Li5 - Linguistic Theory!

Universals
Given the lack of clarity surrounding the definition of universal in linguistics, it is difficult
to find convincing cases of counterevidence. Discuss.!
The treacherously different senses of universal in linguistics have allowed the term to
survive a massive accumulation of counterevidence. Discuss.!
The task for linguistics is not just to discover linguistic universals, but to understand
what those universals can tell us about the human mind. Discuss.!
What needs to be explained is not that there are linguistic universals, but that so much
choice remains to any given language. Discuss.!
The notions of language universal and of Universal Grammar are empirically and
conceptually quite distinct. Discuss.!

Typology
Language typology is an interesting taxonomic exercise, but the fact that languages
rarely conform perfectly to a single type should remind us that it has no predictive
power. Discuss.!

One Language Study

The discipline of linguistics would be little different if there had only ever been one
language in the world. Discuss.!
One need know only one language to be a good linguist. Discuss.!

Diversity and Variation

Diversity in language is more convincing and impressive than universality. Discuss.!
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Variation is all-pervasive in language, and therefore has to be accounted for in all

approaches of linguistics. Discuss.!
Linguistic variability is not an aberration, but inherent in language and its use. Discuss.!
The one constant in language is variation. Discuss.!
A formal theory of language can predict the existence of variation. Discuss.!
Languages may vary unpredictably and without limit. Discuss.!
Variation is so endemic to language at all levels that any approach to linguistics must
make it a central concern. Discuss.!
The variability inherent in human language does not appear to trouble language
acquirers, but it continues to frustrate both theoretical and applied linguists. Discuss.!
Languages change, but language remains the same. Discuss.!
Working out what should be viewed as noise is the greatest challenge in linguistic
research. Discuss.!

Context
Samples of language cannot be properly analysed without the context in which they
occur. Discuss.!
It is impossible to analyse sentences properly unless one knows the context in which
they occur. Discuss.!
It is the utterance in context rather than the idealized sentence that should be the focus
of linguists research. Discuss.!
Taking the study of utterances in context as the focus of linguistic research radically
alters our conception of linguistic theory. Discuss.!
Speakers intentions and contextual information are more central to the analysis of
linguistic meaning than referential semantics. Discuss.!

Logic
It is impossible to study linguistics without at least a basic knowledge of logic and set
theory. Discuss.!
For linguists, logic is more than just a tool; logical notions lie at the heart of language.
Discuss.!

Cognition & Psycholinguistics

Language can be studied without reference to human cognition. Discuss.!
The concerns and methods of psychology are different from those of the linguist, whose
proper object of study is language. Discuss.!
Linguistics is a branch of psychology. Discuss. !
The real scientific interest of linguistics lies in what it can tell us about the human mind.
Discuss.!

Mediums
Writing, especially alphabetic writing, has both helped and hindered linguists in their
attempt to understand the nature of language. Discuss.!
One really striking property of language is that its basic properties appear to be
independent of the medium: speech, sign and writing indifferently convey the same
systems and structures. Discuss.!
Language is both suited and unsuited to the various modalities (speech, sign and
writing) in which it is realised. Discuss.!

Perfection
Any linguistic theory claiming to give a complete account must be addressing an
incomplete subset of linguistic phenomena. Discuss.!
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The continual modification of linguistic theories should make us wary of believing in a

correct analysis of any given linguistic phenomenon. Discuss.!
Linguistic generalisations always seem to be riddled with exceptions. Discuss.!

Other
Data and evidence are not the same thing, neither for a language learner, nor for a
researcher. Discuss.!
Language is inherently multifunctional. Discuss.!
The amazing thing about language is that it gets replicated from one generation to the
next again and again. Discuss.!
Nurture is a more important factor than nature in language. Discuss.!
It is all too easy for an abstract analysis to presuppose precisely what is being tested,
dismissing apparent counterexamples and rendering its claims unfalsifiable. Discuss.!
There may be more languages, seen as distinct grammatical systems, than people in
the world. This is only a problem if linguistics sets itself the goal of studying every
language. Discuss.!
Theory construction entails abstraction from data: this is true in linguistics as in any
other science. Discuss.!
One of the most important design features of language is the duality of patterning in
sound structure and grammatical structure. Discuss.!
Saussures observation that speech has both an individual and a social side is too often
forgotten in modern-day linguistic debates. Discuss.!
Language means very different things to different kinds of linguists. Discuss.!
All the evidence indicates that innately specified categories play no role in human
language. Discuss.!
Human language is poorly designed for communication. Discuss.!
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Linguists have an unfortunate tendency to want to interpret the past in terms of the
present. Discuss.!

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Li7 - Phonological Theory!

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Acquisition
The study of phonological acquisition can tell us a great deal about the auditory system,
vocal tract ontogeny, learning mechanisms, and so on, but reveals nothing about the
synchronic structure of the phonological component of the human language faculty.
Discuss.!

Stress
The typology of stress crucially relies on a hierarchical analysis of the syllable.
Discuss.!

