Here are the slides from my 2023 SSILA presentation. Please don't hesitate to message me if you h... more Here are the slides from my 2023 SSILA presentation. Please don't hesitate to message me if you have any comments / questions / etc.
These are the slides from my SLE 2022 presentation, in the disentangling topicality effects works... more These are the slides from my SLE 2022 presentation, in the disentangling topicality effects workshop. Some details, mentioned in the actual talk, are missing from the slides. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!
This is my poster-less poster presentation from the virtual 2021 SSILA meeting. Please see full p... more This is my poster-less poster presentation from the virtual 2021 SSILA meeting. Please see full paper posted here below (accepted for publication) and don't hesitate to send me any comments / questions etc.
Our talk from SLE 2020 using phylogenetic methods to test Croft's negative existential cycle in I... more Our talk from SLE 2020 using phylogenetic methods to test Croft's negative existential cycle in Indo-European.
Slides and recorded talk can be freely accessed on the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/5dev3/
These are the slides of a talk I gave in the 3rd usage based linguistics conference at HUJI.
C... more These are the slides of a talk I gave in the 3rd usage based linguistics conference at HUJI.
Comments, questions, are VERY welcome either as a message here or email at shahar.shirtz@gmail.com
Accepted version: please let me know if you have any comments / questions, etc.
Abstract:
This p... more Accepted version: please let me know if you have any comments / questions, etc. Abstract: This paper argues that the function of final consonant reduplication (FCR) in Siuslaw ([sis]; Oregon-Coast Penutian / Isolate) is to construe the information in a proposition as unsurprising and expected, as information that should already be known to listeners or at least well anticipated by them. This function is more or less the opposite of mirativity, where information is construed as surprising or unexpected, and is related to a functional domain that was recently labeled "enimitive": the construal of information as "uncontroversial". This paper shows that the discourse profile of the Siuslaw FCR includes uses that belong to the domain of the enimitive, e.g., when deployed in quoted speech or monologues, but that it also includes functionally related uses that do not belong to the enimitive domain, e.g., on the main event line of narratives and in procedural texts. The functional range of the Siuslaw FCR, then, is wider than the enimitive domain. We use this range of uses, together with the uses of similar constructions in some other languages, to argue for a functional domain of anti-mirativity that includes the enimitive as a sub-domain. We conclude by proposing a preliminary sketch of the anti-mirativity functional domain.
Accepted version: please let me know if you have any comments / questions / etc.
Abstract:
This ... more Accepted version: please let me know if you have any comments / questions / etc. Abstract: This paper argues that in Alsea ([aes]; Penutian/Isolate; Dormant; Oregon Coast) the main event line (MEL) of narratives is reliably signaled by a particular combination of clause-initial particles, functioning as discourse markers, and not by a specific set of verb forms, the means usually identified and discussed in the literature as a cue for the MEL status of a clause. The strength of the link between this combination of discourse markers and the MEL, then, represents a crosslinguistic situation that seems rare. Alsea has a rich systems of discourse-markers and a rich system of verbal affixes, with over 20 potentially co-occurring markers in each. The relative wealth of these discourse-markers and their potential combinations make an intricate system of signaling the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic relationship between clauses and their immediate environment, essentially signaling their discourse status. One combination of markers has the function of signaling the MEL. Alsea verbal affixes, on the other hand, play a major role in event semantics and aspectual construal, but a minor one in discourse structuring. This allows for seemingly paradoxical uses of irrealis or imperfective verb forms on the MEL of narratives, where the later coerces the event into specific types of bounded and realis readings.
Where in earlier work diachronic change is used to explain away exceptions to typologies, linguis... more Where in earlier work diachronic change is used to explain away exceptions to typologies, linguistic typologists have started to make use of explicit diachronic models as explanations for typological distributions. A topic that lends itself for this approach especially well is that of negation. In this article, we assess the explanatory value of a specific hypothesis, the Negative Existential Cycle (NEC), on the distribution of negative existential strategies (“types”) in 106 Indo-European languages. We use Bayesian phylogenetic comparative methods to infer posterior distributions of transition rates and parameters, thus applying rational methods to construct and evaluate a set of different models under which the attested typological distribution could have evolved. We find that the frequency of diachronic processes that affect negative existentials outside of the NEC cannot be ignored—the unidirectional NEC alone cannot explain the evolution of negative existential strategies in our sample. We show that non-unidirectional evolutionary models, especially those that allow for different and multiple transitions between strategies, provide better fit. In addition, the phylogenetic modeling is impacted by the expected skewed distribution of negative existential strategies in our sample, pointing out the need for densely sampled and family-based typological research.
Please don't hesitate to message me if you have any questions / comments!
This paper compares th... more Please don't hesitate to message me if you have any questions / comments!
This paper compares the usage patterns or usage dynamics of discourse markers and their combinations in Alsea and Siuslaw, two dormant languages of the Oregon Coast with a long history of contact and convergence. Like many languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Alsea and Siuslaw have a set of clause-initial markers mostly used for adverbial and pragmatic functions. These markers often co-occur, and in both languages clauses in connected discourse have zero to four such markers. Despite the similar potential range for combinations, the patterns by which these markers are used in the two languages differ: discourse markers co-occur much more frequently in Alsea, in more varied combinations, and their relative order tends to be more set. We propose that this is correlated with the coding means used to structure discourse in the two languages, particularly the different functions of individual markers and of their common combinations. We illustrate this by comparing the uses of two discourse markers, Alsea tem and Siuslaw ᵘɬ, roughly translatable to English by "and", and the uses of their combination with Alsea múⁿhū and Siuslaw wàn, roughly translatable to English by "now, then".
Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics, 2019
Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions / comments!
Please refer to the published... more Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions / comments!
Please refer to the published version: Shirtz, Shahar. 2019. Isomorphic co-expression of nominal predication subdomains: An Indo-Iranian case study. Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics, 6(1), 59-89.
This paper presents two extensions of Middle Persian clitic pronouns usage from coding indirect p... more This paper presents two extensions of Middle Persian clitic pronouns usage from coding indirect participants into coding core arguments and constituents. These changes take place in several constructions, and are side effects of changes elsewhere in the clause. The processes described here have to do with 2 S. S H I R T Z grammaticalization of auxiliaries, the use of nominalized verb forms in verbal predicate functions and with the nominal predicate construction. Following these changes, the clitic pronoun ends up coding a nominative argument (A/S argument) in an auxiliary verb construction, and a topic argument in a nominal predicate construction.
Here are the slides from my 2023 SSILA presentation. Please don't hesitate to message me if you h... more Here are the slides from my 2023 SSILA presentation. Please don't hesitate to message me if you have any comments / questions / etc.
These are the slides from my SLE 2022 presentation, in the disentangling topicality effects works... more These are the slides from my SLE 2022 presentation, in the disentangling topicality effects workshop. Some details, mentioned in the actual talk, are missing from the slides. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!
This is my poster-less poster presentation from the virtual 2021 SSILA meeting. Please see full p... more This is my poster-less poster presentation from the virtual 2021 SSILA meeting. Please see full paper posted here below (accepted for publication) and don't hesitate to send me any comments / questions etc.
Our talk from SLE 2020 using phylogenetic methods to test Croft's negative existential cycle in I... more Our talk from SLE 2020 using phylogenetic methods to test Croft's negative existential cycle in Indo-European.
Slides and recorded talk can be freely accessed on the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/5dev3/
These are the slides of a talk I gave in the 3rd usage based linguistics conference at HUJI.
C... more These are the slides of a talk I gave in the 3rd usage based linguistics conference at HUJI.
Comments, questions, are VERY welcome either as a message here or email at shahar.shirtz@gmail.com
Accepted version: please let me know if you have any comments / questions, etc.
