*This will be a practice talk for GLOW and SULA-TripleA.

Abstract: Some attitude predicates in various unrelated languages have been reported to have variable flavor interpretations, covering doxastic (“think”), assertive (“say”), and bouletic (“want”) readings; cf. Navajo (Bogal-Allbritten 2016) and Koryak (Močnik & Abramovitz 2019, Močnik 2025). These have prompted analyses where much of the semantic contribution that distinguishes these readings is taken away from the lexical entry of the attitude verb itself (against the standard Hintikkan view), and rather offloaded to the semantics of the complement clause. Based on novel fieldwork data, we report on another such attitude verb in Äiwoo (Austronesian; Solomon Islands), and we show that in this language there is clearer morphological evidence for this type of analysis: overt elements in the embedded clause determine the reading of the matrix attitude predicate, whose interpretation is derived fully compositionally, and the semantics of these elements is independently verifiable from their use in unembedded contexts. We arrive at a picture where the attitude predicate itself is relatively underspecified, but not fully (against e.g. Bogal-Allbritten). We draw (tentative) cross-linguistic predictions about the range of meanings we expect “variable-flavor” attitudes to cover: these should not extend beyond what can be composed out of independently available elements already in the language (chiefly, relatively underspecified attitudes and already existing modals). Thus, we predict these kind of verbs to receive “think, say, want” interpretations, but not readings like “forget”, “imagine”, “dream”, which cannot be composed out of these simpler more basic atoms.

Note: This week’s Syntax Square will feature a special LFRG take-over: the talk will be fully focused on semantics, so we especially encourage those with an interest in semantics to attend. The presentation will also serve as a practice talk for GLOW, so it’s a great opportunity to hear the work in progress and offer feedback.

We invite you to the first-ever LEAP (Linguistics Education and Pedagogy) workshop on Communicating Your Research. Across four one-hour sessions, we will explore how the task of communicating key aspects of your linguistics research (eg., your GP or your thesis) can be informed by formal pedagogical theory, and vice versa.

Workshop sessions will take place on Tuesdays from 5-6pm starting this week, in 32-D461. The Research Slam will take place during the final week of the semester on May 12th.

This week, we begin with “Defining the Knowledge Gap”, considering the questions, “What does your audience already know, and what do you want them to learn from you?”

Snacks will be served!

Across the six weeks, students examined the linguistics of poetry, as well as phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and machine learning in diverse languages. The teaching team focused on bringing to students’ awareness their unconscious knowledge of language, using the tools of science to formulate and test ideas about the hidden structures of language, and identifying and appreciating similarities as well as differences across diverse languages. The 15 high school students who attended each week can now answer the question that Cora posed to them the first day, What is Linguistics? 

The course grew out of earlier work that the team has done, both individually and collectively, at Spark and Splash, day-long events also organized by MIT ESP, as well as in partnership with teachers for Maya Honda’s Linguistics in K-12 Education seminar.

You can find the book here.

Here is the abstract:

This paper reevaluates Optimal Paradigms (OP), an extension to Optimality Theory proposed by McCarthy (2005). In OP, candidates are full inflectional paradigms and faithfulness constraints can require uniformity between all members within a paradigm. McCarthy (2005) proposed that OP can replace the assumption that prosodic templates are grammatical entities and other phonological mechanisms, which he regards as stipulations. One of the case studies used in McCarthy (2005) to showcase OP comes from Moroccan Arabic, where a noun-verb asymmetry in the distribution of schwa is claimed to be predicted by paradigmatic constraints as a means to achieve uniformity within an inflectional paradigm. We reevaluate this proposal using new fieldwork data from Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic, an endangered variety of Arabic that is closely related to Moroccan. We show that if adjectives are added to the picture, OP can no longer predict the distribution of schwa in the different categories. The conclusion is that OP cannot replace the mechanisms it was supposed to replace, and is therefore a redundant complication to phonological theory.

Linguistic Inquiry is an open-access journal so everyone can access the paper here: https://doi.org/10.1162/LING.a.575

Abstract:

This talk addresses three cases of anti-singularity in questions, illustrated in (1a)-(1c). They all convey that the speaker expects that the answer will name more than one individual:

(1)   a. Which books did you buy?                            English

        b. Was    hast du   alles gekauft?                    German

             What have you all    bought

             “What all have you bought?”

        c. Quiénes   se       fueron pronto?                  Spanish

             Who-PL REFL left       early

             “Who left early?”

The anti-singularity of (1a) has been explained as arising from competition with its singular version: which book did you buy?, which has a uniqueness presupposition – only one book can be named. This explanation does not extend to the other two cases. There is no uniqueness presupposition in the version of (1b) without alles or in the version of (1c) that has a singular wh quién.

The proper analysis of the anti-singularity observed in (1b)-(1c), I argue, requires us to pivot from consideration of number proper. Drawing inspiration from work on so-called optional plural markers, specifically the Cuzco Quechua morpheme kuna, I show how anti-singularity can be a bi-product of a presupposition of sortability – it should be possible to partition the set denoted by the noun complement along some dimension, such as type, size, color etc.

During his fellowship, [David Pesetsky will] investigate why there’s more than one kind of clause in the world’s languages. While linguists and researchers assume that clauses in most of the world’s languages come in different flavors, finite and infinitival, gerunds, and so on, they don’t yet know why.

