LINGUIST List 7.44

Wed Jan 10 1996

Qs: Experiencer Role, Metathesis

Editor for this issue: Annemarie Valdez <avaldezemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. "David Harris", ?? on Experiencer Role
2. <SANDRAed.pdx.edu>, Metathesis

HI!

I am not a member of the list, but a friend suggested I pose my
question on thematic roles here. I'm a little in the dark as to
exactly how the experiencer role is handled according to thematic-role
theory.

Can anyone offer a brief explanation and/or point me to a fairly basic
reading on the subject? What I need, I think, are several examples. Is
the idea just that no change in state or location occurs in the
observed element (theme)? Or is there more?

Thanks, 
Quentin North

I'm not a linguist, but David Pesetsky suggested I post a question I
have to this list. My background is in literacy teacher education, and
I had some basic work in linguistics in my doctoral program. I'm
writing a book for teachers to help them increase their own knowledge
of phonetics and phonics (in a non-technical way) and plan to discuss
issues of phonetic language variation within English. My question is
about the African American use of /aks/ and /akst/ for "ask" and
"asked." Does this phenomenon occur only on this word? What's the
reason it occurs? (e.g., is it easier to pronounce?). Any thoughts in
general on the topic of helping teachers understand language variation
would also be welcome.

Thank you!
Sandra Wilde
Portland State University (Oregon)