LINGUIST List 5.139

Sun 06 Feb 1994

Qs: Lunatic Ideas, Argument/adjunct, Roman calves

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Directory

1. "S.GOODMAN", Lunatic Ideas - HELP
2. Robert Hamilton, Query: argument/adjunct
3. bert peeters, Roman calves

Having tried without success to find the following, can anyone on the list
tell me where to get hold of the following article?

P Holland, 'The Invisible and the Obvious' published in Lunatic Ideas,
Corner House Books, London 1978

British Library can't help.

Eternal gratitude to anyone who responds!

Sharon Goodman
University of East Anglia

I am currently looking at data from second language
learners of English which shows that relative clause
formation on prepositional objects in PPs which are
arguments to the verb (#1 below) is easier than that
on objects in PPs which are (semantic) adjuncts to
the verb (#2 below).

1. ... the paper that the teacher put a grade on
2. ... the bus that the boy did his homework on

Could someone recommend relevant theoretical discussions
of the argument/adjunct distinction in the syntax
literature (i.e., dealing with the issue of theta-
relatedness to the verb or the lack thereof). I am
also interested in how this thematic distinction
interfaces with phrase structure. I'll post a
summary to the list if there seems to be sufficient
interest. Thanks in advance,

Robert Hamilton
University of South Carolina

I remember reading somewhere that the following statement can be understood
in either Italian or Latin, but that the meaning attached to the statement
in each language would be different. Can anyone tell where I got this from?
The sentence goes like this:

I UITELLI DEI ROMANI SONO BELLI

It means in Italian: The calves of the Roman people are beautiful.
It could mean in Latin: Go, Vitellius, on the sound of the Roman war god
 (I, UITELLI, SONO DEI BELLI ROMANI)

I realise, while writing, that my English translation may look clumsy.
What is meant by "sound" is probably the sound of war trumpets or something.
Or am I making this up??

Dr Bert Peeters Tel: +61 02 202344
Department of Modern Languages 002 202344
University of Tasmania at Hobart Fax: 002 207813
GPO Box 252C Bert.Peetersmodlang.utas.edu.au
Hobart TAS 7001
Australia