LINGUIST List 7.728

Wed May 22 1996

Qs: Text, Dictionary, Book, SLA, Pragmatics

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

Directory

1. "Ward, Kathleen", Q: textbook
2. Bob Krovetz, Corrected version of Collins English Dictionary
3. Peter Daniels, Mystery book
4. "Tanja Langhorst", Instructed SLA
5. Alwiya S Omar, References on cross-cultural pragmatics

I am looking for a textbook (brief and inexpensive, if possible) that coveys
really basic grammatical knowledge to students who are wholly without any
background in the field. I have in mind something that tells them what a
subordinate clause is, what a subject is, and how tell an adjective from an
aardvark. 

Any ideas?

The Collins English Dictionary is available on CD-ROM from the Linguistic
Data Consortium, and the disc contains the text from the typesetting tape
as well as a parsed version of the text. However, there were some problems
with the text from the typesetting tape and this introduced errors in the
parsed version. Mark Liberman produced a revised version of the typesetting
text that corrected the problems, and this is also on the disc. Has anyone
produced a new parsed version of the dictionary?

Bob

krovetzresearch.nj.nec.com

I've just come across a curious book by a political scientist, J. A.
Laponce, a francophone at University of British Columbia. The title
is *Languages and Their Territories*; it was published by the University
of Toronto Press in 1987, but the date of the French original (*Langue
et territoire*) is not given. The author's thesis seems to be that
bilingualism is bad for the brain. Has this book received any serious
attention from any linguists (in the French or English version?)?

Dear linguist,
I am just starting my final exam paper on "The role of consciousness
in instructed second language acquisition".
Has anyone done any research on this topic or does anyone have up-to-
date information about theories on cognitive functions while learning
a second language?
I am looking forward to hearing/reading from you!
Thanks a lot for your help!!!

I have been asked to lead a study group on cross-cultural pragmatics at
Kalamazoo College for their summer quarter beginning June 17th. I would
appreciate getting references on recent work/research, articles, books, etc
written in this area. Please send the information directly to me at:
asomarling.upenn.edu

I will post a summaryof the references.

Thank you

Alwiya S. Omar
African Language Coordinator
University of Pennsylvania
642 Williams Hall

215 898 6971