LINGUIST List 6.1283

Thu Sep 21 1995

Qs: Morphemes,Mesopotamian,SES,Johannessen'Thesis,Glagolitic

Editor for this issue: Annemarie Valdez <avaldezemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. Gwyn Williams, Q: English morpheme lists?
2. Richard Cook, Mesopotamian constellation names
3. , SES in sociolinguistics
4. Heidi Quinn, Q:Johannessen's thesis on coordination
5. Josh Rotenberg, Glagolitic Alphabet

A computing student, doing a term assignment, wants to write a program
that enables a English L2 speaker to break down an unknown word into
component morphemes: prefix(es) - root - suffix(es).

The logical way, it seems to me, to tackle this task is to first isolate
the affixes as there is a fixed and limited number of them, then to match
the root to some database of English roots.

Does anyone know the location (preferably online or at least in computer
form) of lists of affixes and roots?

Please respond to me personally.

 Mr. Gwyn Williams \_ *
 Department of Linguistics </ * *
 Thammasat University /)
 Bangkok 10200, Thailand (/ *
 <gwynipied.tu.ac.th> '

I am a linguist specializing in classical/preclassical Chinese, working
to decipher oracle bone/shell inscriptions (c. -1400). The present
query relates to the origins of the Western constellations: I am
seeking references to treatises dealing with the origins of zodiacal,
super- and subzodiacal, and boreal circumpolar constellations. Any
works which provide as complete a list as possible of Mesopotamian
(Sumerian, Babylonian, Akkadian etc.) constellation names would be
relevant. But most useful would be references to works dealing with
Mesopotamian Astronomy and its later developments, especially the
ETYMOLOGIES of constellation names in the several Mesopotamian
traditions.
Thanks to anyone providing information.
Richard

Dear Readers of Linguist:

I am looking for a very "orthodox" measurement of SES / social class for
the purposes of a sociolinguistic study. Ideally, what I would like to find
is a published questionnaire or a study where the questionnaire that was
used to assess SES is recoverable. I would also like to hear from you if you
have designed or used such a questionnaire for the assessment of SES and are
willing to share it with me.

I would like to be able to say that this questionnaire (and the study) is
fairly typical of its kind, (i.e. of sociolinguistic studies which use SES
to assess social standing), so that I can compare it with my own measurement
of social class and see which one correlates better with linguistic data.

Any ideas, suggestions?
I'll summarize the responses.


Thanks in advance,

Vera Horvath
00v0horvathbsuvc.bsu.edu

I'm looking for information about the following PhD thesis, which was
apparently submitted at the University of Oslo:

Johannessen, J.B. 1993. Coordination: a minimalist approach.

The study is quoted by Robert D. Borsley in his paper _In defense of
coordinate structures_, published in Linguistic Analysis 24:218-46 (1994).
It seems that Johannessen discusses case and agreement in coordination,
which is a topic I am working on myself. Unfortunately, I have found no
reference to this thesis on the MLA or First Search, and so far no abstract
has been published in DAI. Does anyone know more about the contents of the
thesis and how to get hold of a copy?

Heidi Quinn
h.quinnling.canterbury.ac.nz

Hello,
I am studying the history of the Slavic languages, Russian in particular,
and we talked briefly about the Glagolitic alphabet. Unfortunately, our
text spoke very briefly about it. Can anyone point me to any articles/books
that have more information about the development of this language, what
works it was used for, why it disappeared, etc. ? I would prefer in
English, but Russian will do fine. Thanks in advance.
Josh


_______________________________
Joshua Daniel Rotenberg |
Russian Department |
San Francisco State University |
jrotsfsu.edu |
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~jrot |
_______________________________|