LINGUIST List 4.464

Tue 15 Jun 1993

Qs: Acronyms, doubles, teaching evaluations, case agreement

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Directory

1. Deborah Tannen, Query: acronyms
2. Bruce Fraser, Doubles
3. Janet Bing, teacher evaluations
4. , query: case agreement

Does anyone know of any work done on the phenomenon of using initials
to identify publications, organizations, etc. I have been asked by a
journalist whom I respect and trust -- he has noticed, for example,
that people refer to the NEw Republic as NR, Publishers Weekly as PW,
and that the use of these acronyms seems to make people feel "in." He
thinks it's happening more now. I like to reinforce his assumption
that linguists are the ones to turn to for inquiries on language --
but couldn't help with any technical knowledge on this one. Anyone
who has thoughts or references, please letme know at
 TANNENCASBS.STANFORD.EDU
Thanks a lot. Deborah Tannen

I've been looking at doubles in English like now now, well well, so so, yeh
yeh, hear hear, my my, and bye bye. They are not repetitions like
Stop!Stop! nor are they reduplications such as nero nero found in
Italian where the reading is something like jet black. In general
the gloss of these bears little resemblance to the meaning of the
individual part.

Does anyone know:

 Of more of these
 Where they came from
 If other languages have them

If there is a response, I
will post the results. Thanks, Bruce

I am currently working on a study of university and college student evaluations
of teachers. The central idea of the study is to see if current ideas about
good teaching are reflected in the questions asked on evaluation forms. I want
a large data base and would like copies of evaluation questions from as many
institutions as possible. If you send or email questions from your institution
to me, I will send or email a draft of the paper to you. E-mail to JMB100f
ODUVM.BITNET or send to Janet Bing, Department of English, Old Dominion Univer-
sity, Norfolk, VA 23529.

Can anyone indicate to me inflectional languages WITHOUT gender and WITH
agreement in case? I would also need informaiton on 1) how this agreement
is realized (examples) and 2) descriptions of the language under question.
Thank you in advance!

Ursula Doleschal Tel.: ++43-1-31336 4115
Inst. f. Slawische Sprachen Fax: ++43-1-31336 744
Wirtschaftsuniv. Wien
Augasse 9 Austria
1090 Wien Europe