Nicola Lampitelli | Université Paris Nanterre (original) (raw)

Papers by Nicola Lampitelli

Research paper thumbnail of Root and Pattern in Semitic – and Beyond

Research paper thumbnail of Towards a unified representation of the right edge of words

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Apr 15, 2015

This contribution aims to participate to the debate on the representation of word edges, by discu... more This contribution aims to participate to the debate on the representation of word edges, by discussing the status of the right edge of words in three unrelated languages,

Research paper thumbnail of The English "Arab Rule": Analysis and Theoretical Implications

Research paper thumbnail of On the phonological translation of the morphological right boundary “#”

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), May 28, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of From initial CV to final CV: evidence form Italian, Bosnian and Mandarin Chinese

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Jul 2, 2014

The end of the word (1) General a. This talk contributes to the debate on the representation of w... more The end of the word (1) General a. This talk contributes to the debate on the representation of word edges. b. We discuss the status of the end of words in three unrelated languages: Italian, Bosnian and (Mandarin) Chinese. c. We assume the theoretical framework of Government Phonology (Kaye et al., 1990) in general; the CV-hypothesis (Lowenstamm, 1996) and the Theory of Elements in particular (Kaye et al., 1985). d. We follow a syntactic approach to word formation (Distributed Morphology, Halle & Marantz 1993; Embick 2010). (2) Goals a. To argue for the existence of an underlying final CV unit. b. To sketch the shape of a minimal word in Italian, Bosnian and Chinese (3) How morphosyntactic information is analyzed in phonology (see Scheer 2011) ?

Research paper thumbnail of Phonology meets Syntax in Bosnian declensional system

... CVCVCV [KC V] A Ipl kuc ø CVC [KC V] ... Paolo Acquaviva (2009). “The Structure of Italian De... more ... CVCVCV [KC V] A Ipl kuc ø CVC [KC V] ... Paolo Acquaviva (2009). “The Structure of Italian Declensional System”. In: Fabio Montermini, Gilles Boyé, Jesse Tseng (eds.), Selected Proceedings of Décembrettes 6, Morphology in Bordeaux. Somerville, Mass: Cascadilla Press, ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Form of Structure, the Structure of Form

Language faculty and beyond, Dec 5, 2014

This paper revisits some aspects of plural formation in Moroccan Arabic (henceforth MA) and Djibo... more This paper revisits some aspects of plural formation in Moroccan Arabic (henceforth MA) and Djibouti Somali (henceforth DJ). It takes as its starting point one noticeable property of certain nouns in MA, which display two plural forms: for instance, singular kasˤetˤ 'tape' leads to plurals kwasˤtˤ and kasˤetˤatˤ. Morphologically speaking, both are genuine plurals referring to what Semitists commonly call broken and sound or internal and external plurals. From a semantic perspective, however, there is a crucial difference: kasˤetˤatˤ indicates a definite number, usually occurring with numerals, whereas the corresponding internal plural has a collective reading. The examples in (1) illustrate the situation. (1) a. mmul l-kwɑsˤtˤ owner det-tape.F-PL 'tape seller, record store' b. ʒuʒ kɑsˤetˤ-at two tape.F-PL 'two tapes'

Research paper thumbnail of Internally-structured morphemes at the Phonology-Syntax interface: evidence from the Bosnian declensional system

... Research in Afroasiatic Grammar, ed. by J. Lecarme, 35-52. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Corbett... more ... Research in Afroasiatic Grammar, ed. by J. Lecarme, 35-52. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Corbett, G. & W. Browne. 2008. ... “Distributed Morphology: Impoverishment and Fission”. Papers at the Interface, ed. by B Bruening, Y. Kang, M. McGinnis, 425-‐449. MIT Press, vol. ...

Research paper thumbnail of A Classless Analysis of Italian Nouns and their Theme-Vowel Alternations

Isogloss, Feb 6, 2023

The decompositional, non-lexicalist, approach to word-structure and the theory of roots have prov... more The decompositional, non-lexicalist, approach to word-structure and the theory of roots have proven highly rewarding. One grey area, however, comes from Romance since, rather than roots, the word structure primitive appears to be the stem: root + 'stem-formative/theme vowel'. Regardless, there have been perspicacious decompositional accounts of Italian, however these are still marred by the large number of morphological/item-specific irregularities, motivating arbitrary noun classes. Additionally, there are roots that do not inflect: consonant-final and vowelfinal forms when these are oxytonic or loanwords. Given these irregularities, previous analyses in Italian have included the use of lexical exceptions and class features. We challenge the use of class features in generating the attested patterns (and their exceptions). Instead, we propose a new categorisation of root-shapes, which, when combined with the exponents of nominal inflection, produce the correct surface pairings, as well as the non-alternating forms. In our analysis, there is no diacritic or special marking of lexical exceptions, all forms inflect regularly in accordance to their phonological shape. This requires the innovation of one new mechanism (Inhibition), Isogloss 2023, 9(1)/2 Nicola Lampitelli & Shanti Ulfsbjorninn 2 but we back it up by showing that it leads to an unexpected beneficial prediction that solves a long-standing problem associated with Raddoppiamento Sintattico (RS).

Research paper thumbnail of Towards a footless approach of English vowel reduction

Research paper thumbnail of The logic and limits of Allomorphy in Morphological Theory

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2016

International audienc

Research paper thumbnail of Classes verbales en somali : l'allomorphie n'a pas de fonction classificatoire

Research paper thumbnail of Décrire informatiquement une langue naturelle : application à quelques langues d'Afrique

Cet article presente une description informatisee de problemes linguistiques dans quelques langue... more Cet article presente une description informatisee de problemes linguistiques dans quelques langues d'Afrique (ikota et somali principalement). Apres avoir expose un rapide etat de l'art sur la question et apres avoir discute les enjeux de l'usage des nouvelles technologies sur les langues disposant de peu de ressources numeriques, nous decrivons l'usage que nous faisons de l'outil XMG (eXtensible MetaGrammar) pour la generation des formes verbales de l'ikota, pour le traitement du groupe nominal en somali, et pour la construction d'une grammaire electronique du creole de Sao-Tomense. Nous fournissons des elements de comparaison avec le francais lorsque cela parait necessaire. Nous concluons en presentant comment notre approche permet d'amorcer des travaux de constitution de ressources pour des langues peu dotees.

Research paper thumbnail of Stress in Romance verbs

Research paper thumbnail of Un glossario arabo-latino anonimo

Un glossario arabo-latino anonimo, 2006

Research paper thumbnail of A Distributed Morphology-based approach to Present Participle and Null Copula nominal sentences in Arabic

XXXV Incontro di Grammatica Generativa, 2009

Poster présenté au XXXV Incontro di Grammatica Generativa, Università di Siena, 26-28 février 200... more Poster présenté au XXXV Incontro di Grammatica Generativa, Università di Siena, 26-28 février 2009</p

Research paper thumbnail of Conditions on complex exponence: A case study of the Somali subject marker

Phonological Data & Analysis, 2022

This paper offers a novel analysis of the complex patterns of exponence exhibited by the Somali s... more This paper offers a novel analysis of the complex patterns of exponence exhibited by the Somali subject marker (MRK). Somali subject marking presents a typologically rare case of subtractive grammatical tone, and one in which an otherwise predictable process of High tone loss is sometimes impeded by factors related to word structure. In the simplest instances, MRK is realized only tonally by the loss of High tone from the last word in a DP. Under some conditions, however, it is realized only segmentally, with no High tone loss. Still other times, both exponents appear, and even in a few instances, neither is realized. These outcomes are predictable, but analyzing them presents several challenges. One of these is motivating the outcomes from a single underlying form given the apparent independence of the tonal and segmental exponents. Others concern defining the trigger of subtraction and the domain or valuation window in which subtraction occurs. We propose a formal account of these outcomes within Cophonologies by Phase (Sande & Jenks 2018; Sande, Jenks & Inkelas 2020), whose division of vocabulary items into three types of phonological content is uniquely suited to addressing these analytical hurdles.

Research paper thumbnail of Conditions on complex exponence: A case study of the Somali subject marker

Phonological Data and Analysis

This paper offers a novel analysis of the complex patterns of exponence exhibited by the Somali s... more This paper offers a novel analysis of the complex patterns of exponence exhibited by the Somali subject marker (MRK). Somali subject marking presents a typologically rare case of subtractive grammatical tone, and one in which an otherwise predictable process of High tone loss is sometimes impeded by factors related to word structure. In the simplest instances, MRK is realized only tonally by the loss of High tone from the last word in a DP. Under some conditions, however, it is realized only segmentally, with no High tone loss. Still other times, both exponents appear, and even in a few instances, neither is realized. These outcomes are predictable, but analyzing them presents several challenges. One of these is motivating the outcomes from a single underlying form given the apparent independence of the tonal and segmental exponents. Others concern defining the trigger of subtraction and the domain or valuation window in which subtraction occurs. We propose a formal account of these...

