LINGUIST List 12.2888

Sun Nov 18 2001

Qs: Persian/Binding Phenomena, Ling Courses on Web

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

Directory

1. Ahmad R. Lotfi, Anaphors: Bound, free, or bound by surrogacy?
2. UMIT DENIZ TURAN, Web-based linguistics courses

Dear linguists,

I'm conducting a research on some binding phenomena
in Persian that I tend to term 'reflexivity by surrogacy':

Reflexivity by Surrogacy
 The anaphor is bound to a missing antecedent via a
 surrogate that is semantically a part of the
 antecedent.

Example:
 Man xodemun-o behtar az digaraan midunam
 I ourselves-DO better than others know-1st-sing.-pres
 (I consider ourselves to be better than others)

In this example, 'man' (I) is the surrogate for the anaphor
'xodemun' (ourselves) without 'maa' (we) being present in the
sentence. This seems to necessitate revising the original
formulation of Principle A of the Binding Theory according
to which anaphors are bound in their local domains. 

Now consider the English sentence (1a) below, which is
grammatical:

1.a. We saw ourselves on television.
 (Situation: Two brothers of mine and I see ourselves in
 a news report on television)

(1) What should I say in English if my brothers are not with
 me when I watch the news report?

1.b. I saw ourselves on television.

1.c I saw us on television.

1.b is similar to what we do in Persian. If grammatical, then
my 'reflexivity by surrogacy' applies to English, too. (BTW,
do we have another term for this phenomenon in the literature?)
This will be a violation of Principle A unless we adopt the
surrogacy analysis. 1.c, on the other hand, is a violation of
Principle B, hence most probably out of question. 

(2) How do they say it in other languages?

I'll post a summary if I receive sufficient feedback.

Best regards,

Ahmad R. Lotfi

=====
************************************************
Ahmad R. Lotfi, Ph. D
Department of the English Language,
Azad University at Khorasgan Esfahan, IRAN.
Mail: lotfiwww.dci.co.ir
http://www.geocities.com/arlotfi/lotfipage.html
************************************************

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to know if there are any web-based courses in English 
at undergarduate level on:

1. Introduction to linguistics
2. Language acqusition (with an emphasis on second or foreign language
acquisition)? 

I would very much appreaciate the answers and I will post a brief
summary of the answers for those interested. 

Please send your answers to: 
udturananadolu.edu.tr Umit Deniz Turan or 
abalcianadolu.edu.tr Ayla Balci 

Thank you very much,
Umit