LINGUIST List 7.1199

Mon Aug 26 1996

Qs: Engl grammar, Ukrainian discourse, Romance adverbs

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

Directory

1. Ronald Schilling, Engl grammar
2. kristoffer greaves, Ukrainian Discourse and Culture
3. cwhiteleytyco.geis.com, Romance adverbs

The subject 7.1190,Sum:"my own ones" got me thinking about something
that people here (Salisbury, MD) say. They refer to a driver's license
as a plural i.e.:

Speaker 1: "I went to the MVA to get my license."

Speaker 2: "Did you get them?"

Has anyone studied this and written about it or something similar? If so
is there anything available for me to read on the subject?

Totally unrelated: Does language or even regional accent affect a
person's facial structure. Does facial structure affect language and
accent?

Any information, leads or answers would be greatly appreciated.

Ron

I would be very grateful if anyone could provide me with details or
directions that could lead me to (English language) articles or books
that study Ukrainian language discourse and culture. I am
particularly interested in Wierzbicka-style 'cultural scripts' based
on a metalanguage of lexical universals. I will joyfully compile a
summary of information sent.

Regards to all
Kristoffer Greaves
Phone and Fax (61) 047 87 1207
email: kristofflisp.com.au
http://www.lisp.com.au/~kristoff/index.html

All (I think) of the Romance languages have a common way of forming
regular adverbs, based on the feminine form of the corresponding
adjective followed by the suffix "ment(e)". This gives us
"heureusement" (Fr), "rapidamente" (Sp, Pt, It), bojament (Catalan -
"madly") and so on.

I have also made the assumption that the origin of this is to be found
in vulgar Latin, probably in the ablative form of a third declension
feminine noun, giving the original sense of "in a happy (fast, mad)
manner".

However, I have never seen any proof of this assumption, nor have I
been able to establish which Latin noun is involved. Could it be mens,
mentis (ablative mente) "mind"? If so, the original sense would
perhaps have been "in a happy frame of mind", "with a rapid
disposition" etc., and would subsequently have been generalised to
cover all adverbial meanings. ("The car went quickly down the
motorway", and "fortunately it didn't collide with the bus" would not
fit the restricted sense of "mind", yet both are completely normal in
modern Romance languages).

Can anybody help, either with the original expression, or with the
process of generalisation?

And while we're about it, what about the corresponding Germanic
particles -ly (Eng), -lich (German) etc.? Do these also have their
origin in a separate word?

Colin Whiteley
Barcelona, Spain
cwhiteleytyco.geis.com