LINGUIST List 2.315

Saturday, 22 June 1991

Qs: Philosophy of Lg, Austronesian, Politeness

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Directory

1. Katherine Emblom, The Philosophy of Language and Old English
2. , Query re: Austronesian (esp. Philippine) syntax
3. Barbara Johnstone, query

I'm interested in the application of philosophy of language
theories to Old English poetry. I've done some work in speech act
theory, and find it useful in helping to delineate interpretive
boundaries in difficult passages, especially in elegies. The
dynamics of time and space, as well as narrator and audience tend
to become more clear. The limitation, of course, is that speech
act theory is really only useful when there is either a clearly
defined or strongly implicit speaker/audience relationship.
Is anyone aware of research on similar applications of philosophy
of language to Old English? I'm pretty familiar with the speech
act applications, but if anyone knows of other types of language
theories, I'd be grateful. I'd also be interested in knowing if
anyone has done similar work in Old Norse, or has done comparative
research in Old Norse and Old English.
Well, at least this is a change from the weather. The above
research project will help keep me in the airconditioned library
during the heat and humidity of a Midwest summer.
Thanks,
Kate Emblom
kemblomiubacs

Philosophy of L
I am finishing up a paper on the notion of topic in Austronesian
linguistics and I would be interested in references to any
theories designed to elucidate the difference between 'topics'
in Philippine languages and 'subjects' in other languages that
people may be familiar with. I am familiar with the theories
of McKaughan (1957, 1958), Pike (1963), Bowen (1965), Hidalgo
(1970), and Schachter (1976, 1977). I have also heard (and
would appreciate any references to this) about an 'absolutive-
ergative' analysis of Philippine languages.

Why is a polite threat more threatening than an impolite one?
Why is "If I were you, I don't know as I'd ..." more ominous
than "Don't"? Any ideas?