From fjn at U.WASHINGTON.EDU Wed Sep 10 15:22:03 1997 From: fjn at U.WASHINGTON.EDU (Frederick Newmeyer) Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 08:22:03 -0700 Subject: syntax in different discourse genres Message-ID: Dear Funknetters, I'm posting this message for a student of mine, who is not a subscriber: Could somebody please help me with a literature reference or two? I am interested in work that describes the differences in syntactic constructions in different genres: narratives, conversations, lectures, written texts of various sorts, and so on. I assume that construction types that are common in one genre are rare in another. Is there work that talks about the differences? Thanks! I'll summarize. Frank Jaret jaret at u.washington.edu From A.M.Bolkestein at LET.UVA.NL Wed Sep 10 20:00:13 1997 From: A.M.Bolkestein at LET.UVA.NL (A.M. Bolkestein) Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 22:00:13 +0200 Subject: syntax in different discourse genres In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Susan Herring e.a., are editing a volume about textual parameters in older languages in which (I presume) many contributions deal with the relation between text type and selected kinds of (syntactic/semantic/ ...) variation. Ask her! Best, Machtelt Bolkestein Dept. of Classics, University of Amsterdam Oude Turfmarkt 129 NL-1012 GC Amsterdam Fax: ++31.20.5252544 E-mail: a.m.bolkestein at let.uva.nl On Wed, 10 Sep 1997, Frederick Newmeyer wrote: > Dear Funknetters, > > I'm posting this message for a student of mine, who is not a subscriber: > > Could somebody please help me with a literature reference or two? I am > interested in work that describes the differences in syntactic > constructions in different genres: narratives, conversations, lectures, > written texts of various sorts, and so on. > > I assume that construction types that are common in one genre are rare in > another. Is there work that talks about the differences? > > Thanks! I'll summarize. > > Frank Jaret > jaret at u.washington.edu > From ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU Wed Sep 10 23:16:56 1997 From: ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Paul J Hopper) Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 19:16:56 -0400 Subject: syntax in different discourse genres In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Excerpts from mail: 10-Sep-97 syntax in different discour.. by Frederick Newmeyer at u.was > > Could somebody please help me with a literature reference or two? I am > interested in work that describes the differences in syntactic > constructions in different genres: narratives, conversations, lectures, > written texts of various sorts, and so on. > > I assume that construction types that are common in one genre are rare in > another. Is there work that talks about the differences? > I suppose it depends on how narrowly you're conceiving "construction types". There was recently a conference in Santa Barbara that looked quite critically at the whole question of "constituency" and what would count as evidence for it. The well-known work of Douglas Biber (e.g. in Language 62,2:1986, 384-414) takes several dozen syntactic/semantic features and studies there implementation in different text types. If you include the literature on oral/written language, the bibliography will be quite large. Chafe and Tannen's review in the Annual Reviews of Anthropology of 1987 would be a start; also Chafe and Danielewitz in the volume edited by Rosalind Horowitz (Comprehending Oral & Written Lang. 1987) with an extensive list of syntactic/semantic features of speaking vs writing. If you go further and include the work of those who consider other genres to be derivative of conversation, you'd have to include the entire Conversation Analysis school (a significant account of this work is the modestly titled "Introduction" by the editors of Interaction & Grammar (Cambridge 1996), Eli Ochs, Mani Schegloff, Sandy Thompson.) Oh, and don't forget there's been a fairly large body of work over the last few decades studying the genre "Isolated Fictional Sentence." A good introduction to this is a small book by N. Chomsky pubished in 1957; I forget its exact title. The problem with this work is that its practitioners seemd to be under the illusion that it was a significant genre. - Paul Hopper From ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU Wed Sep 10 23:48:32 1997 From: ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Paul J Hopper) Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 19:48:32 -0400 Subject: Genre and Syntax Message-ID: Excerpts from mail: 10-Sep-97 syntax in different discour.. by Frederick Newmeyer at u.was > > Could somebody please help me with a literature reference or two? I am > interested in work that describes the differences in syntactic > constructions in different genres: narratives, conversations, lectures, > written texts of various sorts, and so on. > > I assume that construction types that are common in one genre are rare in > another. Is there work that talks about the differences? > I suppose it depends on how narrowly you're conceiving "construction types". There was recently a conference in Santa Barbara that looked quite critically at the whole question of "constituency" and what would count as evidence for it. The well-known work of Douglas Biber (e.g. in Language 62,2:1986, 384-414) takes several dozen syntactic/semantic features and studies their implementation in different text types. If you include the literature on oral/written language, the bibliography will be quite large. Chafe and Tannen's review in the Annual Reviews of Anthropology of 1987 would be a start; there's a somewhat more up-to-date bibliography at URL http://www.english.hss.cmu.edu/langs.html compiled in connection with a seminar I taught a few years ago. Look also at Chafe and Danielewitz in Rosalind Horowitz, ed., Comprehending Oral & Written Lang. 1987, with an extensive list of syntactic/semantic features of speaking vs writing. If you go further and include the work of those who consider other genres to be derivative of conversation, you'd have to include the entire Conversation Analysis school (a significant account of this work is the modestly titled "Introduction" by the editors of Interaction & Grammar (Cambridge UP 1996) - Eli Ochs, Mani Schegloff & Sandy Thompson.) Oh, and don't forget there's been a large body of work over the last few decades devoted exclusively to the genre "Isolated Fictional Sentence." A good introduction to this school is a small book by N. Chomsky pubished in 1957; I forget its exact title. The chief problem with this work is that its practitioners seem to harbor the illusion that the IFS is a significant genre, and have based an entire theory of language on it. - Paul Hopper From apawley at COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU Thu Sep 11 05:56:07 1997 From: apawley at COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU (Andy Pawley) Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 15:56:07 +1000 Subject: syntax in different discourse genres Message-ID: In reply to Frank Jaret's enquiry about construction types in different genres, let me suggest the following (mostly Anglocentric) selection of material, in addition to the references supplied by Paul Hopper. 1. Formal written vs conversational and narrative speech Wallace Chafe's 1994 book /Discourse, Consciousness and Time: the Flow and Displacement of Conscious Experience in Speaking and Writing/ reviews his own research over two decades on how and why spoken and written discourse differ and contains an extensive bibliliography. I have a couple of papers with Frances Syder which tackle the same problem, with particular reference to syntax. A. Pawley and F. Syder (1983) 'Natural selection in syntax: notes on adaptive variation and change in vernacular and literary grammar' in J. Pragmatics 7: 551-579. A. Pawley and F. Syder (in press) 'The one clause at a time hypothesis.' (the book ed. H. Riggenbach won't be out for a while, but I can provide copies of the paper) A. Pawley (1984) 'School English is nobody's mother tongue: reflections on vernacular and school-acquired language.' In A. Berry (ed.) /Communication/ (an extremely obscure publication but I can help...) There are some golden oldies, such as: William Labov (1973) 'The transformation of experience in narrative syntax' (in W. Labov /Language in the Inner City/, U. Penn Press. A. Duranti and E. Ochs (1979) 'Left-dislocation in Italian conversation' in T. Givon (ed.) /Syntax and Semantics vol. 12, Discourse and Syntax/, pp. 377-417. E. Ochs (1979) 'Planned and unplanned discourse', in T. Givon (ed.) /Syntax and Semantics, vol. 12, Discourse and Syntax/, pp. 51-80. (Academic Press) Deborah Tannen (ed.) (1982) /Spoken and Written Language/, esp. papers by Chafe ('Integration and involvement in speaking, writing and oral literature'), P. Clancy (on Japanese) and Ch. Li and S. Thompson (Chinese). W. Chafe (ed.) (1980) /The Pear Stories: Cognitive Cultural and Linguistics Aspects of Narrative Production/. 2. Oral formulaic genres. One can read th extensive literature on and the ethnography of speaking and on verbal arts in various languages, e.g. Albert Lord's classic /The Singer of Tales/, without finding much systematic work on construction types. However, Kon Kuiper . has written quite a few papers which touch on the special grammar of rapid speech by sports commentators, auctioneers, etc. as part of a broader functional analysis of their discourse properties. I'll mention just his recent book and one paper: Koenraad Kuiper (1996) /Smooth Talkers: the Linguistic Performance of Auctioneers and Sportscasters./ Lawrence Erlbaum, N.J. K. Kuiper and D. Haggo (1984) 'Livestock auction, oral poetry and ordinary language'. Language and Society 13:205-234. I have done a similar sort of paper about radio cricket commentaries: A . Pawley (1991) 'How to talk cricket: on linguistic competence in a subject matter.' In R. Blust (ed.) /Currents in Pacific Linguistics: Essays...in Honour of George Grace./ pp. 339-368. Pacific Linguistics, C-117. One of Kuiper's students has written a thesis on the discoyrse structure and grammar of Weather Forecast broadcasts, which may be available from Kuiper. There are other (mainly unpublished) papers that I'm aware on formulaic constructions peculiar to casual speech, but that'll do for now. Andrew Pawley Dept. Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies Australian National University From CGoodwin at HUMNET.UCLA.EDU Thu Sep 11 06:36:01 1997 From: CGoodwin at HUMNET.UCLA.EDU (Chuck Goodwin) Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 23:36:01 -0700 Subject: Syntax in different discourse genres Message-ID: A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 539 bytes Desc: not available URL: From fjn at U.WASHINGTON.EDU Sun Sep 14 22:38:12 1997 From: fjn at U.WASHINGTON.EDU (Frederick Newmeyer) Date: Sun, 14 Sep 1997 15:38:12 -0700 Subject: Summary: Syntax in different discourse genres Message-ID: Here is a summary from my student, on whose behalf I posted a query on syntax in different discourse genres. -- fjn -------------------------------------------------------- Last week I posted a query to LINGUIST LIST and FUNKNET asking for references to work on how syntactic constructions differ from one discourse genre to another. The response was amazing. I would like to thank all of the following for contacting me: Ramin Akbari, Mark Baltin, Joyce Tang Boland, Machtelt Bolkestein, Filomena Capucho, John Davis, Spike Gildea, Chuck Goodwin, Georgia Green, Paul Hopper, Sunny Hyon, Jussi Karlgren, Jacques Lecavalier, Hyo Sang Lee, Carl Mills, Michael Noonan, Andy Pawley, Doris Payne, Asya Pereltsvaig, Taylor Roberts, Malcolm Ross, and Yael Ziv. By far, the most common response was to tell me to read the work of Douglas Biber: Biber, Douglas (1986). Spoken and written textual dimensions in English. Language 62: 384-414. Biber, Douglas (1988). Variation across speech and writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Biber, Douglas (1989). A typology of English texts. Linguistics 27: 3-43. Biber, Douglas (1995). Dimensions of register variation : A cross-linguistic comparison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Biber, Douglas and Edward Finegan, Eds. (1994). Sociolinguistic perspectives on register. Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Here are some of the other suggestions: Adam, Jean-Michel (1990). Elements de linguistique textuelle. Lige: Mardaga. Andersson, Erik. 1975. ``Style, optional rules and contextual conditioning. In it Style and Text - Studies presented to Nils Erik Enkvist}. H{\aa}kan Ringbom. (ed.) Stockholm: Skriptor and Turku: {\AA}bo Akademi. Banfield, Ann (1973). Narrative style and the grammar of direct and indirect speech. Foundations of Language 10: 1-40. Chafe, Wallace L., Ed. (1980). The Pear stories: Cognitive, cultural, and linguistic aspects of narrative production. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Chafe, Wallace L. (1994). Discourse, consciousness, and time: The flow and displacement of conscious experience in speaking and writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chafe, Wallace and Jane Danielewicz (1987). Properties of spoken and written Language. Comprehending oral and written language, ed. by Rosalind Horowitz and S. Jay Samuels. San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 83-113. Chafe, Wallace and Deborah Tannen (1987). Relation between written and spoken language. Annual Review of Anthropology 16: 383-407. Charolles, Michel (19??). Les plans d'organisation textuelles: Priodes, channes, portes et squences. Pratiques 57: 3-13. Duranri, Alessandro and Elinor Ochs (1979). Left-dislocation in Italian conversation. Syntax and Semantics, vol. 12: Discourse and syntax, ed. by Talmy Givn. New York: Academic Press, pp. 377-417. English for Specific Purposes [much of relevance in this journal] Goodwin, Marjorie H. (1990). He-said-she-said: Talk as social organization among Black children. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Herring, Susan, et al. [are editing a book about textual parameters in older languages] Karlgren, Jussi 1996.``Stylistic Variation in an Information Retrieval Experiment'' In Proceedings NeMLaP 2, Bilkent, September 1996. Ankara: Bilkent University. (In the Computation and Language E-Print Archive: cmp-lg/9608003). Karlgren, Jussi and Douglass Cutting. 1994. ``Recognizing Text Genres with Simple Metrics Using Discriminant Analysis'', Proceedings of COLING 94, Kyoto. (In the Computation and Language E-Print Archive: cmp-lg/9410008). Labov, William (1972). The transformation of experience in narrative syntax. Language in the inner city, ed. by William Labov. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 354-396. Lee, Hyo Sang and Sandra A. Thompson (1989). A discourse account of the Korean accusative marker. Studies in Language 13: 105-128. Longacre, Robert E. (1972). Hierarchy and universality of discourse constituents in New Guinea languages (2 vols.). Washington: Georgetown University Press. Longacre, Robert E. (1990). Storyline concerns and word order typology in East and West Africa. Los Angeles: Studies in African Linguistics, Supplement 10. Losee, Robert M. Forthcoming. Text windows and phrases differing by discipline, location in document, and syntactic structure. Computation and Language E-Print Archive: cmp-lg/9602003. Menshikov, I. I. 1974. K voprosu o zhanrovo-stilevoy obuslovlennosti sintaksicheskoy struktury frazy''. (``On genre-dependent stylistic variation of the syntactic structure in the clause'') In Voprosy statisticheskoy stilistiki. Golovin et al. (eds.) 1974. Kiev: Naukova dumka; Akademia Nauk Ukrainskoy SSR. Mills, Carl (1990). Syntax and the evaluation of college writing: A blind alley. Language proficiency: Defining, teaching, and testing, ed. by Louis A. Arena. New York: Plenum, 107-119. Mills, Carl. [papers in various LACUS Forums in recent years] Ochs, Elinor (1979). Planned and unplanned discourse. Syntax and Semantics, vol. 12: Discourse and Syntax, ed. by Talmy Givn. New York: Academic Press, pp. 51-80. Ochs, Elinor, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Sandra A. Thompson, Eds. (1997). Interaction and grammar. Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics 13. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [see Introduction] Pawley, Andrew (1984). School English is nobody's mother tongue: Reflections on vernacular and school-acquired language. A Berry (Ed.), Communication. Pawley, Andrew and Frances Syder (1983). Natural selection in syntax: Notes on adaptove variation and change in vernacular and literary grammar. Journal of Pragmatics 7: 551-579. Pawley, Andrew and Frances Syder (In press). The one clause at a time hypothesis. ?, ed. by Heidi Riggenbach, . Perrin, Laurent (1994). Mots et noncs mentionn dans le discours. Cahiers de Linguistique Franaise, Universit de Genve. Perrin, Laurent (1995). Du dialogue rapport aux reprise diaphoniques. Cahiers de Linguistique Franaise, Universit de Genve. Perrin, Laurent (1996). De la structure nonciative et de l'organisation polyphonique d'un change pistolaire. Cahiers de Linguistique Franaise, Universit de Genve. Quakenbush, J. Stephen (1992). Word order and discourse type: An Austronesian example. Pragmatics of word order flexibility, ed. by Doris L. Payne. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 279-304. Swales, John (1990). Genre analysis : English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tannen, Deborah, Ed. (1982). Spoken and written language: Exploring orality and literacy. Advances in discourse processes 9. Norwood, NJ: ABLEX. Virtanen, Tuija (1992). Discourse functions of adverbial placement in English: Clause initial procedural place descriptions. Abo: Abo Academis Forlag, Abo Academi University Press. Frank Jaret From slobin at COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU Tue Sep 16 21:28:45 1997 From: slobin at COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Dan I. SLOBIN) Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 14:28:45 -0700 Subject: No subject Message-ID: PLEASE POST AND CIRCULATE THE FOLLOWING ANNOUNCEMENT: The University of California, Berkeley seeks an anthropologist at the assitant professor level, interested in language, society and culture. The appointment will be effective July 1, 1998. Candidates should demonstrate theoretical breadth in anthropology and have training in the study of language and culture. Experience in non-western languages is preferable. Send application letter, curriculum vitae, and names and addresses of references to: Search Committee, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3710. Applications must arrive by Friday, January 16, 1998. The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. From mariel at POST.TAU.AC.IL Wed Sep 17 06:56:39 1997 From: mariel at POST.TAU.AC.IL (ariel mira) Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 08:56:39 +0200 Subject: Genre & Grammar Message-ID: A couple of additions to the genre & grammar list: Fox, Barbara. 1987. Discourse structure and anaphora: Written and conversational English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Toole, Janine. 1996. The effect of genre on referential choice. Reference and referent accessibility, ed. by Thorstein Fretheim and Jeanette K. Gundel, 263-290. Amsterdam: Benjamins. --Jack Du Bois From C.J.Arthur at UEL.AC.UK Wed Sep 17 15:32:57 1997 From: C.J.Arthur at UEL.AC.UK (Chris Knight) Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 15:32:57 GMT0BST Subject: Evolution of Language Conference Message-ID: *********** Apologies for multiple postings*********** The Evolution of Language Conference, April 6-9th 1998, London, UK Organisers: Prof. Jean Aitchison (Oxford University), Prof. Jim Hurford (Edinburgh University), Dr. Chris Knight (University of East London) Further information about this conference and an online version of our registration form is available at: "http://www.uel.ac.uk/faculties/socsci/anthro/confreg.htm" Please note the new deadline for abstracts is November 1st 1997. From edith at CSD.UWM.EDU Wed Sep 17 19:30:20 1997 From: edith at CSD.UWM.EDU (Edith A Moravcsik) Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 14:30:20 -0500 Subject: Hetzron Message-ID: The following is an obituary for Robert Hetzron written by Grover Hudson. ******** Forwarded message: >>From hudson at pilot.msu.edu Wed Sep 17 09:21:30 1997 >Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 10:21:26 -0400 >Message-Id: >In-Reply-To: <199709162228.RAA24370 at alpha1.csd.uwm.edu> >Mime-Version: 1.0 >Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii" >To: Edith A Moravcsik >From: Grover Hudson >Subject: Re: Hetzron > >Robert Hetzron > > >Robert Hetzron left a wide and rich array of publications as evidence >of his extraordinary knowledge of theory and data, his rare imagination >and creativity, and great love of languages and linguistics which will >be greatly missed in all the several fields in which he worked with >unique insight and energy for over thirty-five years: Semitic, >Hungarian, Cushitic, Afroasiatic, and theoretical linguistics >encompassing phonology, morphology, and syntax. > > Robert did his M.A. at Hebrew University under H. J. Polotsky, writing >a thesis on Amharic pronominalization, and his doctorate in Near >Eastern Languages at UCLA, finishing in 1966, a time in which he >benefited from the ambitiously growing linguistics program being >developed there by Robert Stockwell, as well as by the strong Near >Eastern Studies Department built and led by Wolf Leslau, under whose >tutelage in 1965-66 he undertook fieldwork for his dissertation on The >Verbal System of Southern Agaw (Awngi), a Cushitic language of central >Ethiopia, subsequently published as University of California monograph >in Near Eastern Studies 12 (1969). He later complemented this study >with one on 'The nominal system of Awngi (Southern Agaw)' (Bulletin of >the School of Oriental and African Studies 41, 1978), and other >articles on Agaw. > > During his short stay in Ethiopia he was able, surprisingly but >certainly by hard and well focused work, to acquire extensive data as >well on several of the Gurage languages, which became a topic to which >he regularly returned and on which he was busy at the time of his death >on August 12, which came, indeed, weeks after he had organized an >informal seminar on the Gurage languages at his home in Santa Barbara, >where he had gone to teach immediately after finishing his studies at >UCLA. There over the years Robert always welcomed his friends, and >entertained everyone with his conversational expertise and, if you were >lucky, by his gourmet cooking as well, and by a short walk down the >hill to watch sunset over the Channel Islands. Despite the tranquility >and beauty of the place, Robert felt isolated in Santa Barbara, and I >wish that I and others had had more occasions and made more time to >visit there. > > Robert's first publication appears to have been on his native >Hungarian, 'L'accent en hongrois' (Bulletin de la Societe de >linguistique de Paris 52, 1962), but he soon began to write on Amharic, >with 'La rection du theme factitif en amharique' (La Museon 76, 1963), >followed soon by 'La voyelle du sixieme ordre in Amharic' (Journal of >African Language 3, 1964), which examined the near complete >predictability of the Amharic high central vowel, a problem to which >students of Amharic have been responding since, and then, based on his >M.A. thesis, 'Pronominalization in Amharic' (Journal of Semitic Studies >11, 1966). His careful study of case usage in Amharic, 'Toward a case >grammar of Amharic' (Studies in African Linguistics 1, 1970), was the >first part of what was to have been a longer work which, unfortunately, >he did not finish. > > He soon began to write on Gurage languages, which, more than Agaw, >connected with his broader and diachronic interests --in Semitic and, >more generally, Afroasiatic. His first Gurage paper (certainly written >during his mere seven months in Ethiopia --which fieldwork was soon to >yield three books) was a collaboration with Habte Mariam Marcos, 'Des >traits superposes en ennemor' (Journal of Ethiopian Studies 4, 1966), >followed by a truly seminal paper, 'Main verb markers in Northern >Gurage' (Africa, 1968), which argued for the preservation in these >languages of a Semitic copula, in which article he also introduced his >innovative and controversially detailed classification of Ethiopian >Semitic. He developed this classification further in studies which >examined specific morphological features which he argued to be >genetically diagnostic as arbitrary innovations not attributable to >heritage or accident, such as 'Internal labialization in the tt-group >of Outer South Ethiopic' (Journal of the