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Towards a model of the Samoan syntax-prosody interface

krisyu
January 23, 2017

Towards a model of the Samoan syntax-prosody interface

Yale Department of Linguistics Colloquium Series

krisyu

January 23, 2017
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  1. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Towards a model of the Samoan
    syntax-prosody interface
    Kristine M. Yu
    [email protected]
    Department of Linguistics, UMass Amherst
    Yale Department of Linguistics Colloquium Series
    January 23, 2017
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 1

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  2. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Collaborators
    Matthew Frelinger Deniz Özyıldız Ed Stabler
    UMass Amherst UMass Amherst UCLA/Nuance
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 2

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  3. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    Bringing prosody into the grammar to inform the
    parser
    Challenges:
    Many theories of syntax-prosody interface with many moving parts
    Many interacting, conditioning factors on prosody that may obscure
    informativity of prosodic information for syntax
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 3

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  4. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    Bringing prosody into the grammar to inform the
    parser
    Strategy:
    Define and compare computational models which capture
    fundamental properties that distinguish proposed theories from one
    another
    Start with case studies where syntax is clearly the primary
    determining factor for prosody
    Today: a first case study on Samoan
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 4

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  5. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    A fine-grained model of the syntax-prosody
    interface
    Indirect and direct reference theories agree that phonological rules refer to
    cross-categorical relationships rather than specific syntactic
    categories. (Kaisse and Zwicky 1987, p. 7).
    Here for Samoan interface: We place tones by individual rules that
    refer to specific morphosyntactic constructions.
    In Samoan, prosodic constituents do not appear to be unified by sharing
    some common syntactic relation.
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 5

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  6. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    Other fine-grained models of interface
    Similar examples from languages where word-level tone overlays apply in
    specific morphosyntactic contexts: Dogon languages of Mali (Heath and
    McPherson 2013, McPherson and Heath 2016), also Papuan languages
    Awa and Usarafu, and Nigerian languages Nkoroo and Kalabari.
    In Tommo So (Dogon):
    gamma ‘cat’ HH; also in ‘three cats’ and ‘the cat’
    but ‘black cat’, ‘one cat’, ‘Sana’s cat‘: LL
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 6

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  7. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    Samoan’s ergative-absolutive case system
    Subject of transitive clause receives “ergative” case, marked with
    prepositional element [e]
    Subject of intransitive clause and object of transitive clause receive
    “absolutive” case, said to be unmarked
    Prepositional element [i] marks “oblique” case on indirect objects,
    locatives, etc.
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 7

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  8. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    Basic sentences
    (1) Transitive clause
    na
    past
    lalaNa
    weave
    *(e)
    erg
    le
    det
    malini
    marine
    le
    det
    mamanu.
    design
    ‘The marine wove the design.’
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 8

    View Slide

  9. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    Basic sentences
    (1) Transitive clause
    na
    past
    lalaNa
    weave
    *(e)
    erg
    le
    det
    malini
    marine
    le
    det
    mamanu.
    design
    ‘The marine wove the design.’
    (2) Intransitive clause
    na
    past
    Nalue
    work
    le
    det
    malini
    marine
    (i
    obl
    le
    det
    mamanu).
    design
    ‘The marine worked (on the design).’
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 8

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  10. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    Word order
    Primarily VSO word order in transitive clauses, although VOS
    possible
    Fronted arguments, with SVO or OVS word orders in clefted
    structures
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 9

    View Slide

  11. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    Word order
    Primarily VSO word order in transitive clauses, although VOS
    possible
    Fronted arguments, with SVO or OVS word orders in clefted
    structures
    (3) Fronted argument
    [Po
    [topic
    le
    det
    malini]
    marine]
    na
    past
    lalaNa
    weave
    le
    det
    mamanu.
    design
    ‘It was the marine that wove the design.’
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 9

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  12. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    Basic word prosody
    Described as a non-tonal language in a non-tonal language
    family
    Basic primary stress pattern: moraic trochee at right edge
    (Zuraw, Yu, and Orfitelli 2014)
    Primary stress on final vowel if long, otherwise on penultimate vowel
    ◦ ("manu) ‘bird’ , ma("lini)
    ◦ la("va:) ‘energized’
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 10

