LINGUIST List 7.1714

Thu Dec 5 1996

Qs: Internet, English, Books, Applied Linguistics

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

Directory

1. Ingrid Kristine Hasund, Communication on the Internet
2. Birgit Kellner, English easiest language?
3. pages selena, book out of print
4. lopez_carmentrad.upf.es, asla, applied linguistics

Dear fellow linguists,

I am considering doing a project on communication on the Internet (email,
IRC, etc.), and I would like to get in contact with researchers and
students working on this topic, preferably from the perspective of
Pragmatics/Interactional Sociolinguistics/Conversation Analysis, or other
communication-based approaches. I would also be very grateful if anyone
could help me find some literature on the topic.

Thank you,
Kristine Hasund

Kristine Hasund
Research assistant
Dept. of English
University of Bergen
Sydnesplass 9
N-5007 Bergen, Norway

e-mail: Kristine.Hasundeng.uib.no
phone: +47 55 58 92 79
fax: +47 55 58 94 55
http://www.hd.uib.no/colt/

In a recent discussion, somebody pointed out to me (or tried to) that
English was linguistically proven to be the easiest language of the
world, i.e. the language easiest to learn. As the discussion took place
in an environment not particularly favourable to scholarly rigour (a
bar, it was), my subsequent questions remained unanswered. The statement
itself, however, got stuck in my mind, which is why I am now trying to
find out (a) how such a proof could be carried out and (b) whether it
really was carried out by anybody. To me, this thesis sounds a bit like
Bergson's "illusion of retrospective determinism": The conviction that,
just because something happened, it had to happen that way, i.e. the
conviction, just because English is the most widely spoken language of
the world (widely spoken, but, of course, not spoken by most of the
people of the world), it has to be the easiest to learn. 

Any references appreciated, 
	-- 
Birgit Kellner
Department of Indian Philosophy
Hiroshima University

I am a French student in English Master's dissertation.I am studying
"artificial languages in fiction". My problem is that the two books I
need(Aliens and linguists:language study and science fiction by Walter
Meyers ,editor:U.of Georga Press and 'linguistics and language in
science fiction/fantasy' by Edwards Barns,editor:Arno)are out of
print...and not available in Libraries in Paris. Could you help me to
find them out?( if you know other books dealing with this topic,please
give me the references)

thank you
Selena Pages

Item Subject: Texto de mensaje
Dear colleages,

 We are looking for references about the "Association Suidoise de
Linguistique Appliquie" (ASLA). We are a group of teachers of Discourse
Analysis in the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. We are very
interested in the relationship between Discourse and the professions
and we konw that ASLA made an International Conference about this
subject four years ago at the "Uppsala Universitet". We will be very
pleased if you could give us some information about this association.

 Thanks very much in advance.