________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-100. Sun 30 Jan 11004. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 22 Subject: 5.101 Linguistic bedtime reading Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 17:02:33 -0600 (CST) From: Edith A Moravcsik Subject: Linguistic Bedtime Reading -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 17:02:33 -0600 (CST) From: Edith A Moravcsik Subject: Linguistic Bedtime Reading [Moderator's note: we have had so many requests for the following bibliography that we have decided to send it out aan issue, despite its length. We hope this will also help us with the numerous messages we have received saying, in effect, "I can't get the listserv to talk to me--please help." In 98% of these cases, the problem is that the sender is subscribed from a different address than the one from which s/he is sending the listserv request. So here's what to do: Subscribe from your current address by sending the single line: sub linguist to: listserv@tamvm1.tamu.edu Unsubscribe from your old address if you still can send messages from that account. Otherwise send a message to me at hdry@emunix.emich.edu telling me to delete your old address. (I've volunteered to do all the deletions for a week or so, to take the pressure off the assistant editors, so do send your message to my personal account. If you know your old address, please put it in the message--it saves a step.] Many thanks for your cooperation. --Helen] =================================================================== Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 17:02:33 -0600 (CST) From: Edith A Moravcsik Subject: Linguistic Bedtime Reading From: Edith Moravcsik, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (edith@convex.csd.uwm.edu) Earlier this past Fall, I posted a request for ideas regarding books that would make good "bed-time readings" for linguistics students; i.e. books about language that are both interesting and easy to read with little or no background in linguistics. I would like to sincerely thank each of the 57 people from all corners of this globe who contributed ideas. The large response provided an eloquent demonstration of the great benefits of e-mail in general and the LINGUIST net in particular! The people who responded were the following (if I left you out, please let me know): Elyse Abraham, Varol Akman, Celso Alvarez-Caccamo, Amy H. Anderson, Yoshi Asano, Denise Balason, Zev Bar- Lev, Dario Barrera, Kathy Bell, Barbara Birch, Paul Black, Kersti Borjars, Aaron Broadwell, John Coleman, Louise Cornelis, Tom Cravens, Brent Devos, Ricardo Diaz, Ursula Doleschal, Dave Eddington, Ron Fein, Connor Ferris, Ed Finegan, Nancy Frishberg, Peter Gebert, Inge Genee, David Gil, Randy Allen Harris, Martin Haspelmath, Jane Hill, Greg Iverson, Frances Karttunen, Istvan Kecskes, Paul Kershaw, John Kingston, Liesbeth Laport, Penny Lee, Judith Levi, Jonathan Ludwig, Jeffrey McKeough, Ken Miner, Erika Mitchell, Leslie Morgan, Karen Mullen, John O'Neil, Marc Picard, Ingo Plag, Massimo Poesio, Terry Potter, Forrest Richey, Andy Rogers, Paul Rowlett, Steven Schaufele, Brian Teaman, Theresa Tobin, Bill Turkel, and Graham Turner. The author-alphabetic listing below includes almost all items that have been recommended to me. I decided not to include foreign language textbooks since I felt they would not be appetizing enough for the weary undergrad about to turn in for the night... I also left out some items on which I was unable to find full bibliographic information. Some of you provided short content characterizations; I omitted those for purposes of the list. Library call numbers have also been omitted although ISBN numbers are provided in those few cases where they were available. The references given to me have in most - but not all - cases been re-checked and, if necessary, completed. I apologize for any remaining errors. Items of the list vary in degree of difficulty as well as in subject matter. I, for one, an planning to use it as a master list from which smaller, topic-specific listings may be derived addressing the particular level and interest of a given class or a given individual. SOME "BEDTIME READINGS" IN LINGUISTICS Aitchison, Jean. l983 (second edition). The articulate mammal: an introduction to psycholinguistics. London: Hutchinson. Aitchison, Jean. l987. Words in the mind: an introduction to the mental lexicon. Oxford: Blackwell. Aitchison, Jean. l991 (second edition). Language change: progress or decay? Cambridge University Press. /ISBN 0-521-42283-3/ Allan, Keith and Burridge, Kate. l991. Euphemism and dysphemism: language used as shield and weapon. Oxford. /ISBN 0-19-506622-7/ Allen, Irving Lewis. l990. Unkind words: ethnic labeling from Redskin to Wasp. Bergin and Garvey. /ISBN 0-89789-220-8/ Andersson, Lars and Peter Trudgill. 1990. Bad language. Oxford: Blackwell. Austin, J.L. 1975 (second edition). How to do things with words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bailey, Richard. l991. Images of English. University of Michigan Pres. Barry, John A. l991. Technobabble. Cambridge: MIT Press. /ISBN 0-262-02333-4/ Basso, Keith. 1979. Portraits of "The Whiteman": linguistic play and cultural symbols among the Western Apache. Cambridge University Press. Bede's ecclasiastical history of the English people: a historical commentary. New York: Oxford University Press. Bergman, Peter M. l968. The concise dictionary of 26 languages. New York: Signet. Berlin, Brent and Paul Kay. l969. Basic color terms: their universality and evolution. Berkeley: University of California Press. Berlitz, Charles. 1982. Native tongues. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. Bickerton, Derek. 1990. Language and species. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Bloomfield, L. l933. Language. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston. Bolinger, Dwight. 1980. Language: the loaded weapon: the uses and abuses of language today. London: Longman. Brook, G.L. 1973. English dialects: varieties of English. London: MacMillan. Blom. Burgess, Anthony. 1965. Language made plain. New York: Crowell. , Budge, E.A. Wallis. l972. The dwellers on the Nile: chapters on the life, history, religion, and lietature of the ancient Ehyptians. New York: B. Bryson, Bill. l990. The mother tongue. Campbell, Jeremy. 1982. Grammatical man: information, enthropy, language, and life. New York: Simon and Schuster. Carkeet, David. 1980. Double negative. A novel. New York: Dial Press. Carkeet, David. l990. The full catastrophe. New York: Linden Press. Carroll, Lewis. 1960. Alice's adventures in Wonderland and Through the looking glass. New York: MacMillan. Cassidy, Frederic. 1985-. Dictionary of American Regional English. Cambridge, MA: Belknap. Chadwick, John. l958. The decipherment of Linear B. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chomsky, Noam. l988. Language and problems of knowledge: the Managua lectures. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Claiborne, Robert. l983. Our marvelous native tongue: the life and times of the English language. London: Faber and Faber. Coe, Michael. 1993(?). Breaking the Mayan code. Coulmas, Florian. 1989. The writing systems of the world. Oxford: Blackwell. Crystal, David. l984. Who cares about English usage. Penguin. Crystal, David. l987. The Cambridge encyclopedia of language. Cambridge University Press. Comrie, Bernard, ed. 1987. The world's major languages. New York: Oxford University Press. Curtiss, Susan. l977. Genie: a psycholinguistic study of a modern-day "wild child". New York: Academic Press. Darnell, Regna. l990. Edward Sapir, linguist, anthropologist, humanist. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. de Villiers, Peter and Jill G. de Villiers. l979. Early language. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Dillard, J.L. 1972. Black English: its history and usage in the United States. Vintage. Dixon, R.M.W. l984. Searching for aboriginal languages. Memoirs of a field worker. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Elgin, Suzette Hadin. 19?? Native tongue. Farb, Peter. 1973. Word play: what happens when people talk. Bantam. Fasold, Ralph. l984. Introduction to sociolinguistics. Blackwell. Flesch, Rudolph Franz. l955. Why Johnny can't read and what you can do about it. New York: Harper and Row. Flesch, Rudolph Franz. 1081. Why Johnny still can't read: a new look at the scandal of our schools. New York: Harper and Row. Frank, Francine and Frank Anshen. 1983. Language and the sexes. Albany: SUNY Press. Fry, Stephen. l991. The liar. Funk, Wilfred. l950. Word origins and their romantic stories. New York: Bell. Gardner, Howard. l985. The mind's new science: a history of the cognitive revolution. New York: Basic Books. Gere, Anne Ruggles and Eugene Smith. 1979. Attitudes, language, and change. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. Giglioli, Pier Paolo, ed. 1972. Language and social context: selected readings. Penguin. Gonick, Larry. l993. The cartoon guide to (non)communication, the use and misuse of information in the modern world. New York: Harper Perennial. Goffman, Erving. 1963. Behavior in public places: notes on the social organization of gatherings. New York: Free Press of Glencoe. Goodluck, Helen. l991. Language acquisition: a linguistic introduction. Blackwell. Gordon, Cyrus H. l982. Forgotten scripts: their ongoing discovery and decipherment. New York: Basic Books. Hall, E.T. 1959. The silent language. Greenwich, CN: Premier. Hall, E.T. l966. The hidden dimension: an anthropologist examines man's use of space in public and private. Garden City, NY: Anchor. Harris, Randy. l993. The linguistics wars. Oxford University Press. Harris, Roy and Talbot J. Taylor. l989. Landmarks in linguistic thought: the Western tradition from Socrates to Saussure. Heath, Shirley Brice. l983. Ways with words: language, life, and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hook, Julius Nicholas. l982. Family names: how our surnames came to America. New York: McMillan. Horn, Larry. 1989. Natural history of negation. Chicago University Press. Hudson, Richard. 1984. Invitation to linguistics. Oxford: M. Robertson. Hughes, Geoffrey. 1991. Swearing: a social history of foul language, oaths, and profanity in English. Blackwell. Hunter Blair, Peter. 1956. An introduction to Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge University Press. James, Sharon L. l990. Normal language acquisition. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. Johnson, George. l990. "New mind, no clothes." The Sciences. July/August. 45- 49. Joos, Martin. 1962. Five clocks. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University research Center in anthropology, folklore, and linguistics. Kaplan, Jeffrey P. l989. English grammar. Principles and facts. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Karttunen, Francis. l993. Between worlds: guides, interpreters, and survivors. Rutgers University Press. Kaye, Jonathan. l989. Phonology: a cognitive view. Hillsdale. Keller, Rudi. l990. Sprachwandel: vor der unsichtbaren Hand in der Sprache. Tubingen: Francke. Laird, Carobeth. l975. Encounter with an angry God. New York: Ballantine Books. Laird, Charlton G. 1953. The miracle of language. Cleveland: World Publishing Company. Laird, Charlton, ed. 1971. Reading about language. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Landau, Sidney I. 1984. Dictionaries: the art and craft of lexicography. New York: Scribner. Lane, Harlan L. l976. The wild boy of Aveyron. Cambridge, MA; Harvard University Press. Language Files. 1991. The Ohio State University. Leighton, Ralph. 1993. Tuva or bustc: Richard Feynman's last journey. London: Penguin. Lewis, C.S. l967. Studies in words. Cambridge University Press. McCawley, James D. l984. The eater's guide to Chinese characters. University of Chicago Press. McCrone, John. l990. The ape that spoke. London: McMillan. McCrum, Robert, William Cran, Robert McNeill. 1986. The story of English. London: Faber and Faber. Mencken, H.L. l960. The American language: an inquiry into the development of English in the United States. New York: A.A. Knopf. Miller, Casey and Kate Swift. l991. Words and women: new language in new times. Harper Collins. Miller, George A. l991. The science of words. New York: Scientific American Library. Milroy, James and Lesley Milroy. 1985. Authority in language: approaches to language standardization and prescriptions. London: Routledge. Morenberg, Max. l991. Doing grammar. Oxford. /ISBN 0-19-506427-5/ Murray, K.M. Elisabeth. 1977. Caught in the web of words: James A.H. Murray and the oxford English Dictionary. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Nakanishi, Akira. l980. Writing systems of the world. Charles E. Tuttle Company. Nemeth, Zsigmond. l990. Lord's Prayer in 121 European languages. Budapest: Interart. Newmeyer, Frederick. 1980. Linguistic theory in America: the first quarter century of transformational generative grammar. New York: Academic Press. Newmeyer, Frederick. 1986. The politics of linguistics. Chicago University Press. Ornstein, J and William G. Gage. 1964. The ABC-s of languages and linguistics. Philadelphia: Chilton Books. Padden, Carol and Tom Humphries. 1988. Deaf in America: voices from a culture. Camridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Palmer, Frank. l971. Grammar. Penguin. Parker, Frank. l986. Linguistics for non-linguists. Little Brown and Company. Patterson, Francine and Eugene Linden. l981. The education of Koko. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Paul, Hermann. l891. Introduction to the study of the history of language. (Translated from German.) London: Longman and Green. Pedersen, Holger. 1962. Linguistic science in the 19th century. (Translated.) Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Pei, Mario. l965. The story of language. New York: New American Library. Premack, David and Ann James Premack. l983. The mind of an ape. New York: W.W. Norton. Pullum, Geoffrey. l991. The great Eskimo vocabulary hoax, and other irreverent essays on the study of language. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pusch, Luise. l984. Das Deutsche als Maennersprache. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp. Renfrew, Colin. 1987. Archeology and language: the puzzle of Indoeuropean origins. London: J. Cape. Rheingold, Howard. l988. They have a word for it. A lighthearted lexicon of untranslatable words and phrases. Los Angeles: Tarcher. Rhymer, Russ. l993. Genie: an abused child's flight from silence. New York: Academic Press. Robins, R.H. 1990 (third edition). A short history of linguistics. Longman. Ross, Philip. l991. "Hard words" Scientific American, April. 139-147. Sacks, Oliver. 1989. Seeing voices: a journey into the world of the deaf. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Sapir, Edward. 1921. Language: an introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Sapir, Edward. 1949. Selected writings in language, culture, and personality. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Schaller, Susan. l991. Man without words. Summit Books. Searle, John R. l990. "Is the brain's mind a computer program?" Scientific American, January, 26-31. Sebeok, Thomas A. l991. A sign is just a sign. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Shattuck, Roger. l980. The forbidden experiment: the story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. Shopen, Timothy, ed. l979. Languages and their speakers. University of Pennsylvania Press. Shopen, Timothy, ed. l979. Languages and their status. University of Pennsylvania Press. Smith, Niel. l989. The twitter machine. Blackwell. Tannen, Deborah. l984. Conversational style: analyzing talk among friends. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Tannen, Deborah. l984. Conversational style: analysing talk among friends. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Tannen, Deborah. l9.. That's not what I meant! Tannen, Deborah. 1990. You just don't understand. Women and man in conversation. New York: Morrow. Terrace, Herbert S. l979. Nim. A chimpanzee who learned sign language. New York: Pocket Books. Tolkien, J.R.R. l965. The Lord of the rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. Traugott, Elisabeth and Mary Louise Pratt. l980. Linguistics for students of literature. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Trudgill, Peter. l974. Sociolinguistics: an introduction. Penguin. Vance, Jack. l9?? The languages of Pao. Vendryes, J. l925. Language: a linguistic introduction to history. Translated by P. Radin. New York: A.A. Knopf. Walker, Lou Ann. l9.. A loss for words. Harper and Row. Wallman, Joel. l992. Aping language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Watson, Ian. 1973. The embedding. New York: Scribner. Whorf, Benjamin. 1956. Language, thought, and reality: selected writings. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Wright, Robert. l991. "Quest for the mother tongue." The Atlantic Monthly. April, 39=68. Yaguello, Marina. 19?? Lunatic lovers of language. (Translated from French.) Yule, George. 1985. The study of language: an introduction. Cambridge University Press. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-101. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-102. Mon 31 Jan 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 126 Subject: 5.102 Qs: Scrambling, Morphology text, Parsing, Schulman article Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sat, 29 Jan 94 15:54:01 CST From: l1013@ccms.ntu.edu.tw (Chien-Chung Shen) 2) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 94 19:32:03 CST From: beatrice@zora.ling.nwu.edu (Beatrice Santorini) Subject: request for undergraduate syntax/morphology texts 3) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 11:05 EDT From: RATH@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU Subject: parsing, optimality: 2 queries 4) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 94 13:50:38 CST From: shelli@merle.acns.nwu.edu Subject: Schulman article -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sat, 29 Jan 94 15:54:01 CST From: l1013@ccms.ntu.edu.tw (Chien-Chung Shen) I am looking for literature on 1) topicalization, 2) scrambling, 3) empty categories in Chinese. It would be highly appreciated if you can give me some information. Thanks. C.-C Shen l1013@ccms.ntu.edu.tw -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 94 19:32:03 CST From: beatrice@zora.ling.nwu.edu (Beatrice Santorini) Subject: request for undergraduate syntax/morphology texts We are seeking advice for a useful text for a beginners' course in formal linguistics that (a) is limited to syntax and morphology, (b) must fit into a 9 to 10 week quarter system, and (c) is a prerequisite for our majors but is taught primarily to nonmajors. When the previous incarnation of the course included syntax, morphology, AND semantics, we used the first edition of CONTEMPORARY LINGUISTICS by O'Grady, Dobrovolsky, and Aronoff, but it's out of print and we're not satisfied by the second edition. Thus, the quest for an entirely new text. Any recommendations will be gratefully received. (We know we will probably have to use a text that covers much more than just syntax and morphology, but we want a text that at least does an effective job in THOSE two chapters for us to teach some fundamentals of FORMAL linguistic analysis from it, to classes that are NOT predominantly potential linguistics majors.) Thanks in advance. Judith Levi (j-levi@nwu.edu) Beatrice Santorini (b-santorini@nwu.edu) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 11:05 EDT From: RATH@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU Subject: parsing, optimality: 2 queries Hello all, I am looking for a good starting point on issues of parsing-- a book, series of articles or bibliography would be great. I am also interested in the literature on optimality. I want to get a general background on both. To make my interests clearer, I was drawn to these issues through reading Chomsky's _Minimalist Program_ and I want to place the suggested approach there in a broader frame in order to understand it (and the broader frame!) better. Any suggestions, cites or insights would be welcome. My address is internet (preferred): rath@binah.cc.brandeis.edu bitnet? (untested, but should work): rath@binah I will post a summary to the list. Best, Richard Rath -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 94 13:50:38 CST From: shelli@merle.acns.nwu.edu Subject: Schulman article Hi. I'm looking for a, to my knowledge, unpublished article by Richard Schulman that was cited in Janson and Schulman's 1983 article "Non-distinctive features and their use." The Schulman article is called "Vowel categorization by the bilingual listener." If anyone knows how I can get a copy of this article, or how I can get in touch with Richard Schulman, please let me know. Thank you in advance for any leads, Michele Weinberg Northwestern University -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-102. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-103. Mon 31 Jan 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 127 Subject: 5.103 Qs: John Benjamins, Psychological, Field method, Burushaski Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sun, 30 Jan 94 12:39:40 EST From: rstainto@ccs.carleton.ca (Rob Stainton) Subject: Two Questions 2) Date: Sat, 29 Jan 94 08:32:38 EST From: Alexis_Manaster-Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Query: The use of the term 'psychological' 3) Date: Sat, 29 Jan 1994 18:35:54 EST From: soemarmo@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu Subject: Textbook for Field Method ) 4) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 94 12:20:19 -0800 From: pmfarrell@ucdavis.edu Subject: Qs: Burushaski -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sun, 30 Jan 94 12:39:40 EST From: rstainto@ccs.carleton.ca (Rob Stainton) Subject: Two Questions Two questions, one for myself and one for a philosophy colleague. My own: Does anyone have the address for the new John Benjamins journal _Functions of Language_? Or for Nottingham Occassional Papers in Linguistics? My friend's: [responses to this question should be sent directly to jdrydyk@ccs.carleton.ca] > > I don't know if I mentioned this to you, but I'm doing some work now > on the problem of Eurocentrism in moral and political theory. It > occurred to me that I should know something about the moral > vocabularies in European and non-European languages. In particular, > it would be interesting to know just how peculiar to English is the > distinction between good and right. But if there are any broad > overviews of comparative work on moral vocabularies, I need to know > about them as well. Thanks, Rob Stainton Robert Stainton -- Philosophy -- Carleton University rstainto@ccs.carleton.ca -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sat, 29 Jan 94 08:32:38 EST From: Alexis_Manaster-Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Query: The use of the term 'psychological' Does anybody have any ideas about the history of references to 'psychology' and 'psychological' in linguistics BEFORE Gabelentz (who seems to have introduced the 'psychological subject') in grammar and Baudouin de Courtenay and Sapir in phonology? I emphasize the 'before' because there is tons of stuff later, which there is no need to burden the Internet with. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Sat, 29 Jan 1994 18:35:54 EST From: soemarmo@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu Subject: Textbook for Field Method Ohio University Electronic Communication date: 29-Jan-1994 06:33pm EST to: Remote Addressee ( _mx%"linguist@tamvm1.tamu.edu" ) from: Marmo Soemarmo Dept: Linguistics SOEMARMO Tel No: (614) 593-4564 subject: Textbook for Field Method Could anyone suggest good textbooks to teach Field Method? I am assigned to teach this course for the firat time, and the previous instructor did not use any textbook. Thanks! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 94 12:20:19 -0800 From: pmfarrell@ucdavis.edu Subject: Qs: Burushaski A student of mine is working on the grammar of Burushaski for a senior thesis. On his behalf, I request assistance in locating: 1. A native speaker with internet access 2. An article entitled "Burushaski texts" (Indian Linguistics, Vol. 1) by Siddheshwar Varmi. 3. Any relevant sources in English or French -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-103. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-104. Mon 31 Jan 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 163 Subject: 5.104 Qs: Creole, Shoebox database, Unification grammar, Gujarati Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sun, 30 Jan 1994 12:55:18 -0500 (EST) From: "Leslie Z. Morgan" Subject: Help with French creole 2) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 20:58:18 -0800 (PST) From: 6500scf@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Steven C. Fincke) Subject: Shoebox Data Base Archives 3) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 15:32:26 -0500 (EST) From: pedersen@seas.smu.edu (Ted Pedersen) Subject: REQUEST: Unification Based Grammar 4) Date: Sun, 30 Jan 1994 22:45:49 -0500 (EST) From: GURT@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu Subject: Query: Gujarati phonology -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sun, 30 Jan 1994 12:55:18 -0500 (EST) From: "Leslie Z. Morgan" Subject: Help with French creole I am currently teaching French and have a native-speaker of Creole. Is there something approachable out there that I could use to help her with differences in pronunciation and spelling between Haitian Creole and Standard French? Thanks for any help- Leslie Morgan Dept. of Modern Langs. and Lits. Loyola College in Md. MORGAN@LOYVAX.BITNET or MORGAN@LOYOLA.EDU -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 20:58:18 -0800 (PST) From: 6500scf@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Steven C. Fincke) Subject: Shoebox Data Base Archives I have been using the Summer Institute of Linguistics' Shoebox program for managing language data. I am wondering if there are any data base archives for Shoebox data bases on various languages. Having access to such data could be highly useful. Steven Fincke Department of Linguistics University of California, Santa Barbara -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 15:32:26 -0500 (EST) From: pedersen@seas.smu.edu (Ted Pedersen) Subject: REQUEST: Unification Based Grammar I would like to locate a bibliography of works dealing with Unification Grammars. The most frequently cited reference that I have seen in this area is : S.M. Shieber, An Introduction to Unification Based Approaches to Grammar, CSLI Lecture Notes 4, Stanford University, 1986 I'd like to find out what else is available. I am also interested in finding works that have implemented Unification Based Grammar using logic programming (especially Prolog). Thanks Ted -- * Ted Pedersen pedersen@seas.smu.edu * * Department of Computer Science and Engineering, * * Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275 (214) 768-2126 * -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Sun, 30 Jan 1994 22:45:49 -0500 (EST) From: GURT@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu Subject: Query: Gujarati phonology Okay, here's the situation: Recently I met in person a young man I have been corresponding with on the 'net. We had discussed accent at one point, and he told me that he thinks he has a standard American accent (whatever that is), but that sometimes he "mixes up" his [v]s and [w]s. Hmmm, thought I, and so when we met, I listened for it. This young man's parents are Indian, native speakers of Gujarati. They lived in Kenya, then moved to England. The young man was born in London, but the family moved to New York when he was a baby. The parents speak Gujarati at home, and the children reply in English. The children only speak (not very good) Gujarati to their grandparents. (This patterns perfectly, BTW, with what K. Sridhar has found for immigrants to English-speaking countries when the parents are native speakers of Gujarati; I heard her give a paper on this at the 1992 Georgetown University Round Table.) The young man's [v]s and [w]s seem to be allophones following the pattern: I [v] -> [w] / _ e E which makes a certain amount of sense, and also [v] -> [w] / _ aI which makes less (intuitive) sense, but I heard several tokens, so there it is. What he produces is, for example, "wery" for "very" and "Wiking" for "Viking," but never "g#vell" for "well," which makes it pretty clear that [v] is the underlying phoneme. My guess, of course, is that there's a phonological rule in Gujarati and that the young man internalized it before he learned English, and somehow it stuck. Now for the actual query: Can someone tell me a *rule* in Gujarati for alternating [v] and [w]? Does anyone know at what (approximate) age children learn this rule? Based on the little bit of information I've given, is there anything interesting you can tell about the young man's early linguistic environment? Reply to me personally, and I'll post a summary to the list if anyone's interested. (I'll be posting a summary to the young man, as well.) Thanks very much! Joan C. Cook Department of Linguistics Georgetown University cookj@guvax.georgetown.