UTA Working Papers in Linguistics 1 (1994) - DO NOT EDIThttp://hdl.handle.net/10106/11712024-03-29T07:02:16Z2024-03-29T07:02:16ZAnaphora, pragmatics and style in GermanDeLisle, Helga H.http://hdl.handle.net/10106/11932023-10-30T16:48:33Z1994-01-01T00:00:00ZAnaphora, pragmatics and style in German
DeLisle, Helga H.
**Please note that the full text is embargoed** ABSTRACT: German uses two sets of anaphoric pronouns, the personal pronoun set (PP) er, sie, es and the demonstrative pronoun set (DP) der, die, das. The latter set has been largely neglected in the literature, possibly because it mainly occurs in informal conversations. In this paper, I will investigate how a basic concept like the deictic one is exploited for various functions, and to what extent these functions are integrated into the different styles of spoken and written German. It will be shown that the DP is used by the speaker to signal to the hearer not only referential but also affective information, and that DP usage is broadly determined by the degree of formality of a given text.
1994-01-01T00:00:00ZSubjectless sentences in EnglishReiman, Patricia Willesshttp://hdl.handle.net/10106/11922023-10-30T16:47:25Z1994-01-01T00:00:00ZSubjectless sentences in English
Reiman, Patricia Willess
**Please note that the full text is embargoed** ABSTRACT: One of the goals of modern linguistics is to develop a model of Universal Grammar which captures natural language features that are universal, while also accounting for variation among languages. Thus a much-discussed phenomenon in Government and Binding theory is pro-drop (Jaeggli and Safir 1989). Pro-drop is the parameter which determines whether the subject of an independent clause must be overt or may be left empty (Crystal 1991:279).
According to the definition given above, it would appear that English is a pro-drop language. However, Crystal (1991:279) cites English as an example of a non-pro-drop language. If this is correct and English is non-pro-drop, then how are subjectless sentences in English to be explained?
This paper presents the results of a discourse analysis of two written English texts that make extensive use of subjectless sentences. The texts, written by Robert Fulghum (1990:13-16; 1991:7-13), are expository essays that make frequent use of embedded narratives and are written in a colloquial style. In text one, which I call the spider text, 42% of the subjects in independent clauses are empty. In the second text, which I call the wedding text, 23% of the subjects of independent clauses are empty. The empty subjects represent all persons and both singular and plural referents. In discourse terms, over 78% of the empty subjects in each text serve as the topic of the containing independent clause.
The results show that a topic in subject position can be zeroed when 1) its absence would not cause ambiguity, and 2) it has a referential distance of one. Constituents which occur sentence initially, but do not serve as topics, may also be zeroed when they are pragmatically recoverable.
1994-01-01T00:00:00ZDiscourse-based evidence for an ergative analysis of CebuanoWalters, Dennishttp://hdl.handle.net/10106/11912023-10-30T16:46:32Z1994-01-01T00:00:00ZDiscourse-based evidence for an ergative analysis of Cebuano
Walters, Dennis
**Please note that the full text is embargoed** ABSTRACT: The case-marking systems of Philippine languages have been difficult to classify as either nominative-accusative (NOM-ACC) or ergative-absolutive (ERG-ABS). The question hinges on the status of the “object-focus” clause type. Is it a passive voice clause as traditional analyses (beginning with Bloomfield 1917) suggest? Or is it active voice — the basic transitive clause type — as an ergative analysis would conclude? While purely structural clues at clause-level cannot tell us unambiguously which analysis is appropriate for this group of languages, a discourse-functional approach offers an escape from this dilemma.
Cebuano is spoken as a first language by about seventeen million people in the central and southern Philippines. It has been previously described by Morey (1961), Wolff (1965, 1967), Bunye and Yap (1971), and Bell (1976). The present paper presents evidence that the object-focus clause type in Cebuano is active voice, based on an assessment of the relative topic continuity of noun phrases in transitive clauses in a Cebuano narrative text taken from Wolff (1967).
1994-01-01T00:00:00ZDiphthongization and underspecification in KɔnniCahill, Mikehttp://hdl.handle.net/10106/11902023-10-30T16:45:25Z1994-01-01T00:00:00ZDiphthongization and underspecification in Kɔnni
Cahill, Mike
**Please note that the full text is embargoed** ABSTRACT: The problems of analyzing vowels of Gur languages are well-known to those who work among them. The bulk of the difficulty in Kɔnni comes in the analysis of the mid vowels, which manifest themselves in diverse and initially confusing ways.
In this paper, I demonstrate that phonetic vowel sequences in Kɔnni can be analyzed as a diphthongization of long mid vowels. Evidence from phonetics, phonological rules, and tone is cited to support this conclusion. In the remainder of Section 1, I present the vowel harmony system of Kɔnni. In Section 2, I introduce the question of how putative vowel sequences are to be interpreted. In Section 3, I propose that these “sequences” are the result of a diphthongization rule. Section 4 considers the place underspecification plays in vowel harmony. In Section 5, Hayes’ (1990) concept of coindexing is reviewed. In Section 6, underspecification is combined with coindexing to provide a formal account for diphthongization in Kɔnni.
1994-01-01T00:00:00Z