________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-1. Wed 11 Jan 1992. Lines: 81 Subject: 3.1 S -> NP NP Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sat, 28 Dec 91 17:23:44 EST From: Ellen Prince Subject: Re: 2.882 S -> NP NP 2) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 91 21:56:50 CST From: GA5123@SIUCVMB.bitnet Subject: S -> NP + NP 3) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 11:11:47 EST Subject: 2.882 S -> NP NP From: Stavros Macrakis -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sat, 28 Dec 91 17:23:44 EST From: Ellen Prince Subject: Re: 2.882 S -> NP NP >Date: Sun, 15 Dec 91 02:25:02 EST >From: Michael >Subject: Re: 2.864 Queries > >Wlodek Zadrozny asks if there is "anything interesting" to be said >about the construction "S > NP NP" ... Second, >and very much related: might we consider the construction to be a form >of what has been discussed on this list of late as reduplication? The >logical sense of "John McNamara the name" is tautologous and thus, at >that level, indistinguishable from "well, well now, what have we here?". to say that 'john mcnamara the name' is tautologous is to give support to those who say that a logic-based semantics is irrelevant to natural language. in what sense is it tautologous? it supplies the value of an attribute followed by the attribute of which it is the value. if in fact the value of the name-attribute for the relevant entity were 'chaim shmendrik', 'john mcnamara the name' would be false. no tautology, this. (and no reduplication, either.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 91 21:56:50 CST From: GA5123@SIUCVMB.bitnet Subject: S -> NP + NP The discussion of S -> NP + NP reminds me that some years ago I read, in a source now forgotten, a critique of some newsmagazines' unique tendencies in writing style, most of which the writer found overly "cute". One item was tersely put down as follows: "TIME's favorite: the colon." ----------------------------------- Lee Hartman ga5123@siucvmb.bitnet Department of Foreign Languages Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL 62901 U.S.A. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 11:11:47 EST Subject: 2.882 S -> NP NP From: Stavros Macrakis ...for me it's much more restrictive than S -> NP NP. It's "no" NP Pro Quite an over-restriction, that. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-1. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-2. Thu 02 Jan, 1992. Lines: 119 Subject: 3.2 Queries: Orthography, German Spell-checkers, Basque Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 11:00:46 PST From: marks@neuro.usc.edu (Mark Seidenberg) Subject: orthographies 2) Date: Tue, 31 Dec 91 16:39:44 EST From: jordan@starbase.MITRE.ORG (Pamela W. Jordan) Subject: Info. on German spelling checkers 3) Date: 02 Jan 92 17:47:22 EST Subject: films for elicitation From: JASKE@bat.bates.edu -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 11:00:46 PST From: marks@neuro.usc.edu (Mark Seidenberg) Subject: orthographies I have a question for readers of the list about orthographies. There has been a large amount of psycholinguistic research on how differences among orthographies affect reading. Most research has focused on the extent to which orthographies encode phonological information. Thus, in "shallow" orthographies, the correspondences between written and spoken codes for words are supposed to be simple and direct. In "deep" orthographies, the correspondences are more inconsistent, irregular, obscure. Typically people have assessed "depth" in terms of characteristics of the mapping between graphemes and phonemes, though of course there are other ways of thinking about what orthographies actually encode. The Roman and Cyrillic writing systems for Serbo-Croatian are said to be "shallow," because within each of these alphabets the correspondences between graphemes and phonemes are entirely regular (I am repeating here what has been asserted by Lukatela, Katz, Feldman, and others). English is said to be "deep" because of the existence of minimal pairs such as HAVE/GAVE, SAID/PAID, and WERE/HERE. Hebrew is even "deeper" because vowels are typically omitted. I have often wondered about this characterization of orthographic depth. For example, Serbo-Croatian is said to be shallow because of regularities at the level of graphemes and phonemes; however, generating the pronunciation of a word from print also involves assigning stress, and there I gather that Serbo-Croatian is quite complex. I also wonder how well this notion of orthographic depth applies to other writing systems. So, my inquiry to the list is whether people might be willing to share their knowledge of other writing systems. Are there writing systems in which the pronunciations of words are entirely predictable from their written forms? One test for this would be if every reader of the language agreed upon the pronunciation of novel forms (e.g., MAVE or GABINAL in English). I would also like to test a specific hypothesis. My prediction is that in writing systems that admit exceptional spelling-sound correspondences, the exceptions tend to cluster among the higher frequency words in the language. Thus, in English, the irregular words are overrepresented among the HF items (HAVE, GIVE, SAID, WERE, WAS, DOES, NONE, GONE, etc.). Is this true in other languages? Thanks for your help. Mark Seidenberg -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 31 Dec 91 16:39:44 EST From: jordan@starbase.MITRE.ORG (Pamela W. Jordan) Subject: Info. on German spelling checkers Could you give me some recommendations on German spelling checkers? I'm interested in ones for either PCs, Macs or Suns. I know about one that Alki Software has for $69.95 for Word 4.0 on a Mac. Also, do you know of any German-English terminology banks for translators? Thanks, Pam Jordan -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: 02 Jan 92 17:47:22 EST Subject: films for elicitation From: JASKE@bat.bates.edu I am planning to do some controlled elicitation of Basque and i was thinking about using the well known Pear Stories film (cf. Chafe 1980) for that purpose (it's easily available for $27.50). One advantage of using that film is that there should be a lot of material in different languages to compare with (I am looking at word order). My question is: Is there anything comparable to the Pear film out there which might be a good complement to it, or perhaps even a better subtitute? Any information on this topic will be greatly appreciated. Jon Aske jaske@bat.bates.edu jonaske@garnet.berkeley.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-2. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-3. Thu 02 Jan 1992. Lines: 81 Subject: 3.3 Jobs: Taiwan, Montana Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1992 13:33:44 MST From: li_rbh@lewis.umt.edu Subject: POSITIONS at the UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 2) Date: Thu, 2 Jan 92 10:48 +0800 From: MATTHEWS@HKUCC.bitnet Subject: Job openings in Taiwan -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1992 13:33:44 MST From: li_rbh@lewis.umt.edu Subject: POSITIONS at the UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA POSITIONS at the UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA Visiting Asst Professor for a one-year sabbatical replacement starting September, 1992. Ph.D. preferred (A.B.D. required). Must be able to teach language and culture and/or survey of Native American Indian linguistics. Must know current phonological and/or syntactic theory; assignment may include one or more such courses. Must be willing to contribute actively and cooperatively to a small, interdepartmental program. Applications will be reviewed beginning March 2, 1992, but the position will remain open until filled. Send letter of inquiry, curriculum vitae, transcripts, and three letters of recommendation to Robert B. Hausmann, Chair, Search Committee, Linguistics Program, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812. Asst/Assoc Professor of English. Possible tenure line opening for a linguist with qualifications in applied linguistics with a subfield specialty in text analysis. We prefer someone who has worked with non-Indo-European texts. An applicant should have a background in theoretical and/or descriptive linguistics and be able to teach beginning courses in both phonology and syntax. We are looking particularly for someone qualified to teach in inter-departmental programs in English language pedagogy. Ph.D. required. Please send letter of application, CV and dossier postmarked by March 2, 1992 to Henry R. Harrington, Department of English, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 2 Jan 92 10:48 +0800 From: MATTHEWS@HKUCC.bitnet Subject: Job openings in Taiwan The Department of English at National Taiwan Normal University has two openings at the instructor, associate professor or full professor levels beginning August, 1992. Applicants need hold a Ph.D. with a maj or in (1) theoretical linguistics or (2) second language acquisition and/or applied linguistics. Responsibilities include directing M.A. theses/Ph.D. dissertations and teaching courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Annual salary range is from NT530,000 (for instructor with a recently acquired Ph.D) to NT$840,000 (for first-year full professor; US$1 is approximately NT$26.30). Insurance benefits are included. Applicants should send a letter of application, transcripts, CV, samples of work and two letters of recommendation to: Dr. Yu-Hwei E. Lii-Shih Chair, Department of English National Taiwan Normal University 162, HoPing East Road, Sec. 1 Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. Selection of applicants will begin February and continue until the positions are filled. For further information, please inquire by FAX: 886-2-392-2754, TEL: 886-2-363-2664, or by mail to the above address. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-3. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-4. Thu 02 Jan 1992. Lines: 112 Subject: 3.4 Demonstratives Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1991 09:30 EST From: Herb Stahlke <00HFSTAHLKE@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU> Subject: African Demonstratives 2) Date: Thu, 2 Jan 92 14:48:29 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: Iconicity in demonstratives 3) Date: Thu, 2 Jan 92 17:52:55 GMT From: David Adger Subject: Re: 2.886 Queries - iconicity in demonstratives -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1991 09:30 EST From: Herb Stahlke <00HFSTAHLKE@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU> Subject: African Demonstratives Deictics: Welmers' _African Language Structures_ (U of Cal 1973:286-287) provides some interesting examples of demonstratives, a few of which appear to be clear counterexamples to Martin Haase's correlation of proximity with closeness in vowels. Swahili has ule/huu/huo "that/this/the aforesaid" and ile/hii/hiyo "those/these/the aforesaid". Kpelle has ngi/ti "this-these/that-those". I don't know if this is a none example or a counterexample. It may depend on which feature system you use to describe the consonants. Yatye (my data) has forms with na'` for proximal and mE for distal, another counterexample. Herb Stahlke Ball State University -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 2 Jan 92 14:48:29 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: Iconicity in demonstratives I never have much success e-mailing to BITNET, so I can't answer Martin Haase's query directly. Rather than translating those demonstratives, I'll number them 1, 2, 3, in order of increasing distance (viz. Japanese kore, sore, are) Tolomako (Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu): 1. ka/kaho 2. tuha 3. keni Those Tolomako demonstratives serve as adjective, pronouns, or adverbs, depending on the preceding particle and the construction, e.g. i ka "this" (pronoun); i ka na poe "this pig"; ne ka "here". Sakao (NE Espiritu Santo) has a rather richer system: A B C D E F G H 1. mam mEd ncn noed dad jEd wa wEd 2. Am mEr/kEr ni noer dAm dEr wAm wEr 3. mom mAr/kAr njo nAr dod dAr o wAr Those in columns A and B are adjectives, in C and D adverbs, in E and F locatives, and in G and H pronouns. Key for Sakao: A Hungarian a a IPA [a] o IPA [o] E IPA "epsilon" c its IPA mirror-image (mid open back rounded vowel) oe IPA [oe] (as a single letter: mid open front rounded vowel) d is the voiced apico-dental fricative -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Thu, 2 Jan 92 17:52:55 GMT From: David Adger Subject: Re: 2.886 Queries - iconicity in demonstratives Martin Haase notes > It seems > that such systems follow an iconic principle: typically, smaller > or greater distance from the speaker/hearer (the 'deictic point') > are indicated by closer or more open vowels. Scottish Gaelic has a three way distinction with the proximate form being "sinn" (near cardinal vowel 1), medial being "seo" (a lax form of cardinal 7 -ish) and distal "siad" which is pretty schwalike but slightly higher. David -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-4. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-5. Sun 05 Jan 1992. Lines: 74 Subject: 3.5 Hoosier Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 16:03:25 CST From: Dennis Baron Subject: hoosier 2) Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1991 09:30 EST From: Herb Stahlke <00HFSTAHLKE@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU> Subject: Hoosier -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 16:03:25 CST From: Dennis Baron Subject: hoosier Hoosier, according to the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), v. 2: `a hillbilly or rustic; an unmannerly or objectionable person.' it is chiefly Southern and South Midland. The usage label says it is "often derogatory". 1st cite is from 1831. Used to refer to folks from Connecticut, Tenn, N Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, ; it is also used by blacks as a pejorative for whites (=honkie); also: a logger who doesn't know his (sic) trade. I'm not clear on how the term settled into Indiana and narrowed to the point where it calls itself the Hoosier State. A 1905 cite lists the Hoosier Mfg. Co. of Newcastle Indiana, maker of whate came to be called Hoosier Cabinets. The tradename became a genereic to refer to these kitchen cabinets with built-in flour bins and sifters and a pullout workshelf (mine had carmel glass and a lift-up roll top.) -- debaron@uiuc.edu ____________ 217-333-2392 |:~~~~~~~~~~:| fax: 217-333-4321 Dennis Baron |: :| Dept. of English |: db :| Univ. of Illinois |: :| 608 S. Wright St. |:==========:| Urbana IL 61801 \\ """""""" \ \\ """""""" \ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1991 09:30 EST From: Herb Stahlke <00HFSTAHLKE@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU> Subject: Hoosier As to the source for "hoosier", the best I've heard is that it comes from the frontier days, when barroom fights got rough and occasionally resulted in small body parts lying on the floor that someone would pick up afterwards and ask "whose ear". The rest is sound change: palatalization, compounding, and laxing. Nothing like folk etymology made speculative. Herb Stahlke Ball State University -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-5. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-6. Sun 05 Jan 1992. Lines: 76 Subject: 3.6 Nominative With Infinitive Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Dec 91 11:53 CST From: "FRANK R. BRANDON" Subject: Re: 2.581 Queries: Washed, Reduplication, Case 2) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 91 17:58:08 GMT From: Ivan A Derzhanski Subject: 2.883 Nominative with Infinitive -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Dec 91 11:53 CST From: "FRANK R. BRANDON" Subject: Re: 2.581 Queries: Washed, Reduplication, Case RE: Case assignment in Kannada The Portuguese infinitive takes nominative case subjects, but it can also take agreement! Take a look at 'A Grammar of Portuguese Infinitives' by Mario Perini, UT-Austin PhD diss. 1974. These infinitives have suffered much scrutiny and you should be able to find more recent work. Antonio Carlos Quicoli, if you can contact him, could probably find a GB justification. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 91 17:58:08 GMT From: Ivan A Derzhanski Subject: 2.883 Nominative with Infinitive David Pesetsky (pesetsk@Athena.MIT.EDU) writes: > > HASPELMATH@philologie.fu-berlin.dbp.de writes: > > "A language I am working on, Lezgian (Nakho-Daghestanian), also shows > Nominative case in non-finite clauses, e.g. > > (2) Didedi-z gada-0 agaq'-na k'an-zawa. 'Mother wants the boy to arrive.' > mother-DAT boy-NOM arr.-NONFIN want-PRES" Let me add the Bulgarian counterpart: Tja iska toj da pristigne. `She wants him to arrive.' she-NOM want-Pres3Sg he-NOM to arrive-Pres3Sg where _da_ is a de-finitising particle. (There is no infinitive.) I'm using pronouns, because nouns in Bulgarian don't decline. > However, what > makes it clear that the nominative here is in the lower clause, as > opposed to the higher? It is my impression that in most Daghestanian languages the main verb in DAT/NOM constructions agrees in class and number with the NOM argument. If the nominative is in the higher clause, the form of the matrix verb should reflect that. > DAT/NOM configurations with 'want' are common (e.g. Russian), But not in control constructions. Ivan A Derzhanski -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-6. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-7. Sun 05 Jan 1992. Lines: 68 Subject: 3.7 Jobs Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 3 Jan 92 13:42:38 CST From: Gregory K. Iverson Subject: Chinese job at UWM 2) Date: Sat, 04 Jan 92 16:55:12 EST From: GCRUSSEL@ECUVM1.bitnet Subject: Distinguished Chair in Int'l Studies Open -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 3 Jan 92 13:42:38 CST From: Gregory K. Iverson Subject: Chinese job at UWM The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee invites applications for an anticipated tenure track appointment as Assistant Professor of Chinese to begin in the fall of 1992. Applicants should have the Ph.D. by summer of 1992 and some language instruction experience. Native or near-native proficiency in standard Chinese and English required to teach introductory and intermediate level language courses in an expanding program associated with the UW-Milwaukee and Marquette University joint International Studies Center, a DOE sponsored National Resource Center. Preference given to candidates with formal linguistics training and research interests. Send letter of application, vita, three letters of recommendation and one sample of your research to David D. Buck, Chair, Chinese Search Committee, 390 Holton Hall, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201 before February 15, 1992. Tel: 414-229- 3961. Women and minority candidates are especially invited to apply: AA/EOE. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sat, 04 Jan 92 16:55:12 EST From: GCRUSSEL@ECUVM1.bitnet Subject: Distinguished Chair in Int'l Studies Open ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY, invites applications for a one or two year appointment as the Thomas W. Rivers Distinguished Visiting Professor of International Studies to begin January or August 1993. Applicants should be distinguished scholars in global and/or multicultural studies. Duties include teaching at least one course, and offering lectures and workshops. Screening begins March 1, 1992 and will continue until the position is filled. Salary is commensurate with experience. Send let- ters of application, curriculum vitae, and names of three references to: Linda D. Wolfe, Rivers Distinguished Chair Search Committee, Office of International Studies, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858- 4353 (E-Mail: SOWOLFE@ECUVM1, FAX: 919-757-4363) An equal opportunity/ affirmative action university. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-7. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-8. Sun 05 Jan 1992. Lines: 183 Subject: 3.8 Are Languages Infinite? Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 12:08:51 EST Subject: Infinite languages From: Stavros Macrakis 2) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 13:40:40 EST From: "Bruce E. Nevin" Subject: is infinity relevant? -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 12:08:51 EST Subject: Infinite languages From: Stavros Macrakis Alexis Manaster Ramer says: ...the union of the set of even natural numbers with the set of primes which I happen to know is infinite although again not well-defined. (Perhaps it is not even a set, but whatever it is, it is infinite, because the set of natural numbers is infinite.) If this is not a well-defined set for (Manaster?) Ramer, he is using a radically different kind of set theory than anything used in mathematics. What does he have in mind? -s -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 13:40:40 EST From: "Bruce E. Nevin" Subject: is infinity relevant? In 2.885 of last Saturday 12/28 Alexis quite rightly points out that the ill-definedness of language does not vitiate arguments for infinitude of language based on properties of mathematical systems that have been correlated with language. I agree. I intended to say that it is the limited nature of the correlation between mathematical production systems and language that vitiates those arguments. I apparently didn't express this clearly enough (don't have my earlier post at hand). Thanks for bringing it out as follows: > While Bruce makes a very strong >case for languages being ill-defined, it seems to me that >the connection between this and the cardinality issue is >not what he assumes. >I think that people who dislike mathematical claims >about language . . . tend to argue . . . >that language is not a well-defined set and hence it cannot >have any such properties predicated of it. At the same time, >people who like formal linguistics tend to make precisely >the same connection and insist that languages are well- >defined precisely so that they can then predicate such >properties of them. >But as a matter of fact, there is no such connection. My aim in the discussion of language not being well defined, was to indicate some of the ways in which the generally assumed correlation fails. When we talk of infinite sets of sentences (or of word-sequences, or of morpheme-sequences, etc.) the topic is mathematical systems. Anything whatsoever could be (abstractly!) substituted in the proposed generative system in place of the words and morphemes, and the fact that the results of such substitution would no longer resemble language is of no consequence to the mathematical system. Conversely, when we study human discourse, such mathematical systems are useful tools, but we should no more confuse these tools with our topic, language, than a surveyor should identify theodolite and chain and records of measurement with the land surveyed. It is true that some linguists see in language only examples testifying for or against the aptness of one generative system or another, just as some real estate persons seem to live in a world of acreage and parcels rather than of stones and grasshoppers, but surely both are missing something essential. And by this I mean something essential for a science of language (or for real estate transactions, for that matter) and not anything that might be decried as romantic and sentimental--though to be sure it enters into that very definite human need as well. Those aspects of language that elude the net of the familiar mathematical constructs have sometimes been attributed to performance limitations, such as inability to keep track of nested iterations. Aside from these sorts of limitations, there are information-content grounds for a limit to the set of sentences. Vocabulary is finite. It does not take many iterations of a given operator word like "very" or "think that" or "be a fact" before they cease to contribute usefully to the information content of the sentence, and it does not take very many layers of piling up even different operator words ("I think that John said that it surprised Jane that . . .") before the relationship between the topmost and the relatively concrete referents at the bottom becomes so tenuous that the former make no clearly identifiable informational contribution. This is illustrated in relatively commonplace language use, where the usual gambit to make such complexities manageable is to zero the lower layers, leaving higher ones as nominalizations in the argument of the topmost--the opaque "abstract vocabulary" of which philosophers like Hegel and Dewey can be so fond. And we are only talking about a very few layers of iteration here! Now is this sort of limitation a matter of mere performance? I would suggest that it has to do directly with the character and function of language for error-free transmission of information. It is possible that the mechanisms in the human organism for controlling language (whatever they may be) *are* capable of generating an infinite set of morpheme sequences, in principle (ignoring "performance" limitations such as language change during the course of years during which one of the relatively longer utterances in the set was produced and the eventual death of the speaker--petits de'tails!). But this fact (if it be fact) is at best marginal and quite possibly irrelevant for that character, and for that function, and for any conceivable usefulness of linguistics. > someone should develop a >suitable nonstandard set theory Any characterization of language as a mathematical object must provide for essential characteristics of language including variation, change, conventionality, and multiplicity of standards (variable conformity to several disparate idealizations). Ill-definition of the model of language would follow from its (the model's) providing for these characteristics. Some sort of fuzzy set theory might emulate the ill definition, but only accidentally so, that is, without providing for these characteristics. I believe a good start is to be found in the theory of language and information developed by Harris. It does provide for these characteristics. It describes mathematical structures whose interpretation is precisely language, not an approximation with exceptions to be pruned out or accounted for by other means (if at all). The means by which it accounts for marginal cases at the growing/dying edges of a language are precisely those required to account for variation and change. Because of Harris's emphasis on semantics, he has advanced the study of subject-matter specialized sublanguages, especially sublanguages of science, something that has been somewhat developed in computational linguistics also, albeit there in ad hoc ways driven by pragmatic requirements of database query systems. The study of relations among sublanguages has scarcely been broached. Each sublanguage grammar is tightly constrained. Vocabulary items for one sublanguage (members of its "word classes") often turn out to be analyzable as phrases or other constructions in other sublanguages. Thus as Naomi Sager has shown, "the beating of the heart" is an unanalyzable "symptom" in a sublanguage of pharmacology, but is decomposable into separate words in the antecedent science of physiology. _The Form of Information in Science_ demonstrates change in a sublanguage of immunology coordinated with (and enabling) important changes taking place in the field at the time the analyzed sublanguage texts were written. It appears to me that we develop or "internalize" a multiplicity of intersecting grammars for sublanguages and for regional and social variation, and metagrammatical relations among these. A kind of multilingualism is the norm. The form of this might be something like Harris's notion of transfer grammar, which was developed for study of contrasted languages. Borrowing from one constituent grammar to others is commonplace but not at all without control. Perhaps this suggests the kind of account that is required. Note that the mechanisms for each sublanguage and each dialectal variant are capable in principle of generating an infinite number of sentences, to the extent that any of them is. But that imputed fact is much less interesting, and much less productive of research ideas, than the relations among them. Bruce Nevin bn@bbn.