LINGUIST List 9.603

Fri Apr 24 1998

Qs: Spanish,Bilingualism (Russ/Eng),German,Typology

Editor for this issue: Martin Jacobsen <martylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. jstevens, Spanish [v]
2. Tolik, Bilingualism Russian-English psycholinguistics research assistent
3. Anna Dowling, Question: German vocab frequency lists
4. Frederick Newmeyer, Typology and Acquisition

I am currently investigating the allophonic variants of Spanish /b/
and am looking for a place in Spain (preferably a small village or
town) where the voiced labiodental fricative [v] is attested (for
Spanish). Any information regarding this feature (especially specific
place names), would be greatly appreciated.

John Stevens
University of Southern California
jstevensscf.usc.edu 

I'm a student of University of Nijmegen (Holland) where I've studied
psycholinguistics at the faculty of Cognitive Science. From september
1998 I have to write my thesis to get a degree. To do this I'd like to
take part in research on BILINGUAL PSYCHOLINGUISTICS with RUSSIAN and
ENGLISH. If you have any information about such kind of researches,
please inform me. Thank you, Tolik P.S. I can take part in the
research without being paid. All expenses for my stay will be covered
by the Dutch governement.

I am going to be teaching a German language course for the first time
from the end of June. Having used lists of English high frequency
vocab in ESOL, I would love to be able to find some similar lists of
German vocab so I know that the students are learning the most useful
words. Does anyone know if there are such lists of German (1st 1000,
2nd 1000, etc), and if so, where I can find them?

I'll post a summary to the list.

Thank you very much

Anna Dowling
Languages Department
Wellington Polytechnic
anna.dowlingwnp.ac.nz

I am interested in whether there is any correlation between the
cross-linguistic frequency of occurrence of a construction and its
speed of acquisition by the child. Is there any evidence that, in
general, common construction-types are learned quickly and uncommon
ones slowly?

In at least one case I know of the LACK of a correlation. Preposition
stranding ('who did you talk to?') is typologically extremely rare,
but is acquired quite early by English-speaking children.

I'll summarize if there is enough interest.

Fritz
*********************************************
Frederick J. Newmeyer
Professor and Chair
Department of Linguistics
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-4340 USA
TEL: 206-543-2046
FAX: 206-685-7978
E-MAIL: fjnu.washington.edu
HOME PAGE: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~fjn/