LINGUIST List 8.83

Thu Jan 23 1997

Qs: Yes/no, Chinese, Address, Quote

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

Directory

1. cpeust, yes and no
2. Paul Woods, Chinese Corpora
3. Rebecca Larche Moreton, Address of Southeast Asian Summer Studies
4. "Donn Bayard, Anthropology Dept., Univ. of Otago, Dunedin, NZ", Weinreich quote

Dear linguists,

it is quite obvious what "yes" and "no" mean as an answer to 
affirmative questions:

Can you see me? - No(, I can't) means: I cannot see you,
Can you see me? - Yes(, I can) means: I can see you.

If the question is negative, "yes" and "no" in English refer
to the propositional content of the question only, so the
implication of "yes" and "no" is still the same:

Can't you see me? - No(, I can't) means: I cannot see you,
Can't you see me? - Yes(, I can) means: I can see you.

German behaves similarly in principle but shows the peculiarity that 
there are different renderings of "yes" after an affirmative question 
("ja") and after a negative question ("doch").

I have heard of languages in which the scope of "yes" and "no" 
includes the negation within the question, so here one would have:

Can't you see me? - Yes(, I can't) meaning: I cannot see you,
Can't you see me? - No(, I can) meaning: I can see you.

If I remember rightly, Japanese and Kisuaheli were said to construct 
"yes" and "no" this way.

There are probably also languages which have no word like "yes" and 
"no" altogether (classical Latin).

Now I am looking for
- information on the way different languages behave in this respect
- references to general literature on the topic

I will be glad for any answer. A summary will be posted.

Carsten Peust
Seminar of Egyptology and Coptology
Goettingen
cpeustgwdg.de

I am looking for machine-readable corpora of spoken and
written mandarin Chinese (Mainland and Taiwan) for
research purposes.
Can anyone help?

Thanks,
Paul Woods,
PhD Student,
Dept of Computer Science,
Uni of Sheffield,
UK.

Dear Ling-listers:

Could someone supply me with either the terrestrial or the e-mail
address of the organizers of the 1997 Southeast Asian Summer Studies
Institute (SEASSI)? Thanks.

Please reply to:

Rebecca Larche Moreton
<mlrlmsunset.backbone.olemiss.edu>

In the course of the current discussion on ebonics, the famous quote on a
language being a dialect with an army has surfaced several times. While on
leave at ANU in 1994 I ran across the quote (usually attributed to Max
Weinreich) in full, together with a transliteration from the original
Yiddish. As I like most of us make frequent reference to the quote in
teaching, I carefully copied down the quote in both English and Yiddish
transliteration, together with its source. On my return to Otago I
discovered I had lost the relevant piece of paper. An inquiry on our local
NZLINGUIST listserver proved fruitless, although several colleagiues asked
me to tell them if I found out. I will most certainly do this if anyone
out there can supply me with the full quote in English and Yiddish and its
source. Please post to my e-mail address, and I'll place it on NZLINGUIST.
		Many thanks,
		Donn Bayard
		University of Otago
		Dunedin, NZ