LINGUIST List 7.701

Thu May 16 1996

Qs: Comparison, Cree, London Jewish Speech, Spanish

Editor for this issue: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar <aristartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. Maria Milosavljevic, Linguistic Analysis of Comparisons
2. Michael Jonathan Mathew Barrie, Re: modals in Plains Cree
3. JACJEM16delphi.com, Jewish Accent
4. jharrisMIT.EDU, por favor ayude-me-n

Hi.

For my PhD research, I'm building a computational mechanism for the
generation of descriptions of entities, where those descriptions make
use of comparison. In order to do this, I need to build a theory
of how comparisons work and are realised in text. I'm aware of
Tversky's work on similarity, and I know what's been done in the area
of natural language processing, but I'm wondering what work there has
been in the analysis of the various forms of comparison from a purely
linguistic perspective. Some examples of the different kinds of
comparisons I'm interested in are:

(1)	Sheep, are hollow-horned ruminants belonging to the genus
	Ovis, suborder Ruminata, family Bovidae. Similar to goats,
	sheep differ in their stockier bodies, the presence of scent
	glands in face and hind feet, and the absence of beards in the
	males. Domesticated sheep are also more timid and prefer to
	flock and follow a leader.

(2)	They (Aye-aye) are about the size of a large cat and have
	long, bushy tails, a shaggy brown coat, and large ears.

(3)	Dolphins, like whales, breathe through a blowhole at the top
	of the head.

Any pointers to relevant literature would be most gratefully received.

Maria Milosavljevic
- -
Research Fellow, MRI Language Technology Group
Department of Computing, Macquarie University
Sydney NSW 2109 Australia
mariammpce.mq.edu.au http://www-comp.mpce.mq.edu.au/~mariam

Someone had asked me for some information regarding modals in Plains
Cree. I have the info. but I accidentally deleted all my email files, so
I don't have the persons email address anymore. If the person is out
there could they email me at the address below. Thanks.

Michael Jonathan Mathew Barrie
umbarri0cc.umanitoba.ca
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umbarri0/
(204) 253-6138

Dear Linguists
 I am just starting a project entitled 'Is there a Jewish accent in London'.
Has anyone done any research on this topic or is there any essential
reading that you can recommend. Looking forward to hearing from you, and
thanks.
Jacqui Barnett
University College London
Reply to JacJem16Delphi.com.uk

In examples like the following: vaya-se-n (ustedes)
 de-me-n agua
the clitic pronouns se, me appear between the verb stem and the inflectional
suffix -n (cf. normative vaya-n+se, de-n+me). This is a widespread phenomenon
in Spanish.
 Are there native Spanish speakers out there for whom the phenomenon is
familiar and/or natural who can answer several questions of detail for me
(e.g. with clitic clusters, which is better in your dialect: de-me-n-lo or
de-me-lo-n?)? Please respond directly to jharrismit.edu.
Thanks, Jim Harris