LINGUIST List 5.1244

Mon 07 Nov 1994

Qs: Corpus linguistics, Core readings,"snow", L2

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1. , Corpus linguistics
2. Tohori, Core readings in linguistics
3. , Re: 5.1239 Eskimo "snow" and research questions
4. Kowal Jerzy, Personality factors and L2

*******PLEASE NOTE: I am putting this information on these*******
*******bulletin boards for colleagues who do not subscribe*******
*******Please send expressions of interest to the address*******
*******below, not to me. Thanks for your cooperation. Andy*******

At Dublin City University, we run a degree programme in Applied Computational
Linguistics. Corpus Linguistics is one of the modules on the second year
curriculum. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we find ourselves without
anyone to teach the course in corpus linguistics in the Jan-March 1995 term.
The entire module is approx 25 hours and the objective of the course is to
familiarize students with the study of language based on machine readable
corpora. It was envisaged that the course would consist of an introduction
(3 hours), overview of statistical methods of corpus analysis (4 hours),
followed by overview of applications of corpora in lexicography,
terminography, linguistic research, computational linguistics (taggers and
parsers), speech processing and machine translation combined with practical
work (a total of 18 hours). As you can see, the outline is fairly general,
giving a lot of scope for changes.

Would anyone be interested in giving this module to our students? We imagine
that such a person might come to the university for 2
or 3 visits of a few days at a time and give the course in intensive bursts.

If you are interested, please contact Professor Michael Townson
at Aston University. Professor Townson has joined the staff of Dublin City
University and is head of the School of Applied Languages.
His telephone number is -44 21 359 36 11 ext 4225 (office in Birmingham) or
-353 1 704 5193 (office in Dublin), email: "M.R.TOWNSONASTON.AC.UK".

Many thanks and best wishes,
Jennifer Pearson

Dear folks,
 This year, I started to teach linguistics at a graduate school. I'm
wondering if you have any list of "core readings" in linguistics
(including some pre-structuralist stuff, phonetics/phonology, grammar,
semantics, pragmatics, socio things, etc.) at your department. I'm
thinking about compiling my own, so please send me any kind of list that
may help (snail mail is fine too). I'll be happy to recompile the whole
stuff and send a copy back to each of you.
 Thank you in advance.

 Toshio Ohori
 Language and Information Sciences
 University of Tokyo
 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku
 Tokyo 153, Japan
 tohoritansei.cc.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Message 3: Re: 5.1239 Eskimo "snow" and research questions

I was very interested in David Branner's question, and in the responses
to it, especially Anthony Woodbury's. Woodbury writes, "it was in
connection with this point [about how words order, and don't merely
reflect, the natural world] that discussion of Eskimo words for snow
first arose (in the writings of two major 20th Century anthropological
linguists, Franz Boas and Benjamin Lee Whorf). Unfortunately, their
point has been pretty much missed by those who insist on counting."
 This emboldens me to ask a question of my own, namely,
is an examination of the lexicon sufficient if that examination is
detached from an examination of how speakers use the lexicon? Suppose,
for instance, that in one language there are n words for kinds of snow,
but that by and large people don't use them - meteorologists and hunters
and skiers do, but by and large people just call the stuff "snow" and
add some adjectives? Suppose, then, that in another language there
are also n words for snow, but that in this language by and large people
use them all, in preference to less specific terms? Wouldn't that
distinction in usage do much of the same work (for Whorf and Sapir
and company) that the distinction in lexicon is said to do?
 Best, Larry Rosenwald

I've been doing some research on the role of personality factors in
foreign language learning. And just few days ago I laid my hands on
Schumann's 1978 article on "Social and psychological factors in second
lanaguage acquisition". From what I can see there are 4 personality
factors that seem to be very important in second language acquisition:
(1) tolerence for ambiguity, (2) sensitivity to rejection, (3)
introversion/extroversion and, (4) self-esteem. But since the article
was written almost 20 years ago, I suspect that those factors might be
out of "actuality" by now. Actually, I've noticed that for some SLA
researchers Schuamann's personality factors are simply affective
factors. When for Schumann affective factors are something else. I just
wonder what could be today's personality factors. Are Schumann's factors
still valid? And what's your opinion on his factors? Would there be
anybody kind enough to provide me with a bibliography on personality
factors or point out some new reearch done on the subject? I would
appreciate a lot.

Please e-mail any available information to:

 kowaljere.umontreal.ca

Thanks a lot for your help.

--
Jerzy KOWAL
Linguistics, University of Montreal
kowaljERE.UMontreal.CA
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