LINGUIST List 10.527

Sat Apr 10 1999

Qs: Corpora,"Zarf", Ling concepts, Grad programmes

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

Directory

1. Michal Lisecki, Italian corpora
2. Ron Zacharski, Humor: NSA declassifies the word "Zarf"
3. Emily Smriga, Lingusitics in Life
4. Steven Schaufele, Psycholinguistics/neurolinguistics programmes

Dear Linguist subscribers,

On behalf of my friend (phd student) I would like to ask you for the
references to any corpora of journalistic texts or contemporary
literary works (best both) in Italian. 
Are there any available online or "off-line"? 

We will post replies if we receive enough feedback.

Sincerely,
Michal Lisecki

_______________________________________________________________
Michal Lisecki, Ph.D candidate <maguraares.fils.us.edu.pl>
Institute of Slavonic Studies, University of Silesia (Poland)
42-270 Sosnowiec, ul. Zytnia 12. tel/fax: ++32 291 47 84 ext.213
http://www.cz.top.pl/~magura <maguracz.top.pl> finger 4 my PGP
 

We found the following in this month's Atlantic Monthly Word Watch
column in "a selection of terms that have newly been coined, that have
recently acquired new currency, or that have taken on new meanings,
compiled by the executive editor of the American Heritage Dictionary
of the English Language":

"Zarf, meaning unknown: "Effective immediately the term Zarf will be
treated as UNCLASSIFIED when standing alone or in conjunction with a
classification marking. This action applied ONLY to the term
Zarf. Information protected by the Zarf codeword will continue to
require protection (National Security Agency email reprinted in the
Washington Post Magazine)"

According to the Atlantic Monthly this is not the first time the
government has declassified a term without divulging its meaning. The
memo declassifying Zarf was obtained through the Freedom of
Information Act. The National Security Agency has declined to
comment. The Atlantic Monthly writes: "Zarf is an anomaly in this
space, which generally discusses new words whose definitions are in
some way revealing about societal or other trends: Zarf is a new word
whose LACK of a definition is revealing."

The word lacks an unclassified definition in English. We are curious
what the word means in other languages. In Persian, for example, the
word means "dish". In Turkish the word means a protective cover or an
envelope. Did some National Security Analyst/Linguist snarf this
Turkish word and extend its meaning?

We would appreciate hearing what the word means in other 
languages.

Karine Megerdoomian
Ron Zacharski
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico

I am looking for material exemplifying linguistic concepts (e.g.,
radio/TV commercials; video segments from TV, movies, videotape; ads
from magazines or newspapers; audio/video files from the WWW). Anyone
with ideas will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

One of my students is looking for good graduate programmes in
psycholinguistics and/or neurolinguistics either in the U.S.A. or in
the German-speaking world (Germany/Austria/Switzerland). Since this
is way outside my areas of expertise I have very little advice to give
her, and so I'm fishing for advice from the List. Thanks.

Best,
Steven

- 

Steven Schaufele, Ph.D., Asst. Prof. of Linguistics, English Department
Soochow University, Waishuanghsi Campus, Taipei 11102, Taiwan, ROC
(886)(02)2881-9471 ext. 6504 fcosw5mail.scu.edu.tw
Fax: (886)(02)2881-7609

http://www.prairienet.org/~fcosws/homepage.html