LINGUIST List 11.2267

Thu Oct 19 2000

Qs: Glottal Stop/Am Eng, Polysemy/Psycholinguistics

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

Directory

1. Godev, Concepcion, American English glottal stop references
2. p.larriveeaston.ac.uk (Pierre Larriv�e), Query: Psycholinguistics of "GrammatiCal" Polysemy

I'm looking for references that explain
thoroughly the distribution of the
glottal stop in American English.
Please send your response to
cgodevemail.uncc.edu

Thank you very much for your assistance.
Concepcion


Concepcion B. Godev UNCC 
Tel: (704) 547-4597 Department of Languages and Culture Studies
Fax: (704) 547-3496 9201 University City Boulevard
 Charlotte, NC 28223-0001

Dear Colleagues,

I am looking for references to psycholinguistic studies on polysemy. I
specifically have in mind cases of polysemy of so called grammatical
items, like English _any_ for instance; while _any_ can be regarded one and
the same word (a view that is not shared by every semanticist), it can have
various contextual references, like negative :

	Martha didn't do anything.
	= She did nothing

universal :

	Martha can do just about anything.
	= Martha can do pretty much everything

and existential ones :

	Would Martha like anything?
	= Would Martha like something?

I am not primarily thinking of cases of lexical polysemy or metonymy, like
the reference variation of _newspaper_, that can evoke an institution, a
source of information, a physical object, among other experiences, although
of course these might provide interesting insights.

I am basically curious to see how this phenomenon is envisaged from the
perspective of psycholinguistics, an admitedly very large question. I hope
I can rely on some generous souls to remedy to ignorance on it. I will of
course post a summary if the response warrants it.

With thanks and best wishes,

Pierre Larrivee


Dr. Pierre Larriv�e

Lecturer in French Linguistics
French Language Co-ordinator
Examinations Officer

School of Languages and European Studies
Aston University, Aston Triangle
Birmingham B4 7ET
United Kingdom

Tel +44 (0)121 359 3621 ext. 5454
Fax +44 (0)121 359 6153
Email P.LarriveeAston.ac.uk
Web http://www.les.aston.ac.uk/staff/pl.html