LINGUIST List 4.995

Sun 28 Nov 1993

Qs: Language prejudice, Before Babel, Russian _li_, Harris

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Directory

1. stephen ryberg, experiences w/language prejudice
2. , Before Babel
3. , Query: Analyses of Russian li 'Q'
4. , Q: Zelig Harris on free word order

For an ongoing project of mine, I'm collecting the stories of multilingual/
multidialectal people who have at one time or another experienced negative
social behavior as a direct result of using one of their languages/dialects.
The most typical examples so far have involved rudeness or poor service in
restaurants, shops, or over the telephone, while others have described
situations where use of a particular language/dialect is widely looked
down upon or even prohibited by law. I'm particularly interested in
presenting the voices of those who have had such experiences themselves,
but stories about friends/relatives are also welcome. If you have such a
story to relate, I'd appreciate it if you'd forward it to me. Please
send them to me directly at the address below. Thanks very much.

Stephen Ryberg
rybergsgas.uug.arizona.edu

I have been asked to post the following message by a colleage who
is not a subscriber to LINGUIST. Please direct all the replies
to her.

Adam Jaworski


Desperately seeking video:
proposed secreening to students of Horizon (1992) programme
BEFORE BABEL is threatened by a series of mishaps resulting
in unavailability of video (on proto-language and universals)
Anyone willing to lend a copy for a few days will be
rewarded with a chocaholic's dream and/or a free lunch in
Bloomsbury.
Please reply post haste to
Desperate
Penelope Gardner-Chloros
Department of Applied Linguistics
Birkbeck College
43 Gordon Square
London WC1H OPD

or put me out of my misery by phone (071-631-6115).

Does anybody know any analyses, either transformational or
structuralist of the Russian _li_, the yes/no question
marker which appears infixed in the clause, or indeed
of any similar pattern in another language?

Does anybody know of any work by Harris dating to before 1956
in which he describes or remarks on free word order?