LINGUIST List 11.621

Sun Mar 19 2000

Qs: Ling Terminology/Eng, Vocabulary Trainer

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

Directory

1. Jorge Guitart, Entificacion II
2. Judith S., Qs Vocabulary trainer

Many thanks to those who responded to my posting in Spanish. Actually it
was meant for a Spanish-language list and I mistakingly sent it to this
list. 
I was asking whether there was a term for treating events as if they were
entities (entification?) My example was 'We can place the destruction of
the Jews by the Nazis among the worst catastrophes of the millenium that
just ended." 

Some people responded that the term is reification. Someone reminded me
that in Spanish is cosificacion ('thingization'). I agree that either
applies to the example.

However, I had something else in mind for which my example was not
illustrative at all: the case in which an event is seen as agentive or
causative (metaphorically). For instance, in English, 
'The drop in the Dow made my hair stand on end' (or in Spanish, 'El bajon
de la bolsa me puso los pelos de punta'). I find it difficult to see that
as just reification. Surely it is a thing, but a thing that does
something. Is there a term for that? 

jg

Dear Everybody,
For my PhD thesis I'm looking for on-line or off-line vocabulary 
trainers (English being L1 or L2), ideally for advanced learners 
or/and with the possibility to enter data yourself, but any other 
digital vocabulary trainer would be of interest too. The 
programme does not necessarily have to be a multi-media 
product.