35.3566, Review: Morphology, Phonetics, Phonology, Semantics, Syntax; Linguistics Olympiad: Spier (2024)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-35-3566. Wed Dec 18 2024. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 35.3566, Review: Morphology, Phonetics, Phonology, Semantics, Syntax; Linguistics Olympiad: Spier (2024)

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Date: 18-Dec-2024
From: Troy Spier [tspier2 at gmail.com]
Subject: Morphology, Phonetics, Phonology, Semantics, Syntax; Linguistics Olympiad: Spier (2024)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/35.1868

AUTHOR: Vlad A. Neacșu
TITLE: Linguistics Olympiad
SUBTITLE: Training guide
SERIES TITLE: Textbooks in Language Sciences
PUBLISHER: Language Science Press
YEAR: 2024

REVIEWER: Troy Spier

SUMMARY

Approximately sixty years after the founding in 1901 of the first
American Department of Linguistics in Berkeley, California, the
Moscow-based predecessor to the International Linguistics Olympiad was
born, demonstrating the growing importance of the linguistic sciences
to the world. Although the position of linguistics within academia,
alongside its theoretical and applied preoccupations, has changed over
time, a generalized interest in linguistic analysis has remained
stable among linguists and non-linguists alike. As such, “Linguistics
Olympiad: Training Guide” offers readers an expanded translation of
the author’s earlier work (cf. Neacşu 2022), guiding them through ten
chapters on topics relevant to the competition itself while providing
specific strategies that support linguistic analysis more broadly.

Chapter 1 begins by outlining the four-part schema for linguistics
problems: introduction, data, tasks, and notes. Each subsequent
chapter is also briefly described, and some concrete guidelines are
provided before, during, and after undertaking the task. In
particular, readers are encouraged to ensure that they understand what
the problem is actually asking them to do and should pay close
attention to writing a straightforward, concise solution to the
problem that relies on the traditional conventions of formal, academic
writing, e.g., through the invocation of tables, graphs, diagrams, and
common abbreviations and symbols. This is illustrated through simple
examples in Arabic, Turkish, and Spanish.
Chapter 2 opens with a discussion of pictographic and ideographic
systems, stopping short of actually defining the term ‘writing,’
before shifting to logographies, syllabaries, alphabets, abjads (i.e.
consonantal alphabets), and abugidas (i.e. neosyllabaries). A brief
summary of the featural properties of existing orthographies is also
undertaken. Eleven practice problems are provided, including
orthographies that are written but not in widespread, contemporary
usage (e.g. Luwian and Ogham), those that are written and used (e.g.
Armenian and Javanese), and those that rely on multimodal expression
(e.g. signed languages and Braille).

Chapter 3 starts with the familiar trifurcation of phonetics into its
articulatory, acoustic, and auditory components. Brief remarks are
provided about the International Phonetic Alphabet and the distinction
between broad and narrow transcriptions at the beginning. The
remainder of the introduction focuses primarily on distinguishing
consonants and vowels and recognizing phonological variation when
conditioned, before emphasizing the importance of syllabic structure
and syllabification. Nine practice problems are provided, covering
topics like syllabification and meter (e.g. in Somali and Ancient
Greek) and stress (e.g. in Manobo and Chuvash).

Chapter 4 presents a feature-based approach to phonology,
demonstrating how rules can reflect conditioned sound changes,
underscoring the benefit of complementary distribution in identifying
distinct phonemes. Thirteen practice problems are provided that
require readers to recognize common phonological processes (deletion,
insertion, metathesis, assimilation) and vowel harmony. The data
provided earlier in the chapter correspond overtly to these topics and
are accompanied by more substantive solutions and commentary, though
the exercises toward the end of the chapter unify these topics, e.g.,
through assimilation of the consonant in Arabic definite articles,
competing orthographies for Sesotho in South Africa and Lesotho, and
the diminutive suffix in Dutch.

Chapter 5 examines fundamental terminology in morphological analysis
(morpheme, allomorph, and types of affixes). To this end, two
principles for such analysis based on meaning and distribution are
offered and illustrated that combine inflection and derivation in Zulu
and markers of (in)definiteness in Swedish. Common points of
differentiation among nominals are examined, such as number, gender,
classifiers, and grammatical case. Seventeen practice problems, some
original and some adapted from other work, are provided. These examine
basic constituent ordering in Bulgarian; noun classifiers in Japanese;
reduplication in Marshallese, Samoan, and Bontoc; (in)alienable
possession in Fijian, Iaai, and Ulwa; and basic color terms in a
typologically-diverse set of twelve linguistic varieties.

