Natalia Cáceres Arandia | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / French National Centre for Scientific Research (original) (raw)

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Conference Presentations by Natalia Cáceres Arandia

This is the handout for our talk at the Annual Meeting of the SLE, September 3, 2016.

Areal Patterns of Grammaticalization. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany, 12-14 ... more Areal Patterns of Grammaticalization. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany, 12-14 March.

This paper illustrates a type of parts of speech system typical of the Cariban family not predict... more This paper illustrates a type of parts of speech system typical of the Cariban family not predicted by typological constructional theories of parts of speech.

Papers by Natalia Cáceres Arandia

International Journal of American Linguistics, Apr 2, 2018

In syllable reduction, the vowel of a nonfinal syllable deletes (.. . CV.CV. . .), resulting in t... more In syllable reduction, the vowel of a nonfinal syllable deletes (.. . CV.CV. . .), resulting in the creation of a consonant cluster (.. . C.CV. . .) where the first consonant of such a cluster can be said to be phonetically simplified with respect to the original consonant. Ye'kwana presents some unique features of syllable reduction: (i) attested thus far only at morpheme boundaries, alternation of reducing syllables occurs here within a single morpheme; (ii) reduction is conditioned by what could be analyzed as vowel initial suffixes. This latter phenomenon deviates from the patterns found in other Cariban languages and appears to violate explanations given in terms of syllable structure constraints. I discuss the problems in generating a synchronic phonological analysis to model the resultant apparent counterexamples, and then I demonstrate that this apparent violation is historically consistent with the overall pattern, but that a late sound change has eliminated the onset consonant from the suffix.

Studies in Language, Dec 22, 2020

Ye’kwana is an Amazonian language of the Cariban family spoken by a group of about 8,700 people i... more Ye’kwana is an Amazonian language of the Cariban family spoken by a group of about 8,700 people in Venezuela and Brazil. This paper explores the expression of Path in spontaneous motion events based on spoken data collected for the documentation and description of the language including data collected with the Trajectoire elicitation material (Ishibashi et al. 2006). In Ye’kwana, Path is mainly expressed by postpositional and adverbial stems: there is a rich inventory of 80 postpositions all compatible with locative and either allative or perlative uses and 29 spatial adverbs, most of deictic nature. Source is expressed with a dedicated suffix (-nno) which combines with almost all the spatial postpositions and adverbs. The data show that the asymmetries in the expression of Path are not only found between Source and Goal but also need to include the expression of Medium for which the language has dedicated forms.

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Mar 1, 2018

Yawarana (Cariban) is a critically endangered language of Venezuela, with 20–30 speakers and litt... more Yawarana (Cariban) is a critically endangered language of Venezuela, with 20–30 speakers and little published research beyond wordlists. In these wordlists, orthographic indications of stress and/or vowel length are inconsistent. As part of our language documentation project, we examine acoustic correlates of prominence in Yawarana. Many other languages in the Cariban family have a clear rhythmic stress system, with vowel lengthening and pitch excursion marking prominence; Yawarana does not mark prominence in the same way. Even so, in some situations, native speakers do appear to attend to stress (i.e., when correcting the pronunciation of language learners). Here, we ask what the acoustic correlates of prominence are, paying particular attention to intensity, pitch, and duration information. We are examining over 200 lexical items produced by four native speakers. These items are repeated in isolation, produced in carrier phrases, and produced in narratives and conversations. We compare measures of prominence in each of these situations. This investigation will pave the way for a more in-depth study of acoustic features of Yawarana and will inform future studies of prominence in other Cariban languages.

This is the handout for our talk at the Annual Meeting of the SLE, September 3, 2016.

Areal Patterns of Grammaticalization. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany, 12-14 ... more Areal Patterns of Grammaticalization. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany, 12-14 March.

This paper illustrates a type of parts of speech system typical of the Cariban family not predict... more This paper illustrates a type of parts of speech system typical of the Cariban family not predicted by typological constructional theories of parts of speech.

International Journal of American Linguistics, Apr 2, 2018

In syllable reduction, the vowel of a nonfinal syllable deletes (.. . CV.CV. . .), resulting in t... more In syllable reduction, the vowel of a nonfinal syllable deletes (.. . CV.CV. . .), resulting in the creation of a consonant cluster (.. . C.CV. . .) where the first consonant of such a cluster can be said to be phonetically simplified with respect to the original consonant. Ye'kwana presents some unique features of syllable reduction: (i) attested thus far only at morpheme boundaries, alternation of reducing syllables occurs here within a single morpheme; (ii) reduction is conditioned by what could be analyzed as vowel initial suffixes. This latter phenomenon deviates from the patterns found in other Cariban languages and appears to violate explanations given in terms of syllable structure constraints. I discuss the problems in generating a synchronic phonological analysis to model the resultant apparent counterexamples, and then I demonstrate that this apparent violation is historically consistent with the overall pattern, but that a late sound change has eliminated the onset consonant from the suffix.

Studies in Language, Dec 22, 2020

Ye’kwana is an Amazonian language of the Cariban family spoken by a group of about 8,700 people i... more Ye’kwana is an Amazonian language of the Cariban family spoken by a group of about 8,700 people in Venezuela and Brazil. This paper explores the expression of Path in spontaneous motion events based on spoken data collected for the documentation and description of the language including data collected with the Trajectoire elicitation material (Ishibashi et al. 2006). In Ye’kwana, Path is mainly expressed by postpositional and adverbial stems: there is a rich inventory of 80 postpositions all compatible with locative and either allative or perlative uses and 29 spatial adverbs, most of deictic nature. Source is expressed with a dedicated suffix (-nno) which combines with almost all the spatial postpositions and adverbs. The data show that the asymmetries in the expression of Path are not only found between Source and Goal but also need to include the expression of Medium for which the language has dedicated forms.

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Mar 1, 2018

Yawarana (Cariban) is a critically endangered language of Venezuela, with 20–30 speakers and litt... more Yawarana (Cariban) is a critically endangered language of Venezuela, with 20–30 speakers and little published research beyond wordlists. In these wordlists, orthographic indications of stress and/or vowel length are inconsistent. As part of our language documentation project, we examine acoustic correlates of prominence in Yawarana. Many other languages in the Cariban family have a clear rhythmic stress system, with vowel lengthening and pitch excursion marking prominence; Yawarana does not mark prominence in the same way. Even so, in some situations, native speakers do appear to attend to stress (i.e., when correcting the pronunciation of language learners). Here, we ask what the acoustic correlates of prominence are, paying particular attention to intensity, pitch, and duration information. We are examining over 200 lexical items produced by four native speakers. These items are repeated in isolation, produced in carrier phrases, and produced in narratives and conversations. We compare measures of prominence in each of these situations. This investigation will pave the way for a more in-depth study of acoustic features of Yawarana and will inform future studies of prominence in other Cariban languages.