LINGUIST List 2.454

Mon 02 Sep 1991

Disc: Reported speech, "On", Kinship, Wh-

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. "Pamela, RE: Queries
2. Elissa Feit, Re: Responses: Software, Addresses, "On"
3. , "on" this theory
4. , Re: Queries
5. Nicholas Ostler, Mama and Papa
6. "Charles A. Bigelow", Re: Wh-, Sound Change

For work done on reported speech or "constructed
dialogue" see Deborah Tannen's book, Talking Voices. Also
Greg Urban's article entitled, "The I of Discourse", in Semiotics,
Self, and Society, ed. by Lee and Urban, 1986, which directly
addresses both direct and indirect quotations. Also work done
by Gisela Redecker, but I don't know any specific references.
--pam saunders
psaundersguvax.georgetown.edu

 Gilbert Harman <ghhconfidence.Princeton.EDU> writes:
	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.
...
A little fuel for the fire 8-) :
I think there is, in fact, a difference in meaning between "on X's
view..." and "in X's view...", where "on" signals a meta-argument
concerning the overall view or analysis (similar to "with regards
to...") while "in" signals a reference to specific details within that
view, or analysis.
Elissa Feit (feitcs.buffalo.edu)

Besides "on this theory" etc. in linguistic parlance, "on" has
become increasingly common in sports statistics phrasing, e.g.
"on the year" "on the season" . This usage goes back at least
ten years or so.
Neal R. Norrick tb0nrn1niu.bitnet

"on X's view" etc. sounds as wierd to me as it does to you.

Japanese "haha" < *papa means "mother".

In a nice discussion of the wh- words, Jack Rea asks "What is the
first word of _Beowulf_?" It might not be giving away the answer to
say that in the unique manuscript, the first word is spelled: "H Wen
Ash T", where wen (wynn) is a letter of runic origin and ash (aesc)
is an ae ligature.