________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-251. Mon 16 Mar 1992. Lines: 116 Subject: 3.251 Specificity Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1992 08:32:54 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Hopper Subject: Re: 3.233 Queries: Specificity, French, Quasi-Natives, Font 2) Date: Sun, 15 Mar 92 00:28:48 -0500 From: lojbab@grebyn.com (Logical Language Group) Subject: specificity - reply to M. Newman -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1992 08:32:54 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Hopper Subject: Re: 3.233 Queries: Specificity, French, Quasi-Natives, Font Michael Newman's perceptive observation that "semantic" categories like +/- specific, +/- referential and so on that are derived from imagined sentences are impossible to apply to real live data opens up a whole book on linguistic methodology and the nature of linguistic data, doesn't it. One page in this book is Talmy Givon's paper "Logic vs. pragmatics, with human language as the referee" (Journal of Pragmatics 6.1:1982), and the work Givon and his students & colleagues did in the 1980's on "topic continuity" (see T. Givon ed. 1983, _Topic Continuity in Discourse_, in which questions of the relationship between "referentiality" and grammar are discussed from a quantitative perspective for a variety of languages.) There's much, much more, of course. - Paul Hopper -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sun, 15 Mar 92 00:28:48 -0500 From: lojbab@grebyn.com (Logical Language Group) Subject: specificity - reply to M. Newman Michael Newman : Re your posting on specificity. I'm not sure whether it helps, but all of your example sentences get translated into Lojban using a 'feature' orthogonal to the +/-specificity one, that does not apply to the "the richest woman in town" example. That is the "feature" of massification. Each of your numbered examples are expressed in Lojban using "mass nouns" since Lojban can express any 'noun' as a mass noun. Analogizing back to an understandable English example you can get the sample sentence "John spilled [SOME] WATER from ITS basin", where I believe the optional quantifier "some" may indicate specificity, but need not force it. Without the quantifier, the mass noun seems clearly non-specific (although the "its" clearly points back to the non-specific portion being described). Yes, there is some specific water associated with any given basin, but there is no indication in the sample sentence that a specific basin is being referred to, hence the water itself is generic. With the quantifier, the reference could still be non-specific, except that it is selecting a non-specific "some" portion out of the mass of water. Mass nouns can exhibit either generic and specific properties in Lojban. In English, however, we almost always flag the specific with "the" or a quantifier like "some" and usually omit it with generic mass nouns. But sometimes English treats non-mass nouns as masses, and the kind of confusion of your sample sentences results. Sometimes, but not always, the descriptor is omitted. In your examples (2) and (3), the word "these" could be omitted, while it could be added in (1), with no obvious change in meaning. (Perhaps it is being included as a kind of agreement with the later possessive). > (2) you know THESE MORAL COMMANDOS who want us to think THEIR way and > want to change what we can hear and see and think in this country are > dangerous. . . Here the "commandos" are being massified. There are a set of (persons) possibly describable as "moral commandos". Consider the whole set as a mass. A portion, but not necessarily all of the mass, "want us to think THEIR way". There is no statement being made about a portion of "moral commandos" who might not "want us to think their way". Such a portion might or might not exist. The generic mass is being restricted to the degree necessary by the restriction of whether specific portions (i.e. individuals) want us to think their way. Returning to the water analogy, and repeating: "John spilled [SOME] WATER from ITS basin" Here "water" is being massified. There is a mass substance, described as "water". Consider the entirety of water as a mass. A portion, not necessarily all of the mass, was "spilled ... from ITS basin". There is no statement being made about a [the] portion of "water" that might not have been spilled, or might not even have been associated with a basin. The generic mass of water is being restricted to the degree necessary, by whether specific portions were associated with some basin and spilled from it by John. There is no necessity in the water example that the speaker have a specific basin in mind. The basin is restricted by association with some water that spilled from it (and with John who spilled it), and the water is restricted by association with a basin spilled from (and with John). ---- lojbab = Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 lojbab@grebyn.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-251. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-252. Mon 16 Mar 1992. Lines: 93 Subject: 3.252 Queries: Chinese, Caramazza, Aspect, Italian Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 13:13:35 GMT From: Dr M Sebba Subject: Linguistics for Chinese students 2) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 00:56:13 EST From: MAXFIELD@PORTLAND.bitnet (thomas maxfield) Subject: a Caramazza reference? 3) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 11:38:32 EST From: molsen@astrid.ling.nwu.edu (Mari Olsen) Subject: query: aspect 4) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 13:36:06 EST From: Michelle_Vanni@NL.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: Italian corpora -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 13:13:35 GMT From: Dr M Sebba Subject: Linguistics for Chinese students I don't have a solution to Warren Brewer's problem, but have a related problem and request. I teach an introductory Syntax course where about fifty per cent of the students (this year, at least) are Chinese speakers - mostly Cantonese. I asked students on this course to do a small scale study of the syntax of their own language: the Chinese students complained that there was nothing in the library that they could use to help them. I would be grateful if anyone knows of coherent, up-to-date descriptions of Chinese which are at a level accessible to undergraduates - preferably at least some in English, so that I can read them myself! Mark Sebba -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 00:56:13 EST From: MAXFIELD@PORTLAND.bitnet (thomas maxfield) Subject: a Caramazza reference? a friend is interested in a paper that Caramazza gave at the CUNY Sentence Processing Conference about 3 years ago on word reading in people with visual field neglect. anybody know if this occurs in print? thanks, tom -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 11:38:32 EST From: molsen@astrid.ling.nwu.edu (Mari Olsen) Subject: query: aspect Could someone please refer me to any literature on aspect, aktionsart and tense from a machine translation standpoint? I would especially appreciate work on English, German, Spanish and Greek. Thank you. Mari Broman Olsen Northwestern University molsen@astrid.ling.nwu.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 13:36:06 EST From: Michelle_Vanni@NL.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: Italian corpora Does anyone know how/where I could access on-line corpora in Italian? Preferably, the corpus would be representative of various text types but any leads would be helpful. Thanks in advance. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-252. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-253. Mon 16 Mar 1992. Lines: 180 Subject: 3.253 Pro-Drop Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 16:17:36 +0100 From: nuyts@ccu.UIA.AC.BE Subject: Pro-Drop References 2) Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1992 10:12:15 GMT From: MCCONVELL_P@DARWIN.NTU.EDU.AU Subject: Pro-Drop acquisition 3) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 12:04:31 EST From: Geoffrey Russom Subject: Re: 3.246 Pro-Drop -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 16:17:36 +0100 From: nuyts@ccu.UIA.AC.BE Subject: Pro-Drop References Some time ago I asked for references on the use of pronouns in pro-drop languages, on behalf of a colleague of mine. Below is a list of references she compiled on the basis of your responses (some of them are unfortunately incomplete). Thanks a lot to all those who have replied. If you want to get in touch with her (her name is Luisa Martin-Rojo), her email-address is luisa@ccuam3.sdi.uam.es. Jan Nuyts ************************************************************************ Akmajian, Adrian, 1984. "Sentence Types and the Form-Function Fit". Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 2, 1-23. Barton, Elena, 1990. Nonsentential Constituents, Amsterdam: Benjamins. Bentivoglio, Paoloa, 1983. "Topic continuity and Discontinuity in Discourse: A Study of Spoken Latino-American Spanish". T.Givon, Topic Continuity in Discourse: A Quantitative Cross- Language Study. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 255-311. Fern ndez Soriano, Olga, 199?. "Strong Pronouns in Null-Subject Language and the Avoid Pronoun Principle" Fleischman, Suzanne, 1991. "Discourse Pragmatics and the Grammar of Old French: A functional Reinterpretation of 'si' and the Personal Pronouns". Romance Philology 44/3, 251-283. Haiman, John, 1991. "From V/2 to Subject Clitics: Evidence from Nothern Italian". E. Traugott & B. Heine, Approaches to Grammaticalization, Amsterdam: Benjamins. Lapolla, Randy, 1990. Grammatical relations in Chinese: Synchronic and Diachronic considerations. PhD Dissertation, University of California: Berkeley. Li, Charles N, & Thompson, Sandra, 1979. "Third-person Pronouns and Zero-anaphora in Chinese Discourse". Talmy Giv"n (ed.), Syntax and Semantics, vol.12: Discourse and Syntax. New York: Academic Press, 311-335. Liceras, Juana, 1989. "On some properties of the "pro-drop" parameter: looking for missing subjects in non-native Spanish". Linguistic perspectives on Language adquisition, Cambridge University Press. Napoli, Jo, 1982. "Initial Material Delection". English Glossa 16, 85-111. Ping, Chen, 1984. "A discourse analysis of third person zero anaphora in chinese". Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistic Club. -, 1987. Referent Introducing and Referent Tracking in Chinese narrative. PhD Dissertation: UCLA. -, 1987. Nangu Lingxing huizhi de huayu fenxi (A discourse anylisis of zero anaphora in CHinese). Zhongguo Yuwen 5, 363-378. Rigau, Gemma, 1986. "Some remarks on the nature of strong pronouns in null-subjects languages". Ivonne Bordelois, Heles Contreras, Zagona (eds.), Generative Studies in Spanish Syntax. Dordrecht: Foris. -, 1987. "Sobre el car cter de cuantificador de los pronombres t"nicos en catal n". V. Demonte and M., Fern ndez Lagunilla, Sintaxis de las lenguas romances. Madrid: El Arquero. -, 1989. "Connexity Establised by Emphatic Pronouns". Maria Elisabeth Conte, Janos S. Petfi, Szen (eds.), Text and Discourse Connected. Schwarts, Arthur, 1975. "Verb-anchoring and verb-movement". Li, Charles N (ed.), Word order and word order change. Austin: University of Texas. Schmerling, Susan, 1973. Subjectless sentences and the notion of surface structure. (ref:cotelinc.cis.upenn.edu.) Silva-Croval n, Carmen, 1983. "Tense and aspect in oral Spanish: context and meaning". Language 59, 761-780. Tao, Liang, 1986. "Clause linkage and zero anphora in Mandarin Chinese", Davis Working Papers in Linguistcs 1, 36-102. Thrasher, Randolph, Hallet, 19784. Shouldn't Ignore this Things: A Study of Conversational Delection. Michigan University. microfilm. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1992 10:12:15 GMT From: MCCONVELL_P@DARWIN.NTU.EDU.AU Subject: Pro-Drop acquisition I have no specific references to supply to Chris Sciglitano, who is investigating input to children learning pro-Drop languages. I would like to raise a related query, which contributors may wish to discuss on Linguist, or about which they could send me references directly. I work on Australian Aboriginal languages, many of which (particularly the non-Pama-Nyungan ones) have complex verb morphology including reference to subject, objects and often other arguments; independent subject and object pronouns are rarely overtly present except for emphasis. It has been reported to me anecdotally that speakers of at least some of these languages use a simplified register to young children in which the verb morphology is simplified and independent pronouns are used much more. I do not know of any published description of this phenomenon. I have been unable to study it because with all such languages that I have worked on, use of an English based creole has replaced any such child register. This kind of language is very common on a world scale and I would be very interested to learn of related phenomena. It seems to me that this has implications for theories of historical change. There seems to me to be a bias towards regarding cliticisation and morphologisation of pronouns as a natural phenomenon. I have studied some cases where the opposite process seems to have occurred - loss of crossreference morphology and restoration of free pronouns. This may result from "creolisation" - implying some disturbace in inter-generational transmission. However if simple child registers exist, the source of the new non-Pro-Drop language may not be so mysterious as is sometimes implied. Patrick McConvell, Anthropology, Northern Territory University, PO Box 40146, Casuarina, NT 0811, Australia -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 12:04:31 EST From: Geoffrey Russom Subject: Re: 3.246 Pro-Drop Early Germanic verse usually deletes pronouns, but some late Germanic verse uses them much more often and they are also used much more often in prose. The usual way of explaining this is to say that movement of stress to the first syllable in Germanic languages made personal endings vulnerable to reduction, impoverishing INFL to the point where personal pronouns had to take over some of its functions. Pronouns served well for this purpose because they retained overt inflectional morphology longer than nouns (still do, to a certain extent). This all antedates creolization of English by French. The fixed syntax of Modern English follows French influence, but already in OE lexical nouns most often observe a canonical order, and the pronouns that often appear "out of order" toward the beginning of the clause are distinctly case-marked (unlike some nouns which had lost subject/object distinctions of case quite early). The movement of stress onto the first syllable would appear to constitute a major commitment to the root as against the inflectional ending, so this may be a case of the sort you have in mind. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-253. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-254. Mon 16 Mar 1992. Lines: 102 Subject: 3.254 Job: Russian Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 92 18:38:06 HNE From: "Le Flem C. D." Subject: Tenure-Track Position in Russian -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 92 18:38:06 HNE From: "Le Flem C. D." Subject: Tenure-Track Position in Russian LAVAL UNIVERSITY QUEBEC, CANADA The Modern Languages and Linguistics Department at Laval University invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position in Russian at the rank of Assistant Professor to commence August 1, 1992. TEACHING AREAS: Russian Studies, Second and Foreign Language Didactics and/or Linguistics. RESPONSIBILITIES: teaching Russian, Linguistics and/or Language Didactics; research in Language Didactics and/or in Linguistics; supervision of M.A. and Ph.D. theses. QUALIFICATIONS: Ph.D. in Russian Linguistics or in Language Teaching (including Russian). Native-speaker knowledge of Russian and excellent command of French. Experience in teaching Russian and in research in Linguistics. Publications in either of the above-mentioned fields. Ability to work well in groups. Laval University implements a policy of employment equity including affirmative action for women. CLOSING DATE: 29 May 1992 Send curriculum vitae, copies of representative publications, the names of three referees, and the names of former and present employers, if applicable, to: Monsieur le directeur Departement de langues et linguistique Faculte des lettres Pavillon Charles-De Koninck, 2289 Universite Laval, Quebec CANADA G1K 7P4 N.B.: In accordance with Canadian immigration requirements, priority will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents. UNIVERSITE LAVAL QUEBEC, CANADA Le Departement de langues et linguistique de l'Universite Laval ouvre un concours pour un poste de professeur de russe a temps complet. Le poste devra etre pourvu le 1er aout 1992. DESCRIPTION DU POSTE Enseignement dans les programmes d'etudes russes et de didactique des lan- gues secondes et etrangeres et/ou de linguistique, notamment de cours de langue et de linguistique russes et/ou de didactique des langues. Recherche en didac- tique des langues et/ou en linguistique. Encadrement d'etudiants de 2e et de 3e cycles. QUALIFICATIONS: Doctorat en linguistique russe ou en didactique des langues (dont le russe). Excellente connaissance du russe (niveau langue maternelle) et du francais. Experience de l'enseignement du russe et experience de la recherche universi- taire en linguistique. Dossier de publications dans l'un ou l'autre des domai- nes susmentionnes. Aptitude au travail en equipe. L'Universite Laval applique un programme d'acces a l'egalite qui consacre la moitie des postes vacants a l'engagement de femmes. DATE DE CLOTURE DU CONCOURS: le 29 mai 1992 Faire parvenir un curriculum vitae complet et a jour, un exemplaire des princi- pales publications, ainsi que le nom, l'adresse de trois repondants et, le cas echeant, la liste des employeurs, a: Monsieur le directeur Departement de langues et linguistique Faculte des lettres Pavillon Charles-De Koninck, 2289 Universite Laval, Quebec CANADA G1K 7P4 N.B.: Conformement aux exigences prescrites en matiere d'immigration au Canada, la priorite sera accordee aux citoyens/nes canadiens/nes et aux residents/es permanents/es. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-254. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-255. Mon 16 Mar 1992. Lines: 128 Subject: 3.255 FYI: Online Spanish, Hayakawa & Bolinger Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 13 Mar 92 11:35:11 -0500 From: morenoa@OSCAR.CS.NYU.EDU (Antonio Moreno-Sandoval) Subject: On-Line Spanish Resources 2) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 21:10:52 PST From: Geoffrey Nunberg Subject: Hayakawa and Bolinger -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 13 Mar 92 11:35:11 -0500 From: morenoa@OSCAR.CS.NYU.EDU (Antonio Moreno-Sandoval) Subject: On-Line Spanish Resources Prof. Marcos-Marin has asked me for adding this extra information about the monolingual corpus that is being developed by the Sociedad Estatal Quinto Centenario: An oral corpus of a million words is now available; Carmen Restoy is not longer involved in the project; and people interested should contact Prof. Marcos-Marin BY SNAIL MAIL or FAX. This is the address: Prof. Francisco Marcos-Marin Industrias de la Lengua Aravaca, 22 bis 28040 - Madrid, SPAIN FAX: +34 -1 535 0129 Regards, Antonio Moreno -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 21:10:52 PST From: Geoffrey Nunberg Subject: Hayakawa and Bolinger Several people have written me to ask for a copy of the piece on Dwight Bolinger and S. I. Hayakawa that ran as one of the language features I do on the NPR program "Fresh Air." So I'm attaching it here. This aired on Februrary 4. Geoff Nunberg When former Senator S. I. Hayakawa died last week at 85, the San Francisco Chronicle described him as "one of the nation's specialists in semantics and linguistics," and the New York Times called him "a noted scholar." That's probably overstating things a bit. But it was a life lived by language, and it took him on a remarkable course. He was an obscure professor of English in 1941 when he wrote a surprise best-seller called Language in Action. It was a popularization of the curious theories of the Polish-born philosopher Alfred Korzybski, who held that misunderstanding and social pathologies are the results of a uncritical acceptance of the patterns of "Aristotelean logic" that are implicit in our speech. The book was not serious scholarship, and Korzybzki's theory of "general semantics" has remained something of a cult. But Language in Action deserves credit for awakening a lot of Americans to the insidiousness of totalitarian propaganda, a decade before Orwell developed the theme in earnest. Language in Action taught a healthy skepticism about the mischief that language could do. But as time went by Hayakawa's mistrust of language seemed to deepen, to the point where he came to believe that some forms of speech were too dangerous to be permitted. As president of San Francisco State University, he came to sudden political prominence during the student unrest of 1968 when he banned all campus speeches, and the national media broadcast pictures of him jumping on top of a platform to rip out the wires of an amplifying system being used at a rally of student strikers. He became a symbol of hardnosed suppression of campus activism, a reputation he parlayed into a Senate seat in 1976. After he retired from the Sentate in 1982, he devoted himself to a campaign to make English the official language of the United States. That was how I met him a couple of years later, when we found ourselves on opposite sides in a Stanford University debate about the English-only question. Perhaps he had mellowed by then, but I saw little of his celebrated feistiness. He was courtly to me and polite even to the angry students who tried to beard him in the question period. But the deep suspicion of language remained. He spoke of the need to prohibit foreign-language billboards and television programs. He warned that language minorities could become breeding grounds for sedition and political separatism. He seemed to have lost his earlier faith that people in a free society would make the right decisions about language for themselves. When Dwight Bolinger died last week just a couple of days before Hayakawa, the loss was chiefly felt in the small field of linguistics. The irony here is that Bolinger was the genuine article -- one of the most distinguished semanticists of the age, with an uncanny ear for the nuances of words. Of course Bolinger spent most of his life in academic cloisters like USC and Harvard writing scholarly books and papers. So far as I know, his only foray into electoral politics was to serve as president of the Linguistic Society of America and some other professional associations. But he also believed that language was too important to be left a purely academic preoccupation. In a wonderful popular book called Language, The Loaded Weapon, he wrote that the the manipulation of language was "the most devastating form of social control [of our time]." At times the book sounds like Hayakawa's Language in Action -- and in fact Bolinger is one of the few mainstream linguists to have talked seriously about Hayakawa's work. The difference is that Bolinger never lost faith that the remedy for abuses of speech was more speech. He wrote that people had to "reassert the public ownership of language;... [it should] take its place alongside of diet, traffic safety, and the cost of living as something that everybody thinks about and talks about." I don't know why Bolinger's popular writings never got the wide audience that Hayakawa's did. It may be that he lacked Hayakawa's gifts as a controversialist. It would be hard to imagine him interrupting somebody he disagreed with, much less pulling the plug on them. Nor was he much of a hand at the keening derision of the pop grammarians. He did the best he could with civility and good sense, and I suppose he won as large a readership as he could have reasonably expected. Maybe every age gets the linguists it deserves. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-255. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-256. Mon 16 Mar 1992. Lines: 68 Subject: 3.256 Linguistic Discourse Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 09 Mar 92 17:51:49 EST From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: erratum 2) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 13:23 CST From: GUNDEL@vx.acs.umn.edu Subject: Re: 3.234 Linguistic Discourse 3) Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1992 16:09:20 -0800 (PST) From: Phil Gaines Subject: Re: 3.234 Linguistic Discourse -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 09 Mar 92 17:51:49 EST From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: erratum in my last posting on linguistic discourse, i was talking about correspondence between leonard bloomfield and roman jaKobson, not leonard bloomfield and polly jaCobson. (maybe i should get one of these spell checkers you all keep writing about...) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 13:23 CST From: GUNDEL@vx.acs.umn.edu Subject: Re: 3.234 Linguistic Discourse Thank you Vicki Fromkin and Ellen Prince for bringing some 'light' into this discussion. Jeanette Gundel -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1992 16:09:20 -0800 (PST) From: Phil Gaines Subject: Re: 3.234 Linguistic Discourse As a new linguistics grad student, I was delighted to find out that I wasn't the only person on earth who played little mind games with words and sounds in language when I was a kid. One fellow student said that every linguistics person she had talked to about this did the same thing. For us, language was intriguing, fascinating--in short, fun. Now, we've grown up and are getting graduate degrees, teaching jobs, tenure, book contracts. Such serious things! Maybe I'm still just naive, but I've decided to try my best not to let something I got into for the sheer intellectual joy of it be an occasion for alienating another human being. What's to get acrimonious about? This isn't AIDS, or the Brazilian rain forests, or nuclear weapons. This is theoretical linguistics; let's have fun with it! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-256. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-257. Tue 17 Mar 1992. Lines: 128 Subject: 3.257 Spanish el/la, Teaching Linguistics, OVS Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 09:53:45 EST From: jharris@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: Spanish 2) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 13:34 MST From: CAROLG@CC.UTAH.EDU Subject: Re: 3.241 Linguistics In The Press 3) Date: Sun, 15 Mar 92 22:29 CST From: "FRANK R. BRANDON" Subject: Teaching 4) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 92 23:59:54 EST From: Paul.H.Borchers@um.cc.umich.edu Subject: OVS -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 09:53:45 EST From: jharris@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: Spanish The 1 Mar posting on Spanish by Alexis Manaster Ramer (AMR) is a good informative introduction for readers unfamiliar with the topic, but as far as I can detect it contributes no new insight to careful discussions in the literature. In particular: 1. Coverage of dialect variation is incomplete (it was not intended to be otherwise). Perhaps the most interesting case not mentioned is that of , discussed at the LSA meeting in Chicago, 1991. 2. The other side of the variation coin is that there are millions of speakers of dialects in which the facts are clear and stable -- e.g. is invariably masculine and regular in every way, is invariably feminine but takes despite unstressed initial , compounds like and diminutives like are invariably feminine but predictably take , speakers unhesitatingly pick for AMR's hypothetical feminine carriage or gazelle, and so forth and so on. AMR's posting suggests that "to the extent that there are speakers who say [...]" something different, theoretical claims based on such clear and invariable data "would appear to be on shaky ground". But since the theoretical claims in question (at least the ones I know about) in no way exclude the possibility of dialect variation, it is rather AMR's suggestion that appears to lack firm foundation. (Of course, the claims could easily be wrong for countless other reasons -- that's not at issue). Jim Harris -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 13:34 MST From: CAROLG@CC.UTAH.EDU Subject: Re: 3.241 Linguistics In The Press There's no other way to redeem the place of linguistics in American education than through the education system. So I agree (with what I and others have already said in this medium) that it's termendously important what we teach in intro courses, and what we say to our colleagues in other disciplines. And it's also important that more linguists get on the band wagon to teach linguistics in the high schools. I'm involved in teaching such, in programs like those for gifted, and/or college-track, high school kids, and I'm sure there are many high schools with such programs that are crying for college professors to teach such courses. This summer I'll be teaching a field methods course, and am really looking forward to it! Carol Georgopoulos Linguistics Program University of Utah -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Sun, 15 Mar 92 22:29 CST From: "FRANK R. BRANDON" Subject: Teaching Yeah, I saw a Klingon-English phrase book down at the book store -- interesting aglutinations. There are quite a few OVS and OSV languages in the Amazon area: Hixkaryana is OVS (COrrect me, Des Darbyshire) and I think Satere is OSV. There is a Handbook of Amazonian Languages out there somewhere that you could find. Maybe someone can send you a concrete reference. As to getting linguistics into the elementary and middle schools, let me not speak of sentence diagramming, but rather light a candle: My daughter did a science fair project in 5th grade with phonetic symbolism contrasting the influence of consonants with vowels (vowels win) and a science fair this year also on phonetic symbolism trying to determine the influence of syllable stress (didn't make a difference). The first science fair really enthused her teachers and the second won best of show and is going to regional sci. fair. Obviously we're talking of psycholinguistics, but at least some people have heard of Sapir, Greenberg, and others and the idea has been gotten across that language has some interesting facets. Some aspects of linguistics are hard to explain, but there are accessible facets. For example, I betyou could do a good sci. fair project on quantifier dialects (scope of negation with universal quanti- fiers) or on acquisition of some syntactic structure. If you've got kids and you're going to have to help them think of a project anyway, maybe you can do something with linguistics even if it isn't what you'd really like best. Finally, I'd say that Deborah Tannen's (sp?) two books on sociolinguistics of male and female discourse are definitely out in the popular realm and selling well while being the results of serious work. I only glanced through them but they left me with a favorable impression. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 92 23:59:54 EST From: Paul.H.Borchers@um.cc.umich.edu Subject: OVS There are some OVS languages in the Carib family, all in the Amazon Basin, namely: Hixkaryana, Apalai, Bacairi, and Makusi. -from the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-257. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-258. Tue 17 Mar 1992. Lines: 133 Subject: 3.258 Queries: Print Aid, French Text, Adverbials Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 13 Mar 92 23:35 EST From: Subject: Printing tool 2) Date: 15 March 1992, 21:39:06 CST From: Geoffrey.S.Nathan.GA3662.at.SIUCVMB@tamvm1.tamu.edu Subject: gank (?) 3) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1992 19:46:42 -0500 From: Justine Cassell Subject: query about intro texts for French linguistics. 4) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 20:20 PST From: "Robert S. Kirsner" Subject: Query re: RIGHT dislocation 5) Date: 17 Mar 92 9:33 From: Subject: adverbials -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 13 Mar 92 23:35 EST From: Subject: Printing tool When sending around unpublished articles, most linguists - and probably other researchers as well - reduce the pages of their paper by about 75- 80%, and arrange them two by two onto single sheets of paper. Every single sheet then resembles the layout of an opened book. This of course vastly reduces the amount of paper being sent, the research money spent on copies, not to mention the number of forests cut down. After spending 35 frustrating minutes copying the laserprinted pages of a book manuscript in the manner described above, I thought there should be a simpler way of doing this. In the greater interest of ecology, is there a printing program or tool out there that would allow one to print two pages onto one page in the way described? This would save us a lot of time and paper. The technology certainly exists: Addresbook 3.0 for the Macintosh has a feature which allows four small pages with addresses to be printed on a single page. In the improbable case such a program does not exist, and if some savvy software specialist (mark the alliteration!) wanted to develop it, I would like to modestly claim intellectual ownership: royalties might allow me to pay the cost of further copies! Johan Rooryck -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: 15 March 1992, 21:39:06 CST From: Geoffrey.S.Nathan.GA3662.at.SIUCVMB@tamvm1.tamu.edu Subject: gank (?) Margaret Winters and I have identified a new verb in Midwest American teen slang--gank (rhymes with bank--someday we'll have IPA here!). It means `steal', especially `shoplift', although our informant also used it in an example sentence as follows: That wench ganked my boyfriend. How widespread is this? Any guesses on etymology? G&M -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1992 19:46:42 -0500 From: Justine Cassell Subject: query about intro texts for French linguistics. A question about intro texts for another specialized audience: graduate students in a French department. I teach Intro to French Linguistics to beginning grad students who may go on in French linguistics, or who may turn to literature, pedagogy or civilization; they all complain that there isn't a textbook for them to follow in the course. The course is taught in French, and is a mixture of linguistics of French, and French linguistics. Any suggestions? I guess the text could be either in English or in French. Thanks, -justine Cassell -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 20:20 PST From: "Robert S. Kirsner" Subject: Query re: RIGHT dislocation I would be grateful for references on RIGHT dislocation in any langauge in any framework, but I am particularly interested in Germanic languages. Please post on LINGUIST but with a copy to me at idt1rsk@mvs.oac.ucla.edu. Thanks, Bob Kirsner -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: 17 Mar 92 9:33 From: Subject: adverbials This query is about the external structure of adverbials with regard to semantic roles and theta roles. I'm interested in the interaction between external roles and referential roles, assuming that only lexical items that have a referential role allow for modification/ specification, i.e. (d-structural) adjuncts are licensed iff they appear within a projection of a head that has a referential role. I assume that modification doesn't change a head's argument structure but is "parasitic" on this argument structure in saturating its external role. The argument structure which is projected is that of the head; it can be regarded as modified in so far as the external role of the adjunct is identified with the head's referential role, thus modifying the reference of the item under consideration. In recent work "adverbial theta roles" are discussed - what is the nature of these roles? How are they identified? Does anyone work on the same (or a related) topic or know about papaers on this topic? Thanks in advance. Dagmar Haumann -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-258. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-259. Tue 17 Mar 1992. Lines: 42 Subject: 3.259 Dwight Bolinger Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 15:42:35 EST From: Sarah Thomason Subject: Soliciting comments about Dwight Bolinger -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 15:42:35 EST From: Sarah Thomason Subject: Soliciting comments about Dwight Bolinger Robert Stockwell is preparing an obituary of Dwight Bolinger for the journal LANGUAGE. He would appreciate hearing from anyone who has comments or anecdotes about Bolinger that might be useful in preparing the obituary, either as background or for quotation. He already has a few of the comments that have appeared on LINGUIST (by Haiman, Givon, and Nunberg, I believe). If you would like to contribute your thoughts and/or stories, please send them to him directly (Linguistics Dept., UCLA, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024; email: IBENALU@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU) and/or to me for forwarding: SGT@A.NL.CS.CMU.EDU. Please indicate whether you are willing to be quoted or not. Thanks for your help! -- Sally Thomason (Editor, Lg.