Small tonal inventories may exhibit substantial internal structure when they arise through historical category reduction. This study examines how such structure is organised across speakers in Wuwei Mandarin and how present-day tonal variation relates to Middle Chinese provenance. Citation-tone productions from 22 speakers were analysed using speaker-specific Dynamic Time Warping and Partitioning Around Medoids clustering, descriptive profile classification, and Generalised Additive Mixed Models of within-group F0 trajectories. The speaker-specific optimal-k assessment selected two-group solutions for 19 of the 22 speakers and three-group solutions for the remaining three. In a separate correspondence check, the k = 2 candidate partitions yielded distinct Falling- and Non-Falling-majority clusters for 20 speakers. Within Non-Falling, cross-speaker variation could be summarised by Mid-level, Peaking and Rising phonetic profiles, which differed primarily in the time course of their F0 trajectories rather than in overall F0 level. Middle Chinese provenance was strongly associated with the broad Falling–Non-Falling outcome but only weakly associated with profile variation within Non-Falling; píng- and shǎng-derived items showed nearly identical profile distributions. At the speaker level, profile distribution showed a preliminary association with gender in the present sample, but no overall association with age. These findings reveal level-specific historical conditioning in a historically reduced tonal system: historical provenance is strongly reflected in broad tonal outcomes but is only weakly reflected in recurrent within-group phonetic variation.
The present study investigated the role of syllable structure and consonant type in auditory fragment detection and written lexical retrieval in monolingual speakers of Spanish. Across two experiments, the study examined whether the influence of syllable-like word-initial fragments generalizes across tasks with different processing demands. In Experiment 1, fifty-nine Spanish monolingual speakers completed a fragment-monitoring task that tested whether they detected syllable-like fragments more rapidly when the fragments matched the first-syllable structure of spoken words. The experiment also examined whether fragment detection varied as a function of consonant type. Results revealed no significant effects of syllabic congruency, consonant type, or their interaction. In Experiment 2, forty-six Spanish monolingual speakers completed a guided lexical retrieval task in which they wrote words beginning with visually presented syllable-like fragments. Participants were more likely to retrieve words whose first-syllable structure matched CV than CVC fragments, revealing a CV advantage in written lexical retrieval. Within CVC targets, fragments ending in a liquid produced significantly lower match probabilities than fragments ending in a fricative or nasal; fricatives and nasals did not differ significantly. Together, the findings indicate that syllabic structure did not reliably influence auditory fragment detection but constrained the structure of words generated in the written lexical retrieval task. These findings suggest that the contribution of syllabic and consonantal information depends on the processing demands imposed by the task.
This conceptual paper reconsiders the pragmalinguistics/sociopragmatics distinction in English as a lingua franca (ELF) pragmatics. Although variable form–function relations, uneven norm sharing, inferential interpretation, and real-time interactional coordination are not unique to ELF, lingua franca interaction brings them into sharp relief because shared linguistic conventions and sociopragmatic expectations cannot be assumed in advance. Drawing on theoretical and empirical work in ELF pragmatics, the paper argues that the classical distinction remains useful but requires analytical re-specification. It differentiates among three related but non-identical domains: recurrent linguistic and other semiotic resources for enacting pragmatic meanings, interactional practices for coordinating understanding, participation, and relational alignment, and sociopragmatic interpretive grounds through which conduct is understood, negotiated, and evaluated as appropriate or problematic. On this basis, the paper advances three claims. First, pragmalinguistics remains relevant to ELF because speakers continue to draw on recurrent resources to perform interpersonal and illocutionary work, even when their uptake is variable. Second, practices such as repair, repetition, and clarification are better examined through interactional competence when the focus is on sequential coordination, while their recurrent linguistic formats remain relevant to pragmalinguistic analysis. Third, ELF sociopragmatics cannot be reduced either to pre-given cultural norms or to local negotiation alone, because evaluations may also draw on identity positions, values, expectations, and culturally patterned understandings. This re-specification clarifies the scope of pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic analysis and helps researchers align their analytical questions with appropriate evidence in ELF pragmatics.
This study investigates the architecture of verbless sentences in Standard Arabic (SA) under Phase Theory and strict principles of computational efficiency. By demonstrating that these equational clauses structurally lack a Tense (T) head, this analysis challenges traditional models of Case valuation and temporal anchoring. Rejecting the “Null-T” approach, the analysis of Double Nominative and agreement asymmetries demonstrates that these constructions are not structurally deficient; instead, omitting a vacuous T-head directly satisfies computational economy. Applying the mechanics of Feature Inheritance (FI), we propose an optimal “short-circuit” derivation within a “Reduced Phase” architecture where C delegates φ-features and Case directly to a specialized nominal Agreement (Agr) head. This downward delegation allows C to act as the temporal anchor and provides the asymmetry required to resolve the {XP, YP} labeling deadlock. Consequently, the derivation identifies the ’pronoun of separation’ (PRON) as the explicit morphological realization of this inheritance process. By integrating comparative evidence from Romance reduced structures and the broader Afro-Asiatic family, the analysis demonstrates that this Agr-anchor provides a generalized, cross-linguistic strategy for licensing independent verbless clauses.
Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Uyghur is commonly analyzed as encoding specificity through syntactic position, with recent phase-based accounts deriving interpretive variation from clause-internal movement. However, evidence from rightward displacement reveals a robust asymmetry: while leftward-displaced DOM objects allow both specific and non-specific interpretations, postverbal DOM objects are systematically restricted to specific readings. This asymmetry cannot be straightforwardly derived under position-based or phase-based approaches without additional stipulations, and thus poses a non-trivial challenge for accounts that derive interpretation from structural configuration alone. Building on this observation, the paper argues that specificity in Uyghur DOM is not directly encoded by case marking or syntactic position. Instead, I propose that DOM encodes prominence-based accessibility: a relational property that regulates the relative accessibility of referents in discourse. On this view, DOM-marked objects enter a system of prominence-based competition that enables syntactic mobility and supports a range of information-structural interpretations, while bare objects remain discourse-inert. Specificity effects arise as a secondary consequence of how referents are anchored and maintained within this system. Comparative evidence from Uyghur and Turkish supports this analysis and suggests that DOM reflects a more general interface principle governing the mapping between morphology, syntax, and discourse structure.
