Books by Loren A Billings
Russian quantifiers are known for their complexity. This dissertation investigates expressions of... more Russian quantifiers are known for their complexity. This dissertation investigates expressions of indefinite quantity—specifically, accusative-assigning _s_ 'about' of approximate measure.
This preposition has undergone a somewhat unique diachronic change which now requires that its complement consist of only a single word. I chronicle the advent of the single-word restriction (LONE-WD), showing historical data with multi-word complements of _s_. Adjective-noun and numeral-noun complements were once attested; Russian now requires only one word after _s_.
This study investigates various apparent exceptions to LONE-WD, which are [sic] violated only under very specific circumstances. These exceptions clarify the morphosyntax of
• paucal numerals ('two' through 'four' and the fractions _pol_ 'half' and _četvert'_ 'quarter'),
• "prequantifier" adjectives,
• syntactic compounds (adjective-noun sequences which inflect separately but are treated by the syntax as a single word), and
• large-quantity numbers (_tysjača_ 'thousand' and greater).
Distributions of special genitive-singular and -plural forms, assigned only by quantifiers, are shown to be distinct: Only paucal numerals in morphological-nominative case assign "ADPAUCAL" genitive-singular forms (such as end-stressed _čaSA_ 'hours'); a number of elements, not just numerals, trigger "COUNT" genitive-plural forms (_čelovek_ people'). Other constructions discussed include _okolo_ 'approximately', approximative inversion, _ètak_ 'about', and _neskol'ko_ 'several':
Quantification is not a syntactic category but a semantic feature for which _okolo_ is unmarked; _okolo_ is quantificational only if its sister is a quantifier. Otherwise _okolo_ is merely proximative: 'near'. Tests confirm that quantificational _okolo_ heads a prepositional phrase within the noun phrase. While most prepositional quantifiers have this structure, accusative-assigning _s_ is the relativized head of a hybrid phrase due to featural deficiencies.
Numeral-noun complements of _s_ undergo approximative inversion—the noun moving to specifier position—to circumvent LONE-WD. Approximative inversion is likewise subject to a variant of LONE-WD, which requires a single prosodic word in the quantified constituent. When inversion is impossible a pleonastic count noun is inserted instead.
An Optimality-theoretic model is proposed, formalizing LONE-WD and constraints requiring prosodic contiguity and exceptions to LONE-WD caused by words expressing more closely defined measure.
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Refereed (double-blind) journal articles by Loren A Billings
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 17(3). 541–586.
The distribution of the yes/no-interrogative clitic _li_ in Macedonian and Bulgarian reveals a co... more The distribution of the yes/no-interrogative clitic _li_ in Macedonian and Bulgarian reveals a complex interaction of syntax with non-syntactic factors. The underlying syntactic uniformity of questions with _li_ in the two languages is obscured by a series of prosodic idiosyncracies in one language or the other. In Macedonian, the major prosodic phenomenon affecting the placement of _li_ is the option for certain sequences of words to share a single stress. In Bulgarian, two different prosodic phenomena are relevant: stressing of clitics after the negative element _ne_ and inversion of initial clitics with the following verb. When these factors are controlled for, the syntax of _li_ questions in the two languages is strikingly homogeneous. If no element is focused (i.e., moved to SpecCP), then, in both languages, the tensed verb head-incorporates into _li_ in C. Additional non-syntactic factors, including lexical differences between the two languages in the clitic/non-clitic status of certain auxiliaries and differences in the usage of _li_ questions, are also discussed.
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Journal of Slavic Linguistics 10(1–2). 53–104.