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-104. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-105. Mon 31 Jan 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 188 Subject: 5.105 Calls: Combining Statistical and Symbolic Approaches to Language Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 12:03:39 -0500 From: Judith Klavans Subject: Workshop on Combining Statistical and Symbolic Approaches to Language -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 12:03:39 -0500 From: Judith Klavans Subject: Workshop on Combining Statistical and Symbolic Approaches to Language THE BALANCING ACT: Combining Symbolic and Statistical Approaches to Language 1 July 1994 New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA A workshop in conjunction with the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (27-30 June 1994) A renaissance of interest in corpus-based statistical methods has rekindled old controversies -- rationalist vs. empiricist philosophies, theory-driven vs. data-driven methodologies, symbolic vs. statistical techniques. The aim of this workshop is to set aside a priori biases and explore the balancing act that must take place when symbolic and statistical approaches are brought together. We plan to accept papers from authors having a wide range of perspectives, and to initiate a discussion that includes philosophical, theoretical, and practical issues. Submissions to the workshop must describe research in which both symbolic and statistical methods play a part. All research of this kind requires that the researcher make choices: What knowledge will be represented symbolically and how will it be obtained? What assumptions underlie the statistical model? What is the researcher gaining by combining approaches? Questions like these, and the metaphor of the balancing act, will provide a unifying theme to draw contributions from a wide spectrum of language researchers. ORGANIZERS: Judith Klavans, Columbia Univerisity Philip Resnik, Sun Microsystems Laboratories, Inc. REQUIREMENTS: Papers should describe original work; they should clearly emphasize the type of paper to be presented (e.g. implementation, philosophical, etc.) and the state of completion of the research. A paper accepted for presentation cannot be presented or have been presented at any other meeting. In addition to the workshop proceedings, plans for publication as a book require that papers not have been published in any other publicly available proceedings. Papers submitted to other conferences will be considered, as long as this fact is clearly indicated in the submission. FORMAT FOR SUBMISSION: Following guidelines for the ACL meeting, authors should submit preliminary versions of their papers, not to exceed 3200 words (exclusive of references). Papers outside the specified length and formatting requirements are subject to rejection without review. Papers should be headed by a title page containing the paper title, a short (5 line) summary and a specification of the subject area(s). If the author wishes reviewing to be blind, a separate page with author identification information must be submitted. SUBMISSION MEDIA: Papers may be submitted electronically or in hard copy to either organizer at the addresses given below. Electronic submissions should be either self-contained LaTeX source or plain text. LaTeX submissions must use the ACL submission style (aclsub.sty) retrievable from the ACL LISTSERV server (access to which is described below) and should not refer to any external files or styles except for the standard styles for TeX 3.14 and LaTeX 2.09. A model submission modelsub.tex is also provided in the archive, as well as a bibliography style acl.bst. Note that the bibliography for a submission cannot be submitted as separate .bib file; the actual bibliography entries must be inserted in the submitted LaTeX source file. Be sure that e-mail submissions have no lines longer than 80 characters to avoid mailer problems. Hard copy submissions should consist of four (4) copies of the paper. A plain text version of the identification page should be sent separately by electronic mail if possible, giving the following information: title, author(s), address(es), abstract, content areas, word count. Schedule: Papers must be received by 15 March 1994. Late papers will not be considered. Notification of receipt will be mailed to the first author (or designated author) soon after receipt. Authors will be notified of acceptance by 10 April 1994. Camera-ready copies of final papers prepared in a double-column format, preferably using a laser printer, must be received by 10 May 1994, along with a signed copyright release statement. The ACL LaTeX proceedings format is available through the ACL LISTSERV. REGISTRATION: Registration fees are $25 for participants who register by 15 May 1994. Late registrations will be $30. Registration includes a copy of the proceedings, lunch, and refreshments during the day. Payment in US$ checks payable to ACL or credit card payment (Visa/Mastercard) can be sent to Philip Resnik at the address below. Please submit the following information along with payment: name affiliation postal address email method of payment (check or credit card) credit card info (name, card number, expiration date) dietary requirements (vegetarian, kosher, etc) ACL INFORMATION: For other information on the ACL conference which precedes the workshop and on the ACL more generally, please use the ACL LISTSERV, described below. ACL LISTSERV: Listserv is a facility to allow access to an electronic document archive by electronic mail. The ACL LISTSERV has been set up at Columbia University's Department of Computer Science. Requests from the archive should be sent as e-mail messages to listserv@cs.columbia.edu with an empty subject field and the message body containing the request command. The most useful requests are "help" for general help on using LISTSERV, "index acl-l" for the current contents of the ACL archive and "get acl-l " to get a particular file named from the archive. For example, to get an ACL membership form, a message with the following body should be sent: get acl-l membership-form.txt Answers to requests are returned by e-mail. Since the server may have many requests for different archives to process, requests are queued up and may take a while (say, overnight) to be fulfilled. The ACL archive can also be accessed by anonymous FTP. Here is an example of how to get the same file by FTP (user typein is underlined): $ ftp cs.columbia.edu ------------------- Name (cs.columbia.edu:pereira): anonymous --------- Password:pereira@research.att.com << not echoed ------------------------ ftp> cd acl-l -------- ftp> get membership-form.txt.Z ------------------------- ftp> quit ---- $ uncompress membership-form.txt.Z -------------------------------- This file is listed under acl-l/ACL94/Workshop_balancing_act.ascii.Z. SPONSORSHIP: This workshop is sponsored by the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL). It is organized by: Judith L. Klavans Philip Resnik Columbia University Sun Microsystems Laboratories, Inc. Department of Computer Science Mailstop UCHL03-207 500 W 120th Street Two Elizabeth Drive New York, NY 10027, USA Chelmsford, MA 01824-4195 USA klavans@cs.columbia.edu philip.resnik@east.sun.com Phone: (212) 939-7120 Phone: (508) 442-0841 Fax: (914) 478-1802 Fax: (508) 250-5067 [94-01-27] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-105. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-106. Mon 31 Jan 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 91 Subject: 5.106 Calls: Second Language Research Forum 1994 Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sun, 30 Jan 94 16:28:28 EST From: "MURPHY,VICTORIA ANNE,MRS" Subject: slrf94 -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sun, 30 Jan 94 16:28:28 EST From: "MURPHY,VICTORIA ANNE,MRS" Subject: slrf94 PLEASE POST PLEASE POST PLEASE POST 1:27 EST R2) ************ CALL FOR PAPERS AND POSTERS ************ F Second Language Research Forum SLRF 1994 Concordia University - McGill University Montreal, Canada October 6 - 9, 1994 Special Theme: Perspectives on Input in L2 Acquisition Invited Speakers: Elissa Newport, University of Rochester Neil Smith, University College London Merrill Swain, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Lydia White, McGill University ______________________________________________________________________ Papers Abstracts are invited for thirty-minute talks on any area of second language research. Each talk will be followed by a ten minute discussion period. Posters In an effort to encourage presentation of work in progress, this year's conference will include a special poster session. The posters, which consist of a summary and display of the research (including title, hypotheses, procedures, results and discussion), will be exhibited for the first two days of the conference; authors will be available to discuss their work during a specified period on one of these days. Authors of accepted posters will be given further instructions regarding the preparation of the materials for their poster presentations. Poster submissions from graduate students will be given special consideration. Abstract Requirements Send five copies of an anonymous 200-250 word abstract. Abstracts should be clearly titled and indicate whether submitted for a poster or a paper. Also include a 3x5 card with the following information: 1) name, 2) paper or poster title, 3) affiliation, 4) mailing address, 5) e-mail address, 6) phone number, 7) audio-visual needs (for papers only). A maximum of one individual and one joint abstract per author may be submitted. All materials should be sent to the following address: please, no e-mail or fax submissions. SLRF 1994 Leila Ranta, Chair of Abstracts Committee TESL Centre Concordia University 1455 de Maisonneuve West Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8 ABSTRACTS MUST BE RECEIVED BY MARCH 15, 1994 Les presentation en francais sont les bienvenues et seront examinees selon les memes criteres For more information: e-mail: F3SL@musicb.mcgill.ca phone: (514) 398-4222 fax: (514) 398-7088 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-106. ~h ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-107. Tue 01 Feb 1994. ISSN: 1078-4875. Lines: 105 Subject: 5.107 Calls: Studies in Spanish, Workshop on Phonological Structure Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 1994 15:32:09 -0500 (CDT) From: DEDDINGTON@ACAD1.MTSU.EDU Subject: Call for papers 2) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 1994 09:20:28 +0000 (GMT) From: Durham Linguist Subject: Call for Papers -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 1994 15:32:09 -0500 (CDT) From: DEDDINGTON@ACAD1.MTSU.EDU Subject: Call for papers SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS Experimental Studies in Spanish Linguistics Experimental studies are sought to be included in a volume entitled _Experimental Studies in Spanish Linguistics_. Studies which treat some aspect of contemporary theoretical analyses of Spanish will fall into the scope of this volume. Of particular interest are experiments such as those which deal with language processing, the productivity of rules, lexical access phenomena, aphasia, speech errors, etc. This focus may exclude some sociolinguistic and phonetic studies. Please send a one page abstract of your study to: David Eddington deddington@mtsu.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 1994 09:20:28 +0000 (GMT) From: Durham Linguist Subject: Call for Papers PLEASE POST PLEASE POST INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON PHONOLOGICAL STRUCTURE 16-17 September 1994 University of Durham United Kingdom CALL FOR PAPERS The goal of this conference is to bring together phonologists working on various aspects of phonological structure, from subsegmental features through prosodic structures at the level of the utterance. Abstracts are invited on all aspects of phonological structure, including its interaction with other components of the grammar, such as syntax, morphology and phonetics. Papers will be 30 minutes followed by 10 minutes of discussion. In addition to a small number of invited speakers, there will be slots for about sixteen papers. Deadline for submission of abstracts: *POSTMARKED BY 1st MAY 1994*. Abstracts submitted by fax or e-mail by 1st May will be considered, but a hard copy version should be submitted subsequently. Abstract submission: send 2 copies of a one-page abstract (1 anonymous; 1 camera-ready with name(s) and affiliation(s)) to: IWPS Coordinators Department of Linguistics and English Language University of Durham Elvet Riverside DURHAM, DH1 3JT United Kingdom Phone: (091)374-2641 (UK) (44-91)374-2641 (Elsewhere) Fax: (091)374-2685 (UK) (44-91)374-2685 (Elsewhere) E-mail: Durham.Linguist@durham.ac.uk Please include a postcard with the following information: a. author(s) d. address(es) g. fax number b. affiliation(s) e. telephone h. audiovisual needs c. paper title f. e-mail address IWPS is being organised by Mike Davenport and S.J. Hannahs with the support of the University of Durham and the Department of Linguistics and English Language. Queries should be sent to the address above. