LINGUIST List 7.70

Wed Jan 17 1996

Qs: German isogloss, Inference, "Turkey," Names

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

Directory

1. "Larry Trask", German isogloss boundary
2. sperber dan, Geis & Zwicky's invited inference
3. Theriault Alain, How do you say "turkey"?
4. MARC PICARD, Re: First names

For many years I have had in my files a map of part of the isogloss
boundary separating north German _us_ `us' from south German _uns_ in
the vicinity of the Rhine. The map shows a long finger of _uns_
territory extending northward along the Rhine deep into _us_
territory, as far as Koblenz, and it illustrates the possible effect
of a river upon an isogloss boundary. I'd like to use this map in a
forthcoming book, but unfortunately I no longer have a record of
where I found it, and I can't locate it now in any obvious source.
Can anyone provide any kind of source at all for this map?

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
England

larrytcogs.susx.ac.uk

In "On invited inferences" (Linguistic Inquiry, 1971) Geis &
Zwicky argued that some conditionals of the form "if P then Q" invite
the inference "if not P then not Q". Ira Noveck and I are starting a
pragmatic and experimental study on this "invited inference". We
would be grateful for help with compiling a bibliography. We are
interested in all discussions and comments on Geis & Zwicky' invited
inference. We will post a summary of responses on LINGUIST.

Dan Sperber
GRICE (Groupe de Recherche sur l'Inference et la
Comprehension Elementaires)
CREA - Ecole Polytechnique
1, rue Descartes. 75013 Paris, France
email: sperberpoly.polytechnique.fr

	A few days ago, I was in deep conversation with a few friends 
when arise the question of "why is such and such named the way it is?" 
and, still being in the holiday spirit, we took the example of "turkey". 
	Turkey, so it seems, is someone else's bird. In French, it is a 
"dinde" from "coq d'Inde" (Indian rooster). In English, Turkey, in 
Portugal it is a "peru" (although i am not sure of the spelling), I was told 
that in Greek it is an "Egyptian rooster" while in Egyptian Arabic (if not 
in Arabic in general) it is a "Greek rooster". 
	My question is pure curiosity: Are there any other languages that 
would name the bird after someone else's country?
	I will gladly sum up when I get answers, so please, answer me directly.

Alain Theriault | "The problem with the future 
Etudiant au doctorat | is that it keeps on turning
Departement de linguistique et traduction | into the present"
Universite de Montreal |
theriaalere.umontreal.ca | Hobbes (Bill Waterson)

	If I met people whose first names were Manashi, Itziar, Nouparat,
 Babrak, Ciru, Fatemeh, Mahalingam and Zeinab, what language would I expect
 each one of them to speak?

Marc Picard