The fellowship supports research and writing across the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Read more here: https://shass.mit.edu/twelve-professors-selected-for-2026-27-cohort-of-shass-faculty-fellows/

Based on the article by: Anderson Almeida-Silva; Remo Nitschke; Vitor A. Nóbrega; Fernando Valls Yoshida; Shigeru Miyagawa

Cognitive Science (December 2025)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cogs.70159

Speaker: Ioannis Katochoritis (MIT)

Time: March 17, 2026,  1 pm - 2 pm 

Place: 32-D461

The following members of our community presented at the conference:

• Cooper Roberts (3rd year): Part is part (plus pragmatics)
• Viola Schmitt (faculty): Individuation across categories
• Adèle Hénot-Mortier (PhD 2025): “Remind-me” presuppositions with iterated Speech Acts
• Yasutada Sudo (PhD 2012)[UCL], Chris Davis & Tim Jantarungsee: Varieties of sortal restrictions: The case of ingestion verbs
• Christopher Tancredi (PhD 1992)[Keio University]: Epistemic vs. Non-epistemic Modals in Subjective Semantics

Building on Heim’s (1982, 1983, 1992) model of dynamic semantics, I propose a unified analysis of the two uses of ye. I argue that in both cases ye presupposes Vacuity of Anti-Exclusion (VAE). This condition derives focus-sensitivity and additivity, and—when exclusion is defined in terms of likelihood—scalarity as well. On this view, the scalarity presupposition of ‘even’ ye is not an independent lexical requirement, but a natural consequence of how exclusion is parametrized.

This account clarifies both the parallels and the contrasts between ye and dou in scalar environments. I argue that the ‘also’–’even’ alternation of ye parallels the distributor–’even’ alternation of dou. Both particles can associate with minimizers, a possibility licensed by their shared scalar inference. At the same time, their difference in additivity yields distinct evaluative flavors as well as different distributional patterns in concessive constructions.

Finally, the talk revisits the “independence” requirement of additive expressions. I argue that independence emerges from the interaction between the VAE requirement and constraints on the QUD. This analysis also accounts for cases in which apparent violations of independence do not result in deviance.

• Elise Newman and Norvin Richards have received funding for a project entitled “Passamaquoddy-Wolastoqey Research, Revitalization and Documentation” (PWRRD, pronounced “powered”):
  
  PWRRD is the union of two facets of linguistic research conducted at MIT: theoretical advancement and the revitalization of indigenous languages. PWRRD brings these two threads together by assembling a coalition of Passamaquoddy-Wolastoqey speakers and MIT linguistics students, postdocs, and faculty to document, model, and ultimately revitalize the Passamaquoddy-Wolastoqey language. Passamaquoddy-Wolastoqey is critically endangered, with an aging speaker population. To increase access to language instruction among the Passamaquoddy-Wolastoqey community, we will use the results of our research to build an online language learning tool in collaboration with teachers and learners of the language.
  
  
• Donca Steriade has received funding for the project “Tucăture: A Living Laboratory for Kirundi Language Preservation and Linguistic Discovery”
  
  We plan to develop a tool that helps speakers of Kirundi, the national language of Burundi, improve their tonal literacy levels, while also contributing to Kirundi’s linguistic analysis.  Kirundi is a tonal language. Kirundi speakers are literate, but tonal literacy is low. Most texts omit tone marks entirely, creating extensive ambiguity. We address this challenge in two ways. One component evaluates if existing tone marks are suboptimal and, if so, proposes changes. Another component is a mobile application that improves tone-marking proficiency among Kirundi speakers through interactive drills to strengthen the association between tone marks, possibly revised, and tones.

https://shass.mit.edu/mit-human-insight-collaborative-announces-funding-awards-for-25-projects/
https://mithic.mit.edu/humanities-cultivation-fund-projects/

1. Generalized Dependent Case: The flagging of local c-command relations familiar under the rubric dependent case is not limited to nominals. Non-nominal phrases such as VP may both trigger and receive dependent case as well. This provides an account of morphemes specific to one alternant in an alternation, including passive morphology on V and by-phrase morphology, as well as morphemes that emerge and disappear in ditransitive alternations. Their presence correlates with the presence/absence of hyperlocal VP-fronting.
2. Generalized Insatiability: The “Merge XP” feature on a head may apply more than once to the same element so long as some new c-command relation is created (i.e. so long as something changes). This permits hyperlocal complement-to-specifier movement over an intervening element (contra Abels 2003) – offering a simplification and new characterization of the VP-fronting central to Collins’ accounts of passive and other argument alternations. No alternation-specific feature drives this movement. It is just the same Merge feature that added the complement in the first place.

Speaker: Shigeru Miyagawa (MIT), Despina Oikonomou (University of Crete), Onur Özsoy (University of Cologne), Caroline Heycock (University of Edinburgh), Giorgios Vardakis (University of Padova), Rumeysa Bektaş (Tokat University)
Title: Condition C amelioration effects in wh-movement: An interaction between pronominal type and d-linking
Time: Tuesday, February 10th, 1pm - 2pm
Location: 32-D461

Abstract: While wh-movement has been argued to involve obligatory reconstruction, leading to a Condition C effect (Chomsky 1981; Barss 1986; Lebeaux 1988; Heycock 1995; Fox 1999), experimental studies in English and German have shown that, in wh-NP-movement, the Condition C effect is not robust (Adger et al. 2017; Bruening & Al-Khalaf 2019; Stockwell et al. 2021; Salzmann et al. 2023). Stockwell et al. 2021 and Salzmann et al. 2023 suggest that the (strong/weak/null) type of pronominals may be relevant. Along these lines, we investigate anaphora resolution under wh-reconstruction in Italian and Greek, languages which, unlike English, bear both null and overt person pronouns. We present data which reveal a robust correlation of pronouns and Condition C effects: null pronouns resist coreference consistently whereas overt pronouns allow it. Conceiving this contrast is crucial for determining how restrictive the nature of the Condition C as a grammatical phenomenon is. See https://tinyurl.com/4eha8dws for a longer, NELS 56 abstract.

