LINGUIST List 4.992

Wed 24 Nov 1993

Qs: ESL/EFL, Algonquian inverse, Japanese adj., Dialect drift

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Directory

1. Mireia Trenchs, Language Teaching and learning "language + literature"
2. , Query:Algonquian inverse
3. Andrew Simpson, Japanese adjectives
4. Scott Farrar, References on Dialect Drift

I am interested in getting in touch with linguists and educators who are
doing research in the area of using literature as a means of promoting
language learning and communicative competence. I am basically interested
in research dealing with non-native speakers of a language who are using
"authentic" literature in their classes. I would be interested in hearing
from both the ESL and the EFL perspective.

I would also be interested in getting in contact with educators, especially at
college level, who are teaching "language/literature" courses with this
approach.

Although the language of my interest is English, I would love to hear from
people who work in this field, even if they are working with other foreign
languages.

Mireia Trenchs
Facultat d'Humanitats
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Barcelona, Spain.

I am working on a group of Australian Aboriginal languages which has
something like inverse marking in the morphology. It looks especially
like Algonquian because 2nd person appears to be top of the hierarchy.
I have been trying to get hold of a comparison of inverse marking in
Algonquian /Algonquian-Ritwan. I have a few grammars but the ones I have
do not show much variation; I have also obtained some historical-
comparative material, which deals with reconstruction including brief
mention of reconstructability of an inverse marker but not much mention
of range of functions of inverse, different hierarchies etc. in different
languages. One correspondent put me on to a nice article by Bernard
Comrie which compares inverse marking in Siberian languages which compares
the languages as to how the inverse system works in each. I am looking
for something comparable for Alngonquian. I am not an American Indian
 specialistand as you can imagine this material is very hard to obtain in
 Australia,
so going through all the grammars (including the rare old stuff) is
not practical for me. Can anyone help? Ideas on analysis of inverse
systems also gratefully received.

Patrick McConvell
Anthropology
PO Box 40146
Casuarina NT 0811
Australia
(Northern Territory University, Darwin)

If anyone is aware of an analysis of adjectives in Japanese in a recent
framework, preferrably Chomskyan, could you please send me any references
you have - theses/articles etc. I am particularly interested
in a treatment of adjectives which compares them with verbs and discusses the
issue of tense/the head of the clause/sentence.
Many thanks in advance for any help,
Andrew Simpson

Greetings,

 This message is a request for references on dialect drift. In
particular, I am looking for references which investigate or discuss the
reasons or mechanisms behind dialect drift -- especially the role social
connectedness plays in influencing the rate or kinds of drift that occur in
a speaking community (phonological, morphological, etc). (Thomason and
Kaufman, 1989) discuss a theory of how language contact can be one one
source of pressure for language change; I am looking for studies and
theories of how language change might result from pressures internal to the
language community.
 I've discovered a couple of references that touch on the topic,
listed below. If you know of any others that address this topic, or touch
on it in an important way, I'd appreciate it if you could send me the
reference. If I receive many references, I'll post them back on this
mailing list for everyone.

Thank You for your help,

Scott Farrar
UCSD Cognitive Science
.............................................................................

References (so far...)

Bailey, C. "The patterning of language variation." Varieties of
Present-Day English. Bailey and Robinson eds. Macmillan. 1973.

Labov, W. "Language change as a form of communication." Human
Communication: Theoretical Explanations. Silverstein ed. Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates. 1974.

Labov, W. "Social Origins of Sound Change." Dialect and Language
Variation. Allen, et. al. eds. Academic Press. 1986.

Thomason, S., Kaufman, T. Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic
Linguistics. University of California Press. 1989.