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-8. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-9. Sun 05 Jan 1992. Lines: 53 Subject: 3.9 Reduplication and Opacity Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 02 Jan 92 12:39:12 EST From: Geoffrey Russom Subject: Re: 2.881 Phonology: Opacity and Reduplication 2) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 08:18:09 EST From: peter@sug.org (Peter Salus) Subject: Re: 2.881 Phonology: Opacity and Reduplication -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 02 Jan 92 12:39:12 EST From: Geoffrey Russom Subject: Re: 2.881 Phonology: Opacity and Reduplication Some of Nathan's counterfeeding orders might be produced in "allegro speech," which would figure to involve very late rules imposed on "normal" phonetic output with no feeding back to the earlier rules that produced such output (counterarguments welcome). I am still puzzled, though, about why flapping is blocked absolutely in [sIntaetik] ("syntactic"), since flapping shows up in phrase phonology (e.g. "go to Hell" as "goDahEl," where "a" = schwa). Could you get a flap if you talked real fast, Geoff? -- Rick -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 08:18:09 EST From: peter@sug.org (Peter Salus) Subject: Re: 2.881 Phonology: Opacity and Reduplication While it seems a bit bizarre to be doing this, following a similar discussion to the one on reduplication here (in more permanent media), I wrote a brief piece on the amredita (redup. compound noun): The types of amredita, Orbis 14 (1965). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-9. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-10. Sun 05 Jan 1992. Lines: 137 Subject: 3.10 Queries: Smileys, Speech Recognition, Biblical, Is Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1992 19:32 IST From: Brenda Danet Subject: Query re smiley icons 2) Date: Fri, 3 Jan 92 11:47:53 EST From: cowan@uunet.UU.NET (John Cowan) Subject: Query: state of the art for computer speech recognition 3) Date: Sat, 4 Jan 92 18:00:56 EST From: molsen@astrid.ling.nwu.edu (Mari Olsen) Subject: Bibles on disk 4) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 91 22:06:38 CST From: GA5123@SIUCVMB.bitnet Subject: "the reason is, is" -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1992 19:32 IST From: Brenda Danet Subject: Query re smiley icons Hi, I'm a sociologist and communications researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I'm working on a paper on smiley icons in CMC (computer- mediated communication). I'd like to ask (1) Do you know about them? (2) Do you have files or collections of them? (3) Do you use them yourself? (4) If yes, why do you use them? If not, why not? (5) Do many people you know use them? I'll look forward to hearing from you. Thanks! :-) (of course!) Brenda Danet -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 3 Jan 92 11:47:53 EST From: cowan@uunet.UU.NET (John Cowan) Subject: Query: state of the art for computer speech recognition Can someone working in speech recognition please give me a short statement describing 1) the RESEARCH state of the art, and/or 2) the COMMERCIAL state of the art? In particular, is the following recognition job feasible at present: To recognize at the phoneme level connected speech, plus information about stress (two levels, primary and weak) and pause. The phoneme set contains 23 phonemes, roughly characterized by the following IPA symbols: [a] [epsilon] [i] [o] [u] [b] [long-S] [d] [f] [g] [script-z] [k] [l] [m] [n] [p] [r] [s] [t] [v] [x] [z] short [h] between vowels only If this is >not< feasible, consider the alternative of pauses between each word, where words are of arbitrary length. Please respond by e-mail to: cowan@snark.thyrsus.com (ignoring the bogus address inserted by the digesting software). -- cowan@snark.thyrsus.com ...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan e'osai ko sarji la lojban -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Sat, 4 Jan 92 18:00:56 EST From: molsen@astrid.ling.nwu.edu (Mari Olsen) Subject: Bibles on disk My dissertation proposal was just approved, and I just became aware of funds available from Northwestern, application for which is due January 15. The goal of my dissertation is to use the Koine Greek of the New Testament and its translations into English, Spanish and German to investigate the different ways the languages express motion and aspect (based on Talmy (1978, 1985, 1991). I have a Macintosh IIsi. I plan to get Gramcord for the Greek New Testament, and would be interested to hear from anyone who has used it with SoftPcC or Soft AT. I am also looking for other Greek electronic texts, such as the Greek Translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint). I do have information about Biblical texts available from the Center from Computer Analyis of Texts at Penn. I would like to get as many versions on-line for each English, Spanish and German as possible, preferably for the Macintosh. Gramcord has some English versions, CCAT has some, and there is at least one program (Quickverse, for DOS) with five on-screen simultaneously. So I especially need information about GERMAN AND SPANISH NEW TESTAMENTS on disk. Any recommendations with prices would be appreciated, prior to Jan.15, please. Thank you. Mari Broman Olsen Northwestern University - Dept. of Linguistics molsen@astrid.ling.nwu.edu molsen@casbah.acns.nwu.edu School: (708) 491-5667 Home: (708) 615-0342 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 91 22:06:38 CST From: GA5123@SIUCVMB.bitnet Subject: "the reason is, is" I see syntacticians doing so well with explaining "til death do we part" that I am inspired to ask for someone to make sense to me out of "is is". The reason is, is, I have no handle on this construction, which I hear all around me. The point is, is, it doesn't respond to any logic I can apply to it. My commas indicate the pauses that I hear; both is's seem to be stressed, especially the first one. Is "is is" limited geographically? I've heard it in Southern Illinois and from some Chicagoans; where else is "is is" used or not used? Last week I heard a mixed-tense "is is" -- though I can't remember whether it was "was is" or "is was". ----------------------------------- Lee Hartman ga5123@siucvmb.bitnet Department of Foreign Languages Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL 62901 U.S.A. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-10. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-11. Sun 05 Jan 1992. Lines: 121 Subject: 3.11 Orthography; German Spelling Checkers Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 03 Jan 92 00:09:12 EST From: Michael Covington Subject: Re: 3.2 Queries: Orthography, German Spell-Checkers, Basque 2) Date: Fri, 3 Jan 92 09:55:09 PST From: Rick Wojcik Subject: orthographies 3) Date: 3 Jan 1992 21:41:07 CST From: Subject: orthographies 4) Date: Fri, 03 Jan 92 10:11:29 EST From: Henry Kucera Subject: Re: 3.2 Queries: Orthography, German Spell-Checkers, Basque -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 03 Jan 92 00:09:12 EST From: Michael Covington Subject: Re: 3.2 Queries: Orthography, German Spell-Checkers, Basque > Are there writing systems in which the pronunciations of words are > entirely predictable from their written forms? How about Spanish? Stress is _always_ predictable by rule, or marked with an accent mark when not predictable. Modern Greek, too; stress is marked with accent marks. ------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 3 Jan 92 09:55:09 PST From: Rick Wojcik Subject: orthographies Regarding Mark Seidenberg's query on deep and shallow orthographies, I would recommend one of Baudouin de Courtenay's obscure essays: "The Influence of Language on World-View and Mood" (1929--translation in Stankiewicz's A Baudouin de Courtenay Anthology). Despite the title, this excerpt was about two types of orthography--"phonemography" and "morphemography". The two categories somewhat resemble Mark's distinction between "shallow" and "deep" orthographies. Phonemographic writing, however, seems more closely tied to shallow phonemic representation in Baudouin's conception--e.g. Sanskrit devanagari script, which represented the output of sandhi rules. Morph- emographic script represented words more as isolated pronunciations--e.g. the representation of final devoicing with voiced symbols in various European languages. So morphemographic script represented phonemic (physiophonetic) neutralizations for Baudouin, whereas phonemographic script disallowed phonemic neutralizations. English orthography was singled out for its rather extreme representation of historical pronunciations--which Baudouin mistakenly attributed to the influence of Old English. Anyway, despite the speculative nature of Baudouin's musings, his thoughts were among the earliest in the linguistic literature to classify relationships between phonemes and graphemes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: 3 Jan 1992 21:41:07 CST From: Subject: orthographies This is a reply to the query on orthographies. Spanish is said to have a perfec t unidirectional correspondence, in that given a written word there is only one way to pronounce it (even stress is marked). This is by and large true, leavin g aside a few Mexican place names, including the word M'exico. However, contras tive syllabification is not marked and here one finds some disagreement among s peakers (although most people are completely unaware of the fact that there is more than one possible pronunciation).There are two such cases: a/ Syllabificat ion of stop+liquid clusters across certain boundaries (e.g. sub.ra.yar or su.br a.yar. b/ Prevocalic high vocoids (e.g. via.je or vi.a.je). To Clarify: In sequences of two vocoids where the first one is high, most Spanish speakers have a contrast that is not reflected in the orthography. Thus, for many people a word such as -dueto- is trisyllabic [du.'e.to] and contrasts with, for instance, -duelo-, which is bisyllabic ['dwe.lo]. But in many cases there is disagreement among speakers on whether a particular word belongs to the V.V or the Glide+V group. This is not too surprising, since in fast speech the underlying contrast can be lost. The second case where the orthography is not completely explicit is in the syllabification of stop+liquid groups. Such groups are always tautosyllabic morpheme-internally. Across prefix and compound boundaries, on the other hand, they are usually heterosyllabic. Thus -sublime- [su.'bli.me] and -sublunar- [sub.lu.'nar] differ in the way the group /bl/ is syllabified. But speakers not always agree when the morphological structure of the word is only semi-transparent. Jose I. Hualde. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Fri, 03 Jan 92 10:11:29 EST From: Henry Kucera Subject: Re: 3.2 Queries: Orthography, German Spell-Checkers, Basque THIS IS WITH REFRENCE TO THE INQUIRY ABOUT GERMAN SPELLING CHERECKER : The latest press release I have from Microsoft says that Microsoft Word for Windows (TM) Version 2.0 and Microsoft Word for the Mac, version 5.0, have a fully integreated International CorrectSpell(TM) which (I guess optionally) includes 14 languages, among them German. I don't know the details since Word 5.0 for the Mac is not out yet and I am a Mac user (but the Windows version is available). I can't guarentee anything except that I have seen the prototype of the German version some time ago and it was rather good.It even did some useful things with compounds. Hope that helps (with the proviso that I am not pushing anything!). Henry Kucera -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-11. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-12. Sun 05 Jan 1992. Lines: 94 Subject: 3.12 Kwa Comparative Syntax Workshop Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 2 Jan 92 16:08:52 -0500 From: collins@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: Kwa Comparative Syntax Workshop -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 2 Jan 92 16:08:52 -0500 From: collins@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: Kwa Comparative Syntax Workshop Kwa Comparative Syntax Workshop MIT Dept. of Linguistics Cambridge, MA 02139 Location: Room 66-154 Friday January 24th, 1992 9:00 Coffee and Rolls 9:15 Introduction 9:30 Case in Ewe and Yoruba CHRIS COLLINS (MIT) 10:30 A Typology of Yoruba Nominalizations VICTOR MANFREDI (Boston Univ.) 11:30 Floating Tones and A'-Movement in Igbo HIROAKI TADA (MIT) 12:30 Lunch Break 1:30 Proper Argument Projection in Igbo and Yoruba JEFF GRUBER (MIT) 2:30 Subject Sharing and Predication Theory RICHARD CAMBPELL (Oakland University) 3:30 Coffee Break 3:45 The Semantic Restrictions on Serial Verb Constructions with "so" (take) in Fon MAXIME DE LA CRUZ 4:45 Yoruba Syntactic Dialectology OLASOPE OYELARAN (Univ. of Ife and NC Wesleyan College) Saturday January 25th, 1992 8:30 Coffee and Rolls 9:00 The Syntax of Predicate Clefts in Yoruba LAURENT DEKYDTSPOTTER (Cornell) 10:00 Evidence for an Injunctive Phrase in Syntax: Modal Particles in Fongbe AIME AVOLONTO (UQAM) 11:00 Null Object Constructions in Akan KOFI SAAH (Univ. of Ottawa) 12:00 Lunch Break 1:00 Verb Compounding in Igbo PETER IHIONU (MIT) 2:00 Focus Constructions in Ewe [and Akan] FELIX AMEKA (Leiden) 3:00 Coffee Break 3:15 Infl in Igbo and Yoruba ROSE-MARIE DECHAINE (UMASS, Amherst) 4:15 Null Operators in Serial Verb Constructions PAUL LAW (UQAM) and TONJES VEENSTRA (Univ. of Amsterdam) Talks will be 30 minutes long, followed by 25 minutes of commentary/open discussion. Informal housing arrangements are available on request. There will be a party Friday night. For further information contact: Chris Collins Victor Manfredi Dept. of Linguistics 511 Main Street MIT West Newbury, MA Cambridge, MA 02139 01985 collins@athena.mit.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-12. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-13. Sun 05 Jan 1992. Lines: 168 Subject: 3.13 X and a Half; S --> NP NP Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1991 20:06 MDT From: HERO@yvax.byu.edu Subject: Re: 2.884 X and a Half 2) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 91 17:37:56 GMT From: Ivan A Derzhanski Subject: 2.884 X and a Half 3) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 10:13:11 +0100 From: tania@coli.uni-sb.de (Tania Avgustinova) Subject: Re: 2.884 X and a Half 4) Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1992 11:43 EST From: Robert D Hoberman Subject: a ... and a half 5) Date: Thu, 2 Jan 92 14:15:56 EST From: cowan@uunet.UU.NET (John Cowan) Subject: S -> NP NP -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1991 20:06 MDT From: HERO@yvax.byu.edu Subject: Re: 2.884 X and a Half In her response to the "a(n) X and a half" query, Karen Kay thought that the meaning of such an expression is usually not a positive one, but I have heard people use it both ways. Just recently I came across an example in print where the meaning is quite positive: That was a bath and a half, I can tell you. It soaked a lot of misery away. It is found in Power of One (an excellent read, by the way), p.144, paperback published by Random House. The author Bryce Courtenay was born in South Africa, educated there and in England, and later emigrated to Australia. O.S. Her ECS, Inc. hero@byuvax -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 91 17:37:56 GMT From: Ivan A Derzhanski Subject: 2.884 X and a Half In colloquial Bulgarian the expression _X i polovina_ `X and a half' is quite common. It means `an outstanding X' (outstanding among the other Xs, by whatever qualities are characteristic for X). The Croatian example translates directly as _momiche i polovina_ `an excellent girl'. Another very typical example is _glupak i polovina_ `a fool and a half', ie `a hopeless fool'. Karen Kay (LL23@NEMOMUS.bitnet) writes: > I think in English the meaning is not a positive one--my students today, > in fact, referred to my final as a test-and-a-half. _Izpit i polovina_ would mean a well designed exam (one that really tells you how much your students know). > I've heard people refer to a bad day as a day-and-a-half. _Den i polovina_, on the other hand, can only have its literal meaning. Ivan A Derzhanski -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 10:13:11 +0100 From: tania@coli.uni-sb.de (Tania Avgustinova) Subject: Re: 2.884 X and a Half In Bulgarian, it is very common to use such an expression. It is limited, however, to nominatives only and could express both positive and negative qualification in accordance with the semantics of the noun: "momiche i polovina" ('a girl and a half', meaning a very beautiful girl) "glupak i polovina" ('a fool and a half', meaning a very stupid man) "uchen i polovina" ('a scientist (substantivized adjective) and a half', meaning a very good scientist) Tania Tania Avgustinova Computerlinguistik Universitaet des Saarlandes W-6600 Saarbruecken 11 phone: (0049) (681) 302 4504 e-mail: tania@coli.uni-sb.de -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1992 11:43 EST From: Robert D Hoberman Subject: a ... and a half State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook, NY 11794-3355 Robert Hoberman Comparative Studies Dept. 516-632-7462, -7460 02-Jan-1992 11:26am EST FROM: RHOBERMAN TO: Remote Addressee ( _linguist@tamvm1.tamu.edu) SUBJECT: "a ... and a half" This is in response to Wayles Browne's inquiry about expressions like "a ... and a half". THE WORLD DICTIONARY OF HEBREW SLANG, by Dahn Ben-Amotz and Netiva Ben-Yehuda (1973) lists the following on p. 77, under the entry /vaxeci/ 'and a half' (in my translation from Hebrew): "VAXECI ['and a half'], an addition to a noun or adjective, which emphasizes the quantity: and even more so, more than perfect, more than the maximum. STUPID AND A HALF. MOYSHE AND A HALF (very tall). I'M RIGHT AND A HALF. A: HE CAME OUT OF IT EXHAUSTED, RIGHT? B: WHAT DO YOU MEAN EXHAUSTED; EXHAUSTED AND A HALF! WE DIDN'T SEE A SINGLE LIVING BEING, EXCEPT FOR TWO AND A HALF POOR DONKEYS." "Areal" connections between Israeli Hebrew and the Serbo-Croation that Wayles Browne cited are provided by Yiddish, Ladino, and Turkish, but I don't know whether any of these have the construction. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Thu, 2 Jan 92 14:15:56 EST From: cowan@uunet.UU.NET (John Cowan) Subject: S -> NP NP In >Hamlet< there appears the expression "her privates we", I believe. (I don't have a copy handy). -- cowan@snark.thyrsus.com ...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan e'osai ko sarji la lojban -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-13. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-14. Sun 05 Jan 1992. Lines: 91 Subject: 3.14 Demonstratives Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 03 Jan 92 10:37:24 EST From: elc9j@prime.acc.Virginia.EDU Subject: 3.4 Demonstratives 2) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 9:20:44 EST From: bert peeters Subject: 2.886 Iconicity deictics / demonstratives -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 03 Jan 92 10:37:24 EST From: elc9j@prime.acc.Virginia.EDU Subject: 3.4 Demonstratives Actually, only one of the Swahili demonstratives cited by Herb Stahlke as a possible counterexample to the iconicity principle has an inherent vowel. The demonstratives are h- + reduplicated vowel of concordial noun class prefix followed by the concordial prefix (=proximal), h- + the above + relativizing -o suffix (medial distance or afore- mentioned), and concordial prefix + -le (=distal). The vowels of hii, huu, etc. are those of the respective concordial prefixes of noun classes, not part of the deictics themselves. If the suffixed -o of the medial demonstrative were counted as part of the deictic, I guess Swahili would be a counterexample in that the medial and distal deictics would have vowels of equal degrees of closeness (o and e respectively), but that depends whether the iconicity hypothesis is making a claim that increasing distance MUST correspond with decreasing vowel closeness, as opposed to equal-or-greater closeness. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 9:20:44 EST From: bert peeters Subject: 2.886 Iconicity deictics / demonstratives > Date: Wed, 18 Dec 91 22:28:09 MEZ > From: Martin Haase > Iconicity in demonstratives / local adverbs > > In many languages deictic local adverbs ('here, there') form a > system, often related to the system of demonstratives. It seems > that such systems follow an iconic principle: typically, smaller > or greater distance from the speaker/hearer (the 'deictic point') > are indicated by closer or more open vowels. > > In order not to take English, here is French as an example for a > better known language: _ici_ 'here', _la_ 'there' (similarly: the > corresponding demonstratives: _ceci_ 'this', _cela_ 'that' etc.). ... and the corresponding postnominal particles -ci and -la` as in ce livre-ci 'this book [here]' ce livre-la` 'that book [there]' In French, demonstrative adjectives are indifferentiated wrt the deictic point, and the recourse to particles is necessary to prevent ambiguity. I can also confirm the existence of the iconic principle in the case of Dutch: hier - daar 'here - there' dit - dat 'this - that' (pronouns and neuter adjectives) but it does not work in the case of masculine and feminine demonstrative adjectives: deze jongen - deze dame 'this boy - this lady' die jongen - die dame 'that boy - that lady' --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Bert Peeters Tel: +61 02 202344 Department of Modern Languages 002 202344 University of Tasmania at Hobart Fax: 002 207813 GPO Box 252C Bert.Peeters@modlang.utas.edu.au Hobart TAS 7001 Australia -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-14. ________________________________________________________________ staff (all 2 1/2 of us) will be in Philadelphia for the convention of the Linguistic Society of America. We'll post the messages we have before we leave, but submissions arriving after today will not go out until next week. We hope to see some of you at LSA. And may you all have a very happy 1992! --Anthony, Helen, & Brian ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-15. Tue 07 Jan 1992. Lines: 158 Subject: 3.15 Last Posting on Hoosier Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sun, 05 Jan 1992 21:51:09 PST From: "Don W." Subject: Hoosier = Hoser? 2) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 06:31:32 EST From: susann@starbase.MITRE.ORG (Susann Luperfoy) Subject: 3.5 Hoosier 3) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 09:07:47 EST From: "Bruce E. Nevin" Subject: Hoosier 4) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1992 11:37:25 PST From: Geoffrey Nunberg Subject: hoosier -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sun, 05 Jan 1992 21:51:09 PST From: "Don W." Subject: Hoosier = Hoser? Might "Hoosier" be related to "hoser," as used by the MacKenzie brothers in their film _Strange Brew_? They seemed to use it in the same sense as described here earlier... Don W. DonWebb@CSUS.EDU -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 06:31:32 EST From: susann@starbase.MITRE.ORG (Susann Luperfoy) Subject: 3.5 Hoosier Someone from Bloomington gave me a similar explanation. Indiana rural folk lived in small cabins and kept to themselves a lot (like proto-couch potatoes). When someone came to their door they would shout "Whose 'er." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 09:07:47 EST From: "Bruce E. Nevin" Subject: Hoosier Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable says: Probably from _hoosier_, a mountaineer, an extension of _hoojee_, _hoojin_, a dirty person or tramp. The south of Indiana was mainly settled by Kentucky mountaineers. Any info on a Native American source for hoojee or hoojin? An friend of Czech extraction told me (30 years ago) that she thought "honkie" was from Slavic "hunky" (her pronunciation) meaning something like today's "hunk" (as in "Isn't he a gorgeous hunk!)--i.e. strong, virile man, borrowed into Black English in Chicago from probably Polish, there turned around as an epithet for white folks in general. Thence also honky-tonk? Bruce Nevin bn@bbn.