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Vocabular Clarity is a proposed restriction on the behaviour of inflectional classes and affixes grounded in the idea of synonymy avoidance. The proponents of Vocabular Clarity claim that it holds true for Icelandic and Faroese nominal inflections. In this article, data from these languages is examined and difficulties which have not been previously addressed are pointed out. It is argued that the Vocabular Clarity approach is somewhat vaguely specified. In particular, it needs a clear operational method for distinguishing affixes and stem allomorphy. Without this, it remains uncertain whether it makes any testable predictions. The paper shows that while the theory is intuitively appealing, it is-even under fairly generous assumptions-difficult to reconcile with the insular Scandinavian data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the logic behind the various morpho-phonological subdivisions in the verbal system of Palestinian Arabic. It argues for the importance in the understanding of Palestinian Arabic of the apophonic chain proposed for Classical Arabic in 1993). In Palestinian, it is first argued, the Measure 1 perfective template includes a hard-wired association of its two vocalic positions; the main differences in vocalization between the Palestinian and Classic varieties follow from this fact. The account is then extended to include three large subclasses of weak verbs. Following the analysis of Classical Arabic in 1996), it is argued that such verbs involve a null element ø, whose realization is determined by the apophonic chain. The second part of the paper provides an account of the entire inflectional paradigms of each of the verbs discussed, a task that was not fully undertaken in previous work. The mechanism of apophony is shown to be at work in this domain, too. An interesting case is discussed of an apparent shift in inflectional paradigm in some forms of the biradical verb. This shift is again shown to follow from the general mechanisms used in the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a descriptive analysis of the morphology of transitive verbs in Shilluk. Shilluk is a language in which stem-internal changes, many of them suprasegmental in nature, play an important role in the morphology, alongside affixal markers. In particular, tone, vowel length, Advanced Tongue Root (ATR), vowel height, and the stem-final consonant are involved in the morphological marking of a range inflections, expressing tense-aspect-modality, valency changes, agreement, and focus. The paper lays out the inflectional marking of these operations, for each of seven classes that can be distinguished among transitive verbs. In this way, the study extends our understanding of stem-internal morphology and its development in West Nilotic languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a typological characterization of a class of demonstratives so far neglected in the literature: demonstrative verbs expressing manner. First, the morphological characteristics and syntactic behaviors of these demonstratives are examined to illustrate their verbal properties and to justify categorizing them as verbs. Next, their exophoric and endophoric roles in narratives and interactions are described. As their discourse usages closely replicate that of nominal demonstratives, we argue that demonstrative verbs belong to the class of demonstratives and propose to integrate them in a general typology of demonstratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The No Blur Principle (NBP) or Vocabulary Clarity (VC) approach (Carstairs- McCarthy 1994, 2010) is a possible restriction on the behaviour of inflectional affixes (grammatical units), originally motivated by an analogy with words (lexical units). The restriction is grounded in synonymy avoidance, in the observation that 'Every two forms contrast in meaning' (Clark 1993) and in behaviour in multivocabular situations, where speakers have more than one vocabulary although they have only one grammar (e.g. Dyirbal, Javanese). There have not been many suggestions for restrictions on the behaviour of affixes in the morphological literature, so the approach deserves attention. In this article, the NBP or VC-approach is applied to Faroese noun declensions. While these Faroese data seem problematic at first, it is argued that they can be perfectly accommodated within the NBP/ VC-aproach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proceeding from the assumption that all languages are equally complex, there exists a corollary, widely held but poorly documented, herein referred to as the negative correlation hypothesis. It states: If one component of language is simplified then another must be elaborated. Here, this assumption is reformulated in terms of a scientific hypothesis and subjected to statistical analysis. Thirty-two geographically diverse languages representing thirty language families and two isolates are tested for syllable count and inflectional synthesis on the verb as a means of rating their phonological and morphological complexity, respectively. The correlation between these measures is found to be slightly positive (r=0.0704), but statistically insignificant (p>0.05), indicating that the negative correlation hypothesis, if it is to be retained, still awaits scientific confirmation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reference grammars often set out the personal pronouns in paradigms similar to those of nouns. When the pronoun stems are phonologically different, this approach implies that we have instances of suppletion, though this is typically not discussed explicitly. In contrast, those linguists who have raised the issue directly tend to suggest that we are not dealing with suppletion. They claim rather that personal pronouns are not opposed for number (thus we would not be the plural of I ). The issue is particularly important if we wish to develop a typology of suppletion, since personal pronouns are potentially one of the commonest instances. If we separate out the two parts of suppletion (irregularity of form and regularity of meaning), the question becomes clearer. As far as form is concerned, while personal pronouns are frequently irregular, there are languages with morphologically regular pronouns (which makes the suppletion analysis for irregulars more plausible). And in terms of meaning, we find different types of number at different points on the Animacy Hierarchy; it is not a major issue that the plural of personal pronouns frequently involves associativity, since this may be found also for other items high on the hierarchy. These two main points lead us to conclude that there are languages where the personal pronouns show suppletion for number. Two subsidiary arguments, based on data from Latvian and Bengali, support this conclusion. Thus a typology of suppletion should include personal pronouns as an important part. This interesting but specific problem is set in the broader context of the need for reproducibility in typology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]