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  13. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    Basic sentence-level prosody
    Rising pitch accent associated to primary stressed syllable (“LH*”)
    (Orfitelli and Yu 2009, Calhoun 2015) appears on every content
    word, presence seems insensitive to discourse conditions
    Sentence-medial high edge tones (“H-”) including before an
    absolutive (Yu 2011, 2016)
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 11

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  14. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    Fieldwork/data
    All consultants from (Western) Samoa
    Primary consultant: born in Samoa, moved to United States at age
    15, age 19-23 during elicitations
    ◦ Data collected in 2008-2009, and later in additional elicitation
    sessions through 2016
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 12

    View Slide

  15. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    Fieldwork/data
    All consultants from (Western) Samoa
    Primary consultant: born in Samoa, moved to United States at age
    15, age 19-23 during elicitations
    ◦ Data collected in 2008-2009, and later in additional elicitation
    sessions through 2016
    Work with 5 additional speakers in trips to Apia, Samoa in
    November 2011 and to Carson, CA in January 2012
    Work with 4 additional speakers in trips to Auckland, New Zealand
    in July 2015
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 12

    View Slide

  16. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    Fieldwork/data
    All consultants from (Western) Samoa
    Primary consultant: born in Samoa, moved to United States at age
    15, age 19-23 during elicitations
    ◦ Data collected in 2008-2009, and later in additional elicitation
    sessions through 2016
    Work with 5 additional speakers in trips to Apia, Samoa in
    November 2011 and to Carson, CA in January 2012
    Work with 4 additional speakers in trips to Auckland, New Zealand
    in July 2015
    Data primarily elicited in tautala lelei (formal language)
    Data primarily elicited out-of-the-blue, unless pronominal elements
    present, in which case referent introduced
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 12

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  17. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    Fundamental frequency contour: transitive clause
    100
    125
    150
    175
    Fundamental frequency (Hz)
    Time (s)
    0 0.5 1 1.5
    LH* LH*
    H-
    LH*
    L-L%
    LH* LH*
    H-
    LH*
    L-L%
    na lalaNa e le malini le mamanu
    na la la Na e le ma li ni le ma ma nu
    F0 contour for transitive clause in (1)
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 13

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  18. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    Background
    F0 contour: intransitive clause
    100
    125
    150
    175
    Fundamental frequency (Hz)
    Time (s)
    0 0.5 1 1.5
    LH*
    H- LH*
    LH*
    L-L%
    LH*
    H-
    LH*
    LH*
    L-L%
    na Nalue le malini i le mamanu
    na Na lue le ma li ni i le ma ma nu
    F0 contour for intransitive clause in (2)
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 14

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  19. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Where H- tones invariably occur
    Absolutives: at right edge of word preceding absolutive (Yu 2011,
    2016)
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 15

    View Slide

  20. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Where H- tones invariably occur
    Absolutives: at right edge of word preceding absolutive (Yu 2011,
    2016)
    Coordination: at right edge of first coordinate (Orfitelli and Yu
    2009, Yu 2011, 2016)
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 15

    View Slide

  21. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Where H- tones invariably occur
    Absolutives: at right edge of word preceding absolutive (Yu 2011,
    2016)
    Coordination: at right edge of first coordinate (Orfitelli and Yu
    2009, Yu 2011, 2016)
    Clefts: at right edge of fronted argument (Orfitelli and Yu 2009, Yu
    2011, 2016; Calhoun 2015)
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 15

    View Slide

  22. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Where H- tones invariably occur
    Absolutives: at right edge of word preceding absolutive (Yu 2011,
    2016)
    Coordination: at right edge of first coordinate (Orfitelli and Yu
    2009, Yu 2011, 2016)
    Clefts: at right edge of fronted argument (Orfitelli and Yu 2009, Yu
    2011, 2016; Calhoun 2015)
    None of these syntactic environments can coincide: an H- can be
    uniquely traced back to its syntactic source
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 15

    View Slide

  23. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Where H- tones invariably occur
    (4) Absolutive
    na
    past
    lalaNa
    weave
    *(e)
    erg
    le
    det
    malini
    marine
    H-
    abs
    le
    det
    mamanu.
    design
    ‘The marine wove the design.’
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 16

    View Slide

  24. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Where H- tones invariably occur
    (4) Absolutive
    na
    past
    lalaNa
    weave
    *(e)
    erg
    le
    det
    malini
    marine
    H-
    abs
    le
    det
    mamanu.
    design
    ‘The marine wove the design.’
    (5) Coordination
    na
    past
    lalaNa
    weave
    [*(e)
    [erg
    le
    det
    malini
    marine
    H-
    coord
    ma
    conj
    Malu]
    Malu]
    H-
    abs
    le
    det
    mamanu.
    design
    ‘The marine and Malu worked on the design.’
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 16

    View Slide

  25. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Where H- tones invariably occur
    (4) Absolutive
    na
    past
    lalaNa
    weave
    *(e)
    erg
    le
    det
    malini
    marine
    H-
    abs
    le
    det
    mamanu.
    design
    ‘The marine wove the design.’
    (5) Coordination
    na
    past
    lalaNa
    weave
    [*(e)
    [erg
    le
    det
    malini
    marine
    H-
    coord
    ma
    conj
    Malu]
    Malu]
    H-
    abs
    le
    det
    mamanu.
    design
    ‘The marine and Malu worked on the design.’
    (6) Fronted argument
    [Po
    [topic
    le
    det
    malini]
    marine]
    H-
    front
    na
    past
    Nalue
    work
    i
    obl
    le
    det
    mamanu.
    design
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 16

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  26. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    A closer look at the phonetic realization of H-
    150
    165
    180
    195
    210
    Fundamental frequency (Hz)
    Time (s)
    0 0.2 0.4
    ma li ni
    No H-
    [LH* not followed by H-]
    150
    165
    180
    195
    210
    Fundamental frequency (Hz)
    Time (s)
    0 0.2 0.4
    ma li ni
    [LH* followed by H-]
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 17

    View Slide

  27. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Evidence that H- tones are edge tones: Bach test
    Is steady/rising pitch over the last mora in a H- correlated with
    stress position or the word edge?
    Problem: Samoan primary stress is realized no further left than on
    penultimate mora → tonal crowding
    Solution: Separate the influence of primary stress and boundary
    tones by doing a Bach test
    Use a nonce stress pattern, with primary stress aligned to the left edge
    Introduce as English personal name to be codeswitched in
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 18

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  28. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    More on Lise Menn’s Bach test (Halle 1978)
    Traditional wug test can’t rule out a list grammar over an alphabet
    of segments
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 19

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  29. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    More on Lise Menn’s Bach test (Halle 1978)
    Traditional wug test can’t rule out a list grammar over an alphabet
    of segments
    Bax test: use a nonce form that ends in a nonnative phoneme
    x is [-voice]
    /bax-z/ → segment-based rules
    /bax-s/ → feature-based rules
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 19

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  30. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    The Bach test for intonation: task naturalness
    Codeswitching between Samoan and English is a common everyday
    occurrence
    Loanwords may receive aberrant stress, cf. [
    >
    tsai´
    ami
    >
    tsa] ‘diameter’
    [Audio]
    Great liberty and variety in personal names in Samoan, e.g. (in
    Samoan orthography)
    pese ‘song’, moa ‘chicken’, lagi ‘sky’
    mauaituaolefaleolemalo ‘found behind the government house’, maua
    for short
    alofa | ile | lautusi | o | le | salamo ‘love the pages of the song’,
    names split up among children in same family
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 20

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  31. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Example: f0 contours and stress position
    S1 S2 S3 Following
    160
    180
    200
    220
    240
    30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70
    Time slice in word
    Mean fundamental frequency (Hz)
    Stress position
    initial
    penult
    final
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 21

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  32. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Homophonous H-’s
    No positive evidence that H-’s are realized differently depending on
    syntactic structure
    Lengthening at right edges with H-’s compared to baseline when no
    H- is present
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 22

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  33. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Homophonous H-’s
    No positive evidence that H-’s are realized differently depending on
    syntactic structure
    Lengthening at right edges with H-’s compared to baseline when no
    H- is present
    Other examples of “homophonous” tones: overlapping tonal
    inventory for lexical and grammatical tones in Bantu languages; high
    tones can be edge tones or pitch accents in head/edge-prominence
    languages, e.g. Turkish, French
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 22

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  34. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Sensitivity of presence of to speech rate
    (7) Sensitivity of prosodic phrasing to speech rate in Calcutta
    Bengali (Hayes and Lahiri 1991)
    a. (Omor)
    Armor
    (čador)
    scarf
    (tara-ke)
    Tara-obj
    (díečhe) deliberate speech
    gave
    ‘Armor gave a scarf to Tara’
    b. (Omor čador) (tara-ke) (díečhe) faster speech
    c. (Omor) (čador tara-ke) (díečhe) faster speech
    d. (Omor čador tara-ke) (díečhe) very rapid speech
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 23

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  35. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Sample minimal pair from speech rate stimuli
    (8) A sample minimal pair from speech rate data set
    a. Transitive clause
    na
    past
    laNona
    hear
    e
    erg
    malini
    marine
    H-
    abs
    le
    det.sg
    liona
    lion
    i
    obl
    le
    det.sg
    aoauli.
    afternoon
    ‘The marines heard the lion in the afternoon.’
    b. Intransitive clause
    na
    past
    manoNi
    smelly
    H-
    abs
    malini
    marine
    i
    obl
    le
    det.sg
    liona
    lion
    i
    obl
    le
    det.sg
    aoauli.
    afternoon
    ‘The marines were smelly to the lion in the afternoon.’
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 24

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  36. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Invariability in presence of H-: speech rate
    (a) subject under slow speech rate (b) subject under normal speech rate
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 25

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  37. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Invariability in presence of H-: speech rate
    (c) subject under normal speech rate (d) subject under fast speech rate
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 26

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  38. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Properties of Samoan registers
    tautala lelei ‘good language’: used in literary contexts and and
    Westernized contexts, with foreigners
    tautala leaga ‘bad language’: used in traditional ceremonies and
    meetings, with family and friends
    Case markers often dropped (Mosel and Hovdhaugen 1992, Mayer
    2001)
    (9) Mergers from tautala lelei to tautala leaga
    a. /t/ and /k/ → /k/
    b. /n/ and /N/ → /N/
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 27

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  39. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Invariability in presence of H-: register
    (10) Transitive sentence minimal pair in tautala leaga
    a. VSO word order
    Na
    past
    laNoNa
    hear

    erg
    le
    det.sg
    lioNa
    lion
    H-
    abs
    le
    det.sg
    malie.
    shark
    ‘The lion heard the shark.’
    b. VOS word order
    Na
    past
    laNoNa
    hear
    H-
    abs
    le
    det.sg
    lioNa
    lion

    erg
    le
    det.sg
    malie.
    shark
    ‘The lion was heard by the shark.’
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 28

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  40. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Invariability in presence of H-: register
    (a) f0 over 3-syll verbs (b) f0 over 3-syll ARG 1
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 29

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  41. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    The phonetic realization of the H-
    Invariability in the presence of H-’s
    Other invariability in presence/placement of H-’s
    Word order
    Prosodic length (number of syllables/words in arguments)
    Information structural manipulations (Contrastive and informational
    focus)
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 30

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  42. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Defining the syntax/prosody interface
    Define beginnings of a formal Minimalist Grammar for Samoan (Yu
    & Stabler to appear)
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 31

    View Slide

  43. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Defining the syntax/prosody interface
    Define beginnings of a formal Minimalist Grammar for Samoan (Yu
    & Stabler to appear)
    Adopt a particular syntactic perspective on Samoan case, but other
    syntactic alternatives could be defined as well
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 31

    View Slide

  44. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Defining the syntax/prosody interface
    Define beginnings of a formal Minimalist Grammar for Samoan (Yu
    & Stabler to appear)
    Adopt a particular syntactic perspective on Samoan case, but other
    syntactic alternatives could be defined as well
    Why Minimalist Grammars? Regular derivation trees makes it
    easy to interface with:
    Regular (tree) transducer to do spellout
    Regular transducers defined for the prosodic/phonological grammar
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 31

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  45. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    What is the absolutive H-?
    Following Collins (2014, 2015, 2016) (and Legate (2008)):
    Absolutive is default, syncretic marking of nom and acc
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 32

