Robert Mailhammer
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 202120 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Robert Mailhammer |
| PRENOMES | Robert |
| SOBRENOME | Mailhammer |
| ASSINATURA | MAILHAMMER R |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Western Sydney University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0628-9813 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 25 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 82 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 24 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 1 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2007 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 4 |
Central vowels in Kamu and Larrakia
The vowel inventories of Kamu and Larrakia each consist of peripheral /i/-/u/-/e/-/a/-/o/ and another non-low vowel that has not been phonetically characterized. Descriptions of similar six-vowel systems in Western Top End languages offer inconsistent accounts of the non-peripheral vowel, but no instrumental analysis has yet been conducted. Acoustic and phonological analysis reveals that the sixth vowel is best characterized as /ʉ/ in Kamu and /ɨ…
Past Marking in Australian Aboriginal English on Croker Island
In this paper, we investigate variable past marking in Australian Aboriginal English as spoken on Croker Island, Northern Territory. Employing data from twenty speakers and both mixed-effects regression and random forests, we show that despite a high degree of individual variability the occurrence or non-occurrence of a past-marked verb is subject to conditioning factors that are known from other varieties of English, most notably lexical and gra…
Proto-Australian
This book is the first full evaluation of the Proto-Australian hypothesis, which proposes that most Australian languages have a common ancestor: Proto-Australian [PA]. Using the standard methodologies of historical linguistics, the authors show that nearly all Australian languages descend from PA. Given that PA was a single language, it was spoken only in a small area of Australia. Its descendants have spread across the continent. Current theorie…
When Positioning Mediates Social Judgements
This study explores the correlation between social categories and linguistic variables, focusing on the perception of the discourse marker yeah-no in Australian English. Research suggests that these correlations reflect individuals' recruitment of variables for the purpose of communicating social meaning. However, not all social categories which correlate with a variable in production are recognizable as social meaning. This study investigated ho…
Variation, gender and perception
The social categories that characterize a speaker frequently correlate with the use of specific linguistic variables. Research suggests that such correlations are sometimes recognized as socially-indexed meanings. This study examines Japanese individuals’ attitudes toward variables that have been shown to correlate with the social category of gender in production. In particular, we contrast patterns of gendered variation that (i) have been prescr…
Linear Lengthening in Iwaidja
This paper investigates the meaning of a specific intonation contour called linear lengthening intonation (LLI), which is found in the northern Australian language Iwaidja. Using an experimental field work approach, we analysed approximately 4000 utterances. We demonstrate that the semantics of LLI is broadly event-quantificational as well as temporally scalar. LLI imposes aspectual selectional restrictions on the verbs it combines with (they mus…
Linear Lengthening in Iwaidja
This paper investigates the meaning of a specific intonation contour found in the Northern Australian language Iwaidja called Linear Lengthening Intonation (LLI). Using an experimental field work approach, we analysed approximately 4,000 utterances. We demonstrate that the semantics of LLI is broadly event-quantificational as well as temporally scalar. LLI imposes aspectual selectional restrictions on the verbs it combines with (they must be dura…
The inconspicuous substratum
Descriptions of Australian Aboriginal English list the neutralisation of the Standard English contrast between so-called voiced and voiceless stops as one characteristic feature. This paper reports on the results of an acoustic analysis of data collected in a production task by monolingual speakers of Standard Australian English in Sydney, of Aboriginal English on Croker Island, Northern Territory, and bilingual speakers of Iwaidja/Aboriginal Eng…
Phonological contrast and phonetic variation
Phonological contrast and phonetic variation
2020, Linguistic Society of America. All rights reserved. A field-based ultrasound and acoustic study of Iwaidja, an endangered Australian Aboriginal language, investigates the phonetic identity of nonnasal velar consonants in intervocalic position, where past work has proposed a [+continuant] vs. [−continuant] phonemic contrast. We analyze the putative contrast within a continuous phonetic space, defined by both acoustic and articulatory paramet…
Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual productions of the English past tense in Arabic heritage speakers of Australian English
