LINGUIST List 4.592

Mon 02 Aug 1993

Qs: Null Pros, Infinitives, Stress, Reference, Atlas

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Directory

1. Karen Wallace, query: coordination of null pronominal
2. , Infinitives
3. "David J Silva", Q: Stress-Clash Override
4. "Claudia Brugman", two queries
5. David Heap, atlas software?

Can anyone give me pointers to references in the literature
which mention syntactic coordination of a null pronominal with
an overt NP? The only thing I've found so far is McCloskey's
(1986) discussion of this phenomenon in Irish (NLLT 4:22).

Alternatively, if you're a speaker of a pro-drop language (or
know a lot about one), I'd be interested to know whether this
occurs in that language. Can you say, with the appropriate
agreement marking on the verb, something like:

 Terry and left

Where "left" is marked first person plural or first person
singular and it means "Terry and I left" ?

Please reply to me (wallacecognet.ucla.edu). I will summarize
to the group if there is significant interest. Many thanks.

Karen Wallace

 I'm currently trying to find languages, other than English, with
"analytic" infinitives, i.e., in which the infinitive marker is a free
 morpheme.I'd be grateful to know of such languages, and even more grateful if
 those
who know of such languages could also tell me where floating quantifiers
modifying PRO subjects in such languages are placed. An example from English
of this sort of construction would be : () To all leave would be
 inconvenient.I'll post a summary ofthe replies to LINGUIST, and you could
 respond to me
directly at : baltinacfcluster.nyu.edu. Thanks,----Mark Baltin

I am writing on behalf of a student who would like to know the following:

 In his 1990 text, J. Goldsmith mentions that languages can employ an
 option of "Forward Clash Override" when constructing grids--that is,

 "In certain languages, though, while it is less common,
 the rule that introduces alternating stress _will_
 create a stress-clash..." (p. 196)

 Can subscribers provide examples of such languages and references?

Please reply to me directly and I'll forward the information.
Many thanks.

--David Silva (djsilvamailbox.syr.edu)

I have two rather urgent queries. Please reply to me personally; if anyone
expresses interest in the second of these (or indeed the first) I can summarize
to the list. ("Urgent" means something like 'in the next week or so'.)

1) If anyone is in (or knows something about) a School, Division, or
Department with both of the words "Language(s)" and "Linguistic(s)" in its
title (e.g. "School of Modern Languages and Linguistics", "Department
of Language and Linguistic Studies"), could you write to me and tell me a
few words about how the School, etc. is set up and what the relationship is
between the language study and the study of linguistics.

2) A feminist scholar of my acquaintance has a student who says that
Catherine McKinnon has claimed that "Subject/Object" syntax contributes
to the objectification of women, because (?) male-denoting expressions are
(overwhelmingly) found in subject position and female-denoting expressions
are found in object position. Does anyone have the original reference for
this claim, or know about any linguistically-oriented studies which test the
hypothesis that syntactic arrangement possibilities (or the use of such
possibilities of arrangement) so contribute? If so, is the distinction made
between nom/acc languages and erg/abs? Is any corresponding study made
of the semantic roles of arguments as correlated with sex of the denotatum?
Is a distinction made between a grammar and its users? Does anyone critique
the presumption that "object" means the same thing in both cases? In short,
any leads would be most appreciated. (Please don't write just to tell me how
stupid this claim is, or how obviously correct it is.)

Thanks for any responses.

Claudia Brugman
Linguistics Programme,
University of Otago
PO Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
cbrugmangandalf.otago.ac.nz

My current research into Romance clitic clusters will involve
setting up a database of forms drawn primarily from linguistic
atlases of France, Italy, Spain etc. I am presently having some
difficulty in deciding on a software package which suits my
needs. Ideally, I would like to be able to design a database that
allows me to enter and process largish amounts of heterogenous
and variable data, and then display the results in ways that
allow me to draw both geolinguistic generalizations (which
clitics occur where etc.) and morphosyntactic generalizations
(what clusters occur in which positions etc.). My statistical
needs are fairly basic, and there are no sociolinguistic
variables (apart from location) to factor in. Right now, I am
trying to evaluate the following choices:

1. Database packages designed for social scientists (SAS, Systat
etc.), which have far more sophisticated statistical capacities
than I foresee needing, but which do allow rather easily for
redisplaying results on geographic maps.

2. Commercial database packages (Quatro, Paradox, etc.), which
seem rather simpler to get up and running, but which do not
provide in any obvious way to display results on maps.

I have also seen a few references to G[eographic] I[nformation] S[ystems],
but at this point, it is not quite clear to me what sorts of databases
they can use as input.

 Any comments on these choices? What about other options
which I haven't mentioned (I'm sure these are at least as
numerous)? Or a combination of approaches? I apologize if this
query sounds like reinventing the methodological wheel; I need to
make a fairly firm decision before the end of August.

 Any other practical information about Romance dialectology,
particularly in Spain, would be greatly appreciated. Please reply
to me personally, since I may have to set my subscription to
NOMAIL in the near future; I will post a summary eventually if
there is enough interest.

Many thanks in advance,

David Heap
University of Toronto
heapepas.utoronto.ca