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-107. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-108. Tue 01 Feb 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 82 Subject: 5.108 Qs: Avestan, Telugu, Linguistics in Japan Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 94 17:27:08 CST From: Ruby Chua Subject: Avestan 2) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 94 14:52:55 EST From: mchenry@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Tracey McHenry) Subject: Telugu literatre query 3) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 09:21:57 -0500 (EST) From: robert westmoreland Subject: Linguistics in Japan -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 94 17:27:08 CST From: Ruby Chua Subject: Avestan I am attempting to write a research paper about Avestan, an Old Persian language, in which the sacred writings of Zoroaster were written. Any recommended sources and/or comments about this language would be greatly appreciated. My address : MKCHUA@UMSVM.BITNET -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 94 14:52:55 EST From: mchenry@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Tracey McHenry) Subject: Telugu literatre query Hello-- I am looking for literature in Telugu. I am doing my thesis on metaphors and emotion and would like to get my hands on some written Telugu. Does anyone know some references or perhaps some places to order from if I can't get anything good through interlibrary loan? Please respond to my address if you have any helpful advice--or even if you don't! Thanks in advance-- Tracey McHenry ***************************************************************************** Tracey McHenry mchenry@mace.cc.purdue.edu "In the midst of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible spring" --Camus -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 09:21:57 -0500 (EST) From: robert westmoreland Subject: Linguistics in Japan I am interested in general information about linguistics programs/departments/ classes, both graduate and undergraduate, in universities in Japan. If you have knowledge about this and are willing to share it, please contact me at rwestmor@silver.ucs.indiana.edu. Yoroshiku onegai itashimasu. --Robert Westmoreland -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-108. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-109. Tue 01 Feb 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 164 Subject: 5.109 FYI: Basque-origin hypothesis, SCHOLAR Release CZ Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 16:29:29 -0700 From: Anne T Gilman Subject: Basque-origin hypothesis 2) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 94 17:14:31 EST From: Joseph Raben Subject: Announcement of SCHOLAR Release CZ -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 16:29:29 -0700 From: Anne T Gilman Subject: Basque-origin hypothesis I was asked to post this by a colleague who does not have e-mail: Short, informal paper available to interested parties suggesting common origins of Basque and Slavic languages based on lexical "items in the material culture of hunters and gatherers." Petr Jandacek 127 La Senda White Rock, NM 87544 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 94 17:14:31 EST From: Joseph Raben Subject: Announcement of SCHOLAR Release CZ ladimir Kashitsin , Greg Cole P L E A S E P O S T The next release of SCHOLAR will contain the following items. If you are not already subscribed, send a message to as follows: sub scholar Your Name . You will receive a table of contents from which you can select any or all items for downloading. This release will contain the following items: A summary of _Computational Morphology_ by Graeme Ritchie et al. A summary of _Core Langaue Engine, ed. Huyan Alshawi. A summary of _Philsophy and AI_ by Robert Cummings and John Pollock A summary of _Informatique et Litterature (1950-1990)_ by Alain Vuillemin A summary of _Journalims for the 21st Century_ by Tom Koch A summary of _Manual to the ... Helsinki Corpus. A summary of _The Textual Condition_ by Jerome McGann A summary of _A Natural Language and Graphics Inter- face_ ed G.G. Bes and T. Guillotin A summary of _Interfaces for Information Retrieval and Online Systems_ by Martin Dillon A summary of _Translation and Translating: Theory and Practice_ by Roger T. Bell A summary of _Computer Processing of Natural Language_ by Gilbert K. Krulee A summary of _A TACT Examplar_ ed. T. Russon Woolridge A summary of _Research in Humanities Computing_ ed. Ian Lancashire Abstracts of items from _Apple Users Group Library_ Contents pages and abstracts from _EJournal_ Contents pages and abstracts from _Computational Intel- ligence_, 9:1, 9:2, 9:3 A notice of the Prentice Hall Catalog Service A notice of the IMB Jena Gopher A notice of the Corpus-Based Frequency Count of Modern Chinese A notice of the Six-Year Index to _Poetry_ Magazine A notice of the Spectrum Press Catalog - September 1993 Update A notice of the HCRC Map Task Corpus A notice of the CINFOLINK Directory for China A notice of the RuCCS Technical Reports, December 1993 A notice of the TEI P2 New Fascicles Now Available A notice of recent awards by the NSF for NLP A notice of the Institut des Textes et Manuscrits Modernes A notice of the Thesaurus Construction Program A notice of the Multilingual X11R5 binary installation package 3.0 A notice of phonetic fonts A notice of unification software A notice of NCSA Mosaic for the Macintosh A notice of WAIS for Windows (WinWAIS) Version 2.2 A notice of the New WAIS Picture Browser for the Macintosh A notice of bibliographic software A notice of LEXA: Corpus Processing Software A notice of Dasher 1.0 for the Macintosh. --------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-109. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-110. Tue 01 Feb 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 169 Subject: 5.110 Jobs: Grad Assistant, Professor, Grad study, Asst Professor Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 1994 10:46:27 -0500 (EST) From: VIRGINIA C GATHERCOLE Subject: announcement 2) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 94 17:02:49 MST From: martinha@fub46.zedat.fu-berlin.de (Martin Haspelmath) Subject: job: IE Comparative Linguistics 3) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 94 18:12:25 CST From: ward@pico.ling.nwu.edu (Gregory Ward) Subject: financial aid for graduate study at Northwestern 4) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 10:06 PST From: DOTYK@axe.humboldt.edu Subject: Job opening - General linguistics 5) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 94 09:51:02 EST From: sun!"VAX1!KIRKPATRICK "@hmgate.hmco.com Subject: Seeking French-language linguists -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 1994 10:46:27 -0500 (EST) From: VIRGINIA C GATHERCOLE Subject: announcement The Linguistics Program at Florida International University has a number of Graduate Assistantships available for 1994-95. FIU, a member of the Florida State University System, located in Miami, offers an M.A. degree in either General or Applied Linguistics. Applications for assistantships due by Mar. 1. For further information, please contact Dr. V. Mueller Gathercole, Linguistics Program, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199. E-mail: gatherco@servax.fiu.edu or gatherco@servax.bitnet. Tel.: 305-348-3874 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 94 17:02:49 MST From: martinha@fub46.zedat.fu-berlin.de (Martin Haspelmath) Subject: job: IE Comparative Linguistics The following job was recently announced by the Freie Universitaet Berlin: Professorship (C4) for Indo-European Comparative Linguistics. (C4 means tenured full professor, i.e. only highly qualified candidates are considered; German language proficiency required) Send in applications before 15 February 1994, to: Freie Universitaet Berlin Fachbereich Altertumswissenschaften Bitterstrasse 8-12 D-14195 Berlin Tel. +49-30-838 2201, -838 2296 Fax +49-30-838 5569 (This is not an official ad, I just thought I'd pass on the information, since there seem to be more IE professorships here than highly qualified Germans at the moment) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 94 18:12:25 CST From: ward@pico.ling.nwu.edu (Gregory Ward) Subject: financial aid for graduate study at Northwestern The Department of Linguistics at Northwestern University has a limited number of merit-based multi-year financial aid packages available for outstanding Ph.D. students matriculating in academic year 94-95. Our graduate program emphasizes theoretical foundations, experimental and computational methods, and the study of language use. Students have considerable flexibility in designing their own course of study and are encouraged to pursue ties to related disciplines. In addition, special interdisciplinary opportunities are available through the Ph.D. Program in Language and Cognition and the Ph.D. specialty in Cognitive Science. DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF APPLICATIONS IS MARCH 1, 1994. For more information about the program, please write to: Graduate Admission Officer Department of Linguistics Northwestern University 2016 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208-4090 (708) 491-7020 (email: g-ward@nwu.edu) For applications and catalogs, please write to: The Graduate School Northwestern University Evanston, IL 60208 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 10:06 PST From: DOTYK@axe.humboldt.edu Subject: Job opening - General linguistics The English Department at Humboldt State University has an opening for a one-year, full-time leave replacement in language studies beginning August 1994 (contingent on available funding). Assistant Professor level, salary range: $34,824 - $36,468. Ph.D. in linguistics\ English with a specialty in applied linguistics preferred. Must be able to teach linguistics classes for undergraduate and graduate (M.A.) majors and teacher education students. Minor specialty in TESL, literature, or writing desirable. To apply, send a letter, CV, supporting materials (including evidence of effective teaching), and representative publication to: John C. Schafer, Chair Department of English Humboldt State University Arcata, CA 95521 The deadline for applications is FEBRUARY 15, 1994. HSU is an AA\EEO employer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 94 09:51:02 EST From: sun!"VAX1!KIRKPATRICK "@hmgate.hmco.com Subject: Seeking French-language linguists The software division of Houghton Mifflin Company is seeking temporary assistance with the linguistic development of French-language electronic products. We require an individual with near-native fluency in French, knowledge of linguistics, excellent command of rules of inflection and derivation for French, familiarity with MS-DOS, and immediate availability in Boston for at least a four-week period. Must have legal authorization to work in the United States. Please send your resume to: Houghton Mifflin Company Software Division 222 Berkeley Street, 11th Floor Boston, MA 02116 Attn: Bill Trippe FAX 617 351-1115, or call for further information 617 351-3312. Houghton Mifflin Company is an equal opportunity employer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-110. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-111. Tue 01 Feb 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 135 Subject: 5.111 Qs: Textbook, Computational model, Machine translation Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 94 14:25:01 CST From: david@utafll.uta.edu (David Silva) Subject: Readings in Language Study 2) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 94 11:57 BST From: Alison Henry Subject: Computer models of parameter setting 3) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 08:56:04 -0500 (EST) From: SHERMAN@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: English-Spanish machine translation programs -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 94 14:25:01 CST From: david@utafll.uta.edu (David Silva) Subject: Readings in Language Study This fall I will be teaching an undergraduate course on human language and am in search of an appropriate textbook and/or reader. What I have in mind is _not_ an introduction to linguistics per se, but rather a course that deals with language issues in the context of other disciplines: gender studies, education, technology, sociology, anthropology, politics. I don't want to use a standard introductory lingusitics text (such as Fromkin & Rodman or O'Grady, Dobrovolsky & Arronoff, etc.) that focuses on or begins with formal notions of lingustic analysis. Rather, I'd like to locate a collection of materials that is accessible to readers without any real background in linguistics. It's likely that I'll be using Trudgill's _Sociolinguistics_ text for part of the course; I would still need readings on topics that aren't covered there. When I've taught courses like this in the past (about 3 years ago), I created my own (illegal) reading packets for the students. I don't want to do this again, though, and so was thinking about putting together _legal_ reading packets when I thought that I should find out FIRST if what I'm looking for (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) already exists. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I will post a summary if there is interest. --David Silva (david@ling.uta.edu) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 94 11:57 BST From: Alison Henry Subject: Computer models of parameter setting Is anyone working on, or can anyone suggest references on, computational models of parameter setting in language acquisition? Alison Henry -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 08:56:04 -0500 (EST) From: SHERMAN@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: English-Spanish machine translation programs I would appreciate any feedback of information that you could give me on any of the following programs (or others of which you might be aware) that are "capable" of translating between English and Spanish: DosAmigos Westcliff Software 343 Soquel #207 Santa Cruez CA 95062 408-459-8811 800-669-6825 Gobalink Basic Power Translator or Gobalink Professional Translator Gobalink Inc 9302 Lee Hwy. 12 floor Fairfax VZ 22031 800-255-5660 Spanish Assistant 5.0 MicroTac Software 4655 Cass St. Suite 214 San Diego CA 92109 800-366-4170 Translate V.1.1 Bilingual Corp PO Box 292700 Davey FL 33329 1-800-232-8228 We are looking for a translator that will be useful to translate a questionnaire that is being used for research purposes in the area of alcoholism and drug addiction from English to Spanish - where the Spanish is that of Hispanic Americans. Please respond to the address below since I am not a regular subscriber to your list. Thank you Barbara Sherman Computer Manager Research Institute on Addictions 1021 Main Street Buffalo, NY 14203 716-887-2544 SHERMAN@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-111. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-112. Wed 02 Feb 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 104 Subject: 5.112 Qs: Kleinschmidt, Organic, Folk etymologies, Arabic Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 1 Feb 94 13:27:18 EST From: Alexis_Manaster-Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Q: Kleinschmidt 2) Date: Tue, 1 Feb 94 19:32:08 EST From: Alexis_Manaster-Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Query: The term 'organic' 3) Date: Tue, 1 Feb 94 19:35:32 EST From: Alexis_Manaster-Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Linguistic Folk Etymologies, A Query 4) Date: Tue, 1 Feb 94 17:36:01 -0500 From: zzj@cs.UMD.EDU (Zhijun Zhang) Subject: Question about Arabic -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 1 Feb 94 13:27:18 EST From: Alexis_Manaster-Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Q: Kleinschmidt Does anybody know of any biographical data on Samuel Kleinschmidt, the author of the great Greenlandic grammar from the 19th century? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 1 Feb 94 19:32:08 EST From: Alexis_Manaster-Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Query: The term 'organic' I believe this originally meant 'original', i.e., found in the oldest stages of the language (e.g., in Grimm) but came to be used to mean 'psychologically real' in the works of people like Sapir. Anybody know anything about the origins of this? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 1 Feb 94 19:35:32 EST From: Alexis_Manaster-Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Linguistic Folk Etymologies, A Query Does anybody know of good examples of folk etymologies involving linguistic terminologies? What I have in mind is cases like that which I discovered for the term 'ergative', which actually seems to come from Latin erga 'near to', not from Greek ergates 'worker', and was originally used for a kind of locative but got established in its present sense because of the incorrect etymology that became attached to it. Also, I would be interested in any examples of confusion in linguistics due to the ambiguity of a term. For example, 'topic' as used in Philippine linguistics has nothing to do with 'topic' as used in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese linguistics, but I wonder if some linguists have been misled by the use of the same term. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Tue, 1 Feb 94 17:36:01 -0500 From: zzj@cs.UMD.EDU (Zhijun Zhang) Subject: Question about Arabic I heard that in Arabic, like in Spanish, sentences often do not have subject. In Spanish, this is because the subject can be infered from the verb, e.g., "soy" in Spanish is the same as "I am" in English. But what surprised me is that according to what I was told, in Arabic this is not the case. That is, the subject is ommitted even if it cannot be infered from the verb. Is this true? If it is, does it make any sense? I mean, what will be the meaning of a sentence with neither an explicit subject nor an implicit subject, such as "Be a student". (For what I heard, this is a common case in Arabic) Any information is highly appreciated. -zhijun -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-112. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-113. Wed 02 Feb 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 99 Subject: 5.113 Qs: Comitatives, Fuzzy grammar, Corpora of non-native speakers Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 1 Feb 1994 10:19:59 -0500 (EST) From: gb661@csc.albany.edu (BROADWELL GEORGE AARON) Subject: Comitatives in the head 2) Date: Wed, 02 Feb 1994 10:15:47 +0000 From: wcli@vax.ox.ac.uk Subject: fuzzy grammar 3) Date: Wed, 02 Feb 1994 00:53:12 -0500 (EST) From: CANGIANV@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu Subject: corpora of non-native speakers of English -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 1 Feb 1994 10:19:59 -0500 (EST) From: gb661@csc.albany.edu (BROADWELL GEORGE AARON) Subject: Comitatives in the head In Choctaw, the marker of the comitative (i.e. 'with' in the sense of accompaniment) looks as if it is etymologically related to the word for 'head'. I can't think of why this should be. Does anyone out there know of languages with a similar connection between 'with' and 'head'? Reply to me personally, and I'll summarize if there's an interest. ****************************************************************************** Aaron Broadwell | `To anyone who finds that grammar is a Dept. of Anthropology | worthless finicking with trifles, I Dept. of Linguistics and | would reply that life consists of Cognitive Science | little things; the important matter is Albany, NY 12222 | to see them largely' -- Jespersen, 1925 gb661@thor.albany.edu | ****************************************************************************** -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 02 Feb 1994 10:15:47 +0000 From: wcli@vax.ox.ac.uk Subject: fuzzy grammar I am interested in nondiscrete or "fuzzy" grammar, which sees grammatical categories and rules as having fuzzy boundaries and domains. I've come across an article by Ross on "category squishes" (1970's), suggesting that instead of discrete categories we talk about degrees of "nouniness" and "verbiness", etc., and an article by Lakoff arguing that the border between "competence" and "performance" is fuzzy, and that no such distinction should be made at all. Does anyone know of any developments on this notion after that, i.e., work done on fuzzy or continuous linguistics in the 80's or 90's? Wenchao Li Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Wed, 02 Feb 1994 00:53:12 -0500 (EST) From: CANGIANV@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu Subject: corpora of non-native speakers of English I am looking for a corpus of spoken American English that includes interaction between native and non-native speakers. At this point, the only source I know about is the European Science Foundation Second Language Database. Is anyone aware of any other electronic corpora of this sort? If folks are interested, I'll post a summary of sources I receive. Vincent Cangiano Dept. of Linguistics Georgetown University Home: (202) 337-4039 cangianv@guvax.georgetown.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-113. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-114. Wed 02 Feb 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 151 Subject: 5.114 Qs: Quantifier scope Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 02 Feb 94 12:25:32 SST From: David Gil Subject: QUANTIFIER SCOPE -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 02 Feb 94 12:25:32 SST From: David Gil Subject: QUANTIFIER SCOPE The following (longish) comments/query may be construed as either substantive, pertaining to issues of quantifier scope (related to the ongoing discussion of Aoun and Li's "Syntax of Scope"), or, alternatively, sociological, concerning the ways in which we do things in our discipline. Consider the following sentence: (1) Every man loves a woman Almost all syntacticians and semanticists appear to accept the following two claims: Claim A: sentence (1) has two potentially available readings (though individual speakers may vary with respect to the degrees to which they accept either of these two readings): Reading I: every man loves a different woman Reading II: every man loves the same woman Claim B: Reading I results from the subject NP "every man" having wide scope over the direct object NP "a woman"; conversely, reading II results from the direct object NP "a woman" having wide scope over the subject NP "every man". Quite some time ago, I published an article ("Quantifier Scope, Linguistic Variation and Natural Language Semantics", Linguistics and Philosophy 5:421-472, 1982) in which I argued explicitly against Claim B above (specifically, the second half thereof). Briefly, the argument consisted of the following points: Point 1: If, instead of looking at sentences with universal and existential quantifiers, such as (1), we turn our attention to sentences with generalized, eg. numerical quantifiers, such as (2) below, a more complex picture emerges: (2) Two men love three women Sentence (2) has the following four readings: Reading I: two men each love three women Reading II: three women are each loved by two men Reading III: each of two men loves each of three women Reading IV: two men love three women between them Whereas readings I and II result, respectively, from the subject and direct-object NPs having wide scope, readings III and IV (in which there are exactly two men and exactly three women) result from both NPs having equal scope; in particular, reading III may be represented using the notation of branching quantifiers. Point 2: Extensive empirical evidence (presented in that article) shows that for sentences such as (2), readings III and IV, in which both NPs have equal scope, are much more readily available than readings I and II, in which one of the NPs has wider scope than the other. Point 3: It is a fact of logic that when generalized quantifiers are replaced by universal and existential ones, readings in which both NPs have equal scope become equivalent to readings in which one of the NPs has wider scope than the other. In particular, a quantifier prefix consisting of branching existential and universal quantifiers is logically equivalent to a quantifier prefix in which the existential quantifier has wide scope over the universal quantifier. Accordingly, Reading II of sentence (1) may be represented in either of two ways: (a) assigning the existential quantifier wide scope over the universal quantifier, or (b) with branching existential and universal quantifiers. Point 4: Given the strong preference for readings in which both NPs have equal scope as compared to readings in which one NP has wide scope over the other (as evidenced by sentences with generalized quantifiers, cf. Point 2 above), Reading II of sentence (1) should accordingly be represented not with wide scope for the existential quantifier (as per alternative (a) Point 3), but rather with branching universal and existential quantifiers (as per alternative (b) Point 3) -- contrary to Claim B above. End of argument. Now in the 12 years that have ensued since the publication of the above argument, most or all linguists working on quantifier scope have continued to accept Claim B above, apparently unquestioningly. Indeed, I am not familiar with a single discussion of quantifier scope that has acknowledged the existence of the above argument, let alone addressed its substance -- even to refute it. (Apologies if I have missed anybody.) In principle, this could be for any of the following reasons: (a) the argument is incoherent; (b) the argument is badly worded; (c) the argument is irrelevant; (d) nobody bothered to read it. The main purpose of this query is to satisfy my own personal curiosity as to which of the above 4 reasons is closer to the truth. Reasons (a) and (b) are of course difficult for me to judge myself -- though at least the two anonymous reviewers of "Linguistics and Philosophy" must have thought otherwise. Reason (c) strikes me as implausible given the elaborate theoretical edifices that have been and are continuing to be built on the foundations of Claims A and B. And Reason (d) is hard to believe, given that the article appeared in such a highly respected journal. So why, then, has the above argument against claim B gone totally ignored for the last 12 years? Somebody enlighten me, please. I would be extremely grateful for any comments with regard to the above query. Perhaps if the opinions are in support of (a) and (b) they would be more appropriately sent to me directly -- I promise to accept the most damning criticism graciously (after all, I am sticking my neck out and asking for it). Alternatively, substantive comments pro and contra the above argument might be posted directly to the list -- given the ongoing discussion of quantifier scope in the context of Aoun and Li's book. Similarly, comments on the reading habits (or lack thereof) of our little community might also be of some general interest. Thanks for bearing with me, David Gil National University of Singapore ellgild@nusvm.bitnet -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-114. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-115. Wed 02 Feb 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 109 Subject: 5.115 *These man and woman Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 09:48:23 +0100 From: j.b.johannessen@ilf.uio.no Subject: *These man and woman -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 09:48:23 +0100 From: j.b.johannessen@ilf.uio.no Subject: *These man and woman Paul Kershaw and David Powers had some interesting observations on NP coordination a few days ago. The first one concerns the impossibility of a plural determiner to occur in front of a coordinated NP consisting of singular conjuncts: (1) *these man and woman I do not know of any language in which this kind of construction is acceptable, and believe the reason must be that the plurality of a nominal phrase is a functional feature which, if not already present in the individual conjuncts, can only be resolved at a functional projection level. In other words, a DP can be interpreted as plural even if it contains a conjunction phrase consisting of singular conjuncts, but an NP can only be interpreted in terms of the actual features of its daughters. It is not surprising, then, that a plural determiner like *these* cannot take as its complement a singular NP, even if this NP is of the category CoP[NP, sg, sg]. The whole nominal construction is only plural at the functional projection level. Similarly, a determiner with a feature X cannot have a complement of conflicting features since a non-functional category is not the place for resolution of feature conflicts. Thus, the Norwegian (2a) is not possible, because there is a gender conflict between the determiner and the second conjunct. (2) a. *en (M) stol (M) og bord (N) a chair and table b. en (M) stol (M) og lampe (M) a chair and lamp I have discussed elsewhere (e.g. in my dissertation) the phenomenon of Unbalanced Coordination. Languages vary a lot with respect to the extent that they allow it. However, the examples of comparable constructions there, i.e. constructions in which there is a resolved feature conflict, all happen at a level above the functional, nominal internal projection, as in the following example from the Cushitic language Qafar (taken from Hayward and Corbett 1988), which can choose between unbalanced coordination (agreement with one conjunct only) or balanced coordination (agreement with both conjuncts via number resolution). It therefore seems reasonable to suggest that resolution of feature conflicts can only occur at a functional level, making sub-functional conflicts impossible. (3) a. lubak-kee yanguli yumbulle /yumbullen lion.ABS.-and hyena.NOM.M.SG. were.seen.M.SG/PL The second observation is that two conjuncts cannot always share the same determiner, even when there is no feature conflict, as in (4). (4) a. *a man and woman b. the man and woman c. this man and woman I do not know why there is a difference here. It certainly is language specific (since the Norwegian equivalent of (4a) is fine), but it is also lexically determined, since (4b,c) are better or even fine. The third observation concerns the fact that there is an unresolved conflict between the conjuncts with respect to verb agreement in some cases: (5) a. ?John or I am happy b. ?John or I is happy c. *John or I are happy As I have mentioned to Paul Kershaw earlier, I don't think this case is quite comparable with the above ones, since here, there is disjunction instead of conjunction, so that number resolution typically picks out one conjunct only. However, one should expect either conjunct to be allowed to agree with the verb in a fully acceptable way. Instead, all alternatives are odd or out. I agree with him that the reason (5a) is better than (5b) is "phonological", in that it is a string that we are used to hearing. However, I don't think this is the reason that (1) is bad, since (6) is also unacceptable: (6) *these men and woman More generally, I do not think adjacency is a syntactic factor that plays a role in coordination, since (as I have shown in my dissertation) what is important in unbalanced coordination is what is specifier and what is complement in CoP, and not what happens to be adjacent to what. Of course there is often a great deal of overlap, but not always. Janne B.J. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-115. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-116. Wed 02 Feb 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 576 Subject: 5.116 Sum: Machine Translation Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 21 Jan 1994 23:28:25 +0000 (WET) From: a mcelligott Subject: Summary of MTS -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 21 Jan 1994 23:28:25 +0000 (WET) From: a mcelligott Subject: Summary of MTS A sincere thanks to all who replied. This following will definitely get me off the ground. Cheers, AMcE. ======================================================================== From: "C.M.Thomson" One fairly modern MT system that has been something of a commercial success is the METAL system from SNI. Some information is given in Hammer, C. Parallel Lisp and the Text Translation System METAL on the European Declarative System in ICL Technical Journal vol 8 iss 4 Nov 1993 pp 641-654 (Oxford University Press) Gajek, O. The METAL System. in CACM vol 34 iss 9 Sept 1991 Thurmair, G. METAL: Computer Integrated Translation in Proc of the SALT Workshop 1991, Manchester I'm sure Carsten has a pile of extra references he could point you to if you contact him (email: Carsten.Hammer@zfe.siemens.de). There were several attempts at English/Japanese and Japanese/English MT from the mid 60s onwards, by various Japanese companies and academic institutions, but these were never successful (even in a restricted field like comms prococol definition the output was beyond post-processing by anyone not fluent in the source language and it would take longer to postprocess than that person could have done translating without the m/c output) - at least they were really bad at least until the late 70s, they may have moved on since then. Also there has been work on English/Russian in the UK, the US, and the USSR, and on English/French and Russian/French in France and in the USSR, that I know about. So there has been plenty going on for at least three decades - if I hadn't scrapped all my MT info when I came to Manchester 8 yrs ago I could have given you references to much of the early work. PS: METAL covers German -> English, German -> Spanish, English -> German, French -> Dutch, Dutch -> French in commercially available form (ie what you can buy from SNI today) and has other language pairs in development; it is a real commercial translator requiring very little human post-processing, not a research toy or one of those awful products that delivers so many options that the post-processing reduces length by 50%. So I think it is maybe more interesting than a lot of other MT systems. ===================================================================== From: iat@cl.cam.ac.uk Survey of systems in the market: BYTE 18(1), January 1993 Journals: Machine Translation (Kluwer), Computational Linguistics (MIT). Books: An Introduction to Machine Translation, Hutchins & Somers, 1992. ===================================================================== From: "Caoimhin P. ODonnaile" You probably know this already, but Machine Translation is a huge subject, much more difficult than first imagined, with large corporations currently spending millions of pounds per year on it, large conferences devoted to the subject and many books constantly appearing. There is a database (accesible via the Internet) somewhere in Germany (the University of Stuttgart, I think) - of computational linguistics software: parsers, generators, etc. I can look out details if you want. I am sure that most MT systems cost big money and are not openly accessible. The main cheaply available software seems to be "Globallink" for the PC - available for a few hundred pounds at a guess. I haven't seen it, but I get the impression that the quality of the translation is sometimes dire, sometimes useful. The only open-access system I have heard of is a mail-server somewhere in Finland which will return to you, parsed, a copy of a short English text which you send to it in a mail message. I think that as far as Gaelic goes, full machine translation is not an attainable goal in the short to medium term. Better to go for lesser goals, spell-checkers and the like, which are in any case prerequisites for an MT system. One of main prerequisites for any system is a good lexical database, and so the work which you and Gearo/id O/ Ne/ill are doing on the Foclo/ir Po/ca at the University of Limerick is admirable. I have had a copy of the "Learners' Irish-English Dictionary" online for many years for my own use. I typed it in and verified it myself. It is copyright and I have no permission, so I can't pass copies to other people, but if there is any way in which it can be used to assist your own work without infringing copyright - e.g. for checking a lexical database constructed from the Foclo/ir Po/ca, I will be very glad to help in any way I can. Perhaps the Educational Company of Ireland would be willing to give permission for academic use if approached. Once you have a lexical database it is very simple to construct wordlists for spell checking. WordPerfect allows you to construct spell check lexicons for your own language starting with a wordlist. Version 2 of Word for Windows does not allow this, but Version 6 which is just out (the version numbers jumped!) may allow it. After this there are all sorts of further intermediate goals - online dictionaries and terminology databases accessible from word processors, lemmatisers, parsers, thesauruses. >From what I have read, the large corporations who have attempted MT have generally found that machine *assisted* human translation, aided by tools such as those I have mentioned above, is more successful that MT. Pure MT is not currently possible except in extremely limited semantic fields (the translation of weather forescasts from English to French in Canada is the classic example); a large amount of human pre-editing and post-editing is required to achieve a presentable result. On a more positive note, even if the quality of MT is still pretty miserable, even after massive investment, I think that there may be an increasing market for very poor quality translations. Since most new writing is on computer anyway, and computers are powerful enough to produce a translation in a few seconds, many people may feel that even a lousy translation is better than no translation at all. Imagine if at the press of a key you could obtain an interlinear tranlation, shown in a different font or colour, of GAELIC-L messages. I think that many of the American subscribers to GAELIC-L who know very little Gaelic would be delighted with this. I would be delighted if such a facility was available for WELSH-L. Irish Gaelic to Scottish Gaelic translation (or vice-versa) would be very much easier than Gaelic to English translation, since Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic are so similar syntactically. (They are "cognate languages", in the jargon.) It would also be a worthwhile goal since Irish Gaelic is not intelligible to most speakers of Scottish Gaelic, and vice-versa. GAELIC-L would be an ideal testing ground for such a system. ====================================================================== From: Vasu Renganathan I am sending you a summary of responses I recently got on MT, from an NLP newsgroup for South East Asian languages. I hope it helps. The general consensus seems that software translation is probably still not very "smart" and itself will not do the job of an experienced translator fluent in both languages. It could be an aid to the translator, however, and makes that person`s job a lot easier and faster. I would like to thank everyone who responded to me. If you know of any other vendors who make/market translation software, please let me know via email. I`d be glad to update this and send it back out. As a disclaimer, I am not associated with any of these vendors. The following information is given as a public service, use it at your own risks. 1. Translation system by MRJ, Inc., 10455 White Granite Drive - Oakton, VA 22124, 703-385-0830 (voice) - 703-385-4637 (FAX). This is commercial bilingual English <-> Japanese translation systems, including OCR and MT (Machine Translation) components. 2. Language Engineering Corporation, product name: LOGOVISTA develops English-to-Japanese translation software. Tokyo-based software developer LOGOVISTA has developed a software package which supports the translation of English-language business letters and technical essays into Japanese. "LogoVista E to J" translates more rapidly than other packages and the finished text requires less rewriting, according to the developers. Versions which run on SUN, HEWLETT PACKARD, and SONY workstations, as well as APPLE "Macintosh" computers, will be released in October. NEC "PC-9801" and IBM DOS/V PC versions will be released next spring. The software, which will be sold through PC dealer KATENA, is expected to be priced under 200,000 yen ($1,600). This is an English-to-Japanese translation system called LogoVista E to J. Macintosh and Japanese Windows versions are available; both can print to a PostScript printer. LogoVista E to J includes a main dictionary with over 100,000 entries; this dictionary can be supplemented both by any of our nineteen technical dictionaries and by user dictionaries that you create. The following technical dictionaries are available: aerospace engineering, agricultural science, applied chemistry, applied physics, architecture, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, earth science, electrical engineering and electronic communications, general business, general science and technology, information science, materials science, mechanical engineering, naval architecture, physics, urban engineering, and zoology. The technical dictionaries contain a total of over 415,000 terms. The Macintosh version of LogoVista E to J requires either KanjiTalk 7.1 or US System 7.1 and the Japanese Language Kit. The Windows version requires DOS/V 5.0 or later and Japanese Windows 3.1. Both versions require at least 6MB of RAM and 30MB of hard disk space. The price of the basic system (with the 100,000-entry dictionary) is $1,995. The four largest technical dictionaries (general business, general science and technology, electrical engineering and electronic communications, and mechanical engineering) cost $995 each. The other fifteeen technical dictionaries cost $495 each. Call John Richards (johnr@lec.com), (617) 489-4000, ext. 727 for more information. 