LINGUIST List 10.403

Tue Mar 16 1999

Qs: Vary in NW, Deictic Shift, ID Lang, ASL & Brain

Editor for this issue: Scott Fults <scottlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Laurie Zaring, Linguistic variation in the NW
2. Fergus, "Like" as a prompt for deictic shift
3. Joseph F Foster, Identify Language?
4. NANCY MAE ANTRIM, ASL, Verbal Language and the brain

Would anyone be able to suggest a phonological change-in-progress
variable that might be observable in the speech of college
students from the Pacific Northwest, or California? We are considering
(uw)-fronting, but have not observed much fronting so far.

Thanks,

Laurie Zaring
Laurie.Zaringreed.edu
Reed College

Currently I am interested in researching "like" as a prompt for
deictic shift in discourse, particularly when followed by a verbal or
nonverbal recreation - as in, "He was like, 'What-EVER.'" or "His hair
was all, like, 'Boosh!'" or "I was like, 'Damn.'"

I am curious if there is a body of work that has covered this already,
or if there is a current theoretical perspective on this construction.

This plea for help in identifying a putative language is on behalf of
a graduate student in our German Department. The passages quoted below
are from a play by the modern German (Austrian) playwright Marlene
Streeruwitz. The lines are uttered by the character 'Anitra', the
character taken from Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt in which Anitra is a
Moroccan Bedouin woman. We suspect the language of being a Berber
dialect but I have been unable to identify it and we are not
absolutely certain it is a natural language. (The parentheses enclose
line numbers from the play.) If you can identify it or point us in a
good direction, please email directly

 Fraulein Britta Kallin <kallinbemail.uc.edu>


 Anitra: Tany chelen n'so"v. Ci chiceelee davt gez aav eez chojor 
 chuucheddee zachisan ium. Bi ium chudaldaz ava gez 
 chot ruu javsan. (43)

And a bit later in the script the following where Anitra screams at
the character Romeo:

 Anitra: Gachaj! - Jal! - Jaltan! Chuccirchijlech! - Chajagadach! 
 -Begs! -Jrgacin - Chulgajc - Odo tachan! (61)


Much obliged for any suggestions. 

Joe Foster
 

 Joseph F Foster, Ph D
 Dept of Anthropology
 U of Cincinnati, OH, USA

Recently someone mentioned a study of language areas involved with signing
(ASL) that found the same areas involved with speech and signing. Does
anyone know where I can find this study. As I recall there was no mention
of author(s).

Thank you,
Nancy Mae Antrim

Dept. of Languages and Linguistics
University of Texas at El Paso
El Paso, Texas 79968-0531
Tel: (915) 747-7045
Fax: (915) 747-5292
e-mail: nantrimmail.utep.edu