LINGUIST List 4.931

Tue 09 Nov 1993

Qs: /ai/-Raising, Black English, Stranded Prepositions

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1. , Query: /ai/-raising
2. , Please post the following message for me
3. Frederick Newmeyer, Stranded prepositions
4. , Q: Whereabouts of Sandy Steever

This is directed to those who are familiar with the American or
Canadian dialects of English which have different vowels in
'writer' (a raised one) and 'rider' (a lower one). Does anybody
by any chance have the lower vowel in the second part of the
word 'typewriter'? (In other words, does anybody say it as
though it were 'typerider')?

I am attempting to compile a bibliography of African-American
English (or Black Enlish Vernacular, or whatever term you prefer)
for myself. I am both interested in a general bibliography and
one that relates to the particular issue of ritual insults.
Smitherman and Labov both worked on the issue of ritual insults
the 70's but I have not seen anything recently. Does this phenomen
still exist; and has anyone studied it recently. I would also be
interested in knowing if the phenomenon of ritual insults exists
in other languages/cultures than black America.
Thank-you
Scott Baxter
graduate student
linguistics program
Wayne State University
Email address: userz3namts.cc.wayne.edu

I would appreciate receiving literature references to the 'Stranded
Preposition' construction in English: 'Who did you talk to?', 'The bed
was slept in', etc. I am interested in the history of the construction,
in grammatical analyses from both a 'formalist' and a 'functionalist'
perspective, in its acquisition by children, and in knowing about its
relative frequency cross-linguistically.

Please reply directly to me. I will summarize my replies.

Thank you.

Fritz Newmeyer
University of Washington, Seattle
fjnu.washington.edu

Does anybody know anything about the whereabouts, electronic
or otherwise, of Sandy Steever, the Dravidianist?