[lingtalks] Monday: Arto Anttila

[Klinton Bicknell]

On Monday 19 May at 2pm, Arto Anttila (Stanford; http://www.stanford.edu/~anttila/ 
  ) will give a colloquium in the UCSD Linguistics Department, in AP&M  
4301.

:: Abstract ::

Phonology and Constituent Ordering

Arto Anttila
Stanford University

Does phonology influence the ordering of meaningful elements
(morphemes, words, phrases)?  This talk reports the results of two
preliminary quantitative studies of the English Dative Alternation
exemplified in (1-3):

(1) Celebrity status gave [Schwarzenegger] [options]. (Double Object   
Construction)

(2) Man gave [names] [to all the animals]. (Prepositional Construction)

(3) It is rather an abuse to administer [to laymen] [both forms].   
(Heavy NP Shift)

The results suggest that prosody plays an active role in constituent
linearization in English. The prosodic effects are mostly gradient and
variable, yet entirely systematic.  I present an optimality-theoretic
analysis that uses prosodic constraints to predict the possible
constituent orderings as well as their relative degrees of
well-formedness.
-- 

For further information about the Linguistics department colloquia  
series, including the schedule of future events, please visit http://ling.ucsd.edu/events/colloquia.html 
  .