    View Slide

  46. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    What is the absolutive H-?
    Following Collins (2014, 2015, 2016) (and Legate (2008)):
    Absolutive is default, syncretic marking of nom and acc
    Collins: S and P behave different in nominalized clauses: S must be
    genitively marked, while P can have same marking as in finite clauses
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 32

    View Slide

  47. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    What is the absolutive H-?
    Following Collins (2014, 2015, 2016) (and Legate (2008)):
    Absolutive is default, syncretic marking of nom and acc
    Collins: S and P behave different in nominalized clauses: S must be
    genitively marked, while P can have same marking as in finite clauses
    In nominalizations, H- possible for transitive object P but not for
    intransitive subject S
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 32

    View Slide

  48. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    What is the absolutive H-?
    Following Collins (2014, 2015, 2016) (and Legate (2008)):
    Absolutive is default, syncretic marking of nom and acc
    Collins: S and P behave different in nominalized clauses: S must be
    genitively marked, while P can have same marking as in finite clauses
    In nominalizations, H- possible for transitive object P but not for
    intransitive subject S
    Case markers adjoined to arguments in spellout, additional spellout
    rules for coordination and clefted structures
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 32

    View Slide

  49. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    What is the absolutive H-?
    Following Collins (2014, 2015, 2016) (and Legate (2008)):
    Absolutive is default, syncretic marking of nom and acc
    Collins: S and P behave different in nominalized clauses: S must be
    genitively marked, while P can have same marking as in finite clauses
    In nominalizations, H- possible for transitive object P but not for
    intransitive subject S
    Case markers adjoined to arguments in spellout, additional spellout
    rules for coordination and clefted structures
    Verb-initial ordering derived by fronting the VP to a function head F
    below T after the arguments have been raised out of it (Collins)
    Head movement moves T na to C (Collins)
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 32

    View Slide

  50. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    What is the absolutive H-?
    Following Collins (2014, 2015, 2016) (and Legate (2008)):
    Absolutive is default, syncretic marking of nom and acc
    Collins: S and P behave different in nominalized clauses: S must be
    genitively marked, while P can have same marking as in finite clauses
    In nominalizations, H- possible for transitive object P but not for
    intransitive subject S
    Case markers adjoined to arguments in spellout, additional spellout
    rules for coordination and clefted structures
    Verb-initial ordering derived by fronting the VP to a function head F
    below T after the arguments have been raised out of it (Collins)
    Head movement moves T na to C (Collins)
    Other ideas about abs: (1) material preceding abs fronted into high
    Spec position, (2) abs arguments extrapose
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 32

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  51. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Derived syntactic trees (Yu & Stabler to appear)
    Absolutive Coordination Clefting
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 33

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  52. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Absolutive H- is distinct from other H-’s
    Anecdotal mentions of “always optional” particle, ia, that precedes
    absolutives (Hovdhaugen 1987, Mosel and Hovdhaugen 1992, Vonen
    1988)
    Frequency of usage of absolutive ia currently seems very sporadic,
    but speakers still have systematic intuitions about distribution
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 34

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  53. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Absolutive H- is distinct from other H-’s
    Anecdotal mentions of “always optional” particle, ia, that precedes
    absolutives (Hovdhaugen 1987, Mosel and Hovdhaugen 1992, Vonen
    1988)
    Frequency of usage of absolutive ia currently seems very sporadic,
    but speakers still have systematic intuitions about distribution
    ia illicit in syntactic environments where other segmental case
    markers also illicit (Yu and Özyıldız 2016)
    ia licit only where absolutive H- occurs, not where cleft or
    coordination H-’s occur (Yu & Özyıldız 2016)
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 34

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  54. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Absolutive illicit in naPo constructions
    Calhoun (2014) noted that no absolutive H- occurs after naPo.
    My consultants don’t accept ia with naPo either:
    (11) No absolutive ia, H-
    na
    past
    laNona
    hear
    e
    erg
    Melina
    Melina
    *H-
    *abs
    *ia
    *abs
    naPo
    only
    *H-
    *abs
    *ia
    *abs
    le
    det.sg
    liona.
    lion
    ‘Melina heard only the lion.’
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 35