Research paper thumbnail of Declensions and case marking in Somali: the issue of nominative

Research paper thumbnail of The decomposition of Bosnian noun

Papier présenté à \textitFormal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics 20 - FASL20... more Papier présenté à \textitFormal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics 20 - FASL20, M.I.T., Cambridge, Mass. (Etats-Unis), 14 mai 2011International audienceno abstrac

Research paper thumbnail of Root and Pattern in Semitic – and Beyond

Research paper thumbnail of Towards a unified representation of the right edge of words

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Apr 15, 2015

This contribution aims to participate to the debate on the representation of word edges, by discu... more This contribution aims to participate to the debate on the representation of word edges, by discussing the status of the right edge of words in three unrelated languages,

Research paper thumbnail of The English "Arab Rule": Analysis and Theoretical Implications

Research paper thumbnail of On the phonological translation of the morphological right boundary “#”

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), May 28, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of From initial CV to final CV: evidence form Italian, Bosnian and Mandarin Chinese

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Jul 2, 2014

The end of the word (1) General a. This talk contributes to the debate on the representation of w... more The end of the word (1) General a. This talk contributes to the debate on the representation of word edges. b. We discuss the status of the end of words in three unrelated languages: Italian, Bosnian and (Mandarin) Chinese. c. We assume the theoretical framework of Government Phonology (Kaye et al., 1990) in general; the CV-hypothesis (Lowenstamm, 1996) and the Theory of Elements in particular (Kaye et al., 1985). d. We follow a syntactic approach to word formation (Distributed Morphology, Halle & Marantz 1993; Embick 2010). (2) Goals a. To argue for the existence of an underlying final CV unit. b. To sketch the shape of a minimal word in Italian, Bosnian and Chinese (3) How morphosyntactic information is analyzed in phonology (see Scheer 2011) ?

Research paper thumbnail of Phonology meets Syntax in Bosnian declensional system

... CVCVCV [KC V] A Ipl kuc ø CVC [KC V] ... Paolo Acquaviva (2009). “The Structure of Italian De... more ... CVCVCV [KC V] A Ipl kuc ø CVC [KC V] ... Paolo Acquaviva (2009). “The Structure of Italian Declensional System”. In: Fabio Montermini, Gilles Boyé, Jesse Tseng (eds.), Selected Proceedings of Décembrettes 6, Morphology in Bordeaux. Somerville, Mass: Cascadilla Press, ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Form of Structure, the Structure of Form

Language faculty and beyond, Dec 5, 2014

This paper revisits some aspects of plural formation in Moroccan Arabic (henceforth MA) and Djibo... more This paper revisits some aspects of plural formation in Moroccan Arabic (henceforth MA) and Djibouti Somali (henceforth DJ). It takes as its starting point one noticeable property of certain nouns in MA, which display two plural forms: for instance, singular kasˤetˤ 'tape' leads to plurals kwasˤtˤ and kasˤetˤatˤ. Morphologically speaking, both are genuine plurals referring to what Semitists commonly call broken and sound or internal and external plurals. From a semantic perspective, however, there is a crucial difference: kasˤetˤatˤ indicates a definite number, usually occurring with numerals, whereas the corresponding internal plural has a collective reading. The examples in (1) illustrate the situation. (1) a. mmul l-kwɑsˤtˤ owner det-tape.F-PL 'tape seller, record store' b. ʒuʒ kɑsˤetˤ-at two tape.F-PL 'two tapes'

Research paper thumbnail of Internally-structured morphemes at the Phonology-Syntax interface: evidence from the Bosnian declensional system

... Research in Afroasiatic Grammar, ed. by J. Lecarme, 35-52. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Corbett... more ... Research in Afroasiatic Grammar, ed. by J. Lecarme, 35-52. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Corbett, G. & W. Browne. 2008. ... “Distributed Morphology: Impoverishment and Fission”. Papers at the Interface, ed. by B Bruening, Y. Kang, M. McGinnis, 425-‐449. MIT Press, vol. ...

