Phonic salience

Brazilian Portuguese exhibits a variable pattern of number agreement: redundant marks in all the related items, and, alternatively, non-redundant agreement, in which the plural mark is carried by the determiner or by the possessive being omitted in the remaining items. Phonic salience is a property related to the contrast between singular and plural forms of an item and had been raised as one of the relevant factors in agreement variation. In this paper the role of phonic salience is investigated by means of experimental methodology. We report the results of two elicited production experiments conducted with adult speakers - the first one, with real nouns, and second one with pseudo-nouns. The results are in line with the idea that the two rules of number agreement would be processed differently. Phonic salience, in turn, did not reveal a significant influence, contrary to the previous hypothesis. Nonetheless, syllable stress coincidence with the plural morpheme might be a cue for e...

Esta dissertacao investiga a dimensao cognitiva da variacao linguistica a partir de um estudo experimental sobre o processamento da concordância nominal variavel no portugues brasileiro. Focaliza, em particular, o processamento adulto da concordância variavel de numero no dominio do sintagma determinante numa perspectiva psicolinguistica. Para tal, partimos de resultados reportados na literatura a partir de estudos conduzidos – em sua maioria – numa perspectiva sociolinguistica. Como fundamentacao teorica e metodologica, a dissertacao concilia os pressupostos da psicolinguistica experimental e o arcabouco teorico relativo a concepcao de lingua veiculada na versao minimalista da Teoria Gerativa. As hipoteses de trabalho que nortearam nosso estudo foram as de que, de um lado, ha uma correlacao entre a presenca/ausencia de marcas explicitas de plural nos itens que compoem o DP e o custo de processamento da concordância variavel na compreensao. Do outro lado, considerouse que, em termos...

This paper analyzes cross-correlations among six variables of Brazilian Portuguese (the pronunciation of nasal /e/, coda r-retroflexion, coda r-deletion, NP agreement, 3rd person plural subject-verb agreement, and 1st person plural subject-verb agreement), with the objective of identifying constraints that promote the cooccurrence of sociolinguistic variants in individual speakers’ speech. We focus on the perspective of structural cohesion, and show that co-variability is conditioned not only by structural similarities among dependent variables (such as agreement processes or coda weakening), but also by general linguistic constraints that operate across multiple variables, such as phonic salience (Naro 1981, Scherre 1988, Naro et al. 1999). Finally, we suggest that markedness may be a more general linguistic principle underlying co-variation. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/ vol21/iss2/18 ...

Este capítulo analisa o fenômeno conhecido como concordância de número no sintagma nominal (SN), na fala das comunidades rurais de Jatimane e Laranjeiras, buscando identificar os condicionadores da escolha da variante de plural padrão nos elementos flexionáveis do sintagma nominal. Tem por objetivo contribuir para a reflexão sobre a variação linguística em comunidades brasileiras afrodescendentes. A variação da concordância verbal ou nominal é muito estudada no Português, com destaque o português brasileiro em que se analisam implicações sócio-histórico-culturais para a caracterização das variedades da língua. 1 Este texto é fruto de parte da dissertação de mestrado intitulada A variação na realização de marcas de número no sintagma nominal plural em duas comunidades afrodescendentes do estado da Bahia,

Brazilian Portuguese exhibits a variable pattern of number agreement: redundant marks in all the related items, and, alternatively, non-redundant agreement, in which the plural mark is carried by the determiner or by the possessive being omitted in the remaining items. Phonic salience is a property related to the contrast between singular and plural forms of an item and had been raised as one of the relevant factors in agreement variation. In this paper the role of phonic salience is investigated by means of experimental methodology. We report the results of two elicited production experiments conducted with adult speakers - the first one, with real nouns, and second one with pseudo-nouns. The results are in line with the idea that the two rules of number agreement would be processed differently. Phonic salience, in turn, did not reveal a significant influence, contrary to the previous hypothesis. Nonetheless, syllable stress coincidence with the plural morpheme might be a cue for e...