This study proposes an Optimality-theoretic model through which the various grammar components—se... more This study proposes an Optimality-theoretic model through which the various grammar components—semantics, syntax, the lexicon, morphology, and prosody—jointly determine the placement of clitics with a phrasal positioning domain, which is either a nominal expression or a clause. In order to render scope, such clitics must be phrase-initial. However, the morphology, carrying out subcategorization encoded in the lexicon, requires many such clitics to be suffixes. A third constraint prohibits affixation across certain syntactic boundaries. These three constraints require conflicting outputs, and cannot all be satisfied simultaneously. Depending on a particular language's constraint hierarchy, at least one constraint must be violated. Thus, a typology of clitic-placement strategies is predicted. This theory of cross-linguistic variation is based on conflicting requirements imposed by the aforementioned components of the grammar. In addition to an overview of clitic phenomena in Slavic and elsewhere, this paper demonstrates the proposed typology primarily using a clitic phenomenon in Russian in comparison to those in Tagalog and Warlpiri. In addition, these proposals make specific predictions about which kinds of clitic positioning can and cannot occur. Namely, these constraints predict an asymmetry in clitic-positioning types, excluding penultimate clisis.
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Refereed (single-blind) papers by Loren A Billings
In I Wayan ARKA & N.L.K. Mas INDRAWATI (eds.), Papers from 12-ICAL, v. 2: Argument realisations and related constructions in Austronesian languages (Asia-Pacific Linguistics 13; Studies on Austronesian Languages 2). Canberra: College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University. 111–139.
Modern Seediq, we argue, orders its pronominal clitics relative to each other based on both morph... more Modern Seediq, we argue, orders its pronominal clitics relative to each other based on both morphological case (a notion that can also be restated in terms of syntactic relations) and grammatical person. A clitic cluster must begin with a pronoun encoding a speech-act participant (SAP), but if both pronouns encode SAPs, then grammatical person is not the relevant property that determines their relative order. Rather, other factors emerge: definitely morphological case (or syntactic relations), possibly semantic roles, and even phonological weight. This collaborative study builds on proposals about Seediq by the first author and places this language within a typological framework developed by his collaborator. We conclude the paper with speculations about how this ordering in Seediq developed: from Proto Austronesian, through Proto Atayalic, into the current situation.
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In Wayles BROWNE, Ji-Yung KIM, Barbara H. PARTEE, & Robert A. ROTHSTEIN (eds.), Annual Workshop on Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics [vol. 11]: The Amherst meeting (Michigan Slavic Materials 48). Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications. 83–102.
We argue that verb-adjacent clitics in Bulgarian are syntactic heads but also morphologically spe... more We argue that verb-adjacent clitics in Bulgarian are syntactic heads but also morphologically specified as affixes. Building on our previous work, this paper delves into relatively recalcitrant data for any theory. We argue that the noninitiality of subject- and object agreement clitics in Bulgarian is purely syntactic. However, a similar restriction on another clitic, interrogative _li_, is prosodic. Whereas many clitic clusters are ordered using solely syntactic mechanisms, some combinations of clitics—involving negation, future tense, or conditional mood, when they cooccur with _li_—require very limited postsyntactic ordering. Thus, the syntax (and, to a very limited extent, the prosody) orders elements relative to each other; the morphology merely assures the adjacency of the clitics to the verb.
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In Wayles BROWNE, Ewa DORNISCH, Natasha KONDRASHOVA, & Draga ZEC (eds.), Annual Workshop on Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics [vol. 4]: The Cornell meeting, 1995 (Michigan Slavic Materials 39). Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications. 115–134.
This paper accounts for constituent-order differences in negated prepositional phrases in the Sla... more This paper accounts for constituent-order differences in negated prepositional phrases in the Slavic languages. Whereas in each modern language there is a preposition (P), the negation clitic _ni_, and an interrogative (WH) stem, the order can vary between [_ni_ + P + WH] and [P + _ni_ + WH]. I show that the former is attested in the oldest texts of all the Slavic languages. Most of these—West Slavic and most of South Slavic—have switched to the latter order, many having undergone a transitional [P + _ni_ + P + WH] order. I also show that in two [_ni_ + P + WH] languages, Russian and Serbo-Croatian, the order can be [P + _ni_ + WH] under two restricted circumstances.
