LINGUIST List 6.1582

Thu Nov 9 1995

Qs: PhD Programs,Verb Placement in German,Relativization

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

Directory

1. Steve Chandler, Acceptance to PhD Programs in Linguistics
2. "Barbara Snyder", Verb Placement German vs. English
3. "R.Weinert", German relatives

	I teach in a small (about 25 students) MA-TESL program at the
University of Idaho. From time to time one of our students becomes
interested enough in linguistics and/or TESL to want to go on to a PhD
program. Those students frequently ask me whether there are any
advantages--better chances at acceptance to a PhD program or head
start on the course work--in completing an MA before applying to a
doctoral program and whether there is an advantage to taking our
thesis option as part of their MA.
	I would appreciate hearing what those of you teaching in PhD
programs think about these questions (especially if you have
experience with graduate admissions committees). We have had several
students accepted into reputable programs. I think that they--the
students--had all written theses.
Thanks. I'll post a summary if the responses seem to justify one.

						Steve Chandler
						chandleruidaho.edu

Hi, all --

A friend asked me for this info. I have no memory of those hazy days
in Linguistics 101, and after a recent move, my books are all buried
in boxes somewhere. Can anyone help by replying directly to her?

CC to the list if you think it appropriate.

Thanks -- Barb


 - Forwarded Message Follows -------

I'm teaching a class in English Grammar Tues-Thus nights at Western
Business College and we were wondering why, if English is a Germanic
language, how did the verb shift from the end of the sentence to
where it is now? That's a huge change and languages don't do that
without some major revolution happening. I also understand that the
closest modern language to English is Dutch and I'm ashamed to say I
don't know where they put the verb. Can you send an answer to this
by Thurs?

I am working on relativisation in standard spoken German and I would
welcome any comments/suggestions, references to current work etc. I am
using the Institut fuer Deutsche Sprache corpora, among others, and I
am aware of the spoken language work within this framework. There does
not appear to be very much on the topic. I have identified a number of
feature typical of standard spoken language. I was wondering whether
there might be related work within dialectology approaches.

Issues include:

 - syntactic complexity of relative clauses and their main clauses

 - paratactic vs hypotactic constructions, i.e. non-integrated structures
(eg er kennt eine frau die wohnt in Berlin)etc

 - asyndetic constructions (i.e without relative pronoun)

Any comments will be most welcome. I will post a summary of the reponses.

Thank you

Regina Weinert