LINGUIST List 7.1090

Wed Jul 31 1996

Qs: Genericness, Race and accent, Palindrom

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <dizdartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. Michael Kliffer, Q: 'the' and genericness
2. Larry Rosenwald, race and accent, re the Atlanta bombing
3. Karlheinz Essl, in girum imus nocte, et consumimur igni

I would like to get bibliographical and direct information on
the following contrast:

(1) The mosquitoes will eat you alive in that park.

(2) Mosquitoes will eat you alive in that park.

Specifically, I would like to know if (1), said without prior mention
of 'mosquitoes', would be considered to contain a generic subject,
just as (2) normally is. I would also appreciate any insights,
whether syntactic, semantic or pragmatic, on such a contrast or lack
thereof in other syn- tactic positions, e.g.

(3) The woods were swarming with (*the) mosquitoes. (i.e. it seems to
me that 'the' can't be used if there hasn't been prior mention of its
head N.)

(4) You have to beware of (the) mosquitoes when you go into those
woods. (I think 'the' is OK here without prior mention of its N.)


Thanks.

Mike Kliffer
Dept. of French
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
L8S 4M2
kliffermcmaster.ca

	Hi - I was listening to the radio reports of the Atlanta
bombing this morning, and heard an FBI agent say that the 911 caller
who announced the presence of the bomb had been identified as a white
male. Maybe I'm just focusing on this as a distraction from the
appalling heart of the matter, but I wondered whether it's possible,
and if so how, to determine race so confidently from a voice tape.
Or, to put it more forthrightly, on the basis of what I know of these
matters I'm skeptical regarding that possibility. Can anyone help me
out in understanding how the FBI made its connection? Thanks, Larry
Rosenwald

Since a couple of years I am looking for the original source of this
palindrom, but in vain.

Any hints? Please reply to me directly for I am not on this mailing
list.

Thanks in advance,

_____________________________________________________

Dr. Karlheinz Essl
SAMT - Studio for Advanced Music & Media Technology
Bruckner-Konservatorium Linz / Austria
email: esslping.at
www: http://www.ping.at/users/essl/index.html
______________________________________________________