{"title":"Adjective Ordering Across Languages","authors":"Gregory Scontras","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030521-041835","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030521-041835","url":null,"abstract":"Adjective ordering preferences stand as perhaps one of the best candidates for a true linguistic universal: When multiple adjectives are strung together in service of modifying some noun, speakers of different languages—from English to Mandarin to Hebrew—exhibit robust and reliable preferences concerning the relative order of those adjectives. More importantly, despite the diversity of the languages investigated, the very same preferences surface over and over again. This tantalizing regularity has led to decades of research pursuing the source of these preferences. This article offers an overview of the findings and proposals that have resulted. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 9 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74447790","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Verb Classification Across Languages","authors":"Olga Majewska, A. Korhonen","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030521-043632","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030521-043632","url":null,"abstract":"Recent developments in language modeling have enabled large text encoders to derive a wealth of linguistic information from raw text corpora without supervision. Their success across natural language processing (NLP) tasks has called into question the role of man-made computational resources, such as verb lexicons, in supporting modern NLP. Still, probing analyses have concurrently exposed the limitations of the knowledge possessed by the large neural architectures, revealing them to be clever task solvers rather than self-taught linguists. Can human-designed lexical resources still help fill their knowledge gaps? Focusing on verb classification, we discuss approaches to generating verb classes multilingually and weigh the relative benefits of undertaking expensive lexicographic work and outsourcing the task to untrained native speakers. Then, we consider the evidence for the utility of augmenting pretrained language models with external verb knowledge and ponder the ways in which human expertise can continue to benefit multilingual NLP. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 9 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87687280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker, Shirley Gabber, Aliya Slayton
{"title":"Recent Advances in Technologies for Resource Creation and Mobilization in Language Documentation","authors":"Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker, Shirley Gabber, Aliya Slayton","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031220-120504","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031220-120504","url":null,"abstract":"Language documentation as a subfield of linguistics has arisen over the past roughly two and a half decades more or less simultaneously with the widespread availability of inexpensive hardware and software for creating, storing, and sharing digital objects. Thus, in some ways the history of advancements within the discipline is also a history of how technological tools have been developed, tested, adopted, and eventually abandoned as newer technologies appear. In this article we examine some recent technologies used both for creating documentary resources, usually considered to include recorded language events in a variety of genres and settings and enough annotation to make them decipherable, and for then mobilizing those resources so that they can be used and shared in language learning, reclamation, revitalization, and analysis. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 9 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73587041","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Actuation Problem","authors":"A. Yu","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031120-101336","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031120-101336","url":null,"abstract":"The actuation problem asks why a linguistic change occurs in a particular language at a particular time and space. Responses to this problem are multifaceted. This review approaches the problem of actuation through the lens of sound change, examining it from both individual and population perspectives. Linguistic changes ultimately actuate in the form of idiolectal differences. An understanding of language change actuation at the idiolectal level requires an understanding of ( a) how individual speaker-listeners’ different past linguistic experiences and physical, perceptual, cognitive, and social makeups affect the way they process and analyze the primary learning data and ( b) how these factors lead to divergent representations and grammars across speakers-listeners. Population-level incrementation and propagation of linguistic innovation depend not only on the nature of contact between speakers with unique idiolects but also on individuals who have the wherewithal to take advantage of the linguistic innovations they encountered to achieve particular ideological projects at any given moment. Because of the vast number of contingencies that need to be aligned properly, the incrementation and propagation of linguistic innovation are predicted to be rare. Agent-based modeling promises to provide a controlled way to investigate the stochastic nature of language change propagation, but a comprehensive model of linguistic change actuation at the individual level remains elusive. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 9 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89292904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Prosodic Prominence Across Languages","authors":"D. Robert Ladd, A. Arvaniti","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031120-101954","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031120-101954","url":null,"abstract":"Current empirical work on prosodic prominence is based on theoretical developments in the mid-twentieth century, in which a generalized notion of stress (in word pairs like English insight/incite and in sentence pairs like THEY left/they LEFT) was replaced by a distinction between an abstract notion of word stress and a concrete notion of phrasal accent or prominence that applies to specific words in an utterance. Much research since then has focused on phonetic and other cues that signal such prominence. Early findings emphasized the role of intonational pitch movements; more recent research demonstrates the importance of other phonetic cues, categorical differences between pitch movement types, and nonphonetic factors like word frequency. However, the definition of prominence itself remains informal and depends on intuitions that are well motivated primarily in European languages. Recent findings point to important differences between languages. These might be accommodated in a more comprehensive theory of word and sentence stress that treats both as manifestations of a hierarchical prosodic structure of the sort assumed in metrical phonology, while at the same time allowing for significant differences of prosodic typology. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 9 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":"54 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87662271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Environmental Linguistics","authors":"K. D. Harrison","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031220-013152","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031220-013152","url":null,"abstract":"Environmental linguistics is an emerging field at the intersection of linguistics and natural sciences. It recognizes the mutual relationship between cultural and ecological diversity, documenting linguistic structures and verbal practices by which speakers conceptualize, encode, and transmit knowledge about the natural world. It surpasses the largely metaphorical and narrative program of ecolinguistics to position language as the preeminent conceptual framework and channel for environmental knowledge. Natural phenomena—as Indigenous experts explain—cannot be understood apart from the languages that encode them, and vice versa. Language diversity is thus the key to safeguarding biodiversity and a balanced human relationship with nature. Environmental linguistics helps decolonize linguistics as our field evolves to prioritize knowledge coproduction over data extraction. Examples from my fieldwork in Tuva cover six domains of knowledge: landscapes, lifeforms, time, sound, cognition, and survival. This article reviews recent literature from many cultures, emphasizing works by Indigenous authors. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 9 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":"72 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90581688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Animal Communication in Linguistic and Cognitive Perspective","authors":"T. Scott-Phillips, C. Heintz","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030421-061233","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030421-061233","url":null,"abstract":"Detailed comparative studies have revealed many surface similarities between linguistic communication and the communication of nonhumans. How should we interpret these discoveries in linguistic and cognitive perspective? We review the literature with a specific focus on analogy (similar features and function but not shared ancestry) and homology (shared ancestry). We conclude that combinatorial features of animal communication are analogous but not homologous to natural language. Homologies are found instead in cognitive capacities of attention manipulation, which are enriched in humans, making possible many distinctive forms of communication, including language use. We therefore present a new, graded taxonomy of means of attention manipulation, including a new class we call Ladyginian, which is related to but slightly broader than the more familiar class of Gricean interaction. Only in the latter do actors have the goal of revealing specifically informative intentions. Great ape interaction may be best characterized as Ladyginian but not Gricean. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 9 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81325938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ethics in Linguistics","authors":"Alexandra D’Arcy, Emily M. Bender","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031120-015324","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031120-015324","url":null,"abstract":"In linguistics, ethics has long encompassed matters typically covered under regulatory oversight, but it is increasingly understood as relational and reciprocal, conferring responsibilities and obligations that extend beyond the work produced for other researchers. Those who study language are also coming to interrogate their professional responsibilities not only in how research is done but also in how research is conceived, framed, reported, discussed, and taught, as part of larger discussions around decolonization, intersectionality, and social justice. In this article, we review existing literature on ethics in linguistics, both as it relates to research and as it relates to broader practices, which we then situate within ongoing conversations across subfields. The overarching frame for our discussion is that ethical practice and scientific validity are aligned, and that dismantling dominant discourses and normative practices will serve to advance the work linguists do in meaningful ways. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 9 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":"66 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80071245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Raising out of Finite Clauses (Hyperraising)","authors":"Erik Zyman","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-022421-070658","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-022421-070658","url":null,"abstract":"Classical syntactic theory was designed to permit the type of movement called raising to proceed out of infinitival, but not finite, clauses—a positive result for languages such as English. But crosslinguistic investigation reveals that many languages actually allow raising out of finite clauses (hyperraising), challenging certain commonly assumed locality constraints on movement. This article reviews three types of Minimalist analyses of hyperraising and how they address these challenges, noting the strengths and shortcomings of each. Defectiveness/nonphase analyses commendably tie a clause's ability to launch hyperraising to independent observables, but such analyses struggle to derive the former from the latter. Deactivation analyses boast empirical successes but do not straightforwardly rule out hyperraising in English. Phase-edge analyses also boast empirical successes but face empirical and/or conceptual problems (to which a solution is sketched out) and open questions about learnability. These evaluations are intended to spur syntacticians to develop stronger versions of all three types of analyses, bringing us closer to fully understanding the factors regulating movement, a subcase of the fundamental structure-building operation Merge. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 9 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79649242","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Constructed Languages","authors":"G. Goodall","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030421-064707","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030421-064707","url":null,"abstract":"Linguistic research focuses primarily on the thousands of naturally occurring languages, but there are also languages that have been consciously created by individuals. There are four main types of these constructed languages. First, so-called philosophical languages were created in the seventeenth century as a way to better capture the reality of the world. Second, many international auxiliary languages were constructed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a way to solve practical problems of international communication. Third, many languages have been created in recent decades for the purposes of fiction (e.g., novels, film, television), especially in the realms of science fiction and fantasy, or simply as an enjoyable hobby. Fourth, it is now common to construct languages for use in psycholinguistic experiments. Each of these types of constructed languages presents interesting research questions and deserves increased attention from linguists. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 9 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87227871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}