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In Jindřich TOMAN (ed.), Annual Workshop on Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics [vol. 3]: The College Park meeting, 1994 (Michigan Slavic Materials 38). Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications. 35–60.
In this paper we account for Superiority effects in Bulgarian using mechanisms of Optimality Theo... more In this paper we account for Superiority effects in Bulgarian using mechanisms of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993), as applied to syntax by Grimshaw (1993a) and specifically to Superiority in Grimshaw (1993b). Our primary theoretical innovations are constraints to account for animacy and for certain surface effects of consecutive homophonous _wh_ words, as well as constraints that serve to distinguish languages like Bulgarian—which front an indefinite number of _wh_ phrases in overt syntax—from those that front one (as English does) or none at all (Chinese, for example).
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In Andrew CARNIE, Heidi HARLEY, & Sheila Ann DOOLEY (eds.), Verb first: On the syntax of verb-initial languages (Linguistik Aktuell 73). Amsterdam: Benjamins. 303–339.
This paper examines the question of how pronouns and sequences of full nominal expressions are or... more This paper examines the question of how pronouns and sequences of full nominal expressions are ordered in Tagalog verb-initial clauses. I observe that in one configuration (Actor voice), both VSO and VOS orderings are possible. In order to account for this, I propose that one of these orders results from a proper name standing in what is normally a position reserved for pronouns. This in turn provides evidence that the notion of subjecthood is relevant to Tagalog syntax, and is determined by morphological rather than semantic properties.
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In Steven L. FRANKS, Vrinda CHIDAMBARAM, Brian D. JOSEPH, & Iliyana KRAPOVA (eds.), Katerino Mome: Studies in Bulgarian morphosyntax in honor of Catherine Rudin. Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers. 21–36.
Bulgarian ditransitive data in which both internal arguments are interrogative, as well as those ... more Bulgarian ditransitive data in which both internal arguments are interrogative, as well as those with all three arguments as _wh_-phrases, are amassed and examined. The need to consider these structures is justified. Evidence of an arboreal asymmetry between the objects has not been found.
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In Olav MUELLER-REICHAU & Marcel GUHL (eds.), Aspects of Slavic linguistics: Formal grammar, lexicon and communication (Language, Context, and Cognition 16). Berlin: de Gruyter. 29–49.
This paper explores the distribution of several Experiencer-taking predicates in Russian. Whereas... more This paper explores the distribution of several Experiencer-taking predicates in Russian. Whereas Billings (2002 ["Word order and argument structure of Russian psych predicates." In Peter Kosta & Jens Frasek (eds.), _Current approaches to formal Slavic linguistics: Contributions of the second European Conference on Formal Description of Slavic Languages FDSL II, held at Potsdam University, November 20–22, 1997_ (Linguistik International 9), 415–424. Frankfurt am Main: Lang.]) reports about _verbs_ of this kind, the current study examines predicates that are etymologically other parts of speech (namely: nouns and adjectives) that also take Experiencers. The models in Billings (1997 ["Experiencer non-verb predicates in Russian." _ZAS Papers in Linguistics_ 9. 1–21.]) are applied to a twentieth-century novel (M. Bulgakov's _Master i Margarita_ 'The master and Margarita', completed in the 1940s but published much later in the twentieth century). Each predicate's number of occurrences in various constituent orders is reported, with commentary on whether (based on informant judgments) any of these orders requires marked intonation. I assume that only those word orders with neutral intonation and wide focus indicate a sentence's neutral constituent order. For each of the predicates under investigation, tokens with marked intonation or narrow foci are eliminated systematically. Any remaining tokens are then used to determine the neutral word order. With some predicates there is not even a single discourse-neutral token. Still, it is possible to draw conclusions about the argument structure from these data. This study's findings specify the information- and argument-structure properties of such predicates.