Research paper thumbnail of A Classless Analysis of Italian Nouns and their Theme-Vowel Alternations

Isogloss, Feb 6, 2023

The decompositional, non-lexicalist, approach to word-structure and the theory of roots have prov... more The decompositional, non-lexicalist, approach to word-structure and the theory of roots have proven highly rewarding. One grey area, however, comes from Romance since, rather than roots, the word structure primitive appears to be the stem: root + 'stem-formative/theme vowel'. Regardless, there have been perspicacious decompositional accounts of Italian, however these are still marred by the large number of morphological/item-specific irregularities, motivating arbitrary noun classes. Additionally, there are roots that do not inflect: consonant-final and vowelfinal forms when these are oxytonic or loanwords. Given these irregularities, previous analyses in Italian have included the use of lexical exceptions and class features. We challenge the use of class features in generating the attested patterns (and their exceptions). Instead, we propose a new categorisation of root-shapes, which, when combined with the exponents of nominal inflection, produce the correct surface pairings, as well as the non-alternating forms. In our analysis, there is no diacritic or special marking of lexical exceptions, all forms inflect regularly in accordance to their phonological shape. This requires the innovation of one new mechanism (Inhibition), Isogloss 2023, 9(1)/2 Nicola Lampitelli & Shanti Ulfsbjorninn 2 but we back it up by showing that it leads to an unexpected beneficial prediction that solves a long-standing problem associated with Raddoppiamento Sintattico (RS).

Research paper thumbnail of Towards a footless approach of English vowel reduction

Research paper thumbnail of The logic and limits of Allomorphy in Morphological Theory

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2016

International audienc

Research paper thumbnail of Classes verbales en somali : l'allomorphie n'a pas de fonction classificatoire

Research paper thumbnail of Décrire informatiquement une langue naturelle : application à quelques langues d'Afrique

Cet article presente une description informatisee de problemes linguistiques dans quelques langue... more Cet article presente une description informatisee de problemes linguistiques dans quelques langues d'Afrique (ikota et somali principalement). Apres avoir expose un rapide etat de l'art sur la question et apres avoir discute les enjeux de l'usage des nouvelles technologies sur les langues disposant de peu de ressources numeriques, nous decrivons l'usage que nous faisons de l'outil XMG (eXtensible MetaGrammar) pour la generation des formes verbales de l'ikota, pour le traitement du groupe nominal en somali, et pour la construction d'une grammaire electronique du creole de Sao-Tomense. Nous fournissons des elements de comparaison avec le francais lorsque cela parait necessaire. Nous concluons en presentant comment notre approche permet d'amorcer des travaux de constitution de ressources pour des langues peu dotees.

Research paper thumbnail of Stress in Romance verbs

Research paper thumbnail of Un glossario arabo-latino anonimo

Un glossario arabo-latino anonimo, 2006

Research paper thumbnail of A Distributed Morphology-based approach to Present Participle and Null Copula nominal sentences in Arabic

XXXV Incontro di Grammatica Generativa, 2009

Poster présenté au XXXV Incontro di Grammatica Generativa, Università di Siena, 26-28 février 200... more Poster présenté au XXXV Incontro di Grammatica Generativa, Università di Siena, 26-28 février 2009</p

Research paper thumbnail of Conditions on complex exponence: A case study of the Somali subject marker

Phonological Data & Analysis, 2022

This paper offers a novel analysis of the complex patterns of exponence exhibited by the Somali s... more This paper offers a novel analysis of the complex patterns of exponence exhibited by the Somali subject marker (MRK). Somali subject marking presents a typologically rare case of subtractive grammatical tone, and one in which an otherwise predictable process of High tone loss is sometimes impeded by factors related to word structure. In the simplest instances, MRK is realized only tonally by the loss of High tone from the last word in a DP. Under some conditions, however, it is realized only segmentally, with no High tone loss. Still other times, both exponents appear, and even in a few instances, neither is realized. These outcomes are predictable, but analyzing them presents several challenges. One of these is motivating the outcomes from a single underlying form given the apparent independence of the tonal and segmental exponents. Others concern defining the trigger of subtraction and the domain or valuation window in which subtraction occurs. We propose a formal account of these outcomes within Cophonologies by Phase (Sande & Jenks 2018; Sande, Jenks & Inkelas 2020), whose division of vocabulary items into three types of phonological content is uniquely suited to addressing these analytical hurdles.

