LINGUIST List 12.357

Mon Feb 12 2001

Qs: References/Multilinguists, Preposition/Register

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

Directory

1. Franco.Cappelletti, books on multilinguists
2. William J. Crawford, preposition placement in written and spoken registers

Dear all,

I happened to come across your list only today, and 
I know that my question may be a little far-fetched but - can anyone recommend 
books on multilinguists that are still available (I can imagine that it will be 
hard to get Russell's account on Mezzofanti nowadays)?
By way of background, I am half-German/half-Italian 
and happen to work as a specialised translator and interpreter for legal 
English; I master (sure depends on how you define that term) seven or eight 
languages and tend to take the sceptic view, i.e. I do not believe that 
Mezzofanti's or others' feats (being in command of 20, 50 or even more 
languages) can possibly be true.
Any feedback welcome 

Franco Cappelletti

I am interested in any quantitative data supporting the often cited 
notion that prepositions are stranded (*who(m) are you talking to?*) 
in wh-questions and relative clauses more frequently in spoken 
registers and are piped (* to whom are you talking?*) more frequently 
in written registers.

A corpus analysis would be nice but any quantitative data will do.

I'll post a summary if the responses warrant it.
- 
William J. Crawford
University of Wisconsin-Madsion
Dept. of English
5116 H.C. White Hall
Madison, WI. 53706
wcrawforfacstaff.wisc.edu
(608) 263-3780