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In René KAGER & Wim ZONNEVELD (eds.), Phrasal phonology. Nijmegen: Nijmegen University Press. 45–71.
In this paper we discuss a phenomenon unique to the East Slavic languages, in which a numeral and... more In this paper we discuss a phenomenon unique to the East Slavic languages, in which a numeral and noun change places in order to express an approximate quantity. This construction has properties which tell us about the interactions of syntax and prosody. In order to account for interactions of these different grammar components, we make use of Optimality-theoretic constraints.
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In Ursula KLEINHENZ (ed.), Interfaces in phonology (Studia grammatica 41). Berlin: Akademie Verlag. 60–82.
Language change occurs incrementally. In this paper I show that one such diachronic phenomenon, s... more Language change occurs incrementally. In this paper I show that one such diachronic phenomenon, so-called epenthetic _n_ in Russian, has been conditioned by prosodic and syntactic constraints over the past 1000 years of orthographic record. Originally an instance of resyllabification, this phenomenon has progressed to a point where phonology is no longer a factor in determining this phenomenon's distribution.
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In Željko BOŠKOVIĆ, Steven FRANKS, & William SNYDER (eds.), Annual Workshop on Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics [vol. 6]: The Connecticut meeting, 1997 (Michigan Slavic Materials 43). Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications. 319–338.
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In Jindřich TOMAN (ed.), Annual Workshop on Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics [vol. 10]: The second Ann Arbor meeting, 2001 (Michigan Slavic Materials 47). Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications. 75–96.
Although the _placement_ of clitics in Macedonian and Bulgarian is determined by syntactic mechan... more Although the _placement_ of clitics in Macedonian and Bulgarian is determined by syntactic mechanisms, it is morphology and not syntax (or, for that matter, prosody) that guarantees the _contiguity_ of the clitics to each other in a cluster. This paper proposes that a clitic's membership in a cluster crucially is defined by its being a (verb-)bound morpheme and not its syntactic or prosodic properties. Two closely related issues—the nearly categorical _adjacency_ of the clitic(s) to the verb and the special positioning of the yes/no-interrogative clitic _li_—are also discussed.
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Other published conference papers by Loren A Billings
In Sue McQUAY (ed.), 10-ICAL pronoun papers (Studies in Philippine Languages and Cultures 17). Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines and SIL Philippines. 179–212.
This language attests two paradigms of bound personal pronouns as well as one optionally bound an... more This language attests two paradigms of bound personal pronouns as well as one optionally bound and one free pronominal set. Of particular interest is a prohibition in Binukid on co-occurrences of pronouns from the two obligatorily bound paradigms. To avoid this situation, one pronoun takes the form of its counterpart from a different set. The choice of which of the two pronouns undergoes this substitution—as well as the order of two bound pronouns—depends on a person hierarchy. Roughly, this is first > second > third person (formalized using the features [±me] and [±you]). Whichever pronoun is lower on this hierarchy is also ordered second in the cluster. Not all combinations of pronouns undergo this phenomenon; if the two pronouns differ in number of syllables, then it does not occur. Other issues discussed in this study include adverbial bound forms and the position of the pronoun cluster relative to other elements in the clause.
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In Juhee LEE (ed.), Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Phonology and Morphology; July 3 (Thu) ~ 5 (Sat), 2014; Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Korea. [Gwangju:] The Phonology-Morphology Circle of Korea, 132–135.
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In Wilaiwan KHANITTANAN & Paul SIDWELL (eds.), SEALS XIV: Papers from the 14th meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society (2004), v. 1 (Pacific Linguistics E–5). Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. 193–203.
In this paper we show the range of orders among clitics within a cluster in the Central Philippin... more In this paper we show the range of orders among clitics within a cluster in the Central Philippine (CP) languages. Based on the framework in Billings and Kaufman (2004), we show that CP languages show all of the following ordering types: NOM-first, Actor-first, light-before-heavy, and participant-first.
