LINGUIST List 3.226

Sat 07 Mar 1992

Qs: Theory, Tone, Children, Spelling, Such, Esperanto

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. , Query about Formal Language Theory
2. Malcolm Ross, The genesis of tone
3. Alison Henry, The language of children's books
4. Dominique Estival, Spelling checkers
5. Michele Weinberg, Re: 3.214 Responses: Imperatives, Aphasia, Natural Language
6. Eric Schiller, Re: 3.214 Responses: Imperatives, Aphasia, Natural Language

Does anybody have any idea how to prove that the copying language
over a two- (or more) letter alphabet is not the intersection
of any two (or more) context-free languages?

I have just reconstructed the history of a pair of tone languages in Papua
New Guinea. These are Austronesian languages, and there is little doubt
that tone is an innovation in these languages and that low tone arose
in syllables whose onset was a voiced obstruent.

I have been wondering about the processes by which tonogenesis occurs,
and am wondering if there is any published literature describing
tonogenesis (preferably in languages where it seems to be occurring --
I know that tonogenesis has been reconstructed for various groups of
languages). I am interested, for example, in the phonetic (and phonological)
process whereby voicing gives rise to low tone.

I would be very grateful for an references or other relevant information.
Please send direct to me, and I will summarise for the list.

Malcolm Ross
Linguistics RSPacS
Australian National University

I am posting this message on behalf of a student not on e-mail, who is
looking for references on the kinds of syntactic structures used in children's
books (particularly as compared to the structures children themselves use);
she is particularly interested in books intended for the 5-10 age group.
If you send information directly to me, I will summarize it for the list.
Alison Henry

I am trying to find out what spelling checkers are available on the
market for French, German and Italian. The people I am doing this
research for want to run them on IBM PCs under OS2, but would be
willing to do (or negotiate) some porting, so any pointers will be
appreciated.
Please direct your answers directly to me, and I will post a summary
later if there is interest.
Thanks,

Dominique Estival
ISSCO, Universite de Geneve
54 rte des Acacias
CH-1227 Geneve
tel: +41-22-705-7116
fax: +41-22-300-1086
<estivaldivsun.unige.ch>

Message 5: Re: 3.214 Responses: Imperatives, Aphasia, Natural Language

In his article in Linguist List: Vol-3-214, Martin Haspelmath states:

> but there are actually quite a few
>native speakers of Esperanto.

I was wondering if I could get more information on this, as I was not aware
that there were native Esperanto speakers.

Thanks,

Shelli Weinberg
weinbergils.nwu.edu

Message 6: Re: 3.214 Responses: Imperatives, Aphasia, Natural Language

New Query:

I am finishing up a paper for presentation at CLS (April) that deals
with the intensifier use of 'such' as in He is such a nice boy! I
have been searching the linguistic literature for discussion, but
have so far come up empty (though I am waiting for the library to get
back Bolinger 1972). Many similar constructions are dealt with in
detail in Napoli 91989) and McCawley (1988), but nothing that deals
with the syntactic and semantic characteristics of this 'such',
which has semantic scope over the adjective but syntactically is
[NP/NP] (GPSG) or is the nether-regions of infamous SPEC (GB) or
must be transformationally liberated from the NP (Generative
Semantics and ddescendants).

I am treating it as a typical syntax/semantics discrepancy with
strongly historical motivations as a construction (cf. Barbara
Need's BLS paper last month - we are collaborating on the CLS
paper and the BLS offering contained much of the relevant syntactic
and sematntic analysis).

There are, of course, related phenomena (What a nice guy!).

Has anyone out there ever come across a discussion of why 'such'
got kicked out of the NP in Middle English, never to return
in the intensifier function (but OK anaphorically - There is no
such thing as workable Reaganomics).

I would hate to overlook previous work on the construction, and
will profusely thank anyone who can point to relevant literature
or provide any useful insights.

The basic theoretical thrust of the paper is to argue for the
categories which are functions, e.g., combine with an NP to
create an NP, as lexical categories within Autolexical theory.
So for me, a determiner is [N1>>N2] and is syntactically headless -
since we deal with the semantic properties in the logico-syntax,
and not in the syntax, where willow trees populated by empty nodes
or ghost traces are strictly verboted. That said, I would like
to see a tight GB account of this phenomena if anyone has one
(no, it isn't in Abney 1987).

Again, I appreciate all input, anecdotal, couched in any framework,
or even off the wall!

Eric Schiller
Department of Linguistics
University of Chicago