American Oriental Society 91, >1971), and 'Two notes on Semitic laryngeals in East Gurage' (Phonetica >19, 1970), which reconstructed the Semitic laryngeals from reflexes as >nasal insertions. He followed these with his influential and still >standard survey of historical Ethiopian Semitic, Ethiopian Semitic: >Studies in Classification (Journal of Semitic Studies monograph 2, >1972), and then a book on the Gurage languages less the Eastern >sub-group: The Gunnan-Gurage Languages (Istituto orientale di Napoli, >1977). His Ethiopian Semitic classification became one of his >contributions to Language in Ethiopia (M. L. Bender et al, eds., 1976). > > > His work on Gurage classification and the controversy which this >inspired caused Robert to realize the importance of two >little-understood principles in genetic classification, which he >elaborated in 'Two principles of genetic classification' (Lingua, >1976): 'archaic heterogeneity' and 'shared morpholexical innovations', >and applied in papers such as 'The evidence for perfect *y'aqtul and >jussive *yaqt'ul in proto-Semitic' (Journal of Semitic Studies 14, >1969), 'An archaism in the Cushitic verbal conjugation' (IV Congresso >Internationale di Studi Etiopici, 1974), and 'Innovations in the >Semitic numeral system' (Journal of Semitic Studies 22, 1977). As a >result, he was able for the first time to give coherence to Cushitic as >a genetic group in 'The limits of Cushitic' (Sprache und Geschichte in >Afrika 2, 1980, written in London on a Guggenheim fellowship), and new >perspective on subgrouping within Semitic in 'La division des langues >semitiques' (Premier Congres International de Etudes Semitique et >Chamito-Semitique, 1974). > > Soon Robert knew Afroasiatic as well as anyone, but perhaps owing to >the critical eye toward unripe ideas which he applied to his own work >as well as that of others (I will mention only a couple of his many >reviews here, which invariably add significantly to the works >reviewed), he avoided claims concerning Afroasiatic subgrouping and >reconstruction, even in his masterful survey of diachronic and >synchronic Afroasiatic in The World's Major Languages (Bernard Comrie, >ed., 1987; which volume also includes his surveys of Hebrew and >Semitic). > > Along the way, and despite the fact that at UC Santa Barbara he lacked >the important stimulus of teaching in these areas, Robert energetically >pursued several lines of well-developed interest in general theoretical >linguistics, writing influential articles on word order, including >'Presentative function and presentative movement' (Studies in African >Linguistics supplement, 1971) and 'Disjoining conjoined structures' >(Papers in Linguistics 5, 1972), and on the phonology-syntax interface >with his 'Phonology in syntax' (Journal of Linguistics 8, 1972) and >'Where the grammar fails' (Language 51, 1975). With thorough command >of Afroasiatic and Hungarian and good knowledge of Romance linguistics >(especially evident in e.g. his 'Clitic pronouns and their linear >representation' Forum Linguisticum 1, 1977; he also published articles >on Somali, Syriac, and Omotic), and as a contributor in several areas >of theoretical linguistics, Robert was one of very few scholars fully >able to review wide-ranging works like Current Trends in Linguistics >VI: South-west Asia and North Africa (Thomas Sebeok, ed., 1970, >reviewed in Linguistics 140, 1974, where he noted the likely >Afroasiatic roots of root and pattern morphology) and the four volumes >of Universals of Human Language (Joseph Greenberg, ed., 1978, reviewed >in Lingua 50, 1980). > > Unfortunately I cannot speak with competence about Robert's numerous >publications on Hungarian linguistics, but it seems that his >contributions there must be outstanding and often unique, particularly >his several papers on Hungarian accent, from his first, 1962, article >mentioned above, to his recent 'Prosodic morphemes in Hungarian' >(Approaches to Hungarian, vol. 4, ed. by I. Kenesei and Cs. Pleh, >1992), which places Hungarian near the middle in a continuum of >tonality in languages. > > As his health failed in recent years, Robert continued to work with >energy in all the areas of his interest, and enjoyed the joys and >frustrations of editorship in bringing about himself an up-to-date >manual of comparative Semitic the need for which he had called >attention in his Semitic survey in The World's Major Languages. This >volume, The Semitic Languages, with 24 authors, should appear this year >from Routledge, and in it he himself provides articles on the place of >Semitic in Afroasiatic, and on Outer South Ethiopic. > > Maybe the literature has now grown too vast, and maybe the world now >provides too many diversions, preventing the possibility of other >linguists with such an exceptional combination of knowledge, insight, >creativity, and energy. At least there was Robert Hetzron, and the >many who did not know him can benefit from his rich and encompassing >body of work, in which one can always find lengthy and thorough >reference to prior work, typically with generous acknowledgements of >his consultations with others. I have been able to mention just a >selection of his publications here, and have omitted very many items >which others would surely insist must be mentioned. Everyone has the >benefit of his work now, and those of us fortunate to have known Robert >can continue to benefit as well as from our fond memories of him. > > Robert's ex-wife Gabriella Barber is cataloging and organizing the >unfinished papers which Robert left behind to seethat this work >completed and made available. Those with knowledge about these >projects and otherwise willing to contribute should > >contact her at magyar at west.net (698 Zink Ave Santa Barbara, Ca 93111) > > >Grover Hudson > >Michigan State University > >hudson at pilot.msu.edu > > > > -- ************************************************************************ Edith A. Moravcsik Department of Linguistics University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413 USA E-mail: edith at csd.uwm.edu Telephone: (414) 229-6794 /office/ (414) 332-0141 /home/ Fax: (414) 229-6258 From nc206 at HERMES.CAM.AC.UK Thu Sep 18 12:10:50 1997 From: nc206 at HERMES.CAM.AC.UK (N. Chipere) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 13:10:50 +0100 Subject: Constituency Message-ID: In a reply to the recent query on syntax in different genres, Paul Hopper referred to a conference on the notion of constituency. I have been unable to contact Paul Hopper for details of this conference and I would be very grateful if anyone on the list can tell me anything about it (e.g date, venue, attendees, paper titles, availability of conference proceedings etc.) I am also interested in any publications which look at the notion of constituency critically, eg. its limitations as a descriptive device for linguistics, its psychological reality or lack of it, etc. Many thanks. Ngoni Chipere From nc206 at HERMES.CAM.AC.UK Thu Sep 18 12:40:25 1997 From: nc206 at HERMES.CAM.AC.UK (N. Chipere) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 13:40:25 +0100 Subject: Constituency Message-ID: (Apologies if you get 2 or 3 copies of this message. I'm having trouble sending the message) In a reply to the recent query on syntax in different genres, Paul Hopper referred to a conference on the notion of constituency. I have been unable to contact Paul Hopper for details of this conference and I would be very grateful if anyone on the list can tell me anything about it (e.g date, venue, attendees, paper titles, availability of conference proceedings etc.) I am also interested in any publications which look at the notion of constituency critically, eg. its limitations as a descriptive device for linguistics, its psychological reality or lack of it, etc. Many thanks. Ngoni Chipere From nc206 at HERMES.CAM.AC.UK Thu Sep 18 12:52:00 1997 From: nc206 at HERMES.CAM.AC.UK (N. Chipere) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 13:52:00 +0100 Subject: Constituency Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- (Apologies if you get 2 or 3 copies of this message. I'm having trouble sending the message) In a reply to the recent query on syntax in different genres, Paul Hopper referred to a conference on the notion of constituency. I have been unable to contact Paul Hopper for details of this conference and I would be very grateful if anyone on the list can tell me anything about it (e.g date, venue, attendees, paper titles, availability of conference proceedings etc.) I am also interested in any publications which look at the notion of constituency critically, eg. its limitations as a descriptive device for linguistics, its psychological reality or lack of it, etc. Many thanks. Ngoni Chipere From ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU Thu Sep 18 13:15:49 1997 From: ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Paul J Hopper) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 09:15:49 -0400 Subject: Constituency In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Ngoni Chipere & Other Funknetters Sorry for the delay in responding to various messages; I have been out of town at the ALT conference in Eugene, and got back just a couple of days ago to classes, meetings, and a big pile of messages. In response to my message, there were several inquiries about the Santa Barbara constituency conference. It was held last May, and the person officially organizing it was Charles Li, though perhaps someone at UCSB should confirm that Charles rather than someone else should be contacted for information regarding the program and publications. I am attaching hereto the program as it was distributed a couple of weeks before the conference; the actual program, as they say, "varied". - Paul Hopper ---------------------- Excerpts from mail: 23-Apr-97 Constituency Symposium Prog.. by Paul T Barthmaier at ucsbux > > Program for the Santa Barbara Constituency Symposium > > Friday, May 30, 1997 > > 9:30-9:40 Introduction - Charles Li > > 9:40-12:30 Session 1 - Carol Genetti, Chair > > 9:40-10:20 David Mc Neill - University of Chicago > "Relationships (straightforward and otherwise) between > grammatical constituents and gestures" > > 10:20-11:00 - Susan Duncan - University of Chicago > "A case study of grammaticization in Mandarin Chinese: Evidence > from gesture for the constituent structure of spoken utterances" > > 11:00-11:10 BREAK > > 11:10-11:50 Charles Goodwin - UCLA > "The visibility of constituent structure in discourse" > > 11:50-12:30 Cecilia Ford (University of Wisconsin), Barbara Fox > (University of Colorado) and Sandra Thompson (UCSB) > "Turn increments as constituents in English conversation" > > 12:30-2:00 LUNCH > > 2:00-5:00 Session 2 - Pat Clancy, Chair > > 2:00-2:40 Marja-Liisa Helasvuo - Academy of Finland > "What can intonation tell us about constituency" > > 2:40-3:20 James Martin - University of Sydney > "Prosodic 'structure': grammar for negotiation" > > 3:20-3:40 BREAK > > 3:40-4:20 Christian Matthiessen - Macquarie University > TBA > > 4:20-5:00 William Croft - University of Manchester > "Intonation units and grammatical structure in Wardaman and English" > > > Saturday, May 31,1997 > > 9:30-12:30 Session 3 - Mark Durie, chair > > 9:30-10:10 Joan Bybee and Joanne Scheibman - University of New Mexico > "The effect of usage on degrees of constituency: the reduction of > DON'T in English > > 10:10-10:50 A.M. Bolkestein - > "Word order variation and discontinuity in complex noun phrases > in Latin" > > 10:50-11:10 BREAK > > 11:10-11:50 Ritva Laury - California State University, Fresno > "Headedness in Finnish prepositional and postpositional phrases" > > 11:50-12:30 Paul Hopper and Joyce Tang Boyland - Carnegie Mellon University > "Constituent structure as Emergent Grammar: The diachrony of the > verbal complex in English" > > 12:30-2:00 LUNCH > > 2:00-5:00 Session 4 - Matthew Dryer, chair > > 2:00-2:40 Michael Noonan - University of Wisconsin > "How and why constituents differ in strength" > > 2:40-3:20 Michael Ewing - University of Melbourne > "Clause constituency in Cirebon Javanese" > > 3:20-3:40 BREAK > > 3:40-4:20 Nikolaus Himmelmann - Australian National University > "Projective constituent structures" > > 4:20-5:00 Connie Dickinson - University of Oregon > TBA > > > 9:30-12:30 Session 5 - William Ashby, chair > > 9:30-10:10 Susanna Cumming - UCSB > "Doing justice to the data: Richer representation for > constituency in