LINGUIST List 8.882

Sun Jun 15 1997

Qs: Software, Slavic, Guest=child, Time

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <annlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Irina Sekerina, Qs: Software for concordance
2. Wilfried Pieters, Qs: all-Slavic language; guest=child
3. cpeust, Qu: calculating time spaces

A colleague from Moscow is looking for any softaware packages which
would enavle her to automatically pull out terms from some specialized
texts in Russian. Please respond either to me at
"isekerinemail.gc.cuny.edu" or to her directly at
"tmorschglas.apc.org".

>I am working on a bilingual Russian-English dictionary of legal
>terms. Since the Russian legislation has undergone considerable
>changes recently, I am going to start with the selection of the
>Russian legal terms from the legislation. I am looking for a
>computer program(s) which is (are) capable of extracting
>concordances from an input collection of texts in Russian, of
>sorting concordance lines according to a number of criteria,
>including the context of the key word to the right and to the
>left in all its inflected forms, which will enable me to show
>the combinability of the selected terms.
>Thank you in advance.
>Tanya Morschakova,
>e-mail: tmorschglas.apc.org

- ---- I would be grateful for any information received about the
following two topics.

(1) all-Slavic language

In 1793 the Slovene Blaz Kumerdej wrote a "Krainisch-Slawische
Grammatik" which is an attempt at a grammar of an all-Slavic language,
based on Slovene. In 1807 his compatriote Jurij Japelj wrote a similar
attempt ("Slawische Sprachlehre, das ist vollstndiger Grammatical
Unterricht von der krainerischen und windischen Sprache, wie sie in
Krain, in dem sterreichischen Littoralli, in der Grafschaft Grz, in
Steiermark und Krnten gesprochen wird, oder vielmehr gesprochen werden
sollte, dann wie sie von den Kroaten, Dalmatiern, Slawoniern, Bhmen,
Polen und Russen leicht verstanden werden kann"). As it is clear from
the title of the last work, the idea is that such pan-Slavic language
should be understood by all the Slaves. As far as I know, both works
were never printed and remain in manuscript. Already earlier, in the
17th century, the Croat Juraj Krizanic created a pan-Slavic language;
two grammatical works written in 1666 were published in 1859 in
Moskva.

I wonder if, apart from those three mentioned, there were similar
attempts at all-Slavic language grammars, especially in the 17th and
18th centuries, but also in other periods.

(2) guest = child

In my native flemish dialect the word "gast", which means originally
"guest" is before all used with the meaning of "child = son or
daughter" e.g. zij heeft vier gasten, litt. she has four guests = she
has four children mijn gasten zijn thuis, litt. my guests are at home
= my children are at home also with the meaning "child = young person"
e.g. jonge gasten, litt. young guests = young persons de kleine
gasten, litt. the small guests = the little children

Are there in other languages or dialects examples of the use of the
equivalent of "guest" with this meaning?

I welcome your answers at my email address (answer me please in your own
language if your mother tongue is any european language, I don't like
"english only").

I will send summary of answers to the list.

Najlepsa hvala! Hartelijk dank!

Wilfried
************************************************
Wilfried Pieters & Majda Pieters-Mavri
Lektorja slovenskega jezika (Universiteit Gent)
Vertalers (Slavische talen, Estlands, Roemeens)
************************************************

Dear linguists,

there appear to be two ways of counting time intervals.

For example, if today is sunday, I may refer to last sunday by giving
the mathematical difference "seven days ago". This is how time
intervals are most commonly calculated in modern German.

But there is another way in which the present time unit is included 
in counting. So if today is Sunday, it is common in German to refer 
to next week's Sunday by the phrase "in acht Tagen", i.e. "after 
eight(!) days". So the counting goes Sunday-Mo-Tu-We-Th-Fr-Sa-Su 
= 8 days. In German, 7 ("8") days ahead is the only time interval 
that can be referred to in the latter method of counting. All other 
intervals, as far as I can see, must be calculated in the first way.

Does anyone know of languages where the latter method of counting, 
which includes the present time unit, is also found, or is perhaps 
even more widespread?
I would be very thankful for any hints and references on the topic.

Sincerely,


Carsten Peust
Seminar of Egyptology and Coptology
Goettingen
cpeustgwdg.de