The syntax of manner quotative constructions in English and Dutch

This paper proposes an account of some properties of the manner quotative constructions be like [Quote] in English and hebben (zo)iets van [Quote] in Dutch. We make two main claims about these constructions. First, in the spirit of Rothstein’s (1999) proposal for adjectival predicates of copula be, we propose that eventive direct speech interpretations of these quotatives are derived via a coercion mechanism akin to those that make count readings out of mass nouns in the nominal domain. Second, adapting a proposal for be like originally made by Kayne (2007), we propose that some exceptional syntactic properties of be like as a quote introducer in English are explained by the presence of a silent something quantifier, which takes a like-headed PP as its complement. We compare English be like quotatives with innovative (zo)iets van quotative constructions in Dutch, which contain an overt something quantifier and behave similarly

FM carrier deviation measured by differential probability method

Differential probability FM system measures deviation of a carrier modulated by a complex signal. The peak-to-peak amplitude is measured and related to the frequency shift of the carrier signal. The deviation is described in terms of a probability as well as a peak value

A note on Basque participles

This paper develops and extends a unified account of two different guises of participial affixes in Basque suggested in Haddican (2007). The affixes -tu/-i/-n/-Ø are traditionally described as 'participial' affixes or perfective markers in view of the fact that on main verb complements of finite auxiliaries, they obligatorily cooccur with a perfective interpretation. Nevertheless, in non-finite embeddings, these affixes do not force perfective interpretation, and instead behave as infinitival markers. It is proposed that the affixes -tu/-i/-n/-Ø are merged as infinitival heads, and that the perfective guise of these elements involves raising of the verb root+-tu/-i/-n/-Ø to a null perfective head. Indirect evidence in favour of this proposal comes from the behaviour of these affixes in central dialects

V≥2 in Basque

This paper analyzes quasi-verb second (V2) effects in Basque. We show that Basque instantiates a typological prediction of the most widely assumed theory of V2, namely that V2 is a conspiracy of an [uV] on a C-field head attracting the verb and an EPP feature on this same head attracting the closest satellite XP. General considerations suggest that these two features should vary independently across languages, and if so, we expect the possibility of a language with EPP movement to the left periphery but not verb movement. We argue that this combination of properties fits the V≥2 pattern of Basque root clauses, and develop an analysis of the left periphery of Basque root clauses that expresses these restrictions

Cot in the Act: Speaker Ethnicity Conditions Lexical Identification in the Context of the Low-Back Merger in New York City English

This paper reports on an experiment designed to measure how listeners\u27s perceptions of speaker age and ethnicity condition identification of lexical items with THOUGHT/LOT vowels in New York City English (NYCE). Several independent studies have recently reported evidence of THOUGHT-lowering and/or LOT/THOUGHT merging in NYCE led by younger non-White speakers. Spoken corpus data by Wong (2012), Becker (2010) and Haddican et al. (2021) suggest rapid THOUGHT lowering, particularly in Asian and Latinx communities. Similarly, younger Asian and Latinx NYCE speakers favor merged LOT/THOUGHT responses in controlled homophony judgment tasks (Johnson 2010, Haddican et al. 2016). Moreover, matched-guise results by Becker (2014) suggest that raised THOUGHT is associated mainly with older White speakers. Unaddressed in this literature is whether listeners use perceived social information about the speaker--i.e. perceptions of age and ethnicity--in their phonemic categorization of low back vowels in comprehension of NYCE (Rubin 1992, Hay, Warren and Drager 2006, Koops 2011). Here, we report results from a forced-choice lexical identification experiment intended to investigate this. Consistent with previous production and matched guise results, judges tended to misidentify LOT auditory stimulus items as THOUGHT more often when the item was accompanied by a photo of an Asian speaker than a White speaker. The analysis revealed no effect for the age comparison. The results suggest that NYCE-native listeners actively use social information about speaker ethnicity in the categorization of LOT/THOUGHT items in comprehension