Monash Linguistics Seminars 2012
Tuesdays, 11.00am-1.00pm
Room G23, Building 6 (Education)
Followed by lunch & coffee in the Staff Club
(You can also bring your own food to the club).
All welcome!
28 February - 'The Enigma of Le in Mandarin Chinese'
Anthony Williams (Monash University)
13 March - Undergraduate and Honours Seminar 2012
Kristen Elliott & Danielle Forlivesi (Monash University)
3 April - 'It's rhyme time: Phonological analogy in novel compound formation'
Réka Benczes (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest & Monash University)
17 April - 'Analysing Variation in Victoria: Theory and Practice'
Debbie Loakes (University of Melbourne)
8 May - 'Languages of Minahasa in Indonesia'
Anthony Jukes & Tim Brickell (RCLT, La Trobe University)
22 May - Beyond the sounds of Aus
Lawrie Zion (La Trobe University)
Abstracts
28 February
'The Enigma of Le in Mandarin Chinese'
Anthony Williams (Monash University)
The aspect marker le in Chinese is something of an enigma. In spite of being the second most common Chinese character and being the subject of decades of research, its semantic contribution to the sentence remains elusive. The prevailing current accounts revolve around the notions of perfectivity and change of state, yet all are inadequate in their ability to account for the patterning of le.
I present an alternate account in which le is argued to be a quantifier over events, marking the occurrence of events which are definite and of finite countability. I further argue that le has no intrinsic temporal value and that its syntactic patterning, semantic ambiguity and ability to take on modal functions can all be accounted for in terms of predicate definiteness. Temporal readings are thus logical consequences of definiteness marked in specific contexts. From this it shall emerge that quantity is the semantic feature most salient to aspect in Chinese, clearly paralleling noun phrase structure, and interestingly, 了 has many functions in common with the definite article the in English. Through elucidating the enigma of le, the key properties of event structure in the Chinese conception begin to emerge.
13 March
Undergraduate and Honours Seminar 2012
Kristen Elliott & Danielle Forlivesi (Monash University)
This is an opportunity for the linguistics program to showcase its top students of 2011. Firstly, the program will present the annual Linguistics Program Prizes. These will be presented to top-performing students at the first, second, third and Honours year levels. Secondly, two of last year's top Honours students will present the findings of their theses. The following Honours projects will be presented:
'Persuasive Lyrics: A Comparative Discourse Analysis of Protest Songs in
Bahasa Indonesia and Biak'
This thesis investigates the way in which evaluative language is used in the lyrics of protest songs from Indonesia. Four songs from Javanese singer Iwan Fals are compared with four songs from West Papuan artists. The discourse analytical frame appraisal (Martin and Rose 2007) is applied to the corpus of eight songs. All songs in the corpus are similar thematically, addressing dissatisfaction with New Order Indonesian government/society – however they strongly differ in the types of evaluative language used. Songs from Papua show high frequencies of language that evaluates things (i.e. not people or feelings), and smaller amounts of evaluations of people/behaviours. Inversely, the songs from Fals show highest levels of evaluations on people/behaviour, and much less evaluation of things. Across the corpus there are strikingly similar amounts of evaluative language relating to feelings. It is found that the combination these different evaluative styles is what creates the various methods of affiliation seen in Fals' and the Papuan songs. Fals' songs are more concerned with creating an antagonist with which listeners can feel antipathy, while the Papuan songs are concerned with reinforcing bonds with the land, and promoting sympathy towards their plight. This study contributes to the literature on the discourse of song texts, as well as the area of appraisal analysis – by applying the frame to languages not previously investigated in this way.
'How deep is your lexicon? The influence of age on the acquired lexical depth of English L2 speakers'
Danielle Forlivesi (Monash University)
This thesis investigates the influence of age on the acquisition of English lexicon by second language speakers. Despite observable age affects on the acquisition of second language phonology and some evidence of age affects on second language morphosyntax, comparatively fewer studies have been conducted on the acquisition of second language vocabulary. This study replicates part of Hellman's (2008) detailed research in the United States on second language vocabulary. The Word Associates Test was administered to Australian immigrants who speak English as a second language to determine the depth of their vocabulary. This study finds that the age of arrival in Australia correlates negatively with the vocabulary test scores, while the length of time spent in Australia correlates positively with vocabulary depth. However the importance of other variables cannot be understated as the amount of education received in Australia correlates positively with scores from the Word Associates Test, and cultural identification is also found to have a positive influence on the English lexicon of second language speakers.
