LINGUIST List 10.1391

Wed Sep 22 1999

Qs: Phrasal-Level Pronunciation, Pro-Drop Lang.

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Chad D. Nilep, Q: Phrasal-level pronunciation guide
2. Abdulaziz Al-Najmi, A question

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of a student, I am looking for a phrasal-level guide to the sounds
of spoken English, preferably featuring an audio component on tape or CD.
There are many word-level guides of the type I am seeking, used by students
to practice the sounds of spoken English. (Several ESL teachers here at the
University of Idaho recommend the Newbury House dictionary, which features a
pronunciation CD.) However, these word-level pronunciation guides offer no
aid for such issues as sentence intonation and sandhi. Any suggestions
would be appreciated. I will post a summary to the list.

Sincerely,
Chad D. Nilep
American Language and Culture Program
The University of Idaho

>From Aziz Al-Najmi: alnajmiusa.net

I'm working on a paper on the Pro-drop parameter phenomena and I would like
to know how could a language like Chinese, for instance, be a pro-drop
language. As we know that in pro-drop languages like Spanish or Arabic, the
pronoun could be recovered from the verb. Spanish verbs, for instance, are
inflected for number, person, tense, and mood. In contrast, a language like
Chinese, also null-subject language, has no inflectional affixation at all.
In such case, how could we know which pronoun is refered to in a subjectless
Chinese sentence.