3. IBM JAPAN has developed and released for sale a translation support software which simultaneously displays the source text and the in-process translation on the same screen, showing synonyms and dictionary definitions in separate windows. The new "Translation Manager/2," the first translation support tool of its type, makes it possible to share the same data on two different PCs and boasts other features which double productivity compared to manual translation, according to IBM JAPAN. The price is 787,500 yen ($7,429). 4. Someone mentioned Duet from JustSystem (The company who made Ichitaro). "But as far as I know, it works with only PC9801 series of NEC, a DOS machine but not quite IBM-PC/AT and it's really dumb. And there are "The Translator" and "Logovista" from Katena. These guys are for Macintoshes (Logovista is available also for Windows, I think) and singnificantly smarter, especially Logovista which can handle nested clause such as "I don't think you think your boss thinks computers can think". Remember, though, that machine translation is stil at primitive level. It's just as smart as cpp (perhaps a little smarter). And you need to make a lot of investment besides money for software and hardware to cultivate your own set of dictionary for your own need (the reason Duet is still strong is this: Many companies have spend singnifican manhours to grow dictionary). And even with that, that will not irradicate the need for human translators. It helps professionals a lot by preparing a draft but it's no good for people who doesn't know English and Japanese at all.... ==================================================================== From: mbm@mtl.mit.edu For information on MIT efforts ask Robert Berwick (berwick@ai.mit.edu). ==================================================================== From: Francis Bond I am working on a Japanese-English MT system. I would be happy to send you a copy of our demonstration pamphlett, which gives a brief description of the system and lists further references. If you can print Japanese characters I can send you the .ps file, or a LaTeX or DVI file. If not I can send you a hard copy snail mail. Which would you prefer? ===================================================================== From: "J.HUTCHINS" There is in fact a vast literature on the subject, there are numerous commercially available MT systems, and many MT projects, involving a very wide range of languages and different approaches. As introductions to the subject I would suggest my own books: Hutchins, W.J. (1986) Machine translation: past, present, future. [A history of MT research and systems up to 1984.] Hutchins, W.J. and Somers, H.L. (1992) An introduction to machine translation (Academic Press) [An introductory textbook for masters and Ph.D students, covering the basic approaches and details of 'typical' systems.] Books by others include: Arnold, D. et al. (1994) Machine translation: an introductory guide (Blackwell). [Just published basic introduction for non-linguists and translators] Newton, John (ed.) (1992) Computers and translation (Routledge) [A collection of introductory papers coverin a wide range of MT topics.] Slocum, John (ed.) (1988) Machine translation systems (CUP) [A collection of papers on the major MT systems.] Then there are the proceedings of conferences: MT Summit Conferences, held in 1987, 1989, 1991, and 1993 Theoretical and Methodological Issues in MT, held in 1985, 1988, 1990, 1992, and 1993. Coling conferences in recent years have contained many MT papers. For keeping up to date there is the newsletter of the International Association for Machine Translation, entitled MT News International. This is available free to all members of IAMT and its regional associations, e.g. the European Association for Machine Translation. ===================================================================== From: Patrick Jost Two books I'd recommend are by Nirenburg (Machine Translation, Camb. U. Press) and Carbonnel et. al. (Machine Translation, a Knowledge Based Approach, Morgan Kaufman). John Hutchinson's book from Academic Press is supposedly quite good as well, but I have been unable to get a complete copy, there were printing production problems. There's a very interesting MT project called Pangloss going on at ISI... contact Ed Hovy (hovy@isi.edu) for details. There are really two approaches...going directly from language A to language B, this is "transfer" MT and using an "interlingua" so you go from language A to the IL and then to language B. Commerical systems...the leader is Systran, in La Jolla, CA. You can caontact them on 619-459-6700. Siemens is just getting ready to release their "METAL" system, I am waiting for sample translations. ===================================================================== From: Walter van den Heever We (Unit for Software Engineering in collaboration with the University of Pretoria) are developing a MT system. The project is currently in its 5'th year and a commercial system (Lexica) is presently being sold to select clients. Lexica is a syntactic transfer system, presently being extended to incorporate semantic information (basically still 80's technology). The languages attempted include both European and African languages (such as English, Afrikaans, French, Swahili, Tswana, Zulu). Based on my experience so far, my impressions are as follows: * I don't think that FAHQT of unrestricted text is possible, * MT can offer useful results in restricted domains (such as technical texts) * Users don't understand the complexity involved and often try to use the system outside its limitations, * The translation between European languages is much simpler than translation between European and African languages. Similar observations have been made concerning the translation between European and Asian languages. This is due to differences in culture and the way these languages work. * A problem we have (similar problems may or may not exist elsewhere) is to get the right people for the job. Linguists have to undergo considerable training before they are able to write a grammar suitable for computation. Computer Scientists can do that, but don't really have the necessary language skills. * The quality of MT depends greatly on the input. The old Garbage-In- Garbage-Out saying contains an element of truth in the case of MT. We have analysed text that didn't translate well and found that even we were not able to understand exactly what the author meant. After rewritting the text more plainly the translation improved considerably and we understood the original better. * The building of dictionaries is i) time-consuming, ii) costly and iii) error-prone. * In order to do translation in anything more that a toy-domain, one requires dictionaries in the order of 50 000 words. These are some very general (and by no means original) observations. ====================================================================== From: Gaelle.Recource@linguist.jussieu.fr Your question in Linguist involves a huge area: here is a short and partial answer. Many European projects were devoted to MT in official community languages. I took part in the EUROTRA research project, which was the biggest one. Its main quality was to provide at the end (december1992) a good summary of the linguistic specifications needed to build an MT system. You can get them in asking to the EC a version of the so-called EUROTRA Reference Manual. If you are really interested, don't hesitate to contact me to have more information. Note that the software itself is obsolete and of no interest, but that all the specifications were actually implemented in the nine languages. At last, you should know that several smaller projects carry on now with which you could get in contact (EUROLANG, ET-10 projects,). ===================================================================== From: Meyer S Firstly, here is a brief description of some MT systems that you might be interested in: $\bullet$ METAL, one of the most advanced operational systems (transfer based, making use of deep linguistic analysis) which has been developed by Siemens, Germany. You may find it easier to contact Siemens here in Britain: Siemens Group Services Limited, 83 Guildford Street, Chertsey, Surrey KT16 9AS (Tel: 0932 566791). $\bullet$ The Globalink Translation System (GTS) could be classified as a `direct' system. The quality may not be as high as some of the other systems mentioned, but it is cheap and fast. It has several British distributors, but unfortunately we only have their American address: Globalink Inc., 9302 Lee Highway, Fairfax, Virginia 22031, USA (Tel: 703 273-5600). $\bullet$ The Tovna Machine Translation System (Tovna MTS) is a transfer based system that `learns' from previous input. The UK address is: Tovna Translation Machines Ltd., EUROSOFT (UK) Ltd., Cottons Centre, Cottons Lane, Tooley St., LONDON SE1 2QL (Tel: 234 6635). $\bullet$ Systran is an amended version of what they call a `direct' translation system, which only performs a shallow analysis of the input. The main distributor of Systran is the Gachot company in Soisy-sous-Montmorency (near Paris), France. A new English company is negotiating the right to distribute Systran in Britain. The main user of Systran in Britain is: Rank Xerox Ltd., Parkway, Marlow, Bucks SL7 1YL (Tel: 0628 890000). $\bullet$ The Logos system is (as far as we know) a transfer based system that makes use of a deeper linguistic analysis of input. The address of Logos is: Logos Corporation, 45 Park Place So, Suite 214, Morristown, NJ 07960, USA. We do not know of an English distributor, nor of any main users. $\bullet$ Weidner's MicroCAT is an interactive system. The European subsidiary of Weidner is: WTE (Weidner Translation (Europe) Limited), Fryern House, 125 Winchester Road, Chandler's Ford, Eastleigh, SO5 2DR. One of the main users of Weidner's MicroCAT is Perkins Engines, Peterborough. $\bullet$ DLT is an interlingual system which uses an interlingua based on Esperanto as a `bridge' between languages. This package is developed by the Utrecht software company: Buro voor Systeemontwikkeling (BSO), The Netherlands. Secondly, the following books may be of interest: ``Machine Translation -- An Introductory Guide'', by Siety Meijer, Lorna Balkan, Doug Arnold, Louisa Sadler and R Lee Humphreys. NCC Blackwell. Machine Translation, John Hutchins and Harold Sommers. (also discusses non-commercial systems) ====================================================================== From: Niek van der Donk Machine translation : a view from the lexicon / Bonnie Jean Dorr. - Cambridge, Mass [etc.] : MIT Press, cop. 1993. - XX, 432 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. - (Artificial intelligence) Linguistic issues in machine translation / edited by Frank Van Eynde. - London [etc.] : Pinter, 1993. - viii, 239 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. - (Communication in artificial intelligence series) Progress in machine translation / ed. by Sergei Nirenburg. - Amsterdam [etc.] : IOS Press ; Tokyo [etc.] : Ohmsha, 1993. - X, 320 p. : ill. ; 24 cm Lit. opg.: p. [297]-318. - Index. I Machine translation : a knowledge-based approach / Sergei Nirenburg ... [et al.]. - San Mateo, Cal.: Morgan Kaufmann, cop. 1992. - XIV, 258 p. : ill. ; 24 cm An introduction to machine translation / W.John Hutchins and Harold L. Somers. - London [etc.] : Academic Press, 1992. - XXI, 362 p. : fig. ; 25 cm Bibliogr.: p. 335-350. - Index. Towards high-precision machine translation : based on contrastive textology / John Laffling. - Berlin [etc.] : Foris, 1991. - VII, 178 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. - (Distributed language translation ; 7) Machine translation summit / editor-in-Chief M. Nagao ; editors H. Tanaka ... [et al.]. - Tokyo : Ohmsha, cop. 1989. - XIV, 224 p. : ill. ; 27 cm Proceedings of the three-day Machine Translation Summit held at Japan's Hakone Prince Hotel from September 16, 1987 Machine translation : how far can it go? / Makoto Nagao ; transl. by Norman D. Cook. - Oxford [etc.] : Oxford University Press, 1989. - xii, 150 p. : ill. ; 23 cm New directions in machine translation : conference proceedings, Budapest 18-19 Augustus, 1988 / Dan Maxwell, Klaus Schubert, Toon Witkam (eds.). - Dordrecht [etc.] : Foris, 1988. - IV, 259 p. ; 24 cm. - (Distributed language translation ; 4) ===================================================================== From: caffrey@MIT.EDU Do a litterature search for JONATHAN SLOCUM who has done reviews of MT systems. Also write to the Centre for Machine translation at Carnegie Mellon U. in Pittsburgh. ====================================================================== From: Eduard Hovy Oi, this is a big question, more than I have time or patience to answer. I suggest you read the following, in order: - BYTE magazine, January 1993, special issue on MT, 3 main articles. - Machine Translation, John Hutchins, approx. 