperfective sentences). We argue that this ambiguity cannot be handled by positing different event structures under the agentive and non-agentive uses. Under the analysis proposed, the semantics of these verbs involve a sublexical modal component à la Koenig and Davis (2001), both with agent and causer subjects. In favor of positing a sublexical modality with all types of subject, we investigate the conditions under which the zero-CoS reading is available even with a subset of inanimate subjects and “non-intentional” agents.

In the history of work on cross‐linguistic variation in quantification, Salish languages have played a special role. This is largely due to the programmatic work of Eloise Jelinek (see in particular Jelinek 1995), who identified Northern Straits Salish as a language that entirely lacked D‐type quantifiers. Instead, Jelinek claimed that Northern Straits had only A‐type quantification, in which an adverbial quantifier unselectively binds any appropriate variable in its scope. The purpose of the current chapter is twofold: to provide an update on research into D‐type quantification, and to explore A‐type quantification in more detail. Data will be drawn mainly from the Northern Interior Salish language Lillooet (a.k.a. St’at’imcets), supplemented where available with data from Central Salish languages, including Northern Straits Salish and its neighbour and close relative Halkomelem.

Although the influence of uvular consonants on vowel quality has been studied in Interior Salish languages (Bessell, 1992; 1998; Flemming et al., 2008), it has not been studied in Coast Salish languages. This study investigates the effect of uvular consonants on vowel quality in Lushootseed, a Coast Salish language spoken in the Puget Sound region of the Pacific Northwest, which has uvular stops and fricatives. Archival recordings (Burke Museum, 2015) of a native speaker were examined. A study was performed to analyze the effects of uvular consonants on formants of adjacent vowels. F1 and F2 were measured for vowels adjacent to uvular consonants that were positioned pre- and post-vocalically. These measures were compared with vowels adjacent to non-uvular consonants. The results reveal that there was an increase in F1 and a decrease in F2 for all vowels. The effects were greater for F1 than F2. These results are in contrast with those of Bessell (1992; 1998), who observed two effects: (i) only non-low vowels were affected, and (ii) F2 showed a greater effect than F1. These findings provide further implications on acoustic phonetic research for Coast Salish languages.

Campbell, Nicola. A Day with Yayah. Illustrated by Julie Flett. Tradewind Books, 2017.
 A Day with Yayah is a story that portrays a close relationship between a grandmother and her grandchildren. In A Day with Yayah, an Indigenous family makes a trip to British Columbia’s Nicola Valley to collect wild herbs and mushrooms. Along the way, the grandmother, Yayah, takes the opportunity to teach her grandchildren their language and to pass down her knowledge of edible plants and herbs. Yayah and her family are Nle?képmx (Interior Salish peoples), who are often referred to as People of the Creeks. Campbell draws on her own background for this story, having grown up in the same valley where the story is set.
 Illustrator and award winning Cree-Métis artist, Julie Flett, provides stunning, brightly coloured full-page illustrations. Flett’s detailed drawings complement the narrative, and her folk-style characters, with their jubilant expressions and bright clothing, emphasize the importance of knowledge transfer from one generation to the next.
 Over the years, the language of the Interior Salisham people has become endangered and Campbell introduces her readers to twelve words in the Salish language. These words appear within the dialogue of the story several times, giving children the chance to identify and connect with these words. The glossary at the end of the book is a very helpful addition and aids readers with pronouncing and translating the terms that are used throughout the story. The phrasing of the sentences and the inclusion of Salish words makes this a more appropriate read-aloud to younger readers, but it would also be suitable for independent reading for students in elementary school. This book is highly recommended for both school and public libraries. 
 Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Lydia Thorne
 Lydia Thorne is a Public Services Librarian at the University of Alberta. She obtained a BA and an MA degree in English Literature before deciding to pursue her MLIS. Lydia’s favourite part about reading is that it allows her to travel all over the world - without ever having to leave her chair.

This study examines properties of glottalized resonants (/m’, n’, l’, y’, w’/) in NLe?kepmxcin, a Northern Interior Salish language, both comparing them with their plain counterparts (m, n, l, y, w) and considering contextual factors as defined by word, syllable, and prominence positions. Despite the relative cross-linguistic rarity of glottalized resonants, they are of considerable theoretical interest given that several recent studies [e.g., Bird and Caldecott, Proceedings of the 10th AICSST (in press)] indicate that their articulatory and acoustic realization may vary significantly across languages and contexts. Of particular relevance to the present study is Carlson, Esling, and Harris’ [UMOPL 17, 58–71 (2004)] claim that in NLe?kepmxcin ‘‘glottalized resonants are a sequential combination of the resonant plus [glottal stop]’’ [pg. 64]. Based on the analysis of glottalized resonants in this study, it appears that the picture is more complex than consistent post-glottalization. Of special interest are glottalized resonants in word-initial position, both because this class is seriously under-represented in the previous literature, and because its characteristics challenge Carlson, Esling, and Harris’ sequencing generalization. Understanding the organization of glottalized resonants will help clarify both sequential and markedness issues in NLe?kepmxcin phonology. [Work supported by SSHRC.]

This squib presents an exploration of how Exemplar Dynamics (Hintzman 1986; Goldinger 1996; Pierrehumbert 2001) can be used to model the increased phonetic variability observed in language shift situations. It is based on a study of laryngealized resonants, as pronounced by three fluent speakers of St’át’imcets, a Northern Interior Salish language of British Columbia.

Okanagan, a Southern Interior Salish language spoken in northern Washington state and southern British Columbia, exhibits a peculiar set of pronominal morphemes that surely are a testament to a diverse and varied history. From the outside, the pronominal markers associated with Okanagan clauses appear to be a disparate group of morphemes. A lack of formal similarity frustrates attempts to characterize them as either nominative-accusative or ergative-absolutive. Morphologically the pronominal forms appear to be the typologically rare tripartite system. Yet, speakers have little trouble using the different markers in their appropriate contexts. In what follows, I will propose an analysis of how the person marking in the language has come to have such an interesting shape. I will offer internal and external motivations that the system responded to as it evolved into its current form.