LINGUIST List 8.133

Thu Jan 30 1997

Qs: Japanese, Sight, Possessives, Book

Editor for this issue: T. Daniel Seely <seelylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Robert Hamilton, Japanese zibun modification
2. Welcome Sekwati, Some Info on communication between the blind and the sighted.
3. Michael Kliffer, English Possessive Datives
4. orozcor, Book/publisher query

Dear linguists,

Could any native speaker of Japanese tell me whether zibun
('self') allows modification of any sort, either by an adjective
('smart/beautiful self'), determiner ('this/that self'), quantifier
('every/no self'), or whatever? If zibun can take a clausal or
phrasal modifier that would be relevant too (e.g., can zibun head
a relative clause?). (I am already familiar with such expressions
as karezisin and zibunzisin, so that is not the sort of modification
I have in mind.) This question relates to my dissertation
research on binding theory. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Robert Hamilton
hamiltonsc.edu

Hello

My name is Welcome Sekwati and I work for the Department of Central
Statistics in South Africa. My main interest lies in linguistics and 
I hold an MA degree from Durham University. It is my plan to go back to 
the academic world where I used to be before joining the public sector. 
Therefore, to keep abreast with the latest developments within the
discipline, I write papers.
 A lot of data has been gathered around the issue whether visual
perception is so fundamental to language development that its absence
would result in certain deviations. What has emerged as commonground
is that the language of visually impaired children does vary to some
degree from that of their sighted peers. My interest though, lies in
exploring into the communication gap that undoubtedly exists between
blind people and sighted people. 
 We know that in its functional context language moves beyond the
level of words to encompass gestures, facial expressions and other
forms of paralinguistic features most of which are non-existent within
the linguistic idiolect of the blind. The absence of these fundamental
elements of language whose occurrence in a communicative context is
as automatic as a reflex action results in an almost irreparable
transmission gap. Based on that, I claim therefore that a communicative
discourse between the blind and the sighted is almost always
characterised by a constant transmission failure exactly as in a
psychiatric patient whose two sides of the brain cannot communicate
because of a damaged corpus callosum Just as a piece of anecdotal
evidence consider for instance, what to all blind people constitutes the
most embarrassing communicative situation; a sudden outburst of
laughter from amongst the sighted of which the blind seated in their midst
does not know the cause. 
 I'd be interested to hear from anyone interested in: 1. The of
paralinguistic features in a communicative context; and 2. how the blind
relate to the sighted in a communicative set-up.

Thank you.


.

Would anyone be able to supply me with references or direct info. on the
loss of possessive datives in English, i.e. the structure of the type
still seen in German Ich wasche mir die H"ande? I'd especially like
to know if reduction of the English inflexional system had anything to do
with this loss.

Thanks

Mike Kliffer
Dept. of French
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
L8S 4M2

I am trying to get a copy of
Whitherspoon, Gary. 1977. LANGUAGE & ART IN THE NAVAJO UNIVERSE. Ann
Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Would someone pass along the publisher's address or #? (The publisher's
backlist is not available through LINGUIST.) Thanks for your help!

Rafael Orozco
orozcoracf2.nyu.edu