LINGUIST List 2.803

Wed 20 Nov 1991

Qs: Appropriate Error, Journals, Audio, Focus

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Directory

1. Michael Henderson, Appropriate Error
2. "Fredrick J. Damerau", Old Journals
3. , Audio Equipment for Fieldwork
4. , query: origin of FOCUS

As far as I know, the first (maybe only) use of the term 'appropriate
error' is in Judith Irvine's "Wolof noun classification: the social
setting of divergent change" in Language & Society 7 (1978). She uses
it to refer to deliberate grammatical errors used by people of high
social standing as a means of differentiating themselves from lower-
caste people, especially professional verbal artists.
Has anyone seen the term used more recently? I would be grateful for
any references.
Michael M. T. Henderson
Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045-2140
mmthukanvm.cc.ukans.edu

I am about dispose of my back issues of Language, ca. 1956-1990 (no
guarantees about completeness). Is there any interest in these -- new
department, third world library, whatever? Please reply directly to me,
not the list.
Fred J. Damerau
damerauwatson.ibm.com

I am in the process of observing the language
development of two Cambodian children, however
my audiotape equipment is very poor. I used to have
an Uher reel to reel portable tape recorder which
was excellent, but I can no longer use it. I have
good videotape equipment, but many times a portable
audiotape recorder is better. Is there anyone out
there who can advise me about what kind of equipment
(tape recorder and microphone) I should get for
work in language acquisition research and where I
might obtain it? I live in Stockton, California.
J. Longmire. University of the Pacific.

I am trying to find out how the term FOCUS came to be used in its current
sense. A large part of its popularity seems to be due to the discussion
of focus phenomena in Jackendoff 1972 (Semantic interpretation in generative
grammar), and the term focus is also used in Chomsky 1970 (Deep structure,
surface structure, and semantic interpretation).
 But it is not clear from the formulations in Jackendoff 1972 and
Chomsky 1970 that they were introducing a new term into linguistics.
So maybe FOCUS was well-known at that time?
 I have not found a use of FOCUS before 1970 (as late as 1966 a book was
published on "emphasis" in Hungarian, a phenomenon that is now universally
called focus), so I suspect that it is due to Chomsky.
 This summer I made a bet with Pierre Pica (UQAM), who claimed that the
term FOCUS is much older and was already well-established when he was
introduced to (traditional) linguistics in the early seventies.
 Can anyone help us find out who won the bet?
Martin Haspelmath, Free University of Berlin