LINGUIST List 4.812

Mon 11 Oct 1993

Qs: Cowe, Etymology, Onsets:codas, Random

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1. "Wayles Browne, Cornell Univ.", Moscow seeks Cowe at Leeds
2. Andrea Wehrs, Etymological question
3. Mary Jack, ratio - onsets:codas
4. , "Random" constructions

Colleagues in Moscow need to reach A.E.Cowe of the School of English,
Leeds University, rapidly. Can anyone supply an e-mail address or fax
number? Please reply to me: Wayles Browne, jn5jcornella.bitnet or
jn5jcornella.cit.cornell.edu ; I will pass the message on. Thank you!

Etymological question

We would like to know something about the historical etymological roots
of foreign words corresponding to the German "lernen" and the German "Bildung".
We are especially interested in the Indian and Chinese language. One important
question is whether those words in the modern language are metaphorical
abstractions from other practical (e.g. labour or work related) actions.

Thank you very much for your help.
In case we get interesting answers we will post a summary to the linguist.

Klaus Tuerk
University of Wuppertal
Fachbereich Gesellschaftswissenschaften

please answer to
wehrswrcd1.urz.uni-wuppertal.de

Does anyone know what the proportion of onsets to codas is in (spoken
American) English - it seems fairly clear that there are more onsets, but how
many more?
Thanks,
Mary Jack

 I heard a very strange constuction using the word "random" the other
day - has anyone ever heard/used this construction?
 "This wasn't just a random job; she really needed it."
 Here, the speaker was using the word "random" to mean unimportant. I
have never heard the word used in this context before - I always assumed that
the word referred to something chosen "at random" or taking a "random" guess
at something, etc. Here it seems like the word can also denote anything
that is
not too important - which seems like a bad construction to me.
 Any takers on this debate? Isn't it about time for something to rival
the "y'all" war?
Jacqueline L. Lilly
Northwestern University