LINGUIST List 7.1552

Sun Nov 3 1996

Disc: _Watch_, Natural language

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

Directory

1. "Meri Larjavaara", Watch
2. "James L. Fidelholtz", Re: 7.1524, Disc: Natural language

I would like to thank Dick Hudson and Knud Lambrecht for extremely
interesting contributions on the "missing" object of _watch_. However,
there are some points I would like to specify.

If I understood right, Knud Lambrecht said that the example

(2) (You're watching TV, and someone else switches the set off) Hey,
don't do that - I'm watching!

was different from

(3) I watched for an hour before going to bed.

which was INI and "totally indefinite", but he didn't give any more
specifications on (2). To me it would seem correct to suggest that (2)
is a case of frame-controlled DNI (instead of indefinite, as proposed
by Dick Hudson). What do you think?

About Knud Lambrecht's thought that

(1') ?? Hey, I'm watching it.

would be odd - didn't Dick Hudson say that was precisely what the
young people would say? In that case, would (1) be an instance of
specific-entity DNI?

What do you think?


Meri Larjavaara
Meri.LarjavaaraHelsinki.Fi
University of Helsinki

Message 2: Re: 7.1524, Disc: Natural language

	I've been waiting for someone to comment on the suggestion
attributed to Ivan Derzhanski that prepositions cannot assign
nominative case in natural languages. Unless I've been
theory-neutered and am missing something, this is not true. E.g., in
Spanish, _entre_ 'between' and _segu'n_ 'according to' govern the
nominative case:
	entre tu' y yo 'between you and me'	(cf. 'sin ti', 'sin mi'')
	segu'n yo 'according to me'.

		Jim

James L. Fidelholtz			e-mail:	jfidelsiu.cen.buap.mx
A'rea de Ciencias del Lenguaje		or:	jfidelcca.pue.udlap.mx
Instituto de Ciencias del Lenguaje
Beneme'rita Universidad Auto'noma de Puebla, Me'xico