discourse" > > 10:10-10:50 Tsuyoshi Ono - University of Arizona > TBA > > 10:50-11:10 BREAK > > 11:10-12:30 Discussion > > From ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU Thu Sep 18 13:30:05 1997 From: ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Paul J Hopper) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 09:30:05 -0400 Subject: Constituency Symposium Info. Message-ID: Ngoni Chipere & Other Funknetters Sorry for the delay in responding to various messages; I have been out of town at the ALT conference in Eugene, and got back just a couple of days ago to classes, meetings, and a big pile of messages. In response to my message, there were several inquiries about the Santa Barbara constituency conference. It was held last May, and the person officially organizing it was Charles Li, though perhaps someone at UCSB should confirm that Charles rather than someone else should be contacted for information regarding the program and publications. I am attaching hereto the program as it was distributed a couple of weeks before the conference; the actual program, as they say, "varied". - Paul Hopper ---------------------- Excerpts from mail: 23-Apr-97 Constituency Symposium Prog.. by Paul T Barthmaier at ucsbux > > Program for the Santa Barbara Constituency Symposium > > Friday, May 30, 1997 > > 9:30-9:40 Introduction - Charles Li > > 9:40-12:30 Session 1 - Carol Genetti, Chair > > 9:40-10:20 David Mc Neill - University of Chicago > "Relationships (straightforward and otherwise) between > grammatical constituents and gestures" > > 10:20-11:00 - Susan Duncan - University of Chicago > "A case study of grammaticization in Mandarin Chinese: Evidence > from gesture for the constituent structure of spoken utterances" > > 11:00-11:10 BREAK > > 11:10-11:50 Charles Goodwin - UCLA > "The visibility of constituent structure in discourse" > > 11:50-12:30 Cecilia Ford (University of Wisconsin), Barbara Fox > (University of Colorado) and Sandra Thompson (UCSB) > "Turn increments as constituents in English conversation" > > 12:30-2:00 LUNCH > > 2:00-5:00 Session 2 - Pat Clancy, Chair > > 2:00-2:40 Marja-Liisa Helasvuo - Academy of Finland > "What can intonation tell us about constituency" > > 2:40-3:20 James Martin - University of Sydney > "Prosodic 'structure': grammar for negotiation" > > 3:20-3:40 BREAK > > 3:40-4:20 Christian Matthiessen - Macquarie University > TBA > > 4:20-5:00 William Croft - University of Manchester > "Intonation units and grammatical structure in Wardaman and English" > > > Saturday, May 31,1997 > > 9:30-12:30 Session 3 - Mark Durie, chair > > 9:30-10:10 Joan Bybee and Joanne Scheibman - University of New Mexico > "The effect of usage on degrees of constituency: the reduction of > DON'T in English > > 10:10-10:50 A.M. Bolkestein - > "Word order variation and discontinuity in complex noun phrases > in Latin" > > 10:50-11:10 BREAK > > 11:10-11:50 Ritva Laury - California State University, Fresno > "Headedness in Finnish prepositional and postpositional phrases" > > 11:50-12:30 Paul Hopper and Joyce Tang Boyland - Carnegie Mellon University > "Constituent structure as Emergent Grammar: The diachrony of the > verbal complex in English" > > 12:30-2:00 LUNCH > > 2:00-5:00 Session 4 - Matthew Dryer, chair > > 2:00-2:40 Michael Noonan - University of Wisconsin > "How and why constituents differ in strength" > > 2:40-3:20 Michael Ewing - University of Melbourne > "Clause constituency in Cirebon Javanese" > > 3:20-3:40 BREAK > > 3:40-4:20 Nikolaus Himmelmann - Australian National University > "Projective constituent structures" > > 4:20-5:00 Connie Dickinson - University of Oregon > TBA > > > 9:30-12:30 Session 5 - William Ashby, chair > > 9:30-10:10 Susanna Cumming - UCSB > "Doing justice to the data: Richer representation for > constituency in discourse" > > 10:10-10:50 Tsuyoshi Ono - University of Arizona > TBA > > 10:50-11:10 BREAK > > 11:10-12:30 Discussion > > From ocls at IPA.NET Fri Sep 26 20:41:39 1997 From: ocls at IPA.NET (George Elgin, Suzette Haden Elgin) Date: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 15:41:39 -0500 Subject: Language "locations" in the brain Message-ID: September 25, 1997 In the July 10, 1997 issue of Nature, an article by Hirsch and Kim reported functional MRI research purporting to demonstrate that in multilinguals who acquire a second (or more) language in infancy or early childhood, all languages are represented in a single Broca's area location, while in multilinguals acquiring second (or more) languages after puberty each language has a separate Broca's area location. (No difference in Wernicke's area, regardless of time of acquisition.) I'd be most grateful for comment from Funknetters about this research; I've been getting questions about it, and would like to offer reasonably informed answers. Thanks for your help. Suzette Haden Elgin ocls at ipa.net From ocls at IPA.NET Mon Sep 29 13:23:12 1997 From: ocls at IPA.NET (George Elgin, Suzette Haden Elgin) Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 08:23:12 -0500 Subject: Language "locations" in the brain Message-ID: I would very much appreciate hearing something from the knowledgeable members of Funknet about their reaction to the recent (July 10, 1997) report in *Nature* (and media worldwide) that persons who learn more than one language as infants store them in a single location in the brain while those who learn additional languages as adults store them in separate locations in the brain. (Brutal summary, I know, but enough to identify the topic in question.) The research was done using functional MRIs, pre-surgery. Could I have some reactions? And a reaction to the claim that no matter how many separate areas of this sort are established, the "semantics" of all languages acquired is stored in a single area? Thanks for your help.... Suzette Haden Elgin ocls at ipa.net From sathomps at HUMANITAS.UCSB.EDU Mon Sep 29 23:44:30 1997 From: sathomps at HUMANITAS.UCSB.EDU (Sandy Thompson) Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 16:44:30 -0700 Subject: DISCOURSE STUDIES Message-ID: FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS..... September 10, 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCOURSE STUDIES. Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Text and Talk Editor: Teun A. van Dijk (University of Amsterdam) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As from 1999 Sage Publications (London) will start the publication of a new international and interdisciplinary journal for the study of discourse. This journal will address the growing international community of scholars and students of discourse in many disciplines of the humanities and the social sciences. Although in principle high quality articles on any topic in discourse studies will be welcome for this journal, DISCOURSE STUDIES will especially focus on the following areas: Discourse and Grammar The Cognitive and Social Psychology of Discourse Conversation Analysis Ethnography of Discourse Discourse and Communication Discourse, Semiotics and (Multi)Media Studies Legal Discourse Educational Discourse Medical Discourse Articles that combine discourse analysis with socio-political (and 'critical') studies of social issues and problems are welcome for the companion journal DISCOURSE & SOCIETY, which is also published by Sage (since 1990), at the editorial address below. A board of internationally renowned scholars is now being constituted, and will guarantee that the articles published in DISCOURSE STUDIES will be of exceptionally high quality. Papers are preferred that combine new theoretical developments with detailed, explicit and systematic analysis of (corpora of) text and talk. 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For subscriptions, contact Louise Harnby at Sage Publications, 6, Bonhill Street, London EC2A 4PU, England. Phone: +44-171-330.1252; FAX: 374.8741; e-mail: louise.harnby at sagepub.co.uk. POST IT Please help to make this new journal known to others by forwarding this message to colleagues and/or by posting it on Internet lists you subscribe to. CALL FOR PAPERS As from April 1998, high quality papers that fall within the scope and meet the criteria outlined above are welcome at the address below (provionally, see the instructions to authors on the inside backcover of DISCOURSE & SOCIETY), For further information, contact the Editor, preferably by e-mail. Teun A. van Dijk, Editor University of Amsterdam Program of Discourse Studies 210 Spuistraat 1012 VT Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Phone: +31-20-525.3834 (office direct, 10-12 hrs) Phone: +31-20-525.3865 (dept. secretary) Phone: +31-20-6.27.37.47 (home --after 13 hrs) FAX : +31-20-639.1727 E-mail: teun at let.uva.nl Home-Page: http://www.let.uva.nl/-7Eteun (NB. Between October 1997 and End March 1998 I am on sabbatical, but may be reached by e-mail). From lmenn at CLIPR.COLORADO.EDU Tue Sep 30 04:08:46 1997 From: lmenn at CLIPR.COLORADO.EDU (Lise Menn, Linguistics, CU Boulder) Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 21:08:46 -0700 Subject: Language "locations" in the brain In-Reply-To: Message-ID: This is probably oversimplified, but it's not an unreasonable result given earlier indications that late bilinguals had a more bilateral representation of language than early bilinguals (using one-hand motor tasks as indicators of hemispheric involvement), and given Damasio's claims that meaning of words with concrete referents is represented in a way that is linked to our sensory experience of those referents (hence, language-independent). I haven't read the original article yet, though. Lise Menn On Mon, 29 Sep 1997, George Elgin, Suzette Haden Elgin wrote: > I would very much appreciate hearing something from the knowledgeable > members of Funknet about their reaction to the recent (July 10, 1997) > report in *Nature* (and media worldwide) that persons who learn more than > one language as infants store them in a single location in the brain while > those who learn additional languages as adults store them in separate > locations in the brain. (Brutal summary, I know, but enough to identify the > topic in question.) The research was done using functional MRIs, > pre-surgery. Could I have some reactions? And a reaction to the claim that > no matter how many separate areas of this sort are established, the > "semantics" of all languages acquired is stored in a single area? Thanks > for your help.... > > Suzette Haden Elgin > ocls at ipa.net > From eyrich at ZEDAT.FU-BERLIN.DE Tue Sep 30 06:43:42 1997 From: eyrich at ZEDAT.FU-BERLIN.DE (Christoph Eyrich) Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 08:43:42 +0200 Subject: TEXT: New editors Message-ID: ANNOUNCEMENT Future Directions T E X T an interdisciplinary journal for the study of discourse Mouton de Gruyter * Berlin * New York As of 1998, TEXT will be edited by Srikant Sarangi and John Wilson. While ensuring that the full range of fields and topics in discourse studies are explored, the new editors aim to strengthen the focus on methodological issues concerning cross-disciplinary text analysis as well as considerations of practical/social applications of text-based discourse studies (in domains as diverse as artificial intelligence, computer-based corpus studies, forensic linguistics, rhetoric and composition, stylistics, narratives, institutional ethnography, sociology of science). Maintaining ist strong scholarly and academic tradition, every effort will be made to enhance the reputation of TEXT as a widely cited source of ground-breaking research within the field of discourse studies. The full report of the new editors as well as guidelines for contributors are available at http://www.degruyter.de/journals/text/futdir.html or directly from the publisher. * * * TEXT is published in one volume of four issues per year. Approx. 600 pages per volume. 14,8 x 21 cm. Paperback. ISSN 0165-4888 Subscription rates for Volume 18 (1998): Institutions/Libraries: DM 354,- / US$ 235.00 Single Issues: DM 98,- / approx. US$ 61.25 Special rate for individual subscriptions: DM 72,- / US$ 45.00 Postage extra. Individual rate not available for residents of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. US dollar prices apply only to orders placed in North America. _______________________________________________________________________ Mouton de Gruyter Walter de Gruyter, Inc. Postfach 30 34 21 200 Saw Mill River Road D-10728 Berlin Hawthorne, NY 10532 Germany USA Fax: +49 (0)30 26005-351 Fax: +1 914 747-1326 email: mouton at degruyter.de WWW: http://www.degruyter.de From wilcox at UNM.EDU Tue Sep 30 16:14:52 1997 From: wilcox at UNM.EDU (Sherman Wilcox) Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 10:14:52 -0600 Subject: Job announcement Message-ID: Linguistics position: Phonetics/Phonology The Department of Linguistics at the University of New Mexico seeks applicants for a tenure track Assistant Professor position beginning August 17, 1998, pending budgetary approval. Minimum qualifications: specialization in phonetics and phonology; Ph.D. by date of appointment; program of research that is consistent with the functional and cognitive orientation of the Department. Desirable qualifications: expertise in experimental phonetics or phonology; established record of research; research involving a language area of focal interest to the Department (Native American language--especially of the Southwest, a signed language, or Spanish); ability to contribute to core curriculum teaching; ability to communicate effectively with students and colleagues. Interested candidates should send a letter of application detailing how they meet the position description, a curriculum vitae, samples of papers or publications, and names of three referees who have been asked to send letters of recommendation directly to the committee. All application materials must be received by December 15, 1997. Send materials to: Search Committee Department of Linguistics Humanities 526 University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131-1196 USA E-mail inquiries may be sent to Professor Joan Bybee, chair of the Search Committee, at jbybee at unm.edu. The University of New Mexico is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. From macw at CMU.EDU Tue Sep 30 19:14:00 1997 From: macw at CMU.EDU (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 14:14:00 -0500 Subject: bilingual fMRI Message-ID: Dear FunkNet, Lise's account of the Kim, Relkin, Lee, and Hirsch paper sees reasonable. However, having just now gone over the article, I might add a few points. 1. The task was covert subvocalization. In other words, this is a full language task that involves grammar and lexicon, but no clear input or output phonology. Subjects were describing what they had done earlier that day. However, they had formulated the descriptions earlier. So this is a replay of an earlier internalized narrative. 2. There was no difference between late and early bilinguals in Wernicke's area, only in Broca's. Apparently, no other areas showed significant activation in the task, which is a bit surprising. Maybe they just didn't report on other areas. 3. The authors point to Kuhl's work on perceptual magnets in auditory development as indicating that the region of cortex responsible for a language task may change with development. However, they then go on and somehow suggest that Broca's area may be involved in phonetic processing. Quite a non sequitur, I would say. So the authors don't really present any account of their findings. Lise's mention of the fact that late bilinguals are "more bilateral" seems to be relevant. However, I worry about the fact that the Kosslyn/Damasio work is about individual concrete nouns and this task was one involving connected discourse. I think that Lise is correct that Broca's has some activation in the Kosslyn/Damasio studies, but I would need to double check all of that before pursuing it as the account for these findings. Let me try to float another explanation. In a few recent papers, I have argued that early bilinguals project the input linguistic data to a single space, because that space is not yet saturated by weights on synaptic connections and the two systems can be learned together in a computationally reasonable sense without worrying about catastrophic interference. In adult L2 learning, the optimal area for an ability has already been occupied and new learning must either use the old territory in a new way or else coopt adjacent "new" territory. In Broca's area, this would involve particularly the use of adjacent cortical areas to control alternative planning patterns for sentence production and the activation of words in sequence. The fact that Wernicke's shows a reuse of the older area roughly matches up with a Kroll/DeGroot account of L2 conceptual learning through parasitism on L1 conceptual structure. However, I would also expect to see some other cortical mismatches in other motor areas and other auditory areas. The fact that these were no detected in this study may be attributable to the internalized nature of the task. A lot of what is at issue here is exactly what the role of Broca's area in language processing might be. I am not pushing the grammar box theory, but I would think that viewing Broca's as the seat of semantic organization (not a term used in the original article, but in Suzette's message) is also inadequate. I would like to think of Broca's as controlling high level sequential planning for language and related abilities. The occasional use of Broca's for object recognition would be in terms of matching the affordances from objects to higher level action plans. Suzette, hope this helps. Comments invited. --Brian MacWhinney From fjn at U.WASHINGTON.EDU Wed Sep 10 15:22:03 1997 From: fjn at U.WASHINGTON.EDU (Frederick Newmeyer) Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 08:22:03 -0700 Subject: syntax in different discourse genres Message-ID: Dear Funknetters, I'm posting this message for a student of mine, who is not a subscriber: Could somebody please help me with a literature reference or two? I am interested in work that describes the differences in syntactic constructions in different genres: narratives, conversations, lectures, written texts of various sorts, and so on. I assume that construction types that are common in one genre are rare in another. Is there work that talks about the differences? Thanks! I'll summarize. Frank Jaret jaret at u.washington.edu From A.M.Bolkestein at LET.UVA.NL Wed Sep 10 20:00:13 1997 From: A.M.Bolkestein at LET.UVA.NL (A.M. Bolkestein) Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 22:00:13 +0200 Subject: syntax in different discourse genres In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Susan Herring e.a., are editing a volume about textual parameters in older languages in which (I presume) many contributions deal with the relation between text type and selected kinds of (syntactic/semantic/ ...) variation. Ask her! Best, Machtelt Bolkestein Dept. of Classics, University of Amsterdam Oude Turfmarkt 129 NL-1012 GC Amsterdam Fax: ++31.20.5252544 E-mail: a.m.bolkestein at let.uva.nl On Wed, 10 Sep 1997, Frederick Newmeyer wrote: > Dear Funknetters, > > I'm posting this message for a student of mine, who is not a subscriber: > > Could somebody please help me with a literature reference or two? I am > interested in work that describes the differences in syntactic > constructions in different genres: narratives, conversations, lectures, > written texts of various sorts, and so on. > > I assume that construction types that are common in one genre are rare in > another. Is there work that talks about the differences? > > Thanks! I'll summarize. > > Frank Jaret > jaret at u.washington.edu > From ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU Wed Sep 10 23:16:56 1997 From: ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Paul J Hopper) Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 19:16:56 -0400 Subject: syntax in different discourse genres In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Excerpts from mail: 10-Sep-97 syntax in different discour.. by Frederick Newmeyer at u.was > > Could somebody please help me with a literature reference or two? I am > interested in work that describes the differences in syntactic > constructions in different genres: narratives, conversations, lectures, > written texts of various sorts, and so on. > > I assume that construction types that are common in one genre are rare in > another. Is there work that talks about the differences? > I suppose it depends on how narrowly you're conceiving "construction types". There was recently a conference in Santa Barbara that looked quite critically at the whole question of "constituency" and what would count as evidence for it. The well-known work of Douglas Biber (e.g. in Language 62,2:1986, 384-414) takes several dozen syntactic/semantic features and studies there implementation in different text types. If you include the literature on oral/written language, the bibliography will be quite large. Chafe and Tannen's review in the Annual Reviews of Anthropology of 1987 would be a start; also Chafe and Danielewitz in the volume edited by Rosalind Horowitz (Comprehending Oral & Written Lang. 1987) with an extensive list of syntactic/semantic features of speaking vs writing. If you go further and include the work of those who consider other genres to be derivative of conversation, you'd have to include the entire Conversation Analysis school (a significant account of this work is the modestly titled "Introduction" by the editors of Interaction & Grammar (Cambridge 1996), Eli Ochs, Mani Schegloff, Sandy Thompson.) Oh, and don't forget there's been a fairly large body of work over the last few decades studying the genre "Isolated Fictional Sentence." A good introduction to this is a small book by N. Chomsky pubished in 1957; I forget its exact title. The problem with this work is that its practitioners seemd to be under the illusion that it was a significant genre. - Paul Hopper From ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU Wed Sep 10 23:48:32 1997 From: ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Paul J Hopper) Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 19:48:32 -0400 Subject: Genre and Syntax Message-ID: Excerpts from mail: 10-Sep-97 syntax in different discour.. by Frederick Newmeyer at u.was > > Could somebody please help me with a literature reference or two? I am > interested in work that describes the differences in syntactic > constructions in different genres: narratives, conversations, lectures, > written texts of various sorts, and so on. > > I assume that construction types that are common in one genre are rare in > another. Is there work that talks about the differences? > I suppose it depends on how narrowly you're conceiving "construction types". There was recently a conference in Santa Barbara that looked quite critically at the whole question of "constituency" and what would count as evidence for it. The well-known work of Douglas Biber (e.g. in Language 62,2:1986, 384-414) takes several dozen syntactic/semantic features and studies their implementation in different text types. If you include the literature on oral/written language, the bibliography will be quite large. Chafe and Tannen's review in the Annual Reviews of Anthropology of 1987 would be a start; there's a somewhat more up-to-date bibliography at URL http://www.english.hss.cmu.edu/langs.html compiled in connection with a seminar I taught a few years ago. Look also at Chafe and Danielewitz in Rosalind Horowitz, ed., Comprehending Oral & Written Lang. 1987, with an extensive list of syntactic/semantic features of speaking vs writing. If you go further and include the work of those who consider other genres to be derivative of conversation, you'd have to include the entire Conversation Analysis school (a significant account of this work is the modestly titled "Introduction" by the editors of Interaction & Grammar (Cambridge UP 1996) - Eli Ochs, Mani Schegloff & Sandy Thompson.) Oh, and don't forget there's been a large body of work over the last few decades devoted exclusively to the genre "Isolated Fictional Sentence." A good introduction to this school is a small book by N. Chomsky pubished in 1957; I forget its exact title. The chief problem with this work is that its practitioners seem to harbor the illusion that the IFS is a significant genre, and have based an entire theory of language on it. - Paul Hopper From apawley at COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU Thu Sep 11 05:56:07 1997 From: apawley at COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU (Andy Pawley) Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 15:56:07 +1000 Subject: syntax in different discourse genres Message-ID: In reply to Frank Jaret's enquiry about construction types in different genres, let me suggest the following (mostly Anglocentric) selection of material, in addition to the references supplied by Paul Hopper. 