LINGUIST List 7.166

Fri Feb 2 1996

Disc: Emphasis, Journal Costs

Editor for this issue: T. Daniel Seely <dseelyemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. "Harold F. Schiffman", Re: 7.143, Disc: Emphasis
2. Peter Daniels, Re: 7.143, Disc: Emphasis
3. "Ormsby Lowry Harold-CELE", Re: 7.158, Sum: Journal Subscription Costs
4. Richard Ingham, Re: 7.158, Sum: Journal Subscription Costs

Message 1: Re: 7.143, Disc: Emphasis

Torsten Leuschner's posting about German emphasis, on prepositions with 
which there can be no contrast, reminded me of when I first began to 
notice this in American news broadcasts. It was during one of the crises 
in the Middle East, and after saying something about Israel or whatever, 
the announcer said

	Henry Kissinger is now *in* Jerusalem, and will be talking to 
officials there about xyz. 

It struck me at the time as being a way to contrast reports *about* the
Middle East with a statement about somebody being physically, actually, at
this moment *there*, but I think now some of this has become divorced from
just "contrasting prepositions". In other words it has a kind of
immediacy, it's-happening-right-now, kind of effect. In the airline
announcements, though, it sounds to me more like a kind of 
chiding or scolding: 

	"we warned you about
remaining *in* your seats until the aircraft has come to a complete stop
*at* the gate, and now we're going to remind you *again*!"

Hal Schiffman 

Message 2: Re: 7.143, Disc: Emphasis

This morning a new staff announcer at WBEZ (our NPR station), did faulty
emphasis, both in written texts and spontaneous s6tatements ("Jerome
McDonnell will interview a spokesperson OF Sinn Fein"). I phoned the
stateion, but the receptionist would not put me through to him, and he
did not return the message I left.

Might I speculate-- He learned in Radio Announcer School not to swallow
the "little words"? Perhpas speech teachers have them do this as an
exercise, and it becomes such a habit that they can't help it?

Message 3: Re: 7.158, Sum: Journal Subscription Costs

I agree that the traditional academic journal is probably on its way out 
for all the reasons mentioned and then some. At the same time, I'm not 
entirely convinced by the Internet/WWW alternatives because they require 
hook-up technology that isn't universally available, isn't particularly 
reliable in a lot of places, and requires regular payments to keep the 
hook-up available. While computers themselves aren't universally available 
either, they only require one-shot expenditures (plus maintainance costs, 
of course) and can be justified by the wide range of uses they can be put 
to.

It seems to me that linguistics is one of a number of fields that could 
benefit enormously from CD-ROM technology. Even if costs didn't go down 
all that much, we could have articles and books with animated graphics, 
sound and video. Although the present generations of linguists will 
probably never be completely comfortable with the "new-fangled gadgetry," I 
think the next ones will wonder how we ever did anything without them. 
(Many of us can think back to the days before electric typewriters and 
photocopiers.) It might be the thing that makes linguistics more accessible 
to other scientists and the general public.

Are any of the publishers thinking in this direction?


*****+++++*****
Harold Ormsby L.
Ensenyanza de Lenguas Indigenas
Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores
en Antropologia Social (CIESAS-Mexico)
ormsbyservidor.unam.mx (asuntos academicos/academic matters)
hormsbyspin.com.mx (cualquier asunto/whatever)

Message 4: Re: 7.158, Sum: Journal Subscription Costs

Further to the discussion on journal costs, I think it's important not to
lose sight of economic facts outside publishers' control:
devaluation (as in the UK in 1992) and inflational
pressures which may be greater in one country than in another.
	Having said that, I agree very much with the contributor who
asked for monitoring of journal prices. A little while ago I compared
subscription rates for 25 journals between 1984 and 1994 and came up with
some mildly fascinating observations, which I can share with anyone
interested.

Richard Ingham
Department of Linguistic Science
The University of Reading
UK