Abstract:
This p... more Accepted version: please let me know if you have any comments / questions, etc. Abstract: This paper argues that the function of final consonant reduplication (FCR) in Siuslaw ([sis]; Oregon-Coast Penutian / Isolate) is to construe the information in a proposition as unsurprising and expected, as information that should already be known to listeners or at least well anticipated by them. This function is more or less the opposite of mirativity, where information is construed as surprising or unexpected, and is related to a functional domain that was recently labeled "enimitive": the construal of information as "uncontroversial". This paper shows that the discourse profile of the Siuslaw FCR includes uses that belong to the domain of the enimitive, e.g., when deployed in quoted speech or monologues, but that it also includes functionally related uses that do not belong to the enimitive domain, e.g., on the main event line of narratives and in procedural texts. The functional range of the Siuslaw FCR, then, is wider than the enimitive domain. We use this range of uses, together with the uses of similar constructions in some other languages, to argue for a functional domain of anti-mirativity that includes the enimitive as a sub-domain. We conclude by proposing a preliminary sketch of the anti-mirativity functional domain.
Accepted version: please let me know if you have any comments / questions / etc.
Abstract:
This ... more Accepted version: please let me know if you have any comments / questions / etc. Abstract: This paper argues that in Alsea ([aes]; Penutian/Isolate; Dormant; Oregon Coast) the main event line (MEL) of narratives is reliably signaled by a particular combination of clause-initial particles, functioning as discourse markers, and not by a specific set of verb forms, the means usually identified and discussed in the literature as a cue for the MEL status of a clause. The strength of the link between this combination of discourse markers and the MEL, then, represents a crosslinguistic situation that seems rare. Alsea has a rich systems of discourse-markers and a rich system of verbal affixes, with over 20 potentially co-occurring markers in each. The relative wealth of these discourse-markers and their potential combinations make an intricate system of signaling the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic relationship between clauses and their immediate environment, essentially signaling their discourse status. One combination of markers has the function of signaling the MEL. Alsea verbal affixes, on the other hand, play a major role in event semantics and aspectual construal, but a minor one in discourse structuring. This allows for seemingly paradoxical uses of irrealis or imperfective verb forms on the MEL of narratives, where the later coerces the event into specific types of bounded and realis readings.
Where in earlier work diachronic change is used to explain away exceptions to typologies, linguis... more Where in earlier work diachronic change is used to explain away exceptions to typologies, linguistic typologists have started to make use of explicit diachronic models as explanations for typological distributions. A topic that lends itself for this approach especially well is that of negation. In this article, we assess the explanatory value of a specific hypothesis, the Negative Existential Cycle (NEC), on the distribution of negative existential strategies (“types”) in 106 Indo-European languages. We use Bayesian phylogenetic comparative methods to infer posterior distributions of transition rates and parameters, thus applying rational methods to construct and evaluate a set of different models under which the attested typological distribution could have evolved. We find that the frequency of diachronic processes that affect negative existentials outside of the NEC cannot be ignored—the unidirectional NEC alone cannot explain the evolution of negative existential strategies in our sample. We show that non-unidirectional evolutionary models, especially those that allow for different and multiple transitions between strategies, provide better fit. In addition, the phylogenetic modeling is impacted by the expected skewed distribution of negative existential strategies in our sample, pointing out the need for densely sampled and family-based typological research.
Please don't hesitate to message me if you have any questions / comments!
This paper compares th... more Please don't hesitate to message me if you have any questions / comments!
This paper compares the usage patterns or usage dynamics of discourse markers and their combinations in Alsea and Siuslaw, two dormant languages of the Oregon Coast with a long history of contact and convergence. Like many languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Alsea and Siuslaw have a set of clause-initial markers mostly used for adverbial and pragmatic functions. These markers often co-occur, and in both languages clauses in connected discourse have zero to four such markers. Despite the similar potential range for combinations, the patterns by which these markers are used in the two languages differ: discourse markers co-occur much more frequently in Alsea, in more varied combinations, and their relative order tends to be more set. We propose that this is correlated with the coding means used to structure discourse in the two languages, particularly the different functions of individual markers and of their common combinations. We illustrate this by comparing the uses of two discourse markers, Alsea tem and Siuslaw ᵘɬ, roughly translatable to English by "and", and the uses of their combination with Alsea múⁿhū and Siuslaw wàn, roughly translatable to English by "now, then".
Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics, 2019
Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions / comments!
Please refer to the published... more Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions / comments!
Please refer to the published version: Shirtz, Shahar. 2019. Isomorphic co-expression of nominal predication subdomains: An Indo-Iranian case study. Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics, 6(1), 59-89.
This paper presents two extensions of Middle Persian clitic pronouns usage from coding indirect p... more This paper presents two extensions of Middle Persian clitic pronouns usage from coding indirect participants into coding core arguments and constituents. These changes take place in several constructions, and are side effects of changes elsewhere in the clause. The processes described here have to do with 2 S. S H I R T Z grammaticalization of auxiliaries, the use of nominalized verb forms in verbal predicate functions and with the nominal predicate construction. Following these changes, the clitic pronoun ends up coding a nominative argument (A/S argument) in an auxiliary verb construction, and a topic argument in a nominal predicate construction.
Uploads
Talks by Shahar Shirtz
Slides and recorded talk can be freely accessed on the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/5dev3/
Comments, questions, are VERY welcome either as a message here or email at shahar.shirtz@gmail.com
Papers by Shahar Shirtz
Abstract:
This paper argues that the function of final consonant reduplication (FCR) in Siuslaw ([sis]; Oregon-Coast Penutian / Isolate) is to construe the information in a proposition as unsurprising and expected, as information that should already be known to listeners or at least well anticipated by them. This function is more or less the opposite of mirativity, where information is construed as surprising or unexpected, and is related to a functional domain that was recently labeled "enimitive": the construal of information as "uncontroversial". This paper shows that the discourse profile of the Siuslaw FCR includes uses that belong to the domain of the enimitive, e.g., when deployed in quoted speech or monologues, but that it also includes functionally related uses that do not belong to the enimitive domain, e.g., on the main event line of narratives and in procedural texts. The functional range of the Siuslaw FCR, then, is wider than the enimitive domain. We use this range of uses, together with the uses of similar constructions in some other languages, to argue for a functional domain of anti-mirativity that includes the enimitive as a sub-domain. We conclude by proposing a preliminary sketch of the anti-mirativity functional domain.
Abstract:
This paper argues that in Alsea ([aes]; Penutian/Isolate; Dormant; Oregon Coast) the main event line (MEL) of narratives is reliably signaled by a particular combination of clause-initial particles, functioning as discourse markers, and not by a specific set of verb forms, the means usually identified and discussed in the literature as a cue for the MEL status of a clause. The strength of the link between this combination of discourse markers and the MEL, then, represents a crosslinguistic situation that seems rare. Alsea has a rich systems of discourse-markers and a rich system of verbal affixes, with over 20 potentially co-occurring markers in each. The relative wealth of these discourse-markers and their potential combinations make an intricate system of signaling the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic relationship between clauses and their immediate environment, essentially signaling their discourse status. One combination of markers has the function of signaling the MEL. Alsea verbal affixes, on the other hand, play a major role in event semantics and aspectual construal, but a minor one in discourse structuring. This allows for seemingly paradoxical uses of irrealis or imperfective verb forms on the MEL of narratives, where the later coerces the event into specific types of bounded and realis readings.
open access: https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.661862
This paper compares the usage patterns or usage dynamics of discourse markers and their combinations in Alsea and Siuslaw, two dormant languages of the Oregon Coast with a long history of contact and convergence. Like many languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Alsea and Siuslaw have a set of clause-initial markers mostly used for adverbial and pragmatic functions. These markers often co-occur, and in both languages clauses in connected discourse have zero to four such markers. Despite the similar potential range for combinations, the patterns by which these markers are used in the two languages differ: discourse markers co-occur much more frequently in Alsea, in more varied combinations, and their relative order tends to be more set. We propose that this is correlated with the coding means used to structure discourse in the two languages, particularly the different functions of individual markers and of their common combinations. We illustrate this by comparing the uses of two discourse markers, Alsea tem and Siuslaw ᵘɬ, roughly translatable to English by "and", and the uses of their combination with Alsea múⁿhū and Siuslaw wàn, roughly translatable to English by "now, then".