1. Formal written vs conversational and narrative speech Wallace Chafe's 1994 book /Discourse, Consciousness and Time: the Flow and Displacement of Conscious Experience in Speaking and Writing/ reviews his own research over two decades on how and why spoken and written discourse differ and contains an extensive bibliliography. I have a couple of papers with Frances Syder which tackle the same problem, with particular reference to syntax. A. Pawley and F. Syder (1983) 'Natural selection in syntax: notes on adaptive variation and change in vernacular and literary grammar' in J. Pragmatics 7: 551-579. A. Pawley and F. Syder (in press) 'The one clause at a time hypothesis.' (the book ed. H. Riggenbach won't be out for a while, but I can provide copies of the paper) A. Pawley (1984) 'School English is nobody's mother tongue: reflections on vernacular and school-acquired language.' In A. Berry (ed.) /Communication/ (an extremely obscure publication but I can help...) There are some golden oldies, such as: William Labov (1973) 'The transformation of experience in narrative syntax' (in W. Labov /Language in the Inner City/, U. Penn Press. A. Duranti and E. Ochs (1979) 'Left-dislocation in Italian conversation' in T. Givon (ed.) /Syntax and Semantics vol. 12, Discourse and Syntax/, pp. 377-417. E. Ochs (1979) 'Planned and unplanned discourse', in T. Givon (ed.) /Syntax and Semantics, vol. 12, Discourse and Syntax/, pp. 51-80. (Academic Press) Deborah Tannen (ed.) (1982) /Spoken and Written Language/, esp. papers by Chafe ('Integration and involvement in speaking, writing and oral literature'), P. Clancy (on Japanese) and Ch. Li and S. Thompson (Chinese). W. Chafe (ed.) (1980) /The Pear Stories: Cognitive Cultural and Linguistics Aspects of Narrative Production/. 2. Oral formulaic genres. One can read th extensive literature on and the ethnography of speaking and on verbal arts in various languages, e.g. Albert Lord's classic /The Singer of Tales/, without finding much systematic work on construction types. However, Kon Kuiper . has written quite a few papers which touch on the special grammar of rapid speech by sports commentators, auctioneers, etc. as part of a broader functional analysis of their discourse properties. I'll mention just his recent book and one paper: Koenraad Kuiper (1996) /Smooth Talkers: the Linguistic Performance of Auctioneers and Sportscasters./ Lawrence Erlbaum, N.J. K. Kuiper and D. Haggo (1984) 'Livestock auction, oral poetry and ordinary language'. Language and Society 13:205-234. I have done a similar sort of paper about radio cricket commentaries: A . Pawley (1991) 'How to talk cricket: on linguistic competence in a subject matter.' In R. Blust (ed.) /Currents in Pacific Linguistics: Essays...in Honour of George Grace./ pp. 339-368. Pacific Linguistics, C-117. One of Kuiper's students has written a thesis on the discoyrse structure and grammar of Weather Forecast broadcasts, which may be available from Kuiper. There are other (mainly unpublished) papers that I'm aware on formulaic constructions peculiar to casual speech, but that'll do for now. Andrew Pawley Dept. Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies Australian National University From CGoodwin at HUMNET.UCLA.EDU Thu Sep 11 06:36:01 1997 From: CGoodwin at HUMNET.UCLA.EDU (Chuck Goodwin) Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 23:36:01 -0700 Subject: Syntax in different discourse genres Message-ID: A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 539 bytes Desc: not available URL: From fjn at U.WASHINGTON.EDU Sun Sep 14 22:38:12 1997 From: fjn at U.WASHINGTON.EDU (Frederick Newmeyer) Date: Sun, 14 Sep 1997 15:38:12 -0700 Subject: Summary: Syntax in different discourse genres Message-ID: Here is a summary from my student, on whose behalf I posted a query on syntax in different discourse genres. -- fjn -------------------------------------------------------- Last week I posted a query to LINGUIST LIST and FUNKNET asking for references to work on how syntactic constructions differ from one discourse genre to another. The response was amazing. I would like to thank all of the following for contacting me: Ramin Akbari, Mark Baltin, Joyce Tang Boland, Machtelt Bolkestein, Filomena Capucho, John Davis, Spike Gildea, Chuck Goodwin, Georgia Green, Paul Hopper, Sunny Hyon, Jussi Karlgren, Jacques Lecavalier, Hyo Sang Lee, Carl Mills, Michael Noonan, Andy Pawley, Doris Payne, Asya Pereltsvaig, Taylor Roberts, Malcolm Ross, and Yael Ziv. By far, the most common response was to tell me to read the work of Douglas Biber: Biber, Douglas (1986). Spoken and written textual dimensions in English. Language 62: 384-414. Biber, Douglas (1988). Variation across speech and writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Biber, Douglas (1989). A typology of English texts. Linguistics 27: 3-43. Biber, Douglas (1995). Dimensions of register variation : A cross-linguistic comparison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Biber, Douglas and Edward Finegan, Eds. (1994). Sociolinguistic perspectives on register. Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Here are some of the other suggestions: Adam, Jean-Michel (1990). Elements de linguistique textuelle. Lige: Mardaga. Andersson, Erik. 1975. ``Style, optional rules and contextual conditioning. In it Style and Text - Studies presented to Nils Erik Enkvist}. H{\aa}kan Ringbom. (ed.) Stockholm: Skriptor and Turku: {\AA}bo Akademi. Banfield, Ann (1973). Narrative style and the grammar of direct and indirect speech. Foundations of Language 10: 1-40. Chafe, Wallace L., Ed. (1980). The Pear stories: Cognitive, cultural, and linguistic aspects of narrative production. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Chafe, Wallace L. (1994). Discourse, consciousness, and time: The flow and displacement of conscious experience in speaking and writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chafe, Wallace and Jane Danielewicz (1987). Properties of spoken and written Language. Comprehending oral and written language, ed. by Rosalind Horowitz and S. Jay Samuels. San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 83-113. Chafe, Wallace and Deborah Tannen (1987). Relation between written and spoken language. Annual Review of Anthropology 16: 383-407. Charolles, Michel (19??). Les plans d'organisation textuelles: Priodes, channes, portes et squences. Pratiques 57: 3-13. Duranri, Alessandro and Elinor Ochs (1979). Left-dislocation in Italian conversation. Syntax and Semantics, vol. 12: Discourse and syntax, ed. by Talmy Givn. New York: Academic Press, pp. 377-417. English for Specific Purposes [much of relevance in this journal] Goodwin, Marjorie H. (1990). He-said-she-said: Talk as social organization among Black children. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Herring, Susan, et al. [are editing a book about textual parameters in older languages] Karlgren, Jussi 1996.``Stylistic Variation in an Information Retrieval Experiment'' In Proceedings NeMLaP 2, Bilkent, September 1996. Ankara: Bilkent University. (In the Computation and Language E-Print Archive: cmp-lg/9608003). Karlgren, Jussi and Douglass Cutting. 1994. ``Recognizing Text Genres with Simple Metrics Using Discriminant Analysis'', Proceedings of COLING 94, Kyoto. (In the Computation and Language E-Print Archive: cmp-lg/9410008). Labov, William (1972). The transformation of experience in narrative syntax. Language in the inner city, ed. by William Labov. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 354-396. Lee, Hyo Sang and Sandra A. Thompson (1989). A discourse account of the Korean accusative marker. Studies in Language 13: 105-128. Longacre, Robert E. (1972). Hierarchy and universality of discourse constituents in New Guinea languages (2 vols.). Washington: Georgetown University Press. Longacre, Robert E. (1990). Storyline concerns and word order typology in East and West Africa. Los Angeles: Studies in African Linguistics, Supplement 10. Losee, Robert M. Forthcoming. Text windows and phrases differing by discipline, location in document, and syntactic structure. Computation and Language E-Print Archive: cmp-lg/9602003. Menshikov, I. I. 1974. K voprosu o zhanrovo-stilevoy obuslovlennosti sintaksicheskoy struktury frazy''. (``On genre-dependent stylistic variation of the syntactic structure in the clause'') In Voprosy statisticheskoy stilistiki. Golovin et al. (eds.) 1974. Kiev: Naukova dumka; Akademia Nauk Ukrainskoy SSR. Mills, Carl (1990). Syntax and the evaluation of college writing: A blind alley. Language proficiency: Defining, teaching, and testing, ed. by Louis A. Arena. New York: Plenum, 107-119. Mills, Carl. [papers in various LACUS Forums in recent years] Ochs, Elinor (1979). Planned and unplanned discourse. Syntax and Semantics, vol. 12: Discourse and Syntax, ed. by Talmy Givn. New York: Academic Press, pp. 51-80. Ochs, Elinor, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Sandra A. Thompson, Eds. (1997). Interaction and grammar. Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics 13. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [see Introduction] Pawley, Andrew (1984). School English is nobody's mother tongue: Reflections on vernacular and school-acquired language. A Berry (Ed.), Communication. Pawley, Andrew and Frances Syder (1983). Natural selection in syntax: Notes on adaptove variation and change in vernacular and literary grammar. Journal of Pragmatics 7: 551-579. Pawley, Andrew and Frances Syder (In press). The one clause at a time hypothesis. ?, ed. by Heidi Riggenbach, . Perrin, Laurent (1994). Mots et noncs mentionn dans le discours. Cahiers de Linguistique Franaise, Universit de Genve. Perrin, Laurent (1995). Du dialogue rapport aux reprise diaphoniques. Cahiers de Linguistique Franaise, Universit de Genve. Perrin, Laurent (1996). De la structure nonciative et de l'organisation polyphonique d'un change pistolaire. Cahiers de Linguistique Franaise, Universit de Genve. Quakenbush, J. Stephen (1992). Word order and discourse type: An Austronesian example. Pragmatics of word order flexibility, ed. by Doris L. Payne. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 279-304. Swales, John (1990). Genre analysis : English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tannen, Deborah, Ed. (1982). Spoken and written language: Exploring orality and literacy. Advances in discourse processes 9. Norwood, NJ: ABLEX. Virtanen, Tuija (1992). Discourse functions of adverbial placement in English: Clause initial procedural place descriptions. Abo: Abo Academis Forlag, Abo Academi University Press. Frank Jaret From slobin at COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU Tue Sep 16 21:28:45 1997 From: slobin at COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Dan I. SLOBIN) Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 14:28:45 -0700 Subject: No subject Message-ID: PLEASE POST AND CIRCULATE THE FOLLOWING ANNOUNCEMENT: The University of California, Berkeley seeks an anthropologist at the assitant professor level, interested in language, society and culture. The appointment will be effective July 1, 1998. Candidates should demonstrate theoretical breadth in anthropology and have training in the study of language and culture. Experience in non-western languages is preferable. Send application letter, curriculum vitae, and names and addresses of references to: Search Committee, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3710. Applications must arrive by Friday, January 16, 1998. The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. From mariel at POST.TAU.AC.IL Wed Sep 17 06:56:39 1997 From: mariel at POST.TAU.AC.IL (ariel mira) Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 08:56:39 +0200 Subject: Genre & Grammar Message-ID: A couple of additions to the genre & grammar list: Fox, Barbara. 1987. Discourse structure and anaphora: Written and conversational English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Toole, Janine. 