LINGUIST List 3.603

Thu 23 Jul 1992

Qs: Icelandic, Medical Terms, Vocal Tract

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Tibor Kiss, Infinitives in Icelandic
2. , Medical Terms
3. , Pictures of the vocal Tract

Dear Linguists,

I have a request regarding infinitival complements in Icelandic (and
possibly other Germanic languages). In a 1976-paper, A. Andrews claims
that

"Complement infinitives without ad apparently are produced by subject-
 raising transformations, while those with ad are [...] produced by a rule
 of complement subject deletion (EQUI)." (Taken from the reprint in
 Maling/Zaenen (Eds.) (1990): Syntax and Semantics 24, p. 166)

My question is whether this is actually correct. In German, e.g. we find
EQUIs as well as raising verbs with or without 'zu', hence indicating that
a direct relation between interpretation and form cannot be maintained. In
(1), we have an example of a control verb which selects a 'zu'-less complement,
in (2) a raising verb is given which select a complement with 'zu' (this is
similar to English 'seem', which selects a 'to'-complement regardless of its
raising properties. That 'wollen' in (1) is actually a control verb in German
can be shown by applying tests like embedding of impersonal or expletive-
subject taking complements (as suggested by Klein/Sag 1985, Dowty 1985 i.a.).
'Wollen' allows neither, hence indicating that it must be a control verb.
Obviously, 'scheinen' allows both.

(1) Peter will in die Schule gehen.
 Peter want in the school go
 P. wants to go to school
(2) Peter scheint zur Schule zu gehen.
 Peter seem to school to go
 Peter seems to go to school

I would be glad to receive answers not only concerning Icelandic but also
concerning other Germanic languages, i.e. is it possible to infer whether a
given verb is raising or equi by just looking at the morphological realization
of its complement verb?

I suggest answers should go directly to my address which is: kissvnet.ibm.com

Thanks a lot. Tibor Kiss

I'm looking for lists of words and phrases relating to
health and disease and symptoms. Can anyone help?

Does anybody know of any pictures (preferably in Mac format) of the vocal
tract and the like on an ftp server anywhere?
Replies to asarbuckle.sns.neuphilologie.uni-tuebingen.de.

Thanks in advance

Adrian Simpson
Kelvin Woolacott