LINGUIST List 2.437

Mon 26 Aug 1991

Disc: Software, Addresses, "On"

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. helen dry, LSA Software Exhibit
2. , RE: Queries
3. Gilbert Harman, "on" this theory

Re: John Lawler's recent announcement about the LSA Software Exhibit
I'm a little surprised that only 7 pieces of software have been
submitted for exhibition, given that lots of linguists use specialized
software and lots of linguists develop it. I wonder if those of us
who know of good software shouldn't mention it on the net, in the hope
that the developer or a proxy will be encouraged to exhibit it. The
exhibit that John and the LSA Computer Committee are putting together
seems to me to have great potential benefit for both users and
developers--I'd like to see it get off to a big start.
In that vein: I'd like to "draft" Ken Whistler to exhibit his excellent
concordance program, Kwik-Magic. Although many linguists are familiar
with it, I suspect many still are not. At any rate,
last year when I happened to praise it on the HUMANIST net, I got
lots of interested queries. And it's definitely worth showing off.
Does anyone know of other good software designed for linguists? Tell,
tell . . . .
-Helen Dry

In reply to Catherine Ball's query: The membership directory of the Belgian
Linguistic Society has the following addresds for Renaat Declerck:
Reigersvliet 11, 8500 Kortrijk, Belgium.
Kees Hengeveld

The use of "on" rather than "in" in this context has been
common in philosophical writing (and probably elsewhere) for
years. I still resent the first time a copy editor changed
my "On X's view..." to "In X's view..." When I
discussed this with colleagues, many of them thought that
"On X's view..." was quite normal. This must have been 20
years ago.
Opening books at random, I notice Donald Davidson writing:
"On the analysis of indirect discourse just proposed, ..."
(Donald Davidson, "On saying that," _Synthese_ 19 [1968-69]
130-145.) I believe there are many examples going back way
before that. However, I tend to throw things away after a
decade, so I can't easily check.
Perhaps this use of "on" is related to its use in "On the
assumption that ..." and "On the usual reading of quotation
marks ..." (appearing in Grice's "Logic and Conversation"
and Kaplan's "Quantifying In")?
I have the sense that "On X's view, P" can be true even
where P is an unwelcome consequence of X's view (unwelcome
to X), whereas this is not so for "In X's view, P."
	Gilbert Harman, Princeton University Cognitive Science Lab
	221 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ 08542
	ghhclarity.princeton.edu