This paper analyzes cross-correlations among six variables of Brazilian Portuguese (the pronunciation of nasal /e/, coda r-retroflexion, coda r-deletion, NP agreement, 3rd person plural subject-verb agreement, and 1st person plural subject-verb agreement), with the objective of identifying constraints that promote the cooccurrence of sociolinguistic variants in individual speakers’ speech. We focus on the perspective of structural cohesion, and show that co-variability is conditioned not only by structural similarities among dependent variables (such as agreement processes or coda weakening), but also by general linguistic constraints that operate across multiple variables, such as phonic salience (Naro 1981, Scherre 1988, Naro et al. 1999). Finally, we suggest that markedness may be a more general linguistic principle underlying co-variation. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/ vol21/iss2/18 ...

This paper analyzes cross-correlations among six variables of Brazilian Portuguese (the pronunciation of nasal /e/, coda r-retroflexion, coda r-deletion, NP agreement, 3rd person plural subject-verb agreement, and 1st person plural subject-verb agreement), with the objective of identifying constraints that promote the cooccurrence of sociolinguistic variants in individual speakers’ speech. We focus on the perspective of structural cohesion, and show that co-variability is conditioned not only by structural similarities among dependent variables (such as agreement processes or coda weakening), but also by general linguistic constraints that operate across multiple variables, such as phonic salience (Naro 1981, Scherre 1988, Naro et al. 1999). Finally, we suggest that markedness may be a more general linguistic principle underlying co-variation. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/ vol21/iss2/18 ...

Brazilian Portuguese exhibits a variable pattern of number agreement: redundant marks in all the related items, and, alternatively, non-redundant agreement, in which the plural mark is carried by the determiner or by the possessive being omitted in the remaining items. Phonic salience is a property related to the contrast between singular and plural forms of an item and had been raised as one of the relevant factors in agreement variation. In this paper the role of phonic salience is investigated by means of experimental methodology. We report the results of two elicited production experiments conducted with adult speakers - the first one, with real nouns, and second one with pseudo-nouns. The results are in line with the idea that the two rules of number agreement would be processed differently. Phonic salience, in turn, did not reveal a significant influence, contrary to the previous hypothesis. Nonetheless, syllable stress coincidence with the plural morpheme might be a cue for e...

This chapter provides an overview of the current state of Brazilian sociolinguistic research. The complex nature of Brazilian society is itself seen as the main reason for the impressive wealth and diversity of work in this area throughout the country. We identify some of the most important centers, sketch some theoretical particularities of Brazilian sociolinguistics, and describe several large-scale projects. Some issues are traced from their initial dialectological descriptions to Labovian quantitative approaches and beyond to indexical fields in urban societies, which set the stage for future research.

This paper analyzes cross-correlations among six variables of Brazilian Portuguese (the pronunciation of nasal /e/, coda r-retroflexion, coda r-deletion, NP agreement, 3rd person plural subject-verb agreement, and 1st person plural subject-verb agreement), with the objective of identifying constraints that promote the cooccurrence of sociolinguistic variants in individual speakers’ speech. We focus on the perspective of structural cohesion, and show that co-variability is conditioned not only by structural similarities among dependent variables (such as agreement processes or coda weakening), but also by general linguistic constraints that operate across multiple variables, such as phonic salience (Naro 1981, Scherre 1988, Naro et al. 1999). Finally, we suggest that markedness may be a more general linguistic principle underlying co-variation. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/ vol21/iss2/18 ...

This paper analyzes cross-correlations among six variables of Brazilian Portuguese (the pronunciation of nasal /e/, coda r-retroflexion, coda r-deletion, NP agreement, 3rd person plural subject-verb agreement, and 1st person plural subject-verb agreement), with the objective of identifying constraints that promote the cooccurrence of sociolinguistic variants in individual speakers’ speech. We focus on the perspective of structural cohesion, and show that co-variability is conditioned not only by structural similarities among dependent variables (such as agreement processes or coda weakening), but also by general linguistic constraints that operate across multiple variables, such as phonic salience (Naro 1981, Scherre 1988, Naro et al. 1999). Finally, we suggest that markedness may be a more general linguistic principle underlying co-variation. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/ vol21/iss2/18 ...

