LINGUIST List 7.1067

Wed Jul 24 1996

Qs: English Grammar, Word Association, Complements for _know_

Editor for this issue: Ljuba Veselinova <lveselinemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. Luis Alberto Gonzalez, Grammar
2. Luis Alberto Gonzalez, Grammar
3. "M. Lynne Murphy", word association
4. Barbara Need, complements for _know_

I would like to know if somebody can tell me when English verbs are
followed by 'that' compulsorily. Is there any pattern to know when
'that' is optional or when it is not ?

Does anybody know when we use 'want to' and when we can just say
'want' Ex: We can go if you want to. or We can go if you want.

hello all,

am looking for published or otherwise available word association test
results from non-western languages/cultures. are there any out there?

would also be interested in learning about anything written on cross-
cultural comparison of word association norms.

i ask because i'm concerned about the types of claims made about
lexical organization from w.a. data, especially when only english
w.a. norms seem to ever be considered. i wonder whether some of the
phenomena observed might be culturally biased. e.g., could it be that
the predominance of semantic opposition in word associations for some
types of words (e.g., gradable adjectives) is based on some western
expectation of how to behave in a word association task, while another
culture might be primed for, say, rhyming responses instead?

normal methods for finding stuff have not been successful for me.
i'll do some testing myself if there's nothing out there, but don't
want to re-invent the wheel if a literature exists. will gladly
summarize responses if there is interest.

thanks in advance,
lynne

- -------------------------------------------------------------------
M. Lynne Murphy 104lynmuse.arts.wits.ac.za
Department of Linguistics phone: 27(11)716-2340
University of the Witwatersrand fax: 27(11)716-8030
Johannesburg 2050
SOUTH AFRICA

I would like to find out what the percentages are for different kinds
of complements for _know_ in Modern English (I am looking at
complements for _cunnan_ in Old English and would like to
compare). This includes

I know him
sentential:
I know that he is coming
I know who he is
prepositional:
I know about the courses offered
verbal:
I know how to swim
zero/null:
Who is coming tonight? I don't know.

Does anyone know of a source for this sort of information?

Barbara Need
University of Chicago--Linguistics