LINGUIST List 10.445

Thu Mar 25 1999

Qs: Jamaican, Japanese, French, Boustrophedon

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

Directory

1. Elena Tapia, Jamaican English Oral Discourse
2. orie fukutomi, Zero Pronoun in Japanese
3. Aimee Johansen, Quebec French syntax
4. Richard Sproat, Boustrophedon Writing

Dear Linguists,

Could anyone point me to useful references on Jamaican English oral
discourse style? I work with a well-educated, female administrator
who has a very circuitous way of discussing issues. Additionally,
others have noted that it sometimes takes three hours (no
exaggeration) to "discuss a few points." I have said that her way of
communicating may simply be cross-culturally different.

	I'll post a summary.
	Thanks.
	Elena Tapia
	Eastern Connecticut State University
	Willimantic, CT

I am currently working on Zero Pronoun in Japanese. If you could send
me any information on this subject, it would be much appreciated.

Orie Fukutomi
University of Wolverhampton
in5758wlv.ac.uk

Does anyone know of a book giving an overview of the syntactic
differences between Standard French and Quebec French? I've found
many articles on particular differences, but nothing that addresses
the general differences.

I will post a listing of the responses I receive.
Please respond to johansenbu.edu
Thank you.

Aimee Johansen Alnet
johansenbu.edu

Does anyone know of an example of a boustrophedon script that does NOT
involve reversal or inversion of the face of the glyphs when the
direction of writing reverses?

Several sources suggest that such scripts existed, but I have only in
fact seen concrete examples of two kinds of boustrophedon script, both
of which involve reversal or inversion:

1) Scripts where the face of the individual glyphs is flipped across the
vertical access: several ancient Eastern Mediterranean scripts,
including some versions of early Greek have this property.

2) One example -- Easter Island's rongorongo script -- where the glyphs
are rotated 180 degrees on adjacent lines.

So, I'd be interested if anyone can point me to an example that does
not involve one of these two types of inversion.


- 
Richard Sproat Human/Computer Interface Research
rwsresearch.att.com AT&T Labs -- Research, Shannon Laboratory
Tel: +1-973-360-8490 180 Park Avenue, Room E153, P.O.Box 971
Fax: +1-973-360-8809 Florham Park, NJ 07932-0000
http://www.research.att.com/~rws/