The Circle is a weekly forum dedicated to discussion of the descriptive, experimental, and theoretical study of syntax and semantics, featuring presentations of ongoing research by members of the Berkeley Linguistics Department and other departments, as well as discussion of previously published works.

Fridays, 3:00-4:30 pm

1303 Dwinelle Hall

Christine Sheil

Oana David

fall 2011
spring 2011
fall 2010
spring 2010
fall 2009
spring 2009
fall 2008
spring 2008
fall 2007
spring 2007
fall 2006
spring 2006
fall 2005

University of California, Berkeley
Department of Linguistics

PAST MEETINGS:

11 may
TBD

4 may
cancelled

27 april
Amy Rose Deal (UCSC)

20 april
Zachary O'Hagan and Clare Sandy: Evidence for syntactic expression of information structure in Omagua

In this talk we provide evidence for distinct syntactic positions in Omagua, the use of which is determined by information structure. Omagua is a highly endangered Tupí-Guaraní language spoken in the Peruvian Amazon. Omagua encodes grammatical relations primarily by word order (canonically SVO), and verbs are not inflected for agreement. Pronominal arguments may be expressed by a stressed, free pronoun (e.g., ãi 3SG) or an unstressed, phonologically bound, pronominal proclitic (e.g., i= 3SG). In this talk, we argue that the choice between these two types of personal pronouns, as well as a series of demonstrative pronouns, is based on the givenness of the referent (Gundel et al. 1993). We provide evidence from negation and question formation that pronouns and pronominal proclitics occupy distinct syntactic positions. We discuss how the givenness hierarchy interacts with other expressions of topic and focus in Omagua and propose an additional leftward topic position. Gundel, Jeanette K., Nancy Hedberg, and Ron Zacharski. 1993. “Cognitive Status and the Form of Referring Expressions in Discourse.” Language 69 (2): 274-307.

13 april
No meeting - WCCFL

6 april
Thera Crane: Resultatives, Progressives, Statives, and Relevance: The Temporal Pragmatics of the -ite Suffix in Totela

30 march
No meeting - spring break

23 march
LaTeX workshop

16 march
Raúl Aranovich

9 march
ACAL practice talks: Roslyn Burns on Abo optional anti-agreement; Gregory Finley on the semantic alignment of modal verbs in Abo; Larry Hyman, Peter Jenks and Emmanuel-Moselley Makasso on adjectives as nominal heads in Basaá

2 march
Boris Harizanov (UCSC): Clitic doubling at the syntax-morphophonology interface: Object shift and morphological merger in Bulgarian

Abstract: Clitic doubling is an intriguing and important phenomenon as it appears to involve multiple expression of a single argument in different structural positions. The clitic in such configurations expresses features of its full nominal phrase associate in argument position. Clitic doubling has often been argued to arise via agreement, so that the clitic is the manifestation of an agreement relation between a verb and the associate. However, another possibility exists: the clitic could be a (pro)nominal element related to the associate via movement; then, clitic doubling involves the simultaneous realization of the head and the foot of a movement chain. Here, I argue for the latter analysis, showing that clitic doubling, at least in Bulgarian, has the properties of movement and the clitic must be a reduced articulation of the higher occurrence of a raised object. I provide support for this claim by considering diagnostics which distinguish between clitics that reflect agreement processes and clitics that do not. I develop an analysis in which clitic doubling results from the interaction between the syntax of object shift and the morphophonological component, which determines the pronunciation of movement chains. Some consequences of this analysis for our understanding of certain typological facts and the diachronic development of clitic doubling will also be discussed.

24 february
Laura Kalin (UCLA): Seneya syntax

17 february
Clara Cohen (Berkeley): Can syntax influence morphological productivity?

10 february
Adrian Brasoveanu (UCSC): The pragmatics of quantifier scope: a corpus study

3 february
No meeting

27 january
No meeting