LINGUIST List 5.1369

Wed 30 Nov 1994

Qs: Algonquian/Iroquoian, Nicaragua, Determiner-adj, Bilingual

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Vincent DeCaen, Algonquian & Iroquoian
2. Alberto Rey, Linguistics ? Nicaragua
3. Annie Senghas, determiner-adj constructions in French and Spanish
4. Christopher Hall, Bilingual Test

I've been having a terrible time working through grammars, etc for
languages in the Algonquian and Iroquoian family. Is there anybody
specializing or having specialized on Algonquian (especially Cree and
Ojibway) or Iroquoian (especially Cherokee) languages who could field
some reasonably quick questions?

Hello to all,

I've just recently completed the data anlysis of a study of the 'you'
subject pronouns in Nicaragua. I have a problem explaining an extreme
difference in the usage of 'vos' towards women than that found for men in
the neighborhood domain. Can anyone out there help me or give me a
list/group that I could bother?

Thanks in advance,

Alberto Rey

A few weeks ago I posted a query about determiner+adjective
constructions in Spanish, French, and English. I received several
responses, many attesting to the frequency of these forms in Spanish
and some discussing the underlying structure. Thank you to everyone
who has responded so far. What I would love to know now is: are these
forms more frequent (or freely productive) in Spanish or French?

The construction in question is the following (taken from my previous
post).

) In Spanish, nouns that are easily recoverable from context
) can be "dropped" from within certain constructions. Such deletion is
) typical in Spanish. We thus see many determiner-adjective
) constructions of the type:
) 1) los ricos ('the rich (ones)')
) las americanas ('the Americans' (fem))
) el nuevo ('the new (one)')
)
) In French we see similar determiner-adjective constructions, such as:
) 2) les riches ('the rich (ones)')
) les americaines ('the Americans' (fem))
) le petit ('the small (one)')

Can anyone think of classes of expressions that include this
construction in Spanish, but do not work in the French equivalent?
Has anyone seen a Spanish/French comparison in the literature that
mentions these constructions?

Thank you! I will post a summary of all responses together. Please
respond directly to me at anniepsyche.mit.edu.

Annie Senghas

Dear all:

I am posting this request on behalf of Margarita Hord, a graduate student,
who is investigating bilingual English/Spanish proficiency in children in
Mexico. As part of her study she needs a test designed to measure English
oral proficiency in bilingual children (9-11 years). The test should be
focused on communicative rather than grammatical competence. Can anybody
help?

Thanks.

!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!
 !=!=!=!=!
 Dr. Christopher J. Hall !=!=!=!
 Professor of Linguistics !=!=!
 !=!
 Departamento de Lenguas !
 Universidad de las Americas, Puebla
 A.P. 100, Sta. Catarina Martir
 72820 Puebla
! Mexico
!=! Tel: +52 (22) 29 31 05
!=!=! Tel: +52 (22) 29 31 24
!=!=!=! Fax: +52 (22) 29 31 01
!=!=!=!=!
!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!