The central motivations for the attention paid to endangered languages by linguists and social scientists are twofold: above all, there is concern for language as the embodiment or manifestation of the culture and history of the speakers, and the risk to that social and cultural heritage of a people that language loss entails. Additionally, there is the professional concern of linguists at loss of typological evidence about human linguistic capacity and specific evidence about the nature of the endangered language. And the preferred resolution for both of these concerns is to promote the preservation, or failing that the documentation, of languages at risk. Implicit in both of these motivations is some concept of just what are the social and linguistic characteristics that define a language variety as endangered. The most common conception is of some distinct language (typically bearing a language name) associated with a particular group of speakers-a people or ethnic group-which is threatened by absorption or replacement by some hegemonic language with which the endangered speakers are in contact. But the same issues-of vernacular response to contact with a hegemonic variety-also arise in connection with less distinctive, unnamed language varieties that are defined mainly by the social status of their speakers, i.e., nonstandard, popular, or vernacular varieties. This includes low-status regional and local dialects, nonstandard varieties defined by social class or exclusion,

Investigating local linguistic norms to discover larger patterns of language behaviour has been standard practice in sociolinguistic study. Looking closely at socially salient variables reveals patterns that problematize accepted trajectories of variation as traditional and newly emerging sociolinguistic identities interact. This paper integrates findings from multiple complementary projects to describe the forces influencing the stopping of interdental fricatives (dis ting for this thing), a highly salient marker of Newfoundland English, in and around St. John’s, the province’s major city. In urbanizing communities multivariate analysis reveals variation patterns typical of dialect erosion: older men maintain traditional norms while younger women move toward the standard, especially in linguistically salient contexts. In the same communities, a timingbased approach finds that young women seem to be agentively inserting stopped forms, suggesting that they have adopted a system with ...

This study provides a quantitative analysis for the process of word-final /r/-deletion in the dialect of Portuguese spoken in the city of Belem, in northern Brazil. Two linguistic and four extralinguistic factors are considered in the investigation, all of which have a significant effect on the outcome of the process. Within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993), I propose an analysis for the general variation patterns found in /r/-deletion, along the lines of Reynolds (1994) and Anttila (1997).

This paper analyzes co-variation among six variables in São Paulo Portuguese: diphthongal-/ẽ/, R-retroflexion, R-deletion, NP agreement, 3PP and 1PP agreement. Previous works investigating whether multiple variables cohere into sociolects have raised hypotheses based on “traditional” categories such as speakers’ class and age, but haven’t reached conclusive results. In our sample of 118 native Paulistanos, each variable was first analyzed separately in mixed-models in R, and cross-correlations were calculated through Pearson correlation coefficients, based on speaker’s weights for nonstandard variants. Coefficients for data subsets defined by speakers’ sex, age, class, area of residence, parents’ origin, and mobility were then compared through the r.test function in R. Results show that co-variability isn’t motivated by “traditional” categories, but by speakers’ area of residence, mobility, and parents’ origin. We suggest that lectal cohesion is closely related to density of communication and discuss why social divisions such as sex/gender, age, and class don’t promote co-variability.

This paper analyzes co-variation among six sociolinguistic variables of Brazilian Portuguese (diphthongal /ẽ /, coda /r/-retroflexion, coda /r/-deletion, nominal number agreement, third person subject-verb agreement, and first person subject-verb agreement), in a set of structurally related and unrelated variables. The main objective is to assess which social and linguistic factors promote the co-occurrence of different language variants in speakers' speech. The results show that co-variation can occur both between structurally related variables (e.g. the syntactic variables) and structurally unrelated ones (e.g. /r/-retroflexion and nominal agreement), as well as between variables of different domains (phonological and syntactic variables). We argue that, socially, lectal cohesion is a result of greater density of communication among peers than with out-group speakers, as shown by a higher degree of lectal cohesion among less mobile speakers, living in central areas, and whose parents were also born in the community. Linguistically, independent variables such as phonic salience (which has been demonstrated to correlate with multiple sociolinguistic variables) underlie patterns of co-variation more generally, as less salient variants tend to co-occur more often than more salient ones.

This paper analyzes cross-correlations among six variables of Brazilian Portuguese (the pronunciation of nasal /e/, coda r-retroflexion, coda r-deletion, NP agreement, 3rd person plural subject-verb agreement, and 1st person plural subject-verb agreement), with the objective of identifying constraints that promote the co-occurrence of sociolinguistic variants in individual speakers’ speech. We focus on the perspective of structural cohesion, and show that co-variability is conditioned not only by structural similarities among dependent variables (such as agreement processes or coda weakening), but also by general linguistic constraints that operate across multiple variables, such as phonic salience (Naro 1981, Scherre 1988, Naro et al. 1999). Finally, we suggest that markedness may be a more general linguistic principle underlying co-variation.