LINGUIST List 3.354

Mon 20 Apr 1992

Qs: Raising, Mac, Films, Words

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. , Query: articles on Raising
2. Stephen Ryberg, "the" Mac
3. Corey Miller, Linguistics Films
4. David Bedell, some new words

This is a query on behalf of a colleague of mine, who is not on
LINGUIST. She needs references on articles or books about (syntactic)
RAISING. Please reply directly to me, and I will gadly post a
summary.

Thanks to you all.
Julia Aymerich.

One of the recent postings regarding fonts and Mac operating systems has
finally prompted me to go public with the fact that I never use a definite
article when speaking about Macintosh computers as a category, and still
find it strange when others do (despite repeated hearings). Does anyone
else out there pause when others say "_the_ Mac" in reference to Macs in
general? I never hear "the" with "IBM" or "Compaq" or "(X) compatible", so
it doesn't seem that the (use of a) type of computer is in itself
sufficient to warrant the presence of the article...

__________________________
Stephen Ryberg
Department of Linguistics
Northwestern University
rybergcasbah.acns.nwu.edu
__________________________

In his article, Russ Rymer mentions a Gene Searchinger who he says has been
making linguistics films for the past five years. Does anyone know about these
films: what they are and where they can be viewed or obtained?

Corey Miller

I've come across some unfamiliar expressions in the speech of three
informants here (male undergraduate students, African-American, from
Tuskegee, AL). I wonder if anyone else has heard them or can offer any
information on their history and distribution.

helicopter = dragonfly
pit or pit mutt = mutt (possibly with pit bull blood)
dirtdobbler = ball of dust, or a kind of wasp (informants disagree)
Tom & Jerry hanger = the pullstring on roller shades
sadiddy = stuck up, conceited
joning on somebody = making a joke about sb. (identified as Atlanta slang)

Types of cars:
SUAVE = SUburban Assault VEhicle
macdaddy car = big expensive car
fat car = " " "
hoopdy = big car from the 1970s

Words for police:
Five-Oh (as in TV show Hawaii 5-O)
po-po (rap term from West Coast, 1-2 years old)
one-time or one-timer (L.A. gang term; because they only have to outrun you
 one time and you're through)

 --David Bedell, U. of Alabama (dbedell3ua1vm.ua.edu)