LINGUIST List 11.2633

Tue Dec 5 2000

Qs: Metaphor Understanding, Lang Acquisition/Gender

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

Directory

1. Xu Zhanghong, a pragma-cognitive approach to metaphor understanding
2. Diane Pesco, sex/gender & language acquisition

Dear Linguists:
 I am working on a thesis on metaphor understanding from a
pragma-cognitve perspective.With the aim of exploring the cognitive
mechanisms for metaphor understanding,I will try to built up a cognitive
model based on Relevance Theory.I also plan to investigate the relations
between metaphor understanding and cultural models.Frankly speaking I
consider plausible the weak version of Lakoff" assumptiions concerning
conceptual metaphors.I am wondering whether any of you might be kind enough
to offer some constructive suggestions for my thesis,including appraisalment
of the feasibility and originality of the reserch? Thank you in advance!

 Francis Xu
 Faculty of English Language and Culture,
 Guangdong University of foreign Studies,
 Guangdong Province,China

Dear readers,

I'm asking for references after exhausting usual routes.

I'm a phD student writing a paper exploring and contesting sex/gender
differences in language acquisition and language ability. I've
already searched quite extensively and find (as one might expect) work
on gender differences in children from sociolinguistics, but little on
acquisition beyond first words.

If you have done or know of any work on syntactic or phonological
acquisition that includes comparisons of girls and boys , would you
please send the reference(s) directly to me? I would be happy to
compile the responses and send them back off to you along with what I
already have.

Sincerely,

Diane Pesco
School of Communication Sciences & Disorders
McGill University
1266 Pine Ave West
Montreal, QC H3G 1A8

email dpesco2po-box.mcgill.ca
phone 514-398-4102