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-259. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-260. Tue 17 Mar 1992. Lines: 70 Subject: 3.260 Queries: Gender-Specific Pronouns, French Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 14:12:33 -0600 From: mfleck@cs.uiowa.edu (Margaret Fleck) Subject: sex and third-person pronouns 2) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 14:33:28 EST From: "Wayles Browne, Cornell Univ." Subject: French and Dutch pronunciation -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 14:12:33 -0600 From: mfleck@cs.uiowa.edu (Margaret Fleck) Subject: sex and third-person pronouns A while back, various people on the linguist discussed uses of the pronoun "they" with singular referents. In this context, I note that the latest issue of the LSA bulletin recommends not using "he"/"him"/etc in generic contexts, decrying the influence of "prescriptive grammarians," but it stops short of allowing "they" (or any other specific word) as an alternative. If the editors of Language believe that the traditions of the prescriptive grammarians are bogus, then why.... [Did anyone else besides me find other features of that style sheet odd? For example, does point #2 on generics presuppose a theory of the meaning of English generics contrary to some (e.g. Carlson's) recent linguistic work on the subject? I mean, if "Linguists argue with their wives" suggests that all linguists are male, then what are we to think of "Primates bear live young"?] Margaret Fleck -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 14:33:28 EST From: "Wayles Browne, Cornell Univ." Subject: French and Dutch pronunciation Where can I find out how to pronounce the name of the French linguist Gougenheim? To put the question more generally: Some dictionaries of French give an IPA transcription for ordinary words. These same dictionaries may give a table of irregular verbs and/or a list of proper names of persons and places; but they do not transcribe the verb forms or the names. Is there any dictionary which gives pronunciations of verbs and of proper names (both names from French territory and those from other parts of the world)? Pronouncing native words in Dutch is probably more straightforward than in French; but is there any Dutch dictionary which will tell me how to pronounce 1) foreign words used in Dutch, 2) personal and geographical names? Please reply to jn5j@cornella.bitnet or jn5j@cornella.cit.cornell.edu Many thanks in advance. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-260. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-261. Wed 18 Mar 1992. Lines: 181 Subject: 3.261 Reality of Rules Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 09:33:40 EST From: jsc@mbeya.research.att.com (John S. Coleman) Subject: 3.250 Rules 2) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1992 12:31:30 PST From: Penni Sibun Subject: Re: 3.250 Rules 3) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 15:17:45 EST From: Stavros Macrakis Subject: 3.250 Psychological reality of rules 4) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 12:27:20 GMT From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: Rules 5) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 13:18:59 MET From: powers@kub.nl (David Powers, ITK Visiting Fellow) Subject: Re: 3.250 Rules -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 09:33:40 EST From: jsc@mbeya.research.att.com (John S. Coleman) Subject: 3.250 Rules Ellen Prince asks > uh, where exactly *are* these grammars, if not in people's brains? In the Platonic World of Ideals, of course, along with pi, the square root of 2 etc. --- John Coleman -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1992 12:31:30 PST From: Penni Sibun Subject: Re: 3.250 Rules >From: FASOLD@guvax.georgetown.edu >Subject: Re: 3.235 The Psychological Reality of Rules > > >Is psychological reality the only reality to be contemplated? I think it is >entirely possible that linguistic grammars might be much more elegant than >whatever goes on in human brains when people talk to each other. > >Ralph Fasold uh, where exactly *are* these grammars, if not in people's brains? well, grammars are indubitably in *some* people's heads/brains/minds---the heads/brains/minds of linguists. it's far less clear whether they are in those of people in general. --penni sibun -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 15:17:45 EST From: Stavros Macrakis Subject: 3.250 Psychological reality of rules Herb Simon had some interesting remarks about inferring mechanism from regularity in an essay in his collection "The Sciences of the Artificial". His point was that we often learn more about the mechanism at its limits, where the regularity breaks down, than in the regular part of its behavior. For instance, if we want to find out how our computer does arithmetic, it is more illuminating to notice that 8000000+4000000 gives -4777216 than that 3+4 gives 7. In the former case, we can infer that the computer is performing 24-bit two's complement arithmetic, whereas in the latter, it could be representing numbers internally as decimal, one's complement binary, or as pounds, shillings, and pence for all we know. This is in some ways the core of the method of linguistic inquiry looking for counter-intuitive constraints on syntax. Perhaps phonology is just too regular to inform us much about mechanism? -s -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 12:27:20 GMT From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: Rules David Eddington writes (Linguist 3.250, Rules) >A wealth of literature exists which >demonstrates that the majority of what is done in the name of >'empirical linguistics' is not empirical at all but rather should >be categorized along with the non-empirical sciences such as formal >logic (see Derwing, Botha, Linell, Itkonen, Skousen). I think this literature fails on the whole to impress people like me because most of it demonstrates insufficient appreciation of how remarkable it is that one can find any kind of neat patterns in linguistic data at all. E.g., if you tried to write elegant rules to describe the pebbles that your kid brought home from the creek, you wouldn't get very far. And some of it is just off the wall, such as Esa Itkonen, who seems to think that linguists have explicit intuitive knowledge of grammatical generalizations. On the other hand, I don't see Skousen and Linell as being in this category, and would tend to be sympathetic to their general outlook, on the grounds that that generativists often seem to me not to give sufficient consideration to be possibility of non-psychological causes for the patterns they find (especially historical ones, for complicated systems of morphophonemic alternations). I think we should also take seriously the possibility that the standard methods of generative grammar won't be in themselves to answer the basic questions of the field, just as the standard methods of chemistry are insufficient to answer many basic questions of that field, such as the nature of valence, & what's going on in benzene. I believe (hope?) that most generative grammarians would believe that external evidence is in principle relevant and to some degree necessary to determine the extent and nature of the psychological reality of analyses, but this agreement in principle is quite a different thing from being convinced by particular cases. Avery.Andrews@anu.edu.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 13:18:59 MET From: powers@kub.nl (David Powers, ITK Visiting Fellow) Subject: Re: 3.250 Rules [In the message entitled 3.250 Rules, Bill Bennett (WAB2@phx.cam.ac.uk) writes > ... > or those in "Fleet Street"who write whom it is believed' as outside the scope > of our model and devoid of regularity? What, under ANY model is wrong with something like "The police identified a man whom it was believed the assailant raped"? It may be a bit awkward without some parenthetical commas around "it was believed", but it is a proper usage as far as I am concerned. Or are you thinking of something like "whom it is believed was responsible" (active) or "whom it is believed was raped" (passive) or "whom it is believed it was" (copular). I don't read "Fleet Street"! Does that sort of thing actually occur in the Times? The latter three examples do, of course, jar horribly. dP -- Dr David M. W. Powers Email: powers@kub.nl SHOE E xtraction ITK, Tilburg University, Tel: +31-13 663116 O f P.O. Box 90153 Fax: +31-13 663019 H ierarchical 5000 LE TILBURG Sec: +31-13 663060 S tructure SHOE is an international project in Machine Learning of Natural Language Alternate email: powers@dfki.uni-kl.de, davidp@macadam.mqcs.mq.oz.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-261. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-262. Wed 18 Mar 1992. Lines: 202 Subject: 3.262 Text, Idioms, OVS Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 92 09:17:38 -0600 From: "Larry G. Hutchinson" Subject: Re: 3.245 Intro. Texts 2) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 92 11:53:42 -0800 From: saka@cogsci.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Saka) Subject: Re 3.245 Idioms 3) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 92 23:18:50 CST From: Eric Schiller Subject: Re: 3.240 French Eggs, Idioms 4) Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1992 07:28:15 EST From: AHARRIS - Alan Harris Subject: RE: 3.240 French Eggs, Idioms 5) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 09:20:16 -0500 From: dever@pogo.isp.pitt.edu (Dan Everett) Subject: Re: 3.257 Spanish el/la, Teaching Linguistics, OVS 6) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 12:05:20 EST From: cowan@uunet.UU.NET (John Cowan) Subject: OVS -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 92 09:17:38 -0600 From: "Larry G. Hutchinson" Subject: Re: 3.245 Intro. Texts I have been using O'Grady, Dobrovolsky, and Aronoff for several years, and I am very happy with it. It gets really good reviews from my students. There is more in it than I could possibly cover in a quarter, and I cover additional topics of my own, but the book is so readable that many students report they read it all. Previous comments about the intended audience are apt, but here's an audience worth thinking about: I belong to a faculty dining club that frowns on having more than two members from any one department, and I am not ashamed to loan copies of ODA to any members who ask what the hell linguistics is. I even did this with one of my own deans! I would not steer them on to Fromkin and Rodman. Journalists I am not sure about. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 92 11:53:42 -0800 From: saka@cogsci.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Saka) Subject: Re 3.245 Idioms "Off the cuff" CAN be used attributively: "Off-the-cuff remarks can be embarrassing." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 92 23:18:50 CST From: Eric Schiller Subject: Re: 3.240 French Eggs, Idioms I think Mark Mandel is on the right track. I mused recently that we use hyhphenation to justify syntactically unacceptable forms in pre-nominal position, that is, we sort of turn it into morphology. Funny things happen in prenominal position, and I will deal with some such matters at CLS, but meanwhile: * a not considerable sum an inconsiderable sum * a not quite clear answer (oops, that is supposed to be not starred) * a not clear answer this sort of stuff was pointed out to me by Jim McCawley. Eric Schiller University of Chicago (sapir and tira are back - they have been down almost a week) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1992 07:28:15 EST From: AHARRIS - Alan Harris Subject: RE: 3.240 French Eggs, Idioms this is re: off the cuff.. I am at the home of Valley Talk at CSUN. One of my students said the other day in relation to a student friend of his that he was ". . . a way far out,never quite with us when we are all in sync sort of dude" shall we play can you top this? Alan C. Harris, Ph. D. telno: off: Professor, Communication/Linguistics 818-885-2853/2874 Speech Communication Department hm: California State University, Northridge 818-780-8872 SPCH CSUN fax: 818-885-2663 Northridge, CA 91330 Internet: AHARRIS@VAX.CSUN.EDU -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 09:20:16 -0500 From: dever@pogo.isp.pitt.edu (Dan Everett) Subject: Re: 3.257 Spanish el/la, Teaching Linguistics, OVS OVS languages listed in the Cambridge encylopedia are not so clear as they are there presented. The strongest case is for Hixkaryana. The others are all disputed by people that work on them. Satere-Mawe (Tupi trunk) is not OSV (contrary to F Brandon's posting). However, like many languages in the Amazon and elsewhere which have rich morphological systems, word order is fairly free in many cases. Arawan languages (Banawa, Jamamadi, Madija/Culina, Jarawara, Zuruaha, Deni, and Paumari) tend to be OSV. However, no one has seriously investigated reflexive structures in these languages (something I hope to do in field work next year). In Jamamadi, for example, reflexive word order is SOV, while non-reflexive is OSV. This could indicate that OSV is perhaps more natural pragmatically, but that configurational structure involving c-command is necessary, requiring the object (reflexive) to appear in the VP to be c-commanded by its antecedent (the subject). The point is, nobody really knows. Makuan languages (e.g. Kama, Nadeb, Yahup) also seem to be OSV. The only really reliable study of these languages is by Helen Weir of SIL, who studies Nadeb. Her MA thesis at the University of Campinas (under the direction of Frank Brandon) is one of the best studies of negation in any nonIndoEuropean language, certainly the best study ever done of any Lowland SouthAmerican negation system. Moreover, her recent work on incorporation is a fascinating portrait of Nadeb syntax, raising all sorts of neat problems for current theories of incorporation (cf. her article in Doris Payne's *Amazonian Linguistics* by UT Press). In short, descriptions of most Amazonian languages (the only cases of OVS or OSV I am aware of) almost never include any syntactic argumentation and are almost strictly descriptions of superficial syntax, so that one should not place too much weight on them for typological or UG claims. The authors of these studies usually are missionaries concerned with describing the basic superficial features, not at all a `less worthy' goal in any sense, just one that the reader of such studies should be aware of. Moreover, even when argumentation is provided, it is often limited to discourse or pragmatic considerations and not is really syntactic, at least in a generative sense. Compare, for example, claims that Yagua (Peba-Yaguan, Peru) is VSO, with my 1989 Lg article arguing that it is SVO. Anyway, there are 170 languages spoken in the Brazilian Amazon and we only have (LIMITED) data on about 60 of these. So, there is plenty of room for more researchers. One last note on the Amazon: Brazilian President Collor's much-publicized granting of a large reserve to the Yanomami has been shelved by the Brazilian Congress and no current action is planned, leaving the miners outnumbering the Y people by a huge margin in the traditional tribal areas. Dan Everett -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 12:05:20 EST From: cowan@uunet.UU.NET (John Cowan) Subject: OVS I have never really understood the necessity for talking of object-first languages, using this term as a cover for OVS, OSV, and VOS languages. What reason is there to believe that such a language actually has a different order rather than believing that it takes a different view of what its verbs mean? Using Okrand's study of Klingon as the readily-available example (:-)): puq legh yaS child sees officer The officer sees the child. What reason is there to gloss "legh" as "sees" rather than "is-seen-by"? It seems to me a mere prejudice to believe that seeing is "inherently" more natural, and more deserving of a single morpheme, than being seen. So talk of the rarity of object-first languages can be reduced to talk of the rarity of "is-seen-by" as a single morpheme with "sees" as the derived form. -- cowan@snark.thyrsus.com ...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan e'osai ko sarji la lojban -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-262. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-263. Wed 18 Mar 1992. Lines: 52 Subject: 3.263 Linguistics on PBS This Week Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 13:44:57 PST From: rubba@bend.UCSD.EDU (Johanna Rubba) Subject: Lx in media 2) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 11:56 EST From: MORGAN@LOYOLA.EDU Subject: Re: 3.257 Spanish el/la, Teaching Linguistics, OVS -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 13:44:57 PST From: rubba@bend.UCSD.EDU (Johanna Rubba) Subject: Lx in media Watch your local PBS listings this week for a program in which Deborah Tannen is interviewed on the subject of her two books, gender differences in conversational style. It's running on Thurs. and Sunday in the San Diego area, but I don't know whether it will be shown at all on other PBS stations. Jo Rubba, UC San Diego -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 11:56 EST From: MORGAN@LOYOLA.EDU Subject: Re: 3.257 Spanish el/la, Teaching Linguistics, OVS Since D. Tannen's work was mentioned, you might be interested to know that there will be a show run by here on PBS this week; the date and time may vary by area, but it might be worth arranging to tape and/or see. It's in the Washington-Baltimore area this evening (Mar 18) on MPT. Leslie Morgan (MORGAN@ LOYVAX) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-263. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-264. Wed 18 Mar 1992. Lines: 128 Subject: 3.264 V and V Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1992 16:47 IST From: Moshe Taube Subject: V & V 2) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 20:01:40 PST From: hank@ling.UCSC.EDU (Jorge Hankamer) Subject: Re: 3.247 V and V 3) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1992 08:43 EST From: MORGAN@LOYOLA.EDU Subject: Re: 3.232 V and V 4) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 18:01 CST From: "FRANK R. BRANDON" Subject: Re: 3.247 V and V 5) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 11:01:55 CST From: Michael Henderson Subject: Re: 3.247 V and V -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1992 16:47 IST From: Moshe Taube Subject: V & V This construction seems to be a Semitism which came into European and other languages through New Testament Greek. Just take a look in any language at Matthew chpt. 6, (Sermon on the Mount): Seek and you shall find (or some similar wording). For an extensive review of the construction, see H.J.Polotsky, Etudes de Syntaxe Copte. Cairo 1944 (Reprinted in his Collected Papers, Jerusalem 1977 , 1st study). Best, Moshe Taube -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 20:01:40 PST From: hank@ling.UCSC.EDU (Jorge Hankamer) Subject: Re: 3.247 V and V On "root hog or die": as a native speaker of a dialect of English where this expression is also indubitably native, it is perfectly clear to me that 'hog' is a vocative, and I don't see what punctuation has to do with it. I have known that expression since I was born, and I don't think I ever before saw it written. Jorge Hankamer hank@ling.ucsc.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1992 08:43 EST From: MORGAN@LOYOLA.EDU Subject: Re: 3.232 V and V I was interested to note some French examples in the latest discussion of "imperative-or-not", and also the "gnomic" category suggested for some of the examples in English. I have another example to propose for the gnomic category, which I think cannot be classified as an imperative, since one presumably cannot order someone to love them- Aime moi, aime mon chien. usually given as a proverb, meaning something like take me as I am, accept my prejudices, family, etc. Here the sentence seems to be a type of conditional? Leslie Morgan (Loyola in Md.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 18:01 CST From: "FRANK R. BRANDON" Subject: Re: 3.247 V and V Re: Prof. Nyman's assertion that if one becomes a formal linguist, one will understand the problems with these conjoined sentences. I still fail to see why there is a problem. Perhaps I am unaware of this particular brand of 'formal' linguistics or perhaps I am an off-the-cuff linguist, but why is it a problem if the "underlying" tenses of the conjuncts are different? Isn't this a non-syntactic question on a par with the interpretation of syntactic present tenses as having future or conditional meanings (e.g. Bill leaves on Thursday [spoken on Wednesday], When he drinks, he cries, etc.)? In some registers of Portguese, present tense verb forms are replacing subjunctives, even in the imperative use. Is this a major formal problem?! Infinitives are also used in formal Portuguese 'imperatives' (e.g. Favor (nao) estacionar ... Please do (not) park ...). Then what about 'Go there and ask for your money back', 'Go ask for your money back' in English which in Portuguese are equiva- lent to 'Va la e peca seu dinheiro de volta' and 'Va pedir...' [Imagine dia- critics] which are respectively conjoined subjunctives/imperatives and a subjunctive followed by an infinitive? Perhaps these sentences don't need to be related in either language, although (if my memory serves me) I think I've seen this done in English. Further elucidation? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 11:01:55 CST From: Michael Henderson Subject: Re: 3.247 V and V 'Feed a cold and starve a fever': Is this an example of V and V? Michael M. T. Henderson Linguistics Department University of Kansas Lawrence, KS 66045-2140 (913)864-3450 Bitnet: mmth@ukanvm Internet:mmth@ukanvm.cc.ukans.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-264. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-265. Thu 19 Mar 1992. Lines: 250 Subject: 3.265 The Reality of Rules Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 11:37:25 EST From: stainton@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: Where's the Grammar? 2) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 11:58:15 EST From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: Re: 3.261 Reality of Rules 3) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 11:58:02 EST From: Geoffrey Russom Subject: Re: 3.261 Reality of Rules 4) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 12:37 PST From: Vicki Fromkin Subject: (COPY) Re: 3.261 Reality of Rules 5) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 21:55 EET From: Martti Arnold Nyman Subject: Rules and intuition -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 11:37:25 EST From: stainton@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: Where's the Grammar? Here are some random thoughts on rules and psychology. They are familiar from the literature, but may be unfamiliar to certain Linguist readers. 1. The word "grammar" is, I take it, systematically ambiguous in Chomsky's mouth. He sometimes means the speaker's competence; he sometimes means the linguist's grammar. He is very much aware of this ambiguity, and thinks that it's a good thing. So Ellen Prince's question about where the grammar is is itself ambiguous. In the sense of a theory about competence, who knows where the grammar is. If theories are anywhere, then grammar (in this sense) is up there with the theory of evolution, Newtonian mechanics, and so on. In the sense of what the speaker knows, it's not unreasonable to think that there is no grammar in anybody's head. Maybe there are just causal mechanisms responsible for our linguistic abilities. (Compare: where is the differential calculus in our heads, which permits us to catch baseballs, etc.?) It could well be that no system of grammatical rules is represented in the native speaker's head. In that case, grammar in the sense of competence does not exist at all. 2. For me, there's an interesting question about the interrelation of grammar1 (call it linguist's grammar) and grammar2 (call it competence): e.g. could a linguist's grammar be true, even if no one has a mentally represented body of rules that guides their linguistic behaviour? (I.e. if there is no competence) The answer, I think, is that there could be. It would still describe regularities observed in behaviour. But we wouldn't say that it was in virtue of knowing some grammar that speakers are able to use language. The native speaker "fits" the rules which our theory contains, but she does not "follow" those rules. So linguistics might be like mechanics: no one attributes *knowledge* of the gravitational constant to rocks. But their behaviour conforms to that law. 3. What if different native speakers have different causal mechanisms? Or, what if competence is responsible for speech, but different speakers of English have internalized different rules? Here again, I think linguist's grammars are still possible. My cherished analogy is a theory of the waltz. Even if different people apply different rules when they dance the waltz, there can still be a single theory which describes the steps and how they are executed. Psychology is irrelevant here. 4. Another issue: I take it that there is something responsible for our collective ability to communicate linguistically. And it would be wonderful to find out what it is which allows people to do this. But the interest of this study does not rule out another kind of more traditional linguistic inquiry: about the nature of languages. Returning to the waltz analogy, it's perfectly okay to ask what goes on it people's heads when they dance. But one could easily enough forgo that (very interesting) question, and just study the waltz. 5. Undoubtedly there are a multitude of ways of describing the waltz. Each theory must conform to certain facts. But once a the theory is consistent with the facts, and shows real promise of *remaining* consistent with future dancings of the waltz, it is correct. The existence of other equally correct theories is not relevant. I would admit that there may be only one correct theory of how speakers actually manage to dance. But there are a multitude of theories of the waltz that get all past, present and future dancings. We decide between them not on the basis of truth or falsity, but on usefulness. Which theory we choose will depend on what we want to do with it. Returning to the case of linguist's grammars, I think the same holds true. There are, in principle, any number of grammars that capture English (or some dialects thereof). Which one we opt for depends on whether we want to a. use the grammar for teaching English to German speakers b. use the grammar to create a machine parser for English, c. use the grammar for literary criticism, or what have you. Best, Rob Stainton MIT -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 11:58:15 EST From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: Re: 3.261 Reality of Rules >From: jsc@mbeya.research.att.com (John S. Coleman) >Subject: 3.250 Rules > >Ellen Prince asks > >> uh, where exactly *are* these grammars, if not in people's brains? > >In the Platonic World of Ideals, of course, along with pi, the square root of 2 > etc. >From: Penni Sibun >Subject: Re: 3.250 Rules >... >well, grammars are indubitably in *some* people's >heads/brains/minds---the heads/brains/minds of linguists. it's far >less clear whether they are in those of people in general. ok, i'll bite. what do *you* call whatever it is in people's heads that enables them to (appear to) communicate by making noises with their upper respiratory tracts (or by moving their hands and faces)? a list of sentences? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 11:58:02 EST From: Geoffrey Russom Subject: Re: 3.261 Reality of Rules Linguists' grammars can hardly be more elegant than the grammars people use intuitively, since many systematic features of linguistic behavior have yet to be captured as explicit rules. To compare any printed grammar with a complete internalized grammar is a mug's game. An internalized grammar could of course be elegant without being IN a brain, since this grammar might be supervenient on brain function without being reducible to a particular kind of functioning in any one person's wetware. Inelegancies of data compression or whatever are hardly of central interest when we talk about the way a program works. Why assume that neurological quirks have linguistic significance? Or any significance at all? -- Rick -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 12:37 PST From: Vicki Fromkin Subject: (COPY) Re: 3.261 Reality of Rules re psychological reality of rules. It's interesting how the anti-mentalist (behaviorist) / mentalist debate which flourished before Chomsky put the mind back into the brain with Syntactic Structures and the changed goals of lingistics which generative grammar ushered in is now replaced by arguments re how can we be sure the rules or principles posited for grammars are 'psychologically real'. Kiparsky's now classic 1968 paper 'How abstract is phonology?' reopened theis quest for Sapirian type of evidence. But as is true in all sciences evidence is evidence is evidence -- and as NC pointed out, correctly I believe, one kind of evidence is not necessarily better than another -- there's just good evidence and bad evidence to support a theory or hypothesis in a theory. Anyway, it is an interesting issue which is obviously related to one's philosophy of science and which has certainly intrigued me considering the number of my own papers which deal with aspects of the question. The issue has stimulated lots of research using speech errors, aphasic language, language games, etc etc. as a means of providing different kinds of evidence (which I believe are intriguing but not intrinisically any more valuable than linguistic evidence itself including speakers judgments and intuitions). Anyway, when these messages get too long readers log off (at least I do) so if there is anyone out there who is interested in my own thinking will be happy to send you reprints. If noone asks, I won't be hurt. Vicki Fromkin -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 21:55 EET From: Martti Arnold Nyman Subject: Rules and intuition > From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) > Subject: Rules > > David Eddington writes (Linguist 3.250, Rules) > > >A wealth of literature exists which > >demonstrates that the majority of what is done in the name of > >'empirical linguistics' is not empirical at all but rather should > >be categorized along with the non-empirical sciences such as formal > >logic (see Derwing, Botha, Linell, Itkonen, Skousen). > > I think this literature fails on the whole to impress people like me > [ .. deleted .. ] > And some of it is just off the wall, > such as Esa Itkonen, who seems to think that linguists have > explicit intuitive knowledge of grammatical generalizations. I must correct Avery Andrews's false witness to what Esa Itkonen thinks. In _Grammatical_Theory_and_Metascience_ (Amsterdam: Benjamins 1978), Itkonen writes: "A linguist sets out to describe a language that he knows, i.e., of which he possesses atheoretical, intuitive knowledge, but when his description proceeds, it produces new, theoretical knowledge about which he has no previous intuition. From the fact that I know_1 something, it by no means follows that I also know_2 how to describe this knowledge_1 of mine in the best possible way." (GTM, p.216). Martti Nyman, Department of General Linguistics, University of Helsinki, Hallituskatu 11-13, SF-00100 Helsinki, Finland -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-265. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-266. Thu 19 Mar 1992. Lines: 207 Subject: 3.266 The Reality of Rules (Part 2) Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 15:31:57 PST From: Rick Wojcik Subject: Re: 3.261 Reality of Rules 2) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1992 10:05 EET From: DUFVA@JYLK.JYU.FI Subject: Re: 3.261 Reality of Rules 3) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 16:14 U From: "Randy J. LaPolla" Subject: Re: 3.261 Reality of Rules 4) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1992 13:01 EET From: Martti Arnold Nyman Subject: Rules and ontology 5) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1992 09:51:00 EST From: AHARRIS - Alan Harris Subject: RE: 3.262 Text, Idioms, OVS -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 15:31:57 PST From: Rick Wojcik Subject: Re: 3.261 Reality of Rules Ellen Prince: uh, where exactly *are* these grammars, if not in people's brains? John Coleman: In the Platonic World of Ideals, of course, along with pi, the square root of 2, etc. Penni Sibun: well, grammars are indubitably in *some* people's heads/brains/minds---the heads/brains/minds of linguists. it's far less clear whether they are in those of people in general. Linguistic descriptions of grammars are always idealizations, but they idealize something that directly affects behavior. Since the brain is what controls behavior (well, I'm making an assumption here :-), linguistic rules have to correspond to something in the brain. The only sense I can make out of the position that linguistic rules have no psychological reality is that its proponents take every grammatical utterance to be a case of incredible luck for the speaker. -Rick Wojcik (rwojcik@atc.boeing.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1992 10:05 EET From: DUFVA@JYLK.JYU.FI Subject: Re: 3.261 Reality of Rules I fail to see why rules that are based on the linguistic analysis should be 'psychologically real' in the sense of production rules. Patterns and regularities in verbal utterances are certainly obvious - they are 'real for the linguist' but it is simply not justified to equal these findings with the processes people speak by, for example. It seems we know remarkably little about these 'really psychologically real' rules of the speakers still, and that the evidence for the psycho- logical reality (such as slips of the tongue) has been used in a manner which is so paradigm bound that it can be used to show the psychological reality of any linguistic concept you care to choose. Hannele Dufva -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 16:14 U From: "Randy J. LaPolla" Subject: Re: 3.261 Reality of Rules >From: Stavros Macrakis >Subject: 3.250 Psychological reality of rules > >Herb Simon had some interesting remarks about inferring mechanism > >from regularity in an essay in his collection "The Sciences of the >Artificial". His point was that we often learn more about the >mechanism at its limits, where the regularity breaks down, than in the >regular part of its behavior. This seems to have been something like the motivation behind some of Chuck Fillmore's work on idiomatic constructions (so-called 'peripheral' constructions), such as in Fillmore, Kay and O'Connor's (1988-Language 64.3) paper on 'let alone': if you can handle the more difficult 'periphery', then the mechanisms you've developed to do that will also be able to handle the 'core', but the opposite is not true. Randy LaPolla Institute of History & Philology Academia Sinica, Taiwan -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1992 13:01 EET From: Martti Arnold Nyman Subject: Rules and ontology Ralph Fasold (3-239) raised an important ontological question: "Is psychological reality the only reality to be contemplated?" This question prompted a quick response echoing Chomskyan naturalism: "uh, where exactly *are* these grammars, if not in people's brains?"; Ellen Prince, 3-250). This, in turn, has so far prompted two comments (in 3-261): one sarcastic (Penni Shibun), one Platonist (John Coleman). Platonist ontology has been elaborated by Jerrold Katz (Language and Other Abstract Objects. Oxford: Blackwell 1981). Platonist ontology is right insofar as it places language in the Popperian World-3; but it's unsatisfactory to characterize language as a mathematical object. (Notice that I'm speaking of language, not of grammar.) Unlike mathematical entities, languages are subject to constant (regional, social, stylistic) variation and constant change. The variability and changeability of language results from human collective activity, and so it's proper to characterize language as a social entity. This was Ferdinand de Saussure's point ("langue" as "fait social"), and this I think is what Fasold's posting comes down to: "I think it is entirely possible that linguistic grammars might be much more elegant than whatever goes on in human brains when people talk to each other". The above quote echoes William Labov's claim that the grammar of a speech community is more regular and systematic than the behaviour of any one individual. This is acceptable on the condition that "the grammar of a speech community" is construed in terms of Popperian objective knowledge, ie. knowledge without a physical (World-1) or psychological (World-2) knower. A knower there certainly is, but it -- this is a particularly felicitous context to avoid sexistic vocabulary :-) -- lives in the Popperian World-3. Chomsky christened it the ideal speaker-listener. What makes the psychological reality issue a tricky one is that the Chomskyans preach individual psychology but practice autonomous linguistics. Both are worth while enterprises but they can't be done at once: you can't do individual psychology by investigating a generalized individual (ie. an ideal speaker). I think Dave Eddington (3-250) describes the situation quite well. (I'd like to quote his posting on this matter, but this would make my message too long.) Language qua object of intersubjective knowledge is logically dependent on the speakers, but no single individual can change or invent a language (except for a private language, of course). Nor does a single individual acquire a perfect mastering of his/her language (for that we need the ideal speaker). Psychological reality makes sense only under an individual psychological interpretation. I'm no psycholinguist, and so I don't know how to test the psychological reality of a rule, ie. whether the speaker has made the same generalization as the linguist. What does Spanish _posters_ (instead of *_posteres_) tell us about the psychological reality of the pluralization rule "add _-es_ to stems ending in a consonant, except s-stems". Is _posters_ a counter-evidence? At least, I'm inclined to think that *_posteres_ would be a piece of "external" evidence in favour of the _-es_ pluralization rule. But as Alexis Manaster Ramer (3-235) points out, we are basically dealing with analogies. Maybe it's time to rehabilitate Analogy. Martti Nyman, Department of General Linguistics, University of Helsinki, Finland -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1992 09:51:00 EST From: AHARRIS - Alan Harris Subject: RE: 3.262 Text, Idioms, OVS RE: RULES I ahve been reading along and trying to understand what lies behind some of the reasoning regarding the "existence of rules." At the risk of sounding naive or voicing something that is probably trivial, I must say that just because we have no adequate way or expressing the "rules" or systems of rules that "exist" in the mind (whatever that is or how it may be construed)--and we may never have an adequate way-- is no reason to suspect that the rules do not exist. What could one suggest is there if not some highly organized system or at least what seems to be the product of mind is some entirely complex organization? It ain't random, is it? I would like to see some discussion of the alternative before we hash the notion of innate grammar. . . ====================================================================== Alan C. Harris, Ph. D. telno: off: Professor, Communication/Linguistics 818-885-2853/2874 Speech Communication Department hm: California State University, Northridge 818-780-8872 SPCH CSUN fax: 818-885-2663 Northridge, CA 91330 Internet: AHARRIS@VAX.CSUN.EDU ====================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-266. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-267. Thu 19 Mar 1992. Lines: 106 Subject: 3.267 Queries: Heine, Prehistory, Gender Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: 17 Mar 92 23:18:04 MST From: "Jeff Turley" Subject: Heine's Grammatical Chains 2) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 15:14:26 +0200 From: RUTH Subject: Early Spoken language dating - query from Ruth Berman 3) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 14:31:38 MST From: Subject: Re: 3.260 Queries: Gender-Specific Pronouns 4) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 16:02:23 CST From: (Edward G. Kovach) Subject: languages with the femimine as the unmarked case -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: 17 Mar 92 23:18:04 MST From: "Jeff Turley" Subject: Heine's Grammatical Chains Does anyone know if Bernd Heine's paper "Grammatical Chains as Linguistic Categories" has been published? Jeff Turley "When I first saw Department of Spanish and Portuguese fingers, I said 'I'll take ten Brigham Young University of those!'" Provo, UT 84602 --Alex F. Caldiero 801-378-2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 15:14:26 +0200 From: RUTH Subject: Early Spoken language dating - query from Ruth Berman A nonlinguist colleague of mine interested in prehistory wants to know if there is any way of finding out when people think human beings first used language - in the linguists' sense of the term. Since the issue of the origin of language has been so discredited by linguists, I was wondering if in recent research anthropology and/or archaeology might have come up with some ideas on when, if not where, people first started talking. Thanks in advance for your cooperation - references to books that might be obtainalbe in this part of the world would be very helpful, too, if they address the issue in a halfway lucid fas[Phion. Ruth Berman, Linguistics Department, Tel Aviv University -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 14:31:38 MST From: Subject: Re: 3.260 Queries: Gender-Specific Pronouns Has anyone proposed the use of "it" as a way of getting over gender problems? It's singular, it could be elevated to the status of being gender-neutral (rather than gender-denying), it handles institutions-qua-persons, and would get us ready for the eventual success of AI. John Barnden Computing Research Laboratory New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM 88003 jbarnden@nmsu.edu (505) 646-6235 FAX: (505) 646-6218 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 16:02:23 CST From: (Edward G. Kovach) Subject: languages with the femimine as the unmarked case 1. Are there any languages with the femimine gender as the unmarked or generic case, and the masculine as the marked? 2. If such languages exist, how "sexist" do the speakers appear to be? (I know I am be opening a can of worms.) Edward G. Kovach -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-267. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-268. Thu 19 Mar 1992. Lines: 82 Subject: 3.268 Genetic Language Impairment: The Gopnik Controversy Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 09:35:44 EST From: INMG000 Subject: genetic language impairment -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 09:35:44 EST From: INMG000 Subject: genetic language impairment Subject: The Gopnik controversy: science and silliness It is gratifying, in a way, to see some of the issues raised by my work so widely discussed. However, it is a bit strange to see some of our colleagues, who would chastise a student for using a media report as an academic source do so themselves. The problem is that news bites nec- essarily significantly oversimplify both the question and the answer, and using them as sources can lead to silly arguments. Case in point: that what we are seeing in this data is "dialect differences". If the correspondants had even glanced at the original reports they would see that all of the subjects in the study, the normals as well as the language impaired subjects, come from the same extended family from the same neighborhood in the same city. Now if someone can tell me how nine siblings raised together in the same household can end up with signifi- cantly different "dialects" I would be glad to consider the "different dialect" hypothesis as a potential explanation. (For those who are interested in this question but do not have the time or inclination to pour over the scientific papers there will be a more detailed media report on CBC's "Quirks and Quarks"on Saturday, March 21 at noon that provides a more comprehensive and scientific discussion of the issues.) I thank Joe Stemberger for clarifyingthe difference between what I say and what the media report. The issue that he raises about the role of auditory perception or salience as a potential explanatory model is one that I have considered carefully and written on at length. Briefly speaking a wide range of data appear to not be accountable for by any such hypothesis. One example (among very many) In a test that required subjects to rate the acceptability of sentences presented to them in a printed booklet the sentence: He was very happy last week when he was first. was rated at the very top of the scale by both the language impaired and the normal subjects. The sentence: He was very happy last week when he is first. was rated as completely unacceptable by the normals but was found to be acceptable by the language impaired subjects. It is hard to see how a written form of a suppletive verb can get confused because of auditory "salience" (even if we had a clear defini- tion of "salience") Mabel Rice is absolutely right that this is a complicated problem. It will only be understood by carefully collecting significant data, providing linguistically principled analyses of this data, proposing explanatory models and then testing these models against other data and other models and abandoning them when they do not work. The aim of the scientific enterprise is not to be absolutely right, that is not ever possible, but merely to be righter than you were before (Gopnik 1992 knows, probably better than most,that the Gopnik, 1990 explanation is only partially right. A new model is in the works.) The fact that parts of language are associated with a single dominant gene provides us with a natural experiment to probe the question of the precise properties of the innate component of language. I look forward to parti cipating in the cooperative scientific enterprise which will lead us to understand the nature of this deficit. M. Gopnik -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-268. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-269. Thu 19 Mar 1992. Lines: 376 Subject: 3.269 Women and Language Conference Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 00:44:50 -0800 From: ervin-tr@cogsci.Berkeley.EDU (Susan Ervin-Tripp) Subject: women and language conference -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 00:44:50 -0800 From: ervin-tr@cogsci.Berkeley.EDU (Susan Ervin-Tripp) Subject: women and language conference PLEASE POST PLEASE POST 1992 BERKELEY WOMEN AND LANGUAGE CONFERENCE: LOCATING POWER April 4 and 5 University of California, Berkeley Martin Luther King, Jr., Student Union (Corner of Bancroft and Telegraph) Preliminary Schedule Saturday, April 4 8:00 Registration, Coffee & Pastries: Heller Lounge 8:45 Introductory Remarks: Heller Lounge Kira Hall Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley Session 1: Heller Lounge 9:00 The silencing of women Robin Tolmach Lakoff Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley 9:45 Language, gender, and power: An anthropological review Susan Gal Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University 10:30 Claudia Mitchell-Kernan Dean and Vice Chancellor, Graduate Programs University of California, Los Angeles 11:15 Lunch Session 2A: Tilden Room 12:30 Lectal variation and women's power in a creole community Genevieve Escure Department of English, University of Minnesota 12:55 Recent development of a second-person pronoun caki in Korean Jeong-Woon Park Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley 1:20 When agents disappear: How gender affects the implicit causality of interpersonal verbs Marianne LaFrance Department of Psychology, Boston College 1:45 Why is it that women in Rwanda cannot marry? Alexandre Kimenyi Department of Foreign Languages and Ethnic Studies California State University, Sacramento Session 2B: Tan Oak Room 12:30 Less feminine speech among young Japanese females Shigeko Okamoto and Shie Sato Department of Linguistics, California State University, Fresno 12:55 Gender interference in transsexuals' speech H. Merle Knight 1:20 Language choice and women learners of ESL Tara Goldstein Modern Language Centre, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education 1:45 A sociolinguistic description of linguistic self-expression, innovativeness, and power among chicanas in Texas and New Mexico Maria Dolores Gonzales Velasquez Department of Modern and Classical Languages, University of New Mexico D. Letticia Galindo Department of Foreign Languages, Arizona State University Session 2C: Stephens Lounge 12:30 Gender displays in talk among family, friends and neighbors Deborah Schiffrin Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University 12:55 Miss Nora, rescuer of the Rama language: A story of advocacy and empowerment Colette G. Craig Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon 1:20 Talking it out or talking it in: An ethnography of power and language in psychotherapeutic practice Cathryn Houghton Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley 1:45 Bringing aging into the language/gender equation Heidi E. Hamilton Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University 2:10 Conferring Session 1: Heller Lounge Session 3A: Tilden Room 2:40 Rape, race, and responsibility: A graffiti text political discourse Birch Moonwomon Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley 3:05 Accruing power on conversational floors Karen L. Adams Department of English, Arizona State University 3:30 Participation in electronic discourse in a "feminist" field Susan Herring, Deborah Johnson, and Tamra DiBenedetto Department of English, California State University, San Bernardino 3:55 The construction of equality in women's conversations Senta Troemel-Ploetz Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bonn Session 3B: Tan Oak Room 2:40 Gender versus group-relations analysis of impositive speech acts Mira Ariel and Rachel Giora Department of Linguistics, Tel-Aviv University, Israel 3:05 "It's rather like embracing a textbook": The linguistic representation of the female psychoanalyst in American film Beth Daniels Department of TEFL, American University in Cairo, Egypt Kira Hall Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley 3:30 Camille Paglia and the feminist backlash Melanie Morton Department of Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society University of Minnesota 3:55 We understand perfectly: A critique of Tannen's view of cross-sex communication Alice F. Freed Department of Linguistics, Montclair State College Session 3C: Stephens Lounge 2:40 The status of the sexes: A view through language Holly Bea Liske Department of Foreign Languages, Arizona State University 3:05 Feminist meanings and sexist speech communities Susan Ehrlich and Ruth King Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics York University, Canada 3:30 Bitches and skankly hobags: The place of women in contemporary slang Laurel Sutton Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley 3:55 Sex differences in address terminology in the 1990's Leanne Hinton Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley 4:20 Conferring Session 2: Heller Lounge Session 4: Heller Lounge 4:50 Orchestrating participation in events: Power in African American girls' talk Marjorie Harness Goodwin Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina 5:35 Mothers' role in the everyday reconstruction of 'Father knows best' Elinor Ochs and Carolyn Taylor Department of Applied Linguistics/TESL University of California, Los Angeles 6:30 Break for Dinner 8:00 Party catered by Lauren and Mo: Alumni House Sunday, April 5 8:30 a.m. Coffee & Pastries: Heller Lounge Session 5A: Tilden Room 9:00 Women's language for sale on the fantasy lines Kira Hall Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley 9:25 The social construction of sexual realities in women's and men's heterosexual erotic fiction G. Genevieve Patthey-Chavez The Sociobehavioral Group, University of California, Los Angeles Madeleine Youmans Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California 9:50 A synthetic sisterhood: False friends in a teenage magazine Mary Talbot Department of English Literature Chester College of Higher Education 10:15 Clarence Thomas and the survival of sexual harassment Peg O'Connor Department of Philosophy, University of Minnesota 10:40 Variation in gap length and the Anita Hill/ Clarence Thomas cross-examination discourse Norma Catalina Mendoza-Denton Department of Linguistics, Stanford University Session 5B: Tan Oak Room 9:00 The tools of the trade: Acquiring the discourse of the skilled trades Marisa Castellano School of Education, University of California, Berkeley 9:25 'You don't smile a lot': Affect, gender, and the discourse of Pittsburgh police officers Bonnie McElhinny Department of Linguistics, Stanford University Department of WomenUs Studies, University of Pittsburgh 9:50 Power in discourse: A language model of organizational inequity in a steel plant Susan S. Case Department of Organizational Behavior Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University 10:15 The politics of subordination: Linguistic discourse in organizational hierarchies Anne Machung Institute for the Study of Social Change, University of California, Berkeley 10:40 Playing down authority and still getting things done: Female professors get help from the institution Elisabeth D. Kuhn Department of English, Virginia Commonwealth University Session 5C: Stephens Lounge 9:00 Masculine pronouns as generic: A view from the child Nancy Anne Niedzielski Department of Linguistics, University of California, Santa Barbara 9:25 Gendered talk and gendered lives: Little girls being women before becoming (big) girls Jenny Cook-Gumperz Department of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara 9:50 The effects of group size and gender composition on the kind of participation in small group discussions Jacqueline J. Madhok SESAME: Graduate Group in Science and Math Education University of California, Berkeley 10:15 Gender differences in the use of persuasive justification in children's pretend play Amy Kyratzis Institute of Cognitive Studies, University of California, Berkeley 10:40 Talking power: Preschool girls' conflict talk Amy Sheldon Department of Linguistics, University of Minnesota 11:05 Conferring Session 3: Heller Lounge 11:35 Break for Lunch Session 6: Heller Lounge 1:00 Studying language and gender as community practice Penelope Eckert Institute for Research on Learning, Palo Alto Sally McConnell-Ginet Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Cornell University 1:45 Are you with me?: Power, solidarity, and community in the discourse of African American women Michele Foster Department of Black Studies/Division of Education University of California, Davis 2:30 Linguistic privilege: Stating facts and speaking powerfully in Japanese Janet S. (Shibamoto) Smith Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis 3:15 What are we laughing about? Susan Ervin-Tripp Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley Session 7A: Tilden Room 4:00 Gender-dependent pitch levels: A comparative study in Japanese and English Yumiko Ohara Department of Linguistics, University of Hawaii, Manoa 4:25 "Sounds pretty ethnic, eh?": A pragmatic particle in Porirua speech Miriam Meyerhoff Department of Linguistics, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Victoria University of Wellington 4:50 A theory of deixis for examining the social construction of reality in relation to differential access to power Louanna Furbee Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia Session 7B: Tan Oak Room 4:00 "To spare women a beating for three days, they will make the world upside down": Images of women in Chinese proverbs Hong Zhang Department of Anthropology, Columbia University 4:25 Discourse of power and solidarity: Language features of African American females in a neighborhood-based youth dance program Arnetha F. Ball School of Education, University of Michigan 4:50 The goddess and the sea people: The origins of the languages of the Minoan scripts Karen Woodman Department of Linguistics, University of Victoria Session 7C: Stephens Lounge 4:00 Women talking to women: The function of questions in conversation Alice F. Freed Department of Linguistics, Montclair State College Alice Greenwood Department of Linguistics, AT&T Bell Laboratories 4:25 Interruptions, gender and power: A critical review of the literature Deborah James Division of the Humanities, University of Toronto Sandra Clark Department of Linguistics, Memorial University of Newfoundland 4:50 Issues of gender, roles, and power in dyadic conversations Grace P. Chan Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago 5:15 Conferring Session 4: Heller Lounge Session 8: Heller Lounge 5:45 Information management: Women's language strengths Dale Spender University of London, University of Queensland 6:30 Wine and Cheese Reception: Heller Lounge ------------------------------------------------------------ Linguist List: Vol-3-269. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-270. Thu 19 Mar 1992. Lines: 210 Subject: 3.270 Gender Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 10:13:49 -0600 From: mfleck@cs.uiowa.edu (Margaret Fleck) Subject: references on generics 2) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 15:40:17 -0500 From: dever@pogo.isp.pitt.edu (Dan Everett) Subject: Re: 3.267 Queries: Heine, Prehistory, Gender 3) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1992 15:53:16 -0500 From: zgilbert@epas.utoronto.ca (Zvi Gilbert) Subject: Re: 3.267 Q: Gender 4) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 15:54:56 -0500 From: gb661@csc.albany.edu (BROADWELL GEORGE AARON) Subject: feminine as the unmarked gender 5) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1992 16:24 EST From: LRUDOLPH@vax.clarku.edu Subject: Re: 3.267 Queries: Heine, Prehistory, Gender 6) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 15:38:10 CST From: (Dennis Baron) Subject: it 7) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 07:45:56 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: unmarked feminine -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 10:13:49 -0600 From: mfleck@cs.uiowa.edu (Margaret Fleck) Subject: references on generics In my last posting, I referred to some work by Carlson on generics. A couple people asked me for the references. Unfortunately, I managed to delete the email from one of them before realizing that the mail system had sabotaged my reply in an interesting new way that didn't even leave their return address in the header of the bounced mail. So I'm reduced to posting the references here: Carlson, Gregory N. (1977) ``Reference to Kinds in English,'' Ph.D. thesis, Department of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, destributed [softbound] by the Graduate Linguistic Student Association of that department [at least it was as whenever I got it, maybe 5 years ago?] (1977) ``A Unified Analysis of the English Bare Plural,'' {\it Linguistics and Philosophy} 1, pp. 413--457. Margaret Fleck -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 15:40:17 -0500 From: dever@pogo.isp.pitt.edu (Dan Everett) Subject: Re: 3.267 Queries: Heine, Prehistory, Gender Feminine is the unmarked gender in Arawan languages of Northwestern Amazonas, Brazil. Alan Vogel, UT Arlington has an MA thesis on gender in Jarawa. I have a ms. here at Pitt on gender in Deni and Steve Marlett (SIL Tucson) has some info on Madija. As to any connection with cultural attitudes, gender relations, I have no observations to relate. Dan Everett -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1992 15:53:16 -0500 From: zgilbert@epas.utoronto.ca (Zvi Gilbert) Subject: Re: 3.267 Q: Gender I was just informed today that Cayuga, an Iroquoian language, uses the feminine gender pronoun as the unmarked form, in both singular and plural cases (i.e., a mixed group of both men and women is referred to by the female plural pronoun.) This information is via Carrie Dyck, who wrote her MA Thesis on the phonology of Cayuga (cdyck@epas.utoronto.ca) --Zvi zgilbert@epas.utoronto.ca @epas.toronto.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 15:54:56 -0500 From: gb661@csc.albany.edu (BROADWELL GEORGE AARON) Subject: feminine as the unmarked gender Edward Kovach asks if there are any languages with feminine as the unmarked gender. Greville Corbett's book *Gender* (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991), which I recommend strongly, cites (at least) one language where feminine is claimed to be the unmarked case. The language is Zayse, an Omotic language (spoken in Ethiopia, I presume.) The original reference is Hayward, R.J. 1989. The notion of `default gender': a key to interpreting the evolution of certain verb para- digms in East Ometo, and its implications for Omotic. Afrika und U"bersee 72:17-32. I don't know anything about what the culture of these people might be like, but I wouldn't bet on matriarchy... ****************************************************************************** Aaron Broadwell, Dept. of Linguistics, University at Albany -- SUNY, Albany, NY 12222 gb661@thor.albany.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1992 16:24 EST From: LRUDOLPH@vax.clarku.edu Subject: Re: 3.267 Queries: Heine, Prehistory, Gender John Barnden asked if anyone had proposed using "it" to avoid gender-specificity. Yes. E. Nesbit, early Fabian socialist and author of children's books later read by (among others) Freeman Dyson, regularly used "it" for a child of either gender (but not, I think, for adults). ...Actually I don't know if she _proposed_ using "it", or just _did_ so; but I wouldn't be surprised if there was an explicit proposal somewhere in the Fabian literature. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 15:38:10 CST From: (Dennis Baron) Subject: it John Barnden asks if _it_ had ever been considered as a generic 3 pers. sg. pronoun. Yes. Since the early 1970s _it_ has been frequently proposed, rejected, discussed, reproposed. Earlier still (1880s), _one_ also made the rounds. Interestingly, _it_ has frequently served in English as the pronoun of choice in reference to infants and children. References to "the child . . . it" are common earlier in this century, though I suspect they are less common today, at least in American English; also, _it_ seems to occur now more with infants (whose sex may be harder or less important for the speaker to guess at) than with children, though earlier this distinction did not seem to apply. What is working against acceptance with _it_ is probably its strong marking as nonhuman and possibly also inanimate, as well as its traditional use in (children's/teen) slang to refer derogatorily to another's gender/humanity. Else _it_ would be an ideal candidate; and Early Modern _it_ even more ideal than the it of today, since by then the initial _h_ and confusing variety of forms of Old and ME were pretty much gone, and _its_ was still abuilding: until the 17c. the forms for subject, object, and possessive were all uninflected _it_ (no its, I believe, in the King James version). Dennis Baron debaron@uiuc.edu Dept. of English office: 217-244-0568 University of Illinois messages: 217-333-2392 608 S. Wright St fax: 217-333-4321 Urbana IL 61801 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 07:45:56 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: unmarked feminine Not what Edward Kovach had in mind, alas, but a piece of linguistic Ripley-style "did you know that..". I have it from my late colleague Donald Laycock (Australian National University) that, in a few languages of Papua-New-Guinea (unfortunately I cannot remember any names) there are both masculine and feminine 3rd person pronouns. Nothing strange so far. Now, should a group of persons be all men, except for one, count her: one, lone woman, you use the *feminine* 3rd pl. pronoun. Don's interpretation was: "It's not what you think. In fact, they are as macho a lot as you could ever find. The presence of just one women (and, a fortiori, several) in a group of men is so extraordinary that it warrants using the feminine pronoun." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-270. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-271. Thu 19 Mar 1992. Lines: 156 Subject: 3.271 Printing Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1992 09:20 MST From: Molly Diesing Subject: Re: 3.258 Queries: Print Aid, French Text, Adverbials 2) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 14:13:36 EST From: mark Subject: Printing tool 3) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 16:32:24 -0500 From: gb661@csc.albany.edu (BROADWELL GEORGE AARON) Subject: printing a handout in WP 4) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 14:26 CST From: "FRANK R. BRANDON" Subject: Re: 3.258 Queries: Print Aid, French Text, Adverbials -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1992 09:20 MST From: Molly Diesing Subject: Re: 3.258 Queries: Print Aid, French Text, Adverbials Johan Rooryk asks whether there is a way to print 2 pages of text (reduced) on a single page. There is a rather simple way to do this using WordPerfect, and I'm sure the method could be carried over to other wordprocessors as well. The basic idea is that you print your text in landscape orientation (the paper turned "sideways") in a small typeface using newspaper column formatting. In WordPerfect this is done as follows: 1. select paper size (Shf-F8) - instead of 8.5" by 11" select 11" by 8.5" 2. select a small typeface - I find that 9 point works well 3. define columns (Alt-F7) - the default setting with wide paper gives you 1" margins all around 4. turn columns on The text will go down the left side of the page, and then down the right side before going on to the next page. -Molly Diesing -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 14:13:36 EST From: mark Subject: Printing tool Johan Rooryck asked in 3.258 if there exists a software tool to print manuscript "two-up", i.e., in reduced size, two pages side-by-side on standard paper. On our network of PCs we use 4PRINT(tm), which does what he asks and much more. It describes itself as "The HP LaserJet/DeskJet Landscape Printing Program". The "4" in the name refers to the option of printing pages 1+2, 5+6, 9+10... side-by-side, then turning the pages over to get 3+4, 7+8, 11+12... on the backs of the appropriate sheets: four pages of text on one sheet of paper. We don't use that option, but we do use "two-up" and wide landscape printing quite a bit. To judge by the on-line help message, the total range of options is quite impressive. The source is Korenthal Associates, Inc. Department 4PR-REG405 230 West 13th St. New York, N.Y. 10011 The software is available as shareware; the manual, and registered ownership, come for a reasonable fee. They can be reached at 1-800-KA-PROGS (orders only) or 1-212-242-1790; fax 1-212-242-2599. I have no connection with Korenthal Associates whatsoever except as a user of their 4PRINT program. Mark A. Mandel Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200 320 Nevada St. : Newton, Mass. 02160, USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 16:32:24 -0500 From: gb661@csc.albany.edu (BROADWELL GEORGE AARON) Subject: printing a handout in WP A recent post asked about printing out a handout so that you get two text pages on a single piece of paper, i.e. -------------------------------------------- | | | | | | | | | 8 & 1/2 | | | | | | | | | | p.1 | | | | 2 | -------------------------------------------- 11 " Here's how to do this in WordPerfect. 1.) Go to the Format menu (Shift-F8) 2.) Select Page 3.) Select Paper Size 4.) Select Add 5.) Select Labels -- from the menu that you get, you need to do two things: a.) select Size, and pick Standard Landscape, hit return b.) select Labels, and pick Yes -- you get another menu. c.) select number, and enter 2 for the number of columns and 1 for the number of rows. 6.) Exit till you're back at the Paper Size menu. You ought to have a new paper size defined, called Labels-Wide. Now to print the handout, you just need to select this paper size. This works well on my HP Laserjet -- I suppose that some printers may not be able to print sideways. Note that you don't have to do all this every time you want a handout. You just need to define it once, and after that you merely select it from the menu. ****************************************************************************** Aaron Broadwell, Dept. of Linguistics, University at Albany -- SUNY, Albany, NY 12222 gb661@thor.albany.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 14:26 CST From: "FRANK R. BRANDON" Subject: Re: 3.258 Queries: Print Aid, French Text, Adverbials To Johan Rooryck: Yes. I use DesignStudio aka Ready,Set,Go! on the Mac and print two pages sideways up to the limits allowed by the printer. 9pt is quite legible even with regular 300dpi laser printers and the Kinko's near my house has the 600dpi Apple Laser printer (IIg ?) which is remarkably clear. If you want to print both sides of the paper, fold it up like a pamphlet and put a staple into the middle, the only problem is doing the 'math' to get the correct ordering for the pages! No sweat! --Frank B. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-271. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-272. Thu 19 Mar 1992. Lines: 91 Subject: 3.272 Teaching Linguistics Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 09:55 EST From: Mark H Aronoff Subject: Re: 3.257 Spanish el/la, Teaching Linguistics, OVS 2) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 12:59 PST From: Vicki Fromkin Subject: Re: 3.262 Text, Idioms, OVS 3) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 18:44:00 GMT From: WAB2@phx.cam.ac.uk Subject: Texts -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 09:55 EST From: Mark H Aronoff Subject: Re: 3.257 Spanish el/la, Teaching Linguistics, OVS State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook, NY 11794-4376 Mark H Aronoff Wonderland Linguistics 632-7775 18-Mar-1992 09:52am EST I would like to second those who have pointed out that linguistics must get (back) into the schools. There is now a LSA committee whose job it is to foster such efforts. Anyone who can help us in our work is encouraged to contact me (the committee chair). I would especially like to hear about ongoing or planned projects in the schools. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 12:59 PST From: Vicki Fromkin Subject: Re: 3.262 Text, Idioms, OVS Re. Larry Hutchinson's remarks on Intro Texrts. Would not argue with anyone who prefers O'Grady, Dobrovolsky, and Aronoff (in fact we note how much of Fromkin and Rodman has been emulated including the very formats of our tables as well as the table of contents) or any other text. Rodman and I don't see our text as directed to the same students anyway -- but I can tell you that there are lots of Deans and Provosts not only at UCLA but throughout the US who seem to like F & R a lot. I admoit that my ego is fed greatly bythe fact that people like Antonio Damasio, head of Neurology at U of Iowa Med School, the nobellist Francis Crick, and Joe Bogen, the splitter of the first human brain, refer to F&R as their main linguistic source (even though I tell them there's not all that much linguistics in it). Oh well -- what is most important is that our 'friends' outside the field read something and I rejoice when I hear they read O'G, D & A, or F & R, or any of the many many books out there which can help to dispell the many myths and wrong views about language and our discipline, and show them how exciting and interesting and vital our field is. VAF of F&R -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 18:44:00 GMT From: WAB2@phx.cam.ac.uk Subject: Texts Like Justine, I teach an introductory ( mine a 12-week) course on French linguistics. I concentrate on the acoustic and articulatory basis of French (it's good for second-year courses and sorts the sheep out!). I have found the following both accessible to keen students and a good starting-point for my supplementary hand-outs. I hope these details will help (forgive the absence of diacritics): J. Gardes-Tamine, La Grammaire (Paris:Colin) C. Germain & R. Leblanc, Introduction a la linguistique generale (Presses universitaires de Montreal). Students also find B.Tranel The Sounds of French (Cambridge University Press) very useful. And I wish that L. Armstrong, The Phonetics of French, though old in date, were not out of print (back in the Autumn, perhaps). Bill Bennett. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-272. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-273. Fri 20 Mar 1992. Lines: 112 Subject: 3.273 Raising Summary, French Pronunciation Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 00:59:30 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Summary: Canadian Raising 2) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 17:06:10 EST Subject: 3.260 French pronunciation of `Gougenheim' From: Stavros Macrakis 3) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 20:12:09 EST From: jack Subject: French and Dutch name pronunciation -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 00:59:30 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Summary: Canadian Raising I have so far received 20 responses to my query about "Canadian" raising, that is, the phenomenon whereby words like 'write' have a different vowel than words like 'ride' (roughly [/\i] vs. [ai]). It became apparent that this distinction is much more widespread than I had believed, both in the US and in Canada. Almost all respondents had some examples which appear to show that this distinction is phonemic. For example, quite a few speakers had 'hide' (meaning 'conceal') with [/\i] but 'ride' with [ai]. Even more speakers have [/\i] in one or both of 'cider' and 'spider'. US speakers appear to have more examples of this sort than do Canadian ones, and indeed a couple of the Canadian speakers who wrote in did not have any such examples (at least not within the small set of examples I asked about, viz., 'hide', 'cider', 'spider', 'writer', 'rider'). I am planning to send out a longer questionnaire soon. If anyone who has not responded so far would like to receive it, please contact me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 17:06:10 EST Subject: 3.260 French pronunciation of `Gougenheim' From: Stavros Macrakis "Wayles Browne, Cornell Univ." asks: > Where can I find out how to pronounce the name of the French > linguist Gougenheim? ... Is there any dictionary which gives > pronunciations of verbs and of proper names...? A very useful work for this is Pierre Fouche's "Traite de Prononciation Francaise" (Paris: Klincksieck, 1959). Fouche attempts to be systematic, but gives lists where he could find no rule. If you want more of a dictionary, I believe the second volume (Proper Nouns) of the Petit Robert gives pronunciations. There are three issues in the particular word `Gougenheim': G before e/i/y (section VI.A."G".1 Remarque IV, parag. 3, p. 286) "Noter de plus, dans les noms allemands portes par des Francais, l'opposition Krueger, Naegelen, avec [zh], et G(o)ugenheim, avec [g]." (no general rule is given) medial EN (with following oral consonant) (section IV."en".A.3 Remarque III, p. 173) "Les noms etrangers portes par des Francais ou designant des localites francaises se prononcent avec [e~]: Baldesnsperger, ..., Benveniste, ..." But the case -enheim isn't clearly covered. final EIM (section IV."eim" Remarque II, p. 163) "Les noms allemands en -eim se prononcent [em] lorsqu'ils sont portes par des Francais." This leaves the two possibilities ?[guge~em] and [gugenem], of which the latter seems more likely. There has been some tendency (documented in Fouche) to move from completely French pronunciations to something closer to the original pronunciation in foreign words. This tendency is more pronounced in Belgium, where in particular Flemish words are pronounced using close-to-Flemish conventions. -s -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 20:12:09 EST From: jack Subject: French and Dutch name pronunciation I agree that pronunciation of names should be given in French Dictionaries, especially since these are not always pronounced as our teaching of French spelling/pronunciation relationships would indicate. Thus the late Professor Cons of the College de France occasionally had to correct people who addressed him, saying, with strong feeling, < Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 13:57:07 +0000 From: Dieter.Stein@hrz.uni-giessen.dbp.de Subject: meetings 2) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 10:31:58 sst From: luakt@iscs.nus.sg (Lua Kim Teng) Subject: COLIPS Conference -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 13:57:07 +0000 From: Dieter.Stein@hrz.uni-giessen.dbp.de Subject: meetings 2nd circular Colloquium on LANGUAGE, SUBJECTIVITY AND SUBJECTIVISATION 28-30 May, 1992 St Catharine's College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England. Much work in historical syntax and semantics in the last ten years has often tacitly assumed or presupposed that the phenomenon of speaker subjectivity underlies or motivates many historical linguistic processes (e.g. the semantics-pragmatics of grammaticalisation, the syntactic development of literary styles). But the study of speaker subjectivity (including the expression of emotion) has itself not yet received systematic study. This circular therefore announces a seminar on Language, Subjectivity and Subjectivisation. The seminar will be held over two days in St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Its aim is to assemble people currently working on subjectivity, or with an interest in some aspect of the topic for discussion and debate. YOU ARE INVITED TO OFFER A PAPER FOR THIS SEMINAR. Here is a set of questions as a suggested guide to contributors (they are obviously not exhaustive): -- What is the relationship between subjectivity and subjectivisation? Is subjectivity primarily an historical phenomenon? -- What linguistic structures can be said to carry 'subjective' meanings? How is subjectivity expressed in language (e.g. in modals (epistemic vs. deontic); evidentials; grammaticalisation of speech act verbs; etc.)? -- To what extent is the encoding of subjectivity and subjective meaning dependent on the structure of the language at a particular stage or historical moment? -- Are there systematic tendencies in the meanings of individual structures in terms of developing or losing subjective meanings? -- To what extent can developments in the expression of subjectivity be related to changes in intellectual history? How well is subjective language understood by its users in any period? -- To what extent can developments in literary history be related to the observed linguistic developments? To what extent has there been a mutual influence? --To what extent is the expression (or non-expression) of subjectivity related to aspects of literacy or orality? (E.g. how far is it tied to the status of emerging literary and standard written varieties of a language?) ACCOMMODATION: Negotiations are currently underway to get a special package price for seminar participants at the Arundel House Hotel, about seven minutes walk from St Catharine's. Current bed & breakfast prices (as a primary indication): Single room (en suite bath/shower & toilet): #36-49 per night. Double room (en suite bath/shower & toilet): #50-#67 per night. TIMETABLE: 27 May (Wednesday evening): ARRIVAL (and get-together) 28 May (Thursday): 9.30am - 1 pm: SEMINAR 1 pm - 2.30 pm: lunch 2.30 pm - 6 pm: SEMINAR 7.30pm: Seminar Dinner (St Catharine's) 29 May (Friday): 9.30 am - 1 pm: SEMINAR 1 pm - 2.30 pm: lunch 2.30 pm - 6 pm: SEMINAR (ends) 30 May (Saturday): DEPARTURE PRELIMINARY REGISTRATION: Please let (one of us) know as soon as possible (a) whether you will be able to participate in theis seminar, and (b) if so, the likely title of your paper. We will ask for confirmation of registration (together with a nominal registration fee) later. ABSTRACTS: All abstracts should be sent to Dieter Stein by 30 January, 1992 at the very latest. The idea is that contributors submit elaborate abstracts, which will then be circulated to all participants before the seminar. ORGANISERS: Dieter Stein Susan Wright Anglisches Institut III St Catharine's College Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Cambridge University Trumpington Street D-4000 Duesseldorf Cambridge CB2 1RL Germany England e-mail: dstein@dd0rud81 email: SW29@phoenix.cambridge.ac.uk or: DIETER.STEIN@HRZ.UNI-GIESSEN.DBP.DE telephone:0211-311-2963 telephone: 0223-338332 Fax:(211) 342229 Fax: (0044 223) 338340 SEMINAR ON LANGUAGE, SUBJECTIVITY AND SUBJECTIVISATION 28-30 May, 1992 St Catharine's College, Cambridge. ACCOMMODATION: BOOKING FORM: PLEASE RETURN THIS FORM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO: SUSAN WRIGHT (ST CATHARINE'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE) by e-mail or Fax: (0044 223) 338340 or Telephone: (0044 223) 338332. IMPORTANT: Confirmation of Hotel bookings can be made NO LATER THAN 27 March, 1992. SEMINAR COSTS: Registration fee (seminar room, tea, coffee): 10.00 pounds sterling Please indicate if you would like to book the following: Thursday lunch (28 May): 7.00 sterling YES/NO Seminar Dinner (28 May): 20.00 sterling YES/NO Friday lunch (29 May): 7.00 sterling YES/NO Friday Dinner (29 May): 10.00 sterling YES/NO Vegetarian YES/NO I enclose a cheque/banker's order for ______pounds sterling (payable to St Catharine's College). [Please tick] I wish to pay on arrival [Please tick] ACCOMMODATION: Provisional bookings have been made for seminar participants at the Arundel House Hotel. The price has been finalised at: 48 pounds sterling per person for bed (room with shower) and continental breakfast per night. Please indicate confirmation of booking for the following: Wed 27 May YES/NO Thurs 28 May YES/NO Frid 29 May YES/NO Sat 30 May YES/NO NB: The hotel will not guarantee availability of accommodation without prior confirmation. Please fax or ring Susan Wright with your confirmation as soon as possible, and importantly, no later than 27 March. NAME:_________________________________________ ADDRESS:_________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ ******** ************** ***************** -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 10:31:58 sst From: luakt@iscs.nus.sg (Lua Kim Teng) Subject: COLIPS Conference ======================================================================= C A L L O F P A P E R Comm.COLIPS COMMUNICATIONS OF CHINESE AND ORIENTAL LANGUAGES INFORMATION PROCESSING SOCIETY -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Linguist List: Vol-3-274. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-275. Fri 20 Mar 1992. Lines: 322 Subject: 3.275 Gender, Spanish la - el Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 18:26:57 EST From: Lesli LaRocco Subject: Re: 3.270 Gender 2) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 10:35:42 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: Gender again 3) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 19:02:35 CST From: tpc1@Ra.MsState.Edu (Price Caldwell) Subject: Feminine as the unmarked case 4) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 9:17:07 EST From: bert peeters Subject: 3.267 Gender 5) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 17:54:43 -0600 From: "Larry G. Hutchinson" Subject: Re: 3.267 Queries: Heine, Prehistory, Gender 6) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 18:48:54 EST From: Michael Newman Subject: Re: 3.267 Queries: Heine, Prehistory, Gender 7) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 00:33:03 -0500 From: oneil@husc.harvard.edu Subject: languages with the feminine as the unmarked case 8) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 15:33:16 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Spanish la/el -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 18:26:57 EST From: Lesli LaRocco Subject: Re: 3.270 Gender The extinct language Sumerian made no gender distinctions whatsoever, even in the pronouns; but it did distinguish between animate and inanimate. As for using "it" as the gender neutral pronoun, why not just take a cue from spoken American English, and use "they"? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 10:35:42 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: Gender again LRUDOLPH@vax.clarku.edu mentions that "E. Nesbit, early Fabian socialist and author of children's books later read by (among others) Freeman Dyson, regularly used "it" for a child of either gender". When I learnt English in high school (1955 or thereabouts) I was TAUGHT that "it" was normally used to refer to young children regardless of sex... unless you were in the presence of their parents and thought they might take it as a lack of interest in their "brats" (my teacher's very word!). I am pretty sure that that usage predates the Fabian society by a century or two, for I dimly remember having read older texts in which "it" referred to infants. Perhaps Nesbit only stretched just a wee, wee bit the accepted usage of the time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 19:02:35 CST From: tpc1@Ra.MsState.Edu (Price Caldwell) Subject: Feminine as the unmarked case There are unmarked feminines even in English. Witness cow vs. bull, duck vs. drake. --Price Caldwell -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 9:17:07 EST From: bert peeters Subject: 3.267 Gender > Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 16:02:23 CST > From: (Edward G. Kovach) > 1. Are there any languages with the femimine gender as the unmarked or > generic case, and the masculine as the marked? Although the view is not very widespread, there are advantages to viewing the feminine form of French adjectives as the basic form, and to deriving the masculine from the feminine (most of the time by merely deleting the final consonant). I'm talking in terms of pronunciation, obviously, not in terms of spelling. E.g. heureuse /OrOz/ - heureux /OrO/ /O/ is my attempt at transcribing the vowel -eu- longue /lo~g/ - long /lo~/ grande /gra~d/ - grand /gra~/ There are other derivations, such as desonorisation: E.g. bre`ve /brEv/ - bref /brEf/ or slight vowel change + final C deletion: E.g. premie`re /pr@mjEr/ - premier /pr@mje/ Although this overview is by no means exhaustive, one will soon discover that in the long run it is easier to describe the masculine forms in the spoken language starting from the feminine than it would be to go the other way round. Cf. long /lo~/ - longue /lo~g/ rond /ro~/ - ronde /ro~d/ bon /bo~/ - bonne /bon/ > 2. If such languages exist, how "sexist" do the speakers appear to be? As speakers remain mostly unaware of the alternative approach sketched above, this question does not arise (just yet) - at least not in this respect. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 17:54:43 -0600 From: "Larry G. Hutchinson" Subject: Re: 3.267 Queries: Heine, Prehistory, Gender Many African languages have sexless pronouns. There are no "he" vs "she" pronouns at all. The societies that speak these languages certainly do not strike me as being less sexist. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 18:48:54 EST From: Michael Newman Subject: Re: 3.267 Queries: Heine, Prehistory, Gender As regards gender-neutral pronominals, I'm in the midst of a rather large study (actually it's my dissertation) on the theme of pronominal variations with human reference antecedents; so I've seen a lot of data. On the specific issue involved here, it seems that it a gross oversimplification to imagine that the third person singular subparadigm is neatly divided up into masculine, feminine and neuter with a gaping hole in the middle for uncertain, unspecified, indis- tinct or irrelevant, just waiting for the right element to come along and fill it. A social psychologist named Donald MacKay spent a good part of the 80s try- ing to get everyone to adopt a neologism 'E' (with a capital) as this gender- neutral pronoun and even received a National Institute of Mental Health grant for his investigative work at solving this conundrum. About this Dwight Bolin- ger once suggested that he receive one of those Golden Fleece awards that ex- senator Proxmire was in the habit of giving out for wastes of government money. Apparently, my sources tell me, MacKay is still at it using 'E' in his lectures Of course, most of his students, following the normal rules of English phono- logy will assume he is saying 'HE'. (If you think I am being unnecessarily nasty about MacKay, I should point out that he begins one of his articles with an attack on linguists for not coming up with solutions to this pressing problem.) In fact, the conclusion I am coming to is that the whole matter is-linguis- tically speaking- a pseudoproblem. Each of the pronominal possiblities for that supposedly empty slot, HE, SHE, HE OR SHE, SHE OR HE, THEY, IT makes its own semantic contribution. For example, when using a generic antecedent which refers to a stereotypically masculine occupation, such as lumberjack or parti- cipant in congressional sex-scandals, speakers tend to use HE. When referring to a child or baby in the abstract, there is a tendency to use IT. This semantic contribution is what makes across-the-board use of HE objection- able to those concerned with unfair gender implications of course. However, that sociolinguistic question cannot be solved by legislating another form in, whatever that form would be--even if there were an offical body capable of doing such legislation. Even THEY which is certainly the most frequent prono- minal used in epicene reference has its own semantic baggage, which is too complicated for me to go into here. The best thing that can happen here is to simply use whatever form seems most natural. The whole awkwardness came about, after all, only when the linguists of the 18th century noticed a pattern which didn't fit into their theory of the time--the usage of THEY coreferent with a formally singular antecedent. Instead of changing their understanding of agreement they tried to change usage. This is the grammatical equivalent of iatrogenic (or doctor-created) disease. Michael Newman -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 00:33:03 -0500 From: oneil@husc.harvard.edu Subject: languages with the feminine as the unmarked case >Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 16:02:23 CST >From: (Edward G. Kovach) >Subject: languages with the femimine as the unmarked case > >1. Are there any languages with the femimine gender as the unmarked or > generic case, and the masculine as the marked? Uhh, how about French? Adjectives, that is... Synchronically, the difference between most of the masculine and feminine adjective forms is that the feminine form has an additional *unpredictable* consonant at the end. So -- _petit_ /pti/ small (masc sg) and _petite_ /ptit/ small (fem sg). Given this, it seems far more economical to hypothesize that the feminine form is the base case, with a rule of final consonant deletion to derive the masculine form -- rather than assuming the masculine form as basic, and somehow adding an unpredictable consonant suffix in the feminine. Despite this, the French don't seem either more or less noticably sexist than anyone else. Possibly that's because, diachronically, the immediately preceeding forms for the adjectives was one where the masculine form was basic, and the feminine was derived from it by a schwa suffix. Given a final consonant deletion followed by a final schwa deletion, and we get the synchronic system. Having a somewhat pessimistic view of sociolinguistic relations, I expect that most cases where the feminine form is unmarked will be the result of the blind operation of sound change laws to a previously (predictably) masculinist system. John O'Neil -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 15:33:16 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Spanish la/el Jim Harris seems unhappy with my brief discussion of why the distribution of el vs. la in Spanish was something that I thought worth asking for data about. My statement, to the effect that the facts appear to undermine some theoretical claims that have been made with regard to these phenomena, was not intended as a definitive argument, but merely as an indication to the readers of LINGUIST of what I was up to. However, since the issue has been joined, it does seem to me that the facts I summarized undermine the claim that the rule in Spanish calls for el instead of la before feminines beginning in stressed a, and in derived forms of such feminines (so el alma, because the a is stressed, el almita, because almita is derived from alma). There are two issues here. (1) For the millions of speakers, to quote Jim, who treat el azucar as feminine, this is clear evidence that words beginning with unstressed a can also undergo this rule, and that in turn makes it possible to argue that forms like el almita are NOT explained (transderivationally) by the stress pattern of the basic form el alma. Furthermore, the existence of words with stressed initial a which do not undergo the rule also suggests that perhaps stress is not the relevant condition. It is crucial in this context to note that speakers who have el azucar as a feminine also have el azuquitar (the diminutive of the same) as a feminine. Thus the following proportion seems to hold: el alma : el almita :: el azucar (fem.) : el azuquitar (fem.) Since (transderivational, cyclic, whatever) stress on the initial a is NOT involved in the second pair, it seems to me reasonable to question whether it is in the first pair, as well. (It may be relevant for some readers to point out that alma is stressed on the first syllable, but none of the other examples are). (2) Perhaps more to the point, I would like to argue that the dialect variation IS relevant, because it bears on the issue of what is POSSIBLE as opposed to merely ATTESTED IN A STANDARD DICTIONARY. Now, there certainly are plenty of speakers for whom avestruz (and even azucar) are masculine. Such speakers may, therefore, not have any attested feminines with unstressed a that take el. However, the relevant question for THEORETICAL linguistics must be whether such forms are POSSIBLE for these speakers. I am not sure what the answer is, but I AM sure that that is the question. Dialects can, of course, differ in what is possible, but that needs to be shown. This preoccupation with what is possible (which, of course, comes out of the work of a certain Noam Chomsky) is why I also asked about judgements regarding made-up feminines with stressed initial a, like arba. Now, Jim asserts that millions of speakers "unhesitatingly" pick el arba. I would question this, because I do not know of any relevant published research. The few speakers who responded to my query were quite hesitant (I had not posted this result, because I got so few responses). One final thought: in my experience, it is usually the case that one can find examples of neologisms and such and that one does not, therefore, necessarily need to consider made up words. I wonder, for example, if there are any attestations in the Spanish-language press of the Khmer word angka (used to refer to the Khmer Rouge organization) and if so whether anybody knows which syllable the word was stressed on, whether it was feminine, and what form, if any, of the definite article it took. Or if there are any other relevant ATTESTED examples of neologisms, loanwords, and such. In any event, though, I think that the critical question IS what is possible, and I am unconvinced by the available data that there is any documented Spanish dialect in which the la -> el rule is IN PRINCIPLE applicable to all and only feminines beginning with stressed a (on the relevant cycle). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-275. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-276. Sat 21 Mar 1992. Lines: 303 Subject: 3.276 Rules And The Brain Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 20:58 EST From: John_E_JOSEPH@umail.umd.edu (jj36) Subject: Re: 3.266 The Reality of Rules (Part 2) 2) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 10:21:01 GMT From: WAB2@phx.cam.ac.uk Subject: reality of rules 3) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 09:30 EST From: KINGSTON@cs.umass.EDU Subject: Re: 3.265 The Reality of Rules 4) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 11:45:57 -0800 From: saka@cogsci.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Saka) Subject: RE: rules [3.250] 5) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 09:59:39 PST From: Rick Wojcik Subject: Re: 3.265 The Reality of Rules 6) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 15:16:35 PST From: Penni Sibun Subject: in whose heads are grammars 7) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 18:41:10 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Reality of Rules/Ambiguity of 'Grammar' 8) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1992 17:56:05 GMT From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: The Reality of Rules (& Itkonen) -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 20:58 EST From: John_E_JOSEPH@umail.umd.edu (jj36) Subject: Re: 3.266 The Reality of Rules (Part 2) A note on Martti Nyman's interpretation of Saussure's characterization of "langue" as "fait social". In his very interesting posting on the reality of rules, Nyman wrote: "Unlike mathematical entities, languages are subject to constant (regional, social, stylistic) variation and constant change. The variability and changeability of language results from human collective activity, and so it's proper to characterize language as a social entity. This was Ferdinand de Saussure's point ("langue" as "fait social")... This is precisely the opposite of my understanding. As I read Saussure, the social nature of langue accounts for its stability, not its instability. Ch.2, sec.2 of the _Cours_ ("Mutabilite' du signe"), states with regard to langue: "situee a la fois dans la masse sociale et dans le temps, personne ne peut rien y changer" ('situated simultaneously in the social mass and in time, no one can change anything about it' -- dangling participle intact). The passage goes on to state that it is the arbitrariness of language that accounts for its variability and changeability, and that this is always in tension with the stability inherent to language by virtue of its being a social fact. --John E. Joseph -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 10:21:01 GMT From: WAB2@phx.cam.ac.uk Subject: reality of rules It is rather agreeable to find linguists hung up on a preposition. Instead of "in the brain" what about "of the brain". Linguistics, I point out trivially, is no proper science if it is only, in some way which does not appeal to my squeamish tastes, concerned with the material reality of the brain. Our COGNITIVE science (and I cannot think of any linguist wishing to disagree with that label) must MAP the collective action of the brain's componential structure. If this is not so, and if we are not concerned with MAPPINGg of the activity of the material content which is called the brain, then we are nothing but dabblers and philologists. And we shall have no way of dealing with 1) the recovery of language after brain trauma or 2a) the ability of "English" speakers to accept Ozarkian "for-to" as "possible English" and not a footnote in KOL; 2b) the same non-physical restructuring of rules of English grammar to allow for the ECM in finite clauses represented by the London Times' "at Evry he came out with guns blazing against the self-perpetuating elite of France's grandes ecoles, whom one is assured run evrything worth running in France." (12 June 1990) or the London Evening Standard's "Earlier came the murder of [...], whom police believe was shot as a result of an underworld feud." (31 December 1990) The form of the rules which will allow for the acceptance by American English speakers of the examples in (2) (without commas, which I would find to be a different structure) is open (we know the difficulty of "variable rules") to discussion, once we have acknowledged the subject-matter of our science to be knowledge of language in the mind. Bill Bennett. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 09:30 EST From: KINGSTON@cs.umass.EDU Subject: Re: 3.265 The Reality of Rules As a daily laborer in experimental vineyards (as a phonetician) I must confess that abstract arguments of the sort that have been advanced in recent postings on the "reality of rules" leave me unconverted to any of the positions argued for (I can hear the howls about the literal-mindedness of phoneticians already). To my mind (literal or not), it is fortunate that there is a wealth of empirical evidence on the reality (or lack of it) of linguistic rules. Some of this evidence is external (see Fromkin's posting), but a great deal of it is internal, in the sense that has been obtained from observations of what people do when speaking or listening (again, I can hear the howls, that that's just performance, but I would respond that even if none of us or our subjects are ever _ideal_ speaker/hearers, we are also never utterly incompetent speaker/hearers either). Even more to the point there have been a number of studies that directly address the question of what in speakers' heads drives their behavior. The most interesting of these is a paper by Derwing and Baker on the acquisition of the regular allomorphy of the English past tense, plural, possessive, and 3rd singular indicative morphemes which appeared in _Experimental Linguistics_ (G. Prideaux ed.) and more recently the Pinker paper "Rules of language" in _Science_ 253 (8/2/91) pp 530-535. D&B show that the analysis most linguists favor for the allomorphy of these morphemes best describes their acquisition and Pinker shows that both rule and associative memory (connectionist) schemas are necessary to account comprehensively for past tense formation (rules for regular formation and associative memory for irregular ones). These papers as well as many papers in recent issues of _J. of Memory and Language_ and other similar journals show that it's not necessary to try to settle what is or isn't in people's heads _a priori_. One can go find out. John Kingston kingston@cs.umass.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 11:45:57 -0800 From: saka@cogsci.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Saka) Subject: RE: rules [3.250] >From: WAB2@phx.cam.ac.uk [LING 3.250] >linguistic rules[...] could not be "real" in the sense of being open >to representation in neurological terms. If that were so, then our >science would be concerned with the brain and not with the mind. This argument needs to be rejected. First, it begs the question to claim that Lx is concerned with the mind rather than the brain. Second, according to the identity theory -- and most scientists ARE monists, by the way -- the mind IS the brain. Even for dualists, mental rules might very well correspond in one way or another to neurological structure. Therefore just because something is concerned with the mind does not preclude it from being concerned with the brain. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 09:59:39 PST From: Rick Wojcik Subject: Re: 3.265 The Reality of Rules I do not want to get into a lengthy rebuttal of Rob Stainton's remarks on the relevance of psychology to linguistic grammars, but he does express a strong opinion against psychologistic linguistic theory. Part of the problem seems to be that he construes proponents of psychologism as claiming that linguistic generalizations are valid only if they represent descriptions of psychological function. To me, the following remark represented a key element of his argument: > So linguistics might be like mechanics: no one attributes *knowledge* > of the gravitational constant to rocks. But their behaviour conforms > to that law. First of all, I don't think it is fair to claim that Stanton is arguing that linguistics *must* be like mechanics. Nor do I claim that linguistics *must* be like psychology. My claim is that it is valid to construct grammars that describe mental rules. The plain fact is that people differ from rocks in a very interesting way: people have brains. I suspect that no one attributes *knowledge* of the gravitational constant to rocks because they don't have brains. And, if you are interested in describing the behavior of people, as opposed to rocks, then you certainly do want to figure psychological function somewhere in the causal chain of events. -Rick Wojcik (rwojcik@atc.boeing.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 15:16:35 PST From: Penni Sibun Subject: in whose heads are grammars i previously sent a message to this list stating that grammars are in linguists' heads but there's no reason to suppose that they are in speakers'. despite a poster's assumption that i was being sarcastic, i mean this very seriously, though perhaps i expressed myself too succinctly. grammars may well be a useful tool for linguists to describe and theorize about language and how people use it. however, just because grammars are a good *descriptive* tool, it doesn't follow that grammars play any role in language *use*. rob stainton's waltz analogy illustrates this point very well. one way to think about the locus of grammars is to try to model language use and see if grammars (syntactic, discourse, etc.) are necessary or sufficient for producing (or understanding) language. within computational linguistics, there is a small ``natural language generation'' community which builds or designs computer programs that produce (presumably intelligible) text. of course, a computational model doesn't prove anything about the insides of people's heads; however, if a program can generate text without representing and using grammars, this suggests that maybe people can too. further, if we can agree that we can't find a grammar anywhere in the program, yet we can discuss the output language in terms of a grammar (eg, decide that the output is a grammatical sentence), then we have an example of the grammar being in *our* heads, as linguists talking about grammatical sentences, but not in the ``head'' of the producer of the grammatical sentence under discussion. it is reasonable and appropriate for us to talk about the grammaticality of the sentence; it would not be reasonable or appropriate to assume that it follows that there is a grammar in the program. for my just-completed phd thesis, i wrote a generation program that produces coherent texts that are up to a page long, without representing or using either a discourse or a sentence grammar. the program's job is to talk about something, and it is continually deciding what to say next. it makes this decision based on things like what it's already said, what it hasn't talked about that is closely related to what it's just mentioned, and what words and linguistic patterns it knows about that might express what it chooses to say. when it has decided what to say it says it, and goes on to the next choice. while the program does not concern itself with syntactic or discourse-level grammaticality in making its choices, its output can be judged as to whether the discourse structure is coherent and whether the syntax is grammatical (the program usually does ok on both counts). this work and the arguments i present here are described in more detail in an article in the next issue of _computational intelligence_; i'd be happy to send preprints on request. --penni sibun sibun@parc.xerox.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 18:41:10 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Reality of Rules/Ambiguity of 'Grammar' Since the issue of linguists' grammars vs. speakers' grammars has reared its ugly head (and with it the old business of Chomsky's "systematically ambiguous" use of the word 'grammar'), I thought I would point out that, as I read Chomsky's KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE, he has now given up this ambiguity. In the new terminology, grammar = linguist's grammar I-language = speaker's grammar And, of course, E-language = language -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1992 17:56:05 GMT From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: The Reality of Rules (& Itkonen) Re: Nyman on Andrews on Itkonen My interpretation of what Itkonen meant (maybe I got it wrong) was that he thought that linguists had some kind of a priori intuitive knowledge of what generalizational statements about their language were true, such as that articles are initial in NPs in English, and that what their task was was to express that knowledge in the best possible way, similar to looking for nice axiomatizations of mathematical systems What I would take as a knockdown refutation of what I said is a passage where Itkonen clearly says that linguist's generalizations are in the first instance arrived at by induction from the properties of particular strings of words (contexts being involved in the properties, of course). But this would leave me puzzled as to in what sense linguistics was supposed to be nonempirical, or like mathematics. Avery.Andrews@anu.edu.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-276. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-277. Sat 21 Mar 1992. Lines: 126 Subject: 3.277 Discourse, Cojoined, Idioms Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 12:59:28 -0600 From: "Michael Kac" Subject: Re: 3.256 Linguistic Discourse 2) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 09:03:37 EST From: Geoffrey Russom Subject: Re: 3.256 Linguistic Discourse 3) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 23:00 EET From: Martti Arnold Nyman Subject: V and V 4) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 14:44 PST From: Melody Sutton Subject: Re: 3.264 V and V 5) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 18:52 MST From: CAROLG@CC.UTAH.EDU Subject: Re: 3.264 V and V -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 12:59:28 -0600 From: "Michael Kac" Subject: Re: 3.256 Linguistic Discourse Phil Gaines's posting says something I sympathize with, though I worry that if we have too much fun those of us at public institutions may find ourselves the object of questions like 'Why should these guys be having fun at the taxpayers' expense?' So maybe a little snarling and gnashing of teeth should be encouraged just for show. One is also reminded of the statement by (I think) John Kenneth Galbraith to the effect that academic disputes are as bitter as they are because so little is at stake. Michael Kac -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 09:03:37 EST From: Geoffrey Russom Subject: Re: 3.256 Linguistic Discourse On childhood interest in linguistics: one of my earliest memories is "translating" the speech of my younger twin siblings for adults. My parents tell me that they tested my translations against the siblings' responses. It was usually obvious that I had got it right, which seemed surprising, since adults usually had no idea what Mike and Sue were babbling about. In retrospect it seems possible that I had learned a form of twin-speech without realizing that it differed so much from English. My memory of this is much dimmer than my parents', and may include elements from discussion after the fact (I must have been about four at the time). What is clear is that I got early praise for a "linguistic" accomplishment. -- Rick -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 23:00 EET From: Martti Arnold Nyman Subject: V and V > From: "FRANK R. BRANDON" > Subject: Re: 3.247 V and V > > Re: Prof. Nyman's assertion that if one becomes a formal linguist, one will > understand the problems with these conjoined sentences. I still fail to see > why there is a problem. Perhaps I am unaware of this particular brand of > 'formal' linguistics or perhaps I am an off-the-cuff linguist, but why is it > a problem if the "underlying" tenses of the conjuncts are different? [..] Let me point out that I tried to be ironical: "Become a formal linguist and you'll be surprised at phenomena no one else would be. :-)". What I also tried was to reconstruct why Martin Wynne, the initiator of the V-and-V discussion, felt sentences like "Laugh and the world laughs with you" are problematic. I did my reconstruction on the basis of Bruce Nevis's TG solution. -- Martti Nyman -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 14:44 PST From: Melody Sutton Subject: Re: 3.264 V and V There has been lots of discussion of "root hog or die." What does that mean??????????? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 18:52 MST From: CAROLG@CC.UTAH.EDU Subject: Re: 3.264 V and V Re: 'Feed a cold and starve a fever' A (linguist) friend insists that the true version of this is 'Feed a cold and starve of fever'. That is, the saying really means the opposite of what I, at any rate, always thought it meant: if it contains the 'of', it's telling you NOT to eat while you have a cold, or you'll die ('starve') of fever. So, LINGUIST-net enthusiasts, which is it? Carol Georgopoulos -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-277. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-278. Sat 21 Mar 1992. Lines: 190 Subject: 3.278 Agent, Vietnamese, Machine Grammar Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 00:10:08 +0100 From: Juergen Broschart Subject: Coding of AGENT as LOCATION 2) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 08:42:22 GMT From: Dr M Sebba Subject: Query: Vietnamese 3) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 11:23:39 PST From: hearne@cs.wwu.edu (Jim Hearne) Subject: machine readable context-free grammar og English 4) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 92 18:30:38 CST From: Warren Brewer Subject: Morphophoemic alternation of Sg. -azh : Pl. -adzh@z 5) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1992 23:22 GMT+1000 From: "LLOYD HOLLIDAY, LA TROBE UNIV, EDUCATION" Subject: AME/BE diffs FOR Inf-C 6) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 09:11:35 CST From: (Dennis Baron) Subject: texts without e -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 00:10:08 +0100 From: Juergen Broschart Subject: Coding of AGENT as LOCATION I am intrigued by the phenomenon that in many languages an AGENT (e.g. in an ergative or passive construction) is marked in the same way (by a case affix or an adposition) as a PLACE, SOURCE or GOAL, i.e. as some kind of "Locative", "Ablative", or "Allative", respectively. So far, I have collected data mainly from Australian languages, where an ergative-locative syncretism is quite common, whereas ergative- ablative doesn't seem to occur at all, which is rather odd from a localist point of view. Moreover, in one language at least (Yanyuwa), there is a clear ergative-allative syncretism. As for AGENTs in passive constructions, they seem to be mainly coded as SOURCE (cf. also German _von_). Coding as PLACE also occurs, and again in one language (Kayardild), all three kinds of coding are possible, depending on the position of the AGENT on the animacy hierarchy. I am interested to find out whether there is any correlation between the type of construction an AGENT occurs in and the kind of preferred "locational" coding. So please let me know if you have in mind any languages with similar phenomena (I know of some cases in Caucasian languages), especially with - AGENTs marked as GOAL (the syncretism should be an "exclusive" one; GOAL cases which also have "dative" functions are not uncommon as AGENT markers) - AGENTs in an ergative language marked as SOURCE ("Ablative") - AGENTs marked by a PATH case or adposition ("Perlative") - there are French _par_, German _durch_, but I have found no other examples so far - AGENTs in any construction that cannot be classified as either "ergative" or "passive", coded as any kind of LOCATION. Of course, I am also interested in your ideas on how to explain (in terms of "grammaticalization channels", "paths of metaphorical extensions" and the like) the coding of an AGENT as a LOCATION (I assume that this is no arbitrary coincidence). To me, the "Paths" LOCATION -> CAUSE (or INSTRUMENT?) -> AGENT and LOCATION -> POSSESSOR (of an act) -> AGENT seem equally plausible. However, this would imply a similar behaviour of PLACE, GOAL, SOURCE and even PATH markers rather than a different distribution (CAUSE can be viewed as any of the "local" roles - cf. Radden 1985 - and I think the same holds for POSSESSOR). It is also quite probable that I am ignorant of a lot of the literature in this field, so I would be grateful for any hints in this respect, too. Eva Schultze-Berndt, Institut fuer Sprachwissenschaft, Universitaet zu Koeln, W-5000 Koeln 41, Germany -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 08:42:22 GMT From: Dr M Sebba Subject: Query: Vietnamese Many thanks to all those who responded to my request for texts on Chinese. Anyone wanting a summary, please e-mail me. Another student has pointed out to me a total absence in our library of anything on Vietnamese, which he speaks natively. Can anyone suggest one or two key titles, e.g. reference grammars, for Vietnamese, please? Mark Sebba -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 11:23:39 PST From: hearne@cs.wwu.edu (Jim Hearne) Subject: machine readable context-free grammar og English Can someone direct me to a site containing a machine readable context-free grammar of English that is fairly substantial? We need it to study a genetic parsing algorithm we have devised. Thanks for any help. Jim Hearne Computer Science Department Western Washington University -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 92 18:30:38 CST From: Warren Brewer Subject: Morphophoemic alternation of Sg. -azh : Pl. -adzh@z For a small set of lexemes in my idiolect ending in <-age>, the yogh ("zh" of Zhivago) extends only to the singular forms, resulting in a morphophonemic alternation between yogh [-zh#] in absolute word-final position and d-yogh [-dzh-] elsewhere. I say _prestige_ with a shibilant in the noun, but _prestigious_ with an affricate in the adjective. In the set of nouns {mirage, massage, barrage, corsage, garage, subterfuge}, I have a yogh in the final-stressed singular, but d-yogh in the penultimate-stressed plural stems. Nobody else I have discussed this with agrees with this apparent morphological realignment. Am I weird or what? Warren A. Brewer English Department Tamkang University Tamsui, Taiwan e-mail: bae01@twntku10.bitnet ("Die einzige gute Sprache ist eine tote Sprache!" ---Brugman) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1992 23:22 GMT+1000 From: "LLOYD HOLLIDAY, LA TROBE UNIV, EDUCATION" Subject: AME/BE diffs FOR Inf-C In Baker, CL English Syntax, he distinguishes between V [-Inf-P] and V [-Inf-C] this is fine and the latter is analysed as For-P Inf-P with 3 examples: Karen wants [for Bill to get a diploma]. Charles would prefer [for the butler to open the bottle]. Curt likes [for the poodle to stay under the porch]. These are only acceptable to me with the for deleted. Do I speak some strange idiolect or have I only just noticed a difference between AME/BE None of my reference books notes this distinction, however. I'd appreciate yr comments. Lloyd Holliday edulh@lure.latrobe.edu.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 09:11:35 CST From: (Dennis Baron) Subject: texts without e A month or two ago there was a brief discussion on either Linguist or Humanist about a kind of word play in which texts are composed without the letter e. Unfortunately I didn't pay all that much attention to it, but now it turns out I need to find out the name of this activity. I'm sorry but I still haven't learned to retrieve archive indexes of old discussions (why do I keep putting this off?). Can anyone supply that name? Thanks. Dennis Baron debaron@uiuc.edu Dept. of English office: 217-244-0568 University of Illinois messages: 217-333-2392 608 S. Wright St fax: 217-333-4321 Urbana IL 61801 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-278. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-279. Sat 21 Mar 1992. Lines: 178 Subject: 3.279 FYI: Job, SAPIR, Page Printer Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 14:31:28 MST From: Sherman Wilcox Subject: Job Announcement 2) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 18:03:23 CST From: Nancy L. Dray Subject: U of Chicago linguists 3) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 04:54:43 PST From: brian kariger Subject: Re: 3.258 Queries: Print Aid, French Text, Adverbials -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 14:31:28 MST From: Sherman Wilcox Subject: Job Announcement The University of New Mexico Department of Linguistics Position Announcement Assistant Professor The Department of Linguistics at the University of New Mexico invites applications for a tenure track Assistant Professor appointment beginning August 17, 1992. Research experience in the structure, acquisition, and/or psycholinguistics of ASL and/or signed language interpreting is required. Demonstrated proficiency in ASL required, with current RID certification or expectation of RID certification within one year. Will be required to teach courses, supervise students, and participate in the administration of the Signed Language Interpreter Training Program. Ability to contribute to teaching, research, and graduate student supervision in the Department of Linguistics is expected. PhD to be completed by August 1992. Submit letter of interest, curriculum vitae, three letters of recommendation, and supporting materials by May 15, 1992. Address applications to: Jean Newman, Chair Department of Linguistics University of New Mexico Humanities 526 Albuquerque, NM 87131-1196. EOE/AA. UNM is strongly committed to cultural pluralism and is particularly interested in receiving applications from women, members of ethnic minorities, and disabled individuals. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 18:03:23 CST From: Nancy L. Dray Subject: U of Chicago linguists If anyone out there has tried unsuccessfully to reach any of the U. of Chicago linguists with accounts on SAPIR (i.e., addresses ending in sapir.uchicago.edu) in the past couple of weeks, please try again. Sapir was down for about a week (ca. March 6-13) and messages may have bounced. Thank you. Nancy L. Dray dray@sapir.uchicago.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 04:54:43 PST From: brian kariger Subject: Re: 3.258 Queries: Print Aid, French Text, Adverbials Re: 3.258 Printing two-up > In the greater interest of ecology, is there a printing program > or tool out there that would allow one to print two pages onto > one page in the way described? This would save us a lot of time > and paper. In addition to what has been said before about Mac programs, the latest version (4.2) of Aldus PageBreaker [sic!] has a "Make booklet" command which will perform this task, if in a somewhat roundabout manner. Much more to the purpose, and much easier on the pocketbook, is a free program called Save A Tree. It has several six different layouts (including 4-on-1), and allows one to set the fonts, margins, even the background picture. Here is an excerpt of the read-me: > Save A Tree is a text file printing utility designed to conserve > paper by printing on 1 page what would normally use 2 or 4 pages. > > Since Save A Tree only handles 'TEXT' files, I expect its primary > audience will be programmers printing source code. Although, the > word wrap option makes it useful for general text printing too. > > Because of the small font sizes used, Save A Tree works best on > high resolution printers. > > Use of Save A Tree is free of charge. I encourage you to share > it freely. Copies of the source (THINK C) may be obtained for > $20 and a disk w/SASE. > > Send comments & bug reports to: > > Michael S. Engber > U.S. Mail: 1585 Ridge Ave, Evanston, IL, 60201 > InterNet: engber@ils.nwu.edu > CompuServe: 70007,3505 (I rarely log onto CompuServe, but > CompuServe users can reach me on the InterNet > using the address: >INTERNET:engber@ils.nwu.edu And here's where archie reports it can be found: Host sumex-aim.stanford.edu (36.44.0.6) Last updated 00:13 5 Mar 1992 Location: /info-mac/util FILE rw-r--r-- 60497 Jan 13 14:30 save-a-tree-152.hqx Host wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) Last updated 01:25 8 Mar 1992 Location: /mirrors/info-mac/util FILE r--r--r-- 60497 Jan 13 08:30 save-a-tree-152.hqx Host utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp (133.11.11.11) Last updated 00:22 7 Mar 1992 Location: /ftpsync/info-mac/util FILE rw-rw-r-- 60497 Jan 20 07:13 save-a-tree-152.hqx Host akiu.gw.tohoku.ac.jp (130.34.8.9) Last updated 00:18 10 Mar 1992 Location: /pub/mac/tools/printer FILE rw-r--r-- 60497 Jan 15 00:47 save-a-tree-152.hqx Host toklab.ics.osaka-u.ac.jp (133.1.12.30) Last updated 00:51 6 Mar 1992 Location: /mac/info-mac/info-mac/new1992/01 FILE rw-r--r-- 54230 Jan 20 16:24 save-a-tree-152.hqx.Z Host pollux.lu.se (130.235.132.89) Last updated 00:10 1 Mar 1992 Location: /pub/mac/util FILE rw-r--r-- 60497 Jan 20 22:18 save-a-tree-152.hqx Host lth.se (130.235.16.3) Last updated 00:30 26 Feb 1992 Location: /pub/mac/info-mac/util FILE rw-r--r-- 60497 Jan 15 01:19 save-a-tree-152.hqx Host src.doc.ic.ac.uk (146.169.3.7) Last updated 05:27 4 Mar 1992 Location: /mac/sumex/util FILE r--r--r-- 54230 Jan 13 14:30 save-a-tree-152.hqx.Z -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-279. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-280. Mon 23 Mar 1992. Lines: 154 Subject: 3.280 Disambiguation, Language & Evolution Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 11:55:10 CST From: Chris Culy Subject: Case for disambiguation (Summary) 2) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 12:27:01 -0500 (EST) From: J_LIMBER@UNHH.UNH.EDU Subject: RE: 3.267 Queries: Heine, Prehistory, Gender 3) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 10:21:52 +1300 From: Laurie Bauer Subject: When language developed -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 11:55:10 CST From: Chris Culy Subject: Case for disambiguation (Summary) Hi all, A while back I asked about examples of case being used for disambiguation. Several people replied, and the results are below. Thanks again to everyone. Chris cculy@vaxa.weeg.uiowa.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Language (family) Reference Source Spanish Spanish Academy (Esbozo de una HUALDE@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu nueva gramatica, 1973, p.374) Coast Salish Hess, "Agent in a Coast Salish Deryle Lonsdale Language", IJAL vol. XXXIX Hanis Coos p.c. Matthew Dryer Sino-Tibetan LaPolla, R. (to appear) in Randy LaPolla Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 14.2 Various Dixon, R.M.W. 1979. Ergativity. Rosemary Plapp in Language 55:1. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 12:27:01 -0500 (EST) From: J_LIMBER@UNHH.UNH.EDU Subject: RE: 3.267 Queries: Heine, Prehistory, Gender Ruth Berman asks about prehistory language sources. Here's a handful from my reference files of varying relevance. My own impression is that there is surprising covergence among Swadesh's crude regression estimates, recent DNA speculation using a similar regression technique but on totally different data, and some fossil evidence (e.g. Arensburg et al, 1989). This is that "human language" started about 100,000, maybe 200,000 years ago. It is difficult to believe this is sheer numerological coincidence when considered against the great variation in estimates over the past hundred years of such "macro-events" as primate divergence and even the age of the earth itself! Of course what counts as the beginning of "human language"--even if we had the historical facts-- would probably occasion a debate on the order of the ape-language stuff (LImber,1977). However if I were right that hominid brains essentially adapted to existing culture (Limber,1982, 1990) --perhaps repeatedly and successively biologically internalizing those aspects of language that could be systematized -- then there is the possibility that in some sense "language" predates Homo sapiens and recent claims based on DNA would be reflecting a kind of neurological retrofitting (like putting a new chip in my Macintosh) of existing hominids (cf. Wolpoff). John Limber Psychology, University of New Hampshire Durham NH, 03824 Arensburg, B., Tillier, A. M., Vandermeersch, B., Duday, H., Schepartz, L. A., & Rak, Y. (1989). A Middle Palaeothic human hyoid bone. Nature, 338, 758-760. Duchin, L. E. (1990). The evolution of articulate speech: comparative anatomy of the oral cavity in Pan and Homo. Journal of Human Evolution, 19, 678-697. Krantz, G. S. (1988). Laryngeal descent in 40,000 year old fossils. In M. E. Landsberg (Ed.), The Genesis of Language (pp. 173-180). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Limber, J. (1977). Language in child and chimp? American Psychologist, 32, 280-295 (Reprinted in Sebeok, T. & Sebeok, J. (Eds.) (1980). Speaking of Apes (pp.197-218). New York: Plenum Press.). Limber, J. (1982). What can chimps tell us about the origins of language. In S. Kuczaj (Ed.), Language Development: Volume 2 (pp. 429-446). Hillsdale, NJ: L. E. Erlbaum. Limber, J. (1990). Language Evolved--So What's New? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 13, 742-743. Marshall, J. C. (1989). Cognitive anatomy: The descent of the larynx? Nature, 338, 702-703. Pinker,S. & Bloom, P. (1990) Natural language and natural selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 13,707-784. Rightmire, G. P. (1989). Middle Stone Age Humans from Eastern and Southern Africa. In P. Mellars, & C. Stringer (Ed.), The Human Revolution Princeton: Princeton University Press. Lindblom, B. (1990). On the notion of "possible speech sound". Journal of Phonetics, 18, 135-152. Swadesh, M. (1971). The Origin and Diversification of Language . Chicago: Aldine-Atherton, Inc. Shevoroshkin, V., & Markey, T. (1986). Typology, Relationship, and Time. Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishers, Vigilant, L., Stoneking, M., Harpending, H., Hawkes, K., & Wilson, A. C. (1991). African Populations and the Evolution of Human Mitochondrial DNA. Science, 253, 1503-1507. Wolpoff, M. (1989). Multiregional Evolution: The Fossil Alternative to Eden. In P. Mellars, & C. Stringer (Ed.), The Human Revolution (pp. 62-108). Princeton: Princeton University Press. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 10:21:52 +1300 From: Laurie Bauer Subject: When language developed Prof Michael Corballis, Psychology, University of Auckland, New Zealand has written a paper called 'When did Language Evolve?', which he has presented to a number of audiences recently. I do not know whether it has yet been accepted for publication anywhere. In it he surveys various kinds of evidence for the date of the evolution of language, and tries to synthesise it in a way which makes sense. Clearly, any conclusions are controversial, especially since the 'evidence' is not always reliable! Laurie Bauer BauerL@matai.vuw.ac.nz -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-280. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-281. Mon 23 Mar 1992. Lines: 277 Subject: 3.281 Rules Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1992 6:29:42 GMT From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: the reality of rules 2) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 92 18:50:56 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Rules in/on the Brain 3) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 92 00:14:20 EST From: Alan Huffman Subject: Re: 3.276 Rules And The Brain 4) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1992 9:58:12 GMT From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: Reality of Rules (vs. of Grammars) From: Dyvik@hf.uib.no Subject: Re: 3.266 The Reality of Rules 5) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1992 13:52:17 +0000 6) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 92 13:25 PST From: Vicki Fromkin Subject: quote -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1992 6:29:42 GMT From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: the reality of rules Re Stainton >In the sense of what the speaker knows, it's not unreasonable to >think that there is no grammar in anybody's head. Maybe there are >just causal mechanisms responsible for our linguistic abilities. >(Compare: where is the differential calculus in our heads, which >permits us to catch baseballs, etc.?) ... This would be viable if there was some kind of alternative story to rules as to why linguistic generalizations are the way they are (as there are alternatives to calculus for catching baseballs). But there aren't, so it isn't (at least yet). Of course, the rules (or more precisely, the mental structures that the rules are an attempt describe) might be very different in nature from what we think they are, & the nature of their involvement in language use might be quite different from what people presently envision. Re John Kingston ... > These papers as well as many papers in recent issues >of _J. of Memory and Language_ and other similar journals show that it's >not necessary to try to settle what is or isn't in people's heads _a priori_. >One can go find out. It would certainly very bad if someone's _a priori_ argument for the reality of rules discouraged anyone from going to get some more evidence, but the issue under discussion was, I thought, whether generative analysis provides *any* evidence about what is in people's heads. If, as some people seem to think, it doesn't, then there is no more point to going out to look for additional kinds of evidence to corroborate or refute the claims made by these analyses than there would be in going out to look for additional evidence concerning whether the Ancient Greeks were right or wrong in their beliefs about the nature of Athena and Zeus. Re Penni Sibun (Linguist 3.275): >... >for my just-completed phd thesis, i wrote a generation program that >produces coherent texts that are up to a page long, without >representing or using either a discourse or a sentence grammar. Is this program part of a theory that explains *why* we find the kinds of grammatical generalziations that we do? If so, it might be a genuine alternative to having mentally represented grammars (although people might disagree about whether there was or wasn't a grammar lurking in it somewhere). Otherwise, it isn't (at least, not yet), since it doesn't address the main reason for positing rules and grammars in the first place. Avery.Andrews@anu.edu.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 92 18:50:56 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Rules in/on the Brain I agree with John Kingston's suggestion that we need to work on specific problems--and solve them--rather than discuss vague generalities. However, I cannot accept the idea that so-called experimentalists have a ready access to what is really in people's heads, whereas conventional linguists do not. Having myself played around with experimental work (as well as trying to keep up with that of others), I keep finding that well- meant experimental results are often EQUALLY IF NOT MORE open to doubt than conventional linguistics. For example, a few years I published a paper on the allomorphy of the English ordinal suffix -th/-eth, citing the results of a nonsense word experiment (I myself prefer to call these nonce words experiments) I had done. The result was that -th appears after all vowels except unstressed [i] ([I] in some dialects) and after all consonants except thorn and edh, and-eth does elsewhere. Soon after this publication (titled "-eth", in Folia linguistica) appeared, I redid the experiment with a very different group and got quite different (and rather inconsistent) results. However--and this is crucial--I had also looked through various sources and located a fair number of attestations of nonce formations of this kind that have sporadically cropped up in real usage, such as "how-manyeth", "fifty-oddth", and so on. The attested nonce formations agree perfectly with the generalization I stated above (and with my first group of subjects). So, what I would now argue is that it is the attested nonce formations which provide the most compelling evidence, and that we should conclude that there was something wrong with my second group of subjects other than genuine dialect differences. And, indeed, I think I have a defensible hypothesis about this. My first group of informants (those whose responses I accept as valid) were (a) more self-confident and (b) more cooperative than the second group. The second group, you see, were undergraduates in a course I was teaching on language (which, judging by the evaluations and other things, was extremely poorly received). This suggests that they may not have been exactly cooperative, while at the same time, I have lots of anecdotal evidence of their linguistic diffidence. So, to sum up the central point, I believe that careful linguistic investigation of PRODUCTIVE linguistic behavior can tell us mpre than experiments which are subject to so many problems of experimental design and subject orneriness in its many forms. I also have argued (in my diss. in 1981 and in two papers currently being referreed, entitled "Thinking back to Cuna" and "L'arbitraire de Chine) that, in general, there is no priority to be assigned ti the kind of "external" data that experimental linguists often focus on (such as in secret language data, for example) over any other kind (the same point was I think made, without any specific data, by Chomsky in one of his books in the last decade). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 92 00:14:20 EST From: Alan Huffman Subject: Re: 3.276 Rules And The Brain Anyone wishing to gain a broadened perspective on the notion of "linguistic rule" should read Wallis Reid's new book "Verb & Noun Number in English". It is sure to be thought-provoking. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1992 9:58:12 GMT From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: Reality of Rules (vs. of Grammars) Here's a way in which I could be right about rules and Penni Sibun about grammars. Rules are posited because of regularities in the data which seem to indicate something about mental structure, e.g. the appearance of `(Det) (ADJ)* N (PP)* (S)*' sequences in lots of places in clause structure is evidence for some sort of NP-rule, which represents whatever aspect of mental structure is actually responsible for the regularities. But from this it does *not* follow that a good analysis of the structure and function of the mind would contain anything corresponding to *all* the rules, e.g., the grammar. The rules in a linguist's grammar could be `projections' of various heterogeneous aspects of the mental structure, just as the view through the window into someone's living room would show aspects of what was actually there (some of the back wall, a TV, part of a chair, the lower right and corner of an Escher reproduction, ...), without itself being a feature of a useful analysis of the room. Something like this is maybe implicit in Chomsky's modularity concept, and I suspect he would say that it was part of the program all along, but it's certainly different from the popular conception of what the grammar - mind relation is supposed to be in generative grammar. Avery.Andrews@anu.edu.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dyvik@hf.uib.no Subject: Re: 3.266 The Reality of Rules 5) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1992 13:52:17 +0000 What really got the present instance of the old 'mental reality' debate off the ground, was Ellen Prince's question, "uh, where exactly *are* these grammars, if not in people's brains?" The question reflects what I would call the 'where-else?' argument for the mental reality of rules, an argument whereby linguists often seem to become mentalists "by default", so to speak. Linguists realize clearly that grammatical rules describe facts, and where else could you localize such facts but within people's heads? I think the 'where-else?' argument loses much of its force when we consider the kind of facts that are accounted for by grammatical rules. John Searle's (Speech Acts, 1969) distinction between brute facts and institutional facts is useful in this connection. An institutional fact (like the fact that a wedding has taken place) cannot be reduced to its "constituent" brute facts of sounds and movements, but receives its identity through a social institution, conceivable as a set of constitutive rules. This does not reduce its status of an objective (or at least intersubjective) fact. Our production of noises by means of our upper respiratory tracts (to paraphrase Ellen Prince) are brute facts, but they count as utterances of particular linguistic expressions in virtue of constitutive rules (or norms, to keep them distinct from the grammarian's rules). Hence the utterance acts are institutional acts (or facts). What grammatical rules account for, is not the brute fact that certain sounds are produced, and not even the institutional fact that certain utterances are made, but the fact that the utterances, when made, have certain institutional properties. Thus, a grammar does not account for the fact that certain sentences are uttered, and not even for the fact that given informants *judge* them as acceptable or synonymous or whatever. It accounts directly for the institutional fact that the sentences *are* acceptable, synonymous, etc. Linguists routinely entertain the possibility that informants' intuitions about the expressions of their native language may be wrong. The fallibility of informants' intuitions shows that the object of study is not the intuitions, but what the intuitions are about: Socially based linguistic norms, about which the individual informant may have partial and inadequate knowledge. Facts about brains are, presumably, brute facts. As long as linguists do not radically redefine their discipline, but persist in accounting for the kind of facts they have always accounted for, they are accounting for facts that *cannot* be reduced to facts about brains: institutional facts do not reduce to brute facts. What this reasoning purports to show, is not that whatever is inside our heads *cannot* have the form of grammars (by some yet-to-be-specified criterion). Rather, I take it to show that the 'where-else?' argument is insufficient to establish such a conclusion. We perceive institutional facts as real, objective facts. That explains our perception of the "existence" of grammatical rules without attributing that existence to some level of abstraction over brain wetware. It would take additional evidence to show that whatever inside our heads enables us to conform to these social norms actually has the same structure as the grammarian's description of them. Helge Dyvik -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 92 13:25 PST From: Vicki Fromkin Subject: quote Thought for the day, stimulated by the recent discussion on rules and reality and other such things.... "It's really dreadful...the way all the creatures argue. It's enough to drive one crazy." (Lewis Carroll -- the greatest of all -- from Alice in ....) VAF -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-281. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-282. Mon 23 Mar 1992. Lines: 356 Subject: 3.282 A List of Common Gender Pronouns Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 9:48:07 CST From: Dennis Baron Subject: common gender pronouns -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 9:48:07 CST From: Dennis Baron Subject: common gender pronouns In view of the interest in the common gender pronoun I am enclosing a list summarizing my findings to date on the state of proposals dealing with the issue. It is a longish list, and you may prefer not printing it, in which case I will be happy to send it to anyone who is interested. debaron@uiuc.edu The Epicene Pronouns: A Chronology of the Word That Failed Dennis Baron Professor of English and Linguistics University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ca. 1850 ne, nis, nim; hiser NY Commercial Advertiser, 7 August 1884, 3. 1868 en Cited by Richard Grant White. The Galaxy, August, 241-44. 1884 thon, thons Charles Crozat Converse. The Critic, 2 August, 55. hi, hes, hem Francis H. Williams. The Critic, 16 August, 79-80. le, lis, lim (from the French); unus; talis Edgar Alfred Stevens. The Current, 30 August, 294. hiser, himer (hyser, hymer) Charles P. Sherman. The Literary World, 6 September, 294. ip, ips Emma Carleton. The Current, 20 September, 186. 1888 ir, iro, im (sg.); tha, thar, them (pl.) Elias Molee, Plea for an American Language (Chicago: John Anderson), 200-01. 1889 ons (from one) C.R.B. Writer 3: 231 1890 e (from he), es, em (from them) James Rogers of Crestview, Florida. Writer 4: 12-13 1891 hizer Forrest Morgan. Writer 5: 260-62. ith George Winslow Pierce. The Life-Romance of an Algebraist (Boston: J.G. Cupples), 35. 1912 he'er, him'er, his'er, his'er's Ella Flagg Young. Chicago Tribune, 7 January, 1:7. 1914 hie, hiez, hie (phonetic spellings of he, hes, he) Language reformer Mont Follick, in The Influence of English (London: Williams & Norgate, 1934), pp. 198-99, prefers to reduce all third person sg. pronouns to this simplified version of the masculine paradigm. He further suggests discarding the possessive altogether in favor of the prepositional phrase, ov hie. 1927 ha, hez, hem; on The Forum 77: 265-68 Attributed by H. L. Mencken to Lincoln King, of Primghar, Iowa. (American Language [N.Y., Knopf, 4th ed., 1936], 460n). hesh (heesh), hizzer, himmer; on Fred Newton Scott (Scott mentions earlier creation of on). The Forum 77: 754; Mencken adds, "In 1934 James F. Morton, of the Paterson (N.J.) Museum, proposed to change hesh to heesh and to restore hiser and himer" (American Language Supp. 2, 1948, 370). ca. 1930 thir Sir John Adams; cited by Philip Howard, New Words for Old (N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1977), 95. 1934 she, shis, shim (gender-specific parallel to he, his, him) Cited by Phillip B. Ballard, Thought and Language (London: Univ. of London Press), 7-8. 1935 himorher; hes (pron. [h s]), hir (pron. [hir]), hem; his'n, her'n "The Post Impressionist." Washington Post, 20 August, 6. 1938 se, sim, sis Gregory Hynes, "See?" Liverpool Echo, 21 September; cited by H. L. Mencken (American Language Supp. 2, 1948 370). ca. 1940 heesh A. A. Milne; cited by Maxwell Nurnberg, What's the Good Word? A New Way to Better English (N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 1942, 88-90). 1945 hse Buwei Yang Chao, How to Cook and Eat in Chinese (N.Y.: Vintage, Random House, 3rd ed., 1963, rpt. 1972), xxiv. 1970 she (contains he), heris, herim Dana Densmore, "Speech is the Form of Thought," No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation (April); cited in Media Report to Women 3.1 (January 1975): 12. co (from IE *ko), cos Mary Orovan, Humanizing English (N.Y.: the author). ve, vis, ver Varda (Murrell) One. Everywoman, 8 May, 2. 1971 ta, ta-men (pl.); a borrowing from Mandarin Chinese. Leslie E. Blumenson, New York Times, 30 December. 