Prosodic / Autosegmental Phonology

The theory of Prosodic Phonology fails to account adequately for a number of
phonological processes which make direct reference to syntax. Discuss.!

Data Questions / in English

Write a set of formal rules and/or constraints in non-linear notation that accounts for the
distribution of voicing in a variety of English of your choice.!
Write a set of formal rules and/or constraints in non-linear, feature-based notation that
accounts for the distribution of voicing in one of the following: British, American, or
Canadian English.!
Write a set of formal rules and/or constraints in non-linear notation that accounts for the
distribution of [spread glottis] in British English.!
Formalize as parsimoniously as possible, using phonological features and nonlinear
notation, the rules necessary to account for the following Friulian forms (Abbreviations:
fem. = feminine, dim. = diminutive). State and justify any extrinsic orderings between the
rules involved. Provide derivations for to lose, body-dim., wolf, ugly, and peace,
being sure to justify any points of interest in the underlying representations you
postulate.!
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Account for the following alternations in Polish, using either ranked Optimality Theoretic
constraints or an ordered set of non-linear rules using feature-based autosegmental
notation. Provide derivations to illustrate the workings of your analysis, and state what
sort of process interaction is involved.!

Loanwords
Loanword adaptation provides an excellent source of evidence for the effect of
markedness constraints. Discuss.!

Opacity
Opaque phonological generalizations are unlearnable. Discuss.!
Perhaps the most significant advance made by monostratal theories such as Optimality
Theory is the demonstration that opacity effects are illusory. Discuss.!
The attested range of phonological patterns in the worlds languages is most insightfully
and parsimoniously accounted for by surface-true generalizations. Discuss.!
Phonological opacity is no more than a scholars assemblage of unrelated historical
changes. Discuss.!

Features
Phonemes are the atoms of language. Discuss.!
Distinctive features may be a convenient descriptive device, but there is no evidence
that humans actually decompose the phonetic signal into anything more than phones.
Discuss.!

External Evidence
External evidence is necessary but not sufficient in the construction and evaluation of
phonological theories. Discuss.!

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Phonetic-Phonology Boundary
Humans store fine-grained gradient phonetic representations of articulatory gestures
that typically encompass the equivalent of several segments; higher-level categorical
features and phonemes are figments of the phonologists imagination. Discuss.!
The phonological component of the human Language Faculty manipulates abstract
mental symbols; it is only in the phonetic component that these symbols are converted
into representations with physical content. Discuss.!

Other
All phonological operations are strictly local. Discuss.!
Occams Razor requires that we eschew autosegmental and non-linear representation.
Discuss.!
Phonological systems are natural and optimally designed. Discuss.!
Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. Discuss with reference to EITHER rule ordering OR
segmental inventories.!
Phonology is nothing more than a poor mans phonetics. Discuss.!
In phonology, what you see is what you get. Discuss.!
Phonological representations and operations are highly abstract. Discuss.!
With the rise of distinctive features and non-linear autosegmental representations, there
is no longer any need for the phoneme. Discuss.!
Connected speech processes add to the diversity of realisations encountered at the
phonetic level. Nevertheless, native speakers and listeners manage reliably to map
sound to meaning. Discuss how phonologists have attempted to account for the
robustness of such sound-meaning mappings, making reference to at least two
theoretical frameworks.!
The attested range of phonological patterns in the worlds languages is most
perspicaciously and parsimoniously accounted for by a theory that employs multidimensional representations. Discuss.!

Li11 - Historical Linguistics!

Linguistic Reconstruction
Linguistic reconstruction must take account of sociolinguistics. Discuss.!
The enterprise of large-scale syntactic reconstruction has been held back by a rigid
adherence to a narrow understanding of the Comparative Method. Discuss.!
Internal and external reconstruction are for all intents and purposes the same
enterprise. Discuss.!
Since the Comparative Method cannot be applied to syntax, syntactic reconstruction is
impossible. Discuss.!
It is impossible to reconstruct the original human language, if there even was one.
Discuss.!
Internal reconstruction is fundamentally different than external reconstruction; it is a
synchronic rather than a diachronic enterprise. Discuss.!
The history of syntactic systems is a history of pattern replacement and reanalysis.
Discuss the implications of this statement for syntactic reconstruction.!
Since in syntactic change there is no analogue of the regularity of sound change,
syntactic reconstruction is futile. Discuss.!
Reconstructed languages constitute creations for the convenience of linguistic
investigation. Discuss.!
We reconstruct on exceptions, not rules. Discuss.!
Historical linguists are generally unable to assign any accurate time depth to their
reconstructions. Discuss.!

What can be borrowed & Language Contact

For the successful application of the Comparative Method, it is essential to distinguish
between shared retentions and shared innovations. Discuss.!
Linguistic rules cannot be borrowed. Discuss.!
Sprachbund phenomena do not involve borrowing of linguistic structures, but rather the
recruitment of existing structures to generate surface patterns that resemble surface
patterns in another language. Discuss.!
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Contact is not really between languages, but between speakers of languages. Discuss.!

