LINGUIST List 13.1667

Wed Jun 12 2002

Qs: Frequency Constructions, Hyphenation

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

Directory

1. Myroslava Dzikovska, Syntax and semantics of frequency constructions
2. geilfuss, Hyphenation rules

Dear colleagues,

I'm working on parsing of frequency constructions like "take aspirin
twice a day" or "100 mg a day is a sufficient dose". Among other
things, I am having trouble figuring out what "a day" attaches to in
these cases, and how the semantic representations for these would look
like. If you have suggestions and references to other work done on
syntax and semantics of frequency expressions, particularly in
computationally oriented frameworks, I would greatly appreciate the
information.

Thanks,

Myrosia

Myroslava Dzikovska 
myroscs.rochester.edu 
http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/myros/

One of the current topics of my research is hyphenation. Since written
language is one of the most neglected aspects of linguistic study and
hyphenation is only a minor aspect of written language, next to
nothing about hyphenation is found in almost all detailed studies
devoted to writing systems (one of the exceptions is Carney 1994). In
European languages, hyphenation seems--as far as I know-- to be based
on syllables and/or morphemes, but I have not been able to find any
serious information about hyphenation in non-European languages (for
instance, in the volume of Peter T. Daniels and William Bright on the
world's writing systems, one finds no remarks on hyphenation at
all). In order to search for some substantial cross-linguistic
generalisations, I therefore seek informations of any kind about
hyphenation rules in non-European languages.

Thanks,
Jochen Geilfuss-Wolfgang
University of Leipzig
Germany