This paper examines cross-linguistic influence in morphology among adult monolingual and heritage speakers (Arabic-English and Chinese-English). Participants performed a task requiring them to form past tenses for English nonce words. Arabic-English bilinguals produced significantly more vowel change past tenses than either English monolinguals or Chinese-English bilinguals. We attribute the preponderance of vowel change past tenses to cross-ling…
The role of atypical constellations in the grammaticalization of German and English passives
In this paper we propose an alternative scenario for the grammaticalization of passive constructions in German and English. According to the received view, the development starts with the frequent combinations of copula verbs with past participles, which then increasingly gain in frequency during the grammaticalization process. In contrast to the received view, we argue that marginal – i.e., atypical and infrequent – constellations of constructio…
A Reconstruction of the Proto-Iwaidjan Phoneme System
This paper aims to evaluate the Proto-Iwaidjan hypothesis, which proposes that several languages in northwestern Arnhem Land in Northern Australia are genetically related. The evaluation is based on a rigorous application of the Comparative Method to provide an initial reconstruction of the Proto-Iwaidjan segmental inventory. We show that Amurdak, Iwaidja and Mawng are demonstrably genetically related. Given that Ilgar and Garig are very close in…
Reconstructing remote relationships
Evaluation of hypotheses on genetic relationships depends on two factors: database size and criteria on correspondence quality. For hypotheses on remote relationships, databases are often small. Therefore, detailed consideration of criteria on correspondence quality is important. Hypotheses on remote relationships commonly involve greater geographical and temporal ranges. Consequently, we propose that there are two factors which are likely to pla…
Type frequency influences phonological generalizations
A pivotal process in the loss of phonological quantity in West Germanic languages is what is traditionally known as Open Syllable Lengthening. Existing accounts have found no explanation for why languages such as English apply this change in less than 50% of the relevant cases. This paper presents the results of a corpus investigation of four West Germanic languages showing that whether Open Syllable Lengthening occurs in more than 50% of predict…
Reanalyzing the Morphology and Semantics of Verbal Plural Marking in Quechan
In this paper, we re-investigate the morphology and semantics of verbal plurality in Quechan (Yuma). We propose a systematic account in which one marker of verbal plurality only targets a particular argument of the verb, but others are better analyzed as expressing pluractionality. There are two markers of pluractionality: one that has scope over O or the event and one that has scope over O, S/A, or the event. We show that both pluractionals are …
Research priorities in historical-comparative linguistics
International audience
Lexical and Structural Etymology
This pioneer volume assembles thirteen etymological studies covering a broad range of languages, focusing in particular Australian Indigenous languages. Etymology is understood in a broad sense as a type of historical research that aims at investigating the origin of a word (lexical etymology) or structure (structural etymology). The phenomena investigated in the contributions comprise Australian Indigenous place names and kinship terms, construc…
Automated Dating of the World's Language Families Based on Lexical Similarity
This paper describes a computerized alternative to glottochronology for estimating elapsed time since parent languages diverged into daughter languages. The method, developed by the Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP) consortium, is different from glottochronology in four major respects: (1) it is automated and thus is more objective, (2) it applies a uniform analytical approach to a single database of worldwide languages, (3) it is base…
Towards an Aspect-Based Analysis of the Verb Categories of Amurdak
This paper proposes a reanalysis of the TAM categories of Amurdak. Previous work has assumed a contrast of tense categories. It will be shown that such an analysis is inadequate, as it cannot accurately account for the data, because the morphemes representing these categories do not have the function to localize events in time. Instead, it is posited that the Amurdak verb possesses a contrast between a perfective and an imperfective aspect. This …
Adding typology to lexicostatistics
The ASJP project aims at establishing relationships between languages on the basis of the Swadesh word list. For this purpose, lists have been collected and phonologically transcribed for almost 3,500 languages. Using a method based on the algorithm proposed by Levenshtein (Cybernetics and Control Theory 10: 707-710, 1966), a custom-made computer program calculates the distances between all pairs of languages in the database. Standard software is…
Don Ringe, From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic
On syllable cut in the Orrmulum
The Germanic Strong Verbs
As a contribution to the ongoing discussion of the genesis of the Germanic language, this book investigates the strong verbs of Proto-Germanic using a new approach that combines historical and typological morphology with quantitative etymology. It reveals that the morphological peculiarities and the etymological problems of the strong verbs have been considerably underestimated. The first part of the book explains how drastically the inherited ve…
Islands of resilience
Automated Dating of the World's Language Families Based on Lexical Similarity
This paper describes a computerized alternative to glottochronology for estimating elapsed time since parent languages diverged into daughter languages. The method, developed by the Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP) consortium, is different from glottochronology in four major respects: (1) it is automated and thus is more objective, (2) it applies a uniform analytical approach to a single database of worldwide languages, (3) it is base…
A Reconstruction of the Proto-Iwaidjan Phoneme System
This paper aims to evaluate the Proto-Iwaidjan hypothesis, which proposes that several languages in northwestern Arnhem Land in Northern Australia are genetically related. The evaluation is based on a rigorous application of the Comparative Method to provide an initial reconstruction of the Proto-Iwaidjan segmental inventory. We show that Amurdak, Iwaidja and Mawng are demonstrably genetically related. Given that Ilgar and Garig are very close in…
Adding typology to lexicostatistics
The ASJP project aims at establishing relationships between languages on the basis of the Swadesh word list. For this purpose, lists have been collected and phonologically transcribed for almost 3,500 languages. Using a method based on the algorithm proposed by Levenshtein (Cybernetics and Control Theory 10: 707-710, 1966), a custom-made computer program calculates the distances between all pairs of languages in the database. Standard software is…
Phonological contrast and phonetic variation
2020, Linguistic Society of America. All rights reserved. A field-based ultrasound and acoustic study of Iwaidja, an endangered Australian Aboriginal language, investigates the phonetic identity of nonnasal velar consonants in intervocalic position, where past work has proposed a [+continuant] vs. [−continuant] phonemic contrast. We analyze the putative contrast within a continuous phonetic space, defined by both acoustic and articulatory paramet…
Proto-Australian
This book is the first full evaluation of the Proto-Australian hypothesis, which proposes that most Australian languages have a common ancestor: Proto-Australian [PA]. Using the standard methodologies of historical linguistics, the authors show that nearly all Australian languages descend from PA. Given that PA was a single language, it was spoken only in a small area of Australia. Its descendants have spread across the continent. Current theorie…
Towards an Aspect-Based Analysis of the Verb Categories of Amurdak
This paper proposes a reanalysis of the TAM categories of Amurdak. Previous work has assumed a contrast of tense categories. It will be shown that such an analysis is inadequate, as it cannot accurately account for the data, because the morphemes representing these categories do not have the function to localize events in time. Instead, it is posited that the Amurdak verb possesses a contrast between a perfective and an imperfective aspect. This …
Variation, gender and perception
The social categories that characterize a speaker frequently correlate with the use of specific linguistic variables. Research suggests that such correlations are sometimes recognized as socially-indexed meanings. This study examines Japanese individuals’ attitudes toward variables that have been shown to correlate with the social category of gender in production. In particular, we contrast patterns of gendered variation that (i) have been prescr…
Linear Lengthening in Iwaidja
This paper investigates the meaning of a specific intonation contour called linear lengthening intonation (LLI), which is found in the northern Australian language Iwaidja. Using an experimental field work approach, we analysed approximately 4000 utterances. We demonstrate that the semantics of LLI is broadly event-quantificational as well as temporally scalar. LLI imposes aspectual selectional restrictions on the verbs it combines with (they mus…
The inconspicuous substratum
Descriptions of Australian Aboriginal English list the neutralisation of the Standard English contrast between so-called voiced and voiceless stops as one characteristic feature. This paper reports on the results of an acoustic analysis of data collected in a production task by monolingual speakers of Standard Australian English in Sydney, of Aboriginal English on Croker Island, Northern Territory, and bilingual speakers of Iwaidja/Aboriginal Eng…
Reanalyzing the Morphology and Semantics of Verbal Plural Marking in Quechan
In this paper, we re-investigate the morphology and semantics of verbal plurality in Quechan (Yuma). We propose a systematic account in which one marker of verbal plurality only targets a particular argument of the verb, but others are better analyzed as expressing pluractionality. There are two markers of pluractionality: one that has scope over O or the event and one that has scope over O, S/A, or the event. We show that both pluractionals are …