3 April
'It's rhyme time: Phonological analogy in novel compound formation'Réka Benczes (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest & Monash University)
Although much has been said about the communicative aspect of language use, the ludic function has been more or less ignored. This ludic property is well captured by the highly creative, metaphor and/or metonymy based compound expressions that are constantly emerging in both everyday speech and the media. Such compounds are often based on word play, and require considerable amount of effort on the part of the reader/hearer to uncover the intended meaning. Interestingly, many of these highly creative compounds are based on some sort of phonological analogy as well: alliteration and rhyme.
It is hypothesized that phonological analogy is deliberate and serves a number of purposes: 1) as an attention-seeking device it enhances emphasis; 2) helps the reader/hearer to decipher the meaning of a novel expression; 3) aids a novel expression's acceptability and long-term retention; 4) signals an informality of meaning; and 5) helps in the creation of a “social bond"; between the participants of a speech situation. The seminar will investigate the various patterns of phonological analogy inherent in novel metaphor and/or metonymy based compound formation and will outline its implications for cognitive grammar.
17 April
'Analysing Variation in Victoria: Theory and Practice'Debbie Loakes (University of Melbourne)
In Australia, a sound change is in progress where /el/->[æl] and /æl/->[el]. This is reported to occur only in the state of Victoria, and only for some speakers. This creates a unique situation where listeners variably hear both canonical forms and changed forms for the same lexical items. For example, depending on the speaker (and perhaps the situation) the name Elle is sometimes produced [el] and sometimes [æl], and the name Al is sometimes [æl] and other times [el].
As well as opening up interesting questions about the mechanisms of sound change as far as spoken language is concerned, variable /el/-/æl/ mean that interesting errors are observed in written language. One example is the café name Elfresco (as opposed to Al Fresco), observed in south-east Melbourne. Additionally, variable /el/-/æl/ mean that the language can be used in new ways. For example a recent (sub)headline from The Age was Labor hard man [Albanese] gives Gillard the elbow, showing an alliteration which is not possible in other varieties of English, including within Australia. Given the variable directions of /el/-/æl/ movement though, it is not clear from this latter example whether elbow is supposed to alliterate with [el]banese, or whether Albanese alliterates with [æl]bow.
In this talk, I discuss ongoing work focusing on the sound change, using a Laboratory Phonology approach. Participants have been sourced from Melbourne and three regional towns on, or close to, state borders in Victoria (Warrnambool, Mildura and Albury-Wodonga). Data comprises experiments designed to focus on fine-grained phonetic aspects of the sound change (production and perception tests), as well as experiments that focus on sociophonetic variables (a regional identity questionnaire, and an interview about region and accent).
8 May
'Languages of Minahasa in Indonesia'
Anthony Jukes & Tim Brickell (RCLT, La Trobe University)
Sulawesi is one of the most linguistically diverse areas in Indonesia, with an estimated 114 languages (Ethnologue). Descriptive projects have only begun to scratch the surface of the languages both large and small spoken there. The ARC-funded project 'Languages of Minahasa' aims to document and describe several of the endangered languages of Minahasa in North Sulawesi, where the local Philippine-type languages are under pressure from both mainstream Bahasa Indonesia and the local Malay vernacular, Bahasa Manado. The first part of this presentation will outline the language situation in Minahasa, examining the factors behind the rapid decline in the local languages and looking at the prospects for reversing language shift.
The second part of the presentation will consist of a brief typological overview of the Tondano language before focusing on one particular area of morphosynatax. Tondano displays the phenomenon of clitic doubling in clauses, more specifically the doubling of noun phrase markers. This repetition of information relates to the person, number, and animacy features of the syntactic pivot of the clause. Defining the exact status of clitics that pertain to person and number can be problematic and the methods and terminology used to describe such constructions has often varied in previous studies (Bresnan & Mchombo 1987: 742; Corbett 2003:1). Using data taken from a recent field trip I will outline the Tondano phrase marking clitics and then attempt to 1) clarify which arguments in a clause can or must be cross-referenced, and 2) provide a preliminary explanation of what factors might be influencing the clitic doubling.
22 May
Beyond the sounds of AusLawrie Zion (La Trobe University)
This seminar will look at some of the issues and research methods that went into the making of the one-hour documentary The Sounds of Aus that told the story of the Australian accent. Nearly five years after the program first went to air on ABC TV, writer/researcher and co-producer Lawrie Zion will outline some of the ideas behind a follow-up research and screen project that he has commenced with Professor Kate Burridge.
Lawrie Zion is Associate Professor of Journalism at La Trobe University and editor-in-chief of upstart (www.upstart.net.au) which is the site for emerging journalists. His PhD, which he completed at Monash, was on the pop music scene in Australia in the 1960s. He has worked for 15 years as a broadcaster and print journalist, and continues to be a contributor to the ABC. His other current research project is focused on examining emerging best practices in digital journalism.