1972 tey, term, tem; him/herself Casey Miller and Kate Swift, "What about New Human Pronouns?" Current 138: 43-45. fm Paul Kay, Newsletter of the American Anthropological Association 13 (April): 3. it; z Abigail Cringle of Edgerton, Maryland, rejects epicene it, prefers z. Washington Post, May 2, Sec. A, 19. shis, shim, shims, shimself Robert B. Kaplan, Newsletter of the American Anthropological Association 13 (June): 4. ze (from Ger. sie), zim, zees, zeeself; per (from person), pers Steven Polgar of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, proposes the ze paradigm; John Clark offers per. Newsletter of the American Anthropological Association 13 (September): 17-18 1973 na, nan, naself June Arnold, The Cook and the Carpenter (Plainfield, Vt: Daughters, Inc.). it; s/he Norma Wilson et al., editors, "A Woman's New World Dictionary," 51%: A Paper of Joyful Noise for the Majority Sex, 3-4. s/he; him/er; his-or-her Cited and rejected by Gordon Wood, "The Forewho--Neither a He, a She, nor an It," American Speech 48: 158-59. shem; herm Quidnunc, "Thon--That's the Forewho," American Speech 48: 300-02. se (pron. [si]), ser (pron. [sIr]), sim (pron. [sIm]), simself William Cowan, of the Department of Linguistics, Carleton University (Ottowa), Times Two 6 (24 May): n.p. j/e, m/a, m/e, m/es, m/oi; jee, jeue Monique Wittig employs the slashed pronouns as feminines, and cites the latter two which employ the more traditional feminine e; Le corps lesbien (Paris: Editions de Minuit); The Lesbian Body, trans. David LeVay (London: Peter Owen, 1975). 1974 ne, nis, ner Mildred Fenner attributes this to Fred Wilhelms. Today's Education 4: 110. she (includes he) Gena Corea, "Frankly Feminist," rpt. as "How to Eliminate the Clumsy `He,'" Media Report to Women 3.1 (January 1975): 12. en, es, ar David H. Stern of Pasadena, California, The Los Angeles Times, 19 January, Sec. 2, p. 4. hisorher; herorhis; ve, vis, vim Cited by Amanda Smith, Washington Post, 11 April, Sec.A, 29. shem, hem, hes Paul L. Silverman of Rockville, Maryland, Washington Post, 17 December, Sec. A, 17. 1975 hir, herim (facetious) Milton Mayer, "On the Siblinghood of Persons," The Progressive 39 (September): 20-21. hesh, himer, hiser, hermself Jan Verley Archer, "Use New Pronouns," Media Report to Women 3.1 (January): 12. se (pron. [si]) H. R. Lee of Alexandria, Virginia, Forbes 116 (15 August): 86. ey, eir, em; uh Christine M. Elverson of Skokie, Illinois, Chicago Tribune, 23 August, Sec. 1, p. 12. h'orsh'it (facetious blend of he, she, or it) Joel Weiss of Northbrook, Illinois, Forbes 116 (15 September): 12. 1976 ho, hom, hos, homself (from Lat. homo, `man,' and prefix homo-, `the same, equal, like') Donald K. Darnell, in Donald K. Darnell and Wayne Brockriede, Persons Communicating (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall), 148. he or she; to be written as (s)he Elizabeth Lane Beardsley, "Referential Genderization," in Carol C. Gould and Marx W. Wartofsky, eds., Women and Philosophy (N.Y.: G.P. Putnam's Sons), 285-93. she, herm, hs (facetious; pron. "zzz") Paul B. Horton, "A Sexless Vocabulary for a Sexist Society," Intellect 105 (December): 159-60. it Millicent Rutherford, "One Man in Two is a Woman," English Journal (December): 11. ca. 1977 po, xe, jhe Cited as recent and ephemeral by Casey Miller and Kate Swift, Words and Women: New Language in New Times (Rpt., N.Y.: Anchor Press, 130). Paul Dickson, Words (1982), p. 113, attributes jhe, pronounced "gee," to Professor Milton A. Stern of the University of Michigan. E, E's, Em; one E was created by psychologist Donald G. MacKay of the University of California at Los Angeles. 1977 e, ris, rim Werner Low, Washington Post, 20 February, Sec. C, 6. sheme, shis, shem; heshe, hisher, himmer Thomas H. Middleton, "Pondering the Personal Pronoun Problem," Saturday Review 59 (9 March). Sheme, etc. proposed by Thomas S. Jackson of Washington, D. C.; Middleton refers to proposals for heshe, hisher, himmer. em, ems Jeffrey J. Smith (using pseudonym TINTAJL jefry) Em Institute Newsletter (June). 1978 ae Cited by Cheris Kramer(ae), Barrie Thorne, and Nancy Henley, "Perspectives on Language and Communication," Signs 3: 638-51, as occurring in fiction, especially science fiction. hir Ray A. Killian, Managers Must Lead! (AMACOM) press release; cited in "The Epicene Pronoun Yet Again," American Speech 54 (1979): 157-58. hesh, hizer, hirm; sheehy; sap (from homo sapiens) Tom Wicker, "More About He/She and Thon," New York Times, 14 May, Sec. 4, p. 19 Hesh etc. proposed by Prof. Robert Longwell of the University of Northern Colorado; sheehy by David Kraus of Bell Harbor, N.Y.; sap (facetiously) by Dr. Lawrence S. Ross, of Huntington, N.Y.; Wicker adds that several readers offered blends of he, she, and it. heesh, hiser(s), herm, hermself Leonora A. Timm, "Not Mere Tongue in Cheek: The Case for a Common Gender Pronoun in English," International Journal of Women's Studies 1: 555-65. 1979 one Lillian E. Carleton, "An Epicene Suggestion," American Speech 54: 156-57. et, ets, etself Aline Hoffman of Sarnia, Ontario; cited by William Sherk, Brave New Words (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1979). hir, hires, hirem, hirself Jerome Ch'en, Professor of History at York University, New York Times, 6 January, 18. shey, sheir, sheirs; hey, heir, heirs Paul Encimer favors the first over the second paradigm. The Peacemaker 32 (February): 2-3. 1980 it Herman Arthur, "To Err Is Huperson; to Forgive, Divine," American Educator 4 (Winter): 30-32. 1981 heshe, hes, hem Ronald C. Corbyn, "Getting Around Sexist Pronouns," Anthropology Newsletter 22 (October): 10-11. 1982 shey, shem, sheir Mauritz Johnson; cited by William Safire, What's the Good Word? (N.Y.: Times Books), 30. E, Ir Subject and possessive forms, created by the Broward County, Florida, public schools; cited by Paul Dickson in Words (N. Y.: Delacorte), 113. 1984 hiser McClain B. Smith, Ann Arbor News, 20 January, Sec. A, 6. hes Ernie Permentier, Ms. (May): 22. hann Steven Schaufele of the Univ. of Illinois linguistics department takes this from Old Norse, already the source of some English pronouns; analogous to Finnish han. Colorless Green Newsflashes 4 (9 November), 3. 1985 herm Jenny Cheshire traces this to the magazine Lysistrata. "A Question of Masculine Bias," Today's English 1: 26. 1988 han, hans A. M. Stratford, of Norfolk, England, creates this form to resemble other British initials (HM, HRH, HMS, HE, HMSO), English Today 14:5-6. e, e's (from the common letter in he and she) Eugene Wine, of Miami-Dade Community College, also notes that I and you "have already been reduced to a single vowel sound." Chronicle of Higher Education, 21 September, 2. 1989 ala, alum, alis Michael Knab, of Goodwin, Knab and Co., Chicago, derives these from Lat. al, `other' and feels they resemble the Hawaiian sex-neutral pronouns oia, ia. Press release and personal communication. e, e's, emself, em Victor J. Stone, Professor of Law at the University of Illinois at Urbana. In the Chicago Bar Association's CBA Record 3 (July/August): 12. 1991 de/deis; den/din Richard Strand, Keith Roberson, Dan Fisher, BLAST (Computer) Support Office, Dept. of Mechanical Englineering, Univ. of Illinois. de/deis (rhymes with `dee/dyes') created de novo with some Germanic influence; den/din created on a similar `root' to replace man/woman and men/women. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-282. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-283. Mon 23 Mar 1992. Lines: 127 Subject: 3.283 Gender Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 11:13-0500 From: Allan C. Wechsler Subject: "Its" in King James 2) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 23:12:52 PST From: "Don W." Subject: Gender marking 3) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1992 19:33:14 +0100 From: Juergen Broschart Subject: unmarked feminine 4) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 13:40:39 EST From: bert peeters Subject: 3.275 Gender -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 11:13-0500 From: Allan C. Wechsler Subject: "Its" in King James Lev. 25:5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt ^^^ not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. (But for the most part KJ uses the "thereof" construction; that is, where we would say "The earth and its fullness are the Lord's", KJ has "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." Actually, we would say, "The earth and its contents belong to the Lord," or something like that.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 23:12:52 PST From: "Don W." Subject: Gender marking In Esperanto, "father" = 'patro' while "mother" = 'patrino'. That is, "patro" with the feminizing suffix "-ino." Personally, I have a violently negative reaction to that formation and believe it's a fault that ought to be fixed. Since Esperanto is an artificial language (is that the right term?), prescriptivism may have its place in it. How does the list feel about that? On the other hand, the Russian "djadja" [j = yod] ('uncle') has a feminine declension and takes masculine agreements. I don't imagine the Russians have any problem with that, but it would be interesting to hear from Russianists on the subject. Don W. - DonWebb@CSUS.EDU -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1992 19:33:14 +0100 From: Juergen Broschart Subject: unmarked feminine There is an article by Barry Alpher on "Feminine as the unmarked gender" in Australian Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 7/2 (1987), pp.169-187 (special reference to Australian languages) and, in the same volume, an article by Ephraim Bani on "Masculine and feminine grammatical gender in Kalaw Lagaw Ya" (apparently feminine is unmarked here; unfortunately I didn't have a closer look at either of the articles so far). Eva Schultze-Berndt -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 13:40:39 EST From: bert peeters Subject: 3.275 Gender > Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 19:02:35 CST > From: tpc1@Ra.MsState.Edu (Price Caldwell) > Subject: Feminine as the unmarked case > > There are unmarked feminines even in English. Witness cow vs. bull, > duck vs. drake. Examples such as cow/bull and duck/drake are no good wrt the topic under discussion. Although the first member of each pair is surely an unmarked feminine, both members cannot be considered as case forms of one single word. > Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 00:33:03 -0500 > From: oneil@husc.harvard.edu (John O'Neil) > Subject: languages with the feminine as the unmarked case > > Despite this, the French don't seem either more or less noticably > sexist than anyone else. Possibly that's because, diachronically, the > immediately preceeding forms for the adjectives was one where the > masculine form was basic, and the feminine was derived from it by a > schwa suffix. Given a final consonant deletion followed by a final > schwa deletion, and we get the synchronic system. I beg to disagree. Native speakers do not know about the way things worked centuries ago, unless they took a course in historical grammar. My bet is that the rule taught in French schools is the rule for the written language where indeed the masculine form is basic - just add (prototypically) -e to it and you've got the feminine. The rule for the spoken language is simply not taught, and therefore the French are not aware of the alternative way in which adjectival gender agreement can be approached. THAT explains why in this area they are not noticeably more sexist than anyone else. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-283. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-284. Mon 23 Mar 1992. Lines: 326 Subject: 3.284 ECAI92 Advance Information Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1992 12:27:52 +0100 From: ECAI92 Vienna Conference Service Subject: ECAI92 Advance Information -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1992 12:27:52 +0100 From: ECAI92 Vienna Conference Service Subject: ECAI92 Advance Information ======================================================================= Advance Information - ECAI92 - Advance Information - ECAI92 - VIENNA ======================================================================= 10th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 92) August 3-7, 1992, Vienna, Austria Programme Chairperson Bernd Neumann, University of Hamburg, Germany Local Arrangements Chairperson Werner Horn, Austrian Research Institute for AI, Vienna The European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI) is the European forum for scientific exchange and presentation of AI research. The aim of the conference is to cover all aspects of AI research and to bring together basic research and applied research. The Technical Programme will include paper presentations, invited talks, survey sessions, workshops, and tutorials. The conference is designed to cover all subfields of AI, including non-symbolic methods. ECAIs are held in alternate years and are organized by the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence (ECCAI). The 10th ECAI in 1992 will be hosted by the Austrian Society for Artificial Intelligence (OGAI). The conference will take place at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. PROGRAMME STRUCTURE Mon-Tue (Aug 3-4): Tutorials and Workshops Wed-Fri (Aug 5-7): Invited Talks, Paper Presentations, Survey Sessions Tue-Fri (Aug 4-7): Industrial Exhibition ======================== INVITED LECTURES ============================== Stanley J.Rosenschein (Teleos Research, Palo Alto, Calif., USA): Perception and Action in Autonomous Systems Oliviero Stock (IRST, Trento, Italy): A Third Modality of Natural Language? Promising Trends in Applied Natural Language Processing Peter Struss (Siemens AG, Muenchen, Germany): Knowledge-Based Diagnosis - An Important Challenge and Touchstone for AI =================== TECHNICAL PAPERS PROGRAMME ========================= This will consist of papers selected from the 680 that were submitted. These papers will be given in parallel sessions held from August 5 to 7, 1992. The topics of the papers include: - Automated Reasoning - Cognitive Modeling - Connectionist and PDP Models for AI - Distributed AI and Multiagent Systems - Enabling Technology and Systems - Integrated Systems - Knowledge Representation - Machine Learning - Natural Language - Philosophical Foundations - Planning, Scheduling, and Reasoning about Actions - Principles of AI Applications - Reasoning about Physical Systems - Robotics - Social, Economic, Legal, and Artistic Implications - User Interfaces - Verification, Validation & Test of Knowledge-Based Systems - Vision and Signal Understanding ============================ TUTORIALS ================================= --- Tutorials ----- Mon, August 3, 9:00-13:00 Applied Qualitative Reasoning Robert Milne, Intelligent Applications Ltd, Scotland, and Louise Trave-Massuyes, LAAS, Toulouse, France In Search of a New Planning Paradigm - Steps Beyond Classical Planning Joachim Hertzberg, GMD, Germany, and Sam Steel, Essex University, Cholchester, UK Machine Learning: Reality and Perspectives Lorenza Saitta, Universita di Torino, Italy --- Tutorials ----- Mon, August 3, 14:00-18:00 AI in Service and Support Anil Rewari, Digital Equipment Corp., Marlboro, Mass. Case-Based Reasoning Katia P. Sycara, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Penn. Computer Vision, Seeing Systems, and Their Applications Jan-Olof Eklundh, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden Nonmonotonic Reasoning Gerhard Brewka, ICSI, Berkeley, Calif., and Kurt Konolige, SRI, Menlo Park, Calif. --- Tutorials ----- Tue, August 4, 9:00-13:00 Distributed AI Frank von Martial, Bonn, and Donald Steiner, Siemens AG, Germany Fuzzy Set-Based Methods for Inference and Control Henri Prade, IRIT, Universite Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France Validation of Knowledge-Based Systems Jean-Pierre Laurent, Universite de Savoie, Chambery, France --- Tutorials ----- Tue, August 4, 14:00-18:00 Current Trends in Language Technology Harald Trost, Austrian Research Institute for AI and University of Vienna, Austria KADS: Practical, Structured KBS Development Robert Martil, Lloyd's Register of Shipping, Croydon, UK, and Bob Wielinga, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Neural Networks: From Theory to Applications Francoise Fogelman Soulie, Mimetics, France User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction Sandra Carberry, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, and Alfred Kobsa, University of Konstanz, Germany ============================ WORKSHOPS ================================= Workshops are part of the ECAI92 scientific programme. They will give participants the opportunity to discuss specific technical topics in a small, informal environment, which encourages interaction and exchange of ideas. Persons interested in attending a workshop should contact the workshop organizer (addresses below), and the conference office (ADV) for ECAI92 registration. Note that all workshops require an early application for participation. A full description of all workshops can be obtained by sending an email to ecai92.ws@ai.univie.ac.at, which will automatically respond. --- Workshops ----- Mon, August 3 Art and AI: Art / ificial Intelligence Robert Trappl, Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelli- gence, Schottengasse 3, A-1010 Vienna, Austria; Fax: +43-1-630652, Email: robert@ai.univie.ac.at Coping with Linguistic Ambiguity in Typed Feature Formalisms Harald Trost, Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelli- gence, Schottengasse 3, A-1010 Vienna, Austria; Fax: +43-1-630652, Email: harald@ai.univie.ac.at Formal Specification Methods for Complex Reasoning Systems Jan Treur, AI Group, Dept.of Mathematics and Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 108-1a, NL-1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Fax: +31-29-6427705, Email: treur@cs.vu.nl Knowledge Sharing and Reuse: Ways and Means Nicolaas J.I. Mars, Dept.of Computer Science, University of Twente, PO Box 217, NL-7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands; Fax: +31-53-339605, Email: mars@cs.utwente.nl Model-Based Reasoning Gerhard Friedrich, Franz Lackinger, Dept.Information Systems, CD-Lab for Expert Systems, Univ.of Technology, Paniglg.16, A-1040 Vienna; Fax: +43-1-5055304, Email: friedrich@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at Neural Networks and a New AI Georg Dorffner, Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelli- gence, Schottengasse 3, A-1010 Vienna, Austria; Fax: +43-1-630652, Email: georg@ai.univie.ac.at Scheduling of Production Processes Juergen Dorn, CD-Laboratory for Expert Systems, University of Technology, Paniglgasse 16, A-1040 Vienna, Austria; Fax: +43-1-5055304; Email: dorn@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at Validation, Verification and Test of KBS Marc Ayel, LIA, University of Savoie, BP.1104, F-73011 Chambery, France; Fax: +33-79-963475, Email: ayel@frgren81.bitnet --- Workshops ----- Tue, August 4 Advances in Real-Time Expert System Technologies Wolfgang Nejdl, Department for Information Systems, CD-Lab for Expert Systems, University of Technology, Paniglgasse 16, A-1040 Vienna, Austria; Fax: +43-1-5055304, Email: nejdl@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at Application Aspects of Distributed Artificial Intelligence Thies Wittig, Atlas Elektronik GmbH, Abt.TEF, Sebaldsbruecker Heerstrasse 235, D-W-2800 Bremen 44, Germany; Fax: +49-421-4573756, Email: t_wittig@eurokom.ie Applications of Reason Maintenance Systems Francois Charpillet, Jean-Paul Haton, CRIN/INRIA-Lorraine, B.P. 239, F-54506 Vandoeuvre-Les-Nancy Cedex, France; Fax: +33-93-413079, Email: charp@loria.crin.fr Artificial Intelligence and Music Gerhard Widmer, Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelli- gence, Schottengasse 3, A-1010 Vienna, Austria; Fax: +43-1-630652, Email: gerhard@ai.univie.ac.at Beyond Sequential Planning Gerd Grosse, FG Intellektik, TH Darmstadt, Alexanderstr.10, D-6100 Darmstadt, Germany; Fax: +49-6151-165326, Email: grosse@intellektik.informatik.th-darmstadt.de Concurrent Engineering: Requirements for Knowledge-Based Design Support Nel Wognum, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Twente, P.O.Box 217, NL-7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands; Fax: +31-53-339605, Email: wognum@cs.utwente.nl Improving the Use of Knowledge-Based Systems with Explanations Patrick Brezillon, CNRS-LAFORIA, Box 169, University of Paris VI, 2 Place Jussieu, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05, France; Fax: +33-1-44277000, Email: brezil@laforia.ibp.fr The Theoretical Foundations of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Gerhard Lakemeyer, Institut f.Informatik III, Universitaet Bonn, Roemerstr.164, D-W-5300 Bonn 1, Germany; Fax: +49-228-550382, Email: gerhard@uran.informatik.uni-bonn.de --- Workshops ----- Mon and Tue, August 3-4 Expert Judgement, Human Error, and Intelligent Systems Barry Silverman, Institute for AI, George Washington University, 2021 K St. NW, Suite 710, Washington, DC 20006, USA; Fax: (202)785-3382, Email: barry@gwusun.gwu.edu Logical Approaches to Machine Learning Celine Rouveirol, Universite Paris-Sud, LRI, Bat 490, F-91405 Orsay, France; Fax: +33-1-69416586, Email: celine@lri.lri.fr Spatial Concepts: Connecting Cognitive Theories with Formal Representations Simone Pribbenow, Email: pribbeno@informatik.uni-hamburg.de, and Christoph Schlieder, Institut f.Informatik und Gesellschaft, Friedrichstr.50, D-7800 Freiburg, Germany; Fax: +49-761-2034653, Email: cs@cognition.iig.uni-freiburg.de ======================== GENERAL INFORMATION =========================== DELEGATE'S FEE (in Austrian Schillings, approx. 14 AS = 1 ECU, 12 AS = 1 US$) early late on-site (rec.before) (Jun 1) (Jul 15) Members of ECCAI member organizations 4.500,- 5.000,- 6.000,- Non-Members 5.000,- 6.000,- 7.000,- Students 1.500,- 2.000,- 2.500,- The delegate's fee covers attendance at the scientific programme (invited talks, paper presentations, survey sessions, and workshops), conference documentation including the conference proceedings, admission to the industrial exhibition, and participation in selected evening events. TUTORIAL FEE (per tutorial) early late on-site (rec.before) (Jun 1) (Jul 15) Members of ECCAI member organizations 3.000,- 3.500,- 4.000,- Non-Members 3.500,- 4.000,- 4.500,- Students 1.500,- 2.000,- 2.500,- Tutorial Registration entitles to admission to that tutorial, admission to the exhibition, a copy of the course material, and refreshments during the tutorial. ACCOMODATION Hotels of different price categories, ranging from DeLuxe to the very cheap student hostel (available for non-students too), are available for the first week of August. The price ranges (in AS) are given below. Hotel Category single room double room with bath without bath with bath without bath DeLuxe ***** 1690,-/2375,- 2400,-/3200,- A **** 990,-/1300,- 1400,-/1790,- B *** 750,-/980,- 1100,-/1350,- Season Hotel 480,-/660,- 335,-/450,- 780,-/900,- 580,-/730,- Student Hostel 220,- 380,- The conference venue is located in a central district of Vienna. It can be reached easily by public transport. ============================ REGISTRATION ============================== For detailed information and registration material please contact the conference office: ADV c/o ECAI92 Trattnerhof 2 A-1010 Vienna, Austria Tel: +43-1-5330913-74, Fax: +43-1-5330913-77, Telex: 75311178 adv a or send your postal address via email to: ecai92@ai.univie.ac.at -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-284. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-285. Mon 23 Mar 1992. Lines: 183 Subject: 3.285 European Corpus Initiative: Call for Contributions Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 92 10:13:34 GMT From: Henry "S." Thompson Subject: European Corpus Initiative: Call for Contributions -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 92 10:13:34 GMT From: Henry "S." Thompson Subject: European Corpus Initiative: Call for Contributions European Corpus Initiative Call For Contributions March, 1992 The European Corpus Initiative was founded to oversee the acquisition and preparation of a large multi-lingual corpus to be made available in digital form for scientific research at cost and without royalties. We believe that widespread easy access to such material would be a great stimulus to scientific research and technology development as regards language and language technology. We support existing and projected national and international efforts to carefully design, collect and publish large-scale multi-lingual written and spoken corpora, but also believe it will be some time before the scientific and material resources necessary to bring these projects to fruition will be found. In the interim, a small and rapid effort to collect and distribute existing material can serve to show the way. No amount of abstract argument as to the value of corpus material is as powerful as the experience of actually having access to some in one's laboratory. We aim to make that experience possible very soon, at a very low cost. The ECI is carrying out the first phase of this activity on a purely voluntary basis, under the guidance of an ad-hoc steering committee, using facilities donated by the Human Communication Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh and a small sum for expenses and production costs provided by the European Network for Language and Speech under its Linguistic Resources programme together with the Network of European Reference Corpora. Our present goal is to produce in short order (we're currently aiming for October 1992) a multi-lingual corpus covering as many as possible of the major European languages, in a consistent format, with standardised (TEI-conformant) markup, insofar as resources allow. Our primary focus in this first effort is on textual material of all kinds, including transcriptions of spoken material, but if space and resources permit we may be able to include some sampled speech data as well. If in doubt as to the appropriateness of a contribution, please contact us before assuming we won't want it. As our main method of distribution for this corpus, we will produce a CD-ROM, possibly two if enough material can be collected and prepared in time. We estimate that we should be able to make the results available for around 25 ECU. Because of the low level of resource available for this effort, we are entirely dependent on the goodwill of those members of the research community who have appropriate corpus material, to make it available to us for wide distribution. PLEASE SEND US YOUR DATA. We have promises of material for many, but by no means all, of the languages we would like to cover, and in only one or two cases do we have as much as we would like. We can't guarantee to use everything which is offered, but please, let us judge whether it would be useful. If you know of someone with material which might be appropriate, who may not have received this notice, please pass it on to them. To contribute data, please send electronic or paper mail to one of the addresses given below, describing the data, its current format and the medium it is stored in, and the restrictions on its use, if any, which you would have to impose in making it available to us. Although we hope to make the bulk of the data available with as few restrictions on use as possible, we understand that for various reasons, including restrictions imposed by the original providers of material to those who now hold it, restrictions may be required. Accordingly, researchers who acquire our data will be required to sign a statement along the following lines: =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* ECI User Agreement This statement describes the terms of an agreement between the person whose signature is affixed below (hereafter called "the user") and the European Network for Speech and Language ("ELSNET") in which the user will receive material, as specified below, from the European Corpus Initiative ("ECI"). The ECI is an activity which collects machine-readable language material for the purpose of scientific and humanistic research, and distributes it at cost and without royalties. Under this agreement, the user will receive a machine-readable copy of the material specified below. The user agrees that the material received under this agreement will be used only for research purposes within the user's own research group. The user further agrees not to re-distribute the material to others outside of the user's research group, and that all members of the group will respect the terms of this agreement. The user acknowledges that some of the material, as specified below, is subject to copyright restrictions, and that violations of such restrictions may result in legal liability. The user agrees to abide by the copyright restrictions, and to notify all associates who access the material of the copyright restrictions. Copyright for format modifications to any of the materials on this CD-ROM is assigned to ELSNET. =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* We interpret the aim of the ECI User Agreement, and of our efforts in providing this data, as follows: The aim of the European Corpus Initiative is to oversee the acquisition and preparation of a large multi-lingual corpus, to be made available for scientific research without royalties. All copyrighted materials submitted for inclusion in the collection remain the exclusive property of the copyright holders for all other purposes. You should not redistribute the data that you get from us, nor should you sell it, or charge for access to it, or otherwise put it to any direct commercial use. However, commercial application of "analytical materials" derived from the text, such as statistical tables or grammar rules, is explicitly permitted, as long as copyright law is observed. Copyright holders who agree to make material available are being very generous. Their contributions will make possible a resource of great general utility for research and development in language technology and linguistics. It is not our intent to deprive them of any revenues that they should receive in the ordinary course of their business. Thus it would be a violation of trust, as well as a violation of copyright law, for you to republish a dictionary or other work to be distributed under this agreement, whether in print or electronic form. European Corpus Initiative Steering Committee The current members of the Steering Committee are Nicoletta Calzolari (University of Pisa), Robert Dale (ELSNET), Mark Liberman (University of Pennsylvania), Wolf Paprotte (University of Munster), Henry Thompson (University of Edinburgh) and Susan Warwick-Armstrong (ISSCO, Geneva). Addresses for further information and offers of material for inclusion: Henry S. Thompson (ECI) HCRC 2 Buccleuch Place Edinburgh EH8 9LW SCOTLAND Fax: +44 31 650-4587 eucorp@cogsci.ed.ac.uk Susan Warwick-Armstrong (ECI) ISSCO 54 route des Acacias CH-1227 Geneve SWITZERLAND Fax: +41 22 300 1086 susan@divsun.unige.ch -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-285. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-286. Mon 23 Mar 1992. Lines: 195 Subject: 3.286 OVS and Klingon Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 22:12:00 PST From: Ken_Beesley.PARC@xerox.com Subject: Re: 3.262 Text, Idioms, OVS 2) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 20:42:06 CST From: DBEDELL3@UA1VM.bitnet Subject: linguist in the news -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 22:12:00 PST From: Ken_Beesley.PARC@xerox.com Subject: Re: 3.262 Text, Idioms, OVS Dear Mr. Cowan At the risk of appearing frivolous (or worse, a Trekkie) let me join the Klingon/OVS debate. I have found the little Okrand book extremely entertaining, from the description itself right down to the little disclaimers, apologies, and thanks to the informant. The phrase puq legh yaS child see officer The officer sees the child. is probably active OVS, rather than passive (The child is seen by the officer) in the light of other constructions. legh yaS see officer The officer sees (him/her/it/them) That could also be "(Him/her/it/them) is seen by officer", but the subject also comes after intransitive verbs. Qong yaS sleep officer The officer is sleeping. Also a leghwI' (-wI' as the agentive nominalizer -er) is a "see-er", "someone or something that sees" rather than "something seen". These may not be definitive examples, but it's pretty clear that Okrand purposely set out to make an OVS language to make it maximally distinct from most "Terran" languages. [Of course, from an English point of view, Klingon seems at least as terran as Finnish and Navajo.] An interesting non-Terran feature is the phoneme reversal in Klingon conjunctions: For Nouns For sentences je 'ej "and" joq qoj "and/or" ghap pagh "either/or" The glottal stop in 'ej is obviously intended to be epenthetical (Klingon words never start with a vowel). This process doesn't seem to be productive. Ken Beesley beesley.parc@xerox.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 20:42:06 CST From: DBEDELL3@UA1VM.bitnet Subject: linguist in the news Apparently my posting about Marc Okrand was not received in its entirety by LINGUIST subscribers. I'll try again. --D Bedell, U of Alabama ====================================================================== >Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1992 08:06:00 EST >Sender: Star Trek Fan Club list >From: David M Stein - Veraldi Center >Subject: X-POST::Klingon Language Discussion: Marc Okrand in news > >From: BITNET%"tlhIngan-Hol%village.boston.ma.us@husc6.BITNET" "Klingon La nguage List" 2-MAR-1992 23:01:04.64 >To: "Klingon Language List" >CC: >Subj: Okrand in the news again. >From: Mark E. Shoulson >To: "Klingon Language List" >Date: Mon, 2 Mar 92 20:22:22 -0500 >Subject: Okrand in the news again. In today's (March 2, 1992) edition of _The Star Ledger_, a local New Jersey newspaper, there appeared on page 3 (front section) an article about the great pabpo''a', Marc Okrand himself (Hmm, it's listed as AP, so maybe you've all seen it already). Here, I'll type it up for you: Down-to-Earth Philologist creates a far-out language for 'Star Trek' ------------------------------------------------------------ WASHINGTON(AP)--There is only one Klingon master of the universe, and he's a mere human. Marc Okrand is author of "The Klingon Dictionary," the only place where "Star Trek" devotees can learn such utilitarian phrases as: "jol ylchu'," [sic] ("Activate the transport beam!") and, "qaStaHvls [sic] wa' ram loS SaD Hugh SljlaH [sic] qetbogh loD," or "Four thousand throats may be cut in one night by a running man." In Star Trek's imaginary universe, Klingon is a planet whose denizens were once at war with the United Federation of Planets but are now somewhat tenuous allies. Their language, spoken properly, sounds like German barked by an irate samurai with a clogged throat. By day, Okrand is a linguist at the National Captioning Institute in Northern Virginia. He has a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in the languages of West Coast Indians. But he moonlights as Star Trek's Klingon consultant and has worked on several Star Trek movies and for TV's "Star Trek: The Next Generation." It's a job for which most Trekkies would gladly give their dilithium crystals. But Okrand just fell into it, like a worm hole in space. In 1982, he was in Los Angeles and had lunch with a friend who worked at Paramount Pictures. At the studio comissary, Okrand's friend introduced him to the secretary to the executive producer of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." In the course of conversation, the secretary mentioned that her boss was looking for a linguist to script a brief scene in Vulcan, the language of Mr. Spock. "'When does it have to be done?'" Okrand recalls that he asked. "And the secretary said: 'It has to be finished by Friday.' So I said, 'I can do that.'" Moments later, the executive producer walked by, met Okrand and the rest is intergalactic history. In three days, Okrand invented several lines of Vulcan and taught them to Kirstie Alley, who played Lt. Savik, and Leonard Nimoy, the inimitable Mr. Spock. "I taught Vulcan to Mr. Spock," Okrand still marvels. A couple of years later, Paramount was doing "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" and called Okrand again. "What I decided to do--they never told me to do this--was to make a real language." Okrand said. He went back and looked at "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," the first in the series, which begins with three Klingon warships being zapped. The dialogue includes a couple of gutteral Klingon commands, such as, "Fire!" Okrand took those lines and accepted them as Klingon. Then, he began to build a vocabulary and syntax, emphasizing that the producers wanted something coarse--a warrior language. In writing the dictionary, Okrand devised some arbitrary rules just to keep himself amused. For example, the basic word order is the opposite of English. So if you want to say, "Man bites dog," in Klingon, the correct word order would be, "Dog bites man." Okrand also threw out the "K" sound because, he says, it's a linguistic cliche to give bad guys names starting with "K" sounds. (What about Capt. Kirk?) So even though Klingon starts with a "K", as do almost all Klingonm names in Star Trek, the correct pronunciation is more like "Tchlingon." Lately, Okrand's Klingon star has been rising. His dictionary (Pocket Books, $10) is in its second edition and has sold more than 60,000 copies, he said. In January, Okrand addressed an overflow crowd at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, where a Star Trek exhibit opened last week. Okrand hopes there will be more Star Trek in his future--perhaps dictionaries of the other imaginary space languages, Vulcan and Romulan. --David Bedell, U. of Alabama (dbedell3@ua1vm.ua.edu) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-286. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-287. Mon 23 Mar 1992. Lines: 51 Subject: 3.287 Queries: Pidgins, Mac Speech Analysis Software Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 00:23:47 -0500 From: lojbab@grebyn.com (Logical Language Group) Subject: new Discover article on linguistics 2) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1992 01:12:54 -0800 (PST) From: Phil Gaines Subject: mac speech analysis software -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 00:23:47 -0500 From: lojbab@grebyn.com (Logical Language Group) Subject: new Discover article on linguistics Any comments on the recent article in Discover magazine (just out last week) on the development of pidgins among an isolated group of speakers of mutually unintelligible languages? ---- lojbab = Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 lojbab@grebyn.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1992 01:12:54 -0800 (PST) From: Phil Gaines Subject: mac speech analysis software I may be dreaming, but I would like to get my hands on software for the Mac that will generate Fo contours from voice input...cheap! I have a four-meg Mac Plus with a 64-meg hard disk. Anybody have good news for me? Phil Gaines University of Washington -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-287. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-288. Tue 24 Mar 1992. Lines: 122 Subject: 3.288 Responses: Morphophonemics, Slang, Evolution Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 92 12:38:29 EST From: Elizabeth Laurencot Subject: Re: 3.278 Morphophonemics 2) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 09:27:47 GMT From: Rosemary.Stevenson@durham.ac.uk Subject: Re: 3.264 V and V 3) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 3:41:40 EST From: blinson@linc.cis.upenn.edu (Brian Linson) Subject: Re: gank 4) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 15:30:00 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: When Language First Appeared -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 92 12:38:29 EST From: Elizabeth Laurencot Subject: Re: 3.278 Agent, Vietnamese, Machine Grammar re: "zh" versus "dzh" in W. Brewer's list of words (mirage, barrage, etc.) Well, if you're weird, I am, too. At least you're not alone! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 09:27:47 GMT From: Rosemary.Stevenson@durham.ac.uk Subject: Re: 3.264 V and V > Re: 'Feed a cold and starve a fever' > A (linguist) friend insists that the true version of this is > 'Feed a cold and starve of fever'. > That is, the saying really means the opposite of what I, at any rate, > always thought it meant: if it contains the 'of', it's telling you > NOT to eat while you have a cold, or you'll die ('starve') of fever. > > So, LINGUIST-net enthusiasts, which is it? > > Carol Georgopoulos This seems to be a dispute of long standing. A colleague refers me to a source, 'Playboy' (circa 1978), where a cartoon of two aging rabbis (one pointing over the other's shoulder) has the caption: 'See, right there. In the Talmud. It says "Feed a cold and starve a fever".' Rosemary Stevenson -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 3:41:40 EST From: blinson@linc.cis.upenn.edu (Brian Linson) Subject: Re: gank this is what i understand about *gank* gank cannot be properly identified as a new verb in midwest american slang it is used on both the west and east coasts of the united states, being observed throughout southern california and cities in the northeast and may have distribution elsewhere. its meaning is not specifically 'shoplifting'. it is a term equivalent to ripoff, in an abstract sense. its usage is associated with the slang of young black men and women. I suspect it has spread through popular culture. some samples from ice cube: 1) and i'll jack any tom dick and hank. that's the name of the suckers i did gank ---to 'jack' means to steal from as in i would jack them for their nissan trucks--- 2) i couldn't stop you from getting ganked. ---refers to the way his ex-partner is getting ripped-off by his manager--- Brian Linson -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 15:30:00 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: When Language First Appeared Am I wrong in assuming that most linguists would say that there is ABSOLUTELY no evidence available that would allow us to answer this question? It seems that some people tend to assume that language arose at the same time as the human species, either because they define Homo sapiens sapiens as the first hominid with language (but that seems to beg the question) or because they cannot imagine either (a) pre-sapiens with language or (b) sapiens without. For whatever amusement value it may have, I have published a paper not too long ago which sketches a way of reasoning which would make language PREDATE the species, and it is not hard to come up with a scenario on which language came (long) after the species. But all these are just plausibility arguments, not evidence one way or the other. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-288. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-289. Wed 25 Mar 1992. Lines: 110 Subject: 3.289 Conferences: Amerind, Sociolinguistics Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 92 11:50:11 CST From: FING@UKANVM.bitnet Subject: Siouan and Caddoan 2) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 08:06:46 EST From: "Pleh Csaba (812)855 20 45" Subject: Eastern European Sociolinguistics -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 92 11:50:11 CST Subject: Siouan and Caddoan From: FING@UKANVM.bitnet The Mid-American Linguistics Conference and the Conference on Siouan and Caddoan Languages will be held on October 18-19, 1992, at the Uni- versity of Missouri-Columbia. Abstracts should be sent to Donald Lance, Linguistics Program, 107 Tate, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 (FAX 314-882-5785; e-mail engdl@umcvmb.missouri.edu) or Louanna Furbee, Anthropology, 200 Swallow Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211. Abstract deadline: September 1, 1992. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 08:06:46 EST From: "Pleh Csaba (812)855 20 45" Subject: Eastern European Sociolinguistics A Workshop at Indiana University, Bloomington _________________________________________________________ EAST EUROPEAN SOCIOLINGUISTICS: HISTORY AND PROSPECTS ________________________________________________________ MARCH 31, 1992, 1-6 P.M. OPTOMETRY BUILDING ROOM 111 (Corner of Atwater and Woodlawn, just south of the main campus) Participants in the workshop will discuss the present and likely future course of sociolinguistic research in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union as a result of ongoing changes in the political and eco- nomic systems of the former Soviet bloc. Sociolinguistics--the study of how speech differences are stratified among classes and ethnic groups in a society--will be used as an example of overall social science research. Most of the conference participants have first-hand knowledge of doing western-style sociolinguistics in former socialist countries, and will discuss the difficulties of developing this highly charged field in those countries, as well as describing how the field managed to take root (where it did) in spite of these difficulties. In addition to these historical questions, participants will consider potential social- policy consequences of sociolinguistic findings in the former socialist countries, including the effect of research on minority languages (e.g., Gypsy in Hungary, Hungarian in Slovakia) on policy decisions regarding language and nationality rights. FORMAT OF THE WORKSHOP: Four countries, the former Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland, will each be treated as a case study of sociolinguistic development. The history and future prospects of the field will be examined by researchers with experience in the country in question. Time will be available for discussion among the panelists and audience following the presentations on each country. We are counting on the participation of faculty and students with interests in the development of this and other fields of inquiry in these countries to make the workshop a success! SPONSORED BY: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Uralic and Altaic Studies, Office of International Programs, Polish Studies Center, Program in TESOL and Applied Linguistics, Research and the University Graduate School, and Russian and East European Institute, Working Group on Transformation of Communist and Post-Communist Societies of the Cen- ter for Global Change and World Peace. FOR MORE INFORMATION, or if you cannot attend but would like a set of summaries of the presentations, contact Jeffrey Harlig, Department of Uralic and Altaic Studies (tel: (812) 855-2233; e-mail: PRISM::HARLIGJ/ HARLIGJ@IUBACS [bitnet]). _________________________________________________________________________ Workshop participants and Coffee Break 3:00-3:15 schedule: CASE 3: HUNGARY 3:15-4:15 INTRODUCTION -- Problems of Miklos Kontra (Linguistics social science in Eastern Europe Institute, Hungarian Academy of 1:00-1:30 Sciences), Csaba Pleh (IU Jeffrey Harlig (IU Bloomington) Bloomington, Eotvos University, Budapest) CASE 1: RUSSIA AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION 1:30-2:30 CASE 4: POLAND 4:15-5:15 Allen Grimshaw (IU Bloomington), Karol Janicki (Adam Mickiewicz Curt Woolhiser (IU Bloomington) University, Poznan), Dennis Preston (Michigan State University) CASE 2: CZECHOSLOVAKIA 2:30-3:00 Louise Hammer (IU Bloomington) General discussion period 5:15-6:00 __________________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-289. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-290. Wed 25 Mar 1992. Lines: 202 Subject: 3.290 Reality of Rules Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 21:33:13 GMT From: WAB2@phx.cam.ac.uk Subject: rules and mind 2) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1992 11:29:04 GMT From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: Reality of Rules (& social norms) 3) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1992 11:43:35 GMT From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: Reality of rules (and aphasia) 4) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 13:20 EST From: Steven_C_FLEISHMAN@umail.umd.edu (sf36) Subject: Gethin's ANTILINGUISTICS -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 21:33:13 GMT From: WAB2@phx.cam.ac.uk Subject: rules and mind >From:saka@cogsci.Berkeley.EDU [3,276: rules and the brain/4]< Two points which are usefully incisive about my assertion that mind is what the grammar must model. 1) >the mind IS the brain.< I am grateful for this forthright statement of view. But we are all aware of the whole which is greater than the sum of the parts. I will not bore colleagues with the all-too-common proofs of this truism. What are we to term the source of the creative output of the brain, if not "mind"? 2) >just because something is concerned with the mind does not preclude it from being concerned with the brain.< If such enlightened monism were right, why should we need two terms, both "mind" and "brain"? Either the terms are co-extensive, perfect synonyms, and there is a wasteful redundancy. Or they differ in reference, and it is this very difference which is of critical importance to such human sciences as linguistics. Monists are missing out on something. Bill Bennett. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1992 11:29:04 GMT From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: Reality of Rules (& social norms) Re Helge Dyvik (Linguist 3.281): >I think the 'where-else?' argument loses much of its force when we consider >the kind of facts that are accounted for by grammatical rules. John >Searle's (Speech Acts, 1969) distinction between brute facts and >institutional facts is useful in this connection. ... It doesn't loose its force, because talk about institutions (the location of the actual behavior, as it were) doesn't provide any account of what is causing the generalizations. There is an interesting contrast between syntax and semantics here. In the case of semantics, one can explain a lot in terms of a division of labor, so that meanings are in a sense socially distributed: we have access to the intension of the term `plutonium' even though we don't grasp it ourselves because we are members of a speech community and a society in which there are people who do (we can vote to make bombs out of it, or not to). But the division of labor idea doesn't apply to syntax, since people mostly produce and understand sentences by themselves (parents finishing each other's commands to their children would be a minor exception in the case of production, but this sort of case is clearly derivative and parasitic on the normal one-speaker-per-sentence situation). So, even granting that individual linguistic facts are about norms, we are left with the question of what is causing the generalizations that one discerns in the norms, and the structure of the brain remains the only candidate answer that looks plausible today. Avery.Andrews@anu.edu.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1992 11:43:35 GMT From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: Reality of rules (and aphasia) To inject a bit more empirical matter into the reality of rules discussion, Grodzinsky, Pierce and Marakovitz, NLLT 9.3 (1991) have an article in which they argue that there is evidence from aphasia that move-alpha is the right theory of verbal passives, but not for certain lexical ones, providing neuropsychological evidence that uniformly lexical theories such as LFG and GPSG are wrong (as well as uniformly transformational ones, like some versions of GB). The evidence is that certain aphasics supposedly fail to perform better than chance on structures where move alpha has applied, but perform reasonably well on ones where it hasn't. I find the argument heroic but unconvincing, because a) unpassives, which have generally been regarded as lexical, and whose properties provided much of the original motivation for the idea that some or even all such passive-like rules were lexical, behave like ordinary verbal passives. b) the supposed lexical passives are just psych-verbs in experiencer-subject constructions (`the mother is worried about the daughter'). Experiencer-object constructions ('the daughter worried the mother') aren't discussed. So the data looks consistent with the idea that the subjects are using a simple linear-order to semantic role mapping scheme (Agent Experiencer Patient/Theme/Experienced), and when this fails, for whatever reason, so do they. Any thoughts? Avery.Andrews@anu.edu.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 13:20 EST From: Steven_C_FLEISHMAN@umail.umd.edu (sf36) Subject: Gethin's ANTILINGUISTICS My university library has just received Amorey Gethin's *ANTILINGUISTICS, A critical assessment of modern theory and practice*. I'd be interested in the opinions of any who've read it, or know of Gething's views from other sources. For those unfamiliar with the book or that view, let me quote from the abstract on the book's cover: A critique of the 'science' known as linguistics... This book shows how modern linguistics goes wrong and how we can come to use our personal understanding of language in our own lives. Chapters include: "The emptiness of analysis", "Chomskyan mistakes made plain", "Ungenerative grammar", and "Deep confusion". Since I'm a philosopher and not a linguist (as my linguist colleagues take pains to remind me), I suppose I could sum up my interests in this book in the following way: There's been a continuous debate (as evidenced by the recent discussion on this list concerning the reality of rules) about realism versus conceptualism in linguistics. A recent issue of *Philosophy and Linguistics* was devoted to this debate, with the two sides being the conceptualist view attributed to Chomsky and Chomskyites, and the realist view professed by Jerrold Katz and Paul Postal among others. The difference between conceptualism and realism, as per Katz and Postal, is that Chomskian conceptualism posits that rules, etc. - the 'abstract' entities which linguistics describes - are natural and biological and are in the head (brain), whereas Katz-Postal realism posits that such abstract entities are formal and ideal (like the 'entities' of mathematics) and are wherever ideals and universals are to be found (such as in the Platonic Otherworld). Of course, Chomsky et al would take themselves to be realists about linguistics, while labelling Katz and Postal idealists at best and anti-realists at heart. The debate interests me, on the one hand, because of its metaphysical nature. That is, is the success of linguistics, since Chomsky, part and parcel with the naturalism (conceptualism) that Chomsky's view involves? Or is it possible to re-evaluate that success and attribute it to two different enterprises, a biological one and a formal one, where both the biological entities and processes and the formal entities and processes are real, albeit that the formal side is real and ideal? It would seem that this debate is relevant to science generally, and not to linguistics alone. On the other hand, there are views such as Gethin's (to get back to the original subject) which reject the debate described above - why concern ourselves with messy ontology? - and instead take what might be called a pragmatic view of language and linguistics. Again, I find it interesting to see if we can re-evaluate the success of linguistics in pragmatist terms. On the pragmatic view, however, much of that 'success' would be junked, it appears. Well, that's more than I had intended to say about this. As I said, I'd like to hear from those who've read the book, or know the views, as part of the realism discussion which seems to have caught people's interest on this list. Stiv Fleishman sf36@umail.umd.edu Univ. of Maryland, College Park -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-290. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-291. Wed 25 Mar 1992. Lines: 160 Subject: 3.291 French, "Its" Gender Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 10:01 EST From: "E_Dean.Detrich" <22743MGR@msu.edu> Subject: Re: 3.273 French Pronunciation 2) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 92 00:18:12 EST From: Alan Huffman Subject: Re: Gougenheim 3) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 92 14:14:16 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: Gougenheim and others 4) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 14:08:08 EST From: cowan@uunet.UU.NET (John Cowan) Subject: Re: 3.283 King James 5) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 11:31:28 CST From: (Dennis Baron) Subject: its gender -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 10:01 EST From: "E_Dean.Detrich" <22743MGR@msu.edu> Subject: Re: 3.273 Raising Summary, French Pronunciation > > Where can I find out how to pronounce the name of the French > > linguist Gougenheim? ... Is there any dictionary which gives > > pronunciations of verbs and of proper names...? There is a very good pronunciation dictionary of French by Warnant I believe. Unfortunately I cannot consult my copy at the moment as our department is being moved to another building at the moment and all my office books are in boxes. The author "pronounces" on pronun- ciations for place and proper names without much explanantion. I do not know if it is simply his intuition. ------- E. Dean DETRICH 22743mgr@msu.bitnet Department of Romance and Classical Languages 22743MGR@MSU.EDU Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan 48824 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 92 00:18:12 EST From: Alan Huffman Subject: Re: Gougenheim Names like Gougenheim are perfectly common in France, especially in Alsace. The name is pronounced in French essentially as it is in German, except for the h; thus: /gugenaym/. In Alsace one may very well hear the h pronounced as well. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 92 14:14:16 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: Gougenheim and others I would pronounce it too as if it were spelt "Gougueneime" i.e. IPA [gug@nEm] or [gugnEm] (@ = schwa, E = epsilon). There was a jeweller in my home town (Nantes), by the name of Diedisheim, which all pronounced as "Die'diseime" [djedizEm], including my father who spoke German fluently. No-one would have recognized their "Die'diseime" in his "Didizailleme" had he chosen to be eccentric about it. The famous sewing machines were pronounced "Singe`re". What governs the pronunciation of "ge" in German -- and English -- names, then? What made me pick on [g] for "Gougenheim". I think the frequency of other French family names with a pattern [g@n] in the first or second syllable. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 14:08:08 EST From: cowan@uunet.UU.NET (John Cowan) Subject: Re: 3.283 King James Allan C. Wechsler writes > Lev. 25:5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt > ^^^ > not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a > year of rest unto the land. I am willing to bet any reasonable sum that that "its" was not in the Authorized Version as of 1611. As I pointed out in a private message to the original author, the KJV is not copyright or otherwise textually controlled, and modern reprints are invariably retouched in one or more ways, whether intentionally or as a result of typesetter's errors. I don't have machine-readable text at hand, but I recall seeing both "it" and "his" as the possessive. That said, I will take the opportunity to repeat my favorite KJV joke: The original version set in >italics< those words (usually function words) introduced by the translators but not present in the original. This usage of course conflicts with the modern use of italics for emphasis, producing this: And he said, Saddle me a horse. And they saddled >him<. -- cowan@snark.thyrsus.com ...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan e'osai ko sarji la lojban -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 11:31:28 CST From: (Dennis Baron) Subject: its gender To clarify the discussion of _its_: Re: its -- this possessive form arises in the late 16th c. First OED cite is 1598. It does not (according to the OED) appear in the 1611 Bible. In the 1611 ed, Leviticus xxv.5 has the uninflected possessive, "That which groweth of it own accord." This form was changed to _its_ in the 1660 edition. _Its_ does not appear in Shakespeare texts printed during his lifetime or before the 1623 folio, by which time it had become well established. It was also frequently written _it's_, and many wrote it as such down through the 19th c. It is of course still frequently written as _it's_ though that form of the possessive is considered an error, and is hunted out by certain English teachers, who prefer to reserve it for the contracted _it is_. So there. (which I refuse to follow with the computer version of the smiley face or frowny face; irony will out). Dennis Dennis Baron debaron@uiuc.edu Dept. of English office: 217-244-0568 University of Illinois messages: 217-333-2392 608 S. Wright St fax: 217-333-4321 Urbana IL 61801 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-291. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-292. Fri 27 Mar 1992. Lines: 168 Subject: 3.292 Colloquium on Language, Subjectivity Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 10:48+0000 From: Dieter.Stein@HRZ.UNI-GIESSEN.DBP.DE Subject: Colloquium on LANGUAGE, SUBJECTIVITY AND SUBJECTIVISATION -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 10:48+0000 From: Dieter.Stein@HRZ.UNI-GIESSEN.DBP.DE Subject: Colloquium on LANGUAGE, SUBJECTIVITY AND SUBJECTIVISATION Colloquium on LANGUAGE, SUBJECTIVITY AND SUBJECTIVISATION 28-30 May, 1992 St Catharine's College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England. Much work in historical syntax and semantics in the last ten years has often tacitly assumed or presupposed that the phenomenon of speaker subjectivity underlies or motivates many historical linguistic processes (e.g. the semantics-pragmatics of grammaticalisation, the syntactic development of literary styles). But the study of speaker subjectivity (including the expression of emotion) has itself not yet received systematic study. This circular therefore announces a seminar on Language, Subjectivity and Subjectivisation. The seminar will be held over two days in St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Its aim is to assemble people currently working on subjectivity, or with an interest in some aspect of the topic for discussion and debate. YOU ARE INVITED TO OFFER A PAPER FOR THIS SEMINAR. Here is a set of questions as a suggested guide to contributors (they are obviously not exhaustive): -- What is the relationship between subjectivity and subjectivisation? Is subjectivity primarily an historical phenomenon? -- What linguistic structures can be said to carry 'subjective' meanings? How is subjectivity expressed in language (e.g. in modals (epistemic vs. deontic); evidentials; grammaticalisation of speech act verbs; etc.)? -- To what extent is the encoding of subjectivity and subjective meaning dependent on the structure of the language at a particular stage or historical moment? -- Are there systematic tendencies in the meanings of individual structures in terms of developing or losing subjective meanings? -- To what extent can developments in the expression of subjectivity be related to changes in intellectual history? How well is subjective language understood by its users in any period? -- To what extent can developments in literary history be related to the observed linguistic developments? To what extent has there been a mutual influence? --To what extent is the expression (or non-expression) of subjectivity related to aspects of literacy or orality? (E.g. how far is it tied to the status of emerging literary and standard written varieties of a language?) ACCOMMODATION: Negotiations are currently underway to get a special package price for seminar participants at the Arundel House Hotel, about seven minutes walk from St Catharine's. Current bed & breakfast prices (as a primary indication): Single room (en suite bath/shower & toilet): #36-49 per night. Double room (en suite bath/shower & toilet): #50-#67 per night. TIMETABLE: 27 May (Wednesday evening): ARRIVAL (and get-together) 28 May (Thursday): 9.30am - 1 pm: SEMINAR 1 pm - 2.30 pm: lunch 2.30 pm - 6 pm: SEMINAR 7.30pm: Seminar Dinner (St Catharine's) 29 May (Friday): 9.30 am - 1 pm: SEMINAR 1 pm - 2.30 pm: lunch 2.30 pm - 6 pm: SEMINAR (ends) 30 May (Saturday): DEPARTURE PRELIMINARY REGISTRATION: Please let (one of us) know as soon as possible (a) whether you will be able to participate in theis seminar, and (b) if so, the likely title of your paper. We will ask for confirmation of registration (together with a nominal registration fee) later. ABSTRACTS: All abstracts should be sent to Dieter Stein by 30 January, 1992 at the very latest. The idea is that contributors submit elaborate abstracts, which will then be circulated to all participants before the seminar. ORGANISERS: Dieter Stein Susan Wright Anglisches Institut III St Catharine's College Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Cambridge University Trumpington Street D-4000 Duesseldorf Cambridge CB2 1RL Germany England e-mail: dstein@dd0rud81 email: SW29@phoenix.cambridge.ac.uk or: DIETER.STEIN@HRZ.UNI-GIESSEN.DBP.DE telephone:0211-311-2963 telephone: 0223-338332 Fax:(211) 342229 Fax: (0044 223) 338340 SEMINAR ON LANGUAGE, SUBJECTIVITY AND SUBJECTIVISATION 28-30 May, 1992 St Catharine's College, Cambridge. ACCOMMODATION: BOOKING FORM: PLEASE RETURN THIS FORM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO: SUSAN WRIGHT (ST CATHARINE'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE) by e-mail or Fax: (0044 223) 338340 or Telephone: (0044 223) 338332. IMPORTANT: Confirmation of Hotel bookings can be made NO LATER THAN 27 March, 1992. SEMINAR COSTS: Registration fee (seminar room, tea, coffee): 10.00 pounds sterling Please indicate if you would like to book the following: Thursday lunch (28 May): 7.00 sterling YES/NO Seminar Dinner (28 May): 20.00 sterling YES/NO Friday lunch (29 May): 7.00 sterling YES/NO Friday Dinner (29 May): 10.00 sterling YES/NO Vegetarian YES/NO I enclose a cheque/banker's order for ______pounds sterling (payable to St Catharine's College). [Please tick] I wish to pay on arrival [Please tick] ACCOMMODATION: Provisional bookings have been made for seminar participants at the Arundel House Hotel. The price has been finalised at: 48 pounds sterling per person for bed (room with shower) and continental breakfast per night. Please indicate confirmation of booking for the following: Wed 27 May YES/NO Thurs 28 May YES/NO Frid 29 May YES/NO Sat 30 May YES/NO NB: The hotel will not guarantee availability of accommodation without prior confirmation. Please fax or ring Susan Wright with your confirmation as soon as possible, and importantly, no later than 27 March. NAME:_________________________________________ ADDRESS:_________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ ******** ************** ***************** -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-292. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-293. Fri 27 Mar 1992. Lines: 154 Subject: 3.293 Summary: tonogenesis Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 92 10:59:38 +1000 From: mdr412@coombs.anu.edu.au (Malcolm Ross) Subject: Tonogenesis -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 92 10:59:38 +1000 From: mdr412@coombs.anu.edu.au (Malcolm Ross) Subject: Tonogenesis Some weeks ago I posted a request for references, asking about two specific aspects of tonogenesis. I was interested in (a) the phonetics of the actual process of tonogenesis; (b) phonological theories which took account of tonogenesis. I received a number of replies, for which I am most grateful. I promised to summarise them in a posting to the list. I have not had time to read all the following, and some of them I have yet to see, so I cannot be sure of their degree of relevance. On the subject of the phonetics of tonogenesis, the major reference is: Hombert, Jean-Marie, John J. Ohala and William G. Ewan, 1979, Phonetic explanations for the development of tones. Language 55, 37-58. The following are also relevant: Abramson, Arthur S., 1975, Pitch in the perception of voicing states in Thai: diachronic implications. Status Report on Speech Report, Haskins Laboratories SR-41, 165-174. Abramson, Arthur S. and D. M. Erickson, 1978, Diachronic tone splits and voicing shifts in Thai: some perceptual data. Status Report on Speech Report, Haskins Laboratories SR-53/2, 85-96. Abramson, Arthur S. and Leigh Lisker, 1985, Relative power of cures: F0 shift versus voice timing. In Victoria A. Fromkin, ed. Phonetic linguistics: essays in honor of Peter Ladefoged. , Orlando: Academic Press. Hombert, Jean-Marie, 1978, Consonant types, vowel quality, and tone. In Victoria Fromkin, ed. Tone: a linguistic survey. , 77-111. New York: Academic Press. Lehiste, Ilse and G. E. Peterson, 1961, Some basic considerations in the analysis of intonation. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 33, 419-423. Painter, C., 1978, Implosives, inherent pitch, tonogenesis and laryngeal mechanisms. Journal of Phonetics 6, 249-274. On the subject of phonological theories, I was directed towards the following. All except the first reference are in the framework of Government Phonology: Duanmu, San, 1991, A featural analysis of sone onsetPvowel interactions. Paper presented at the First Annual Conference of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. Harris, John, 1990, Segmental complexity and phonological government. Phonology 7/2, 255-300. Lindsay, Geoff and John Harris, 1990, Phonetic interpretation in generative grammar. UCL Papers in Linguistics 2. Yoshida, Shohei, 1990, Some aspects of governing relations in Japanese phonology. Ph. D. dissertation, School of Oriental and African Studies. I also received a number of other references to tonogenesis, most of them case studies and reconstructions of tonogenesis in specific areas (most SE Asia). I add these for the sake of completeness. Benedict, Paul, 1973, Tibeto-Burman tones with a note on teleo- reconstruction. Acta Orientalia 35, 127-138. Bradley, David, 1982, Register in Burmese. In David Bradley, ed. Papers in South-East Asian Linguistics No. 8: Tonation. , 117-132. Pacific Linguistics A-62. Brown, J. Marvin, 1985, The great tone split: did it work in two opposite ways. In Brown, J. Marvin, ed. From Ancient Thai to modern dialects and other writings on historical Thai linguistics. Bangkok: White Lotus. Chan, Marjorie K. M. and James H. Y. Tai, 1989, A critical review of Jerry Norman's _Chinese_. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 24/1, 43-61. Diller, Anthony, 1982, A new high tone in southern Thai. In David Bradley, ed. Papers in South-East Asian Linguistics No. 8: Tonation, 133-154. Pacific Linguistics A-62. Egerod, S?ren, 1971, Phonation types in Chinese and south east Asian languages. Acta Linguistica Hafniensa 13, 159-171. Haudricourt, Andr, 1954, De l'origine des tons en vietnamien. Journal asiatique 242, 69-82. Henderson, Eugnie J. A., 1982, Tonogenesis: some recent speculations on the development of tone. Transactions of the Philological Society 1982, 1-24. Hyman, L., 1978, Historical tonology. In Victoria Fromkin, ed. Tone: a linguistic survey. , 257-269. New York: Academic Press. Li, Charles N., 1986, The rise and fall of tones through diffusion. Berkeley Linguistics Society 12, 173-185. Maran, La Raw, 1973, In Larry M. Hyman, ed. Consonant types and tone. , 97-113. Southern California Occasional Papers in Linguistics 1. University of Southern California. Matisoff, James, 1972, The Loloish tonal split revisited . Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, Berkeley. Monograph No. 7. ___, 1973, Tonogenesis in Southeast Asia. In Larry M. Hyman, ed. Consonant types and tone. , 71-95. Southern California Occasional Papers in Linguistics 1. University of Southern California. Matisoff, James A., 1970, Glottal dissimilation and the Lahu high rising tone: a tonogenetic case study. JAOS 90/1, 13-44. McCawley, James D., 1978, What is a tone language? In Victoria Fromkin, ed. Tone: a linguistic survey. , 113-131. New York: Academic Press. Svantesson, Jan-Olof, 1988, Hu: a language with unorthodox tonogenesis. In J. H. C.S. Davidson, ed. Contributions to Mon-Khmer studies: essays in honour of Professor H.L. Shorto. , London: School of Oriental and African Studies. ___, 1989, Tonogenetic mechanisms in northern Mon-Khmer. Phonetica 46, 60-79. Weidert, A., 1979, The Sino-Tibetan tonogenetic laryngeal reconstruction theory. LTBA 5/1, 49-127. Malcolm Ross Linguistics RSPacS Australian National University -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-293. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-294. Fri 27 Mar 1992. Lines: 133 Subject: 3.294 Gender Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 14:00:11 EST From: cowan@uunet.UU.NET (John Cowan) Subject: Re: 3.282 A List of Common Gender Pronouns 2) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1992 13:14 MET From: MRTMOUS@rulcri.LeidenUniv.nl Subject: unmarked feminine 3) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 09:44:28 GMT From: Ivan A Derzhanski Subject: 3.283 Gender -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 14:00:11 EST From: cowan@uunet.UU.NET (John Cowan) Subject: Re: 3.282 A List of Common Gender Pronouns More common-gender pronouns, using the notation subject/possessive/object: Poul Anderson's sf novel >The Day Of Their Return< uses heesh/heesh's/heesh to refer to a genderless species, the Didonians. Se/hir/se is in regular active use on the newsgroup alt.sex.bondage, a rich source of specialized language forms. Ursula K. LeGuin's Gethenians are hominid but androgynous: the novel >The Left Hand Of Darkness< uses he/his/him, the short story "Winter's King" uses she/hers/her (while retaining the masculine titles Mr. and King), and a never-produced screenplay of >TLHOD< uses a/un/a. -- cowan@snark.thyrsus.com ...