LINGUIST List 7.1599

Mon Nov 11 1996

Qs: Russian, Linguistically-significant films, _All but_

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

Directory

1. cwhiteleytyco.geis.com, Russian clavichords
2. "steven h. weinberger", linguistically-significant feature films
3. Enzo Di Giulio, All but

I need a little help from Russian speakers and musicians, please. We
have a thread going in the Harpsichord List (HPSCHD-L) concerning the
correct terms for harpsichord, clavichord, square piano, fortepiano
etc. In 19 Century and modern Russian. Here is some background:

Pushkin's Evgenii Onegin mentions Lensky playing the 'klavikordi' in
Chapter 6, Stanza XIX and we want to know just what instrument he was
referring to. The translations we have looked at give clavichord, but
we wonder whether the harpsichord was really meant.

There is also a reference in Tolstoy's War and Peace to Natasha
playing the clavichord (I don't have the original Russian to see what
word Tolstoy used). The dictionaries we have looked at are not very
consistent, which is perhaps not so unusual for a highly specialised
subject, and the best way to resolve the issue would be with the help
of Russian musicians. So if anybody can help, these are some
questions:

1. Was Pushkin referring to the clavichord, the harpsichord or some
early sort of piano?

2. What are the usual modern Russian terms for clavichord and
harpsichord?

3. Is it the case, as at least one modern dictionary claims, that
modern klavikordi = harpsichord?

4. Or is it the case, as the Ozhegov dictionary claims, that
klavikordi and klavesin are distinguished as in English, with the
former striking the strings (clavichord) and the latter plucking them
(harpsichord)?

5. Whatever the modern usage may be, can we assume that it was the
same at the time a) of Evgenii Onegin (1830) and b) of War and Peace
(1869).

6. What other terms are or were used to describe the keyboard
instruments of the period?

If anybody can help in any way at all, please contact me direct and I
will send you more detailed information from HPSCHD-L. I will of
course post a summary of the results.

Colin Whiteley
Barcelona, Spain
cwhiteleytyco.geis.com

the george mason university linguistics club is making plans for a
linguistic film festival next semester. we will begin the festival
with a 4-week showing of the recently produced __human language
series__ and __american tongues__ . these are documentary videos, but
we want to fill out the following 10 weeks with feature films that
have some linguistic content. some of our choices include films like:

Nell 	(language deprivation in a child)
The Wild Child 	(a french film about language deprivation)
Enemy Mine 	(sci-fi film with language acquisition)
Daughters of the Dust (film with lots of american creole language)
Pygmalion (film with some phonetics)
Stargate		(historical linguistics)

we need suggestions for other feature films that have linguistic 
content. i will reproduce the list of suggestions for the LINGUIST 
community.

thanks.

- steven weinberger
george mason university
weinberggmu.edu

 Surely the old question of the English expression +all but+
has been handled in this newsgroup. Can anyone indicate where I can
find the +final+ solution? Colleagues will remember that the problem
is to give a clearcut significance to sentences like:
 All but John went to the party [John did not go ]
 	I saw all but ten boys running toward the house [ the boys
	were less than ten, or all the boys were running except ten?].
 	And so on.
 Unambiguous instances would be appreciated.
Many thanks to all patient English-speaking, English-born volunteers.
 Enzo Di Giulio