Chapter 6 considers the relationship among lexical categories,
grammatical functions, and thematic relations, in addition to the most
prototypical characteristics of verbs: tense, aspect, mood, modality,
and evidentiality. Argument structure is illustrated in detail through
the agglutinative nature of verbal morphology (e.g. in Swahili and
Dabida), and the animacy hierarchy is briefly discussed regarding
Proto-Algonquian. Fourteen practice problems are provided that present
data from several languages, the accompanying tasks for which require
readers to ‘match’ English and non-English data before translating to
and from each.

Chapter 7 focuses on basic constituent ordering and morphosyntactic
alignment patterns (e.g. nominative-accusative and
ergative-absolutive), acknowledging six possible combinatorial
patterns of subject, verb, and object and discussing how
topicalization can impact the positioning of each element. Eleven
practice problems are provided that present data, sometimes randomized
and sometimes not, alongside translations before asking readers to
translate to and from the languages under consideration. These
exercises include various languages, such as the revitalized Luiseño
and isolates like Burushaski and Sandawe, alongside more widely spoken
languages like Arabic, Swahili, and Welsh.

Chapter 8 introduces the semantic complexity attested
cross-linguistically, opening with examples from Cameroonian Pidgin
English that demonstrate how the body is employed to represent
personal attributes, e.g. ‘blak hat’ (from ‘black heart’) describes
wickedness. A graphical method is employed whereby limited data can be
schematized using a node-based system to identify known and unknown
components of lexical items. Eight practice problems are provided that
encourage readers to translate to and from the given languages. Most
helpful, however, is the fact that these problems also unify topics
that were introduced earlier, such as conditioned sound changes,
morphological analysis, and constituent ordering.

Chapter 9 shifts the emphasis away from more traditional topics in
general linguistics toward numbering systems, paying particular
attention not only to the ordering of each part of compound numbers,
but also to basic arithmetic concepts and telling time. The sixteen
practice problems provided engage a range of languages, including
those that are constructed (e.g. Quenya), those that are spoken by
small communities (e.g. Embera Chami, Waorani, and Wambon), those that
are endangered (e.g. Shabo), and those that serve as national
languages (e.g. Czech and Danish). Of particular interest is the
Yup’ik “magic square,” which relates numerals to the metaphorical
reference to the body discussed previously. For instance, “talliman”
means both “five” and “arm.” Similarly, readers are introduced to the
concept of overcounting, a common phenomenon but likely unfamiliar to
many participants. This is presented step-by-step in Umbu-Ungu;
however, the most straightforward example comes from German, where one
of the admittedly many ways to refer to 07:30 is ‘halb acht’ (lit.
‘half eight’).

Chapter 10 serves in a more anthropologically-oriented capacity,
bringing to life the important topics of spatial and geographical
orientation and kinship systems. Nine practice problems are provided
that rely on many helpful images to represent, for instance, houses on
Manam Island (Manam Pile), important locations in a village on
Kalimantan Island (Embaloh), hamlets on Salu Leang (Aralle-Tabulahan),
rocks in a field (Hungarian), and several kinship diagrams following
in the footsteps of Murdock’s (1949) early work.

EVALUATION

Following in a longer tradition of workbook-style linguistics texts
(see e.g. Merrifield et al. 2003 and Blust 2018), this book reflects
the field’s broader, more recently apparent trend toward
pedagogically-sound approaches to rendering linguistics accessible and
inviting. Indeed, each of the ten chapters, excluding the first and
last chapters, begins with prefatory notes to clarify the subject
under consideration before shifting to practice problems. For
instance, the second chapter provides a brief overview of different
types of writing systems before the exercises unfold. Through this
approach, readers with prior training in linguistics are offered a
‘refresher’ course, and those without sufficient experience are not
placed at a disadvantage. Beyond accessibility, though, this book
offers expansive linguistic and geographic coverage, viz. by
presenting over one hundred exercises from over one hundred linguistic
varieties covering thirty-eight language stocks. Twenty pages
comprising three appendices contextualize each of these more broadly.
Moreover, a genuine attempt at inclusivity is promoted through
engagement with signed languages and Braille. Despite the serious,
substantive contribution of this book, there are a few areas in which
both the content and form could reasonably be adjusted in a revised
version.

