Coalescence
P.I.: Anthi Revithiadou; Ph.D. candidate: Angelos Loukas; Duration: 4.5.2022 – 13.5.2025; H.F.R.I. Fellowship Number: 6097, ELKE ID: 74236); Funding: H.F.R.I. – 3rd Call for Ph.D. Scholarships; Host Institution: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; Budget: 32,400€
Description: The project funds Angelos Loukas’ doctoral thesis, which aims to analyze the phonological phenomenon of coalescence. This thesis proposes that coalescence is triggered by inherently weak phonological elements, challenging existing analyses (e.g., de Haas 1987; Lee 1993; Buckley 1994; Casali 1998; De Lacy 2002; Zaleska 2018) that attribute coalescence to well-formedness constraints, such as the requirement for syllables to begin with an onset. The thesis examines various types of coalescence, including vocalic, consonantal, and tonal, using data from languages such as Attic Greek, Baix Empordà Catalan, Korean, Kasem, and Xhosa. A primary focus is on cases where coalesced and non-coalesced forms coexist within the same language. The ultimate goal is to analyze these phenomena using Gradient Harmonic Grammar (GHG; Smolensky & Goldrick 2016), a non-deterministic model that can effectively account for exceptionality and variation in phonological theory.
GRADIENCE
P.I.: Anthi Revithiadou; Duration: 1.1.2024 – 31.12.2025; H.F.R.I. Project Number: 15053; ELKE ID Number: 76809; Implementing Body: Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.); Host Institution: A.U.Th.; Budget: 263,921€
AUTH Ethical Approval by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Code of Ethics in Research Committee: Protocol No 195171/2023 & 50149/2024
Webpage: https://gradience.lit.auth.gr
The project is being implemented within the framework H.F.R.I call “Basic research Financing (Horizontal support of all Sciences)” under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0” funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
Development of Heritage Grammars
Postdoctoral Researcher: Dr. Nicolaos Neocleous; Supervision: Anthi Revithiadou; Host Institution: A.U.Th.
A.U.TH. Ethical Approval by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Code of Ethics in Research Committee: Protocol No 171806/2024
Description: This project The development of heritage grammars in Turkish settlement communities in the Turkish occupied north Cyprus: Τhe case of Pontic Greek is part of Nicolaos Neocleous’ postdoctoral research at A.U.Th. (2023-2026). While previous linguistic work focused on the development of grammatical innovations that emerge in Standard or other varieties of Greek from contact with other languages (see, for example, Neocleous 2022 for Pontic Greek and Turkish language contact), the present project shifts the focus towards investigating innovation and change among Cyprus’s ‘other’ nonstandard Greek speakers: the speakers of Turkish settlement communities who are bilectal in Pontic Greek and Cypriot Greek in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus. How do new forms of heritage languages develop in immigrant communities such as the one in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus? What is the linguistic and demographic profile of innovators? What can innovations tell us about the universal principles that drive language change in contact situations? The project concentrates on gender agreement in the heritage variety of Pontic Greek in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus.