[Corpora-List] Can corpora help to distinguish a dialect and a language?

[Angus B. Grieve-Smith]

CRuehlemann at aol.com wrote:
> It is interesting to see how a serious question sparks a funny 
> discussion, which is somewhat carnivalesque even, featuring soldiers, 
> rabbis, schmucks, dead dogs and what have you galore. On a more sober 
> note one might return to the original question (Can corpora help 
> distinguish dialect and a language?) and say yes, to an extent, 
> provided they have been carefully marked up  for social categories.
    I think you're confused by the ambiguity in English indefinites.  
When Yuri asked his question, he knew perfectly well that it was 
possible to use corpora to distinguish two language varieties, whether 
or not you label one as "a dialect" and the other as "a language."  We 
all agree that you can.  (Don't we?)  Yuri was asking whether, given a 
language variety, you can use corpora to label it as "a dialect" or "a 
language."  At this point, we haven't even settled on the question of 
whether there's any language-internal criteria for calling something "a 
dialect" or "a language."

-- 
				-Angus B. Grieve-Smith
				grvsmth at panix.com


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