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan e'osai ko sarji la lojban -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1992 13:14 MET From: MRTMOUS@rulcri.LeidenUniv.nl Subject: unmarked feminine In reaction to Kovach's question "are there any languages with the feminine as the unmarked case ..?": In Iraqw (S.Cushitic, Tanzania), the feminine object pronoun is used for unspecific objects and for clauses. In this respect the feminine gender is unmarked, or one may say that it refrs to the word for "thing" which happens to be feminine. The feminine object pronoun is _a_, the masculine one is _u_, which can be analysed as _au_ plus vowel coallescence and the feminine object pronoun would be really unmarked. In other parts of the morphological system feminine is equally marked as masculine. In the personal (pro)noun system masculine is the unmarked in a way. There is gender distinction for the second person singular, but the second person plural (pro)noun has no gender distinction and is based on the second person singular masculine. (There is no gender distinction in the third person (pro)nouns. Maarten Mous mrtmous@rulcri.LeidenUniv.nl -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 09:44:28 GMT From: Ivan A Derzhanski Subject: 3.283 Gender > Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 23:12:52 PST > From: "Don W." > Subject: Gender marking > > In Esperanto, "father" = 'patro' while "mother" = 'patrino'. > That is, "patro" with the feminizing suffix "-ino." > > Personally, I have a violently negative reaction to that > formation and believe it's a fault that ought to be fixed. Yes, I dislike this one too, as well as "viro : virino" `man : woman': I find it unnatural to think of `mother' as `female father' (which completely misses the natural counterposition `bearer' : `begetter') or of `woman' as `female man' (where "man" is not used in its generic sense, which it has in English; rather, it means `male human'). I know that there are some Esperantists who use "matro". > Since Esperanto is an artificial language (is that the > right term?), prescriptivism may have its place in it. Unfortunately, I feel it may be too late for this: the word "patrino" has been around for too long. Disclaimer: I am not an Esperantist. > On the other hand, the Russian "djadja" [j = yod] ('uncle') > has a feminine declension and takes masculine agreements. The term "feminine declension" is to be taken with a grain of salt, because there is only a statistic correlation, not a causal link, between a noun being feminine and following what is regularly called "first declension" (and is chock full of masculine nouns). > I don't imagine the Russians have any problem with that, They don't. In Bulgarian this correlation is much closer than in Russian, there being much fewer masculine nouns with singular ending _-a_. It is reported that in some dialects feminine agreement occurs with such nouns: _rimskata papa_ [Roman-sgf_the-sgf pope] cf. standard _rimskijat papa_ [Roman-m_the-m pope] _vladikata doshla_ [bishop_the come_perf-sgf] cf. standard _vladikata doshyl_ [bishop_the come_perf-sgm] but apparently not with _bashta_ `father', which has a higher frequency. (I don't think all this can be called a problem, anyway.) ---- --- -- - Long Live the Rose and the Heather! - -- --- ---- Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk; iad@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu) * Centre for Cognitive Science, 2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, UK * Cowan House, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Park Road, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-294. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-295. Fri 27 Mar 1992. Lines: 157 Subject: 3.295 Announcements: reviewers, CLS, new list, book rec Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 92 12:22:24 -0800 From: suzanne@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: book reviewing/Romance 2) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 92 23:54:05 CST From: Chicago Linguistic Society Subject: CLS 26 volumes are out! 3) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 92 09:58 EST From: NMILLER@vax1.trincoll.edu Subject: NEW LIST: MENDELE Yiddish Literature and Language 4) Date: 24 Mar 92 12:03 From: Subject: Book recommendation -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 92 12:22:24 -0800 From: suzanne@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: book reviewing/Romance Solliciting Romance linguists, especially with specialization in French, interested in reviewing books in thier field for ROMANCE PHILOLOGY. Please send name, address (e-mail aular mail), and field(s) of expertise to: send name, address (e-mail and/or regular), and field(s) of expertise to: Romance Philology French Dept. University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 or suzanne@ucbgaren.berkeley.edu suzanne@ucbrgane.bitnet suzanne@garnet.berkeley.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 92 23:54:05 CST From: Chicago Linguistic Society Subject: CLS 26 volumes are out! The Chicago Linguistic Society is pleased to announced that the CLS 26 volumes (Volume 1: General Session and Volume 2: Parasession on the Syllable) are now available. Preordered volumes are being shipped out right now. Those who wish to order the volumes should send their names, addresses, and phone numbers to cls@sapir.uchicago.edu or call (312)702-8529. The volumes will also be av available at the 28th Regional Meeting, April 23-25. We are also taking preorders for CLS 27 (with a parasession on negation) and CLS 28 (with a parasession on the cycle) at this moment, please contact us if you are interested in these volumes. Grace P. Chan (for CLS 28) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 92 09:58 EST From: NMILLER@vax1.trincoll.edu Subject: NEW LIST: MENDELE Yiddish Literature and Language MENDELE on LISTSERV@YALEVM The purpose of this list is to promote a friendly atmosphere for the discussion of Yiddish literature and language. Submissions are acceptable in Yiddish or English. The list is moderated. It is a joint venture of Trinity College and the Classics Department of Yale University. Please address questions to: nmiller@trincc (Bitnet) nmiller@vax1.trincoll.edu (Internet) To subscribe, send the following command to LISTSERV@YALEVM (or for Internet subscribers to LISTSERV@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU) via mail or interactive message: SUB MENDELE your_full_name where "your_full_name" is your name. For example: SUB MENDELE Yisroel Yoshua Singer Owner: Norman Miller Owner: Victor Bers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: 24 Mar 92 12:03 From: Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 15:18:10 -0500 From: david@snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca (David C. J. Leip) Subject: Re: 3.287 Mac Speech Analysis 2) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1992 09:35:15 +0100 From: EKELLER@ul9000.unil.ch Subject: Pitch extraction 3) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 92 21:27 PST From: Peter Ladefoged Subject: Re: 3.287 Queries: Pidgins, Mac Speech Analysis Software 4) Date: Sat, 28 Mar 92 20:35:53 -0600 From: ifax446@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (chris matyear) Subject: Re: 3.287 Queries: Pidgins, Mac Speech Analysis Software -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 15:18:10 -0500 From: david@snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca (David C. J. Leip) Subject: Re: 3.287 Mac Speech Analysis There is a speech analysis product for the mac called Mac SpeechLab. I haven't used it myself since I'm a NeXT user, so I have no comments regarding the quality of this tool. It is sold by a company called GW Instruments. Their address is: 35 Medford St. Somerville MA 02143 (617) 625-4096 (617) 625-1322 (fax) - David +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | David Leip University of Guelph | | david@snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca Computing & Information Science | | (519) 824-4120 ext.3709 Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1 | | | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1992 09:35:15 +0100 From: EKELLER@ul9000.unil.ch Subject: Pitch extraction GW::"LINGUIST@TAMVM1.BITNET" > Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1992 01:12:54 -0800 (PST) > From: Phil Gaines > Subject: mac speech analysis software > > I may be dreaming, but I would like to get my hands on > software for the Mac that will generate Fo contours from > voice input...cheap! I have a > four-meg Mac Plus with a 64-meg hard disk. >Anybody have good news for me? > > Phil Gaines > University of Washington No, Phil Gaines is not dreaming. Signalyze(TM) 2.0 runs on a MacPlus with 2 Mb of RAM and all Macs above. It does three types of pitch extraction: by temporal structure analysis, by FFT-comb, and by autocorrelation. There are also lots of signal editing tools and input from MacRecorder, Apple mike, AudioMedia and MacAdios devices. The program is entirely on the 16 bit-standard. The spectrograms adjust to B/W, 16 and 256 colors/grays. Also included: spectra and cepstra, LPC, statistics, dB measurement, interpolated signal resampling, transformations, envelopes, zero passages, filtering and a simple macro facility. The manual is 224 pages, the on-board contextual Help is in English and French, and the whole interface is switchable to English, French and German. The program is about 700 k at the present. Is it "cheap"? Well perhaps: Individual US$350, site US$500. That's as cheap as is commercially realizeable with a small market, and at any rate much cheaper than any comparable competition. For more info, email 76357.1213@COMPUSERVE.COM or FAX/write to InfoSignal Inc., Western Hemisphere: 3002 Belvidere S.W., SEATTLE, WA., 98126, USA, FAX/Answering machine: (206) 935- 1618. Other Countries: C.P. 73, CH-1015 LAUSANNE, Switzerland, FAX: +41 38 33.11.53. Eric Keller Prof. of Computer Science, University of Lausanne, Switzerland Author, Signalyze(TM) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 92 21:27 PST From: Peter Ladefoged Subject: Re: 3.287 Queries: Pidgins, Mac Speech Analysis Software Re Mac Software for Pitch analysis: We have a freeware UCLA-Uppsala analysis package that will provide quite good pitch curves of MacRecorder or similar speech files. Write to: Software Manager, Phonetics Lab, Linguistics Dept, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1543 for our order form. It's $5 for just this disk - Peter Ladefoged -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Sat, 28 Mar 92 20:35:53 -0600 From: ifax446@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (chris matyear) Subject: Re: 3.287 Queries: Pidgins, Mac Speech Analysis Software To Phil Gaines-- Have you looked at SINGNALYZE by InfoSignal (vrs. 2). Address: 3002 Belvidere SW, Seattle, WA 98126 Fax/answering mach: (206) 935-1618 E-mail: 76357.1213@COMPUSERVE.COM Impressive demo--cheap at half the price. I C. Matyear -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-296. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-297. Sun 29 Mar 1992. Lines: 450 Subject: 3.297 Reality of rules Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 92 12:14:35 EST Subject: 3.290 Reality of Rules From: Stavros Macrakis 2) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 92 19:46:00 GMT From: WAB2@phx.cam.ac.uk Subject: Rules & langage 3) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 92 15:10 PST From: Vicki Fromkin Subject: Re: 3.281 Rules 4) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1992 11:42:29 +0100 From: Swann Philip Subject: 3.290 Reality of Rules 5) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1992 15:57:07 +0000 From: Dyvik@hf.uib.no Subject: Re: 3.290 Reality of Rules 6) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1992 15:38:39 PST From: Penni Sibun Subject: grammar and generation 7) Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1992 14:42 EDT From: Lew Shapiro Subject: Aphasia -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 92 12:14:35 EST Subject: 3.290 Reality of Rules From: Stavros Macrakis Bill Bennett says: ...we are all aware of the whole which is greater than the sum of the parts.... What are we to term the source of the creative output of the brain, if not "mind"? If such enlightened monism were right, why should we need two terms, both "mind" and "brain"? Either the terms are co-extensive, perfect synonyms, and there is a wasteful redundancy. Or they differ in reference, and it is this very difference which is of critical importance to such human sciences as linguistics. Monists are missing out on something. They do differ in referent: `mind' is the name of a function; `brain' is the thing that performs that function. A dead brain no longer functions as a mind. Brains can have other functions, e.g. as food or as displays in museums. Other things could perhaps function as minds, although of course we have no examples of such today. `Passenger-carrying road vehicle' (PCRV) is the name of a function; `car' is the name of a thing. A broken car is no longer a PCRV. Other things can function as PCRV, e.g. motorcycles with sidecars. `Subject' is the name of a function; `noun' is the name of a part of speech. What is the mysterious `something' that makes a noun into a subject? As it happens, English identifies function and mechanism in the names of many things. When there is a name for function, it is often more general than any particular mechanism (e.g. weapon vs. gun). Of course, it is often useful to posit multiple levels of description of the mechanism that allows the thing to perform a given function. Now, please tell me what I am missing out on. -s PS Part of the dispute seems to be in the word `is'. A car `is' a passenger-carrying road vehicle if it works, just as a brain `is' a mind if it is alive. This does not mean that `car' and `p-c r v' or `mind' and `brain' are perfect synonyms. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 92 19:46:00 GMT From: WAB2@phx.cam.ac.uk Subject: Rules & langage As follow-up to: John_E_Joseph@umail.umd.edu (jj36) [3.276/1] JJ36 argued that "langue" was for Saussure a stabilizing factor. This is to ignore Saussure's emphasis on the antinomy between a "force du clocher...agissant comme principe divisant" ("parish influence...acting as divisive principle") and "intercourse...force unifiante" ("general communication...unifying influence"). "Langue" was not a simple stabilizer. I shall show that it was contrasted with "langage" as is contrasted with the capacity for knowledge of (all and any) language. This latter, the proper study of linguistics, is not encompassed by "I-grammar", which in is characterized as "some element of the mind of the person who knows THE language" [my emphasis]. The 4 major terms used by Saussure were 1) la parole, "speech performance" 2) une langue, "a language" 3) la langue, "tacit knowledge of a particular language" (cf. >Aspects<, 1965, 3 >competence< "the speaker-hearer's knowledge of his language") 4) le langage, "tacit knowledge for language" [Material henceforth in this posting is cited (accentless) from Godel (R., 1969, Sources manuscrites du Cours de linguistique generale, Droz) translated, except for technical terms, by me.] 3) was defined by Saussure as a "fait social" only as far as it was the trigger of the universal potential for language (=4) Consider the 2 following statements 1) > the faculty of "le langage" is a fact distinct from "la > langue", but it cannot be exercised without the latter. (p.266) 2) > "langue" and "langage" are but one single thing: one is the generalisation > of the other. "Le langage" is not an object which is immediately > categorisable. (p.266) By the third course (1910-11), and close to the end of his life, Saussure had begun to replace the notion of (capacity for knowledge of a specific language), "la langue" by the wider notion of general linguistic capacity, "le langage". This has been the intellectual route that Chomsky travelled between 1965 and KOL, from the modelling of knowledge of A language to knowledge of language. "Le langage" stands here in relation to "la langue" , as mind relates to the knowledge of particular languages. As further confirmation that Saussure was thinking of mind is this statement > Faculty of "le langage": is only a power, faculty, the > organisation ready > for talking. (p.266) Saussure gave the plan of his third and final course on 4 November 1910 as > 1. Les langues > 2. La langue > 3. La faculte et l'exercice du langage chez les individus. (p.77) He justified this order by saying that > We must begin with what is given: "les langues"; then draw from it what is > universal:"la langue". Then only shall we be concerned with "le langage" in > individuals. (p.77) It is a matter of academic regret that Saussure was not able to broach more fully the third section of this last course. The result has been for linguists to leave "le langage" and "mind" out of their discussions. The intellectual route that Chomsky travelled between 1965 and KOL, had been traversed by Saussure half a century before. The triggering action of the speech-community as "fait social" cannot be denied, but this should not be taken as the whole meaning of "langue", seat of the potential for knowledge of a language. "Le langage" was used by Saussure to denote specific competence for human language. It is beyond doubt that he meant the term to apply to the mind and not to the brain. Bill Bennett. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 92 15:10 PST From: Vicki Fromkin Subject: Re: 3.281 Rules Another quote, re Alexis Manaster Ramer's reference to a quote from Chomsky. Here it is: "...Suppose that someone were to discover a certain pattern of electrical activity in the brain that correlated in clear cases with the present of WH clauses, relative clauses (finite and infinital)and WH questions (direct5 and indirect5)., Suppose that this pattern of electrical activbity is observed when a person speaks or understands. Would we now have evidence for the psychological reality of the postulated mental representations? "We would now have a new kind of 'evidence', but I see no merit to the contention that this new evidence bears on psychological reality whereas the old evidence only relates to hypothetical constructions. The new evidence might or might not be more persuasive than the old; that would depend on its charactger and reliability, the degree to which the principles dealing with this evidence are tenable, intelligible, compelling and so. on." (Chomsky 1978. On the biological basis of language capacities. in Psychology and biology of language and thought: Essays in honor of Eric Lenneberg, ed. by G.A. Miller and E. Lenneberg. NY: Acad. Press. 199-220.) And further (for those who do not think Chomsky wants to consider any evidence except intuitions of the native speaker: "Suppose there is some data from electrical activity of the brain that bears on, say, word boundaries. Why should that be irrelevant to word boundaries? It just seems absurd to restrict linguistics to the study of introspective judgments." (N Chomsky 1982. On the generative enterprise: A discussion with Riny Huybregts and henk van Riemsdijk. Dorderecht: Foris. Not offerred because Chomsky's views are necessarily more interesting than those expressed in LINGUIST but because he is so often misquoted. VAF -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1992 11:42:29 +0100 From: Swann Philip Subject: 3.290 Reality of Rules Regarding the reductionist claim that the "mind IS the brain". In an obvious sense this is false: there are brain processes that are inaccessible to consciousness, while the mind itself is aware of the whole body not just the brain. It is equally false in the context of the research agenda for which it acts as a slogan: the mind is a process (not a thing) involving the continuous interaction of an organism with its environment AND its own past history (both individual and evolutionary). To equate the mind with brain chemistry is a bit like equating the economy with the metallurgy of coins. Philip Swann FPSE-TECFA University of Geneva -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1992 15:57:07 +0000 From: Dyvik@hf.uib.no Subject: Re: 3.290 Reality of Rules Avery Andrews writes: "So, even granting that individual linguistic facts are about norms, we are left with the question of what is causing the generalizations that one discerns in the norms, and the structure of the brain remains the only candidate answer that looks plausible today." I partly agree: If true causes are what we are looking for, we probably would have to look at brains. The question is, however, whether *grammars* can be taken to describe (aspects of) such causes. Grammars do not describe what *must* happen. It is possible to choose not to conform to the norms for syntactic well-formedness described by a grammar. Since it is possible to know (in the sense of being able to follow) a grammatical rule without actually following it, the fact that someone knows a rule cannot by itself explain the fact that he *does* follow it. Besides, even assuming that everybody always speaks grammatically, a grammar does not explain facts occurring in time and space, such as the fact that a given utterance is made. What it explains, is why utterances, once made, have the institutional properties they do. I would hesitate to regard such explanations as causal explanations. I suppose the crucial question is: is it plausible to assume that whatever causal mechanisms in there enable us to conform to the grammatical norms must have the same structure as a grammarian's description of the norms themselves? To me, that looks like the question: When you know something, do you then become internally like that which you know? (I believe the etymology of 'information' is related to such an idea: you are informed by something by assuming its form.) I see no a priori reason to think that it is so. Helge Dyvik -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1992 15:38:39 PST From: Penni Sibun Subject: grammar and generation From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: the reality of rules Re Penni Sibun (Linguist 3.275): >... >for my just-completed phd thesis, i wrote a generation program that >produces coherent texts that are up to a page long, without >representing or using either a discourse or a sentence grammar. Is this program part of a theory that explains *why* we find the kinds of grammatical generalziations that we do? If so, it might be a genuine alternative to having mentally represented grammars (although people might disagree about whether there was or wasn't a grammar lurking in it somewhere). Otherwise, it isn't (at least, not yet), since it doesn't address the main reason for positing rules and grammars in the first place. no, my theory doesn't explain grammatical generalizations, though i would certainly like to be able to. what i'd first like to do is have a reasonably coherent story of what's going on, and *then* work on relating it to more traditional linguistic approaches. i think both parts are hard, and i've really only started on the first one. From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: Reality of Rules (vs. of Grammars) Here's a way in which I could be right about rules and Penni Sibun about grammars. The rules in a linguist's grammar could be `projections' of various heterogeneous aspects of the mental structure yes, i would agree with you in principle. From: ADA612@csc1.anu.edu.au (AVERY D ANDREWS) Subject: Reality of Rules (& social norms) between syntax and semantics here. In the case of semantics, one can explain a lot in terms of a division of labor, so that meanings are in a sense socially distributed: we have access to the intension of the term `plutonium' even though we don't grasp it ourselves because we are members of a speech community and a society in which there are people who do (we can vote to make bombs out of it, or not to). But the division of labor idea doesn't apply to syntax, since people mostly produce and understand sentences by themselves (parents finishing each other's commands to their children would be a minor exception in the case of production, but this sort of case is clearly derivative and parasitic on the normal one-speaker-per-sentence situation). i must disagree with you here. i suggest looking at a careful transcript (better yet, with a video too) of half an hour or so of conversation, and you will see plenty of instances not only of people continuing each other's sentences and other constructions, but many sorts of carry over between what one person and the next one say. examples include repeated intonational patterns, similar clause structures, repeated or related (eg, ``opposite'') lexical items and associated structures. i would also think that many prosaic examples of ellipsis in question-answering clearly suggest shared access to syntactic constructions. eg, where did you put it? in the drawer. it's certainly true that people who know each other well have more shared context, but that's not particular to syntax. do you really think that how we talk with people we know well is derivative? surely we learned to speak with people we know well, and the bulk of our speaking is with people we know well. while people certainly produce lots of sentences by themselves, they also produce a lot of non-sentences. i don't really have a sense of what the proportions are: one of the first things one realizes when faced with a transcript, esp. one including more than one speaker, is that the stream of language simply cannot be partitioned into sentences. i'm enjoying this discussion; however, i will be offline for the next ten days, so won't be able to rejoin it till then. --penni -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1992 14:42 EDT From: Lew Shapiro Subject: Aphasia Thoughts on Avery Andrew's comments about Grodzinsky's work with move-alpha and aphasia: 1. The linear-order strategy doesn't explain the data. The point is that these aphasic subjects do not perform below chance, but only at chance (and not above chance).That is, if the subject always used a linear-order strategy of Agent first for a passive, for example, then the subject would be consistently wrong (100% of the time) when chosing between one of two pictures in response to a sentence (with one picture showing a girl kicking a boy and the other showing a boy kicking a girl, for example). This at-chance, but not below-chance pattern of results is also found for object relatives (and should be the case for any sentence that has a trace in direct object position). 2. I don't really see what this has to do with the reality of rules discussion, however. Grodzinsky's theory is intended as a description of the deficit in agrammatic Broca's aphasia, a description that cannot be made unless move-alpha and traces are invoked. But just because one needs to refer to these contructs to explain the neuropsychological data does not necessarily mean that such things are "in the head." 3. There is an interesting processing explanation for Grodzinsky's description of the agrammatic Broca's data. The story goes like this: The brain damage underlying Broca's aphasia has resulted in a slower-than-normal access mechanism such that when the subject needs to "fill" a "gap" in a sentence (i.e., reactivate an antecedent to the trace), he/she doesn't do it quickly enough to conform to the rapid on-line requirements of sentence processing. This theory suggests that "Broca's area," an area traditionally considered to be important for the production (and now, comprehension) of aspects of syntax, might support rapid on-line analyses of information, including - but perhaps not limited to - lexical & syntactic information. I refer you to the work of Edgar Zurif and Dave Swinney and colleagues. ShapiroL@FAUVAX.bitnet -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-297. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-298. Sun 29 Mar 1992. Lines: 36 Subject: 3.298 Summary: tonogenesis Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 92 10:39:36 EST From: jsc@mbeya.research.att.com (John S. Coleman) Subject: 3.293 Summary: tonogenesis -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 92 10:39:36 EST From: jsc@mbeya.research.att.com (John S. Coleman) Subject: 3.293 Summary: tonogenesis The only respect in which Government Phonology is a phonological theory which, in Malcolm's words, ``takes account of tonogenesis'', is in its adoption of two features which are borrowed from, and are notationally equivalent to, Halle and Stevens (1971) laryngeal features (M. Halle and K. Stevens (1971) `A Note on Laryngeal Features'. MIT-RLE Quarterly Progress Reports #101. 198-213.) Needless to say, the impact of this work has been much wider than Government Phonology, and Halle and Stevens's laryngeal features are now standard in orthodox generative phonology e.g. Clements (1985), Sagey (1986) etc. --- John Coleman -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-298. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-299. Sun 29 Mar 1992. Lines: 124 Subject: 3.299 Queries: LSLT, GPSG, Fonts, English Corpus, Phonology Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 14:16:12 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: LSLT 2) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 18:35:41 CST From: battiste@cis.uab.edu (Ed Battistella) Subject: markedness & GPSG query 3) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 92 10:54:51 GMT From: "Jonathan Kaye 323-6362" (JK at UKACRL) Subject: Query: adobe phonetic fonts 4) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 92 07:20:27 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: Query: Basic English (or other) 5) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 92 11:33:28 EST Subject: Query: Quantitative Phonology From: GLENNF@FARMNTON.bitnet -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 14:16:12 EST From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: LSLT Does anybody know where I can get a hold of a copy of the original text of Chomsky's LSLT (rather than the abbreviated text that was published later). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 18:35:41 CST From: battiste@cis.uab.edu (Ed Battistella) Subject: markedness & GPSG query Does anyone know of any references to work on markedness in a GPSG framework? (If you direct responses to me I will compile and post them.) Ed Battistella battiste@cis.uab.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 92 10:54:51 GMT From: "Jonathan Kaye 323-6362" (JK at UKACRL) Subject: Query: adobe phonetic fonts Does anyone know about any Adobe phonetic fonts suitable for running with Windows3. I've scanned some servers and found thousands of ATM fonts but no phonetic ones. Please address replies to me at JK@UKACRL (bitnet) or JK@UK.AC.RL.IB (Janet). Thanks in advance for your help. Jonathan Kaye -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 92 07:20:27 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: Query: Basic English (or other) Is there anywhere a corpus of texts in Basic English in computer-friendly form that I could, say, easily ftp? In fact, any corpus of texts in any language would do, provided that: 1. The vocabulary is small (if memory serves me, Basic English has 850 words) 2. The morphology is simple, very simple (English-style, or, even better, Chinese-style; but I can live with English) 3. The corpus is large. The larger, the better. I need a corpus with such statistical properties in order to test and refine an algorithm that classifies tokens (morphs, if you prefer) into their semantic categories without resorting to a dictionary. The closest thing I have found so far is the KJV Bible, but I would prefer a text with a smaller vocabulary. Can anyone help? Thank you advance. j.guy@trl.oz.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 92 11:33:28 EST Subject: Query: Quantitative Phonology From: GLENNF@FARMNTON.bitnet We have considerable data on the frequency of sounds of different types, and their co-occurrence, across languages. This data has had considerable implications for research. We seem to have much less information on how tokens of a type, counted in a sample of continuous text, are distributed within a language, even though this, too, should have significant research implications. Specifically, what sources are available that can tell us the frequency with which tokens of each phoneme in a language occur initially and finally in a word or syllable? I know of such information for English (e.g. Denes, Dewey), Russian, Czech, and German (Kucera & Monroe), and Latin (Devine & Stephens). What other sources (especially non-Indo-European ones) are available? If I receive a significant response privately, I will summarize to the list. Glenn Frankenfield Bitnet: glennf@farmnton Internet: glennf@farmington.maine.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-299. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-300. Mon 30 Mar 1992. Lines: 127 Subject: 3.300 Teaching, Discourse, Evolution Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 92 15:38:53 EST From: "Wayles Browne, Cornell Univ." Subject: 3.233, teaching quasi-native speakers 2) Date: 23 Mar 92 9:52 From: Subject: Linguistic Discourse 3) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 09:02 EST From: KINGSTON@cs.umass.EDU Subject: Re: 3.288 Responses: Morphophonemics, Slang, Evolution 4) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 10:29:47 EST Subject: When Language First Appeared From: ingria@BBN.COM -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 92 15:38:53 EST From: "Wayles Browne, Cornell Univ." Subject: 3.233, teaching quasi-native speakers Many thanks to Ellen Kaisse (kaisse@u.washington.edu), Ellen Prince (ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu), Stavros Macrakis (macrakis@osf.org), George Fowler (gfowler@iubacs), and David Powers (powers@kub.nl) for reflections and personal experiences. It is clearly possible to have a native-like knowledge of one part of a language system and be lacking in another part. One can have native-like phonology and syntax, but have holes in the vocabulary and very imperfect gender and case morphology, for example, or satisfactory phonology and morphology but gaps in the syntax and vocabulary. It also appears that items heard in early childhood can continue to rattle around in one's long-term memory and reappear in consciousness only decades later. I'm still looking for suggestions about how to teach such part-native, part-nonnative speakers when they appear in my language classes. Educational research topic, anyone? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: 23 Mar 92 9:52 From: Subject: Linguistic Discourse It seems to me that much of the discussion of 'linguistic discourse' misses the point. On the one hand, it seems quite clear that a nostalgic view of the good old times is unrealistic. After all, even our revered ancestors were human. But on the other hand, it is not enough to just say 'Let's have fun and save our energy to fight the evils of this world.' To be able to have fun and fight fascism, one needs a job and job perspectives for one's students. What if differences of opinion on linguistic questions affect decisions on who gets which job, regardless of the quality of the person's work? A few years ago at an MLA-LSA meeting, I met a literary scholar who had just graduated from Harvard and was looking for a job. He said his prospects were rather bleak because most literature departments wanted deconstructionists and his thesis was rather traditionally oriented (not even anti-deconstruc- tionist). I don't know whether this was true, but if so, and if similar things can happen in linguistics, then there is a problem that cannot be easily dismissed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 09:02 EST From: KINGSTON@cs.umass.EDU Subject: Re: 3.288 Responses: Morphophonemics, Slang, Evolution re: Alexis Manaster-Ramer's posting on when language could have evolved, Phil Lieberman has been promoting the idea that the modern human vocal tract msut have evolved after the split between _H. sapiens sapiens and _H. sapiens neanderthalis_ about 400,000 years ago. This argument is based on extensive comparisons of the basicrania of the two sub-species which show that the long vertical pharynx of _H. sapiens sapiens_ must evolved after that split, since a much shorter pharynx is reconstructed for _H. sapiens neanderthalis_. Most of the evidence for this reconstructio is to be found in various papers by Laitman in the _Am. J. of Physical Anthroplogy_. Laitman has recently argued that the shape of the vocal tract in _H. sapiens neanderthalis_ may have been a specialization for warming cold air, however, so arguing that it is the ancestral state for that subspecies and _H. sapiens sapiens_ may be mistaken. There have also been criticisms of the vocla tract reconstruction for _H. sapiens neanderthalis_, particularly by Falk, who argues that if their pharynges were that short, they couldn't swallowed, implying a much shorter interval in the fossil record for that subspecies than it observed. In any case,' this evidence only applies to the question of when a system of speech sounds like that foundin modern languages would have become possible, and not to when the other features of modern languages appeared. John Kingston kingston@cs.umass.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 10:29:47 EST Subject: When Language First Appeared From: ingria@BBN.COM > Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 15:30:00 EST > From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu > For whatever amusement value it may have, I have > published a paper not too long ago which sketches a way of > reasoning which would make language PREDATE the species, You mean William S. Burroughs (and his acolyte on these matters, Laurie Anderson) is right: language IS a virus from outer space? And homo sapiens has been colonized by it? Heavy. -30- Bob -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-300.