LINGUIST List 11.2328

Fri Oct 27 2000

Qs: Partial Reduplication, Comp Ling Experiment

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>



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Directory

  • Bert Vaux, partial reduplication with fixed segmentism
  • Annette Preissner, summarizer for HTML/comp ling/survey

    Message 1: partial reduplication with fixed segmentism

     Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 21:55:38 -0400 (EDT)
    From: Bert Vaux <vauxfas.harvard.edu>
    Subject: partial reduplication with fixed segmentism


    I am currently collecting cases where a language has productive partial reduplication with fixed segmentism, and would be grateful for any data or references that readers of this list could send me. Some examples of this type of reduplication:

    - English shm-reduplication: lunch-shmunch, table-shmable, ugly-shmugly - Turkish m-reduplication: kitab-mitab 'books and such', para-mara, etc. - Dravidian gi-reduplication: pali-giri, etc.

    This phenomenon has been discussed in a number of recent articles by John McCarthy and his students, but I am interested in compiling a more complete picture of how this phenomenon works, which involves addressing the following questions:

    - What languages have productive reduplication of this sort? - What sort of areal distribution does each subtype have? (e.g. m-reduplication is found throughout the Balkans, Middle East, and Caucasus) - What segments and sequences are chosen as the fixed material? - What do speakers do when the base word begins with the same sequence as the fixed segment(s)? (e.g. many speakers avoid shmo -> *shmo shmo, etc.) - WHat other sorts of constraints hold over this type of formation? (e.g. can other words or clauses intervene between the base and the reduplicant?) - What is the semantic range of this sort of reduplication?

    The process I'm interested is also sometimes called echo reduplication, but is *not* the same as what was called echo reduplication in an earlier posting on the Linguist List, which involved non-productive cases like willy-nilly, hobson-jobson, etc. I am (for present purposes) only interested in *productive* partial reduplication with fixed melodic material.

    Thanks for your help,

    Bert

    - ---------------------------- Bert Vaux Associate Professor of Linguistics Harvard University 313 Boylston Hall Cambridge, MA 02138 (617) 496-4516 http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~vaux

    Message 2: summarizer for HTML/comp ling/survey

     Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 16:04:58 +0200 (MET DST)
    From: Annette Preissner <noemidfki.de>
    Subject: summarizer for HTML/comp ling/survey


    Dear list members,

    for the evaluation of my diploma thesis (a summarizer for HTML documents, computational linguistics) I am desparately looking for native speakers of English willing to participate in an online experiment which can be found at the following URL:

    http://www.dfki.de/~noemi/

    Each single experiment takes five minutes AT MOST, and each person can participate up to ten times - which does not mean that participations in only one experiment would not be welcome, though!

    THE MORE DIFFERENT PERSONS TAKE PART, THE MORE RELIABLE BECOME THE RESULTS, and this is why I would very much appreciate if you could forward this email to as many native speakers as possible (and take part yourself if you happen to be a native)!

    !!! The experiment expires on NOVEMBER 10, 2000. !!!

    Thank you VERY MUCH,

    Annette Noemi Preissner <noemidfki.de>