LINGUIST List 15.3317

Sat Nov 27 2004

Qs: Grammatical Complexity; French/Romanian Dictionary

Editor for this issue: Steven Moran <stevelinguistlist.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.

In addition to posting a summary, we'd like to remind people that it is usually a good idea to personally thank those individuals who have taken the trouble to respond to the query.

To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html.

Directory

1. Kaius Sinnemaki, Grammatical Complexity
2. Ogonowski Antoine, French/Romanian Dictionaries

Message 1: Grammatical Complexity

Date: 26-Nov-2004
From: Kaius Sinnemaki <ksinnema

ling.helsinki.fi>
Subject: Grammatical Complexity

Dear colleagues,

I'm a graduate student at the University of Helsinki working on structural
complexity and system economy of languages. It has long been claimed that
structurally languages have equally ''rich'' / ''complicated'' /
''complex'' / ''economical'' grammars. My aim is to find results that would
either verify or falsify the claim.

For this purpose, I'm looking for correlations (or their absence) between
the complexities of morphology, syntax and phonology. Some relevant
correlations have been attested (e.g. Zipf 1968) that seem to support the
claim. Yet, as far as I know, there's little relevant work available (e.g.
Dahl 2004, McWhorter 2001 and the Commentary in Linguistic Typology
2001/5:2-3, Perkins 1992, Plank 1986).

I would very much appreciate any help in finding the relevant literature
(theoretical or empirical) and any results already available that have
addresses this issue. You can respond directly to me
(ksinnema

ling.helsinki.fi) and I'll post a summary and list of references,
if there?s general interest.

Thanks in advance,

Kaius Sinnemäki
Graduate student
Department of General Linguistics
University of Helsinki

References:
Dahl, Östen 2004. The Growth and Maintenance of Linguistic Complexity.
Amsterdam: Benjamins.

McWhorter, John H. 2001. The World's Simplest Grammars are Creole Grammars.
Linguistic Typology 5 (2-3): 125-156.

Plank, Frans 1986. Paradigm Size, Morphological Typology, and Universal
Economy. Folia Linguistica 20: 29-48.

Perkins, Revere D. 1992. Deixis, Grammar, and Culture. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Zipf, George Kingsley 1968. The psycho-biology of language: an introduction
to dynamic philology. Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T. Press.

Linguistic Field(s): Morphology; Phonology; Syntax; Typology

Message 2: French/Romanian Dictionaries

Date: 27-Nov-2004
From: Ogonowski Antoine <AntoineCe

yahoo.fr>
Subject: French/Romanian Dictionaries

Hello,
        I'm looking for comparissons / evaluations of electronic
dictionaries for French<->Romanian.
        The main aspects of interest are:
           - quality,
           - coverage,
           - ease of use (interface, installation, aso...)
           - price(s)

        Comparissons including positionning wrt to Picodico and the one
made by WebDesignSRL  would extremely appreciated.

        Best Regards
        Antoine

Linguistic Field(s): Text/Corpus Linguistics

Subject Language(s): French (Language Code: FRN)

Subject Language(s): Romanian (Language Code: RUM)
Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue