LINGUIST List 6.890

Tue Jun 27 1995

Qs: Bangani, Clitic Doubling, Dates

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

Directory

1. Daniel Baum, Bangani
2. Dalina Kallulli, Obligatory Clitic Doubling
3. "Mr A.P. Berber Sardinha", date formats

I am looking for any information and/or bibliographical references on an
Indian language called Bangani. This language apparently has preserved
some remarkable archaisms, and would appear from the available data in fact
not to be an Indo-Aryan language.

The only information I know of on the language appears in two articles by
Claus Peter Zoller in MSS 49 and 50, 1988 and 1989.


Daniel Baum
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Israel
dmbaumshani.net

Hello,
Does anybody happen to know of languages (other than Albanian and
Macedonian) which display obligatory clitic doubling of (either
accusative or dative) DPs? Any reference will be appreciated.

Please, write to me directly at: dalina.kallulliavh.unit.no


Thank you!
Dalina Kallulli

Hello,
This is a query about the different ways in which dates
can be expressed in different languages, and whether
there are constraints that apply in relation to register (eg formal,
informal, etc), genre (magazine, newspaper, personal vs
business letter, etc), historical, instrumental (format of calendars),
nationality, etc.

My initial impressions are the following.
As far the English speaking world goes, in Britain there is a variety
of ways in which dates can be expressed in writing, including
day month year; day-ordinal month year; month day, year;
month day-ordinal, year. Interestingly, this variety is
not found in numerical form, in which `day/month/year' is
expected. Note that the separators vary, the
most common being the slash (/), others being the dash (-),
the period (.) and the blank space ( ). In the other formats
in which words are used, only the `month' slot can
be spelled out, with days and years being expressed in
numbers. Variations include the use
of `the' preceding ordinal day numbers. Sometimes one can
find different formats being used in different parts of
the same publication, eg the header and the report in a
newspaper.

This seems to be in contrast with the USA where `month day, year'
seems to predominate whatever the situation, even when
expressed numerically as in 1/7/95 which is normally read
by Americans as the seventh day of the month of January,
whereas the British would take it to mean the first day
of the month of July, which is a 6-month difference.
Apparently, the Americans are the only ones to adopt month/day/year.
Someone once told me this is an old format which came into
being as a result of the fact that, in looking for today's date,
one would look in a calendar first of all for the current month,
with the year being taken for granted.

Any ideas? What's the norm in other languages / dialects, etc?

Thanks in advance,

Tony

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Tony Berber Sardinha | tony1liverpool.ac.uk
AELSU | Fax 44-51-794-2739
University of Liverpool |
PO Box 147 | http://www.liv.ac.uk/
Liverpool L69 3BX | ~tony1/homepage.html
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