1996. The effect of genre on referential choice. Reference and referent accessibility, ed. by Thorstein Fretheim and Jeanette K. Gundel, 263-290. Amsterdam: Benjamins. --Jack Du Bois From C.J.Arthur at UEL.AC.UK Wed Sep 17 15:32:57 1997 From: C.J.Arthur at UEL.AC.UK (Chris Knight) Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 15:32:57 GMT0BST Subject: Evolution of Language Conference Message-ID: *********** Apologies for multiple postings*********** The Evolution of Language Conference, April 6-9th 1998, London, UK Organisers: Prof. Jean Aitchison (Oxford University), Prof. Jim Hurford (Edinburgh University), Dr. Chris Knight (University of East London) Further information about this conference and an online version of our registration form is available at: "http://www.uel.ac.uk/faculties/socsci/anthro/confreg.htm" Please note the new deadline for abstracts is November 1st 1997. From edith at CSD.UWM.EDU Wed Sep 17 19:30:20 1997 From: edith at CSD.UWM.EDU (Edith A Moravcsik) Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 14:30:20 -0500 Subject: Hetzron Message-ID: The following is an obituary for Robert Hetzron written by Grover Hudson. ******** Forwarded message: >>From hudson at pilot.msu.edu Wed Sep 17 09:21:30 1997 >Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 10:21:26 -0400 >Message-Id: >In-Reply-To: <199709162228.RAA24370 at alpha1.csd.uwm.edu> >Mime-Version: 1.0 >Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii" >To: Edith A Moravcsik >From: Grover Hudson >Subject: Re: Hetzron > >Robert Hetzron > > >Robert Hetzron left a wide and rich array of publications as evidence >of his extraordinary knowledge of theory and data, his rare imagination >and creativity, and great love of languages and linguistics which will >be greatly missed in all the several fields in which he worked with >unique insight and energy for over thirty-five years: Semitic, >Hungarian, Cushitic, Afroasiatic, and theoretical linguistics >encompassing phonology, morphology, and syntax. > > Robert did his M.A. at Hebrew University under H. J. Polotsky, writing >a thesis on Amharic pronominalization, and his doctorate in Near >Eastern Languages at UCLA, finishing in 1966, a time in which he >benefited from the ambitiously growing linguistics program being >developed there by Robert Stockwell, as well as by the strong Near >Eastern Studies Department built and led by Wolf Leslau, under whose >tutelage in 1965-66 he undertook fieldwork for his dissertation on The >Verbal System of Southern Agaw (Awngi), a Cushitic language of central >Ethiopia, subsequently published as University of California monograph >in Near Eastern Studies 12 (1969). He later complemented this study >with one on 'The nominal system of Awngi (Southern Agaw)' (Bulletin of >the School of Oriental and African Studies 41, 1978), and other >articles on Agaw. > > During his short stay in Ethiopia he was able, surprisingly but >certainly by hard and well focused work, to acquire extensive data as >well on several of the Gurage languages, which became a topic to which >he regularly returned and on which he was busy at the time of his death >on August 12, which came, indeed, weeks after he had organized an >informal seminar on the Gurage languages at his home in Santa Barbara, >where he had gone to teach immediately after finishing his studies at >UCLA. There over the years Robert always welcomed his friends, and >entertained everyone with his conversational expertise and, if you were >lucky, by his gourmet cooking as well, and by a short walk down the >hill to watch sunset over the Channel Islands. Despite the tranquility >and beauty of the place, Robert felt isolated in Santa Barbara, and I >wish that I and others had had more occasions and made more time to >visit there. > > Robert's first publication appears to have been on his native >Hungarian, 'L'accent en hongrois' (Bulletin de la Societe de >linguistique de Paris 52, 1962), but he soon began to write on Amharic, >with 'La rection du theme factitif en amharique' (La Museon 76, 1963), >followed soon by 'La voyelle du sixieme ordre in Amharic' (Journal of >African Language 3, 1964), which examined the near complete >predictability of the Amharic high central vowel, a problem to which >students of Amharic have been responding since, and then, based on his >M.A. thesis, 'Pronominalization in Amharic' (Journal of Semitic Studies >11, 1966). His careful study of case usage in Amharic, 'Toward a case >grammar of Amharic' (Studies in African Linguistics 1, 1970), was the >first part of what was to have been a longer work which, unfortunately, >he did not finish. > > He soon began to write on Gurage languages, which, more than Agaw, >connected with his broader and diachronic interests --in Semitic and, >more generally, Afroasiatic. His first Gurage paper (certainly written >during his mere seven months in Ethiopia --which fieldwork was soon to >yield three books) was a collaboration with Habte Mariam Marcos, 'Des >traits superposes en ennemor' (Journal of Ethiopian Studies 4, 1966), >followed by a truly seminal paper, 'Main verb markers in Northern >Gurage' (Africa, 1968), which argued for the preservation in these >languages of a Semitic copula, in which article he also introduced his >innovative and controversially detailed classification of Ethiopian >Semitic. He developed this classification further in studies which >examined specific morphological features which he argued to be >genetically diagnostic as arbitrary innovations not attributable to >heritage or accident, such as 'Internal labialization in the tt-group >of Outer South Ethiopic' (Journal of the American Oriental Society 91, >1971), and 'Two notes on Semitic laryngeals in East Gurage' (Phonetica >19, 1970), which reconstructed the Semitic laryngeals from reflexes as >nasal insertions. He followed these with his influential and still >standard survey of historical Ethiopian Semitic, Ethiopian Semitic: >Studies in Classification (Journal of Semitic Studies monograph 2, >1972), and then a book on the Gurage languages less the Eastern >sub-group: The Gunnan-Gurage Languages (Istituto orientale di Napoli, >1977). His Ethiopian Semitic classification became one of his >contributions to Language in Ethiopia (M. L. Bender et al, eds., 1976). > > > His work on Gurage classification and the controversy which this >inspired caused Robert to realize the importance of two >little-understood principles in genetic classification, which he >elaborated in 'Two principles of genetic classification' (Lingua, >1976): 'archaic heterogeneity' and 'shared morpholexical innovations', >and applied in papers such as 'The evidence for perfect *y'aqtul and >jussive *yaqt'ul in proto-Semitic' (Journal of Semitic Studies 14, >1969), 'An archaism in the Cushitic verbal conjugation' (IV Congresso >Internationale di Studi Etiopici, 1974), and 'Innovations in the >Semitic numeral system' (Journal of Semitic Studies 22, 1977). As a >result, he was able for the first time to give coherence to Cushitic as >a genetic group in 'The limits of Cushitic' (Sprache und Geschichte in >Afrika 2, 1980, written in London on a Guggenheim fellowship), and new >perspective on subgrouping within Semitic in 'La division des langues >semitiques' (Premier Congres International de Etudes Semitique et >Chamito-Semitique, 1974). > > Soon Robert knew Afroasiatic as well as anyone, but perhaps owing to >the critical eye toward unripe ideas which he applied to his own work >as well as that of others (I will mention only a couple of his many >reviews here, which invariably add significantly to the works >reviewed), he avoided claims concerning Afroasiatic subgrouping and >reconstruction, even in his masterful survey of diachronic and >synchronic Afroasiatic in The World's Major Languages (Bernard Comrie, >ed., 1987; which volume also includes his surveys of Hebrew and >Semitic). > > Along the way, and despite the fact that at UC Santa Barbara he lacked >the important stimulus of teaching in these areas, Robert energetically >pursued several lines of well-developed interest in general theoretical >linguistics, writing influential articles on word order, including >'Presentative function and presentative movement' (Studies in African >Linguistics supplement, 1971) and 'Disjoining conjoined structures' >(Papers in Linguistics 5, 1972), and on the phonology-syntax interface >with his 'Phonology in syntax' (Journal of Linguistics 8, 1972) and >'Where the grammar fails' (Language 51, 1975). With thorough command >of Afroasiatic and Hungarian and good knowledge of Romance linguistics >(especially evident in e.g. his 'Clitic pronouns and their linear >representation' Forum Linguisticum 1, 1977; he also published articles >on Somali, Syriac, and Omotic), and as a contributor in several areas >of theoretical linguistics, Robert was one of very few scholars fully >able to review wide-ranging works like Current Trends in Linguistics >VI: South-west Asia and North Africa (Thomas Sebeok, ed., 1970, >reviewed in Linguistics 140, 1974, where he noted the likely >Afroasiatic roots of root and pattern morphology) and the four volumes >of Universals of Human Language (Joseph Greenberg, ed., 1978, reviewed >in Lingua 50, 1980). > > Unfortunately I cannot speak with competence about Robert's numerous >publications on Hungarian linguistics, but it seems that his >contributions there must be outstanding and often unique, particularly >his several papers on Hungarian accent, from his first, 1962, article >mentioned above, to his recent 'Prosodic morphemes in Hungarian' >(Approaches to Hungarian, vol. 4, ed. by I. Kenesei and Cs. Pleh, >1992), which places Hungarian near the middle in a continuum of >tonality in languages. > > As his health failed in recent years, Robert continued to work with >energy in all the areas of his interest, and enjoyed the joys and >frustrations of editorship in bringing about himself an up-to-date >manual of comparative Semitic the need for which he had called >attention in his Semitic survey in The World's Major Languages. This >volume, The Semitic Languages, with 24 authors, should appear this year >from Routledge, and in it he himself provides articles on the place of >Semitic in Afroasiatic, and on Outer South Ethiopic. > > Maybe the literature has now grown too vast, and maybe the world now >provides too many diversions, preventing the possibility of other >linguists with such an exceptional combination of knowledge, insight, >creativity, and energy. At least there was Robert Hetzron, and the >many who did not know him can benefit from his rich and encompassing >body of work, in which one can always find lengthy and thorough >reference to prior work, typically with generous acknowledgements of >his consultations with others. I have been able to mention just a >selection of his publications here, and have omitted very many items >which others would surely insist must be mentioned. Everyone has the >benefit of his work now, and those of us fortunate to have known Robert >can continue to benefit as well as from our fond memories of him. > > Robert's ex-wife Gabriella Barber is cataloging and organizing the >unfinished papers which Robert left behind to seethat this work >completed and made available. Those with knowledge about these >projects and otherwise willing to contribute should > >contact her at magyar at west.net (698 Zink Ave Santa Barbara, Ca 93111) > > >Grover Hudson > >Michigan State University > >hudson at pilot.msu.edu > > > > -- ************************************************************************ Edith A. Moravcsik Department of Linguistics University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413 USA E-mail: edith at csd.uwm.edu Telephone: (414) 229-6794 /office/ (414) 332-0141 /home/ Fax: (414) 229-6258 From nc206 at HERMES.CAM.AC.UK Thu Sep 18 12:10:50 1997 From: nc206 at HERMES.CAM.AC.UK (N. Chipere) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 13:10:50 +0100 Subject: Constituency Message-ID: In a reply to the recent query on syntax in different genres, Paul Hopper referred to a conference on the notion of constituency. I have been unable to contact Paul Hopper for details of this conference and I would be very grateful if anyone on the list can tell me anything about it (e.g date, venue, attendees, paper titles, availability of conference proceedings etc.) I am also interested in any publications which look at the notion of constituency critically, eg. its limitations as a descriptive device for linguistics, its psychological reality or lack of it, etc. Many thanks. Ngoni Chipere From nc206 at HERMES.CAM.AC.UK Thu Sep 18 12:40:25 1997 From: nc206 at HERMES.CAM.AC.UK (N. Chipere) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 13:40:25 +0100 Subject: Constituency Message-ID: (Apologies if you get 2 or 3 copies of this message. I'm having