LINGUIST List 6.658

Tue 09 May 1995

Qs: Gay/lesbian lg, Serbo-Croatian, Arabic, Eng grammar

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Directory

1. Laurie Marks, Query: Gay/lesbian lg
2. Svein Lie, Serbo-Croatian cases
3. , Arabic word processor
4. Linguistic Group, Grammar

I'm a graduate student in writing and linguistics, and am conducting
research into the unique language use of gays, lesbians, and other
gender outlaws. Some commonly used and understood terms are "gaydar"
(i.e., gay radar - the sixth sense by which we somehow know each other)
and "breeder" (a mildly derogatory term for heterosexual people). I'm
collecting terms like these, and also looking to identify semantic
vacancies, concepts for which adequate words don't exist. Usually, I
think, these vacancies occur with terms that must operate on the
boundaries between the inside and outside of the community. Such
vacancies include an equivalent for husband/wife which does not imply
heterosexuality or marriage ("partner" is the common, but inadequate
term); an equivalent for daughter/son-in-law for those poor bewildered
parents who struggle to introduce their son or daughter's beloved (they
usually resort to "friend"). But private language also has its vacancies,
such as a lack of words for making love which don't assume the presence
of certain body parts. Any contributions to this list would be most
appreciated. Also, anyone who can point me to resource material, which
has been astonishingly hard to find. Thanks!

Laurie Marks

lmarkslynx.dac.neu.edu.

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Question to the Linguist List:

(I am posting this for somebody else:)

I am interested in cases in Serbo-Croatian (or Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian ...)
and their relative frequency. Is there any informatian somewhere about
the frequency of the different cases (nominative, accusative etc.) in texts?
(Data for other Slavic languages may also be useful.)

Answers can be sent to

Svein.Lieinl.uio.no

(= Svein Lie, University of Oslo, Norway)

Svein Lie,
Institutt for nordistikk og litteraturvitenskap,
Universitetet i Oslo
Pb. 1013 Blindern, N-0315 Oslo
Tlf.: (+47) 228-56974
Faks: (+47) 228-57100
E-post: Svein.Lieinl.uio.no

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Not sure whether LINGUIST is an appropriate forum for this kind of query
but, on behalf of a colleague: does anyone know of a word processor for
Arabic that runs on Apple/Macintosh computers?
Many thanks in advance.
Alex Housen

___________________________________________________________
Alex Housen Germanic Languages Dept.
University of Brussels (VUB) Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel:+32-2-6292664; Fax:+32-2-6292480; Email:ahousenvnet3.vub.ac.be
___________________________________________________________

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I'm told this sentence is correct, but I don't agree:

"He saw the house red"

to mean "the house looked red to him". As a layman, I feel it sounds
incorrect but that's an intuitive judgement. What's the opinion of
the experts and how would one analyse it?

Lalita Sinha
Computer Assisted Translation Unit
Universiti Sains Malaysia
email: lalitacs.usm.my