LINGUIST List 5.928

Mon 29 Aug 1994

Qs: AINU, Dusun, Wh (+animate - human), Automatic data collection

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Sheila Shigley, AINU
2. , "dusun" language
3. , Wh (+animate - human)
4. Megan Moser, automatic data collection

Hello All,

 Is anyone aware of the current status of Ainu i.e. are language
 renewal/revival efforts currently underway?

Many thanks,

Sheila Shigley
Hocak Wazijaci Language Program
sshigleymacc.wisc.edu

In Montagu's work on touch he writes that there is a population (described as
"the Dusun people of Northern Borneo") whose language not only has an
extremely rich touch vocabulary but also a large inventory of "culturally
structured gestures" and postures and so on that have particular touch
actions as their semantic content. The work he cites is from 1966. Is there
anyone on LINGUIST who is familiar with this language (the name of which may
not be "Dusun," I realize)? I especially need to know whether the claim was
accurate in 1966 and whether it is accurate today; any information on the
language would be helpful. NOTE: If anyone is familiar with ANY language
characterized by a rich touch vocabulary (by which I do not mean the
vocabulary of "feelings" in the sense of emotions, but only the tactile and
kinesthetic, haptic, vocabulary), I would appreciate information. If there is
sufficient interest I will post a summary.

Suzette Haden Elgin

Following up on my earlier query about 'who' in 'who is your name',
I have come up with another area of crosslinguistic variation
regarding the choice of 'who' vs. 'what', namely, which one is
used for animals. For many languages I cannot find clear answers
to this question in the standard source, so here goes another
query:

 In languages known to you, are questions about animals
asked with the same interrogative as about people ('who')
or the same as about things ('what') or both or neither?

My colleagues and I would like to collect some typed
``conversational'' interactions of two subjects collaborating on a
task. There are several programs that allow computer users to
simultaneously type messages to each other, usually called something
like ``talk'' or ``chat'' or ``phone''. Does anyone out there know of
a way to save these interactions in a file so that the file records
what was typed, which user typed it and in what sequence? We are
interested in any way others might know of to do this sort of data
collection-- it could be on unix or vms, a pc or a mac.

Please reply directly to me; I'll be glad to inform the list of the
results. Thanks for any help you can offer.

Megan Moser
Learning Research and Development Center
and Department of Linguistics
University of Pittsburgh
3939 O'Hara Street, LRDC 806
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

E-mail: moserisp.pitt.edu