See below for pictures of Bergül with some of our alums (The top photo from right to left: Yasu, Margaret, Adèle and Bergül)!

• Topics in Syntax (24.956)
• Topics in Experimental Phonology (24.967)
• Topics in Semantics (24.979)

• Instructor: Sabine Iatridou, Elise Nerman, David Pesetsky
• Time: Monday, 2pm-5pm
• Room: 32-D461

This class will explore what is known and what is unknown about the internal and external syntax of nominals. We chose the term “nominals” rather than “NP” or “DP” because the headedness of nominals is in fact a topic of continual debate — a remarkable lack of scientific consensus for such a basic question concerning one of the fundamental building blocks of human language. In contrast to the verbal domain, where there is also debate but also significant (justified) consensus, many other fundamental aspects of nominal syntax remain deeply puzzling. What functional elements enter into their maximal extended projections, and how closely (if at all) does their arrangement parallel what is found in the verbal domain? What can nominalized clauses such as gerunds reveal about the parallels and non-parallels between nominals and clauses? Do nouns take complements analogous to complements of verbs, prepositions, and adjectives? Where do relative clauses fit into the picture, and what laws govern the syntax of modification more generally? Is concord within the nominal an instance of Agree or something else? How should we understand constructions seemingly special to the nominal domain such as construct state, polydefiniteness, and others?

Our plan for the beginning of the semester starts as follows, probably one class per topic:

1. The headedness of nominals

2. Gerunds

3. Construct State

— and then we will be off and running.

Course requirements: active attendance and participation, meetings with instructors to develop final paper, final paper

24.967: Topics in Experimental Phonology

• Instructor: Adam Albright & Edward Flemming
• Time: Wednesday, 10am-1pm
• Room: 32-D461

The field of phonology has increasingly looked to experimental results to confirm and extend its understanding of phonological patterns. In this course, we will examine some of the issues involved in deriving experimentally testable predictions from a theory, designing and running an experiment, and interpreting the results.

The class has several goals:

• Consider the relation between linguistic theory, empirical predictions, and experimental results
• Gain practical knowledge in designing and carrying out experiments in the lab and on-line, and performing data analysis using R
• Gain familiarity with some commonly used experimental paradigms, comparing what they can tell us about the linguistic system

The emphasis this year will be on statistical analysis. The course will be organized around the statistical models that are most applicable to linguistic experiments:

• Linear models and linear mixed-effects models
• Generalized linear (mixed) models: logistic/probit regression, ordinal logistic regression, log-linear models
• Factor coding for interpretable statistical analysis
• Possibly: Bayesian linear models

The application of these models will be illustrated through case studies selected based on the interests of the participants. Candidates include: Coarticulation, perceptual similarity, the P-Map Hypothesis, statistics of the lexicon, wug/blick tests and Universal Grammar/learning biases. Experimental paradigms examined are likely to include production, perceptual identification and discrimination, artificial language learning, and acceptability judgments.

Requirements for students taking the course for credit:

• Readings and class participation
• Regular assignments (modest and practical in nature)

• Instructor: Gennaro Chierchia & Danny Fox
• Time: Thursday, 2:30pm-5:30pm
• Room:
  • Harvard: Boylston G 02
  • MIT: 32D-461

• James Cooper Roberts (3rd year): An Agreement-interpretation puzzle concerning Indo-European fraction partitives
• Adèle Hénot-Mortier (PhD 2025)[Queen Mary University of London]: Oddness, logical compatibility and granularity
• Devon Denny (SM 2022)[UCSD]: Diné Bizaad (Navajo) Q-Particle Distribution is Sensitive to Information Structure
• Luwen Cao, Zhiming Bao (PhD 1990)[National University of Singapore],  Lei Feng, Tih-Shih Lee: Stratified Analysis of Voice Parameters in Cognitive Impairment: Evidence for Population-Specific Linguistic Biomarkers
• Tanya Bondarenko (PhD 2022)[Harvard]: Becoming a strong PCC language: a view from Alabama
• Fulang Chen (PhD 2023), Ka-Fai Yip: Does the Williams Cycle apply to Mandarin Chinese?
• Jian-Leat Siah, Sam Zukoff (PhD 2017)[UCLA], Feng-fan Hsieh (PhD 2007)[National Tsing Hua University]: Generative Phonetic Modeling of Malay Nasal Harmony
• Abdul-Razak Sulemana (PhD 2021)[University of Ghana], Ken Hiraiwa (PhD 2005)[Meiji Gakuin University]: Syntax of Concealed Sluicing in Buli
• Madison Enis, Hadas Kotek (PhD 2014)[MIT], Li Yuo: What Linguists Know and Your Team Still Doesn’t

As is traditional, Whamit will be going on hiatus as our classes and other regular activities wind down at the end of the year.  The Spring semester begins on February 2, and we will resume regular posts then.  

