LINGUIST List 10.315

Fri Feb 26 1999

Qs: Ellipsis, 'Eso', E-mail, Re/Arabic Metaphor

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. ando, Ellipsis
2. Andrea Sanso', Spanish ESO
3. Mmmackenz, E-mail research
4. nasalski, Political Metaphor in Arabic once again

Dear List Members:

I would like to present my first question to the list. What is your opinion
of the following sentences which I found in my reading. Some linguists
accept these with the 'it' and 'him' added. I don't think that they are so
common, but would like to hear your opinions.

This book is too abstract for me to read [it].
He spoke too fast for me to follow [him].
Which article did you file without reading [it].
 (Chomsky accepts this last one without the 'it'.)

Sadao Ando
andont.yasuda-u.ac.jp

Dear Linguists, 

Could any spanish native speaker help me with the following question?

Coming across some spanish grammars I found that the medial neutral 
demonstrative pronoun ESO can be used in the following sentences:

(1) Eso son tonterias
(2) Eso de la boda de Antonio te lo has inventado tu'
(3) Es verdad eso de que no quieres venire con nosotros?

With (1) the speaker normally refers to something said before by the 
addressee. 
Can one use (1) in a dialogue, referring to something said by 
a third person which is absent at that moment (something like "What he 
said is stupid")?
Can one use (2) when referring to something said by someone other 
than the addressee (e.g., Eso de la boda de Antonio se lo ha inventado 
Juan)?
Can one use (3) when asking something about someone other than the 
addressee (e.g. Es verdad eso de que Juan no quiere venir con nosotros?)?
And, if so, does eso refer to something said by the addressee (eso que 
estas diciendo) or can it also mean "what someone (other than the 
addressee) told me"?

Thanks in advance
Andrea Sanso'
Department of Linguistics
University of Pisa - Italy
e-mail: sansohumnet.unipi.it

I'm a Ph.D. student and am currently interesting in researching the personal
classification schemes used by managers for their business related e-mail. I
have found minimal published research on the topic of classification schemes
for e-mail. Most of the research has focused on technology, filtering,
automatic classification, etc.

If anyone has experience with this topic or is aware of published research, I
would appreciate hearing from you.

Thank you,

Maureen L. Mackenzie
Ph.D. Student
Long Island University
mmmackenzaol.com

Dear Linguists,

The previous week I put a query about the political metaphor in Arabic.
First of all I apologise all of you for the fatal omission of my full name
in the message, that was caused simply through carelessness. I would like
however to express gratitude to those of you who replied to the query
despite of that fact.
I have received lots of messages with very interesting and useful hints. I
am going to answer to each person separately and I will place then a
summery.

To avoid any other misinformation here are some basic facts about me: I am
28 (m), I have graduated in Arabic Linguistics and Political Sciences at
the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and I am collecting at the moment
material to my doctoral dissertation, which is going to deal, as indicated
in the previous message, with the semiotic and pragmatic aspects of
political communication in Arabic with a special reference to political
metaphor. The dissertation is expected to be presented at the Department
of the Islamic Studies at the Cologne University.

Best regards
Ignacy Nasalski