Research paper thumbnail of Conditions on complex exponence: A case study of the Somali subject marker

Phonological Data and Analysis

This paper offers a novel analysis of the complex patterns of exponence exhibited by the Somali s... more This paper offers a novel analysis of the complex patterns of exponence exhibited by the Somali subject marker (MRK). Somali subject marking presents a typologically rare case of subtractive grammatical tone, and one in which an otherwise predictable process of High tone loss is sometimes impeded by factors related to word structure. In the simplest instances, MRK is realized only tonally by the loss of High tone from the last word in a DP. Under some conditions, however, it is realized only segmentally, with no High tone loss. Still other times, both exponents appear, and even in a few instances, neither is realized. These outcomes are predictable, but analyzing them presents several challenges. One of these is motivating the outcomes from a single underlying form given the apparent independence of the tonal and segmental exponents. Others concern defining the trigger of subtraction and the domain or valuation window in which subtraction occurs. We propose a formal account of these...

Research paper thumbnail of Declensions and case marking in Somali: the issue of nominative

Research paper thumbnail of The decomposition of Bosnian noun

Papier présenté à \textitFormal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics 20 - FASL20... more Papier présenté à \textitFormal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics 20 - FASL20, M.I.T., Cambridge, Mass. (Etats-Unis), 14 mai 2011International audienceno abstrac

Research paper thumbnail of The Form of Structure, the Structure of Form: Essays in honor of Jean Lowenstamm. S. Bendjaballah, N. Faust, M. Lahrouchi & N. Lampitelli (eds).

John Benjamins

This volume brings together articles by some major figures in various linguistics domains — phono... more This volume brings together articles by some major figures in various linguistics domains — phonology, morphology and syntax — aiming at explaining the form of linguistic items by exploring the structures that underlie them.The book is divided in 5 parts: vowels, syllables, templates, syntax-morphology interface and Afro-Asiatic languages. Specific topics are the internal structure of vowels and its relation to harmony; the logic of recurrent vocalic patterns; syllabic prominence; the interaction of syllabic and templatic structure and segmental realization; the innateness of templates and paradigms; the limits of phonology; and various morpho-syntactic implications on phonological form.The volume renders homage to Jean Lowenstamm’s work, by underlining the importance of seeking structural and intermodular insight in the study of linguistic form.

Research paper thumbnail of When exception masks intention: prosodic conditions on tonal neutralization in Somali subject marking

Princeton Phonology Forum, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of La structure phonologique des marqueurs flexionnels verbaux  en amazighe et en arabe marocain

Le système verbal de l’arabe et de l’amazighe présente des phénomènes morpho-phonologiques intrig... more Le système verbal de l’arabe et de l’amazighe présente des phénomènes morpho-phonologiques intriguant, qui brouillent l’organisation des paradigmes de conjugaison. Par exemple, l’expression des traits phi engendre au niveau phonologique des alternances vocaliques variées, localement déterminés dans des gabarits pré-spécifiés. Cette communication portera sur la réalisation des traits de personne, en lien avec ceux du genre et du nombre. En arabe marocain, les formes verbales au prétérit, exceptées 3msg, 1pl et 3pl, présentent un /t/ comme exposant de personne (2, 1) ou de genre (3f). Elles diffèrent, en revanche, sur la nature des voyelles associées à cette consonne. Nous analysons la marque de personne au moyen de deux traits binaires [±participant] et [±addressee]. Ils sont réalisés sous forme d’un espace gabaritique et/ou d’un contenu mélodique. Nous montrerons, en outre, que les alternances vocaliques des marqueurs flexionnels suivent un chemin apophonique régulier : ø > i > a > u > u (Guerssel & Lowentamm 1996). La marque de personne mobilise au singulier les trois premières étapes de ce chemin (ø > i > a). Les verbes faibles suivent le même raisonnement, à la seule différence que leur consonne radicale manquante est réalisée comme [i] ou [a].
Les verbes faibles en amazighe se comportent de la même façon, sauf ceux de type rmi ‘être fatigué’ qui gardent leur voyelle finale inchangée. Quant aux verbes forts, ils ne manifestent aucune alternance apophonique, à l’inverse de l’arabe marocain.

Research paper thumbnail of The phonology of verbal inflection in Moroccan Arabic and Tashlhiyt Berber

In this paper, it is argued that the expression of person can be captured in terms of a set of se... more In this paper, it is argued that the expression of person can be captured in terms of a set of semantic features whose exponents follow a unique phonological path.

Research paper thumbnail of Stress in English Long Verbs

This paper presents a corpus-based investigation of the stress pattern of English long verbs and ... more This paper presents a corpus-based investigation of the stress pattern of English long verbs and confronts two analyses which have been proposed in the literature, one based on segmental criteria and the other based on morphology.