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1992 11:37:25 PST From: Geoffrey Nunberg Subject: hoosier Well since you mention it, the matter of "hoosier" was in the news a couple of years ago, and I did a piece about it on the NPR program "Fresh Air." If you are sitting comfortably I will repeat it here. The great Hoosier hubbub began in March of 1987, when New York Senator Alfonse D'Amato predicted on the Senate floor that his alma mater Syracuse would beat the Indiana Hoosiers handily in the NCAA basketball finals the following day. He went on to note that Merriam Webster's Third International Dictionary defined hoosier not only as "a native of Indiana," but as an "an ignorant rustic." But Bobby Knight's Hoosiers squeaked out the game by one point, behind Steve Alford's outside shooting. And the next day Indiana's junior senator Dan Quayle took the floor to congratulate the Indiana team, and also to propose that the Senate adopt a nonbinding resolution that would redefine the word hoosier: "Be it resolved that a Hoosier is someone who is smart resourceful, skillful, a winner and brilliant." All of this sounds like routine Senatorial high jinks, but Quayle was apparently in earnest. According to a story that appeared in the Washington Post a few weeks ago, he wrote to William Llewellyn, the president of the Merriam-Webster Company, and asked that the offending definition of Hoosier be removed and that his own definition be substituted in its place. Llewellyn explained that dictionaries were in the business of reporting the way words are actually used, and that if Quayle could persuade the rest of America to take up the new use of the word, Merriam-Webster would be delighted to include it in the next edition. When last heard from, Quayle's office was promising to continue the battle, and was threatening to ban Webster's Third from its bookshelves. As it happens, Midwesterners have been using the word hoosier as a pejorative since the nineteenth century. According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Elaine Viets, in Missouri a hoosier is "a low-life redneck," somebody you can recognize because, as she puts it, "they have a car on concrete blocks in their front yard and are likely to have shot their wife, who may also be their sister." The best guess is that hoosier is derived from a British dialect word hoozer, meaning "big or large." As early as 1832, the word was used in America to refer to a large or burly person; from there it was a short step to meaning "a big rustic, a galoot." This is probably what led to its use to refer to Indianans. In the 19th century there seems to have been a disparaging nickname for the inhabitants of just about every state. Texans were called Beetheads, Alabamans were Lizards, Nebraskans were Bug-eaters, South Carolinans were Weasels, and Pennsylvanians were Leatherheads. If it's any consolation to Senator Quayle, in fact, he could point out to Ms Viets that folks from Missouri used to be known by the endearing name of Pukes. Originally, these names may have been applied by the inhabitants of neighboring states, but most of them were adopted by the natives in a spirit of rough frontier humor: "You bet I'm a Bug-eater, son, and proud of it." Nowadays, only a few of these nicknames survive, usually for the sports teams of state universities: Tarheels, Buckeyes, and so on. But these aren't fighting words anymore. Apart from Hoosier, the only nicknames that still have any pejorative associations are Okies and Georgia Crackers. (Some people say that Cracker is a shortened version of corn-cracker, and others that it's from an old slang word for "liar." Both could be right.) The rest of the nicknames seem to have fallen victim to fastidiousness or to chamber-of-commerce boosterism. When you're touting the superior educational levels of your labor force in an effort to win a Supercollider for your state, you're not going to refer to them as "beetheads." Then too, the ease of mobility and homogenized culture of modern America have tended to smoothe out all these regional identities. C. Vann Woodard notwithstanding, we've come quite a way since the days when Thomas Jefferson could refer to Virgina as "my country." You come to think there are no differences at all anymore: Buckeyes, Lizards, Weasels, Leatherheads, and all the rest of us, all in sitting around in our Air Jordans, eating frozen yoghurt, watching "Entertainment Tonight." Except there's something different about the Hoosiers when they get to the three-point line. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-15. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-16. Tue 07 Jan 1992. Lines: 219 Subject: 3.16 Conferences: Semantics; Pragmatics Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 14:57:23 EST From: salt@ling.ohio-state.edu Subject: Conference: Semantics and Linguistic Theory 2) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 09:06:43 EST From: ipra@ccu.uia.ac.be Subject: 4th INTERNATIONAL PRAGMATICS CONFERENCE -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 14:57:23 EST From: salt@ling.ohio-state.edu Subject: Conference: Semantics and Linguistic Theory The deadline for submission of abstracts for SALT II (Semantics and Linguistic Theory) is 15 January 1992. Submission of abstracts via electronic mail is encouraged, but by no means required. Plain ASCII files without embedded formatting commands are perfectly appropriate. E-mail submissions in other formats should be arranged by contacting the organizing committee in advance of the submission deadline. For a copy of the call for papers and other conference details, send mail to salt@ling.ohio-state.edu. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 09:06:43 EST From: ipra@ccu.uia.ac.be Subject: 4th INTERNATIONAL PRAGMATICS CONFERENCE 4th INTERNATIONAL PRAGMATICS CONFERENCE Kobe, Japan July 25-30, 1993 Local Organizing Committee: Chairman: Paul O. TAKAHARA, Kobe City University of Foreign Studies Members: Masayoshi SHIBATANI, Kobe University; Seisaku KAWAKAMI, Osaka University; Sachiko IDE, Japan Women's University; Yoshihiro NISHIMITSU, Kobe University; Masa-aki YAMANASHI, Kyoto University; Kensei SUGAYAMA, Kobe City University of Foreign Studies IPrA Conference Committee: Michel de FORNEL, CNET-CNRS; Bruce FRASER, Boston University; David GOOD, Cambridge University; John GUMPERZ, University of California at Berkeley; Marjorie HARNESS GOODWIN, University of South Carolina; Ferenc KIEFER, Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Chungmin LEE, Seoul University; Sandra THOMPSON, University of California at Santa Barbara; Amparo TUSON, Autonomous University of Barcelona; Jef VERSCHUEREN, University of Antwerp CONFERENCE TOPICS Whereas the 1st International Pragmatics Conference (Viareggio, 1985) was centered around a metatheoretical question concerning the status of pragmatics as a potentially coherent, though interdisciplinary, perspective on language and communication, the 2nd IPC (Antwerp, 1987) addressed the more practical issue of intercultural and international communication. The 3rd IPC (Barcelona, 1990) returned to a more theoretical question: the interdependence of social and cognitive approaches to language use. For the 4th International Pragmatics Conference, a special topic has been chosen which combines the practical concerns addressed in Antwerp with the theoretical question posed in Barcelona. That special topic is: Cognition and Communication in an Intercultural Context This special topic may be approached theoretically, with reference to session topics 1.1 to 1.3, or in terms of specific areas of application (2.1. to 2.5.): 1. Theoretical issues 1.1. The role of cognitive styles in communication 1.2. Communicative strategies and cognitive processing 1.3. The establishment and maintenance of cultural identity 2. Areas of application 2.1. Foreign language teaching 2.2. Natural language processing 2.3. Language policy 2.4. International communication and politics 2.5. English as an international language In addition to the special topic sessions, there will be a number of events representing topics of general interest. In principle, any issue approached from a pragmatic angle (where pragmatics is seen in its broadest sense as the cognitive, social and cultural study of language and communication) may be dealt with. However, there will be a clear division of labor between the different types of events. EVENT TYPES Plenary lectures: Five prominent scholars will be invited to give plenary lectures on a diversity of topics of general interest. (The plenary speakers will be announced in the first circular to be distributed in March 1992, as well as in the March issue of Pragmatics.) Lecture sessions: Regular lecture sessions (20-minute presentations followed by 5 minutes for discussion and allowing 5 minutes for switching between sessions) will be reserved for papers which are directly related to the special topic of the conference or any of its subtopics. The Conference Committee reserves the right to place individually submitted abstracts, the quality of which would normally make them acceptable for presentation, in poster sessions (as opposed to the lecture sessions) on the basis of their relative distance from the special topic. Poster sessions: Poster sessions, for which ample time will be reserved in order to guarantee good opportunities for discussion, will be largely devoted to papers of general interest. Individually submitted papers which are less directly related to the special topic will be placed here, though it is also possible to submit papers directly for the poster sessions. (All abstracts, including those for poster presentations, will be printed in the set of abstracts provided at the beginning of the conference!) Panels: Panels take the form of a series of closely related lectures (with the same duration as for the lecture sessions) on a specific topic -- which does not have to be directly related to the special topic of the conference -- followed by a 30-minute slot during which one or more discussants present a 15-minute reaction to the papers and 15 minutes are reserved for general discussion. The organizers of such panels are responsible for submitting the complete set of abstracts before the regular abstracts deadline and, in case of acceptance, for the further preparation of the event (which will involve, for instance, making sure that the discussants receive drafts of the complete papers before the conference). ABSTRACTS Five copies of your abstract (or of the set of abstracts in case you are proposing a panel) should be sent before November 1st 1992 to the following address: IPrA Secretariat P.O. Box 33 B-2018 Antwerp 11 Belgium All abstracts should contain (in this order): Full name, full address, title of your presentation, and a one-page summary of your topic, approach, and major conclusions. If sent by telefax (either to number +32 3 8202244 or number +32 3 2305574) or by e-mail (ipra@ccu.uia.ac.be), they should be followed by a hard copy, the print quality of which is suitable for publication in the set of abstracts. REGISTRATION Registration information will be included in the first circular to be distributed in March 1992, as well as in the March issue of Pragmatics. Prospective participants will have to register directly with the local Conference Secretariat at the following address: 4th International Pragmatics Conference Secretariat, c/o Kensei Sugayama Department of English Kobe City University of Foreign Studies 9-1, Gakuen-higashi-machi Nishi-ku, Kobe 651-21 Japan tel. +81 78 794 8111 ext. 8179 fax +81 78 792 9020 The preregistration fee for IPrA members will be approximately 15,000.-- (i.e. US $ 117.-- at the current exchange rate [US $ 1 = 128.-- on Dec. 20th 1991]). Copies of the first circular may be requested either from the IPrA Secretariat or from the Conference Secretariat. TRAVEL AND ACCOMMODATION Negotiations have started to secure favorable rates for air travel from Europe and North America. Hotel accommodation will be available from approximately US $ 60.-- per night (single room average). Kobe is conveniently located for excursions to Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-16. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-17. Tue 07 Jan 1992. Lines: 123 Subject: 3.17 Summary of Macintosh Tree-Drawing Utilities Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 16:13:26 PST From: kumashi@bend.UCSD.EDU (Toshiyuki Kumashiro) Subject: A Summary of Macintosh Tree-Drawing Utilities -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 16:13:26 PST From: kumashi@bend.UCSD.EDU (Toshiyuki Kumashiro) Subject: A Summary of Macintosh Tree-Drawing Utilities About a month ago, I posted a query on Macintosh utility programs which help you draw tree diagrams. I thank all those who responded to it and apologize for being late for posting this summary to the linguist. It looks like there is no dedicated tree-drawing program, and tree drawing is only a "feautre" of a more comprehensive package. 1. Expressionist Expressionist is an equation-writing program, but it also lets you draw trees. I could only test the very old demo version (1.0), which does not seem to be capable of drawing nonbranching nodes (e.g., putting the label "NP" above "dog" is not possible). But the most recent version must be more usable. It also lets you export formulas in the Word or TeX format. Allan Bonadio Associates 814 Castro Street #60 San Francisco, CA 94114 (415) 282-5864 Price: Version 2.03 (1988) costs $129.95 2. AV Parser v. 1.3 AV Parser is a parser program based on Macintosh Allegro Common Lisp version 1.3.2. Even though the program runs rather slow, it would be very useful if you need to put features, not just nodes labels, in the diagram. It comes with examples for "LEG-Style Grammar" and "Categorical- Style Grammar". An excerpt from the abstract file follows: "The AV Parser is a syntactic chart-based parser for attribute-value or 'pure unification' grammars of the kind described in Stuart Shieber's An Introduction to Unification-based Approaches to Grammar and Gazdar and MellishUs Natural Language Processing books. It is written in Apple's Macintosh CommonLisp 1.3.2, and while the parser engine will run in any CommonLisp, the graphics use the Mac interface. The complete application will run on any Mac Plus with a hard disk and system 6.0.4 or better, but a MacJII with a large screen and at least 2Mb is recommended. It is intended primarily for teaching and research purposes, and comes with several sample grammars that demonstrate some of the variety of syntactic approaches that can be formalized and implemented in an attribute-value framework. The parser has tree and matrix drawing capabilities, and the graphics can be copied into other MacIntosh applications in the usual manner. The tree-drawing capabilities and the LALR(1) parser-generator (which allows customization of the grammar format) in this program are also useful own their own. The source code is available via anonymous ftp from cambridge.apple.com, and a stand- alone application with source code is available from the author (800k diskette and return SASE requested)." The source code, which requires MACL to run, is available by anonymous FTP from: cambridge.apple.com (/pub/MACL/CONTRIB/av-parser.hqx) The stand-alone version is available directly from the author (send him a blank 800k disk and SASE): Mark Johnson Cognitive Sciences, Box 1978 Brown University Providence, RI 02912 (401) 863-1670 Fax (401) 863-2255 Email: mj@cs.brown.edu 3. Syntax WorkBench This is a tool for teaching transformational grammar developed by Peter Sells and others at Stanford Currently only the demo version is available, but the commercial version will be available through CSLI. One nice feature of this program is its ability to let you change the vertical and horizontal spacing between nodes. I wish the program let you also specify the font used in the tree (currently the Geneva font is used and if you want to use a different font, you have to first export files to a drawing program). To request a demo copy send e-mail to: sells@csli.stanford.edu 4. An LPA Prolog Program Steve Harlow developed an LPA Prolog program which "will take a bracketed string (represented as a Prolog list) and will draw a nicely proportioned tree which can be exported via the clipboard to other applications." In order to run the program, however, you need a copy of LPA Prolog, which costs you about 100 pounds in Great Britain (the program is also available from an American company, but I have no information on pricing). Steve can send you a binhexed and stuffit file via e-mail: SJH1@vaxa.york.ac.uk 5. Others Bob binnick is in the process of developing a package of syntactic tools with the tree-drawing capability which help students learn syntax. If you want to be added to his mailing list, send e-mail to binnick@lake.scar.utoronto.ca. Michel Eytan mentioned two programs which are rather old, but still functional: "Hands on" by John Glenn, Dartmouth (Aug. 84) and "Think'n Time" from Mainstay (87). For further information send email to me@suzuka.u- strasbg.fr. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-17. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-18. Tue 07 Jan 1992. Lines: 215 Subject: 3.18 Is, is Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 06 Jan 92 00:43:05 EST From: Ellen Prince Subject: Re: 3.10 Queries: Is is 2) Date: Mon, 06 Jan 92 00:52:39 EST From: Alan Huffman Subject: Re: 3.10 Queries: Smileys, Speech Recognition, Biblical, Is 3) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 15:01:15 CST From: Mitchell Marks Subject: is is 4) Date: Mon, 06 Jan 92 16:40:15 EST From: Paul Deane Subject: The reason is, is 5) Date: Mon, 06 Jan 92 19:31:27 EST From: Michael Morse Subject: Re: 3.10 Queries: Smileys, Speech Recognition, Biblical, Is 6) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1992 12:08-0500 From: Allan C. Wechsler Subject: 3.10 Is is. 7) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 10:24:28 -0800 From: tshannon@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: Re: 3.10 Queries: Smileys, Speech Recognition, Biblical, Is -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 06 Jan 92 00:43:05 EST From: Ellen Prince Subject: Re: 3.10 Queries: Is is >From: GA5123@SIUCVMB.bitnet >Subject: "the reason is, is" > > I see syntacticians doing so well with explaining "til death do we part" >that I am inspired to ask for someone to make sense to me out of "is is". >The reason is, is, I have no handle on this construction, which I hear >all around me. The point is, is, it doesn't respond to any logic I can >apply to it. My commas indicate the pauses that I hear; both is's seem > to be stressed, especially the first one. > Is "is is" limited geographically? I've heard it in Southern Illinois >and from some Chicagoans; where else is "is is" used or not used? > Last week I heard a mixed-tense "is is" -- though I can't remember >whether it was "was is" or "is was". charlotte linde was looking at these things back in the mid '70s. i don't have a current address for her, but i'm sure someone out there does. as i recall, she was looking at the distribution and function. syntactically, i don't think there's all that much to be said except that the string gets sort of glommed together and behaves like a subject, at least like a wh-clause in a wh-cleft--what the reason is is that... > the reason is is that... but maybe i'm being simplistic. i don't think it's limited geographically, at least not in the u.s., tho it may very well be limited by age and class. my favorite one is 'the thing of it is is...', which really tests the limits of compositional semantics (and which in fact doesn't have a common wh-cleft correlate). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 06 Jan 92 00:52:39 EST From: Alan Huffman Subject: Re: 3.10 Queries: Smileys, Speech Recognition, Biblical, Is Re: "The reason is is". This clearly originated with "What the reason is, is that..." What the reason is, that "what" got deleted, is another question. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 15:01:15 CST From: Mitchell Marks Subject: is is >>>>> "LH" == Lee Hartman writes: LH> The reason is, is, I have no handle on this construction, which I LH> hear all around me. The point is, is, it doesn't respond to any LH> logic I can apply to it. Are you sure you've heard examples real close to this? What I hear (and say) is more like this: What the reason is, is that I have no handle on this ... What the point is, is that it doesn't respond ... In these, you could call the initial part from "What" to the comma an NP. That NP is the subject of the outermost sentence, and the second "is" is the verb of the outermost sentence. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Mon, 06 Jan 92 16:40:15 EST From: Paul Deane Subject: The reason is, is The is, is construction was the topic of a paper by David Tuggy at the 1989 International Cognitive Linguistics Conference. I don't know if he's on the net--if he is, I hope he'll join the discussion. His thesis, as I recall it, is that the construction is an example of what is, originally, an ungrammatical construction being made acceptable by the converging influence of a variety of similar patterns, including both grammatical patterns and common speech errors. These include (inter alia) superficially similar patterns such as "The reason for this is that X" (without double is), "What John is, is X" (with normal grammatical reasons for the doubling), and speech error patterns involving hesitation (what in another context neuro- pathologists term perseveration) in which the speaker repeats the low-information-content verb while searching for the right completion. However, he argues that the pattern has become entrenched enough to be a construction in its own right, with special pragmatic functions. I don't recall the details enough to say much more--David, are you out there? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Mon, 06 Jan 92 19:31:27 EST From: Michael Morse Subject: Re: 3.10 Queries: Smileys, Speech Recognition, Biblical, Is I grew up in New Jersey in the fifties, and `is is' was a common locution. I remember it as a contraction of "See, the reason he said that is, is that he ..."; in the speaker's mind, apparently, the first `is' "modifies" the first clause, establishing its existence; the second re-emphasizes the entire point by separately stressing a pseudo-separate "existence" of the second phrase; in short, a standard case of the re-duplication of which we have heard so much of late, with the added wrinkle of turning on a grammatically spurious phrase distinction.. MW Morse# N3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1992 12:08-0500 From: Allan C. Wechsler Subject: 3.10 Is is. Lee Hartman reports "The point is, is ...". I have never heard this, but I have heard a "doubled" copula like that resulting from a relative. Here's a set of data that might shed some light. (1a) Mario eats cucumber salad. (1b) (That's not what Mario eats;) What Mario eats is cucumber salad. (2a) Shota is a fool. (2b) (That's not what Shota is;) What Shota is is a fool. (3a) The point is that gravity is nonlinear. (3b) (That's not what the point is;) What the point is is that gravity is nonlinear. I imagine that (diachronically) the relativizer could be dropped, and the doubled copula reanalyzed as some sort of emphatic. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 10:24:28 -0800 From: tshannon@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: Re: 3.10 Queries: Smileys, Speech Recognition, Biblical, Is Re Lee Hartman's query on "The thing is, is": if memory serves me well, David Tuggy gave a paper at last summer's 2nd Intl Cog Grammar Conf at UCSC on just this topic. You could contact him for more at: David H. Tuggy SIL--Box 9887 CRB Tucson, AZ 85738-0987 I too have heard this construction a fair amount out west here. The other day I also heard a strange version on one of the bowl games: "The reason being, is that..." It seems to me to be particularly common in the phrase "The thing is, is that..." My impression is that the first part "The x is," is becoming or has become simply a gambit for introducing a piece of info, no doubt due to the fact that it's often used that way and a pause for reflection is fre- quently made after it & before the new focal info appears ("The thing is ... we just don't know the answer."). As such, the copula itself (the first one) appears to be losing its original meaning and thus needs reinforcement. Moreover, to pick up after the pause with just "that" (??"The thing is ... that we just don't know the answer.") sounds a bit weird, since the pause seems to break up the subordination and perhaps needs the repeated copula to reaffirm it, though this is by no means absolute. Note also that "... is that" is also a common way of picking up an introduction to new material, so we may have a blend of these two here (e.g. "The problem that I always have with these things is that ..."). Multicausality here? Undoubtedly David will more (and better!) things to say here. tom shannon -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-18. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-19. Tue 07 Jan 1992. Lines: 109 Subject: 3.19 Queries: Infants, Pro-Drop, On-Line Spanish Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1992 21:36 +1100 From: RAY CATTELL Subject: INFANT FEEDING AND SPEECH 2) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 08:54:56 EST From: nuyts@ccu.uia.ac.be Subject: pronouns and pro-drop languages 3) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 02:55:59 MST From: Subject: on-line Spanish resources -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1992 21:36 +1100 From: RAY CATTELL Subject: INFANT FEEDING AND SPEECH One of my Ph.D. students, Alison Lomax, is planning to research the question of whether there is a link between difficulties experienced by infants in feeding and subsequent difficulties in acquiring speech. We would be very grateful if anyone could provide references to other studies that have been made in that area, and also to any standardized tests that exist for assessing either feeding difficulties or early speech difficulties. As Alison does not have an E-mail address, would you please address any responses to me. lnnrc@CC.NEWCASTLE.edu.au Ray Cattell University of Newcastle NSW 2308 Australia -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 08:54:56 EST From: nuyts@ccu.uia.ac.be Subject: pronouns and pro-drop languages A colleague of mine is interested in finding references to literature on the conditions of occurrence of subject pronouns in pro-drop languages (such as Italian). She is particularly interested in pragmatic or functional approaches. Would anyone have any suggestions? Thanks on her behalf. Jan Nuyts nuyts@ccu.uia.ac.be -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 02:55:59 MST From: Subject: on-line Spanish resources The Computing Research Laboratory at New Mexico State University, as part of a research project in Natural Language Processing, is looking for information about the existence and possibility of acquisition of the following on-line resources: * Spanish monolingual texts (preferably in the area of finance) * Spanish-English bilingual text corpora * Spanish monolingual dictionaries * Spanish-English bilingual dictionaries * Spanish spell checkers * Spanish morphological analyzers * Spanish and/or Spanish-English term banks These resources would be used for research purposes only. We would like to obtain them free of charge, but if the price is right, we might be able to pay. Please send your responses directly to: shelmrei@nmsu.edu We will summarize the responses to the list on 1/20/92, so please respond by that date. Thanks in advance. Stephen Helmreich Computing Research Laboratory PO Box 30001/3CRL New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM 88003 USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-19. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-20. Tue 07 Jan 1992. Lines: 79 Subject: 3.20 FYI: Demo MacProlog Available; Call for Papers Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 10:36:02 GMT From: Ron "W." "P." Brasington Subject: MacProlog demo availability 2) Date: Tue, 07 Jan 92 16:04:30 SET From: Pier Marco Bertinetto Subject: Call for papers "Rivista di Linguistica" -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 10:36:02 GMT From: Ron "W." "P." Brasington Subject: MacProlog demo availability This is firstly a response to a query from a colleague in Holland whose mail unfortunately went down the tubes. It may also be useful to others who want to try out the interface to UPSID which I posted recently. Demo versions of LPA MacProlog are available from (at least): (1) relay.cs.toronto.edu (128.100.3.6) anonymous FTP in /pub/dgp/TPM1.11.sit.hqx along with other software (2) uk.ac.lancs.pdsoft (via JANET) login as pdsoft with password pdsoft in micros/mac/finder/k/k454/k454prol.hqx Ron Brasington Department of Linguistic Science FOLSS University of Reading Whiteknights Reading RG6 2AA, UK. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 07 Jan 92 16:04:30 SET From: Pier Marco Bertinetto Subject: Call for papers "Rivista di Linguistica" CALL FOR PAPERS The journal "Rivista di Linguistica" now at its third year of life, invites linguists from any subdomain of the disc ipline to contribute papers on any subject of linguistic interest. Although the title of the journal is Italian, most papers are published in English, as you may have realized if you have seen an issue of the journal. Besides English, pa pers in any of the major European languages are accepted in principle. Some issues of the journal are monothematic: so far, an issue on "Anaphoric Rel ations in Sentence and Text", edited by M-E. Conte, has appeared; an issue on t he "Morphology of Compounding", edited by S. Scalise, is due to appear within a few months. Proposals for editing monothematic issues are of course welcome, a nd will be subjected to editorial approval. Sample copies of the journal (and summaries of the first issues) may be obtaine d from the publisher: Rosenberg & Sellier, via Andrea Doria 14, I-10123 Torino. Pier Marco Bertinetto -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-20. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-21. Tue 07 Jan 1992. Lines: 91 Subject: 3.21 Diachronic Lengthening Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 9:38:25 EST From: bert peeters Subject: 2.886 Lengthening and shortening 2) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 10:17 U From: "Randy J. LaPolla" Subject: Re: 2.886 Queries: deictics, `hoozier,' scanning -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 9:38:25 EST From: bert peeters Subject: 2.886 Lengthening and shortening > Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1991 02:12:49 PST > From: "Don W." > > Now, as I understand it, words have > tended to shorten in the evolution of many languages, such as English > and the Romance languages. Is there any language in which words have > evolved into *longer* forms? Words couldn't shorten for ever, otherwise they would end up disappearing altogether. Clearly, we have some sort of cyclic movement here, which I will illustrate with Latin and French (by the way, a classic textbook example). Demonstratives in Latin: HIC - HAEC - HOC ISTE - ISTA - ISTUD ILLE - ILLA - ILLUD (By the way, this system clearly contradicts the iconic principle identi- fied in another posting by another LINGUIST-reader: HIC = proximity to the speaker / ISTE = proximity to the addressee / ILLE = proximity to some third party) In Gallo-Romance, only two series survive (the second and the third one), and the remaining ones are reinforced by means of the particle ECCE (cf. ECCE HOMO). We obtain things such as ECCILLE and ECCISTE. The former is at the basis of MFr celui/celle/ceux/celles (stressed accusative forms of 'cil' < ECCILLE - notice the shortening) The latter is at the basis of MFr ce/cet/cette/ces (here as well, the short- ening has been rather obvious). Details in any historical French grammar. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Bert Peeters Tel: +61 02 202344 Department of Modern Languages 002 202344 University of Tasmania at Hobart Fax: 002 207813 GPO Box 252C Bert.Peeters@modlang.utas.edu.au Hobart TAS 7001 Australia -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 10:17 U From: "Randy J. LaPolla" Subject: Re: 2.886 Queries: deictics, `hoozier,' scanning Don Webb asks 'Is there any language in which words have evolved into *longer* forms?' I know of at least one language (the Qiang lg. of Tibeto-Burman) where there is clear evidence of a large number of words developing out of the collapse of two separate words, thereby adding final consonants and consonant clusters to a lg. that otherwise wouldn't have them. James A. Matisoff (UC Berkeley) speaks of this type of thing as a tendency in South-East Asian (and possibly universally), that is, that lgs. lose phonological bulk through erosion, but then find ways (collapsing words or adding prefixes or going bisyllabic) to restore the phonological bulk. Randy LaPolla Institute of History & Philology Academia Sinica -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-21. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-22. Wed 08 Jan 1992. Lines: 258 Subject: 3.22 Diachronic Lengthening Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 23:24:04 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: 3.21 Diachronic Lengthening 2) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 11:18 GMT+0200 From: riad_t@nordiska.su.se Subject: Re: 3.21 Diachronic Lengthening 3) Date: Tue, 07 Jan 92 23:26:44 EST From: William Crossgrove Subject: Re: 3.21 Diachronic Lengthening 4) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 10:06:44 -0600 From: "Larry G. Hutchinson" Subject: Re: 3.21 Diachronic Lengthening 5) Date: Wed, 08 Jan 1992 10:40:04 From: koontz@bldr.nist.gov (John E. Koontz) Subject: Re: 3.21 Diachronic Lengthening 6) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 14:06:07 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: Diachronic lengthening 7) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 09:41:12 GMT From: Richard Coates Subject: Re: 3.21 Diachronic Lengthening -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 23:24:04 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: 3.21 Diachronic Lengthening I think the original question was about words lengthening over time as a result of PHONOLOGICAL change, which the recent responses by Peeters and LaPolla do not address. One example that is frequently cited is the addition of a final vowel to certain consonant-final words between Old Tamil and Modern Tamil. Starting from the other end, so to speak, one has such examples as the many varieties of Romance (Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, French) that add an initial vowel before ancestral (i.e., Latin) s+consonant clusters. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 11:18 GMT+0200 From: riad_t@nordiska.su.se Subject: Re: 3.21 Diachronic Lengthening The process known as the quantity shift in Germanic languages would be a good example of genuine (non-compensatory) lengthening. In the Scandinavian languages what is traditionally known as light stems, i.e. CvC monosyllables and CvCv polysyllables, are lost as types, by virtue of the quantity shift. Examples: Old Swedish vika 'week', gata 'street', bik 'pitch', tak 'roof' show up as vekka , gaata , bekk and taak in Modern (central) Swedish. Tomas Riad Scandinavian languages Stockholm university -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 07 Jan 92 23:26:44 EST From: William Crossgrove Subject: Re: 3.21 Diachronic Lengthening It seems to me that when I was a graduate student many years ago, one of the common speculations about pre-Indo-European was that it is likely to have had post-postional forms that were later reduced to inflectional endings, hence creating "longer" words. Of course, this is largely speculative, but it suggests that people did not find it difficult to envision this sequence of development. This may seem like a quaint notion to today's Indo-Europeanists, but I offer it as an example. Bill Crossgrove Brown University -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 10:06:44 -0600 From: "Larry G. Hutchinson" Subject: Re: 3.21 Diachronic Lengthening Phonological shortening is a mouth/time/familiarity thing. But semantics has its own needs, and restoration of contrasts via things like preprefixes, double negation, etc., etc. is widely attested. Longer expressions are the (temporary) result. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Wed, 08 Jan 1992 10:40:04 From: koontz@bldr.nist.gov (John E. Koontz) Subject: Re: 3.21 Diachronic Lengthening Don Webb asks > 'Is there any language in which words have evolved into *longer* forms?' In the Siouan family, most roots are monosyllabic or bisyllabic, but most actual words are rather longer, at least bisyllabic. Part of this is due to the accretion of clitic material and the presence of inflectional and derivational affixes (including markers of oblique verb stems, reflexives, etc.). However, even historically monosyllabic roots also tend to give rise to bisyllabic stems. Several processes are at work. One process is accretion of suffixes of the form *(r)V (R included after final vowels). In some of the languages, e.g., in the Dhegiha branch, the extended forms are the only ones attested, apart from a few fossils here and there. In other languages, e.g., Dakotan, this process still operates more or less productively to form independent (free-standing) stems from bound stems. Although the process has generally been interpreted synchronically as phonologically governed epenthesis, I think it makes more diachronic sense with nouns to interpret it as fusing of stems with bleached anaphoric material, after the fashion of Greenberg's analysis in (approx) "Where does gender [marking] come from?" Examples: Da c^ha~l=wa's^te `pleasant' (heart + warm), vs. c^ha~te' `heart' (with -e) (the t => l shift is a low level change); he'ya (*r => y in Dakotan) `louse', vs. hez^a~'z^a~=la `nit' (louse + pale (redup) + diminutive). This process is comparable in general terms to processes in other languages world-wide that have been called variously theme formation (cf. Indo-European) or absolute formation (cf. Uto-Aztecan). The details vary, but all such processes involve adding an empty or gender marking extension to a stem in certain morphosyntactic contexts, especially when other markers with more concrete meanings are absent, but often also with some markers, but not all, or with all markers (in which case the extension has become part of the root, for all practical purposes). Other processes that extend stems in the Siouan family include reduplication, cf. Winnebago ho'o `fish' (long monosyllable) vs. Omaha-Ponca hu'hu `fish' (redup, presumably fish considered as a school of fish); appending of bleached auxiliaries, cf. Omaha-Ponca ga~'=dha `want' (with coverb =dha of unknown meaning); moribund unpossessed markers, cf. Omaha-Ponca watha~' `squash', with wa- `unpossessed' or wahi' `leg'; pervasive compounding, cf. Omaha-Ponca i'=ha `lip' (mouth skin), i'=dhe `to promise, to speak of' (mouth make); pervasive use of instrumental prefixes with verbs to indicate unfocussed means or instrument (effectively a system of manner classifiers), cf. Omaha-Ponca gase' `to cut; sever with a blow', base' `to cut; sever with a long tool', ma'=se `to cut; sever with a blade', etc. Caution: All examples cited from memory! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 14:06:07 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: Diachronic lengthening There may be a case of diachronic lengthening in the northern dialect of Sakao (Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu), and there certainly is, but artificially provoked, in the variety of the southern dialect spoken in Hog-Harbour. Sakao is an Austronesian language that has undergone drastic sound changes, e.g. *vati --> jED (E = IPA epsilon, D = delta) In brief, the article *na became fused to the noun, with its vowel partly assimilating to the vowel of the following syllable, then word stress was innovated and a sweeping vowel shift took place. Finally, in the southern dialect, all unstressed vowels were lost. Thus: *na gatsi (black ant) --> naR *na matsi (fish, bird) --> nnEs *na Gweleku-ku (my hand) --> nlkyG (G = IPA gamma) *na patu-ku (my head) --> nBDyG (B = IPA beta) *na toa (fowl) --> *notoa --> nCD (C = IPA mirror-image of "c") The northern dialect, on the other hand, looks as if it had retained the pretonic vowels lost by the southern dialect: North South aDalan nDlan "cloud" oeBDyG nBDyG "my head" (oe is the IPA oe, joined) Ette ntte "something" kElE klE "to paint, smear, write" mEkElE mklE "he paints, etc." mAnAs mnAs "he likes" (A = back, rounded, a) AGArAn nGrAn "its behind" oerymyG nRmyG 'my voice, thoughts" >From even the very few examples above, it seems likely that what happened is that consonant clusters were broken up in the northern dialect by epenthetic vowels that only recently emerged as fully fledged phonemes (I'd rather say, archiphonemes). Cases where pretonic vowels are not predictable (as they are above) from the tonic seem to correspond to earlier vowel clusters (mostly arising from the loss of fricatives). Thus: olAn "its tail" <-- *ne-Gwele-na as attested by: AwAl- "tail of" <-- *ne-Gwele (Gwele is attested in many other Santo languages by such forms as "fele, vele"; so what I reconstruct *Gw may have been [hw]) I used to believe that the Hog Harbour dialect behaved in a similar manner, until I discovered what I had been told was Hog-Harbour dialect was "church speech": the people of Hog-Harbour, in fact, spoke exactly like the unchristianized villagers on the plateau above, except when in the presence of church elders, or of outsiders. Digging through old records and listening to stories from old men, I found that the Presbyterian missionaries sent there had never managed to learn the language properly, least of all pronounce 5 or 6 consonants in a row, nor distinguish between its 11 oral vowels, so that they used a kind of Sakao-Pidgin cum baby-talk, which they proceeded to enshrine in printed translations of some psalms and parts of the New Testament. Thus they wrote "nu-ruru-muc" or "nuru-rumuc" (they consistently used "c" for a velar fricative) what was rightly /nRmyG/ (R = trill), and "vocovoc" what was, and still is /BCGBCG/. The worst case I ever came across was when I elicited a standard word list from the native Pastor: he gave me /nCDCDCD/ for "butterfly"; much later I heard the proper word: /nDDAD/ (which is regularly derivable from *na pepepe, attested in other languages of the region, whereas /nDDCD/ is not, let alone /nCDCDCD/). I doubt that the epenthetic vowels of the northern dialect are due to a similar influence for this simple reason that both pagan and christianized northern Sakao speakers speak precisely the same language. I vaguely remember having read somewhere that Russian did such a thing, that is, break up consonant clusters. Could someone who reads Linguist confirm or correct this, please? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 09:41:12 GMT From: Richard Coates Subject: Re: 3.21 Diachronic Lengthening Anyone interested in diachronic lengthening of words might note] Schuhmacher's work "Wortverla"ngerung im Melanesischen und Man'czaks zweites Gesetz", in Zeitschrift fu"r Phonetik 24 (1971). Richard Coates -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-22. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-23. Sun 12 Jan 1992. Lines: 43 Subject: 3.23 Yale Linguistics to be Abolished? Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 00:35:20 EST From: Michael Covington Subject: Yale abolishes linguistics department and programs -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 00:35:20 EST From: Michael Covington Subject: Yale abolishes linguistics department and programs I am reliably informed that Yale University has decided to abolish its department of linguistics. This was discussed as a possibility for some time and the decision was apparently made last week. Nothing has been announced about provisions for students who are currently enrolled. I have no inside information about the reason for the abolition. The Yale department is somewhat unusual in that it never embraced gener- ative grammar; to my knowledge no generativist was ever a senior faculty member (the nearest is Larry Horn, the present head, who is a formal semanticist). Graduate student instruction in syntax and phonology relied entirely on junior faculty who were only there temporarily. Nonetheless, the quality of instruction in my time (1978-82) was very good. It is sad to see a department with such a distinguished history come to nothing. The demand for undergraduate linguistics courses at Yale is very strong and I hope a way will be found to continue them. -- Michael Covington, Yale '82 Ph.D. (Linguistics) ------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-23. ________________________________________________________________ [Moderators' note: The following message describes how to do things on LINGUIST. 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You need to use the database functions of Listserv, so that you can get it to track down the issues for you. You send the following to the listserv: //SEARCH JOB ECHO=NO DATABASE SEARCH DD=RULES //RULES DD * SEARCH ACEHNESE IN LINGUIST INDEX and it returns a listing of issues which mention Acehnese. But how do you retrieve the issues you want? You need to find out more on how to use Listserv's database. So you send the message: get database help linguist to the address: listserv@tamvm1.tamu.edu (Internet) listserv@tamvm1 (Bitnet) 13) GET THE LISTSERV TO COOPERATE WHEN IT HASN'T SO FAR: If you've been getting LINGUIST but haven't been able to get files, set nomail, etc., simply resubscribe, as in (1) above. (If you didn't resubscribe when LINGUIST moved from the U. of Western Australia to Texas A&M, the Listserv may have no record of your current address, since the path used to reach you from Australia may differ from the one used to reach you from the USA.) 14) GET EXTRA HELP WITH ANY OF THE ABOVE: Send a message to either of us: e311aa@tamuts.tamu.edu (Anthony Aristar) hdry@emunix.emich.edu (Helen Dry) We'll be happy to help if we can. --Helen & Anthony ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-24. Mon 13 Jan 1992. Lines: 84 Subject: 3.24 Queries: Synaesthesia, Diachrony, WH-Questions Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 18:58:01 EST From: daysa@mace.cc.purdue.edu (,sd) Subject: Re: Query -- Synaesthesia 2) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 15:53:29 -0600 From: edding@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Dave Eddington) Subject: Diachronic Development of Inflectional Endings 3) Date: Fri, 10 Jan 92 17:07:07 CST From: vicm@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Victoria Muehleisen) Subject: Query: WH-questions in non-standard English -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 18:58:01 EST From: daysa@mace.cc.purdue.edu (,sd) Subject: Re: Query -- Synaesthesia Is there anyone out there doing work on (verbal, metaphor) descriptions/phrases involving synaestetic transference(s) -- [an example of such would be, say, a line in a poem in which piano music is not describe in sonic terms, but as, say, blue, or warm and fuzzy, or lime-flavored; Nabokov was a synaesthete and gives such examples in his autobiography and works]? I am trying to collect examples towards a couple of papers on this and related topics. Verbal or textual; any language (it would be nice, though, if you provided a translation); any time period. Thanks to all for help or/and insightful comments. P.S. -- I AM also interested in actual neurological synaesthesia, and would appreciate info on it, but my focus is more towards the beforementioned realms. Sean A. Day Purdue University -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 15:53:29 -0600 From: edding@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Dave Eddington) Subject: Diachronic Development of Inflectional Endings The discussion on diachronic lengthening brings another related question to mind. The drift of the Indo-european languages has been toward the loss of inflectional endings with the result that word order becomes crucial (as well as prepositions) in determining case. Are there languages thathave developed inflectional systems where there once were none? David Eddington -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 10 Jan 92 17:07:07 CST From: vicm@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Victoria Muehleisen) Subject: Query: WH-questions in non-standard English I'm a graduate student at Northwestern, and I'm interested in looking at WH-questions in non-standard Enlish dialects, especially in Black English. I've read some of Labov's work from the 60's and early 70's, but I haven't been able to find much recent work on this topic. I would appreciate any references. I would also like to locate a body of data (tapes, transcripts, etc.) from a single consistent dialect which I could analyze for this purpose. Of course, I'm willing to cover the costs involved in copying and mailing the data. You can e-mail me at: vicm@casbah.acns.nwu.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-24. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-25. Mon 13 Jan 1992. Lines: 161 Subject: 3.25 Queries: Tagger, ASL, Dutch, Mabang, Eskimo Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 10:31:07 EST From: rohini@cs.Buffalo.EDU (Rohini Srihari) Subject: Part-of-Speech Tagger 2) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1992 11:03 EST From: Robert D Hoberman Subject: ASL 3) Date: Fri, 10 Jan 92 15:17 GMT From: David E Newton Subject: Dutch 4) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 12:06 GMT From: FARGHALY@auc.eg Subject: Mabang Linguistics 5) Date: Sun, 12 Jan 92 14:13:24 EST From: Rick Broadhead Subject: Eskimo -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 10:31:07 EST From: rohini@cs.Buffalo.EDU (Rohini Srihari) Subject: Part-of-Speech Tagger I wanted to know where I could obtain a part-of-speech tagger. In particular, I am looking for the one described by Church in a 1988 paper. I would appreciate information on other available POS taggers as well. Thanks, Rohini K. Srihari Center for Document Analysis and Recognition SUNY at Buffalo -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1992 11:03 EST From: Robert D Hoberman Subject: ASL State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook, NY 11794-3355 Robert Hoberman Comparative Studies Dept. 516-632-7462, -7460 09-Jan-1992 10:53am EST FROM: RHOBERMAN TO: Remote Addressee ( _linguist@tamvm1.tamu.edu) SUBJECT: ASL I would like to have a list of colleges and universities that accept ASL in satisfaction of college-wide undergraduate foreign language requirements. If you know of such an institution, would you please let me know? Detailed explanations are not needed; some faculty members here are asserting that, in accepting ASL, we are among a tiny (and misguided) minority, and I'd like to know if that's incorrect. Please send responses directly to me, and I'll summarize them for the List. Thanks. Bob rhoberman@sbccmail.bitnet rhoberman@ccmail.sunysb.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 10 Jan 92 15:17 GMT From: David E Newton Subject: Dutch Does anyone have any information (references, etc) on ambisyllabicity in Dutch? Reply either to the list or direct to me, whichever seems more appropriate. Thanks David E Newton den1@uk.ac.york.vaxa -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 12:06 GMT From: FARGHALY@auc.eg Subject: Mabang Linguistics I am posting this on behalf of a graduate student of mine. He is doing linguistic analysis of Mabang his native language, spoken by the Maba of Eatern Chad and Western Sudan. He would like to know of any work in print or accesible that has already been done Mabang. Please send replies to Farghaly@auc.eg. Thank you very much in advance. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Sun, 12 Jan 92 14:13:24 EST From: Rick Broadhead Subject: Eskimo Does anyone out there speak any of the Inuit languages, or know someone that does? I want to identify the language that is heard on an out of service BELL recording in Baker Lake, Northwest Territories. A qualified translator claims the message sounds like a portion of a radio broadcast rather than the standard "We're sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service. Please check the number or try your call again. This is a recording." I would like to verify this. Since the number is out of service, there *should* be no charge on your telephone bill for dialing it. See the posting below for the number (originally appeared on TELECOM DIGEST). Please reply either to me (ysar1111@VM1.YorkU.CA) or to LINGUIST. Rick Broadhead ysar1111@VM1.YorkU.CA ======================================================================== From: floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson) Subject: Re: NWT Intercept Recordings in Eskimo Language Organization: University of Alaska Institute of Marine Science Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1992 06:50:42 GMT In article martin@cod.nosc.mil (Douglas W. Martin) writes: > By now my fascination with intercept recordings and with calling > remote places is well documented. On a whim I called Baker Lake, NWT > 819-793-1234 and got an intercept recording in some Eskimo language. > I've kept it for possible future use on my answering machine. Does > anyone know any even more isolated places with interesting recordings? That seems to be a very strange recording! Some of us here have our own translators for such things as Yupik or Inupiat. My cohort at at work tonight got his translator on line (she is from Tuktoyaktuk in the Canadian Arctic) and called that line a couple times to listen to it. His translator says that sounds like "Eastern Arctic", which would be a variation of Inupiat Eskimo. But she also says it doesn't have anything to do with the telephone, but sounds like a snip of something intended to be part of a news broadcast on the radio! Floyd L. Davidson floyd@ims.alaska.edu Salcha, Alaska -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-25. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-26. Mon 13 Jan 1992. Lines: 145 Subject: 3.26 Diachronic Lengthening Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1992 9:25:17 GMT-10:00 From: Fran Karttunen Subject: Re: 3.22 Diachronic Lengthening 2) Date: Fri, 10 Jan 92 9:44:32 EST From: bert peeters Subject: Breaking up of consonant clusters 3) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 8:48:12 CST From: Dennis Baron Subject: diachronic lengthening -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1992 9:25:17 GMT-10:00 From: Fran Karttunen Subject: Re: 3.22 Diachronic Lengthening Concerning lengthening of words: There is a substantial area of Finland where clusters of unlike resonants are not tolerated, and they are broken up by a replication of the preceding vowel: silmA > silimA (I can't do an umlaut in email, so the A stands for dotted-a.) kolme > kolome Now that I think of it, it's not just unlike resonants. A resonant followed by a stop will behave the same way. Anyway, it's an easy thing to learn to do and quite infectious. It also feels completely superficial. In Nantucket, where I grew up, monosyllabic words ending in r were pronounced as two syllables: door > dowa (can't do schwas on this keyboard either) flour > flauwa (homophonous with flower) beer > biya there > theiya As a kid I thought it rather strange but chalked it up to the irrationality of English spelling. Later on Broadcast English and travel away from peripheral New England showed me that it was a rather localized dialect feature. Some years later we were living in Los Aneles and speaking Finnish at home when the following happened: Our 2 1/2 year old daughter Jaana was watching the Flintstones. Wilma Flintstone was baking a cake and ran out of flour. Crisis-time while she dashed to the Rubble household to see if she could borrow a cup. Jaana turned to me and said in Finnish something along the lines of: Wilma-tAdillA ei ole kukkia. 'Wilma-aunt doesn't have any flowers.' "My god," I thought, "she's translating!" Then I wondered whether Wilma pronounces flour/flower as one-syllable words or two-syllable words, but the episode was over, and I couldn't bring myself to watch more shows and figure out Flintstone dialectology. Fran Karttunen -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 10 Jan 92 9:44:32 EST From: bert peeters Subject: Breaking up of consonant clusters > Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 14:06:07 EST > From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) > > I vaguely remember having read somewhere that Russian did such a thing, > that is, break up consonant clusters. Spoken French (which tends to drop schwas all over the place) does it as well, by adding those schwas back in again wherever clusters tend to become unpronounceable, even in instances where the schwa is not reflected in writing. E.g. ours blanc (white bear) -- pronounced as [urs@bla~] Arc de Triomphe -- pronounced as [ark@d@trjo~f] je ne le sais pas -- pronounced in various ways, but surely not with all three schwas present, nor with none of them. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 8:48:12 CST From: Dennis Baron Subject: diachronic lengthening An example of diachronic lenghtening in present-day varieties of English might be the various attempts to reinforce the plurality of 2nd person _you_. This form, itself a plural that moved into the 2 pers. sg. pronoun slot as well, seems for many speakers to need a plural reinforcement. Hence such forms as _youse_, _y'all_, and the latest in the series, _you guys_. Although _y'all_ and _youse_ speakers frequently assert these forms cannot be used in the singular, or if they are used as sgs., they carry the sense `you [sg.] + anyone else you care to include,' it is easy enough to locate uses where the sg. is undisputable. In any case, _youse_ is frequently lengthened by the addition of _guys_. _Y'all_ becomes in some instances _all y'all_, when plurality needs to be specified. And of course plain old vanilla _you_ > _you guys_ just about uni- versally, at least among the college-age crowd. _Youse_ and _y'all_ seem compressed enough and for a sufficiently long time to count as single words. What happens to _you guys_ remains to be seen--I can't imagine a phonological contraction of this form (though the clipped _guys_ as a vocative is frequent enough). Are we seeing the development of a two word pronoun here? -- debaron@uiuc.edu ____________ 217-333-2392 |:~~~~~~~~~~:| fax: 217-333-4321 Dennis Baron |: :| Dept. of English |: db :| Univ. of Illinois |: :| 608 S. Wright St. |:==========:| Urbana IL 61801 \\ """""""" \ \\ """""""" \ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-26. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-27. Mon 13 Jan 1992. Lines: 86 Subject: 3.27 Jobs: Summer 1992, Stanford Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1992 14:16 MST From: SFOSTER@NAUVAX.UCC.NAU.EDU Subject: Jobs: Summer 1992 at Northern Arizona 2) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 13:45:26 PST From: sells@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Peter Sells) Subject: Visiting position in Semantics at Stanford University -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1992 14:16 MST From: SFOSTER@NAUVAX.UCC.NAU.EDU Subject: Jobs: Summer 1992 at Northern Arizona Spend a Summer in the Pines! The Department of English at Northern Arizona University is looking for qualified teachers for Summer 1992 graduate linguistics and applied linguistics courses. The following courses will be offered: Introduction to linguistics, Cross- cultural Aspects of Language Acquisition, Psycholinguistics, ESL methodology, ESL Curricula and Materials, Sociolinguistics, Descriptive Grammar, Testing Language Skills, Second Language Acquisition, and ESL Practicum. Courses can be applied to the MA-TESL degree and/or to ESL certification for K-12. Summer sessions run from June 9th - July 9th, and from July 13th - August 12th. All faculty must have Ph.D. in hand, and may be any rank. Salary varies depending on academic rank and is negotiable (particularly for more senior faculty). Northern Arizona University is a mid-sized state university situated in Flagstaff, Arizona. Flagstaff is 7,000' above sea- level in Ponderosa pine forest, close to the Grand Canyon. Hiking, biking, horse-riding, river-rafting and other outside pursuits are readily available. Summer temperatures are 80-90 degrees F during the day, and 50-60 degrees at night. The air is clear, clean, and invigorating. A perfect place for summer teaching! Interested individuals should contact me directly: Susan H. Foster-Cohen, Department of English, Box 6032, NAU, Flagstaff, AZ 86011. E-mail SFOSTER @ NAUVAX or SFOSTER @ NAUVAX.UCC.EDU NAU is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 13:45:26 PST From: sells@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Peter Sells) Subject: Visiting position in Semantics at Stanford University The Department of Linguistics of Stanford University is likely to have a temporary position in the area of semantics during the 1992-1993 academic year at the assistant professor level. Teaching duties will include both graduate and undergraduate courses in model-theoretic semantics and pragmatics. Women and minority applicants are particularly encouraged to apply. If you are interested in submitting an application, please send a C.V. and a brief summary of your research and teaching interests to: Semantics Search Committee Dept. of Linguistics Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-2150 415-723-4284 Please address any e-mail inquiries to kyle@csli.stanford.edu. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-27. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-28. Mon 13 Jan 1992. Lines: 123 Subject: 3.28 Nominative in Non-finite Clauses Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: 7 Jan 92 11:04 From: Subject: Nominative in nonfinite clause 2) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 14:18:00 +0200 From: jslindst@waltari.Helsinki.FI (Jouko Lindstedt) Subject: 3.6 Nominative with Infinitive -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: 7 Jan 92 11:04 From: Subject: Nominative in nonfinite clause David Pesetsky suggests that the Lezgian construction with a nominative in a non-finite clause in (1) could be analyzed as (the equivalent of) subject-to- (nominative)object raising: (1) Didedi-z gada-0 agaq'-na k'an-zawa. 'Mother wants the boy to arrive' mother-DAT boy-NOM arrive-NONFIN want-PRES However, such an analysis is clearly impossible for Lezgian. As Ivan Derzhanski observes, Daghestanian languages generally show gender agreement of nominative arguments with their verbs, and no Daghestanian language shows agreement in constructions like (1). As it happens, Lezgian is one of the few Daghestanian languages that have lost gender agreement, so this cannot be illustrated from Lezgian. But word order makes it absolutely clear that there is no raising involved (in fact, Lezgian shows no raising or other grammatical function- changing rules at all). The 'problem' of nominative arguments in non-finite clauses appears in many parts of Lezgian grammar, and it is clear that it cannot be explained away. The following three examples are illustrative (for more details, see my forthcoming Grammar of Lezgian, Berlin:Mouton de Gruyter, Mouton Grammar Library). Complement clause, non-finite marker -n- (2) Dide-0 gada-0 hele xtu-n-al tazub xa-na. mother-NOM boy-NOM already return-NONFIN-about surprised be-PAST 'Mother was surprised that the boy had returned already.' Complement clause, non-finite marker -di (3) Am taxsirlu tusir-di askara ja. she:NOM guilty be:NEG-NONFIN clear be 'It is clear that she is not guilty.' Non-finite relative clause (participial marker -j) (4) Lezgi-jar-0 jasamis zezwa-j xur-er-0 Azerbajzand-a awa. Lezgian-PL-NOM living be-PARTCP village-PL-NOM Azerbaijan-in be.in 'In Azerbaijan there are villages where Lezgians live.' Thus, nominative arguments in non-finite clauses are quite normal in Lezgian. Crucially, unlike the Portuguese personal infinitive (cited by Geoff Nathan) and the Bulgarian da-construction (cited by Ivan Derzhanski), non-finite verbs do not show person agreement with the nominative argument in Lezgian (or Dravidian). In GB theory, nominative case is not assigned by the verb but by something else (INFL, AGR) that is not present in non-finite clauses. In this way, case assignment is more complicated in finite clauses, although finite clauses would seem to be the unmarked member of the finite/non-finite opposition. If the native language of GB theorists were Lezgian or Dravidian, presumably GB would show a different bias: Nominative case would be assigned by the verb, just like the other cases, and a special blocking mechanism would take care of a strange phenomenon in exotic languages like Indo-European, where nominative arguments are barred from certain marked non-finite constructions. It seems to me that such an approach could well be closer to the truth. Martin Haspelmath, Free University of Berlin -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 14:18:00 +0200 From: jslindst@waltari.Helsinki.FI (Jouko Lindstedt) Subject: 3.6 Nominative with Infinitive Ivan A. Derzhanski presents a Bulgarian example of a nominative subject in a "non-finite clause": > Let me add the Bulgarian counterpart: > > Tja iska toj da pristigne. `She wants him to arrive.' > she-NOM want-Pres3Sg he-NOM to arrive-Pres3Sg > > where _da_ is a de-finitising particle. (There is no infinitive.) > I'm using pronouns, because nouns in Bulgarian don't decline. I think that we have here a good example of how it is difficult in syntax to distinguish between primary data and its theoretical interpretation. First, how do we now that _da_ is a "de-finitizing particle"? We do not say that English prepositions are (surface) case markers. _pristigne_ is clearly a finite form, it does not become non-finite simply because it has got a particle before it. Actually, _da_pristigne_ can even form a complete main-clause utterance by itself ('let him come!'). Second, how do we know that _toj_ is not simply the subject of an embedded (finite) complement clause? Certainly _da_ can be a complementizer though it does not begin the clause. I see two finite clauses here: Tja iska [toj da pristigne] Jouko Lindstedt U of Helsinki -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-28. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-29. Mon 13 Jan 1992. Lines: 128 Subject: 3.029 Is, is Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 12:01:32 EST From: dgn612@cscgpo.anu.edu.au (David G Nash) Subject: 3.10 is is 2) Date: Tue, 07 Jan 92 20:11:44 EST From: jack Subject: is, is 3) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 20:02:15 -0600 From: "Michael Kac" Subject: Re: 3.10 Queries: Smileys, Speech Recognition, Biblical, Is 4) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1992 08:37 EST From: Herb Stahlke <00HFSTAHLKE@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU> Subject: Re: 3.18 Is, is 5) Date: Wed, 08 Jan 92 10:33:13 EST From: Geoffrey Russom Subject: Re: 3.18 Is, is 6) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 17:49:16 MST From: Randy_Allen_Harris@mts.ucs.ualberta.ca Subject: is, is -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 12:01:32 EST From: dgn612@cscgpo.anu.edu.au (David G Nash) Subject: 3.10 is is With respect to Lee Hartman's query, see: McConvell, Patrick. 1988. To be or double be? Current changes in the English copula. _Australian Journal of Linguistics_ 8,287-305. The author's e-address is mcconvell_p@darwin.ntu.edu.au -DGN -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 07 Jan 92 20:11:44 EST From: jack Subject: is, is Andy Griffith got his first renown (outside of Chapel Hill) with a record back in the mid-fifties entitled, "What it was, was football!" -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 20:02:15 -0600 From: "Michael Kac" Subject: Re: 3.10 Queries: Smileys, Speech Recognition, Biblical, Is I can give a partial answer to Lee Hartman's question about 'is is'. I first encountered it in the late '70's or early '80's in a short-lived TV show called Richie Brockelman, Private Eye (or something like that -- I know the Richie Brockelman part is right), a spinoff from The Rockford Files. Richie Brockelman is this 20-ish college-educated (USC, I think) LA fratboy type one of whose mannerisms was to be constantly saying 'Well, the thing of it is is ...' I also have a friend who is a native Philadelphian who does the same thing. Hope these tidbits prove of some use. Michael Kac -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1992 08:37 EST From: Herb Stahlke <00HFSTAHLKE@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU> Subject: Re: 3.18 Is, is I've run into a variant of "is is" around here, especially in our Administration Building (which may be indicate influence of social class and educational level). What I hear is "The reason being, is we can't afford it" where the comma indicates a significant pause accompanied by and a knowing glance. I would expect something like the eliptical "The reason being (that) we can't afford it." Herb Stahlke Ball State University -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Wed, 08 Jan 92 10:33:13 EST From: Geoffrey Russom Subject: Re: 3.18 Is, is A pause after "is" in the normal "is that" construction may indeed play a role in repetition of "is" as a kind of resumptive device. I noticed as a peculiarity of some relatives' (Delaware Valley) speech an almost invariant pause in structures like "The reason is (pause, prominent falling tone) that (pause, prominent falling tone)..." This may be the structure that invites the doubling. One sometimes has the sense that the tensed clause is being composed during the pause after "is" or even after "that". -- Rick -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 17:49:16 MST From: Randy_Allen_Harris@mts.ucs.ualberta.ca Subject: is, is The fact is, is that no one has yet mentioned Bolinger's "The remarkable double IS," _English today_ 9 (January 87), 39-40, which, though it is very brief, is chock-full of data and observations. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-29. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-30. Mon 13 Jan 1992. Lines: 95 Subject: 3.30 Conferences Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 21:48:47 CST From: flsm@lex.ling.nwu.edu (Formal Linguistic Society of Mid-America) Subject: Call for Papers--FLSM III 2) Date: Fri, 10 Jan 92 20:41:47 cet From: jazyuls@savba.CS (Juls) Subject: 2nd Conference on Phraseology in Education, Culture and Science -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 21:48:47 CST From: flsm@lex.ling.nwu.edu (Formal Linguistic Society of Mid-America) Subject: Call for Papers--FLSM III CALL FOR PAPERS FLSM III Third Annual Meeting of the Formal Linguistics Society of Midamerica May 15-17, 1992 At Northwestern University Invited Speakers: Joan Bresnan John McCarthy Abstracts are invited for 20-minute talks in all areas of linguistic theory. Papers presented will be published in the FLSM III Proceedings. Please submit 10 copies of a one-page abstract suitable for reproduction (an additional page with examples and references may be included). Authors should identify themselves only on a separate 3 X 5-inch index card, containing the following: - title of paper - name of author(s) - address/affiliation - phone number - e-mail address (if you have one) Address abstracts to: Abstracts FLSM III Department of Linguistics Northwestern University 2016 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208-4090 Address inquiries to: flsm@lex.ling.nwu.edu (e-mail) (708) 491-8059 (phone) Abstract Deadline February 21, 1992 Please Post -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 10 Jan 92 20:41:47 cet From: jazyuls@savba.CS (Juls) Subject: 2nd Conference on Phraseology in Education, Culture and Science 2nd Conference on Phraseology in Education, Culture and Science September 14-16 1992, Nitra, Czechoslovakia. Info: Peter Durco, L. Stur Linguistics Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Panska 26, 813 64 Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, tel. +42 7/897 260, email: jazydurc@savba.UUCP ______________________________________________________________________________ With best wishes Peter Durco Bratislava January 10, 1992 Linguist List: Vol-3-30. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-31. Mon 13 Jan 1992. Lines: 112 Subject: 3.31 FYI: IPA for WP, German Spelling, Bibles on Disk Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 08:53:27 GMT From: me@SUZUKA.U-STRASBG.FR(Michel@tamvm1.tamu.edu Eytan LILoL) Subject: IPA fonts for WordPerfect 2) Date: Tue, 07 Jan 92 17:45:14 EST From: Henry Kucera Subject: German spelling checker 3) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 10:13:54 EST From: Paul.F.Schaffner@um.cc.umich.edu Subject: Bibles on disk -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 08:53:27 GMT From: me@SUZUKA.U-STRASBG.FR(Michel@tamvm1.tamu.edu Eytan LILoL) Subject: IPA fonts for WordPerfect as promised, I haven taken action concerning Tim Montler's IPA fonts for WordPerfect (on PC's) that he has generously made available to all; our grateful thanks to him, by the way. There are three ways to get the fonts: 1. ftp to lth.se and go to pub/pc/fonts/IPA.fonts which contains the three files making up all that is needed to use the fonts. 2. ftp to nic.funet.fi (the 'archie' server for Europe) and look for the above-mentioned directory among the MS-DOS directories (precise location not yet decided upon). I have asked them to put a copy in the canadian 'archie' server, quiche.cs.mcgill.ca, for the US users. More about this as soon as I have the details. DON'T FORGET TO SET 'BINARY' FOR THE TRANSFER BY FTP ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 3. For those of you who do not have ftp, please send me an e-mail and I shall try to send you the files, but this is FAR MORE COMPLICATED than ftp. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 07 Jan 92 17:45:14 EST From: Henry Kucera Subject: German spelling checker On 03 Jan, I replied to an inquiry re German spelling checkers. I have now some additional information: It is indeed the case the Microsoft Word 5.0 and Windows version 2.0 offer spelling checking in 14 languages, including German. However, only one language comes with the upgrade, depending on the country where it is sold (in my case US English). Nevertheless, the other languages are available at an initial offering price of $89.95 each plus shipping. The Nos. are 1-800-669-9673, Fax 206-286-2785. So far, I have only the English version, so I can't testify as to the others. However, they are supposed to be fully integrated and most also include a thesaurus (except Finnish and Purtuguese). A specialized dictionary for English (legal, medical, business, etc.) and other goodies are also available, but for various extra amounts. If anyone has additional information, it would be appreciated. Henry Kucera -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 10:13:54 EST From: Paul.F.Schaffner@um.cc.umich.edu Subject: Bibles on disk Regarding the query on Spanish and German e-Bibles, the American Bible Society Reference Bible (on CD-ROM) includes the Reina-Valera version of the Spanish Bible (1960 revision) and Luther's German Bible (1984 ed.). Price: $195 Format: IBM Source: American Bible Society PO Box 5656 Grand Central Station New York, NY 10164-0851 Phone: 212-408-1499; (orders) 800-543-8000 Item no. 104766 The FABS Reference Bible (also on CD-ROM) contains these plus something called the "LBLA" version of the Spanish Bible. Price: $349 Format: IBM Source: Foundation for Advanced Biblical Studies PO Box 427 DeFuniak Springs, FL 32433 Phone: 904-892-6257 Both of these also contain much more, of course (Greek, Vulgate, etc.). I'm sorry to say that I do not know of any Mac e-Bibles, but a good source to ask might be: Hermeneutika Bible Software PO Box 98563 Seattle, WA 98198 Phone: 206-824-3927 Yours, Paul Schaffner usergfnk@umichum.bitnet Middle English Dictionary usergfnk@um.cc.umich.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-31. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-32. Wed 15 Jan 1992. Lines: 132 Subject: 3.32 Nominative in Non-finite Clauses Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 13:15:07 EST From: jdbobalj@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: Re: 3.28 Nominative in Non-finite Clauses 2) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 13:07:05 PST From: chandras@zimmer.CSUFresno.EDU (Chandrashekar Siddaramaiah) Subject: Re: Nominative in Non-finite clause -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 13:15:07 EST From: jdbobalj@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: Re: 3.28 Nominative in Non-finite Clauses I would just like to throw my two cents' worth into the discussion of Nominatives in Infinitives, especially as it relates to Lezgian, even though I am not working on the language. What worries me is the use of the term "Nominative" to apply to the Case in question in Lezgian. According to all I have been able to find (to wit: Jazyki Narodov SSSR, and a few mentions in work by Kibrik [Moscow] and Mel'cuk [Montreal]), Lezgian is an Ergative / Absolutive language in its Case morphology. That is, what has been called the "Nominative" Case in the literature and in this discussion, is the Case which shows up on intransitive subjects and transitive objects, ie. *not* the Case which marks transitive subjects. In other language families, this Case has been traditionally called the Absolutive. While much recent literature both on certain languages, and on Ergativity as a phenomenon has returned to the name Nominative for this Case, I think this terminology firstly creates confusion, but more importantly presumes a certain theoretical analysis without question or discussion. In one of the language families I am currently working with, Eskimo-Aleut, there is a construction which looks like an infinitive complement clause, but shows agreement with transitive objects and intransitive subjects - the Absolutive Case (i.e. what is often called Nominative in the literature). This construction never shows (agreement with or presence of) transitive subjects though. This has created a lot of confusion as to the nature of the construction - if it is not an infinitive, then why can't there be a transitive subject, but if it is an infinitive, why can there be an intransitive subject. What this calls for, I think, is not a revision of GB or theories of Nominative Case assignment/checking, but rather a closer look at the nature of Ergativity and Case relations in Ergative languages. On this note, then, I am not at all surprised that Lezgian shows intransitive subjects and transitive objects in infinitive clauses. What would surprise me, and I leave this as an open question to anyone who has read this far down my rambling posting, is if Lezgian were to show Ergative arguments (i.e. transitive subjects) in infinitive clauses. I would be very happy to enter into off-the-list discussions with anyone about this as it's very germane to a paper in progress which I'll be presenting in the end of February. -Jonathan Bobaljik MIT -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 13:07:05 PST From: chandras@zimmer.CSUFresno.EDU (Chandrashekar Siddaramaiah) Subject: Re: Nominative in Non-finite clause Dr. Pesetsky, in response to Martin's earlier posting on Lezgian non-finite clauses, suggests that the embeded subject marked nominative in non-finite clauses is raised to the object position of the matrix clause. Since, the object NP in a Dat-Nom. construction, appears with nominative case in general (not in all languages), Dr. pesetsky argues that the so-called Nominative subject of a non-finite clause is not really the subject of the embeded clause, but it is the object of the main clause. This is not really the case in languages like Lezgian and Dravidian. Dravidian languages are rich in argreement. Subject NP's agree with verbs in person, number and gender as shown in the following examples from Kannada, a Dravidian language. 