Please refer to the published version: Shirtz, Shahar. 2019. Isomorphic co-expression of nominal predication subdomains: An Indo-Iranian case study. Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics, 6(1), 59-89.
Drafts by Shahar Shirtz
Slides and recorded talk can be freely accessed on the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/5dev3/
Comments, questions, are VERY welcome either as a message here or email at shahar.shirtz@gmail.com
Abstract:
This paper argues that the function of final consonant reduplication (FCR) in Siuslaw ([sis]; Oregon-Coast Penutian / Isolate) is to construe the information in a proposition as unsurprising and expected, as information that should already be known to listeners or at least well anticipated by them. This function is more or less the opposite of mirativity, where information is construed as surprising or unexpected, and is related to a functional domain that was recently labeled "enimitive": the construal of information as "uncontroversial". This paper shows that the discourse profile of the Siuslaw FCR includes uses that belong to the domain of the enimitive, e.g., when deployed in quoted speech or monologues, but that it also includes functionally related uses that do not belong to the enimitive domain, e.g., on the main event line of narratives and in procedural texts. The functional range of the Siuslaw FCR, then, is wider than the enimitive domain. We use this range of uses, together with the uses of similar constructions in some other languages, to argue for a functional domain of anti-mirativity that includes the enimitive as a sub-domain. We conclude by proposing a preliminary sketch of the anti-mirativity functional domain.
Abstract:
This paper argues that in Alsea ([aes]; Penutian/Isolate; Dormant; Oregon Coast) the main event line (MEL) of narratives is reliably signaled by a particular combination of clause-initial particles, functioning as discourse markers, and not by a specific set of verb forms, the means usually identified and discussed in the literature as a cue for the MEL status of a clause. The strength of the link between this combination of discourse markers and the MEL, then, represents a crosslinguistic situation that seems rare. Alsea has a rich systems of discourse-markers and a rich system of verbal affixes, with over 20 potentially co-occurring markers in each. The relative wealth of these discourse-markers and their potential combinations make an intricate system of signaling the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic relationship between clauses and their immediate environment, essentially signaling their discourse status. One combination of markers has the function of signaling the MEL. Alsea verbal affixes, on the other hand, play a major role in event semantics and aspectual construal, but a minor one in discourse structuring. This allows for seemingly paradoxical uses of irrealis or imperfective verb forms on the MEL of narratives, where the later coerces the event into specific types of bounded and realis readings.
open access: https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.661862
This paper compares the usage patterns or usage dynamics of discourse markers and their combinations in Alsea and Siuslaw, two dormant languages of the Oregon Coast with a long history of contact and convergence. Like many languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Alsea and Siuslaw have a set of clause-initial markers mostly used for adverbial and pragmatic functions. These markers often co-occur, and in both languages clauses in connected discourse have zero to four such markers. Despite the similar potential range for combinations, the patterns by which these markers are used in the two languages differ: discourse markers co-occur much more frequently in Alsea, in more varied combinations, and their relative order tends to be more set. We propose that this is correlated with the coding means used to structure discourse in the two languages, particularly the different functions of individual markers and of their common combinations. We illustrate this by comparing the uses of two discourse markers, Alsea tem and Siuslaw ᵘɬ, roughly translatable to English by "and", and the uses of their combination with Alsea múⁿhū and Siuslaw wàn, roughly translatable to English by "now, then".
Please refer to the published version: Shirtz, Shahar. 2019. Isomorphic co-expression of nominal predication subdomains: An Indo-Iranian case study. Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics, 6(1), 59-89.