LINGUIST List 11.1667

Mon Jul 31 2000

Qs: Text Conversion Software,Rel. Pron. Agreement

Editor for this issue: James Yuells <jameslinguistlist.org>



We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.

Directory

  • Scott McGinnis, Software packages for converting English text into IPA
  • Guy Deutscher, Relative Pronoun Agreeing in Case with Head in Main Clause

    Message 1: Software packages for converting English text into IPA

     Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 12:39:20 -0400
    From: Scott McGinnis <smcginnisnflc.org>
    Subject: Software packages for converting English text into IPA


    Greetings, all,

    Are there any software applications available that can convert an English text into IPA? Please contact me directly at:

    smcginnisnflc.org

    Thanks! Best, SM

    Scott McGinnis Executive Director National Council of Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages

    Associate, Less Commonly Taught Languages National Foreign Language Center 1029 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 voice: 202-637-8881 ext. 28 fax: 202-637-9244

    Message 2: Relative Pronoun Agreeing in Case with Head in Main Clause

     Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 17:11:07 +0100
    From: Guy Deutscher <gd116hermes.cam.ac.uk>
    Subject: Relative Pronoun Agreeing in Case with Head in Main Clause


    Dear all,

    I wonder if someone could help me with information on any language which has embedded relative clauses and a relative marker that declines for *case*, and in which the relative marker agrees in case with the role of its head in the *main* clause, not in the relative clause.

    In such a language, a sentence like 'I know the man who died', should have the structure 'I know the man REL.ACC (he) died'. Similarly, 'the son of the man who died', should be something like 'the son of the man REL.GEN (he) died'. And 'the man whom I saw died', should be 'the man REL.NOM I saw (him) died'.

    Such a system exists in the early stage of ancient Akkadian, and has some sporadic vestiges in other Semitic languages. There are also some similar cases in older Indo-European languages (in Greek and Latin they are called 'case-attraction'). But in the Indo-European cases, the examples of this structure seem to be 'exceptions', i.e. deviations from the more normal formation (where the relative pronoun marks the case of the head in the relative clause). I am looking for languages in which this system is the 'normal' one, and in which it is fully functional.

    Many thanks, Guy Deutscher.

    ====================================== Dr Guy Deutscher St John's College Cambridge CB2 1TP England

    E-mail: gd116cus.cam.ac.uk Tel: 01223- 566620