1. ja:nanu u:Tawannu ma:Duttidda:ne John-nom food-acc eating 3sm. 2. me:riyu u:Tawannu ma:Duttidda:Le Mary-nom food-acc eating 3sf 3. awaru u:Tawannu ma:Duttidda:re They food-acc eating 3plm/f But, in Dat-Nom. construction (Psych-verb consturction), Subject NP is marked dative and the object NP is marked nominative and the verb agrees with the nominative marked object in number, person and gender. 4. ja:nani-ge a: huDigiyu isTawa:daLu John-dat that girl liked 3sf 5. ja:nani-ge a: huDuganu isTawa:danu John-dat that boy liked 3sm Given this, if we assume that Dr. Pesetsk's analysis is correct, we should have agreement markers for number, person and gender on the matrix verb suggesting that the so-called nominative subject of a non-finite caluse has been raised to the object of the matrix clause. 6. S1 [ NP-Dat NP-nom i [ ti...V [non-finite] ]...V [finite]]] [Psych-verb] This is simply not the case as can be shown from the follwing example from Kannada. 7. ja:nani-ge [me:riyu billan-annu madivea:galu] santo:shava:yitu John-Dat Mary-nom Bill-acc to-marry happiness happened 3pn. 'John was happy that Mary married Bill' (7) shows that it is possible to have nominative subjects in non-finite clauses in Kannada in particular and Dravidan language in general. (V + al is a non-finite verb in Kannada and we do not have agreement marker on the main verb showing agreement with 'Mary', subject of the embeded clause, if we assume that it is raised to the obect position). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-32. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-33. Wed 15 Jan 1992. Lines: 147 Subject: 3.32 Jobs Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 17:54:20 PST From: marks@neuro.usc.edu (Mark Seidenberg) Subject: post-doc position 2) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1992 14:34 EST From: LINVAN@UBVMS.bitnet Subject: Post-doc announcement 3) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 10:17 U From: "Randy J. LaPolla" Subject: job: Academia Sinica, Taiwan -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 17:54:20 PST From: marks@neuro.usc.edu (Mark Seidenberg) Subject: post-doc position We have an opening for a post doc in neurolinguistics here at USC. The position is funded under an NIH training grant, and it is available NOW. We are looking for someone interested in issues related to language and aging, broadly construed. That could include: (a) psycholinguistic studies of language processing in normal elderly or in cases of neuropathology associated with aging (Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, aphasia, dyslexia, etc.); (b) computational models of normal and impaired language processing; (c) implications of language impairments for linguistic theory. The post-doc is for 1-2 years. The person would join a group including Mark Seidenberg, Maryellen MacDonald, Elaine Andersen, Jean-Roger Vergnaud, Joseph Aoun, Jack Hawkins, and Jim Gee. This position would be ideal for someone with a serious background in linguistics or psycholinguistics who would like to gain some additional background in neurolinguistics. Please contact me for additional information. E-mail is marks@neuro.usc.edu. Phone is 213-740-9174. We also have pre-doctoral fellowships available for students in linguistics and psycholinguistics. I would be happy to provide further information for interested parties. Mark Seidenberg -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1992 14:34 EST From: LINVAN@UBVMS.bitnet Subject: Post-doc announcement SUNY at Buffalo, Cognitive Sciences Program has several pre- and post-doctoral fellowship opportunities available through an N.I.H. training grant on the " Development of spoken language capacities". The training grant provides support for individuals who have interests in the development of speech perception and production. The training program is interdisciplinary and involves the participation of faculty from the departments of Psychology, Linguistics, Communicative Disorders & Sciences, and Pediatrics & Neurology. Trainees are expected to participate in interdisciplinary seminars and to conduct original experimental research related to these topics in the laboratories of participating faculty members. Inquiries and materials (3 letters of recommendation, vita, and relevant publications) should be directed to Dr. Peter W. Jusczyk, Department of Psychology, Park Hall - Box C, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260 (e-mail address: PSYPWJ@UBVMS.BITNET). No person, in whatever relationship with the State University of New York at Buffalo, shall be subject to discrimination on the basis of age, creed, color, handicap, national origin, race, religion, sex, marital, or veteran status. SUNY is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 10:17 U From: "Randy J. LaPolla" Subject: job: Academia Sinica, Taiwan The Linguistics Section of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica invites applications for two entry-level tenure-track research positions. The area of specialization is open, but preference will be given to those in Altaic linguistics, Austronesian linguistics, Chinese dialect studies, or the biological, psychological, or neural aspects of phonetics/phonology. Applicants already holding a PhD will be considered for the position of Assistant Research Fellow (equivalent to an Assistant Professor); applicants holding only a Masters will be considered for the position of Research Assistant. No teaching is required; these are purely research positions. The lowest salaries for these positions are NT$53280 (about US$2112/month) and NT$37970 (about US$1505) per month respectively, plus (substantial) bonuses. Applicants should send a vitae, transcripts from graduate school, an abstract of the MA thesis or dissertation (including the title, chapter by chapter summary, methodology, materials, and main conclusions), and three letters of recommendation to Professor Ho Dah-an, Head Linguistics Section Institute of History and Philology Academia Sinica Taipei 11529 Taiwan ROC The deadline for receipt of these materials is March 31, 1992. Those applying will be notifed of our decision around the beginning of March. Those notified of preliminary acceptence would then be expected to send the complete text of the thesis or dissertation by the end of April for evaluation. For more information, applicants should write to the address above or send e-mail to hsphil@twnas886.bitnet or hslapolla@twnas886.bitnet -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-33. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-34. Wed 15 Jan 1992. Lines: 146 Subject: 3.34 Diachronic lengthening, inflection development Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 10:03:20 EST From: bert peeters Subject: 3.26 Diachronic Lengthening 2) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 09:35 U From: "Randy J. LaPolla" Subject: Diachronic Development of Inflectional Endings 3) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1992 10:32:48 From: koontz@bldr.nist.gov (John E. Koontz) Subject: Re: 3.24 Queries: ...; Diachrony; ... -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 10:03:20 EST From: bert peeters Subject: 3.26 Diachronic Lengthening > Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1992 9:25:17 GMT-10:00 > From: Fran Karttunen > > In Nantucket, where I grew up, monosyllabic words ending in r were > pronounced as two syllables: > > door > dowa (can't do schwas on this keyboard either) > flour > flauwa (homophonous with flower) > beer > biya > there > theiya > > As a kid I thought it rather strange but chalked it up to the irrationality > of > English spelling. Later on Broadcast English and travel away from peripheral > New England showed me that it was a rather localized dialect feature. Ruth Blair (p.c.) tells me that in Australian English the word _law_ now seems to consist of two syllables: [lowa]. [a] endings in Australian English are rampant in replacement of schwas (e.g. moda for mother, fada for father, etc.) See you lada. (no publicity intended) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 09:35 U From: "Randy J. LaPolla" Subject: Diachronic Development of Inflectional Endings David Eddington asks "Are there languages thathave developed inflectional systems where there once were none?" It seems from the work I have been doing on Tibeto-Burman morphology that most if not all the inflectional morphology (not the derivational morphology) developed sometime after the breakup of Proto-Tibeto-Burman. That is, none (or almost none--and there are people who will disagree with me) is reconstructable to Proto-Tibeto-Burman, though many of the languages now have complex inflectional systems (both nominal and verbal). I have a paper coming out in Feb.'s issue of BSOAS on one type of verbal inflection, and another paper coming out in Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area (14.2 or 15.1) on one type of nominal marking. --Randy LaPOlla -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1992 10:32:48 From: koontz@bldr.nist.gov (John E. Koontz) Subject: Re: 3.24 Queries: ...; Diachrony; ... David Eddington asks: > ... The drift of the Indo-european languages has been toward the loss of > inflectional endings with the result that word order becomes crucial (as > well as prepositions) in determining case. Are there languages that have > developed inflectional systems where there once were none? I think I can safely say that the inflectional systems of the Siouan languages are at least observationally stable. The time depth of Siouan (as opposed to Siouan + Catawban) must be comparable to the time depth of the branches of Indo-European, but the inflectional systems are quite similar in detail, and, when different in detail, still similar in character. One has to assume that details have been variously retained or innovated in parallel. Inflection consists primarily of personal inflection in the verb: agent and/or patient, roughly, as appropriate to the sense. Secondarily, there are (a) a system of deriving verbs stems with dative, reflexive, reflexive possessive, reciprocal, etc., reference, which has syntactic implications, and might be regarded as inflectional; and (b) a separate, but comparable system of deriving stems with various applicative/locative senses which might also be regarded as inflectional. At least the formation of the first and second person agents, and some sort of proto-dative/reflexive possessive and must be of Proto-Siouan age, since these involve complex and irregular phonological patterns repeated across the family. Other systems, e.g., other pronominals or the applicatives, are universal, but so transparent in formation that they are open to interpretation as fairly recently absorbed proclitics. Pronominal markers like the inclusive or the third person indefinite, which are further from the stem than the applicatives may be similarly recent, though there are attested mechanisms in Siouan and elsewhere for metasthetizing elements in ways which make it impossible to considently date morphology by the "tree-ring" approach. In some cases inflectional markers in the Siouan languages are clearly recent innovations, e.g., the animate third person plural patient marker -wic^ha- in Dakotan, which seems to be an incorporated form of the free noun wic^ha's^a ~ wic^hasta `person; man'. It is also worth noting that the Siouan languages are extremely prone to supplementing relatively obscure markers or marker systems with more transparent ones, without replacing the original system, producing extensive pleonasm in the relevant paradigms. To summarize, the inflectional systems of the attested Siouan languages are composed of both inherited and innovated inflectional material, with the difference being sometimes difficult to determine, i.e., when inherited material may have been independent material at earlier stages. If the only inflections in Proto-Siouan are those that we can find attested today, whether clearly or ambiguously, then the attested Siouan languages have at least as much inflection as Proto-Siouan, and probably rather more. Returning to the question, I'm not sure if it is fair to say that Indo-European as a whole exhibits any overall trend to absolute loss of inflection, and the whole issue of trends in any sense save as ex post facto discoveries is fraught with pitfalls. There are IE languages with much less inflection than PIE (e.g., English), and some with about the same amount (e.g., Lithuanian or Hindi). In some cases the existing inflection is to a fair extent "original" (e.g., Lithuanian); in others it is to a greater extent innovated (e.g., Hindi). I am not going to fight to the death over these examples, if someone has other views of the matter. In my view all languages are simultaneously engaged in the twin (related) processes of losing and gaining inflectional systems, but sometimes one process or the other leads. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-34. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-35. Wed 15 Jan 1992. Lines: 71 Subject: 3.35 Swedish Linguists, Honkie, E-Prefix Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1992 11:17 IST From: Brenda Danet Subject: e-addresses sought, Swedish linguists 2) Date: Tue, 07 Jan 92 19:54:50 EST From: Henry Kucera Subject: Honkie 3) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 11:38:47 PST From: scobbie@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Jim Scobbie) Subject: "e-" prefix? -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1992 11:17 IST From: Brenda Danet Subject: e-addresses sought, Swedish linguists I am seeking the e-mail addresses of two Swedish linguists. They are: Britt-Louise Gunnarsson, FUMS, Uppsala University, and Per Linell, Dept. of Communication Studies, U. of Linkoping. Any leads on how to locate them will be most appreciated. (They are the organizers of the August 1992 conference on Discourse and the Professions). Thanks! Brenda Danet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 07 Jan 92 19:54:50 EST From: Henry Kucera Subject: Honkie Well, this one is about "honkie" that Bruce mentioned (from a Czech friend). I have never come across a Slavic word "hunk", whatever it may mean (what does it?; surely not reletaed to "hunk" - that's Austrian for one of the Kennedy clan). I always thought that "honkie" was a generalization of Hungarian (as a Central European prototype) originating in Chicago and suburbs where most of the WASPs could not tell the difference anyway. Am I wrong? H.K. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 11:38:47 PST From: scobbie@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Jim Scobbie) Subject: "e-" prefix? Paul.F.Schaffner@um.cc.umich.edu writes: >Regarding the query on Spanish and German e-Bibles... Is "e-" to be a general prefix now? -- James M. Scobbie: Dept of Linguistics, Stanford University, CA 94305-2150 scobbie@csli.stanford.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-35. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-36. Wed 15 Jan 1992. Lines: 92 Subject: 3.36 Queries: Computer Transcription, Wordstar, Verlan Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1992 10:35 EST From: Barbara Ruth Campbell Subject: IPA and Computer Transcription 2) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 07:48 PST From: Vicki Fromkin Subject: Wordstar and IPA 3) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1992 11:22 EST From: Hilary Sachs Subject: Verlan -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1992 10:35 EST From: Barbara Ruth Campbell Subject: IPA and Computer Transcription I don't know if this question will sound too unrealistic or not but after seeing segments on computer voice recognition systems I was wondering whether anyone has worked or plans on working on a computer system that would have people speak into a recorder and then the computer would encode the phonetic "bits" into IPA so that: Person A with Regional Accent from Place X reads a 1000 word passage Computer transcribes speech using IPA Person B learning English as a Second Language reads the same 1000 word passage Computer transcribes speech using IPA Transcriptions are compared for differences between speaker A and Speaker B in the hopes that Speaker B can see the phonetic differences in graphic form between his/her own speech and that of the target speaker. Or Speaker A tries to modify his/her speech to match that of a someone speaking Standard American Network English. Any comments? Is there such a system? If not, could one be devised? Does anyone think that such a system might help in accent modification or learning a target language or teaching an actor to emulate the accent of a target area? Barbara Ruth Campbell Ph.D. student in Information and Communication Science Rutgers University Campbell@Zodiac.Rutgers.Edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 07:48 PST From: Vicki Fromkin Subject: Wordstar and IPA Is there anyone out there who uses Wordstar and knows about IPA fonts for it? Would be very very grateful. (or even Word for Windows?) Vicki Fromkin -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1992 11:22 EST From: Hilary Sachs Subject: Verlan I'm looking for some info on Verlan, the French word game. What I'd really like are some examples, say in popular texts/magazines, rather than scholarly articles (this is for a French class I'm teaching). Thanks, Hilary Sachs (direct email is best: sachs@utkvx.utk.edu) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-36. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-37. Wed 15 Jan 1992. Lines: 80 Subject: 3.37 CTI Computor Resources Guide Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 13:44 GMT From: STUART@VAX.OXFORD.AC.UK Subject: CTI Centre for Textual Studies _Resources Guide_ -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 13:44 GMT From: STUART@VAX.OXFORD.AC.UK Subject: CTI Centre for Textual Studies _Resources Guide_ Dear All, The Computers in Teaching Initiative (CTI) Centre for Textual Studies is one of twenty subject-specific centres which exist to promote and support the use of computers in higher education teaching. The CTI Centre at Oxford is aimed at aiding academics in the subjects of Literature, Linguistics, Philosophy, Logic, Theology, and Theatre Arts and Drama. We are currently updating our Resources Guide which lists and describes available software. We would appreciate any information about further software which should be included in this Guide, available sources of electronic text, and any relevant articles published in 1991 for inclusion in the bibliography. The list of software covered in the March 1991 guide is as follows: AskSam 4.1a The Beowulf Workstation CCAT-PHI CD-ROM CDWord Cognate Language Tutor Collate Construe GOfer Guide Hypercard Hyperdoc 2.10 Ibycus Scholarly Computer Intermedia Lbase 5.0 LogicWorks MacLogic OED on CD Oxford Concordance Program (OCP) and Micro-OCP The Oxford Text Archive Oxford Text Searching System Pandora Past Masters Perseus STELLA TACT Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) WordCruncher 4.3 Please contact Caroline Davis at the following address with any suggestions. Many thanks in advance. Caroline Davis Research Officer CTI Centre for Textual Studies University of Oxford Computing Services 13 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 6NN Tel: 0865 273221 E-Mail: CAROLINE@UK.AC.VAX --------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-37. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-38. Wed 15 Jan 1992. Lines: 67 Subject: 3.38 Iconicity in Demonstratives Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 13:32 CST From: "FRANK R. BRANDON" Subject: Re: 3.4 Demonstratives 2) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 17:31:43 +0000 From: HUMA1@FRCICT81.bitnet Subject: Iconicity in Demonstratives -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 92 13:32 CST From: "FRANK R. BRANDON" Subject: Re: 3.4 Demonstratives RE Iconicity in demonstratives. No need to go far afield. In Portuguese, este, esse, aquele (this near me, that near you, that near him/her/it) the vowel pattern is exactly the same. Ditto for the feminine and neuter. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 17:31:43 +0000 From: HUMA1@FRCICT81.bitnet Subject: Iconicity in Demonstratives Here are some examples about an other african bantu language : Kirundi(Burundi,central africa, field J Language).In Kirundi demonstrative have three maine proximity positions. 1.uyu muntu "this person "/aba bantu "those persons" iki kintu "this thing"/ibi bintu "those things" 2. uyo muntu "that person"/abo bantu "these persons" ico kintu "that person"/ivyo rintu "those things" 3. urya muntu "that preson"/barya bantu "those persons" kirya kintu "that..."/birya bintu "that..." In the first position we have :hese three vowels (/a/i/u/).In the second position, the vowel/o/ is regulary in the demonstrative.The third position is characterised by /a/.The demonstrative is regulary integrated in the class concord system.After considering this system of morphologic changes, we find out the demontrative structure as this : pr+e(first position); pr+o(second position); pr+a(third position);(pr = class concord prefix). First and second positions, as deictc positions (-e, -o) are effectively marked by more closed vowels than the one of the third position . Joseph Bigirumwami University of Burundi. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-38. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-39. Wed 15 Jan 1992. Lines: 291 Subject: 3.39 FYI: Romance Conference Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 15:18:37 MST From: FD00000 Subject: Romance conference -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 15:18:37 MST From: FD00000 Subject: Romance conference LINGUISTIC SYMPOSIUM ON ROMANCE LANGUAGES XXII University of Texas at El Paso and Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez February 20 - 23, 1992 Preliminary Program THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20 Keynote Address Carlos Otero, University of California, Los Angeles "From Nebrixa's grammar (1492) to Cartesian language theory" FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21 University of Texas at El Paso Session I Karen Zagona, University of Washington "Spanish adjectival secondary predicates, time adverbs and subevent structure" Raffaella Zanuttini, Johns Hopkins University "Are there negative quantifiers in Romance?" BREAK Session II Jose Lema, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana "Distinguishing copular and aspectual auxiliaries Spanish ser and estar" Edward J. Rubin & Almeida J. Toribio, Cornell University "Feature-checking and the syntax of language contact" Paula Kempchinsky, University of Iowa "The subjunctive in Spanish language contact and generative linguistics" BREAK Keynote Address Yolanda Lastra, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico "Is there an Indian Spanish?" LUNCH Session IIIA (concurrent with Session IIIB) Gorka Elordieta & Jon Franco, University of Southern California "On the status of sequences of liquids in southwestern Romance" Jean-Pierre Montreuil, University of Texas at Austin "Coda weight and vowel length in Quebec French" S. J. Hannahs, University of Delaware "Glide formation, prefixation and the phonological word in French" Daan De Jong, Universite de Montreal/Free University sterd "Derivational and representational aspects of French schwa" Session IIIB (concurrent with Session IIIA) Maria Isabel Martinez, University of Rochester "Bare NPs and VP constituent structure in Spanish" Barbara Vance, Harvard University "Three types of inversion in Old French and the loss of V/" Claudia Parodi-Lewin, University of California, Los Angeles "Verb incorporation in XVth and XVIth century Spanish" Josep M. Fontana, University of Pennsylvania "Old Spanish as a Germanic language the recovery of the syntax of the Cid" BREAK Session IVA (concurrent with Session IVB) Francisco Ocampo, University of Minnesota "The word order of constructions with a verb, a subject, and an object in spoken Spanish" William J. Ashby, University of California, Santa Barbara "French presentational structures" Chantal Melis, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico "On the syntactic development of the construction IR (+A) + INFINITIVE in Medieval Spanish" M. Trevor Shanklin, University of the Azores "Theseus out of the labyrinth" Session IVB (concurrent with Session IVA) Marianna Pool, El Colegio de Mexico "Non-thematic datives in Spanish" Yolanda Rivera-Castillo, University of California, Davis "A reanalysis of Caribbean Spanish pronominal enclitics" Pilar Pinar, University of Arizona "Clitic doubling and `scrambling' in Spanish" Johan Rooryck, Indiana University "Clitic ordering in Romance imperatives restricting Relativized Minimality" RECEPTION at Hoover House, hosted by President Diana Natalicio. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22 Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez Session VA (concurrent with Session VB) Irene Vogel & Donna Jo Napoli, Univ. of Delaware & Swarthmore College "Verb stems in Italian morphology" Richard D. Janda, University of Chicago "Veni, vidi, vici vs. vine, vi, venci On multiple systems for marking `past' in the Spanish preterite" Peter R. Petrucci, University of Southern California "The historical development of Rumanian /i/" Fernando Martinez-Gil, Georgetown University "A formal theory of geminate simplification in Proto-Spanish" Session VB (concurrent with Session VA) Michel F. DeGraff, University of Pennsylvania "Predication in Haitian se vs. French ce and c'est" Geraldine Legendre, University of Colorado "On French small clauses" John Charles Smith, University of Manchester "A syntactic characterization of measure complements in the Romance languages" Hector Campos, Georgetown University "Silent objects and subjects in Spanish" BREAK Keynote Address Bernard Tranel, University of California, Irvine "The representation of French final consonants and related issues" LUNCH Session VI Alfonso Morales, University of Illinois, Urbana-Chpaign "About deletion rules in Catalan" Rafael Nunez-Cedeno, University of Illinois, Chicago "The alterability of geminates in Spanish" Maria Carreira, California State University, Long Beach "Spanish spirantization as a syllable contact process" W. Leo Wetzels, Nijmegen "Testing phonological rules the nativization of Portuguese words in Maxacali" BREAK Session VII Almeida Jacqueline Toribio, Cornell University "A focus construction in Caribbean Spanish" Deborah Lynn Arteaga, Northeastern University/University of Washington "On Old French genitive constructions" Mark Davies, University of Texas at Austin "Explaining diachronic shifts in Spanish and Portuguese causative constructions" Chiyo Nishida, University of Texas at Austin "A categorial analysis of Old Spanish pronominal clitics" BREAK Round Table Discussion "Language and Conquest in the Americas" Participants: Yolanda Lastra, Carlos Otero (others to be announced) BANQUET SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23 Westin Paso del Norte, Salon D Session VIII Margarita Suner & Carmen Lizardi, Cornell University "Dialect variation in an argument/adjunct asymmetry" Maria Uribe-Echevarria, University of Connecticut "On the nature of SPEC/IP and its relevance for scope asymmetries in Spanish and English" Errapel Mejias-Bikandi, University of California, San Diego "The VP-internal subject hypothesis and Spanish sentence structure" Juan Martin, University of Southern California "Wh-agreement in Spanish" BREAK Keynote Address Denis Bouchard, Universite du Quebec  Montreal "Primitives, Metaphors, and Grmar" Alternates Syntax/Semantics Rosa J. Garcia B. Cordova, University of Arizona "Anchoring Bello's copreterito" Pascual Jose Masullo, University of Washington "Bare nominals, reanalysis and head-government in Spanish" Graziella Saccon, Harvard University "Redefining the definiteness effect evidence from Northern Italian dialects" Phonology Sharon Hargus & Pascual Masullo, University of Washington "Spanish spirantization in prosodic phonology" Michael L. Mazzola, Northern Illinois University "Indirect phonology and French segments" PREREGISTRATION INFORMATION: Regular: $25 Students: $15 Banquet: $25 Preregistration deadline is February 7. Send check (payable to Dept. of Lang. & Ling./UTEP) to: LSRL Registration Dept. of Languages & Linguistics University of Texas at El Paso El Paso, TX 79968-0531 HOTEL INFORMATION: A block of rooms at special rates have been reserved at the Westin Paso del Norte. 1 person $60 2 persons $70 Reservations must be made by January 23 to get this rate. You must mention "Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages". To make reservations, call: 800-228-3000 or 915-534-3099 E-MAIL DIRECTORY General information: Jon Amastae Program schedule: Grant Goodall Registration: Marianne Phinney Crash space/roommates: Mario Montalbetti  -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-39. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-40. Thu 16 Jan 1992. Lines: 209 Subject: 3.40 Conferences: NELS, Japanese/Korean, Systemic Workshop Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 14:38:58 EST From: Lisa Reed Subject: call for papers 2) Date: 16 January 1992, 01:54:22 PST From: HOJI.at.USCVM@tamvm1.tamu.edu Subject: 3rd Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference 3) Date: Thu, 16 Jan 92 13:03:14 +0100 From: noel@BANRUC60.bitnet Subject: 4th Nottingham International Systemic Workshop -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 14:38:58 EST From: Lisa Reed Subject: call for papers THE TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NORTH EASTERN LINGUISTIC SOCIETY (NELS 23) will take place at the University of Ottawa, October 16, 17, and 18, 1992. Abstracts are invited for twenty minute papers on any aspect of theoretical linguistics. Abstract deadline: July 15, 1992. (Abstracts received after this date will not be considered.) Abstracts should be anonymous, one page (8 1/2" x 11"), single-spaced, with a minimum of one inch margins on all sides, in 12 point (or 12 pitch) type or larger. An additional page with references only may be included. No more than one individual and one joint paper per person will be considered. Send ten copies of the abstract together with a 3" x 5" card indicating the title of the paper, authors' addresses and affiliations, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses to the following address: Yoko Harada and Lisa Reed NELS 23 co-chairs Department of Linguistics University of Ottawa 78 Laurier Avenue, East Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5 Canada PREREGISTRATION: Preregistration fees are $15 (Canadian) for students and $25 for others. Deadline: September 16, 1992 Please send cheque or money order in Canadian dollars (U.S. dollars will not be discounted), payable to NELS 23 at the above address. On-site registration fees will be $25 for students and $40 for others. FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Telephone: (613) 564-4207 FAX: (613) 564-9067 e-mail: NELS23@acadvm1.uottawa.ca -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: 16 January 1992, 01:54:22 PST From: HOJI.at.USCVM@tamvm1.tamu.edu Subject: 3rd Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference CALL FOR PAPERS THE THIRD SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JAPANESE/KOREAN LINGUISTICS CONFERENCE SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY AUGUST 14 - 16, 1992 Keynote Speaker: Dr. Seok Choong Song (Michigan State University) Deadline for the Submission of Abstracts: March 31, 1992 This conference is intended to provide a forum for presenting research in Japanese and Korean linguistics, thereby facilitating efforts to deepen our understanding of these two languages which have striking typological similarities. The third Japanese/Korean Linguistics conference will be held at San Diego State University. Papers in Japanese and Korean linguistics are invited for presentation at the conference; papers comparing the two languages are especially welcome. Potential topics include, but are not limited to: syntax, semantics, phonology, morphology, pragmatics, historical linguistics, typology, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, language acquisition, and discourse. Presentations are 20 minutes long, and will be followed by a short question period. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is March 31, 1992. Abstract submissions should be sent to one of the addresses below, and should include: 1) Six (6) copies of a one-page abstract with a title; name and affiliation should be omitted from the abstract. The one-page limit should be strictly observed; the second page may be used only for references. 2) A 3" by 5" card with the title of the paper, the name of the author(s), the mailing address of the author, and the author's affiliation, phone number and e-mail address or e-mail contact. If your summer address, phone number and e-mail address will be different, BE SURE to include your summer information as well. 3) A self-addressed, stamped postcard if you wish to be notified that your abstract has been received. Syntax, semantics, morphology and phonology: Prof. Hajime Hoji Dept. of Linguistics University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-1693 hoji@uscvm.bitnet Other topics: Prof. Patricia Clancy Dept. of Linguistics UC Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106 pclancy@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu Authors of accepted papers will be notified immediately after review by e-mail or by telephone (in early May). Information about accomodations along with the conference program will also be sent out in May. (Questions about accomodations and the conference site should be addressed to the e-mail address: soonja@ucsvax.sdsu.edu) Pre-registration fee for the third J/K Linguistics conference: $10 for students and $15 for non-students Checks should be made out to: J/K Linguistics Conference Checks should be sent to: Soonja Choi Department of Linguistics San Diego State University San Diego, CA 92182 Deadline of pre-registration: June 1st, 1992. On-site registration fee: $15 for students and $20 for non-students. The first SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JAPANESE/KOREAN LINGUISTICS CONFERENCE was held in August, 1989 at UCLA; its proceedings have been published as "Japanese/Korean Linguistics" by CSLI (The Center for the Study of Language and Information) and are distributed by the University of Chicago Press. The proceedings of the second conference will also be published by CSLI. The book "Japanese/Korean Linguistics" can be ordered either directly from the Press or through a local bookstore. UCP's address: 11030 S. Langley Ave., Chicago, IL 60628. Orders may also be placed by phone at 800-621-2736. Any questions that cannot be answered by Chicago can be directed to CSLI. (E-mail address: publications@csli.stanford.edu.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Thu, 16 Jan 92 13:03:14 +0100 From: noel@BANRUC60.bitnet Subject: 4th Nottingham International Systemic Workshop 4TH NOTTINGHAM INTERNATIONAL SYSTEMIC WORKSHOP 31ST JULY TO 3RD AUGUST 1992 CALL FOR PAPERS Following the success of the previous workshops, we are pleased to announce that a Fourth Systemic Workshop will be held in Nottingham next summer - once again over a period of THREE days. The main topic will be GENRE and workshop sessions will explore aspects of different GENRES. Two days of the workshop will be devoted to papers and discussion under the main heading. However, to reflect the on-going interest in our previous topics, the third day will be devoted to sessions on THE EXCHANGE an on THEME. For further information write to: Dr. Gerald Parsons Dept. of English Studies University of Nottingham NG7 2RD England -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-40. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-41. Thu 16 Jan 1992. Lines: 170 Subject: 3.41 Clusters; X and a Half; Pronouns; Inflection Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 16:36:26 MET From: hartmut@ruc.dk (Hartmut Haberland) Subject: Re: 3.26 Breaking up clusters 2) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 13:03+0000 From: Heberlein@ku-eichstaett.dbp.de Subject: breaking up consonant clusters 3) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 15:09:17 EST From: Martha Hsu Subject: Re: 3.26 Diachronic Lengthening 4) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1992 17:38:31 PST From: "Don W." Subject: "Youse" 5) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 21:50:42 EST From: "George Fowler h(317)571-9471 o(812)855-2829" Subject: RE: 3.26 Diachronic Lengthening 6) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 09:09:26 +0100 From: Hr. Gehrke Subject: Re: 3.13 X and a Half; S --> NP NP 7) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 12:37:46 -0500 From: dever@pogo.isp.pitt.edu (Dan Everett) Subject: Re: 3.34 Diachronic lengthening, inflection development -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 16:36:26 MET From: hartmut@ruc.dk (Hartmut Haberland) Subject: Re: 3.26 Breaking up clusters Has anybody commented on the feature of Hiberno-English (Anlo-Irish) that makes people (at least in Dublin) pronounce film like fillum etc.? There is a Chinese takeaway in Dun Laoghaire called 'The Yellow Pearl' and I always thought that this was a pun since it's homophonous or almost so with 'The yellow peril'. (Next door is another Chinese takeaway with a punning name, The Rice Paddy.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 13:03+0000 From: Heberlein@ku-eichstaett.dbp.de Subject: breaking up consonant clusters I am late to this discussion, but i'd like to add the well known example of Latin, e.g. greek HeraKLes -> lat. HerCULes AlKMene -> AlCUMena For more info see Pfister, Lateinische Lautlehre and Leumann, Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre. Fritz Heberlein -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 15:09:17 EST From: Martha Hsu Subject: Re: 3.26 Diachronic Lengthening One example of reinforcing the pluality of the 2nd person, you, that I have not seen mentioned can be heard in the Ohio Valley, around Wheeling, W.Va.: you'uns, as when a waitress asks, "Do you'uns want anything else?" The last time I was there, I heard a more elaborate form: You'all'uns. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1992 17:38:31 PST From: "Don W." Subject: "Youse" I've also seen the 2nd-plural pronoun spelled "yous," that is, you + s for the plural (region: northeastern Wisconsin). Don W. DonWebb@CSUS.EDU -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 21:50:42 EST From: "George Fowler h(317)571-9471 o(812)855-2829" Subject: RE: 3.26 Diachronic Lengthening Dennis Baron asks about the possible development of a two-word pronoun. I have "you all" quite regularly as the plural of "you", which is strictly singular. What is more, I have a unique possessive form, again quite naturally in my speech: "your all's". Think about that: I take the possessive pronominal form "your" corresponding to the first half of the compound pronoun, then cliticize 's to the second part. It has its own twisted logic. I grew up in Chapel Hill, NC (till age 12), Lexington, KY (to age 21), by which time this system was firmly in place. George Fowler Dept. of Slavic Languages Indiana University -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 09:09:26 +0100 From: Hr. Gehrke Subject: Re: 3.13 X and a Half; S --> NP NP in german, to my knowledge as a natuve speaker, there is one instance of the 'X and a half'-construction. It is the idiom "auf einen Narren anderthalbe setzen" ( to put on one fool one and a half). it roughly means to answer to the stupid actions or statements of some one else by an even more stupid behaviour. manfred gehrke -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 12:37:46 -0500 From: dever@pogo.isp.pitt.edu (Dan Everett) Subject: Re: 3.34 Diachronic lengthening, inflection development Regarding the development of inflectional systems, it seems that pronouns in Piraha (Muran) were borrowed initially from Tupi-Guarani, specifically, from the Lingua Geral or Nheengatu, and that these have developed or are developing into an ergative agreement system. Piraha has only three pronouns, *hi* `3P', *ni* `2P', and *ti* `1P'. (In Nheengatu, the former lingua franca of the Amazon region, the same forms are found with the same meanings.) There are no number or case distinctions. Moreover, there is no evidence that Piraha had any other pronouns prior to this borrowing. These pronominals are usually realized as clitic-forms and allow clitic doubling of subject or direct object. A few words of Piraha origin also can be used as clitics, e.g. *?ao* `nonmeat food', and *?is* `meat/animal'. Although there are examples of doubling both subjects and direct objects of transitive clauses, it is far more common to double only the subject of an intransitive or the object of a transitive: (1) Taoa ?aohoi ?ao -ho -ai -p -hai. name manioc nonmeat-eat-atelic-imp.-relative certainty `Taoa will eat manioc.' (2) Ko?oi hi ?aibogi-sai. name 3P fast -be `Ko?oi runs.' The clitic forms of Piraha origin are transparently related to longer words, so that *?ao* `nonmeat' is the shortened form of *?aohoi* `manioc' and *?is* `meat' is the shortened form of *?isi* `meat'. These facts seem to suggest, then, that Piraha has developed inflectional agreement morphology fairly recently - based on borrowing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-41. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-42. Thu 16 Jan 1992. Lines: 44 Subject: 3.42 Linguistics on the BBC Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 23:02:40 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Linguistics on BBC -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 23:02:40 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Linguistics on BBC On March 30, BBC is supposed to air on its "Horizons" program a documentary about the recent activity on so-called "long range" comparison of languages. I am chagrined to report that the producer, who I have spoken to about this, intends to presents only one critic of this kind of work, whereas numerous "long rangers" on three continents have been filmed. Moreover, the only criticism that is supposed to be presented (as far as I could find out, and I did press the point) is by somebody at Penn who is supposed to be proposing some kind of statistical argument that some of the "long-range" comparisons could be due to chance (or something like that). Finally, as far as I can tell, the show is heavily weighted in favor of those who believe that they have already succeeded in demonstrating the monogenesis of the world's languages and even in reconstructing (some of) Proto-World. Needless to say, I am saddened by this prospect, and am wondering if anyone out there (esp. linguists in the UK) has any idea how to try to talk BBC out of this travesty. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-42. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-43. Thu 16 Jan 1992. Lines: 78 Subject: 3.43 Synaesthesia, Infiniteness Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 09:23:34 -0800 From: slobin@cogsci.Berkeley.EDU (Dan I. Slobin) Subject: Re: 3.24 Queries: Synaesthesia, Diachrony, WH-Questions 2) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 00:51:08 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: 3.8 Are Languages Infinite? -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 09:23:34 -0800 From: slobin@cogsci.Berkeley.EDU (Dan I. Slobin) Subject: Re: 3.24 Queries: Synaesthesia, Diachrony, WH-Questions Synaesthesia: A classic study is Brown, R. W., Leiter, R. A., & Hildum, D. C. (1957). Metaphors from music criticism. _Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology_, 54: 347-52. They found agreement among musically naive listeners in assigning "non-auditory sense terms" to recordings of sopranos, tenors, and baritones (e.g. cool, dry, thick, chromium, closed, coarse). Roger Brown gives the following interpretation (_Words and Things_, 1958, pp. 148-9): "The principal sensory dimensions of the world are the same for men everywhere and are named in all languages. Though each of these dimensions is primarily associated with one receptor system its essential quality is inter-sensory. The quality is first detected in one sense modality and is named at that stage. Afterward the quality is detected in many other phenomena that register with other senses. The original name tends to be extended to any experience manifesting the criterial quality. And so it happens that unrelated languagesx extend their vocabularies of sensation in similar fashion. So it happens, too, that people in one language community can identify the basic inter-sensory qualities in operatic voices and exttend their vocabularies accordingly." Dan Slobin (slobin@cogsci.berkeley.edu) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 00:51:08 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: 3.8 Are Languages Infinite? Stavros Macrakis wonders why I said that: ...the union of the set of even natural numbers with the set of primes which I happen to know is infinite although again not well-defined. The point is that the set of even natural numbers is an infinite set, and a well-defined one, but the the set of primes which I happen to know is not well-defined (because, for example, for some numbers I am not sure whether they are prime or not) but certainly is finite. The union of the two is, of course, infinite (because the even natural numbers are infinite) but is not well-defined (because the primes I know are not well-defined). I would submit that it is appropriate to think of NLs in this way, (i.e., discuss their mathematical properties such as finiteness vs. infinitude, (non)context-freeness, etc. even if they are not well-defined). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-43. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-44. Sat 18 Jan 1992. Lines: 244 Subject: 3.44 Is, is Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 18:24:08 CST From: GA5123@SIUCVMB.bitnet Subject: Summary of responses on "is is" 2) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 21:27:15 CST From: GA3704@SIUCVMB.bitnet (Margaret E. Winters) Subject: Re 3.18 Is, is 3) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 14:07 EST From: BARBARA PARTEE Subject: Re: 3.29 Is, is 4) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 92 07:11:38 CST From: Nancy L. Dray Subject: Is is (3.18, 3.29) -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 18:24:08 CST From: GA5123@SIUCVMB.bitnet Subject: Summary of responses on "is is" I thank all who responded to my inquiry about "the reason is, is...", both publicly and privately. The latter include Claudia Brugman, Will Fitzgerald, Caroline Heycock, Karen Jensen, Louise McNally, Thomas E. Payne, Steve Ryberg, and Arie Verhagen. Here are the main points made: 1) "Is is" occurs in many places in the U.S., and in that sense it is not regional (Philadelphia, Michigan, California, N.Y., D.C., N.C., Kansas City, Colorado, Boston, state of Washington,...). 2) "Logical" Standard-English prototypes suggested for "is is" are a) a complement NP that is an interrogative clause, with inversion ("The question is, is it feasible?"). b) a free relative used as subject NP ("What the cause is, is that people generalize from one datum to another"). 3) References: --David Tuggy presented a paper on "is is" at the 2nd meeting of the International Cognitive Linguistics Association, at Santa Cruz last summer. Maybe watch for publication in _Cognitive Linguistics_. --Michele Emanatian, as a student, wrote a paper on it, in which she cites [Dwight] Bolinger as an early observer of the phenomenon. I presume this would be the article cited on the List. 4) More data: I did not just imagine "is was" -- Karen Jensen also has heard it; Tuggy's paper reputedly shows why it's "is was" but not "was is". Steve Ryberg has heard a *triple* "is", and my wife confirms that she also has heard this (not from me!). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 21:27:15 CST From: GA3704@SIUCVMB.bitnet (Margaret E. Winters) Subject: Re 3.18 Is, is At the Second International Cognitive Linguistics Conference last August in Santa Cruz David Tuggy (SIL) gave a paper called "The Thing Is Is That People Say It That Way. The Question Is Is Why?". He discussed various motivations for these double copula constructions with some examples where the copulas didn't even match in tense: The reason is was that they didn't understand (for example). He can be reached at SIL (Box 8987 CRB, Tucson, AZ 85738. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 14:07 EST From: BARBARA PARTEE Subject: Re: 3.29 Is, is I just discovered that I'm subject to anti- "is,is" hypercorrection. Last night at a candidates' forum I jotted down what I thought was a nice example of an is,is construction that occurred on the fly, only to realize after I read it over that it was perfectly grammatical: "What the temptation to do will be (Pause) is to raise tuition." What I think the thing of it wuz wuz, wuz more embedding than I could process. Barbara Partee partee@cs.umass.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 92 07:11:38 CST From: Nancy L. Dray Subject: Is is (3.18, 3.29) I've been collecting examples of this construction for years, intending eventually to write something on it, so now that this has appeared on Linguist I feel I should at least send some data. All of the examples given below are attested, and in none of these utterances did it appear that the speaker was making a correction or simply hesitating. [Disclaimers: my comments on relative frequency and acceptability are based only on subjective impressions. The examples given below are selected from whatever I could find near the surface of the heap (or rather, my sophisticated filing system...); although I believe they are fairly representative, they don't display the full range of possibilities. re MIXED TENSE: Of the mixed-tense forms, "was is" is pretty frequent; "would be is" and other combinations with modals are also not unusual: - "Well, their first question was is what are you doing driving around in this car..." - "My only question would have been is..." (This example given to me by Peter T. Daniels, another linguist who has been collecting these for years.) Anything other than "is" for the second verb is less usual, although "was was" certainly occurs: - "The funny thing was was that I was transferred onto your other (phone) line (rather than fully disconnected right away)." As for "is was", I'm pretty sure I've never heard it, and from my rough understanding of how this construction works I would not expect it to occur (or at least I would expect that the contexts in which it could arise would be very infrequent; I'm still unsure about whether or not this is ruled out altogether); cf., however, the following attested utterance in which a shift like this occurs, although the presence of the two verbs in this case, as in "what the thing is is..", is syntactically expected : - "This is just a note from me that I should have deleted, but all it [i.e. the point of the note] really is was that [S]". As for "was" in second position after something other than another "was" (e.g., "the problem has always been was"?), I don't think I've collected any, but there may be contexts in which such combinations could occur. re STRESS AND PAUSES: Several people have mentioned patterns of stress, pauses, and intonation that are characteristic of this construction. I'd like to complicate the picture by noting that there are actually several patterns: (1) The first "is" can be stressed and followed by a pause and then a second "is", which can be very reduced: The problem IS, is (that)... (2) Both "is"'s can be stressed, with no pause between the two, but rather a pause following the SECOND "is": The problem IS IS, (?that)... Note also: The PROBLEM is, is that.. *The PROBLEM is is, that... ??The PROBLEM is, that... [As Tom Shannon also noted, it is odd to resume with "that" rather than "is that" after the pause here.] Compare these with the following, where I believe it is normal for all speakers to have single, never double, "is": The PROBLEM(,) is that ... Of course to look only at "Det N is is" as I have in this section is to vastly oversimplify this. -------------------------------------------- Some very hasty overall comments (less than fully baked...): I think it's crucial to look at how this construction arises in actual discourse. In the mixed-tense forms especially we can see some difference between the role of the first occurrence of the apparent copula and the role of the second, and looking more closely at those examples may shed some light on the more usual "is is" utterances as well. One thing that may be relevant is that the first part of "is is" utterances (e.g., "The problem is...") is typically more "meta"-- it tells what the second part is to be taken as and how it fits into the larger discussion--while the second part presents itself as substance. Thus the tense of each may be determined in relation to a different level of structuring in the discourse, a different stance in relation to the content. Re the introductory phrase as a unit (cf. Ellen Prince's apt description, "the string gets sort of glommed together"): I think we need to understand better what it means for something to be a unit in the PRODUCTION of discourse and how that may lead to its being treated as in some sense a unit in relation to the syntax. I'd like to see more, too, about the discourse conditions that produce what some have been referring to as a "resumptive" copula. To further this last suggestion, I offer the following collection of odd (but attested) uses of "is" in discourse: (1) "It just seems to me is what you're dealing with is..." (2) "...and you know what else I wanted to tell you? is that [S]." (I noted that there was some question intonation in "what else I wanted to tell you" and only a slight pause between "you" and "is".) (3)"All it's saying is is that you're being paid out of the grant." (4)"There was something that I was thinking about the other day was that [S]." (5)"That clarifies something about the parable about the ten wise and ten foolish virgins which has always bothered me, is that [S]." (6)"Actually Kostas mentioned something that hadn't occurred to me, is that I think actually if somebody..." (7) Said by my mother about how she was settling into a new apartment: "I don't have much in the way of good lighting in this apartment, is what I haven't figured out yet." (8)"You know who has weird gestures is [proper name]." (9)"She's [proper name]'s secretary is what I think she is." (10)"I can get a cup of coffee and bring it back. Maybe I SHOULD really do that, is get a cup of coffee and bring it back to [place]." (11)"This is the part that I really enjoy about these classes, is the camaraderie." Well, that's about it. Sorry to try your (you-all's? your-all's?) patience with such a long posting--I hope it is not inappropriate-- and thank you for motivating me to finally make a stab at gathering this stuff together. I hope it may be of some use. I've actually omitted a fair bit of commentary, so if any of you are interested, please write me. Likewise if you have further comments, references, or intriguing examples--I continue to be interested in this and look forward to reading other postings and the various articles that have mentioned. Nancy L. Dray dray@sapir.uchicago.