Against a generalized quantifier analysis of certain quantity expressions in Ch’ol

This paper discusses a quantity word alternation in Ch’ol, a Mayan language of southern Mexico. Drawing on fieldwork and additional texts, I show that numerals, pejtyel ‘all,’ and oñ ‘many/much’ may appear with additional possessive morphology. I present evidence against a generalized quantifier analysis of these expressions and provide an analysis where the possessed quantity expressions are adjuncts co-indexed with a null pronoun. I also consider the alternation between oñ ‘many/much’ and its possessed form, meaning ‘most’. While the morphosyntactic distribution is similar, there are certain semantic reasons to not treat the ‘many’/‘most’ alternation in the same way as ‘all’ and the numerals. I suggest that the form corresponding to ‘most’ has arisen via analogy with the other forms. I conclude with some observations on other quantity words in the language and cross-linguistic implications in the study of quantificational phrases

Language Research and Revitalization Through a Community-University Partnership: The Mi’gmaq Research Partnership

This paper discusses a collaboration between a university linguistics department and an Indigenous community, with the joint aim to increase the vitality of, and knowledge about, Mi’gmaq (Eastern Algonquian). It describes the history of the language in the community and how the partnership was initially formed. It discusses several joint initiatives: the development of digital language-learning resources, a class curriculum, and the hosting of an intergenerational open language workshop in the community. The authors share the models of work and lessons that have influenced them as this partnership has grown.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

A compositional morphosemantic analysis of exclusivity in Ch’ol

We argue that novel empirical generalizations on exclusive operators in Ch’ol (Mayan) provide strong evidence for a morphological decompositionality of exclusivity into a core semantic entry and focus sensitivity. There is a robust literature on exclusivity and the distributions of scalar particles in various languages (Beaver & Clark 2003, 2008; Orenstein & Greenberg 2010; Coppock & Beaver 2011a,b). Coppock & Beaver (2011a) argue that mere operates in a different domain (properties) than only (propositions). Recent work on focus constructions in Mayan languages include Yasavul (2013) for K’iche’ and AnderBois (2012) for Yucatec Maya. However, little work has been done on the variation among exclusives in morphologically rich languages like Ch’ol. Original data from fieldwork indicate that exclusivity can occur independently of focus marking, and when divorced from focus, the exclusive morpheme has a wider distribution and range of meanings

Agricultural Turns, Geographical Turns: Retrospect and Prospect.

It is accepted that British rural geography has actively engaged with the ‘cultural turn’, leading to a resurgence of research within the sub-discipline. However, a reading of recent reviews suggests that the cultural turn has largely, if not completely, bypassed those geographers interested in the agricultural sector. Farming centred engagements with notions of culture have been relatively limited compared with those concerned with the non-agricultural aspects of rural space. Indeed, agricultural geography represents something of an awkward case in the context of the disciplinary turn to culture, a situation that demands further exposition. In seeking explanation, it becomes evident that research on the farm sector is more culturally informed than initially appears. This paper argues that there have been both interesting and important engagements between agricultural geography and cultural perspectives over the past decade. The paper elaborates four specific areas of research which provide evidence for concern about the ‘culture’ within agriculture. The future contribution that culturally informed perspectives in geographical research can bring to agricultural issues is outlined by way of conclusion

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2–4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2,3,4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease

Mutual dependencies of nominal and clausal syntax in Ch'ol

240 pagesThis dissertation investigates nominal and clausal structure in Ch'ol, a Mayan language of southern Mexico. I take as an empirical basis the interpretation of bare nouns and extraction asymmetries in Ch'ol to argue for a base-generated account of verb-initial syntax. I propose that (in)definiteness is reflected structurally, demonstrating that only bare nominals within the VP may receive an indefinite interpretation. Any nominals generated or moved outside of the VP must be definite or take wide scope. I capture this empirical generalization by linking semantic interpretation to syntactic structure. Data on elements which can or cannot be displaced from nominal expressions also bears on underlying syntactic structure. I argue that the islandhood of nominals provides evidence for whether they are contained in a moved constituent. When extraction of an element is possible, it is not in a movement-derived position—having implications for the underlying structure of verb-initial word order. With these conclusions in mind, I support a syntax for VOS word order which is base-generated in Ch’ol. VSO is derived from VOS by moving the object. This analysis offers a straightforward account of the observed semantic properties of nominal arguments and extraction asymmetries. I model how a base-generated account of VOS is derived through linearization rules in the narrow syntax. The syntactic structure argued for here results in testable predictions about the semantic and syntactic properties of nominal arguments in other languages. I conclude that verb-initial languages do not constitute a uniform syntactic class and further investigation into structural dependencies of nominal and clausal syntax can provide us with a window into underlying similarities and differences across languages. En esta tesis se investiga la estructura nominal y clausal en ch'ol, una lengua mayense del sur de México, perteneciente a la rama cholana-tseltalana. La interpretación de los sustantivos escuetos y las asimetrías de extracción en ch'ol, forman la base empírica para desarrollar un análisis generado por la base ("base-generated") de dichos datos hacia una sintaxis de verbo-inicial. Se propone que la (in)definitud está reflejada en la estructura sintáctica, lo cual demuestra que sólo los nominales escuetos que están dentro de la frase verbal pueden tener una interpretación indefinida. Cualquier nominal generado o desplazado fuera de la frase verbal tiene que ser definido, o bien, puede tomar un alcance amplio con respecto a otros elementos cuantificacionales. Se captura esta generalización empírica al conectar la interpretación semántica con la estructura sintáctica. Los datos acerca de los elementos que pueden o no ser desplazados de las expresiones nominales, proporcionan evidencia que apoya la propuesta de la estructura sintáctica subyacente presentada en este trabajo. Se sostiene que los nominales que son islas sintácticas, proveen pruebas de que están contenidos dentro de un constituyente desplazado---cuando se puede extraer un elemento de una frase nominal, la frase nominal no está en una posición derivada por el movimiento, lo cual tiene implicaciones con respecto a la estructura del orden verbo-inicial. Ante estas conclusiones, se propone un análisis sintáctico del orden VOS, el cual está generado por la base de dichos datos en ch'ol. El orden VSO se deriva del orden VOS al mover el objeto. Dicho análisis proporciona una manera sencilla y directa de capturar las propiedades observadas en los argumentos nominales y en las asimetrías sintácticas. Se proponen reglas de linearización que permiten formalizar el análisis de VOS dentro de la sintaxis estrecha ("narrow syntax"). La estructura sintáctica propuesta en esta tesis brinda predicciones comprobables acerca de las propiedades semánticas y sintácticas de los argumentos nominales en otras lenguas. Se concluye que las lenguas de verbo-inicial no forman una categoría homogénea, por lo que una investigación adicional con respecto a las dependencias estructurales de la sintaxis nominal y clausal, nos permitirá indagar más a fondo las similitudes y diferencias subyacentes en las lenguas del mundo

Left branch extraction, object shift, and freezing effects in Tumbalá Ch’ol

Ch’ol (Mayan) exhibits asymmetries in what is available for left branch extraction. While both numerals and interrogative possessors are able to extract from absolutive subject position, only numerals may extract from absolutive object position. To capture this asymmetry, I provide evidence that objects with overt possessors always undergo object shift, blocking left branch extraction. This follows from the Freezing Principle (Ross 1974; Wexler & Culicover 1977), or a ban on extraction from a moved constituent. Objects with numeral modifiers do not obligatorily undergo object shift and therefore may extract from the object. In addition to numerals and interrogative possessors, I present and analyze possibilities for other elements to extract out of various positions. I situate this work within Agree-based theories of extraction (e.g. Rackowski & Richards 2005; van Urk & Richards 2015; Branan 2018) and discuss this proposal’s theoretical implications. Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the author’s fieldwork

Language research and revitalization through a community–university partnership: The Mi'gmaq research partnership

This paper discusses a collaboration between a university linguistics department and an Indigenous community, with the joint aim to increase the vitality of, and knowledge about, Mi’gmaq (Eastern Algonquian). It describes the history of the language in the community and how the partnership was initially formed. It discusses several joint initiatives: the development of digital language-learning resources, a class curriculum, and the hosting of an intergenerational open language workshop in the community.The authors share the models of work and lessons that have influenced them as this partnership has grown