LINGUIST List 5.587

Sat 28 May 1994

Qs: Lists; Texts; AGR; History of Lx; Virtual language

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. , Discussion Lists
2. "STEVE SEEGMILLER", Q: Syntax, semantics texts
3. Roberto Zamparelli, Agr with Adj modifiers
4. MARC PICARD, History of linguistics course
5. Mari Rhydwen, virtual speech communities/language maintenance/Welsh

>From UBLV050CCS.BBK.AC.UK Fri May 20 12:30:40 1994
Via: uk.ac.bbk.ccs; Fri, 20 May 1994 16:09:30 +0100

Could you please post the following:

This is for my colleague, Prof. Ian Short of the French Dept here.
Does anyone know of a discussion list on historical sociolinguistics
or medieval multilingualism. His particular interest is the languages
of medieval Britain.

Thank you.

Larry Selinker
l.selinkerapp-ling.bbk.ac.uk

I believe there was some discussion a year or two ago about suitable
texts for syntax, but a couple of new books have appeared and so it
may be worth asking the question again: doea anyone have any suggestions,
comments, etc., on textbooks for an undergraduate course in syntax for
linguistics majors? I have used Radford and like certain things about it,
but would like to find something with broader coverage. Others that I have
considered are Napoli's, Cowper's, and Freidin's. Does anyone have
any experience with any of those, or does anyone know of any others that
might be good. Just for clarification, the course in question deals with
syntactic theory, not with English syntax.

On a related matter, does anyone have any suggestions about a text or
other course material for an undergraduate course in semantics? I have
tried a variety of approaches, sometimes with a text and at other times
with articles, but have not hit upon an entirely satisfactory solution.

Please send recommendations to me and I will post a summary. Thanks in
advance.

Steve Seegmiller
<seegmillerapollo.montclair.edu>

Could anybody point out to me languages where a quantificational
modifier of an adjective (e.g. "very" "quite") displays agreement with
the adjective? The English glossa for a noun phrase of one of such
languages could be something like:

(1) [very-FemSng tall-FemSng] woman-FemSng

 I am particularly interested in cases in which the same adjectival
modifiers can also function as quantifiers with (mass) nouns. Italian
is one example, but the modifier which agrees with the noun in (1)
does not agree with the adjective in (2).

(2) Molta acqua
 Much-FemSng water-FemSng
(3) Molto limpida
 Very clear-FemSng

I will post a summary if there is enough interest.
Thanks,

Roberto Zamparelli
Dept. of linguistics
Hylan Bldg. - University of Rochester
Rochester, NY, 14627
phone: (716)-275-3899
e-mail: robertoling.rochester.edu

 I've been assigned to teach a course called THEORY OF GRAMMARS
which has the following description:

This course deals with the history and development of grammatical theory
prior to Chomsky. Considerable emphasis is placed on traditional grammar,
the school of de Saussure, and Bloomfieldian structuralism.

 I know of R.H. Robins' A SHORT HISTORY OF LINGUISTICS, but I'd like
to know if there are any other textbooks that could be used for such a
course. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Marc Picard
picardvax2.concordia.ca

I am interested in the possibility of virtual speech communities as a
method of language maintenance. Currently I am writing about the loss of
Welsh and also attempting to (re)learn Welsh. One of the reasons for not
speaking a language is a lack of a speech community. Here in Perth, WA,
there are no Welsh courses available and I have found only one semi-speaker
of Welsh.
I should like to hear from people who are interested in either, or both:

1. Establishing an international network of Welsh speakers/would-be
speakers for maintaining the use of a Welsh virtual speech community

2.Exploring, more generally, the possibilities of using virtual speech
communities in language maintenence programmes (I am thinking even of the
possibility of using this for Aboriginal languages in Australia which are
severely threatened.)

If there is enough interest in either of these possibilities I'll try and
get something going but may need help with the logistics - I only got
plugged into email about two weeks ago and am still blundering
electronically.

If you are not interested in WELSH or LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE but know someone
who is, please pass this message on.

 Diolch yn fawr. Mari Rhydwen