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-44. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-45. Sun 19 Jan 1992. Lines: 89 Subject: 3.45 Queries: Grad Schools, World Languages, Typology, Syncope Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1992 09:57 EST From: I'm not short, merely vertically challenged. Subject: Appropriate graduate schools 2) Date: Sat, 18 Jan 1992 11:52:37 GMT-10:00 From: Fran Karttunen Subject: query on world's languages 3) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 92 16:51:32 MEZ From: Martin Haase Subject: database systems for typology 4) Date: Sun, 19 Jan 92 12:08:46 CST From: Caroline Wiltshire Subject: query -- phrasal syncope -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1992 09:57 EST From: I'm not short, merely vertically challenged. Subject: Appropriate graduate schools There is a student here who is interested in issues of language planning, as related to sign language in the Third World. Does anyone out there have ideas on which graduate schools are strongest in that area? Thanks. Susan Fischer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sat, 18 Jan 1992 11:52:37 GMT-10:00 From: Fran Karttunen Subject: query on world's languages Where could I find some reliable projections of how many languages were spoken in the world in 1900, how many have ceased to be spoken since then, how many are likely to cease to be spoken within the next generation or two, and maybe also how many languages worldwide are thought to have ceased to be spoken since the initiation of the voyages of discovery? Thanks, Frances Karttunen -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 92 16:51:32 MEZ From: Martin Haase Subject: database systems for typology Has anybody some experience with using a database system for research in language typology? What system is preferably used? Do you have experience with programs such as SYBASE, ORACLE, 4th-DIMENSION, or others? Long or too specific answers can be send directly to me. Martin mhaase@dosuni1.bitnet (or:) @dosuni1.rz.Uni-Osnabrueck.de -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Sun, 19 Jan 92 12:08:46 CST From: Caroline Wiltshire Subject: query -- phrasal syncope Can anyone point me to a language that has syncope in phrases which results in clusters or syllable shapes not found in words? I'm wondering whether this ever happens in normal (i.e. not fast nor casual) speech. Please address answers to me and I'll summarize if there's general interest. Thanks in advance. Caroline Wiltshire -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-45. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-46. Mon 20 Jan 1992. Lines: 145 Subject: 3.46 Update on Yale Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sat, 18 Jan 92 13:23:09 EST From: Larry Horn Subject: The Restructuring of Yale Linguistics -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sat, 18 Jan 92 13:23:09 EST From: Larry Horn Subject: The Restructuring of Yale Linguistics Last February, the Committee on Restructuring the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale was constituted and charged with reducing the size of the Faculty as part of an overall plan to meet what has been claimed to be a serious financial problem facing the university, caused in part by a deteriorating physical plant that will demand the influx of over $100,000,000. Originally 15% of all faculty positions were to be marked for elimination (largely through attrition), but this figure was later scaled back to 10-12%. It was held that by eliminating "weaker" departments entirely, crippling across-the-board cuts could be avoided. Linguistics was identified as one of the departments that might be selected for reduction, repositioning, or elimination. The department, under my chairmanship, has spent the last several months preparing documents, soliciting support internally and externally, and making the case before the committee for the preservation of a cohesive linguistics program, whether in an autonomous department or as a program within a larger budgetary unit, as at Cornell, Brown, MIT, and elsewhere. We stressed not only the rich and varied tradition in both histori- cal/comparative and descriptive/theoretical linguistics at Yale, but also the quality of the faculty and the students (both graduate and undergraduate) our program has attracted and the actual and potential interactions between our department and others, as well as the strong link between Yale and Haskins Labs that linguists have helped establish and maintain. My sense is that virtually none of this material made an impact on those with the power to determine our future. In any case, after several delays, the Restructuring Committee released its report this Thursday (January 16), recommending the elimination of two departments, Linguistics and Operations Research. Other departments that had been threatened with extinction were either downsized but preserved (Sociology, Engineering) or left intact (Statistics). Philosophy, with five vacant senior positions, was not affected; the committee found that "given the University's strength in the Humanities, Yale needs a strong Philosophy Department". Clearly, this reasoning was not applied to Linguistics. It should also be noted that despite the earlier reasoning, virtually every department in the Arts and Sciences WAS subjected to cuts, thereby calling into question the rationale for eliminating some departments completely. Further, the 10 junior-faculty-equivalent positions that are claimed to be saved by eliminating Linguistics will only be saved once all current faculty retire or leave; since senior faculty will be retained in other departments, their relocation does not result in any savings. What WILL be saved are three junior faculty positions (assuming that Yale University plans no coverage in phonetics, phonology, morphology, or syntax) and the salary of our administrative assistant. Why linguistics? Two reasons were given in the Committee's report. I quote directly from the document: "The Yale Linguistics Deparment was founded on traditional strengths in historical linguistics. Since the late 1960's, however, when the discipline itself underwent significant change in its approaches to theoretical and structural linguistics, the Yale department has had difficulty offering a balanced program and attracting students." I find these claims ludicrous, as must everyone who passed through Yale as a student or faculty member in linguistics over the last two decades. Within a program that has always been small, and that has become smaller as retirees have not been replaced, we have consistently offered a wide spectrum of courses in historical, experimental, and descriptive & theoretical linguistics. It is hard to think of programs, even those much larger than ours, that have been as balanced. (Perhaps it was felt that we overemphasize human language, but no claim of speciesism was directly made.) Nor have we experienced difficulty in attracting strong graduate students (from this country and abroad) or top-rank undergraduate majors. It is quite possible, of course, that these were not the actual reasons why the Committee "reached consensus" in recommending that the Department of Linguistics be discontinued and that no autonomous program associated with another department be instituted. Our difficulty in completing senior searches has also been noted, although recent cases include one in which an offer was made but not acted upon because of spousal considerations not germane to Linguistics, and another in which a search was suspended and then terminated by the adminstration. (The Department also unanimously supported for tenure Donka Farkas, who after being turned down through abstentions from members of the Humanities Appointments Committee immediately received tenured offers from outstanding linguistics programs at the University of Washington and U. C. Santa Cruz.) Other departments at Yale with similar or more severe recruitment problems were not penalized, at least not with the death penalty. As for the logistics, the phase-out will be gradual, and will not become complete while the current first- and second-year graduate students are still pursuing their degrees in residence here. As you know from my earlier posting, we have been authorized to appoint a syntactician in a terminal three-year slot to supervise student research and offer courses in linguistic theory. We have been told that reappointments of our current junior faculty members will be authorized through this period as well. By 1995 or 1996, however, if the Committee's recommendations are approved unaltered by the Yale Corporation, there will be no formal program of linguistics at Yale. Whether or not an interdepartmental linguistics major can be offered will depend on there being a quorum of linguists with sufficient resources and good will to collaborate in organizing such a major. I am not optimistic that there will be. One last point: normally, before a university considers as drastic an action as terminating a department, much less one with the traditional excellence of the Yale Linguistics, it constitutes an ad hoc external committee of scholars in the relevant discipline to examine the program and provide objective assessments of its strengths and weaknesses and objective recommendations for its future. This was not done in our case. You can write to me for further details. If you desire to express your opinion on the recommendation of the Restructuring Committee, you can write to the Provost (who is also the chair of the Committee) at the following address: Frank M. Turner, Provost 117 HGS Yale University New Haven, CT 06520 Please send a copy of your letter to me: Laurence Horn Chair, Dept. of Linguistics 1504A Yale Station Yale University New Haven, CT 06520 Faculty comment is solicited over the course of the next month, and we will be urging Yale faculty outside our department to support the continuation of a linguistics program at Yale. Outside letters, especially those from linguists of those knowledgeable about linguistics who are situated outside linguistics departments, would be useful to us in marshalling this support. Articles on Restructuring at Yale in general, and its effect on Linguistics in particular, have appeared in the New York Times (front page yesterday), Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, and are scheduled to appear in subsequent issues of Time and of Science. While there is no reason for wild optimism, we remain confident that there is a possibility that with properly reasoned and focused objections, the Committee might modify its recommendations or, if not, that the recommendations might not be endorsed by the Corporation. Stay tuned for further developments. Larry Horn P.S. While thanking Michael Covington for his support, I must admit to being a generative grammarian, as well as to being a rather INformal semanticist. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-46. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-47. Mon 20 Jan 1992. Lines: 96 Subject: 3.47 Update on LINGUISTS Nameserver Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 12:49 MET From: "Norval Smith (UVAALF::NSMITH)" Subject: An electronic namecard for (some) linguists -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 12:49 MET From: "Norval Smith (UVAALF::NSMITH)" Subject: An electronic namecard for (some) linguists AN ELECTRONIC NAMECARD FOR LINGUISTS - using the FINGER command As it is not at the moment feasible to include more information in the LINGUISTS nameserver at LINGUISTS@ALF.LET.UVA.NL (HELP to this address if you are not familiar with this facility) than bare e-mail address information, for various reasons which we will spare the reader, I would like to point out that many many users who are on the INTERNET have in fact such a facility at their fingertips. This is the FINGER command available on many systems, which will supply you with information on users of other systems. The beauty of this command is that you don't even have to know a username, just a name will do. The drawback is that you have to know a MACHINE name, which is not always the same as a valid e-mail address. Often these are in fact the same, as with ATHENA.MIT.EDU, or networked computers are so linked that a partial address will suffice, as with RVAX.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU, where CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU will do. An example to the point is a mail address of mine: nsmith@sara.nl which is not "fingerable", but steers mail to an account: a533onsh@diamond.sara.nl which is a "fingerable" address. What is nice about FINGER is that usually (sorry, users on ATHENA) you can decide what additional information is added to the basic info. that the computer will automatically generate. The standard basic info. reveals whether you are logged on or not, when you last logged on if you are not logged on at the moment, and (this is potentially embarrassing) when you last READ your e-mail! You can add additional information in a PLAN (standard .plan on UNIX systems), such as addresses, phone number, fax number, specialities, and anything else you care to mention, such as periods of absence, where you can be reached while you are away, etc. There are three standard variants of the FINGER command, which you enter at your default prompt (not the MAIL> prompt). 1. finger @machine.name This will return a list of all the users logged on at that moment. Replace @machine.name with the relevant computer name, e.g. crazyhorse.edu 2. finger surname@machine.name This will return a list of all users with that surname, and tell your their e-mail addresses if different into the bargain. Replace surname with the relevant name. 3. finger username@machine.name This will give the basic info. on the user, plus any information he has provided himself in his plan file. Replace username with the actual username. The bare finger command will return a list of local users, and finger name or finger username will return the relevant info. I propose to add to the e-mail list info. as to whether an address may be "fingered" (if linguists wish to make this information public). a. for an existing address that can be "fingered": send to LINGUISTS@ALF.LET.UVA.NL the following message: remove surname, firstname: username@existing.machine.edu add surname, firstname: username@existing.machine.edu F b. for an existing address that cannot be "fingered", where there is another address that can be fingered: add surname, firstname: username@new.machine.edu F c. in other cases do nothing. Bitnet addresses cannot be fingered, although there is a limited national registration system available via NETSERV. Ohio State University has a local nameserver on OSU.EDU which supplies basic finger info. on all users on any system there. Usage is: finger name@osu.edu Norval Smith -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-47. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-48. Mon 20 Jan 1992. Lines: 155 Subject: 3.48 Publications: Systemic, WH-Criterion Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 92 12:19:37 +0100 From: noel@BANRUC60.bitnet Subject: Occasional Papers in Systemic Linguistics 2) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1992 06:32:14 +0000 From: Robin Clark Subject: University of Geneva Technical Reports -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 92 12:19:37 +0100 From: noel@BANRUC60.bitnet Subject: Occasional Papers in Systemic Linguistics NEW PUBLICATION !!! OCCASIONAL PAPERS IN SYSTEMIC LINGUISTICS Volume 5 Contents: Christian Matthiessen & James R. Martin (Sydney): A response to Huddleston's review of Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar Rodney Huddleston (Queensland): Further remarks on Halliday's Functional Grammar - A reply to Matthiessen & Martin Alan Garnham (Sussex): Where does coherence come from? A psycholinguistic perspective. Peter Ragan (Embry-Riddle, Florida): Functions and Communicative Language Teaching Carol Taylor Torsello (Trieste): How Woolf creates point of view in "To the Lighthouse" - An application of systemic-functional grammar to a literary text To reserve your own personal copy write to: Hilary Hillier Dept. of English Studies The University of Nottingham NG7 2RD England Contributions to OPSL and correspondence about contributions should be sent to: Dirk NOEL School of Translation and Interpreting (HIVT) University of Antwerp (RUCA) Schildersstraat 41 b-2000 Antwerpen BELGIUM E-mail: noel@banruc60.bitnet Each volume of OPSL costs only 7.25 Pounds Sterling. Payment should be made by (1) a personal cheque drawn on a British bank, (2) a Eurocheque or (3) a postal money order, all payable in Sterling. All other cheques or money orders are acceptable only if an equivalent of 5 Pounds is added to cover bank charges. Cheques or money orders should be made payable to Univ. of Nottingham/OPSL". -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1992 06:32:14 +0000 From: Robin Clark Subject: University of Geneva Technical Reports Technical Reports in Formal and Computational Linguistics Robin Clark, Luigi Rizzi, Eric Wehrli Editors Department of Linguistics University of Geneva No 3: Adverbial Positions and Second Language Acquisition ---Liliane Haegeman (50 pages) The Wh-Criterion is the principle which determines the S-structure distribution and LF interpretation of wh-operators. Residual Verb Second is a cover term for construction-specific applications of I to C movement in non V-2 languages (Subject-Aux inversion in English, Subject clitic inversion in French, obligatory inversion in Italian interrogatives, etc.). This papers argues that residual V2 is triggered in order to satisfy the Wh-Criterion and other related well-formedness conditions. Price: 10.-- SFr (within Switzerland) 15.-- SFr (outside Switzerland) Also Available: No 1: Papers on Learnability and Natural Selection ---Robin Clark (144 pages) Price: 15.-- SFr (within Switzerland) 20.-- SFr (outside Switzerland) No 2: Residual Verb Second and the Wh Criterion ---Luigi Rizzi (28 pages) Price: 7.50 SFr (within Switzerland) 12.50 SFr (outside Switzerland) To order, or for further information, contact: FCLREP@uni2a.unige.ch Technical Reports Department of Linguistics University of Geneva CH-1211 Geneva 4 We accept either Mastercard or Eurocheques, made payable to ``Technical Reports''. Please include the following information with your order: Name: Address: Volume(s) Requested: Mastercard #: Expiration Date: Please indicate whether you want the volume(s) sent by Airmail (the default is surface mail). For airmail, add 10.-- SFr per volume to the total price. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-48. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-49. Mon 20 Jan 1992. Lines: 90 Subject: 3.49 Job: Native American Linguistics Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1992 16:17 CET From: Nicholas Ostler Subject: jobs -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1992 16:17 CET From: Nicholas Ostler Subject: jobs University of St Andrews Institute of Amerindian Studies Teaching & Research Fellowship in Amerindian Studies Following the assignment of funds for Amerindian Studies at the University of St Andrews by the University Funding Council, an appointment will be made to a Teaching and Research Fellowship in Native American Studies (Linguistics, Linguistic Anthropology and/or Comparative Literature). The post will be held in the Institute of Amerindian Studies, which is closely associated with Social Anthropology and Linguistics, and provides an option for the Honours Degree in Spanish. The appointment will be at the appropriate point on the Lecturer Grade A Scale (12,690-17,593 pounds sterling), and will be taken up by October 1st 1992. It will be tenable for two years until September 30th 1994, and may be extended. The Institute of Amerindian Studies continues the work of the Centre for Latin American Linguistic Studies, founded in the Department of Spanish by thelate Professor Douglas Gifford, and recognized by the University Court in1968. Courses in Amerindian languages are given, and research interests have included Quechua, Aymara, Guarani, Mapuche, Nahuatl and Hispanic-American dialectology. The successful candidate will be involved in developing Native American Studies at St Andrews, and will work closely with the present Director, Tristan Platt (social anthropology; Andes; orality and literacy; colonialism and ethnicity; history). He/she should be an active postdoctoral (or equivalent) researcher in the field of Amerindian languages and culture, with theoretical interests in dialectology, textuality and/or ethnohistory. Specialized language knowledge should be balanced by a comparative linguistic and/or anthropological perspective. Experience with computer- assisted language teaching will be welcome. Quality will be sought in any Latin American language area, including the Andes and Mesoamerica; but if several likely candidates present themselves, a lowland South American language specialist may be preferred, to complement the existing Andean programme. Duties will be mainly postgraduate teaching and research. He/she will be expected to provide supervision and teach courses for the M.Phil. in Amerindian Studies, publish research results, and seek outside funding for new research projects. Some help with resource development at the Institute of Amerindian Studies will be expected. A small amount of undergraduate teaching may be required in the second year of the appointment. Further particulars may be obtained on request from Tristan Platt, Amerindian Studies, The University, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ, United Kingdom. Application forms can be obtained from Personnel Services, College Gate, North Street, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ, United Kingdom, and should be returned, together with two references, by March 31st 1992. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-49. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-50. Mon 20 Jan 1992. Lines: 52 Subject: 3.50 Phonological Software Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Editorial Assistant: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sat, 18 Jan 92 19:11 CST From: "FRANK R. BRANDON" Subject: PC Software for Phonological Analysis -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sat, 18 Jan 92 19:11 CST From: "FRANK R. BRANDON" Subject: PC Software for Phonological Analysis Fonol 4.2.1 -- Phonological theory/rule simulation software -- latest release. Fonol is designed as a kind of tool box for setting up variants of phonological theories in the general generative camp and its successors and then developing and testing phonological rules and matrices on data. It allows for: Standard phonological rules. Transformations. Paren- thesis, curly brace, and variable conflation. Cycles, iteration, and dis- junctive ordering of rules. Greek letter variable features. Input condi- tions, output conditions, conditions on variables in rules, and starring forms. Theories and models are set up by selectively using features of the Fonol system. Flags can also be set to determine the way rules are inter- preted and how rule reapplication (cycles, iteration) functions. There is support for checking data for residue, comparing models and rules, keeping track of versions of rules, selective display of results, and preserving records and data. All documentation is thoroughly indexed and can be searched and read online. A set of 'kitchen-sink' demo files are supplied to try to illustrate as many system features as possible. Fonol continues under development with the objective of covering as many theories and variants as possible. User input is welcome. Fonol runs on any MS-DOS machine and is available by anonymous ftp from sites which have copies of the Simtel-20 archives, for example: wuarchive.wustl.edu (or wsmr-simtel20.army.mil itself). Once you have logged in, change directories to the mirrors/msdos/linguistics directory and get Fonol421.zip as a binary file. If you have any problems, let me know. -- Frank R. Brandon brandon@gamma.is.tcu.edu brandon@tcucvms.bitnet -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-50.