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Digests of the tenth meeting of the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (Working Papers in Linguistics, 34.2). Honolulu: Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai'i. 5–6.
Whereas Tagalog's pre-verbal structure is well understood, post-verbal R-expressions are loosely ... more Whereas Tagalog's pre-verbal structure is well understood, post-verbal R-expressions are loosely ordered, based on vague considerations: (i) a nominal with the role of Actor appears right after the verb, and (ii) an R-expression bearing Nominative case appears last. With a non-active verb, (i) and (ii) result in a strong preference for the object to precede the subject. However, these generalizations can be overridden (e.g., by clause-final heavy nominals). In active clauses, however, there is no strong preference; (i) and (ii) then cancel each other out.
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In Kayla CARPENTER, Oana DAVID, Florian LIONNET, Christine SHEIL, Tammy STARK, & Vivian WAUTERS (eds.), Proceedings of the thirty-eighth annual meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General session and thematic session on language contact. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society. 523–537.
Kavalan is an endangered language with fewer than one hundred speakers remaining (Chang 1997:21) ... more Kavalan is an endangered language with fewer than one hundred speakers remaining (Chang 1997:21) and belongs to the Northern branch of East Formosan, itself a primary subgroup of Austronesian (Blust 1999:45-47). We investigate one part of Kavalan grammar: the relative order of adverbial and pronominal clitics.
Of typological and theoretical import is the order within certain clusters of clitics. Transitive ordering has been defined, for a sequence of three morphemes—call them X, Y, and Z—as XY, YZ, XZ, and XYZ (Ryan 2010:785). By contrast, nontransitive ordering, involving the same three items, would be a situation where "(a) morpheme X must precede Y, (b) Y must precede Z, but (c) X must follow (or optionally follows) Z" (Ryan 2010:780). Whereas Kavalan does not attest the aforementioned kind of nontransitivity, this language does show another kind: XY, YZ, and XZ, but either XYZ or XZY. The transitive order XYZ is apparently in free variation with the nontransitive order XZY.
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Books by Loren A Billings
This preposition has undergone a somewhat unique diachronic change which now requires that its complement consist of only a single word. I chronicle the advent of the single-word restriction (LONE-WD), showing historical data with multi-word complements of _s_. Adjective-noun and numeral-noun complements were once attested; Russian now requires only one word after _s_.
This study investigates various apparent exceptions to LONE-WD, which are [sic] violated only under very specific circumstances. These exceptions clarify the morphosyntax of
• paucal numerals ('two' through 'four' and the fractions _pol_ 'half' and _četvert'_ 'quarter'),
• "prequantifier" adjectives,
• syntactic compounds (adjective-noun sequences which inflect separately but are treated by the syntax as a single word), and
• large-quantity numbers (_tysjača_ 'thousand' and greater).
Distributions of special genitive-singular and -plural forms, assigned only by quantifiers, are shown to be distinct: Only paucal numerals in morphological-nominative case assign "ADPAUCAL" genitive-singular forms (such as end-stressed _čaSA_ 'hours'); a number of elements, not just numerals, trigger "COUNT" genitive-plural forms (_čelovek_ people'). Other constructions discussed include _okolo_ 'approximately', approximative inversion, _ètak_ 'about', and _neskol'ko_ 'several':
Quantification is not a syntactic category but a semantic feature for which _okolo_ is unmarked; _okolo_ is quantificational only if its sister is a quantifier. Otherwise _okolo_ is merely proximative: 'near'. Tests confirm that quantificational _okolo_ heads a prepositional phrase within the noun phrase. While most prepositional quantifiers have this structure, accusative-assigning _s_ is the relativized head of a hybrid phrase due to featural deficiencies.
Numeral-noun complements of _s_ undergo approximative inversion—the noun moving to specifier position—to circumvent LONE-WD. Approximative inversion is likewise subject to a variant of LONE-WD, which requires a single prosodic word in the quantified constituent. When inversion is impossible a pleonastic count noun is inserted instead.
