LINGUIST List 3.583

Thu 16 Jul 1992

Qs: Housing in Austin; Child Language; E Prime

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. BRETON, help with housing
2. Geoffrey Russom, Re: Child Language
3. Michael Sikillian/Annotext, Query: E prime

Amigos lectores: ?hay alguien dispuesto a ayudar una pareja joven que necesita
encontrar alojamiento en Austin, Texas?
 Can someone help my wife and I find housing in Austin Texas, I'm starting
my doctorate there in the fall and we don't know where to move!!!
 Thanks:
 Brett Rosenberg
 Brosenbeccit.arizona.edu

For a presentation on the difference between AI modeling of
language and efficient grammar correctors, my wife unearthed her
old records of my son's child speech. Would someone be good enough
to inform me about any recent work on constructions like the
following in language acquisition studies:

 (To his mother): "Who is my daddy your?"
 (Answer): "Husband."

Presumably this is related to sentences like "My daddy is your husband".
I'm aware of theoretical literature on wh-movement, but would appreciate
analogous examples of actual child speech and discussion of these in
particular.

Thanks,

 Rick

Does anyone know what relationship, if any exists between e-prime and
the Sapir-Whorf theories? E-prime, as I understand it, eliminates the
verb "to be". Rather than say:

"You are wrong", one says "It appears to me that you are wrong"

"It is hot today" becomes "It seems to me to be hot today"

 I believe that there is a goal to change how people think
by changing how they describe the world. Have there been any studies
of whether this sort of "language planning" has achieved its desired result?


Michael Sikillian
Annotext