Rest assured, of course, that we will be there for you with any breaking MIT Linguistics news even during our hiatus period — just not regular publication.  Have a great end of the year, and see you soon!

• Amy Li (2nd year): A phonetic correlate of velar palatalization: Shorter front cavity
• Na-Young Ryu and Suyeon Yun (PhD 2016) [Chungnam National Univ.]: Perceptual comparison of emotional Korean speech: Human versus AI-generated voices
• Feng-fan Hsieh (PhD 2007)[National Tsing Hua Univ.]: Spatiotemporal modeling of tongue kinematics using ultrasound tongue imaging: A case study of apical vowels in Mandarin Chinese
• Feng-fan Hsieh (PhD 2007)[National Tsing Hua Univ.], Kye Shibata, and Yueh-chin Chang: Visualizing parasagittal articulation: An electromagnetic articulography analysis of lateralization in East Asian languages
• Yueh-chin Chang, Jing Huang, and Feng-fan Hsieh (PhD 2007)[National Tsing Hua Univ.]: Acoustic evidence for asymmetric /l/–/n/ merger in Southwestern Mandarin

Hani and Christopher offered “Sounds in Motion: Exploring the Science of Speech”; Cora offered “Rhyme and Reason: Exploring the Linguistics of Poetry”; Vincent offered “Linguists vs. Machine: Who Had the Telescope?”; and Jacob offered “The Beauty and Complexity of Language: Introduction to Linguistics”. The courses were designed by each instructor and developed and vetted through a collaborative process. Maya Honda observed all of the classes and attests to the great job everyone did sharing their knowledge and passion for linguistics with the Splash students.

• Seva Masliukov (1st year): Puzzles of actional composition in an atelicity-marking language
• Vlad Orlov (2nd year): Reciprocal alternation and bound de-re readings
• Alma Frischoff (2nd year): Type-label comparison and Type Economy Principle

(1) Part of the New Yorkers are completely covered in paint.

I will argue against the approaches outlined above, opting to instead include parts of atoms in the denotation of plural partitives. The interpretation we get for (1), I propose, is actually the result of pragmatics rather than semantics (Grice, 1975’s MAXIM OF QUANTITY). This position is bolstered by the fact that the “inclusive” reading of a plural partitive becomes available under negation and epistemic uncertainty (cf. plurals, Sauerland et al. 2005).

[This is a practice talk for my upcoming presentation at OASIS 5.]

Velar palatalization is a common sound change involving a velar stop becoming a palatal affricate or fricative before a front vocoid. To gain insight into its phonetic mechanisms, we test two hypotheses about factors conditioning velar palatalization by comparing similar languages with and without the change: (1) the conditioning vowels are fronter in languages with the change, resulting in fronter closure of the velar through coarticulatory assimilation; or (2) languages with the change have stronger coarticulation of velar stops with following segments, resulting in greater fronting preceding front vocoids. Specifically, we compare two Chinese languages, Mandarin, which underwent velar palatalization in the 16th-17th centuries ({k, kh, x} became {tɕ, tɕh, ɕ} before high front vowels), and Cantonese, which has not undergone the change in the last millennium. Our results support hypothesis (1) but not (2). We find that Mandarin speakers produce [i] and [y] with a higher front cavity resonance (third formant for [i] and second formant for [y]), implying a shorter front cavity. Velar coarticulation, measured by locus equation slope, does not differ significantly between the two languages. This suggests that the phonetic preconditions of velar palatalization lie in an especially front articulation of the conditioning vocoid.

Then, I will discuss two new hypotheses in response to my results: (1) the conditioning vowels have small enough front cavities in languages with the velar palatalization change that that they can be considered coronal, so coarticulation of the velar consonant with this coronal vowel results in the coronal output of the change; and (2) the conditioning vowels have shorter front cavities in languages with the change due to longer tongue constrictions, which facilitate frication given coarticulation with the velar consonant. I will share some of my attempts to test these new hypotheses. Finally, I will present my planned next steps of the project, including making new recordings comparing (some varieties of) Cretan Greek, in which {k, kh, x} became {tɕ, tɕh, ɕ} before [i] and [e], and standard modern Greek.

Adam’s own talk, a joint presentation with colleague Sebastian Zawada, was entitled “Slavic case is not boring: Agreement in Polish copular clauses” (an elegant reply to a side-remark in a famous paper of Jonathan’s that suggested Slavic case might be).  David and his fellow alums report that the event, hosted by the Institute of Computer Science at the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPI PAN), was full of interesting papers, and was truly excellent meeting from every perspective.

(photo credit: Adam Przepiórkowski)

Ivona’s website: https://hmcwordpress.humanities.mcmaster.ca/humpages/kucerov/

Chamorro-specific person-animacy hierarchy 2nd person > 3rd person animate pronouns > 3rd person animate lexical nouns > Inanimate

Chamorro instantiates what Stegovec (2019, i.a.) calls a *3>2 or “Only-You” person restriction: although 2nd and 3rd person have their distributions constrained by the restriction, 1st person does not. In this talk I make two kinds of argument. First, I argue that this restriction should not be reduced to a language-specific morphological restriction, pace Chung (2014), but should rather be treated as (at least partly) syntactic in nature. The null hypothesis is thus that it should be explained by the same mechanisms postulated elsewhere to capture other syntactic PARs. Second, I argue that this has not been achieved. More specifically, current theories of PARs are either logically incompatible with the Chamorro data, or else incur conceptual or empirical problems when amended to accommodate it. I then sketch some preliminary ideas about how to go about solving this.

To do so, I examine a unique reading of sentences containing plurals and superlatives.

(1) Rafa climbed each of the tallest mountains that his students climbed.

Under one reading of (1), the truth conditions require us to look at each of the students, check which mountains each student climbed, and then take the tallest mountain climbed for each of the students.

I will break down this construction. I claim that this reading is generated as a case of cumulative readings, where the superlative operator is in the scope of the cumulativity operator.

I show that if we assume the ** operator (Krifka 1986, Sternefeld 1998, Beck and Sauerland 2000) to derive cumulativity along with an account of superlatives following Heim (1999), covert movement outside of a relative clause seems to be necessary to derive the correct LF for the relevant interpretation of sentence (1).

(1) [Italian]
a. un terzo delle pareti sono coperti di muffa
‘A third(m.sg) of the walls(f.pl) are covered(f.pl) by mold’
*MEASURE, COUNT
b. un terzo delle pareti `e coperto di muffa
‘A third(m.sg) of the walls(f.pl) is covered(m.sg) by mold’
MEASURE, *COUNT

The goal of this study is to give a theoretical account of the alternation in Italian-like languages while also explaining why some languages in the family lack the equivalent to (1b) (American English). Following the tenet of One Form/One Meaning, I pursue an analysis where measure and count FPs are structurally-distinct. Specifically, I assume that count FPs are the structurally-simpler of the two, bearing a syntax where the complement is actually the head (see Selkirk 1977) and the semantics are s.t. cardinality functions win over other measurement possibilities (Barner & Snedeker, 2005; Bale & Barner, 2009; Wellwood, 2019; Wagiel 2021). To get the measure FP, I posit a special operator TOTAL which takes the bare FP structure and makes two important contributions. First, TOTAL re-merges the fraction via projecting movement (Bhatt, 2002) to make it the new head of the structure. Second, TOTAL changes the “matrix” parameter of evaluation for measure functions to one where cardinality will lose to other forms of measure. Crucial evidence from this proposal comes from Russian, where FPs which include the part-word chast’ lose the agreement-optionality and necessarily have a measure reading. I interpret this item as a realization of TOTAL and conclude that it can be optionally-overt in some languages.

Gĩkũyũ has two types of backcopyingː (1) optional backcopying (i.e., backcopied and non-backcopied variants are in free variation) when prenasalized stop formation (/Nt, Nɾ/ → [ⁿd], /Nʃ/ → [ᶮdʒ], /Nk, Nɣ/ → [ᵑg]) and foot reduplication interact; (2) obligatory backcopying when prenasalized stop formation, foot reduplication, and Meinhof’s law (NC₁…N₂(C) → N₁…N₂(C)) interact.  To account for the obligatory backcopying cases, I propose that the distinguishing factor lies in the onset’s ratio of nasality in the base vs. the reduplicant. On a ratio-of-nasality scale of [t, k, ɾ, ʃ, ɣ] = 0, [ⁿd, ᶮdʒ] = 1, [n] = 2, a Distantial Faithfulness constraint penalizes segments in RED that differ too much from their Base correspondents. Consequently, Base-Reduplicant pairs like [ᶮdʒ]…[ʃ] are acceptable because their nasality distance is ≤1, whereas [n]…[ɾ] is disfavored because the ‘distance’ is 2.

(1) Ona nikogda ne vide-l-a Maš-u plač-ušč-ej. she never NEG see-PST-F.SG M.-ACC cry-PTCP.IPFV-F.SG.INSTR ‘She has never seen Masha crying.’

(2) Ona nikogda ne vide-l-a [plač-ušč-uju Maš-u] . she never NEG see-PST-F.SG cry-PTCP.IPFV-F.SG.ACC M.-ACC Lit.: ‘She has never seen crying Masha.’

(3) Ona nikogda ne vide-l-a, [kak Maša plač-et]. she never NEG see-PST-F.SG COMP M.NOM cry-NPST.3SG ‘She has never seen Masha cry.’ (lit.: ‘how Masha cries’)

I suggest that the difference between Turkish and English MQs results from 1) their distinct question-formation strategies (e.g., English uses wh-phrases in situ only for MQs, while in-situ-ness is the default form of all questions in Turkish) and 2) from differences in their Spell-Out domains. Given that Turkish always uses wh-in-situ for constituent questions, I propose that C is the phase head in Turkish, not the speech-act verb (or any other v). Also, revising Krifka (2014) and Woods and Vicente (2021), I assume the following structure in (2) for Turkish questions, where Force P indicates whether an utterance has question force [+Q] or not [-Q], and say is the speech act for all utterances that is merged when needed. Thus, I offer a solution to the seeming issue in Turkish MQs along the lines of Trinh, Fox, and Bassi’s (2025).

(2)   A1: Ela gel-ecek mi? come-Fut PolQ [whether1 [Ela will comeF mI1 ForceP[+Q]] Cthat] B1: Ela nere-ye gel-ecek mi? wh-MQ where-Dat come-Fut PolQ [where2 [whether1 [Ela where2 will comeF mI1 ForceP[+Q]] Cthat] sayA] A2: Ela nere-ye gel-ecek mi mi? pol-MQ [whether3 [where1 [whether1 [Ela where1 will comeF mI1 ForceP[+Q]]F mI3 Cthat] sayA]ForceP[+Q]]

Later, I provide evidence from embedded clauses with an overt C head for the interpretation layers of MQs in Turkish. Finally, if time allows, I share cross-linguistic data from various languages, supporting that the Spell Out domain and question-formation strategies are the two parameters that affect MQ layering.

Throughout his long career, Steve worked on foundational issues in phonology and morphology — focusing on the ways in which underlying grammatical structure is revealed and expressed in phonological form, but also on important issues in syntax and the place of human language in human cognition and across species more generally. Steve also conducted original fieldwork on a variety of languages including Kwakiutl and Abkhaz. To name just a few of his contributions to the most basic questions of the field:

1. the interaction or separation between basic grammatical modules (morphology and phonology (below b); phonology and phonetics (LI 1981:493ff); morphology and syntax: LI 1982:571ff; Amorphous Morphology CUP 1992)
2. a broad classification of phonological rules by the amount of morpho-syntactic information they must refer to: J.Linguistics 1:181ff
3. the principles that govern rule ordering (thesis and papers on ‘local ordering’ in the 1970s: LI 1970:387ff; LI 1972:253ff; and his groundbreaking first book The Organization of Phonology Academic Press 1974). This line of research later led to the realization that the phonological cycle applies to segmental processes, not just to stress rules.
4. what properties define human language and how animal communication differs, or doesn’t: Dr.Dolittle’s Delusion: Animals and the Uniqueness of Human Language 2004 Yale U Press
5. whether languages with ergative morphological patterns (treating subject of intransitive verbs on a par with direct objects) differ deeply in syntax from languages that lack this property (his answer: “no!”); “On the notion of subject in ergative languages” in Charles Li. (ed) Subject and Topic) 1976 Academic Press
6. whether language universals are or could be emergent consequences of factors unrelated to a human language organ: Yearbook of Morphology 2004, 1–17

Two of Anderson’s ideas are now part of the background knowledge most linguists share, without always associating his name with them:

7. autosegmental behavior is not limited to tone but extends to segmental features, including [±nasal] and [±continuant] (Language 1976:326ff);
8. the morphosyntactic functions of inflectional morphemes are not underlyingly linked exclusively to any specific exponent: Amorphous Morphology 1992 CUP.

Alongside his many research contributions, Steve was a superb citizen of the field, serving as President of the Linguistic Society of America and in leadership capacities in many other organizations, including the Comité International Permanent des Linguistes and the AAAS. Alongside his many publications that expanded our understanding of language itself, he was a pioneering historian of the field, with an abiding interest in the different ways a given phenomenon could be viewed—pursued in his masterful Phonology in the 20th Century. Never a follower (or promoter) of fashion, Steve Anderson was universally respected as a scholar’s scholar and linguist’s linguist. We miss him and honor his memory.

Webpage: https://www.sranderson.net
MIT dissertation: https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/12964
Yale tribute on the occasion of his retirement: https://fas.yale.edu/…/faculty…/stephen-r-anderson

This talk aims to illustrate the idea that microvariation is an epiphenomenonal conspiracy of the derivation. The focus will be two Malayo-Polynesian languages, Balinese and Malagasy, which share the Austronesian voice/pivot system: one (any) argument per clause is promoted to a syntactically and pragmatically salient status by becoming the so-called pivot.

When the internal argument becomes the pivot, the so-called Object Voice forms a non-canonical passive: the internal argument A-moves high to map into the surface subject, while the agent is not demoted to oblique, but remains a syntactically core argument that is licensed via strict right-adjacency to the verb.

However, the two languages differ with respect to Condition C: while Balinese pivot movement obligatorily reconstructs, and thus feeds connectivity, Malagasy pivot movement does not obligatorily reconstruct, and can thus bleed connectivity. To account for this apparent microparameter, we suggest that, while Malagasy allows Wholesale Late Merge (Takahashi & Hulsey 2009) of the pivot’s restrictor to the high landing site, Balinese does not.

We then provide two possible reasons for this: first, Balinese Object Voice still assigns accusative case to its internal argument, while Malagasy has lost this capacity, with the pivot being only licensed with nominative at the landing site; this forces pivots in the former, but not in the latter, to be early merged entirely at their base position. Evidence will come from asymmetries in multiple extraction, resumptive pronouns, quantifier scope and the inventory of Object Voice morphemes. Second, Balinese, but not Malagasy, exhibits DP-internal head movement to derive the suffixal nature of its determiner, which would be completely countercyclic under any tenable formulation of the Extension Condition.

Prior analyses derive this split via structural ambiguity inside the DP (Patel-Grosz 2014; Orlando & Saab 2020, i.a.). In this talk I defend a structurally uniform alternative, where the interpretive differences between descriptive and epithet readings follow from two main ingredients: (i) an optional type-shifting operation — encoded by a syntactic EX feature (Gutzmann 2019) and correlated with prosodic deaccenting (Umbach 2002) — that moves NP content from the TC to the UC dimension; and (ii) the presence or absence of a pronominal index associated with the D head (Schwarz 2009; Jenks & Konate 2022). Under the epithet derivation, the NP property is mapped to a contextually determined superset that serves as a constraint on assignments for the index introduced by D; this mapping to a superset (defined by epistemically accessible properties) accounts for the misdescription tolerance characteristic of epithet readings. Because the property is shifted from the TC to the UC dimension where it is a function on contexts, it cannot address relevant QUDs. I show that the same interpretive mechanism also accounts for referential readings of definite descriptions (Donnellan 1966; Gutzmann & McCready 2014, i.a.). Drawing on novel Brazilian Portuguese data involving modification, iteration, binding, and ellipsis, I argue that this analysis is not only conceptually simpler but also more empirically adequate than structural-ambiguity accounts. A key consequence is that DP structure is essentially uniform across definites of all types (slurs, ordinary definites, epithets, and referential pronouns), with variation reducible to fully interpretive lexically-anchored features: whether D supplies a pronominal index, and whether triggers of UC-shifting (correlated with deaccenting) are present on NP nodes.

