LINGUIST List 5.757

Wed 29 Jun 1994

Qs: Endangered languages, Cognate N + V, Ginzberg, Susan Hertz

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. John E Limber, LSA Endangered languages policy statement
2. Chris Culy, Cognate N + V
3. Dounce Valdivia Lourdes-IIF, Ginzberg on Interrogatives
4. , Still seeking Susan Hertz

In the June, 1994 LSA Bulletin, there is a short "policy statement"
urging documentation on endangered languages (p.5). As justification for
this, they say "..linguistic typology is obviously enriched by knowledge
of linguistic diversity, as languages on the geographical or linguistic
'fringe' sometimes turn out to be the most diverse typologically
(Nichols, 1990)..."

Unfortunately the reference to Nicols (1990) is not provided. Can
someone give this to me?

 (If this claim is true, it raises the
probability that the extinction of languages such as Ubykh--rumoured to
have 80 consonants--come about in part due to their "psycholinguistic
overhead" and not just the usual historical-social factors often cited.)

The statement also includes the interesting claim that "The loss to
humankind of genetic diversity in the linguistic world is thus arguably
greater than even the loss of genetic diversity in the biological world..."

John Limber
Department of Psychology
University of New Hampshire, Durham NH 03824, USA
email: jelchrista.unh.edu

I am interested in "cognate" noun constructions, as in

 They _danced a slow dance_ all night long
 I can't _button these buttons_ with my finger all bandaged up

I would greatly appreciate any pointers to work on this type of
construction, with respect to any language.

Please reply to me (chris-culyuiowa.edu), and I will post a summary
to the list.

Thanks in advance.

Chris Culy
chris-culyuiowa.edu

I once had a useful manuscript by Jonathan Ginzberg, from Stanford U.,
which treated wh-interrogatives. The date was (roughly) 1990.

I can no longer find it. This is a bad thing for two reasons:
first, because I'd like to re-read it, now that I'm working on
interrogatives again; second, because I'd like to cite my
source for some ideas which (I think) I took from this manuscript. Would
anyone know where I could get a hold of Ginzberg's stuff?

Please write me directly at:
rstaintoccs.carleton.ca

Thanks,
Rob Stainton

 Does anyone have an email address for Susan R. Hertz? She was once
 with Eloquent Technology, Inc., and the Department of Modern Languages
 and Linguistics at Cornell University, but apparently is no longer
 there.
 Mike Maxwell
 Mike.Maxwellsil.org