LINGUIST List 10.176

Thu Feb 4 1999

Qs: Palatalisation, Personal pronouns, Pragmatics

Editor for this issue: Jody Huellmantel <jodylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. shelly harrison, palatalisation in /(s)tr/ clusters
2. Richard Dury, Restricted use of personal pronouns - address and reference to mother
3. chris walsh, Halliday-pragmatics

One of the first things I noticed when I lived in Hawaii in the early
seventies was the strong palatalisation of /(s)tr/ clusters
e.g. street = [shchreet], tree = [chree]. I've recently observed a
similar phenomenon in some thirty-something speakers from the
northeast of the US, at least in the /str/ clusters. How widespread
is this?

My apologies if this matter has already been raised and I didn't notice.

shelly

shelly harrison
centre for linguistics
university of western australia
nedlands, w.a. 6907
australia

email: shellycyllene.uwa.edu.au
fax: +61-8-9380-1154
phone: +61-8-9380-2859
web: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/~shelly/

Muehlhaeusler & Harr 1990 (*Pronouns and People*) say:

'Native speakers of English confirm that there was once a rule
forbidding the use of the word "you" in addressing one's mother or
grandmother. It was also considered improper to refer to one's mother
or grandmother as "she" in conversation with a third person' (p. 134)

There is no reference, and I suppose the 'native speakers' are their
Oxford seminar students. Can anyone give me the reference to any
studies or any personal anecdotes?

Richard Dury
Univ. Brescia, Italy

I am in need of information about Halliday's 'Functions' regarding the
topic of pragmatic development of child language aquisition.

Thanks for your time and any help would be much appreaciated!

John Walsh