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  55. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    NaPo ‘only’ cannot occur with any case morpheme
    (12) No ergative e
    na
    past
    laNona
    hear
    *e
    *erg
    naPo
    only
    Melina
    Melina
    *e
    *erg
    H-
    abs
    (ia)
    (abs)
    le
    det.sg
    liona.
    lion
    ‘Only Melina heard the lion.’
    (13) No oblique i
    na
    past
    leaNa
    bad
    H-
    abs
    (ia)
    (abs)
    Melina
    Melina
    *i
    *obl
    naPo
    only
    *i
    *obl
    le
    det.sg
    liona.
    lion
    ‘Melina was bad to only the lion.’
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 36

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  56. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Hypothesis for origin of absolutive H-
    Hypothesis: Absolutive H- emerged diachronically from segmental
    [ia] particle: segmental deletion and reassociation of orphaned
    tone
    ia is bimoraic and receives penult stress; pitch accent provides source
    tone for reassociation
    H H
    =
    manu i a
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 37

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  57. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    A unifying syntactic relation?
    Suppose we take an H- as a diagnostic for some phonological constituent.
    What could be a general syntactic relation between the H-’s that
    maps to a common phonological constituent?
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 38

    View Slide

  58. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    A unifying syntactic relation?
    Suppose we take an H- as a diagnostic for some phonological constituent.
    What could be a general syntactic relation between the H-’s that
    maps to a common phonological constituent?
    Why is it that H-’s always appear, and don’t disappear with fast
    speech rates or decreasing prosodic length (Yu & Stabler to appear)
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 38

    View Slide

  59. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    A unifying syntactic relation?
    Suppose we take an H- as a diagnostic for some phonological constituent.
    What could be a general syntactic relation between the H-’s that
    maps to a common phonological constituent?
    Why is it that H-’s always appear, and don’t disappear with fast
    speech rates or decreasing prosodic length (Yu & Stabler to appear)
    In contrast, appearance of sentence-medial L edge tones variable
    within/across speakers
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 38

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  60. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Variable appearance of L- tones: example
    sentences
    (14) L- before erg
    Po
    top
    le
    det.sg
    mamanu
    design
    H-
    front
    na
    past
    lalaNa-ina
    weave-INA
    L- e
    erg
    le
    det.sg
    malini
    marine
    i
    obl
    le
    det.sg
    aso:
    day
    ‘It was the marine that wove the design today.’
    (15) L- before obl
    na
    past
    malaNa
    journey
    H-
    abs
    le
    det.sg
    malini
    marine
    L- i
    obl
    le
    det.sg
    moana
    sea
    i
    obl
    le
    det.sg
    aso:
    day
    ‘The marine journeyed to the sea today.’
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 39

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  61. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Variable appearance of L- tones: f0 contours
    We don’t expect syntactically conditioned H-’s where these L- tones
    showed up.
    150
    175
    200
    225
    250
    Fundamental frequency (Hz)
    Time (s)
    0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
    LH*
    H-
    plateau
    *?
    L-
    resetLH* LH*
    L-L%
    LH*
    H-
    plateau
    *?
    L-
    reset LH* LH*
    L-L%
    ’o lemamanu na lalaNaina e le malini le aso:
    150
    175
    200
    225
    250
    Fundamental frequency (Hz)
    Time (s)
    0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
    LH*
    H-
    *?
    L-
    reset
    LH* LH*
    L-L%
    LH*
    H-
    *?
    L-
    resetLH* LH*
    L-L%
    na malaNa le malini i le moana i le aso:
    (a) L- in fronting, before ergative (b) L- in VSO, before oblique
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 40

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  62. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Phonological constituency and succinctness
    Why posit phonological constituents? To make phonological
    grammars more succinct. (see also Yu submitted)
    Here: does positing phonological constituents where H-’s appear help
    make phonological grammars more succinct? Not clear.
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 41

    View Slide

  63. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Phonological constituency and succinctness
    Why posit phonological constituents? To make phonological
    grammars more succinct. (see also Yu submitted)
    Here: does positing phonological constituents where H-’s appear help
    make phonological grammars more succinct? Not clear.
    Additional phonological constituency tests besides distribution of
    H-’s?
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 41

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  64. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Defining prosodic grammars with xfst
    Why xfst (Beesley and Karttunen 2003)?
    Finite state sequence transducers expressive enough to define diverse
    phonological formalisms
    Common formalism allows for assessments of which approaches are
    the most succinct
    Easy to interface with the defined minimalist grammars
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 42

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  65. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Disfluencies and phonological constituency
    Not clear whether we would want to say H-’s are placed at the right
    or left edge of a phonological constituent.
    Placement of abs H- to the left: could be explained if Samoan tends
    to group case markers leftward, prosodically.
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 43

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  66. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Disfluencies and phonological constituency
    Not clear whether we would want to say H-’s are placed at the right
    or left edge of a phonological constituent.
    Placement of abs H- to the left: could be explained if Samoan tends
    to group case markers leftward, prosodically.
    Evidence for this: asymmetric chunking in disfluencies—higher
    frequency of function words being “enclitic” rather than “proclitic” in
    disfluencies/hesitations (Himmelman 2014)
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 43

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  67. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?

    agogo from The Archive of M¯
    aori and Pacific
    Music
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 44

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  68. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Hypothesis 1: H- does not demarcate a prosodic
    constituent
    (16) The absolutive H- is an edge tone but does not demarcate a
    prosodic constituent.
    (Verb H-)PWd ( . . . and (Verb e)PWd ( . . .
    Length can appear to support contour tones, which are not necessarily
    edge tones; length isn’t necessarily always a correlate of a prosodic
    boundary.
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 45

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  69. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Hypothesis 2: Prosodic phrasing of abs and erg
    the same
    (17) The prosodic phrasing of the absolutive and ergative arguments is
    the same even though no H- appears before the ergative, and
    there are non-tonal phonetic correlates of prosodic constituency.
    (Verb H-)PPh ( . . . but (Verb e)PPh ( . . .
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 46

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  70. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Hypothesis 3: H- demarcates a PPh
    (18) The absolutive H- demarcates a prosodic constituent higher than
    a prosodic word, e.g. a phonological phrase. That is, an
    absolutive argument induces a prosodic domain higher than the
    prosodic word. (And what about coordination, fronting?)
    (Verb H-)PPh ( . . . but (Verb e)PWd ( . . .
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 47

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  71. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Conclusion
    In Samoan, placement of sentence-medial high edge tones entirely
    predictable with knowledge of syntactic structure
    But not clear that a cross-categorial syntactic relation unifies
    configurations where H- appears
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 48

    View Slide

  72. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Conclusion
    In Samoan, placement of sentence-medial high edge tones entirely
    predictable with knowledge of syntactic structure
    But not clear that a cross-categorial syntactic relation unifies
    configurations where H- appears
    Opportunity to carefully evaluate assumptions underlying why we
    posit phonological constituents
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 48

    View Slide

  73. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Conclusion
    In Samoan, placement of sentence-medial high edge tones entirely
    predictable with knowledge of syntactic structure
    But not clear that a cross-categorial syntactic relation unifies
    configurations where H- appears
    Opportunity to carefully evaluate assumptions underlying why we
    posit phonological constituents
    Starting point for defining and comparing computational models of
    the interface which capture fundamental properties that distinguish
    proposed theories from one another
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 48

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  74. Introduction
    Sentence-medial high edge tones
    A unified source for H-’s?
    A general syntactic relation?
    A general phonological relation?
    Acknowledgements
    Primary consultants: John Fruean, Kare’l Lokeni
    Coordination of Samoan fieldwork: Gladys Fuimaono, Peone
    Fuimaono; Coordination of Auckland fieldwork: Jason Brown
    Adam Albright, Ryan Bennett, Rajesh Bhatt, Seth Cable, Sandy
    Chung, James Collins, Lyn Frazier, Alice Harris, Larry Hyman,
    Sun-Ah Jun, Diana Massam, Jim McCloskey, Masha Polinsky, Russ
    Schuh, Lisa Selkirk, Donca Steriade, Ellen Woolford, Kie Zuraw
    Funding: from UCLA Academic Senate’s Committee on Research,
    Department of Linguistics at University of Maryland College Park
    and University of Massachusetts Amherst
    Kristine M. Yu www.krisyu.org Towards a model of Samoan syntax-prosody 49

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