LINGUIST List 5.412

Mon 11 Apr 1994

Qs: X-bar, Bibliography, Deaf education, Double-headed RCs

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Bill Bennett, Earlier X-bar
2. Tom Cravens, Linguistics for language majors
3. Luiz Carlos Souza, please post in linguist
4. Matthew Dryer, double-headed RCs

I should like to know of any subscriber who may be working on the connection
between X-bar theory and Jespersen's use of the varieties of -nexus- in
English. I would not like to overlap other work in progress.

Bill Bennett (WAB2phx.cam.ac.uk)

I am attempting to compile a bibliography of publications discussing
linguistics for those doing degrees in language-and-literature departments,
at all levels. I have a few titles, but either there's not much written,
or the usual linguistics bibliographies don't cover the issue well. In
addition to citations, I am interested in comments (and details of courses,
programs, etc.) from those working in departments which have linguistics as
an integral part of degrees. Any information would be much appreciated, and I
would be happy to post a summary if list members request it.

Tom Cravens
Dept of French and Italian
University of Wisconsin-Madison
cravensmacc.wisc.edu
cravenswiscmacc.bitnet
Phone 608-273-8897
Fax 608-265-3892 ("To Tom Cravens")

Mr. Luiz Carlos SOUZA, a linguist in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, would like
to make contact with other researchers who are developing HIV/AIDS
education programmes for deaf communities all over the world, taking
into consideration sign language as first language (L1) and oral language
as a second language (L2). Mr. SOUZA holds a BA in Letters (Portuguese-
English), and is a linguistics student and a English teacher. He holds
two postgraduate degrees in applied linguistics and deaf education
(bilingualism). His areas of research are: reading and deafness, HIV/AIDS
education programmes for the Brazilian deaf community and English
Language Teaching.
*************************************************************************
* Luiz Carlos Souza (Mr.) : S/he who has not a dog goes *
* Federal University of Rio de Janeiro : hunting with a cat *
* : (Portuguese Proverb) *
* Caixa Postal 16.285 : *
* Largo do Machado : *
* Rio de Janeiro - RJ : *
* CEP 22.222-970 : *
* BRAZIL : *
* : *
* Telephone: 55 (21) 245-2069 : *
* (residence) : *
* : *
* E-mail: LCSOUZABRLNCC.BITNET or : *
* LCSOUZAVM.LNCC.BR (internet): *
*************************************************************************

Kombai, a language of Irian Jaya (western New Guinea) (described by Lourens de
Vries, 1989 University of Amsterdam doctoral thesis entitled "Studies in Wambon
and Kombai", pp. 212ff), has a construction for relative clauses that one might
describe as "double-headed": it combines the features of externally-headed and
internally-headed relative clauses in having a noun that is outside (and after)
the relative clause and that is modified by the relative clause, but also an NP
inside the relative clause denoting the thing in question, as in (1).

(1) [[Doue adianon-o] doue] deyalukhe
 sago gave,3pl-link sago finished
 The sago they gave is finished.

In many cases, the noun outside the relative clause is semantically more
general than the noun inside the relative clause, as in (2).

(2) [[Yare gamo-khereja bogin-o] rumu] ...
 old.man join.work do,3sg-link person
 The old man who is joining the work ...

Is anyone aware of any other language with relative clauses of this sort? (I
realize that corelative clauses, common in Indic languages, are something like
this, except that in the case of corelative clauses the relative clause plus
external NP do not form a constituent.)

Matthew Dryer
lindryerubvms.cc.buffalo.edu