An Optimality-theoretic model is proposed, formalizing LONE-WD and constraints requiring prosodic contiguity and exceptions to LONE-WD caused by words expressing more closely defined measure.
Refereed (double-blind) journal articles by Loren A Billings
Refereed (single-blind) papers by Loren A Billings
Other published conference papers by Loren A Billings
Of typological and theoretical import is the order within certain clusters of clitics. Transitive ordering has been defined, for a sequence of three morphemes—call them X, Y, and Z—as XY, YZ, XZ, and XYZ (Ryan 2010:785). By contrast, nontransitive ordering, involving the same three items, would be a situation where "(a) morpheme X must precede Y, (b) Y must precede Z, but (c) X must follow (or optionally follows) Z" (Ryan 2010:780). Whereas Kavalan does not attest the aforementioned kind of nontransitivity, this language does show another kind: XY, YZ, and XZ, but either XYZ or XZY. The transitive order XYZ is apparently in free variation with the nontransitive order XZY.
This preposition has undergone a somewhat unique diachronic change which now requires that its complement consist of only a single word. I chronicle the advent of the single-word restriction (LONE-WD), showing historical data with multi-word complements of _s_. Adjective-noun and numeral-noun complements were once attested; Russian now requires only one word after _s_.
This study investigates various apparent exceptions to LONE-WD, which are [sic] violated only under very specific circumstances. These exceptions clarify the morphosyntax of
• paucal numerals ('two' through 'four' and the fractions _pol_ 'half' and _četvert'_ 'quarter'),
• "prequantifier" adjectives,
• syntactic compounds (adjective-noun sequences which inflect separately but are treated by the syntax as a single word), and
• large-quantity numbers (_tysjača_ 'thousand' and greater).
Distributions of special genitive-singular and -plural forms, assigned only by quantifiers, are shown to be distinct: Only paucal numerals in morphological-nominative case assign "ADPAUCAL" genitive-singular forms (such as end-stressed _čaSA_ 'hours'); a number of elements, not just numerals, trigger "COUNT" genitive-plural forms (_čelovek_ people'). Other constructions discussed include _okolo_ 'approximately', approximative inversion, _ètak_ 'about', and _neskol'ko_ 'several':
Quantification is not a syntactic category but a semantic feature for which _okolo_ is unmarked; _okolo_ is quantificational only if its sister is a quantifier. Otherwise _okolo_ is merely proximative: 'near'. Tests confirm that quantificational _okolo_ heads a prepositional phrase within the noun phrase. While most prepositional quantifiers have this structure, accusative-assigning _s_ is the relativized head of a hybrid phrase due to featural deficiencies.
Numeral-noun complements of _s_ undergo approximative inversion—the noun moving to specifier position—to circumvent LONE-WD. Approximative inversion is likewise subject to a variant of LONE-WD, which requires a single prosodic word in the quantified constituent. When inversion is impossible a pleonastic count noun is inserted instead.
An Optimality-theoretic model is proposed, formalizing LONE-WD and constraints requiring prosodic contiguity and exceptions to LONE-WD caused by words expressing more closely defined measure.
Of typological and theoretical import is the order within certain clusters of clitics. Transitive ordering has been defined, for a sequence of three morphemes—call them X, Y, and Z—as XY, YZ, XZ, and XYZ (Ryan 2010:785). By contrast, nontransitive ordering, involving the same three items, would be a situation where "(a) morpheme X must precede Y, (b) Y must precede Z, but (c) X must follow (or optionally follows) Z" (Ryan 2010:780). Whereas Kavalan does not attest the aforementioned kind of nontransitivity, this language does show another kind: XY, YZ, and XZ, but either XYZ or XZY. The transitive order XYZ is apparently in free variation with the nontransitive order XZY.