Typology
As an explanation for change, long-term typological drift raises as many questions as it
answers. Discuss.!
Our typological knowledge is not so great as to outweigh other considerations in
postulating past stages of languages. Discuss.!
At each stage in their historical evolution, languages remain consistent with synchronic
universal implications. Discuss.!
The study of language change is impossible without adhering to the Uniformitarian
Principle. Discuss.!

Grammaticalization
Grammaticalization creates new forms and introduces categories which had no linguistic
expression (Meillet). Discuss.!
Grammaticalization calls into question a number of the basic axioms of structural
linguistics, including the notion of the discreteness of categories. Discuss.!
The large majority of syntactic changes are instances of pure grammaticalization and
should be explained within the framework of a theory of grammaticalization, without
reference to reanalysis. Discuss.!
In grammaticalization, syntactic changes follow semantic ones, while in reanalysis
syntactic changes follow phonological ones. Discuss.!
There is no such thing as grammaticalisation, at least in so far as it might be regarded
as a distinct grammatical phenomenon requiring a distinct set of principles for
explanation (Newmeyer). Discuss.!

Semantic Change
Discuss the interrelationship of metaphor, metonymy and the conventionalisation of
implicature in bringing about semantic change.!

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Linguists have failed to produce an adequate theory of lexical semantic change because
words change their meaning primarily as the result of changes in the real world.
Discuss.!
Historical linguists have made little progress in historical semantics in the past century
because they have been unable to set limits on possible semantic change. Discuss.!

Syntactic Change
Discuss how TWO OR MORE approaches would account for the cyclic nature of much
syntactic change.!
Discuss how linguists have attempted to account for the fact that syntactic innovations
spread gradually through a community over one or more generations.!
Formal approaches to syntactic change predict that change should be random and
directionless. Discuss.!

Writing Systems
Writing systems can be argued to develop along the same trajectory as spoken
languages. Discuss.!
The historical development of writing systems can be reconstructed using the same
methods employed for spoken languages. Discuss.!
There are never grounds for assuming that an attested practice of writing coincides
precisely with a contemporaneous practice of speaking. Discuss.!

Origin of Linguistic Innovation

Sound change is driven by children. Discuss.!
Probably the most important single source of changes in vocabulary is the creation of
new words on analogies which have spread from a few specific words. Discuss.!
Language change is driven by ambiguity in the Primary Linguistic Data. Discuss.!
Linguistic innovation has numerous sources, including early child language acquisition,
language contact and the needs of communication. Discuss.!
In theories of the origin of sound change the speaker has usually been assigned the
leading role. Discuss.!
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Phonetics as a cause of innovations

All phonological and morphological changes originate in phonetic changes. Discuss.!
Changes in grammatical form often follow in the wake of destructive phonetic changes.
Discuss.!

Graduate vs. Abrupt

Languages change gradually but grammars change abruptly. Discuss with reference to
EITHER syntactic OR morphological change OR BOTH.!
The shift from one linguistic system to another is generally accompanied by an
extensive period of variation. Discuss.!
Speakers have access to more than one grammatical setting during periods of ongoing
change. Discuss.!

Analogy
Analogical change is totally arbitrary. Discuss.!
Humans predilection for analogical modes of reasoning can be used to explain change
in almost all areas of language. Discuss.!

Can we explain linguistic innovations?

It is questionable whether explanation of linguistic change is possible at all. Discuss. !
Explanations for phonetic and phonological change can only be partial and specific to
particular phenomena. Discuss.!
Linguists can offer satisfying explanations of change in some instances, but there is no
reason to expect to find a predictive theory of change offering long-term, linear
predictions. Discuss.!

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Other
The Wave Model offers a superior model of linguistic change to the Tree Model.
Discuss.!
In the historical domain, metaphor and metonymy lead predominantly to the emergence
of new lexical meanings situated in speakers subjective beliefs and attitudes. Discuss.!
Change in pronunciation which is not conditioned by non-phonetic factors is regular and
operates without exceptions at a particular time and in a particular speech community,
with possible environmental restrictions. Certain changes are exempt from this
hypothesis. Discuss.!
Linguistic change is best understood at the level of the individual rather than the group.
Discuss.!
All linguistic changes are simplifications. Discuss.!
The central task of any theory of historical linguistics is to provide a method for
distinguishing possible from impossible changes. Discuss.!
An individual cannot change a language, yet only an individual can change a language.
Discuss.!
The diffusion of an innovation represents the trivial case of acquisition: accurate
transmission. No special explanatory principles are required to account for it. Discuss.!
The Neogrammarian approach to language change cannot stand the challenge of
modern research on synchronic and diachronic language variation. Discuss.!
There is no such thing as a theory of morphological change. Discuss.!
There is no more reason for languages to change than there is for automobiles to add
fins one year and remove them the next. Discuss.!
Where plentiful data allow us to examine the course of a change in fine-grained detail,
the picture that emerges is often very different from what we would posit if we only had
evidence of the before and after states. Discuss.!
All history is the history of thought and therefore all history is the re-enactment of past
thought in the historians own mind. Discuss whether this statement, made by a
historian, has any implications for historical linguistics.

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