In many Indigenous languages of the Americas, demonstratives are said to encode whether the referent is visible. Some scholars, however, argue that all visibility meanings in demonstratives are epiphenomenal on spatial, epistemic modal, or nonvision evidential content. Drawing on elicitation, experimental data, and corpus data collected in fieldwork, I argue that two demonstratives of Ticuna (isolate; Brazil, Colombia, Peru) do display visibility meanings. These meanings are encoded and concern the SENSE OF VISION—not space, epistemic modality, or nonvisual forms of evidentiality. These findings support a view of demonstrative meaning as grounded in the perceptual capacities of the human body.

There has been considerable debate as to whether word-level metrical prominence asymmetries are a universal feature of languages. African tone languages have been at the heart of this debate, as many of these languages do not show clear phonetic evidence of lexical stress. This article explores metrical prominence asymmetries in Medʉmba, a Grassfields Bantu language, by examining such asymmetries through the lens of speech timing. Forged within a dynamical model of metrical structure, a metronome-based phrase-repetition task known as SPEECH CYCLING is used to investigate the relative timing of syllables hypothesized to be metrically prominent and metrically weak. Previous research using the task has shown that metrically prominent syllables are attracted to certain relative positions within a repetition cycle. Results of two experiments show that foot heads in Medʉmba also show this behavior, supporting their status as metrically prominent. These results suggest that true metrical prominence asymmetries exist in a broader range of languages than previously thought, and that relative timing serves as an important unifying property of metrical structure crosslinguistically.

The goal of this article is to provide a balanced assessment of the significance autism has for the scientific study of language. While linguistic profiles in autism vary greatly, spanning from a total absence of functional language to verbal levels within the typical range, the entire autism spectrum is robustly characterized by lifelong disabilities in intersubjective communication and persistent difficulties in adopting the perspective of other people. In that sense, autism constitutes a unique profile in which linguistic competence is dissociated from communication skills. Somewhat paradoxically, autism is often mentioned to underscore the importance of mind reading for language use and of intersubjective communication for the emergence of language. Yet experimental studies on pragmatics in autism indicate that many pragmatic processes unfold without adopting one's conversational partner's perspective. Moreover, the patterns of language acquisition and learning in autism represent a strong challenge to the central role constructionist theories assign to socio-communicative skills. Data on autism thus force a reconsideration of the a priori conceptual boundaries on language learnability that shape the foundational debates between constructionist and nativist linguistic theories.

As a journal, Language has a substantial history of publishing articles about areas of linguistics now commonly identified as language documentation, revitalization, and reclamation. The significance of this vein of research is exemplified by the collection of articles published by Ken Hale and colleagues in this journal in 1992 (Hale et al. 1992). These articles present themselves as case studies of language revitalization, outlining arguments for the importance of linguistic training and assessing language vitality and diversity, all with more relevance than ever nearly three decades later. LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION AND DOCUMENTATION, a new section of the journal, will build upon the base of knowledge as a venue for peer-reviewed research articles in language revitalization and documentation. As the inaugural associate editor for this journal section, I outline a framework for the section as a starting point for submissions.

Drawing from decolonizing and Indigenous research methodologies, I examine field linguistic training in US linguistics programs and how it approaches collaborative language research. I argue that the current praxis still reflects a linguist-focused model resulting in linguistic extraction (Davis 2017). I provide three recommendations for transforming linguistic field methods training: (i) the recognition of linguistics as a discipline rooted in colonization and the implications of this for speakers/community members, (ii) the incorporation and explicit discussion of language research frameworks that include Indigenous research methodologies, and (iii) the recognition and valorization of Indigenous epistemologies via decolonizing ‘language’ (Leonard 2017).

In response to the lack of culturally sustaining pedagogies for Black students in linguistics, we created an online Introduction to Linguistics course designed as part of a specially funded research program that serves Black undergraduates from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as well as Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). In recognition of the fact that conventional introductory linguistics courses often alienate Black students, the course was designed to center Black language and culture in every lesson. We describe the rationale for and implementation of the course, as well as the impact of the model on students and instructors. The course's Black-centered content as well as its online synchronous and asynchronous teaching model can be adapted for other teaching contexts as a way to recruit Black students into linguistics and to offer linguistics courses to students at universities, especially HBCUs, that do not have linguistics programs. The work is particularly relevant as linguists seek to be inclusive in their teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic and work toward the greater inclusion of Black people in every aspect of linguistics due to the heightened awareness of anti-Blackness in higher education and specifically in language studies.

We discuss three points relevant to Kissine's (2021) target article on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and its implications for theories of language acquisition. First, we argue that individuals with ASD do have social communication abilities and that these are linked to their language abilities; therefore, ASD does not provide evidence that language competence and language use are dissociable. Second, we argue that typically developing children show remarkable abilities to learn new words in noninteractive situations, and thus these abilities are not unique to ASD. Third, we point out that even noninteractive situations can serve as models for, and can implicate, children's social communication abilities. In sum, we agree with Kissine that children (with and without ASD) are skilled language learners, able to take diverse paths to learning and to benefit from many different kinds of learning situations. However, as to whether these abilities in themselves demonstrate a threat to constructionist approaches to language acquisition, we do not think that Kissine has accrued a compelling case.

In Japanese linguistics and elsewhere, the particle wa in its thematic use has been widely regarded as a paradigmatic instance of a ‘topic marker’. This work aims to demonstrate that, contrary to this received wisdom, most often thematic wa merely indicates the groundhood (the status as a nonfocus) rather than the topichood (the status as a topic) of the marked constituent, although it serves as a marker of contrastive topic in some configurations. In a root clause, as a rule, an explicit argument must be marked by thematic wa if it (i) is nonfocal and (ii) does not cooccur with an explicit, nonfocal sister argument less oblique than it. This implies that an explicit, nonfocal subject must be wa-marked, given that a subject is by definition the least oblique argument. Arguments marked by thematic wa despite not meeting this condition (e.g. a wa-marked object cooccurring with a wa-marked subject), as well as at least some instances of wa-marked adjuncts, are interpreted as contrastive topics. It is further pointed out, based on corpus data, that it is much more common for wa to indicate mere groundhood than topichood.

The constructionist approach argues that communication is central to language learning, language use, and language change. We argue that the approach provides a useful perspective on how autistic children learn language, as it anticipates variable outcomes and suggests testable predictions. First, a reduced ability and interest in tracking the attention and intentions of others should negatively impact early language development, and a wealth of evidence indicates that it does. Second, and less discussed until recently, a hyperfocus on specifics at the expense of generalizations, common among people on the spectrum, should also negatively impact language development, and recent evidence suggests this is also the case. Pace Kissine's 2021 target article, it is unsurprising that children can learn some second language from watching videos, and it is unclear how an appeal to ‘innate’ language-specific knowledge could explain the range of outcomes of individuals on the autism spectrum.

Methods of quantifying distance between sound sequences are known as phonological distance measures. Despite the wide application across subfields, phonological distance has been calculated mainly with features related to consonants and vowels. This research report establishes new measurements of phonological distance that incorporate lexical tone through experimental approaches and modeling, using Hong Kong Cantonese as a case study. Results show correspondences between the experimental data and predictions from information-theoretic measures, including entropy measures and functional load, suggesting that lexical components which play a more crucial role in phonological distance judgments are lexically less predictable as well. Implications for phonological distance measures are discussed.

The mission of the Teaching Linguistics section of Language is to publish high-quality peer-reviewed articles in the area of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). Publications in the section focus on issues that relate not only to the direct teaching of linguistics, but also to the application of linguistic concepts and theories and the insight it provides about teaching and education more broadly.

An issue that is actively explored in the contemporary linguistics literature is how to account for probabilistic generalizations, for which there are currently various competing theories. To bear on this debate, Hayes (2021) proposes that we examine a grammatical framework in terms of its QUANTITATIVE SIGNATURE, typical probabilistic patterns that the framework is predicted to generate. In this research report, I zoom in on the quantitative signature of MAXIMUM ENTROPY HARMONIC GRAMMAR (MaxEnt HG), because this framework has proven useful in modeling probabilistic generalizations across different linguistic domains. Given a linear scale of violations of one constraint, MaxEnt yields a sigmoid curve. When another constraint is relevant and can be violated multiple times, this sigmoid curve can be shifted, yielding multiple sigmoid curves, which results in a STRIPY WUG-SHAPED CURVE. Expanding upon a previous study (Kawahara 2020b), the current experiment demonstrates that we observe a stripy wug-shaped curve in a particularly clear manner in patterns of sound symbolism, systematic associations between sounds and meanings. Concretely, the experiment with Japanese speakers shows that the judgment of Pokémons' evolution status is affected by the mora counts of nonce names, resulting in a sigmoid curve, and that this sigmoid curve is shifted according to the number of voiced obstruents contained in the names. The overall results suggest that MaxEnt is a useful tool for modeling systematic sound-meaning correspondences.

