Linguistics and some aspects of its underlying dynamics

In recent years, central components of a new approach to linguistics, the Minimalist Program (MP) have come closer to physics. Features of the Minimalist Program, such as the unconstrained nature of recursive Merge, the operation of the Labeling Algorithm that only operates at the interface of Narrow Syntax with the Conceptual-Intentional and the Sensory-Motor interfaces, the difference between pronounced and un-pronounced copies of elements in a sentence and the build-up of the Fibonacci sequence in the syntactic derivation of sentence structures, are directly accessible to representation in terms of algebraic formalism. Although in our scheme linguistic structures are classical ones, we find that an interesting and productive isomorphism can be established between the MP structure, algebraic structures and many-body field theory opening new avenues of inquiry on the dynamics underlying some central aspects of linguistics.Comment: 17 page

The interaction of syllabification and voicing perception in american english

The current paper explores these two sorts of phonetic explanations of the relationship between syllabic position and the voicing contrast in American English. It has long been observed that the contrast between, for example, /p/ and /b/ is expressed differently, depending on the position of the stop with respect to the vowel. Preceding a vowel within a syllable, the contrast is largely one of aspiration. /p/ is aspirated, while /b/ is voiceless, or in some dialects voiced or even an implosive. Following a vowel within a syllable, both /p/ and /b/ both tend to lack voicing in the closure and the contrast is expressed largely by dynamic differences in the transition between the previous vowel and the stop. Here, vowel and closure duration are negatively correlated such that the /p/ has a shorter vowel and longer closure duration. This difference is often enhanced by the addition of glottalization to /p/. In addition to these differences, there are additional differences connected to higher-level organization involving stress and feet edges. To make the current discussion more tractable, we will restrict ourselves to the two conditions (CV and VC) laid out above

DETERMINING LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY BASED ON DIRECTED MOTION LEXICALIZATION PATTERNS AS A LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATION: A CASE STUDY ON JAVANESE

Every language has directed motion constructions, but the lexicalization pattern of the constructions may differ from one language to another. The similarities and differences of directed motion lexicalization patterns can be used as the basis for classifying languages typologically. This paper aims to discuss how language typology can be determined based on directed motion lexicalization patterns found in a language. In this study I use the data of Javanese to examine whether Javanese can be classified into Talmy’s (1975, 1985) typology of verb-framed or satellite framed languages. Some problems and implications of this language typology will be discussed to see whether there is interaction between directed motion lexicalization patterns and other syntactic structures. The data of Javanese show that Javanese has some verb framing and satellite framing characteristics, and so language typology is not exactly definite in the sense that there are some restrictions that need to be considered