LINGUIST List 12.899

Thu Mar 29 2001

Qs: "Croak" as Trans Verb, Paraguayan Spanish

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

We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.

Directory

  1. Anatol Stefanowitsch, Qs: Transitive use of _croak_
  2. sonia.colina, Qs: Native speakers of Paraguayan Spanish

Message 1: Qs: Transitive use of _croak_

 Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 10:34:44 -0600 (CST)
From: Anatol Stefanowitsch <anatolruf.rice.edu>
Subject: Qs: Transitive use of _croak_

Dear fellow linguists,

I am interested in the transitive use of the verb _croak_,
as in the following attested examples:

(1) [About a character in a computer game] There's
 crocodiles, lawnmowers, turtles and snakes waiting to
 croak him.

(2) I croaked him just as he was going to call the bulls
 with a police whistle. I used a gun with a silencer.

(3) Shortly after Muhammad Ali completed the 'Rumble in
 the Jungle by croaking George Foreman to repossess
 the heavyweight championship...

(4) It was as if Ulf Samuelsson came to town and croaked
 the Bruins with a couple of goals.

I have enough examples of this use from corpora and other
texts to be convinced that I am not simply dealing with
nonce extensions of the intransitive use, but on the other
hand I have not been able to find native speakers who are
willing to admit that they have ever heard this use before.

I have two questions to you all:

1. If you have ever heard anyone use _croak_ transitively,
 or if you are a native speaker and use it yourself,
 where have you heard it, or where are you from?

2. Are you aware of other English verbs for 'die/kill'
 that can be used both transitively and intransitively?

I appreciate your help.

Best,
Anatol Stefanowitsch
(Rice University)
Mail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue

Message 2: Qs: Native speakers of Paraguayan Spanish

 Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 12:24:47 -0700
From: sonia.colina <scolinaasu.edu>
Subject: Qs: Native speakers of Paraguayan Spanish

I am looking for native speakers of Paraguayan Spanish (Spanish as spoken
in Paraguay) that could help me with some data. If there are any out there,
how would you form the diminutives (e.g. casa, casita; canci�n,
cancioncita; clase, clasecita, etc.) of the following words?

	pie
	red
	sed
	t�

Thank you very much.

Sonia Colina

***********************************
Sonia Colina
Assistant Professor
Department of Languages and Literatures
Arizona State University
Main Campus, PO Box 870202
Tempe, AZ 85287-0202, USA
Ph (480) 965-4649
Fax (480) 965-0135
e-mail: scolinaasu.edu
***********************************
Mail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue