LINGUIST List 4.105

Wed 17 Feb 1993

Qs: Ethnography, S/O Asymmetries, Schools, Metaphors

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Directory

1. Niko Besnier, Ethnographic approaches to SL classroom discourse
2. RichardHudson50, Subject/object asymmetries and idioms
3. , -0500
4. , functions of metaphors

An undergraduate student in my "Language & Ethnography" course is launching in
an ethnographic study of interaction in an ESL conversation class. I have not
kept up with the SLA literature in recent years, and am interested in
references I could send her to for background information & inspiration. Most
useful would be work which is solidly grounded on *ethnographic* observations
and on analyses of *naturalistic* recordings in SL classrooms (both micro and
macro).

Please direct suggestions to me directly, and I'll post a summary of what
transpires.

Niko Besnier
Department of Anthropology, Yale University

Alexis Manaster-Ramer is of course quite right in complaining about
the way we treat our theories. There was once a theory that fixed-
subject idioms were impossible; the facts turn out to be otherwise, so
someone should have said that the theory concerned had been refuted,
and needed to be replaced. Like Alexis, I don't remember reading
anything along these lines from those who have supported the theory in
the past. But then, I suppose this is normal practice - just look at
the way in which SLA used to be obviously and predictably outside the
realm of UG.

I agree that it would be good to have a theory about why fixed-subject
idioms (e.g. "the jury are out on X") are so much rarer than fixed-
object ones (e.g. "X kick the bucket"). Does anyone know of any
candidates?

This question is presumably related to the claim that theta-roles are
assigned to objects by V, but to subjects by V-bar, on the grounds
that the choice of object is more likely to influence the subject's
theta-role than vice versa (e.g. if I take a punishing then I'm
affected/patient/theme or whatever, but if I take a book then I'm the
agent). Does anyone know of any clear counter-examples to this claim?


Dick Hudson
Dept of Phonetics and Linguistics,
University College London,
Gower Street,
London WC1E 6BT
(071) 387 7050 ext 3152

I have a question concerning Summer Schools in 1993. Does anyone know of a
Summer School on Syntax in Europe, preferably in England?
Thanks in advance,
E. Goebbel.

A friend of mine (not on the linguist list) is doing her dissertation on
functions of metaphors in informative texts. She is especially interested in
the informative and persuasive functions of metaphors, as well as the force of
metaphors in argumenting central points in texts.

If anybody is involved in similar study, or is aware of references, studies,
articles etc, she would greatly appreciate even the smallest contributions!
Please e-mail me directly, and I'll pass the information to her.

Thank you!

Taina Saarinen
taisaarisara.utu.fi
University of Turku
SF-20500 Turku
Finland

phone: +358-21-633 6541