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UID:20260606T050624EDT-9200nW6OwG@132.216.98.100
DTSTAMP:20260606T090624Z
DESCRIPTION:Universal Grammar protects Initial\nSyllables\nMichael Becker (
 University of Massachusetts\nAmherst)\nIn English\, voicing alternations (
 e.g.\nknife ~ knives) impact\nmostly monosyllables\, while polysyllables a
 re rarely\nimpacted.  The opposite is true of French: most monosyllables\n
 that end in [al] keep their base faithful under affixation (e.g.\nbal ~ ba
 l ‘ball(s)’)\, while most polysyllables tolerate a\nstem change (bokal ~ b
 oko ‘jar(s)’).  In this talk\, I\nexamine the two types of languages\, and
  show that the symmetry is\nonly superficial. The French trend is accessib
 le to the grammar and\nextends readily to novel words\, whereas English sp
 eakers treat\nnovel words the same regardless of size. In other words\, En
 glish\nspeakers fail to find the generalization (the surfeit of the\nstimu
 lus\, Becker et al. 2011).\nPositional faithfulness\, and in particular\, 
 initial syllable\nfaithfulness explains this asymmetry: The [al] in bal\ni
 s protected by initial syllable faithfulness and by general\nfaithfulness\
 , while the [al] in bokal is protected by\ngeneral faithfulness only. Engl
 ish goes against the Universal bias\,\nrequiring monosyllables to be less 
 faithful than polysyllables. But\nwith general faithfulness highly ranked\
 , the ranking of initial\nsyllable faithfulness is irrelevant\, and the sp
 eakers are blocked\nfrom forming the required generalization.\nHaving esta
 blished the asymmetry in the novel word tasks\, we\npress English speakers
  further and ask them to learn unfamiliar\nmorphophonological alternations
  (e.g.\nmiːp ~\nmiːb-ni).\nUnencumbered by the counter-typological nature 
 of actual English\,\nspeakers revert to Universal Grammar\, and exhibit th
 e French\npattern.\nThis line of investigation\, which goes from real word
 s to novel\nwords and from novel words to novel alternations\, allows us t
 o\ntrace the biases that humans use in the phonological organization\nof t
 heir lexicon\, and allows us to expose behavior that roundly\ncontradicts 
 the ambient language\, yet conforms to the trends we see\nin the world’s l
 anguages.\n
DTSTART:20120130T200000Z
DTEND:20120130T220000Z
LOCATION:Education Building\, CA\, QC\, Montreal\, H3A 1Y2\, 3700 rue McTav
 ish
SUMMARY:91������ Linguistics Phonology Job Talk - Michael Becker (UMass Amher
 st)
URL:/channels/event/mcgill-linguistics-phonology-job-t
 alk-michael-becker-umass-amherst-213554
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