In this talk, we will present acoustic description of both the citation tones and tone sandhi in Chengdu Mandarin based on recent recordings and propose a constraint-based account that captures most of the observed sandhi patterns. In addition, we raise some interesting yet unsolved puzzles. Among them, we will focus on the phonological representation of the Chengdu dipping tone (T4 in the table above) and its unusual sandhi behavior.

Here are the talks and posters presented by our faculty, current students and graduates in recent 10 years:

• Yiannis Katochoritis (3rd year): How I learned to stop worrying about distance and love the covert spec-head
• Ido Benbaji-Elhadad (dissertating student), Omri Doron (PhD 2025)[UMass]: Saving FACE: Fragment answers, copy theory, and radical trace conversion
• Ido Benbaji-Elhadad (dissertating student): Non-de dicto belief: Revision vs replacement
• Si Berrebi (Postdoc): Absolute neutralization in Modern Hebrew? An experimental study
• Peter Grishin (PhD 2023)[Brown University]: Could the Ban on Improper Movement be about binding after all?
• Tue Trinh (PhD 2011)[University of Nova Gorica], Danny Fox (Faculty, PhD 1998), Itai Bassi (PhD 2021)[ZAS; Ben Gurion University]: A unified theory of meta-questions
• Metehan Eryılmaz, Ömer Demirok (PhD 2019)[Boğaziçi University], Yağmur Sağ: From Numeral to Indefinite: A Kind-Sensitive Pathway in Turkish
• Michelle Yuan (PhD 2018)[UCLA], Gabriela Caballero, Claudia Juárez Chávez: Clitic coalescence in San Juan Piñas Mixtec at the syntax-phonology interface
• Despina Oikonomou (PhD 2016)[University of Crete], Shigeru Miyagawa (Faculty), Onur Özsoy, Caroline Heycock, Georgios Vardakis, Rümeysa Bektaş: Condition C amelioration effects in wh-movement: An interaction between pronominal type and d-linking
• Shigeru Miyagawa (Faculty), Nozomi Moritake, Ken Wexler (Faculty): The Optional Infinitive Stage in Japanese

And more from our alums:

• Terrance Gatchalian, Jessica Coon (PhD 2010)[McGill], Lefteris Paparounas: A unified syntax and semantics of Kanien’kéha statives
• Idan Landau (PhD 1999)[Tel Aviv]: Silent Resumption: A New Test for Ellipsis
• Susi Wurmbrand (PhD 1998)[Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg], Filipe Hisao Kobayashi (PhD 2023)[Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg], Caroline Gardner, Franziska Keller, Anita Riedl: Fake indexicals in relative clauses: licensing by phase
• Ryan Walter Smith, Mark Baker (PhD 1985)[Rutgers University]: Agentless Presuppositions of again: Meet Obligatory Control
• Jonathan David Bobaljik (PhD 1995)[Harvard]: The Itelmen Inclusive Imperative: Treetops, Clusivity, Allomorphy

Time: Tuesday Oct 14, 5-6:30pm

Location: 32D-461

Abstract: The art of Senegalese *griots* - poets, musicians, and oral historians - offers a unique example of the interplay between language and music. While many traditional Senegalese griots describe their *sabar* drums as having a “talking mode”, sabar does not exhibit the tonal correspondences typically associated with African speech surrogate systems like those of Yoruba or Akan drumming traditions. Major Senegalese languages such as Wolof and Serer are non-tonal, and sabar drumming lacks the pitch-based distinctions of drums like Dundun (Yoruba) or Atumpan (Akan).

In this talk, I present findings from ongoing research into the status of sabar drumming as a potential speech surrogate. We show that, as in other West African traditions, sabar drumming exhibits a remarkable proximity to speech - far more than most Western musical traditions. We investigate whether this speech-drum relationship operates at the phonological level - mapping phonemes onto the 10–14 distinct sabar strokes - or at the syntactic level, encoding larger linguistic constructions. While our current findings are inconclusive, they strongly support the idea that sabar drumming merits deeper theoretical investigation from a linguistic perspective.

The talk concludes with a screening (35 minutes) of the recent documentary “Doudou - the Magic of the Rhythm” was directed by Sjors Swierstra and produced by the Utrecht drum language project. The film is a tribute to Doudou Ndiaye Rose, the legendary Senegalese composer and master drummer. Through sabar performances, intimate reflections from family members, and interviews with music icons Peter Gabriel and Youssou Ndour, the film honors Doudou’s profound cultural and artistic legacy.

**Film synopsis**:
Nine years after his passing, Doudou’s family embarks on a spiritual pilgrimage from the busy streets of Dakar to the provincial town of Tivaouane. There, they lead a powerful ceremony that unites Senegal’s foremost percussionist families in a traditional sabar ritual of rhythm and dance. The film was premiered at the Fine Arts Film Festival in Venice, California, and broadcast on NTR, the Dutch public broadcaster.