On syllable cut in the Orrmulum
The Germanic Strong Verbs
As a contribution to the ongoing discussion of the genesis of the Germanic language, this book investigates the strong verbs of Proto-Germanic using a new approach that combines historical and typological morphology with quantitative etymology. It reveals that the morphological peculiarities and the etymological problems of the strong verbs have been considerably underestimated. The first part of the book explains how drastically the inherited ve…
Islands of resilience
Don Ringe, From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic
Towards an Aspect-Based Analysis of the Verb Categories of Amurdak
This paper proposes a reanalysis of the TAM categories of Amurdak. Previous work has assumed a contrast of tense categories. It will be shown that such an analysis is inadequate, as it cannot accurately account for the data, because the morphemes representing these categories do not have the function to localize events in time. Instead, it is posited that the Amurdak verb possesses a contrast between a perfective and an imperfective aspect. This …
Adding typology to lexicostatistics
The ASJP project aims at establishing relationships between languages on the basis of the Swadesh word list. For this purpose, lists have been collected and phonologically transcribed for almost 3,500 languages. Using a method based on the algorithm proposed by Levenshtein (Cybernetics and Control Theory 10: 707-710, 1966), a custom-made computer program calculates the distances between all pairs of languages in the database. Standard software is…
Automated Dating of the World's Language Families Based on Lexical Similarity
This paper describes a computerized alternative to glottochronology for estimating elapsed time since parent languages diverged into daughter languages. The method, developed by the Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP) consortium, is different from glottochronology in four major respects: (1) it is automated and thus is more objective, (2) it applies a uniform analytical approach to a single database of worldwide languages, (3) it is base…
Lexical and Structural Etymology
This pioneer volume assembles thirteen etymological studies covering a broad range of languages, focusing in particular Australian Indigenous languages. Etymology is understood in a broad sense as a type of historical research that aims at investigating the origin of a word (lexical etymology) or structure (structural etymology). The phenomena investigated in the contributions comprise Australian Indigenous place names and kinship terms, construc…
Research priorities in historical-comparative linguistics
International audience
Type frequency influences phonological generalizations
A pivotal process in the loss of phonological quantity in West Germanic languages is what is traditionally known as Open Syllable Lengthening. Existing accounts have found no explanation for why languages such as English apply this change in less than 50% of the relevant cases. This paper presents the results of a corpus investigation of four West Germanic languages showing that whether Open Syllable Lengthening occurs in more than 50% of predict…
Reanalyzing the Morphology and Semantics of Verbal Plural Marking in Quechan
In this paper, we re-investigate the morphology and semantics of verbal plurality in Quechan (Yuma). We propose a systematic account in which one marker of verbal plurality only targets a particular argument of the verb, but others are better analyzed as expressing pluractionality. There are two markers of pluractionality: one that has scope over O or the event and one that has scope over O, S/A, or the event. We show that both pluractionals are …
Reconstructing remote relationships
Evaluation of hypotheses on genetic relationships depends on two factors: database size and criteria on correspondence quality. For hypotheses on remote relationships, databases are often small. Therefore, detailed consideration of criteria on correspondence quality is important. Hypotheses on remote relationships commonly involve greater geographical and temporal ranges. Consequently, we propose that there are two factors which are likely to pla…
A Reconstruction of the Proto-Iwaidjan Phoneme System
This paper aims to evaluate the Proto-Iwaidjan hypothesis, which proposes that several languages in northwestern Arnhem Land in Northern Australia are genetically related. The evaluation is based on a rigorous application of the Comparative Method to provide an initial reconstruction of the Proto-Iwaidjan segmental inventory. We show that Amurdak, Iwaidja and Mawng are demonstrably genetically related. Given that Ilgar and Garig are very close in…
Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual productions of the English past tense in Arabic heritage speakers of Australian English
This paper examines cross-linguistic influence in morphology among adult monolingual and heritage speakers (Arabic-English and Chinese-English). Participants performed a task requiring them to form past tenses for English nonce words. Arabic-English bilinguals produced significantly more vowel change past tenses than either English monolinguals or Chinese-English bilinguals. We attribute the preponderance of vowel change past tenses to cross-ling…
