LINGUIST List 5.57

Mon 17 Jan 1994

Qs: Morphological causative, Patremos, Native languages, Test

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1. "kyunghwan kim", morphological causative
2. Bruce Nevin, Guatemalan Godfather
3. , Recorded Native Lgs.
4. "SUSAN SOTILLO", test normed on speakers of Spanish

Could you please provide me with references to languages that have a
PRODUCTIVE MORPHOLOGICAL causative construction (or a productive quasi-
morphological one like in French) in which only the causer (and not the
causee) can antecede a reflexive pronoun, and only the derived verb
(and not the base verb) can be modified by an adverbial element (e.g.,
time, manner, place, participial, etc.)?

Kyunghwan Kim
kk11midway.uchicago.edu

Seven or eight years ago, my wife and I took in a couple of Guatemalans,
in loose connection with the sanctuary movement. Now one of them is
asking me to be godfather to his baby sister's daughter. (I think
godfather is what he means: the term he used was something like padremos
or patremos, poorly heard on the telephone and not written down.) Can
someone enlighten me as to what the expectations are likely to be? Gifts
and other actions? I'd like to do honor to the honor done me. The
salient feature he mentioned is that if the parents die the child is
given to the godparents.

 Bruce Nevin
 bnlightstream.com

A friend in Montana teaches a survey course on Native languages (of the
Americas). One of her students complained that they did not get to hear
what the languages sound like. Has anyone put together a cassette with a
sampling of languages? I remember a tape from long ago called "A word in your
ear", which, as I recall, gave recorded samples of several languages, along
with an unquestioning acceptance of the "Whorfian Hypothesis". If there are
tapes available, please let me know the particulars for purchasing a copy,
and I'll pass the info on to the friend in Montana. Thanks.
Don Frantz frantznhg.uleth.ca

I have been asked to recommend a test (reading comprehension, vocabulary)
normed on native speakers of Spanish (preferably on speakers of Caribbean
and Latin American Spanish) to be administered to college students who
wish to take advanced literature and other content courses in Spanish.
Since I have not worked in the area of bilingualism for a while nor am
I directlyh connected with Latin American or Spanish literature, I would
appreciate your input. When I was directing a bilingual/ESL progream
with a Spanish content component in Philadelphia, we used the InterAmerican
test. Several of my colleagues who teach in the Spanish dept. at my
college did not like this test. They found too many errors. Anyu
suggestions???