LINGUIST List 5.67

Thu 20 Jan 1994

Qs: Transforamtions, Text, Halitosis, Mongolian

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Directory

1. a mcelligott, Semantic Difference or not
2. "Robert D. Rachlin", TESL to students illiterate in first language
3. Joseph Pentheroudakis, coining of 'halitosis': legend or truth?
4. , Mongolian singing/whistling (?)

Taking the English sentence

 John sprayed paint on the wall.

which is transformed into

 The wall was sprayed with paint by John.

Do you think that there exists a semantic difference in these two
sentences? Or does this imply that transformations do not change
the meaning of sentences.

Thanking you,
AMcE.
__________________________________________________________________

 Annette McElligott, CSIS Dept., University of Limerick, Ireland.
 Tel: +353 61 333644 ext. 5024; Fax: +353 61 330876
 Email: mcelligoitdsrv1.ul.ie or mcelligottaul.ie

Does anyone have references to texts or articles dealing with the special
problems that accompany teaching English (or for that matter any
language) as a second language to students who are illiterate in their
first language?

Many thanks.

________________________________________________________________________
| Robert D. Rachlin Downs Rachlin & Martin Burlington, VT 05402-0190 |
| rachlinpanix.com Compuserve: 72420,3350 MCI: 583-3818 |
|................Tel: 802 863 2375 Fax: 802 863 2573..................|

Does anyone know whether the word 'halitosis' was indeed coined by the
Listerine folks back in the 20s, as I seem to remember reading in an
essay about marketing and advertising some years ago, or is this the
linguistic equivalent of an urban legend (that perhaps only I am aware of)?

Joseph Pentheroudakis
Microsoft NLP

PS Yes, I do know the word is a neologism derived from Latin
'halitus', "breath".

Did anyone hear the whole program on NPR this morning
(Jan 18) on what I think was something like Mongolian
singing/whistling at the same time? I only caught a
few minutes of it, and would like to know more -- is
there a tape of the program available to schools? Is
there any articulatory or auditory description of it?
Thanks -- I barely heard any of it but don't want it
to get away.

Carol Georgopoulos
carolgcc.utah.edu