Kristina Gallego | University of the Philippines Diliman (original) (raw)

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Conference Presentations by Kristina Gallego

Using the entries elicited first-hand from our 505-word list, the distances are calculated at thr... more Using the entries elicited first-hand from our 505-word list, the distances are calculated at three levels: (1) phonetic — each sound is encoded as a vector of 1’s and 0’s representing the presence or absence, respectively, of the sound’s phonetic features; (2) morphophonemic — for each word in the word list, a modified Levenshtein distance weighted according to features is calculated for each pair of languages containing an entry for that word; and (3) language — each distance at the morphophonemic level is added to an unweighted total to form a table of distances between pairs of languages. The unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UP-GMA) takes in these distances to produce a tree which clusters pairs of languages with a small computed distance between them. This tree may not necessarily show evolutionary descent or shared innovation. Thus we also employ character-based algorithms, one of which is Maximum Likelihood (ML). ML uses each position in an alignment and evaluates all possible trees. For a given tree, at each site, the likelihood is determined by evaluating the probability that a particular evolutionary model has generated the observed data. As a test case, we present our computations and results on the Bashiic family of languages.

Papers by Kristina Gallego

Oceanic Linguistics, 2018

This study presents a diachronic analysis of the terms encoding the four cardinal directions in 5... more This study presents a diachronic analysis of the terms encoding the four cardinal
directions in 54 Philippine languages. The direction terms vary greatly
in the languages, making it impossible to reconstruct a single directional system
for the Philippines. However, it was found that four major fields of reference
are used in encoding directions—the path of the sun, the distinction
between land and sea, the wind/monsoon systems, and systems of location.
While these orienting features can be found across languages from different
families, the idiosyncratic use of the land-sea axis and the monsoon systems
in the Philippine (and Austronesian) languages are indicative of the lives and
practices of the speakers as seafarers. Moreover, based on a typological
classification of the terms, we can observe certain implicational relationships
in the lexical encoding of directions, that is, the east-west axis tends to be
encoded first before the north-south axis, given the contiguity of the former
axis to the movement of the sun, a feature that is naturally salient in all
speech communities.

Based on kinship terminologies collected for Batanic languages, this study reconstructs the Proto... more Based on kinship terminologies collected for Batanic languages, this study reconstructs the Proto-Batanic kinship system and traces its transformations in present-day daughter communities. Since speakers of Batanic languages have maintained close contact among each other, the groups exhibit significant similarities not only in linguistic structure but also in certain cultural aspects such as kinship. All Batanic communities follow a lineal type of kinship (also known as Eskimo type), which is a retention of the ancestral Batanic kinship system. This is a departure from the generation type (also known as Hawaiian type) reconstructed for Proto-Philippines and Proto-Malayo-Polynesian. This development is analyzed as a reflection of changes in the behavior of the speakers, particularly in terms of rule of residence. Moreover, the physical house is seen as a reproduction of kinship relations in Batanic communities, where it serves as the primary locus of activities, rituals, and traditions that relate to kinship. Despite significant transformations in the kinship system of Batanic communities since their descent from Proto-Philippines, cultural features, particularly the value structure of Filipino communities, persist to this day.

The metonym NANG refers to the category that includes the forms ng and nang in Filipino. In vario... more The metonym NANG refers to the category that includes the forms ng and nang in Filipino. In various literatures, these morphemes are typically treated as linkers, markers and particles, among others . If we look at the different attributes of these elements, such as their syntactic distribution and formal and functional characteristics, we find that there is a motivation to group such morphemes into a single category.

For several decades, education and language policies in the Philippines have been a popular subje... more For several decades, education and language policies in the Philippines have been a popular subject of debate especially among policy makers and school administrators. The 1974 Bilingual Education Policy (BEP) and the 1987 constitutional mandate on the status of Filipino, in particular, were significant issues contributing to the course of the Philippine education system (Rubrico, 1998;

Based on a reconstruction of Proto-Philippine kinship and social organization terminologies, this... more Based on a reconstruction of Proto-Philippine kinship and social organization terminologies, this article characterizes early Philippine kinship as bilateral with possible quasi-lineages. These features support the reconstruction of the Proto–Malayo-Polynesian system made by George Peter Murdock (1949) rather than that of Robert Blust (1980). In terms of leadership, the early Philippine community is described
as dualistic in nature, allowing achieved and ascribed or hereditary chiefdom—thus deviating from the ancestral concept of hereditary leadership in the Proto–Malayo-Polynesian system. Changes in the Philippine kinship system are traced to show innovations in nomenclature and behavior toward certain kin.

A detailed diachronic analysis is imperative in characterizing changes in a language. By means of... more A detailed diachronic analysis is imperative in characterizing changes in a language. By means of a corpus analysis on issues of Liwayway Magazine published in 1923, 1951, 1969, 1995, and 2013, this study presents several indications of change in Filipino, such as in orthography and spelling, as well as in the lexical and structural aspects of the language. Since 1923, it can be observed that quite a number of lexical items have been lost or added to the language, not only in categories such as nouns and verbs, but also in conjunctions and other particles. Structural changes can also be observed, in which there is a decline in the usage of certain affixes and other constructions. Using the programs AntConc and Voyant Tools, patterns regarding the changes and development of forms in Filipino are discerned. Such changes presented in this study may be brought about by natural processes such as sound change, as well as by the interaction of Filipino with other languages, particularly with English. Despite the limited corpus utilized in this study, it can be said Filipino undergoes rapid change, especially at present. What was regarded as “rough” or “coarse” language before can possibly be regarded as standard in time. Despite policies regarding the standardization of Filipino, language change cannot be stopped as mutability is an intrinsic property of any language.

Noun phrases in Philippine languages are typically composed of a noun preceded by an article. The... more Noun phrases in Philippine languages are typically composed of a noun preceded by an article. These articles, traditionally called determiners or nominal markers, have a number of forms and functions. Studies concerning these particles often focus on the syntactic function of such forms (as markers of syntactic case for example). However, taking a closer look at the behavior of these particles, it can be said that despite having limited forms in the languages, the function these particles play are quite varied. In this study, the nominal markers are re-analyzed based on their function and distribution in the sentence. The study focuses on two Philippine languages: Filipino and Ivatan. It was found that despite the surface differences in the two languages, the nominal marking system of Filipino and Ivatan follow a similar pattern and structure, such as the distribution of the markers in the sentence (i.e. as (1) markers of the complements of the predicate, (2) part of the predicate, and (3) part of adjuncts such as adverbs). Studies such as this hopefully contribute to the discussion of the features of nominal markers in general. For instance, expanding the analysis presented here to other Philippine languages provides more information about the characteristics of the Philippine nominal markers. Moreover, a detailed analysis of the nominal markers in specific languages is advantageous for students and language learners because the precise usage and the minute differences of these oftentimes confusing function words are comprehensively explained.

Oceanic Linguistics, 2018