LINGUIST List 7.1309

Fri Sep 20 1996

Qs: Person restriction, Reflexives, Lists of abbreviations

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

Directory

1. Daniela Caluianu, Qs:person restriction
2. elisa vazquez iglesias, Reflexives
3. Danko Sipka, Q: Lists of abbreviations

Dear Linguists,
I'm sorry this has come to be such a long question.

It is common, in Japanese linguistic literature to divide adjectives
into two subclasses: descriptive and subjective (though the labels may
differ among authors). The latter class is said to express the
speaker's internal states: emotions, sensations, etc. Adjectives in
this class have in common the fact that they cannot be used in their
present tense form with a 2nd or 3rd person subject. That is, the
Japanese counterpart of the English sentence 'John is sad' is not
acceptable. The restriction is neutralized with past forms or if
certain modals are added. 

Discussing the problem Teramura comments that this is an interesting
particularity of the Japanese language. However, Wierzbicka(1996) p115
mentions the existance of the same phenomenon in Hua . On the same
lines, Postal (1970) points out the contrast between 'seem' and
'think' with regard to the choice of Experiencer. I wonder if there
are any other languages displaying this kind of person restriction. If
there are, I would like to know: (1) What are the semantic classes to
which the restriction applies (2) Are there any contexts in which the
restriction is suspended? (3) The case marking pattern of the items
displaying the restriction. (4) Is the restriction considered
pragmatic, semantic, syntactic? Any references on the topic would be
most welcome.

Please answer to me directly, I will post a summary.
Thank you in advance.
Daniela Caluianu s925043ipe.tsukuba.ac.jp

References:
Postal,Paul(1970) On the Surface Verb 'Remind', LI 1:37-120
Teramura, Hideo(1982) Nihongo no Shintakusu to Imi, Kuroshio
	Shuppan, Tokyo
Wierzbicka,Anna(1996) Semantics, Oxford University Press

To all native speakers of (British, American, Australian and Canadian)
English

I would appreciate it if you could comment on the following sentences:

1) Mary sat (herself) down.
2) John learned (himself) to play the piano.
3) John showed (himself) to be successful.
4) John absented himself from class.
5) John remembered (himself) how the accident happened.
6) John reminded (himself) how the accident happened.
7) Mary weakened (herself).
8) Mary dressed (herself).
9) This jacket washes (itself) well.
10) I sang (myself) a song.
11) Paul believes (himself) to be intelligent.
12) Paul pretends (himself) to be intelligent.
13) I imagined (myself) on vacation.
14) I am applying (myself) to the task.
15) I am applying (myself) for the job.

I am particularly interested in the distinction between emphatic versus
reflexive self forms in English. Therefore, I would like to know

a) In which cases only the reflexive reading is permitted.
b) In which cases only the emphatic reading is permitted.
c) when you would omit the self form without changing the meaning of the
sentence.

It would also be very useful if you could give me your personal
information (such as age, profession, country where you were born...).

I also welcome any comments on this issue. Thanks a lot. I hope to
hearing from you pretty soon.


		Elisa Vazquez Iglesias
		Universidad de Santiago, Spain

I am looking for a list of abbreviations, preferably the one which will
discriminate between those which cannot be found at the end of sentence
(such as Dr. Mr.) and those which can (such as Ltd., Inc.).

I am interested in free lists available in the Internet for English and
other languages.

If somebody knows for such lists, please let me know to my
address: sipkadanhum.amu.edu.pl, and I will send the summary to the
Linguist.

Danko Sipka