LINGUIST List 7.899

Sat Jun 15 1996

Qs: "trouver", Game, Cree Word for "social", Field Methods

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

Directory

1. karnibbz, "trouver"
2. McConD_at_MET09MF1ccmail.edu.gov.on.ca, "Chinese Checkers"
3. Thomas Schoeneborn, Q: Cree word for 'social' or 'the social'
4. "M. Lynne Murphy", field methods teaching

As a student of philology I am currently working on a topic which aims
at a combination of etymology and proverb study; the underlying
problem is the etymology of the french verb "trouver" which has been
under discussion since the turn of the century. The basic quarrel
involved Hugo Schuchardt from Vienna representing the semantic
approach (he deduced "trouver" from the latin etymon "turbare aquam",
relying on his examination of fishing techniques) and the french
Gaston Paris (who defended the "phonetic root" and therefor the etymon
"*tropare"). Still today, there is no real solution to the problem
(although Schuchardt seemed to "underly" in this conflict ...).

Nevertheless, I consider Schuchardt's approach as being a quite
sympathetic one (if I may say so) - so I would like to back up his
thesis by help of material from the field of paremiology. Actually,
there are in almost all european languages a lot of proverbs dealing
with fishing and the stirring up of the water - a fact that seems to
back up Schuchardt's thesis which was, as far as I know, only based on
his knowledge of fishing techniques.

Now to my problem (and the reason I'm mailing to this list): Since I
do have - to my astonishment (I perused GBIP, BIP, MLA, several
Internet databases, a few universitarian libraries ...) - severe
problems in finding literature of any kind approaching the field of
etymology by help of proverb study, I would be very grateful for any
hint towards book titles or articles which might serve as a guiding
line for my own work. Or are there even publications dealing with a
topic related to the one I'm working on?

Since I haven't subscribed to this list, I would be thankful if
answers could be posted to my email-address which runs as follows:

Boris.P.Karnikowskirz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Thanks for your attention and help -

best,

Boris Karnikowski.

 Dear Linguists,

 I've heard somewhere that the name for the game Chinese Checkers
 / Dames chinoises has recently been or will soon be changed, as
 it is no longer considered 'politically correct' (honestly!).
 Unfortunately, I can't remember where I came across this. This
 may have been a local proposal, generated by a specific interest
 group, or a recommendation by a language commission somewhere.
 Can anyone confirm this? For American/Canadian/British English
 and/or Quebec/European French?

 Thanks!
 David McConnell
 david.mcconnelledu.gov.on.ca

I am posting this query for a friend of mine who is not on the list.
***
Hi!
Does anybody know a word for 'the social' or 'social' in
(Western Woods-)Cree? If there is no direct equivalent, is there
a phrase or a conception of something which would describe our
notion of 'social' as 1. the living together of people, 2. the
attribution of a certain value (like: you are acting in a very
social/asocial way) or 3. what all the people of a certain group
share and what is selfevident for them? It is clear that these
three possible understandings points to different ways of
understanding of the social. But all of them you can find in the
ordinary understanding of it in our western culture. Is there
possibly another way of understanding in the Cree culture?
I am sorry if this questions are somewhat confusing, but my
problem is that I do not know with what kind of conception I
have to play with in Cree.
Thank you very much for help!
Please reply to the address below and not to the original
sender.

Sincerely yours Nicole

E-mail: stuckenuni-muenster.de

hello all,

i have prepared an e-mail questionnaire on some aspects of field
methods teaching in linguistics. this questionnaire will provide
data for a presentation on the subject at the 1996 mla convention.

rather than subject the entire list to the questionnaire, i'll send
questionnaires to those who request it. so, let me humbly beg for
you (if you are a linguistics instructor) to request it (and complete
it and return it).

please request it from me at:

104LYNmuse.arts.wits.ac.za

i can air-mail questionnaires as well. so if you have field-methods-
teaching colleagues who aren't on e-mail, please let me know.

also, i'd like to make a version of the questionnaire available to
anthropologists who might teach some linguistic field methods. can
anyone suggest an appropriate anthropology e-list for me to contact?

anticipatorily yours,
lynne murphy

- -------------------------------------------------------------------
M. Lynne Murphy 104lynmuse.arts.wits.ac.za
Department of Linguistics phone: 27(11)716-2340
University of the Witwatersrand fax: 27(11)716-8030
Johannesburg 2050
SOUTH AFRICA