LINGUIST List 17.661

Thu Mar 02 2006

Qs: Case Assigning Complementizers; Priscian Quote

Editor for this issue: James Rider <riderlinguistlist.org>

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Directory         1.    Driss Marjane, Case Assigning Complementizers
        2.    Edward McDonald, Priscian Quote

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Message 1: Case Assigning Complementizers
Date: 02-Mar-2006
From: Driss Marjane <drissmarjaneyahoo.com>
Subject: Case Assigning Complementizers


Dear All,

I am writing a dissertation on the CP system in Arabic and I would begrateful if anyone could answer the following question if only very briefly.

As you may already know, in Arabic there is a particle ''inna/anna'' whichis commonly analyzed as a complementizer in the generative literature andwhich always assigns accusative Case to a right-adjacent nominal whether inroot clauses or in embedded ones.

I don't know if similar (Case-assigning) complementizers exist in otherlanguages and I would greatly appreciate your comments.

Sincerely,Driss MarjaneMohamed ben Abdellah University, FezDepartment of EnglishMorocco.

Linguistic Field(s): Syntax

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Message 2: Priscian Quote
Date: 01-Mar-2006
From: Edward McDonald <laomaa20023yahoo.com.cn>
Subject: Priscian Quote


Dear List Members:

Some years ago I copied down the following (translated) quote fromPriscian's Institutiones Grammaticae as follows:

“just as letters combining appropriately form syllables, and syllableswords, so too do words form a sentence”

I was convinced I'd copied it from Robin's History of Linguistics, but Ican't find it anywhere there.

Can anybody help me with a source?

thanks

Ed McDonald

Linguistic Field(s): History of Linguistics