LINGUIST List 6.230

Thu 16 Feb 1995

Sum: Buy, Markers of hostile language

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2. george elgin, suzette elgin, markers of hostile language

 (GCA01363niftyserve.or.jp)

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Dear linguist,
 I posted a query about the acceptability of the following sentences:

 (1) She was bought a dress.
 (2) She was written a letter.
 (3) Ann needn't be the guilty one.
 (4) it doesn't always have to be my fault.

Soon after that, I got their-four responses. Thanks a lot for answering
my query.
 As to sentences (1) and (2) the result of the inqury is as follows:

 (1) (2)
 OK 20 21
 ? 4 4
 * 10 9

As the table above shows, about 60 percent of the repondants accepted
the sentences. Some people, including Prof. Baxter, point out that (1)
and (2) are more commonly used with an explicit agent, as in:

 (5) She was bought a dress by her mother.
 (6) She was written a letter by the dean's office.

 As to sentences (3) and (4), almost all the people say that these
sentences are acceptable. According to some respeondants, sentence (3)
is formal, British and old-fashioned, whereas sentence (4) is informal
and more often used.

 If you have further questions about this problem, please e-mail
me directly. Anyway, your answers were very helpful to my research.
Thanks very much.

Sincerely,
Hiroaki Tanaka
Associate Professor, Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences,
Tokushima University, Japan.
GCA01363niftyserve.or.jp

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In 1994 I posted a query asking for markers of hostile language/verbal
abuse in various languages; I also asked for volunteers to listen to a
cassette tape explaining the problem, with examples...this was necessary
because intonation was crucial to the problem. I promised to post a summary
of responses if it appeared that that would be useful.

I want to thank all those who responded. And I want to explain that my
failure to post a summary is because I am reasonably sure ( based on the
messages I read on this list each evening) that you would *not* find it
useful.

 Responses were of the following kinds: people who sent examples of hostile
bits and pieces from various languages; people who said the material was
interesting but that they had no comment; and people who said they were
also working with hostile language and would be interested in the final
results.

I learned two things that were particularly valuable to me. First, that it
probably is not possible to develop a practical notation in graphic symbols
alone that would convey the information about intonation I need to
convey.... this didn't surprise me, but I had hoped to be proven wrong.
Second, I learned that I have been asking the wrong question about hostile
language, in my attempts to elicit non-English counterparts of certain
patterns of English verbal abuse. This is something I am sure I would
never have figured out on my own, and I'm grateful to be set right; it was
a classic example of digging the wrong hole ever deeper.

 If anyone would like a list of the non- English examples of hostile
English that people sent to me, I'll be happy to send it; just query me
directly.

Suzette Haden Elgin