1985. - Computational Linguistics special issue on MT, 11(1 and 2-3), 1986. Then please ask again about the types of systems you're interested in. ======================================================================= From: R Chandrasekar I work in Machine Translation (MT). In my PhD thesis, I am arguing that one should try to use all sorts of methods (including heuristic simplification) to attack the formidable problems of MT. I work at and R&D Centre in Bombay, where we are looking at translation from English to Hindi. BTW, I spent some time as a visiting researcher at the Center for Machine Translation at Carnegie-Mellon Univ, Pittsburgh, USA. Do you know about this Center? If you are interested, I could send you a list of books on Machine Translation. If you want to know some place in the UK where there is considerable MT activity, try contacting: Dr Harold L Somers Centre for Computational Linguistics UMIST PO Box 88, Manchester UK Email: harold@ccl.umist.ac.uk ====================================================================== From: Dan Maxwell <100101.2276@CompuServe.COM> In response to your request for information, there are several books which survey several projects. One of these is by Hutchins, W.J. 1986, "Machine Translation, Present, Past and Future", Chichester:Ellis Horwood. Another is a more recent one (about 1989) by Jonathan Slocum, I believe, but I don't know the title. There is a series of six books about the DLT (Distributed Language Translation) project, of which I was a part, published by Foris publications, Dordrecht, NL. One of these, "New Directions in Machine Translation" is actually the articles from a conference on MT organized by the company sponsoring DLT. It covers various topics and projects within MT, including an update of Hutchins' book. Hutchins' work in particular shows that there are/have been quite a lot of projects, but I have the impression that most of them have rather little published work written about them. And a lot of the articles that I have seen are oriented more toward the computational side of MT rather than the linguistic side. I recommend Hutchins' book as a starter and then particularly #5 of the DLT series, "Working with analogical semantics", by Victor Sadler. It was one of the first treatments of corpus-based approaches, which now seem to be widely used, judging from recent issues of "Computational Linguistics". ===================================================================== From: Merrill=Kashiwabara%HQ%Rational@Vines1.ratsys.com I read your request for information on MT systems, but have very little to offer you except a few companies which we looked into as part of our software localization efforts. The companies with the longest records seem to be SYSTRAN, which is a descendant of the old DARPA machine translation efforts. They have remote facility which allows you to send text and certain types of formatted information over the wire to their facility for translation and re- transmission back to the client. Their translation engines seem to be hand- crafted pragmatically-oriented rather than based on a particular theory or philosophy. Their heuristics are empirically derived. I don't have a contact at Systran, but since they've been around since the '60's, I think that that information is probably readily available. Another machine translation system is the PC-based Global-link software product suite which has a limited vocabulary and subject base and covers 5 major European Languages. The engine seems to be an exception-based lookup table(s). We had a lot of fun translating to and from several languages, with sometimes bizarre results. We examined several products, and I have the literature in hardcopy somewhre, but I'd have to dig it out of the high entropy field which surrounds my desk, so it might take a couple of days. Are you interested in finding an MT system, or in a general survey of the players an the existing techniques being used? __________________________________________________________________ Annette McElligott, CSIS Dept., University of Limerick, Ireland. Tel: +353 61 333644 ext. 5024; Fax: +353 61 330876 Email: mcelligo@itdsrv1.ul.ie or mcelligotta@ul.ie -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-116. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-117. Wed 02 Feb 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 30 Subject: 5.117 Sum: Reviews of Syntactic Structures Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 94 00:28:48 EST From: Alexis_Manaster-Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Summary: Reviews of Syntactic Structures -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 94 00:28:48 EST From: Alexis_Manaster-Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Summary: Reviews of Syntactic Structures Some time ago I asked if anyone knew a list of reviews of Syntactic Structures. Such a list appears in E. F. Konrad Koerner and Matsuji Tajima, "Noam Chomsky, A Personal Bibliography, 1951-1986", John Benjamins. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-117. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-118. Wed 02 Feb 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 69 Subject: 5.118 The Last Phonological Rule: reply to Goldsmith Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 94 18:45:57 GMT From: alex@compapp.dcu.ie (Alex Monaghan) Subject: The Last Phonological Rule: reply to Goldsmith -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 94 18:45:57 GMT From: alex@compapp.dcu.ie (Alex Monaghan) Subject: The Last Phonological Rule: reply to Goldsmith It was great to read John Goldsmith's reply to my review, and I agree entirely with the list administrators that this is exactly the sort of interaction to which LINGUIST is ideally suited. I have a few comments/clarifications to make. firstly, in referring to the various chapters in the book as "working papers" I was using scare quotes rather than citation quotes: much of the book had a "working paper" feel to it for me. This is reinforced by phraseology such as "I ... can do no more than invite the reader to reconsider some of these questions with me" (p.21), "The phonological conclusion that the present paper aims towards" (p.22), "Virtually all of these final remarks are speculative at this point" (p.56), "This paper is an attempt to confront [problems of universality and naturalness in phonology]" (p.61), "This chapter reports on initial results" (p.146), and other similar usages. I do not mean to dispute the validity of publishing the material in the book, or to suggest that it would be unacceptable as a series of journal articles. in fact, I applaud the authors for their honesty: this is, after all, a largely unploughed field and it is thus difficult to be certain about one's results. moreover, I think that in many cases these chapters are far above the standard of the majority of journal articles, since the latter often present dubious or unfinished work as though it had been received direct from the relevant cultural deity. As far as the connectionism or otherwise of harmonic phonology is concerned, I certainly got the impression that HP assumes this n-dimensional space (very similar to state-space) and that the symbolic rules had effects in this space. I find that counter-intuitive, since not all the possible points are observable in language. I also find the fact that a small number of such rules can combine to produce effectively unpredictable results unintuitive. neither of these feelings has anything to do with the Goldsmith/larson implementation (i assume this isn't THE gary larson!): my misgivings about that are quite different. One further brief point. in his reply, Goldsmith mentions "a finite-dimensional space, the space of connection weights", but as far as I can tell this space is actually infinite: there is an infinite range of possible values for each connection weight, and this is an unavoidable mathematical consequence of gradient systems such as connectionism. this is the source of one of my persistent doubts about connectionist approaches to phonology. alex. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-118. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-119. Thu 03 Feb 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 104 Subject: 5.119 The Last Phonological Rule Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 3 Feb 94 13:44:57 GMT-0500 From: gldsmth@bloomfield.uchicago.edu (John Goldsmith) Subject: Re: 5.118 The Last Phonological Rule: reply to Goldsmith 2) Date: Wed, 2 Feb 94 17:43:28 PST From: Bill Poser Subject: infinite dimensions -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 3 Feb 94 13:44:57 GMT-0500 From: gldsmth@bloomfield.uchicago.edu (John Goldsmith) Subject: Re: 5.118 The Last Phonological Rule: reply to Goldsmith The only matter that I'd like to reply to in Alex Monaghan's comments on The Last Phonological Rule is the following one; if it weren't of real importance to linguists -- at least to some linguists -- I'd simply send him my remarks directly. But posting them here might serve some good end. The remark concerns what a finite-dimensional (vector) space is. I'm going to offer a few remarks which are meant to explain; they're pedagogical in character, and are not intended to be interpreted literally, especially by people who already know what we're talking about. To say that we're looking at a point in an n-dimensional space means that we've specified n separate numbers (its coordinates). Even if there were only one dimension to it, we'd be talking about an infinite number of points (there are, after all, an infinite number of points between 0 and 1, no matter how you slice it). But this business of infinity is not as scary (or even as overpopulated) as it might sound at first; a system (whether it's mathematical or linguistic) which is continuous almost everywhere will have the property that large chunks of regions in the space lead to properties that are more or less identical throughout that region. This isn't mysterious in the slightest, though my formulation might make it sound so. But think of the world that we navigate in everyday: it's a 3-dimensional world which, if we forget about quantum theory, contains an infinite number of points in it, even right here in my office. But natural phenomena are continuous almost everywhere, and so we recognize chunks and regions within this space (like my body, the keyboard, etc.) which are recognizeable subregions with specifiable properties. Well! All that is to say that what's important in determining the size of a space is its dimensionality, once we know that we're dealing with a system that is continuous almost everywhere (I've used that phrase three times now, and the reader will no doubt have inferred, correctly, that it is a phrase with a technical meaning). The fact that there are an infinite number of points in an internal (like from 0 to 1) doesn't lead to any theoretical problems. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 2 Feb 94 17:43:28 PST From: Bill Poser Subject: infinite dimensions In LINGUIST 5.118 Alex Monaghan writes: >One further brief point. in his reply, Goldsmith mentions "a >finite-dimensional space, the space of connection weights", but as far >as I can tell this space is actually infinite: there is an infinite >range of possible values for each connection weight... There being infinitely many weights makes the system infinite in one sense but it does not make it infinite-dimensional; it doesn't affect dimensionality at all. For example, space-time is only four dimensional even though all four dimensions are continuous. An infinite-dimensional system is one described by infinitely many parameters. The Fourier series representation of a signal, for example, represents it in an infinite-dimensional vector space since there are infinitely many frequencies at which there may be energy, each such frequency consituting a dimension. A perhaps more familiar and elementary example of an infinite-dimensional vector space is the Taylor series representation of the functions of class c-infinity, where each power of X defines a dimension. Bill Poser -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-5-119. ________________________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-5-120. Thu 03 Feb 1994. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 114 Subject: 5.120 Qs: Karen, Portuguese, Gujarati, Cairo, Serbo-Croat Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. Asst. Editors: Ron Reck Brian Wallace REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 3 Feb 94 09:06:38 PST From: sb@macdict.dict.mq.edu.au (Susan Butler) Subject: Karen 2) Date: Wed, 02 Feb 94 11:23:22 EST From: beth Subject: Portuguese Texts 3) Date: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 08:34:15 -0500 From: Thomas B Ernst Subject: Gujarati font 4) Date: Wed, 2 Feb 94 10:28:54 CST From: "Mel Resnick" Subject: Royal Society, Cairo (query) 5) Date: Wed, 02 Feb 1994 22:09:33 EST From: Don Ringe Subject: translators needed (humanitarian) -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 3 Feb 94 09:06:38 PST From: sb@macdict.dict.mq.edu.au (Susan Butler) Subject: Karen Does anyone know of any material (in particular teaching material) on the Karen language? This request comes from a filmmaker who has picked the language up as he has gone along but who would be grateful for anything that would assist in the process. Thanks, SB -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 02 Feb 94 11:23:22 EST From: beth Subject: Portuguese Texts Estou analisando textos da revista veja. Estou necessitando do texto analise textual da revista veja no periodo da eleicao presidencial brasileira de 1989. elementos para a analise do discurso, de sergio luiz gadini, da universidade federal de santa maria. Este trabalho foi apresentado no ix congresso internacional da alfal, unicamp. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 08:34:15 -0500 From: Thomas B Ernst Subject: Gujarati font A friend of mine who is not on the List would be grateful for any information about a font for doing Gujarati on a Macintosh computer. Please reply to me at: ternst@brahms.udel.edu. Tom Ernst -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Wed, 2 Feb 94 10:28:54 CST From: "Mel Resnick" Subject: Royal Society, Cairo (query) I have been asked (by the Dean of my College) for informati