The role of atypical constellations in the grammaticalization of German and English passives
In this paper we propose an alternative scenario for the grammaticalization of passive constructions in German and English. According to the received view, the development starts with the frequent combinations of copula verbs with past participles, which then increasingly gain in frequency during the grammaticalization process. In contrast to the received view, we argue that marginal – i.e., atypical and infrequent – constellations of constructio…
The inconspicuous substratum
Descriptions of Australian Aboriginal English list the neutralisation of the Standard English contrast between so-called voiced and voiceless stops as one characteristic feature. This paper reports on the results of an acoustic analysis of data collected in a production task by monolingual speakers of Standard Australian English in Sydney, of Aboriginal English on Croker Island, Northern Territory, and bilingual speakers of Iwaidja/Aboriginal Eng…
Phonological contrast and phonetic variation
Phonological contrast and phonetic variation
2020, Linguistic Society of America. All rights reserved. A field-based ultrasound and acoustic study of Iwaidja, an endangered Australian Aboriginal language, investigates the phonetic identity of nonnasal velar consonants in intervocalic position, where past work has proposed a [+continuant] vs. [−continuant] phonemic contrast. We analyze the putative contrast within a continuous phonetic space, defined by both acoustic and articulatory paramet…
Linear Lengthening in Iwaidja
This paper investigates the meaning of a specific intonation contour found in the Northern Australian language Iwaidja called Linear Lengthening Intonation (LLI). Using an experimental field work approach, we analysed approximately 4,000 utterances. We demonstrate that the semantics of LLI is broadly event-quantificational as well as temporally scalar. LLI imposes aspectual selectional restrictions on the verbs it combines with (they must be dura…
Linear Lengthening in Iwaidja
This paper investigates the meaning of a specific intonation contour called linear lengthening intonation (LLI), which is found in the northern Australian language Iwaidja. Using an experimental field work approach, we analysed approximately 4000 utterances. We demonstrate that the semantics of LLI is broadly event-quantificational as well as temporally scalar. LLI imposes aspectual selectional restrictions on the verbs it combines with (they mus…
Variation, gender and perception
The social categories that characterize a speaker frequently correlate with the use of specific linguistic variables. Research suggests that such correlations are sometimes recognized as socially-indexed meanings. This study examines Japanese individuals’ attitudes toward variables that have been shown to correlate with the social category of gender in production. In particular, we contrast patterns of gendered variation that (i) have been prescr…
Proto-Australian
This book is the first full evaluation of the Proto-Australian hypothesis, which proposes that most Australian languages have a common ancestor: Proto-Australian [PA]. Using the standard methodologies of historical linguistics, the authors show that nearly all Australian languages descend from PA. Given that PA was a single language, it was spoken only in a small area of Australia. Its descendants have spread across the continent. Current theorie…
When Positioning Mediates Social Judgements
This study explores the correlation between social categories and linguistic variables, focusing on the perception of the discourse marker yeah-no in Australian English. Research suggests that these correlations reflect individuals' recruitment of variables for the purpose of communicating social meaning. However, not all social categories which correlate with a variable in production are recognizable as social meaning. This study investigated ho…
Past Marking in Australian Aboriginal English on Croker Island
In this paper, we investigate variable past marking in Australian Aboriginal English as spoken on Croker Island, Northern Territory. Employing data from twenty speakers and both mixed-effects regression and random forests, we show that despite a high degree of individual variability the occurrence or non-occurrence of a past-marked verb is subject to conditioning factors that are known from other varieties of English, most notably lexical and gra…
Central vowels in Kamu and Larrakia
The vowel inventories of Kamu and Larrakia each consist of peripheral /i/-/u/-/e/-/a/-/o/ and another non-low vowel that has not been phonetically characterized. Descriptions of similar six-vowel systems in Western Top End languages offer inconsistent accounts of the non-peripheral vowel, but no instrumental analysis has yet been conducted. Acoustic and phonological analysis reveals that the sixth vowel is best characterized as /ʉ/ in Kamu and /ɨ…
Linguistics (21 obras) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (15 obras) · Philosophy (15 obras) · Computer Science (13 obras) · History (11 obras) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (9 obras) · Philosophy (8 obras) · Psychology (8 obras) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (8 obras) · Artificial Intelligence (7 obras)