(1) Q: Which Math professor left the party early?
a. #Mary, but she’s not a Math professor.
b. Mary left the party early, but she’s not a Math professor.
c. Mary did, but she’s not a Math professor.

(1) a. *This is the song that John listened to, and this is the song that Mary did [listen to] after reading about. b. This is the song that John listened to, and this is the song that Mary did [listen to] after having a coffee .

More data in (2) show that there are actually instances in which a PG-adjunct can appear in the elided clause, but only if another PG-adjunct is present in the antecedent:

(2) a. This is the song that Rosa listened to after reading about, and this is the song that Karl did [listen to] before hearing about. b. *This is the song that Rosa listened to after turning on the radio, and this is the song that Karl did [listen to] before hearing about .

A third - semantic - constrast will also be introduced tin the talk. After considering observations from Hartman (2011) on the size of elided phrases, I will show the need for a silent element that merges in the same position as adjuncts that do not contain a PG. This need can be implemented either with a tense restrictor analysis of temporal modifiers (as for example presented in von Fintel and Heim (2011)) or with a silent pronominal version of temporal adjuncts, as long as this is restricted to non-PG adjuncts.

The Gnomes opened the scoring early, with a well-parsed through ball resulting in a tidy finish that had fans chanting “Tree that sentence!” But ZBT quickly responded with a goal of their own, leveling the playing field and reminding everyone that brute athleticism can sometimes trump careful analysis.

From there, the first half turned into a lexical breakdown for the Gnomes. Though they briefly retook the lead at 2-1, their syntax soon unraveled. ZBT rallied with three unanswered goals, including a particularly devastating counterattack off a misplaced modifier from midfield. By halftime, the frat boys were up 4-2 and looking confident, flexing both muscles and minimal tactical nuance.

But the second half belonged to the Gnomes.

Adjusting their structure and clearly undergoing a pragmatic shift in formation, the linguists came out with renewed cohesion. They scored four consecutive goals, each more elegantly diagrammed than the last — including a cheeky backheel dubbed “The Recursion” that put them up 6-4. Fans of transformational grammar were in ecstasy.

ZBT did manage to claw one back late in the game, narrowing the score to 6-5, but the Gnomes held strong through stoppage time, parsing out the clock with expert possession and clever subclauses down the flanks.

Final Score: Noam’s Gnomes 6 — ZBT 5
A wild, referentially rich affair where form met function — and function triumphed, just barely.

(This talk is a practice talk for NELS.)

This talk has a double aim: first, to present a previosuly unnoticed observation; that is, (almost) all geographically diverse LDA languages share fundamental typological properties: they are verb-final, with a (full or split) ergative alignment, and with default SOV order; moreover, LDA-transparent embedded clauses are always either restructuring VPs or nominalized/participial TP/CPs; and once a potential LDA goal somehow overtly fronts to the left of the matrix verb, LDA (usually) becomes obligatory.

Second, I attempt to account for this empirical picture through little bits of Kayne’s (1994) Antisymmetry, Bobaljik’s (2008) m-case hierarchy, and the magic power of pied-piping. Specifically, I will suggest a unified analysis of LDA as local feature-checking in a (covert) spec-head configuration, which may allow for iterative feature-copying under recursive merge. Depending on two parameters, the specifier of the agreeing verbal head is filled either directly by the moving DP goal or by the complement clause that pied-pipes the goal at its edge. Hence, LDA is derived via Merge, not Agree. This will eventually yield a typology of (at least) four types of LDA systems, among which I will (struggle to) intergrate the outlier named Algonquian.

The analysis hinges on two crucial premises: one, LDA often features movement properties/constraints; two, the optionality of LDA is only apparent, as it obligatorily interacts with scope and/or information-structure, reducing to the reflex of independently motivated syntactic processes. Thus, I will distinguish between two types of agreement: narrow-syntactic agreement feeds LF or further syntactic operations, and involves downwards valuation by some interpretable feature, (plausibly) under spec-head. This contrasts with uninterpretable agreement, which is pushed post-syntactically, at early PF, and may operate from a distance, via upwards valuation (though still c-command-based).

• Runqi Tan (4th year): The Role of Perceptual Contrast in Tone Inventories
• Edward Flemming (faculty) and Giorgio Magri (PhD 2009)[CNRS]: Gang effects: the perspective from variation
• Giorgio Magri (PhD 2009)[CNRS] and Arto Anttila: MaxEnt fails at reasoning by transitivity
• Frank Li Hui Tan, Shuang Zheng, Ming Liu, Youngah Do [PhD 2013](HKU): Modeling Prosodic Development with Prenatal Audio Attenuation
• Jian Cui, Hanna Shine, Jesse Snedeker, Youngah Do [PhD 2013](HKU): Investigating the Tone-Segment Asymmetry in Phonological Counting: A Learnability Experiment
• Jonah Katz (PhD 2010)[UCLA]: Boundary conditions on a theory of English footing
• Andrew Nevins (PhD 2005)[UCL] and Nicholas Rolle: Xiamen-Taiwanese tone sandhi: Natural and derivable via boundary tones
• Paul Kiparsky (PhD 1965)[Stanford]: The Phonology of the Nez Perce Floating Nasal