Our commentary is mainly concerned with Kissine's first argument in his 2021 target article: that mind reading is not necessarily needed for pragmatics. We fully agree with Kissine, and we present (i) additional recent empirical evidence in support of this view and (ii) a new model of pragmatics and mind reading, based on the situation of language use rather than the type of pragmatic phenomenon that is instantiated. The last part of our commentary concerns the logical validity of Kissine's argument, taking into account important concepts in autism research such as heterogeneity, equifinality, and neurodiversity, but also evaluating how relevant the empirical evidence from learning language from TV is to the debate on nativism vs. constructivism. We conclude that there is much to love (as regards pragmatics) and some to query (as regards the conclusions we can draw about nativism vs. constructivism) in this timely and thought-provoking article.

This report describes a new research resource: a searchable database of 4,700 naturally occurring instances of sluicing in English, annotated so as to shed light on the questions that have shaped research on ellipsis since the 1960s. The paper describes the data set and how it can be obtained, how it was constructed, how it is organized, and how it can be queried. It also highlights some initial empirical findings, first describing general characteristics of the data, then focusing more closely on issues concerning antecedents and possible mismatches between antecedents and ellipsis sites.

Using novel data from Kipsigis (Southern Nilotic; Kenya), we present the first attested case of across-the-board paradigmatic tonal polarity. The nominative case forms of nominal modifiers (adjectives, possessives, and demonstratives) are segmentally identical to their oblique case counterparts but have the opposite tonal pattern across the board: nominative and oblique modifiers differ in not just one but EVERY tonal specification. Kipsigis polarity thus results in maximal tonal contrast between two morphologically related words. We show how the Kipsigis pattern may be captured in an item-and-process theory of morphology with dedicated exchange mechanisms and in an item-and-arrangement theory that allows for morpheme-specific phonology; we suggest that an item-and-process approach may provide a more straightforward account.

Mikhail Kissine's (2021) target article examines autism in order to mine questions about language use and its cognitive underpinnings. Among these, we focus on the question concerning the role of mind reading in language interpretation. Kissine claims that the selective pragmatic profile of highly verbal autistic individuals undermines the existence of an ‘intrinsic link’ between language interpretation and mind reading. We advocate for a more cautious approach based on both theoretical and empirical arguments. Theoretically speaking, data from autism are compatible with the view that language interpretation is the result of a special-purpose form of mind reading, dedicated to the domain of intentional communication. Empirically speaking, the data are neither clear nor consistent enough for making strong claims about what exactly are the communicative challenges of highly verbal autistic individuals.

Because of restrictions on in-person research due to COVID-19, researchers are now relying on remotely recorded data to a much greater extent than in the past. Given the change in methodology, it is important to know how remote recording might affect acoustic measurements, either because of different recording devices used by participants and consultants or because of the software used to make recordings. This study investigates audio signal fidelity across different inperson recording equipment and remote recording software when compared to solid-state digital audio. We show that equipment choice and software can have a large effect on acoustic measurements, including those of frequency, duration, and noise. The issues do not just reflect decreased reliability; some measurements are systematically shifted in particular recording conditions. These results show the importance of carefully considering and documenting equipment choices, particularly for crosslinguistic or cross-speaker comparisons. We close with a framework for researchers to use in deciding what types of recording may be most appropriate.

A central question of language comprehension concerns the interaction between linguistic form and broader representations of discourse in the interpretation of context-sensitive expressions. This interaction is instantiated in the interpretation of verb phrase ellipsis (VPE), where previous work has shown that the linguistic antecedent and the broader context are both considered in resolution. Using a novel experimental paradigm, we investigated VPE interpretation in discourses where the antecedent and the broader context make different information available for inclusion in the interpretation of the ellipsis site. Our results point to a complex interaction between linguistic antecedents and the broader discourse context in interpretation, putting considerable constraints on the set of possible models for VPE resolution. This work contributes to a better understanding of both the connections between and the boundaries separating linguistic structure and mental models of discourse contexts.