LINGUIST List 9.356

Wed Mar 11 1998

Qs: Adjs.,dislocation,standardization,compulsory L2

Editor for this issue: Brett Churchill <brettlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Rumiko Sode, Adjectives
2. Knud Lambrecht, term 'dislocation'
3. POLSKY ELLEN S, standardization of non-standard forms
4. Jan K Lindstrom, Compulsory L2

I am searching for works on the syntactic and semantic natures of
adjectives in English such as "likable," "reliable," "dependable" or
similar types of adjectives in other languages. What I am interested in is
their complex thematic structure which may be related to their deverbal
origin. Any pointers are deeply appreciated. Summaries will be posted.

Thank you very much.

Rumiko Sode
Ohio State University

I'm writing an article on 'dislocation' for a handbook and I'm trying to
find out who adopted the term for syntactic description (I assume its
'original' meaning was medical). I know the term goes back to pre-generative
times. I asked Haj Ross where he took it from in his diss. and he said he
got it from Ron Langacker, who tells me he got it out of J.E. Mansion's 
"French Reference Grammar" (from the fitfties [Fifties?], or so).

I myself found it used by Charles Bally in his "Linguistique Generale et
Linguistique Francaise" (sorry, I can't do accents), first edition 1932, 
very briefly. Bally also talks about "termes detaches" (--> Kayne, who 
uses 'detachment' in his French Syntax 1976), but normally he uses the
term 'segmentation / phrase segmentee'. 

I wouldn't be surprised if it goes back to much earlier times. Maybe
Jespersen (since he has said everything before everyone else anyway)?
Thanks to anyone who can tell me of specific early authors. The same 
query goes for the alternative term 'detachment'.

	Knud

Knud Lambrecht
Department of French & Italian
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78712-1197

I'm looking for examples of malapropisms that have become so common that
they can almost be considered standard forms. I'm also looking for
examples of structures that may be considered standard in a particular
region, but would probably not be considered standard by the majority of
people in the U.S. (I realize that term standard is vague, but I'd
appreciate any feedback you might have.) Thanks. 

Ellen S. Polsky (Ellen.PolskyColorado.EDU)

I am sending out this query inspired by a current language debate
in Finland. The background is this: Finland has two national languages,
Finnish and Swedish, the latter spoken by a 6 % minority. Thus,
all the children in Finnish schools have compulsory teaching also in
a national language other than the native tongue. However, during the
last ten years (or so) there has been more and more public claim by the
majority to get rid of the compulsory teaching of Swedish, since this is
experienced as coercion (as some people would put it: due to the old
Swedish colonialism, pre 19th century) and unnecessary (taking resources
from teaching in "major" languages such as German or French).

I would simply like to ask, if there are similar kinds of situations
elsewhere in the world, i.e. if the status or teaching of some language is
regarded as a compulsion and/or a historical burden that should be abolished.
Especially, what is the state of affairs in countries with two or more
official languages, e.g. Switzerland? And what are the arguments pro and
con that are being put forward in potential debates?

If there is interest, I will send a summary.

Jan K. Lindstrom
Assistant
Scandinavian Languages and Literature
P.O. Box 4
FIN-00014 Helsinki University

jan.k.lindstromhelsinki.fi
phone +358-9-191 23007
fax +358-9-191 22506
http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/~jklindst
 * * * * *