LINGUIST List 6.1772

Thu Dec 21 1995

Qs: Bantu, Sentence Stress, Diasystems

Editor for this issue: Anthony M. Aristar <aristartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. Georges Rebuschi, Re: 6.1746, Qs: locative Phrases.
2. Michael M T Henderson, Sentence stress
3. martin kimo friese, Structural Dialectology / "Diasystems"

Message 1: Re: 6.1746, Qs: locative Phrases.

Hello all!
I'd be very glad to know how the data offered (and repeated below)
translates into Bantu languages -- say Swahili, Kinyarwanda or Chichewa...
Thanks to the experts.
G.

A (At) 14:25 14/12/95, The Linguist List ecrivait (wrote):
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>LINGUIST List: Vol-6-1746. Thu Dec 14 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 139
>
>Subject: 6.1746, Qs: locative Phrases...
>I am interested in the locality of Locative phrases based on Rizzi's
>"Relativized Minimality". I made interrogative sentenses which have
>two wh-elements. I would like to do Informat check because I cannot
>judge the acceptability of those sentenses precisely. I numbered the
>sentenses from (1) to (6), and each number includes two sentenses.
>Would you compare and judge which sentense is more acceptable? Please
>put "*" when you consider a sentense as ungramatical, and put "?" or
>"??" when you feel that a sentense is strange.
>
>(1) ( ) a. Where did you wonder how to put the books t ?
> (-- I wondeeed how to put the books on the shelf.)
> ( ) b. How did you wonder where to put the books t ?
> (-- I wondered where to put the books at random.
>
>(2) ( ) a. Where did you wonder how to play the guitar t ?
> (-- I wondered how to play the guitar in his room.)
> ( ( ) b.
> How did you wonder where to play the guitar t ?
> (-- I wondered where to play the guitar to my heart content.)
>
>(3) ( ) a. Where did you wonder how to treat Mary t ?
> (-- I wondered how to treat mary in the classroom.)
> ( ) b. How did you wonder where to treat Mary t ?
> (-- I wondered where to treat Mary kindly.
>
>(4) ( ) a. Where did you wonder how to study English t ?
> ( -- I wondered how to study English in the library.)
> ( ) b. How did you wonder where to study English t ?
> (-- I wondered where to study English in a loud voice.)
>
>(5) ( ) a. Where did you wonder what to put t ?
> (-- I wondered what to put under the chair.)
> ( ) b. What did you wonder where to put t ?
> (-- I wondered where to put the vase.)
>
>(6) ( ) a. Where did you wonder what to buy t ?
> (-- I wondered what to buy in that shop.)
> ( ) b. What did you wonder where to buy t ?
> (-- I wondered where to buy a cup.)
>
>Thank you very much. I look forward to your early reply.
>
>Sincerely Yours,
>
>Maki Irie
>Student of Seinan Gakuin University
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
...


_______________

Georges Rebuschi
TYGRe (ILPGA -U. Paris III)
19, rue des Bernardins
F-75005 Paris
Tel (work): (+33.1) 44 32 05 86
Fax (work): (+33.1) 43 29 70 13
Tel+fax (home): (+33) 83 21 20 82

I am looking for information on the ways different languages go about
highlighting or focusing different elements in an utterance. The Germanic
languages all, as far as I know, have contrastive stress available, so
that a sentence such as "It's hard to summarize 150 pages in 3 pages"
pwould have its tonic accent on '3'. Yet last week I heard a speaker of
Venezuelan Spanish say that exact sentence, with tonic accent on both
tokens of 'pages'. This and other information I've seen on Linguist (plus
this same speaker's introduction of a couple as 'Sue Smith and her
husband John SMITH') lead me to be sure that emphasis in Spanish is not
something you can do prosodically. English speakers studying Spanish
don't know this of course, so they think that if they want to say 'He
gave it to ME' they need only stress 'me' in 'ME lo dio', which falls on
deaf ears (except maybe in Chicano Spanish?) instead of adding 'a mi'.
The information on other languages is conflicting. Some people claim that
in Thai, for instance, prosodic emphasis is possible--but all of the
examples show the stressed word in the sentence position where it would
normally receive tonic accent. In Mandarin, it is said, emphasized words
are lengthened. In Japanese, higher pitch and longer duration may be
used, I'm told, but I'm not convinced.
I would be grateful if anyone with anything to say about this would email
me directly. I will, of course, post a summary if I get any responses.
_______________________________________
| \
| Michael M. T. Henderson . |
| Linguistics Department \
| University of Kansas |
| Lawrence, KS 66045-2140 |
| Voice: (913) 864-3481 |
| Fax: (913) 864-5700 |
| Internet: m-hendersonukans.edu |
|________________________________________|

 Dear Linguists:

 I'm a graduate student in the Germanic Linguistics Department  the
University of California, Los Angeles. I'm presently working on a paper
concerning structural dialectology and diasystemic approaches to dialect
and language comparisons. Are there any recent papers/sources available
that have been released/published within the last 3 to 4 years on the
subject? Any idea as to recent developments or new dirctions concerning
diasystems or dialectology in general?
 All replys will be sincerely appreciated...

 By the way, this service is choice! Any info on other services out there
for the curious and up n' coming linguist?

 Again, advanced thanks to all replys...

 Kimo Friese <kfrieseucla.edu>