LINGUIST List 6.1323

Thu Sep 28 1995

Qs: Cockney Eng,French Syntax,Spanish Phon,Reflexives

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

Directory

1. , Cockney English and London English
2. , French *personne* and *rien*
3. Liliana Sanchez, Query Spanish Phonology
4. Mark Dras, Creeping Reflexives

 Dear Linguists!

 I am posting this for one of my final year students, who has been
 encouraged to try her luck, after having heard from her friend Ono
 Aine that she had really got replies to her query about Linguistic
 Human Rights.

 Please send replies to me.

 K. Shimizu: shimizulet.kumamoto-u.ac.jp
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 September 27

 Hello, I am a linguistics student in Kumamoto university.
 I am looking for information about Cockney English and London English.
 Could you let me know about the differences between them in detail?
 In some books they are used in the same meaning,however in some books
 they are not. I would like to know about their definition.
 Thank you.

 Mariko Tsugawa

It is well-known that the distribution of *personne* differs from that of
*rien* in most varieties of contemporary French. Generally speaking, while
*personne* is restricted to its thematic A-position, *rien* is able to float
leftwards in a number of constructions, e.g.:

(1) Je n' ai rien vu vs. Je n' ai vu personne
 I *ne* have *rien* seen I *ne* have seen *personne*

(2) ...de ne rien voir vs. ...de ne voir personne
 of *ne* *rien* see of *ne* see *personne*

I am aware of no published attempt to explain the different behaviours of
these two items and would be grateful to any subscribers who do know of work
on this topic if they would let me have details. I will inform the list of the
results of this request.

Many thanks,
Paul Rowlett
Department of Modern Languages
University of Salford
Salford, M5 4WT
England

	I am interested in references of textbooks for undergraduate courses on
Spanish Phonology or Romance Languages Phonology. I will be very thankful for
any help on this matter.

Liliana Sanchez

e-mail address: lilianacsulb.edu

Dear Linguists,

My partner, who works at a bank, brought to my attention
this phenomenon, which I've been noticing more often
since then: the increasing use of the reflexive in places where
it wouldn't seem to be traditional usage.

It seems to occur most frequently with an indirect (or direct)
object in the second person:

"I shall forward yourself the report later."

or

"I shall forward the report to yourself later."

But it seems to be cropping up in more and more cases:

"You can see Paul and myself at 3pm."
"Give it to myself at the meeting later."
"Paul and myself will be working on this project."

My partner was asked to review a report containing something
like the last of these sentences, changed the `and myself' to `and I',
and was told by several people that he was wrong, that it
should be ` and myself'.

So, what I was wondering was:

Has anyone else noticed this takeover by reflexives,
or is it confined to the Australian banking and computer industries?

Is anyone aware of an explanation for it?

If there's enough interest (> 3 people), I'll post a summary,
along with some observations.


Thanks,

Mark Dras