LINGUIST List 5.506

Mon 02 May 1994

Qs: Transformations, Pidgins, Functional load, Hiberno-English

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1. , Query: Chomsky on Transformations and D(eep) Structures
2. , German based pidgins and creoles
3. , Functional load: consonants vs. vowels
4. "Joseph F. Eska", /t/ in Hiberno-English

Does somebody recall where Chomsky says that the question
of whether there are transformations may not be empirical?
(And what the exact quotation was?)
Also, where deep structure first became D-structure?

For a friend of mine, I'm looking for information about german based
pidgins and creoles, especially of New Guinea and the pacific islands,
but also from other places.

Yours, J"org Knappen.

I am looking for a reference.It has been said that vowels carry rather less
functional load than consonants, so that vowels can be left out and the
message still get through, as in
fnctnl ld
whereas the converse doesn't hold, as in
uioa oa
I saw this written up somewhere recently, but cannot for the life of me
remember where. Thus, I should be most grateful for any references, pre-
ferably to widely available, recent and basic books.

Anders Ahlqvist
University College
Galway Ireland
E-mail: AhlqvistUCG.IE

I am cross-posting this to LINGUIST and CELTLING; apologies for duplication.

I have noticed that native speakers of Hiberno-English very frequently
articulate /t/ as an affricate, i.e., as [ts], at least in intervocalic
position. I would really appreciate it if anyone with first-hand knowledge
could answer any of the following questions:

(1) What is the distribution of this articulation? Is it only in intervocalic
position? Is it only before certain vowels?

(2) Is there a voiced counterpart to this articulation, i.e., does /d/ ever
come out as [dz]? I have not noticed this before.

(3) Is this phenomenon also found in Irish? If so, does it occur in the
same environment(s) as in Hiberno-English?

Thanks in advance for the assistance. I will post a summary should
sufficient interest be generated.

Joe Eska
eskavtaix.cc.vt.edu