        First, this book seems to have been conceptualized–based on
its title and approach–as a manual for educators and students
interested in and/or participating in the relevant competitions.
However, beyond the abbreviations accompanying the problems, there is
no historical background provided to contextualize the competitions
taking place today in a variety of formats across the world. Put
another way, the author takes for granted that the reader already has
familiarity with the purpose, value, and structure of these
competitions, prioritizing the types of problems one might encounter
while backgrounding the competition almost entirely. Such a discussion
would be well-positioned within the introductory chapter.

        Second, some topics are introduced briefly and seem to feature
in only a very limited manner, such as tone, basic color terms, and
the animacy hierarchy. This is likely compounded by the large set of
topics that could be addressed, but which are limited by the space
available. For example, a single paragraph summarizes Berlin and Kay’s
(1969) study of basic color terms before describing the range of
possibilities. The taxonomy, however, could have been presented as
prefatory information, and the reader could have been asked to
identify which are basic color terms and which are not in a given set
of languages. This is also apparent, for instance, in a discussion of
Arabic, where triliteral roots–as a fundamental feature of
templatic/non-concatenative morphology–are described as “transfixes.”
For this reason, the triliteral root KTB is offered as the verbal root
for “to write” when this is, indeed, the root for many lexical items
belonging to different lexical categories. Similarly, a range of
number systems are described, but variation in their bases remains
relatively unaddressed.

        Finally, some restructuring and expansion of content is
necessary for this book to reach its fullest potential. Although
readers who will utilize this book are likely already equipped with
some linguistic knowledge, fundamental concepts within the chapters
are often discussed only cursorily before they must be immediately
employed. For example, the most fundamental concepts within morphology
are covered in only two pages; by way of comparison, Nida’s (1949)
work on morphological analysis alone dedicates over one hundred pages
to presenting and defining the same concepts in greater detail before
exemplifying them. Consequently, the decision needs to be made whether
this book is essentially a collection of exercises or if it is
genuinely a training manual with exercises–and, if so, for whom. The
former would be incredibly valuable on its own merit, but the latter
requires greater awareness of the potential and intended audiences.
This could be accomplished by bifurcating the textbook into two
sections, where the first teaches the necessary conceptual knowledge
and redirects the reader to specific exercises in the second.
Similarly, the solutions for all practice problems (i.e., as opposed
to illustrative examples) could be provided collectively at the end of
the book.

        Despite these areas for improvement in a subsequent edition,
the author should be commended for the tremendous amount of work that
this book certainly required, both in the original Romanian and the
current English translation. In addition to translating and publishing
this book in an open-access venue, which ensures greater
accessibility, the author should also be recognized for his extensive
usage of data from constructed and natural languages and extinct,
revitalized, and living languages in small and large communities
around the globe. Additionally, the inclusion of a variety of writing
systems and novel practice problems was especially welcome.

REFERENCES

Berlin, Brent and Paul Kay. 1969. Basic Color Terms: Their
Universality and Evolution. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press.

Blust, Robert Andrew. 2018. 101 Problems and Solutions in Historical
Linguistics: A Workbook. Edinburgh, SL: Edinburgh University Press.

Merrifield, William R. et al. (eds). 2003. Laboratory Manual for
Morphology and Syntax. Dallas, TX: SIL International.

Murdock, George P. 1949. Social Structure. New York, NY: Macmillan.

Neacşu, Vlad A. 2022. Olimpiada de Lingvistică. Ghid de Pregătire.
Bucharest, RO: Editura Universității din București.

Nida, Eugene. 1949. Morphology: The Descriptive Analysis of Words. Ann
Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Troy E. Spier is Assistant Professor of English and Linguistics at
Florida A&M University. He earned his MA and Ph.D. in Linguistics at
Tulane University, his B.S.Ed. in English/Secondary Education at
Kutztown University, and a graduate certificate in Islamic Studies at
Dallas International University. His research interests include
language documentation and description, discourse analysis, corpus
linguistics, and linguistic landscapes.



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