trouble sending the message) In a reply to the recent query on syntax in different genres, Paul Hopper referred to a conference on the notion of constituency. I have been unable to contact Paul Hopper for details of this conference and I would be very grateful if anyone on the list can tell me anything about it (e.g date, venue, attendees, paper titles, availability of conference proceedings etc.) I am also interested in any publications which look at the notion of constituency critically, eg. its limitations as a descriptive device for linguistics, its psychological reality or lack of it, etc. Many thanks. Ngoni Chipere From nc206 at HERMES.CAM.AC.UK Thu Sep 18 12:52:00 1997 From: nc206 at HERMES.CAM.AC.UK (N. Chipere) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 13:52:00 +0100 Subject: Constituency Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- (Apologies if you get 2 or 3 copies of this message. I'm having trouble sending the message) In a reply to the recent query on syntax in different genres, Paul Hopper referred to a conference on the notion of constituency. I have been unable to contact Paul Hopper for details of this conference and I would be very grateful if anyone on the list can tell me anything about it (e.g date, venue, attendees, paper titles, availability of conference proceedings etc.) I am also interested in any publications which look at the notion of constituency critically, eg. its limitations as a descriptive device for linguistics, its psychological reality or lack of it, etc. Many thanks. Ngoni Chipere From ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU Thu Sep 18 13:15:49 1997 From: ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Paul J Hopper) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 09:15:49 -0400 Subject: Constituency In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Ngoni Chipere & Other Funknetters Sorry for the delay in responding to various messages; I have been out of town at the ALT conference in Eugene, and got back just a couple of days ago to classes, meetings, and a big pile of messages. In response to my message, there were several inquiries about the Santa Barbara constituency conference. It was held last May, and the person officially organizing it was Charles Li, though perhaps someone at UCSB should confirm that Charles rather than someone else should be contacted for information regarding the program and publications. I am attaching hereto the program as it was distributed a couple of weeks before the conference; the actual program, as they say, "varied". - Paul Hopper ---------------------- Excerpts from mail: 23-Apr-97 Constituency Symposium Prog.. by Paul T Barthmaier at ucsbux > > Program for the Santa Barbara Constituency Symposium > > Friday, May 30, 1997 > > 9:30-9:40 Introduction - Charles Li > > 9:40-12:30 Session 1 - Carol Genetti, Chair > > 9:40-10:20 David Mc Neill - University of Chicago > "Relationships (straightforward and otherwise) between > grammatical constituents and gestures" > > 10:20-11:00 - Susan Duncan - University of Chicago > "A case study of grammaticization in Mandarin Chinese: Evidence > from gesture for the constituent structure of spoken utterances" > > 11:00-11:10 BREAK > > 11:10-11:50 Charles Goodwin - UCLA > "The visibility of constituent structure in discourse" > > 11:50-12:30 Cecilia Ford (University of Wisconsin), Barbara Fox > (University of Colorado) and Sandra Thompson (UCSB) > "Turn increments as constituents in English conversation" > > 12:30-2:00 LUNCH > > 2:00-5:00 Session 2 - Pat Clancy, Chair > > 2:00-2:40 Marja-Liisa Helasvuo - Academy of Finland > "What can intonation tell us about constituency" > > 2:40-3:20 James Martin - University of Sydney > "Prosodic 'structure': grammar for negotiation" > > 3:20-3:40 BREAK > > 3:40-4:20 Christian Matthiessen - Macquarie University > TBA > > 4:20-5:00 William Croft - University of Manchester > "Intonation units and grammatical structure in Wardaman and English" > > > Saturday, May 31,1997 > > 9:30-12:30 Session 3 - Mark Durie, chair > > 9:30-10:10 Joan Bybee and Joanne Scheibman - University of New Mexico > "The effect of usage on degrees of constituency: the reduction of > DON'T in English > > 10:10-10:50 A.M. Bolkestein - > "Word order variation and discontinuity in complex noun phrases > in Latin" > > 10:50-11:10 BREAK > > 11:10-11:50 Ritva Laury - California State University, Fresno > "Headedness in Finnish prepositional and postpositional phrases" > > 11:50-12:30 Paul Hopper and Joyce Tang Boyland - Carnegie Mellon University > "Constituent structure as Emergent Grammar: The diachrony of the > verbal complex in English" > > 12:30-2:00 LUNCH > > 2:00-5:00 Session 4 - Matthew Dryer, chair > > 2:00-2:40 Michael Noonan - University of Wisconsin > "How and why constituents differ in strength" > > 2:40-3:20 Michael Ewing - University of Melbourne > "Clause constituency in Cirebon Javanese" > > 3:20-3:40 BREAK > > 3:40-4:20 Nikolaus Himmelmann - Australian National University > "Projective constituent structures" > > 4:20-5:00 Connie Dickinson - University of Oregon > TBA > > > 9:30-12:30 Session 5 - William Ashby, chair > > 9:30-10:10 Susanna Cumming - UCSB > "Doing justice to the data: Richer representation for > constituency in discourse" > > 10:10-10:50 Tsuyoshi Ono - University of Arizona > TBA > > 10:50-11:10 BREAK > > 11:10-12:30 Discussion > > From ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU Thu Sep 18 13:30:05 1997 From: ph1u+ at ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Paul J Hopper) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 09:30:05 -0400 Subject: Constituency Symposium Info. Message-ID: Ngoni Chipere & Other Funknetters Sorry for the delay in responding to various messages; I have been out of town at the ALT conference in Eugene, and got back just a couple of days ago to classes, meetings, and a big pile of messages. In response to my message, there were several inquiries about the Santa Barbara constituency conference. It was held last May, and the person officially organizing it was Charles Li, though perhaps someone at UCSB should confirm that Charles rather than someone else should be contacted for information regarding the program and publications. I am attaching hereto the program as it was distributed a couple of weeks before the conference; the actual program, as they say, "varied". - Paul Hopper ---------------------- Excerpts from mail: 23-Apr-97 Constituency Symposium Prog.. by Paul T Barthmaier at ucsbux > > Program for the Santa Barbara Constituency Symposium > > Friday, May 30, 1997 > > 9:30-9:40 Introduction - Charles Li > > 9:40-12:30 Session 1 - Carol Genetti, Chair > > 9:40-10:20 David Mc Neill - University of Chicago > "Relationships (straightforward and otherwise) between > grammatical constituents and gestures" > > 10:20-11:00 - Susan Duncan - University of Chicago > "A case study of grammaticization in Mandarin Chinese: Evidence > from gesture for the constituent structure of spoken utterances" > > 11:00-11:10 BREAK > > 11:10-11:50 Charles Goodwin - UCLA > "The visibility of constituent structure in discourse" > > 11:50-12:30 Cecilia Ford (University of Wisconsin), Barbara Fox > (University of Colorado) and Sandra Thompson (UCSB) > "Turn increments as constituents in English conversation" > > 12:30-2:00 LUNCH > > 2:00-5:00 Session 2 - Pat Clancy, Chair > > 2:00-2:40 Marja-Liisa Helasvuo - Academy of Finland > "What can intonation tell us about constituency" > > 2:40-3:20 James Martin - University of Sydney > "Prosodic 'structure': grammar for negotiation" > > 3:20-3:40 BREAK > > 3:40-4:20 Christian Matthiessen - Macquarie University > TBA > > 4:20-5:00 William Croft - University of Manchester > "Intonation units and grammatical structure in Wardaman and English" > > > Saturday, May 31,1997 > > 9:30-12:30 Session 3 - Mark Durie, chair > > 9:30-10:10 Joan Bybee and Joanne Scheibman - University of New Mexico > "The effect of usage on degrees of constituency: the reduction of > DON'T in English > > 10:10-10:50 A.M. Bolkestein - > "Word order variation and discontinuity in complex noun phrases > in Latin" > > 10:50-11:10 BREAK > > 11:10-11:50 Ritva Laury - California State University, Fresno > "Headedness in Finnish prepositional and postpositional phrases" > > 11:50-12:30 Paul Hopper and Joyce Tang Boyland - Carnegie Mellon University > "Constituent structure as Emergent Grammar: The diachrony of the > verbal complex in English" > > 12:30-2:00 LUNCH > > 2:00-5:00 Session 4 - Matthew Dryer, chair > > 2:00-2:40 Michael Noonan - University of Wisconsin > "How and why constituents differ in strength" > > 2:40-3:20 Michael Ewing - University of Melbourne > "Clause constituency in Cirebon Javanese" > > 3:20-3:40 BREAK > > 3:40-4:20 Nikolaus Himmelmann - Australian National University > "Projective constituent structures" > > 4:20-5:00 Connie Dickinson - University of Oregon > TBA > > > 9:30-12:30 Session 5 - William Ashby, chair > > 9:30-10:10 Susanna Cumming - UCSB > "Doing justice to the data: Richer representation for > constituency in discourse" > > 10:10-10:50 Tsuyoshi Ono - University of Arizona > TBA > > 10:50-11:10 BREAK > > 11:10-12:30 Discussion > > From ocls at IPA.NET Fri Sep 26 20:41:39 1997 From: ocls at IPA.NET (George Elgin, Suzette Haden Elgin) Date: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 15:41:39 -0500 Subject: Language "locations" in the brain Message-ID: September 25, 1997 In the July 10, 1997 issue of Nature, an article by Hirsch and Kim reported functional MRI research purporting to demonstrate that in multilinguals who acquire a second (or more) language in infancy or early childhood, all languages are represented in a single Broca's area location, while in multilinguals acquiring second (or more) languages after puberty each language has a separate Broca's area location. (No difference in Wernicke's area, regardless of time of acquisition.) I'd be most grateful for comment from Funknetters about this research; I've been getting questions about it, and would like to offer reasonably informed answers. Thanks for your help. Suzette Haden Elgin ocls at ipa.net From ocls at IPA.NET Mon Sep 29 13:23:12 1997 From: ocls at IPA.NET (George Elgin, Suzette Haden Elgin) Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 08:23:12 -0500 Subject: Language "locations" in the brain Message-ID: I would very much appreciate hearing something from the knowledgeable members of Funknet about their reaction to the recent (July 10, 1997) report in *Nature* (and media worldwide) that persons who learn more than one language as infants store them in a single location in the brain while those who learn additional languages as adults store them in separate locations in the brain. (Brutal summary, I know, but enough to identify the topic in question.) The research was done using functional MRIs, pre-surgery. Could I have some reactions? And a reaction to the claim that no matter how many separate areas of this sort are established, the "semantics" of all languages acquired is stored in a single area? Thanks for your help.... Suzette Haden Elgin ocls at ipa.net From sathomps at HUMANITAS.UCSB.EDU Mon Sep 29 23:44:30 1997 From: sathomps at HUMANITAS.UCSB.EDU (Sandy Thompson) Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 16:44:30 -0700 Subject: DISCOURSE STUDIES Message-ID: FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS..... September 10, 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCOURSE STUDIES. 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Phone: +31-20-525.3834 (office direct, 10-12 hrs) Phone: +31-20-525.3865 (dept. secretary) Phone: +31-20-6.27.37.47 (home --after 13 hrs) FAX : +31-20-639.1727 E-mail: teun at let.uva.nl Home-Page: http://www.let.uva.nl/-7Eteun (NB. Between October 1997 and End March 1998 I am on sabbatical, but may be reached by e-mail). From lmenn at CLIPR.COLORADO.EDU Tue Sep 30 04:08:46 1997 From: lmenn at CLIPR.COLORADO.EDU (Lise Menn, Linguistics, CU Boulder) Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 21:08:46 -0700 Subject: Language "locations" in the brain In-Reply-To: Message-ID: This is probably oversimplified, but it's not an unreasonable result given earlier indications that late bilinguals had a more bilateral representation of language than early bilinguals (using one-hand motor tasks as indicators of hemispheric involvement), and given Damasio's claims that meaning of words with concrete referents is represented in a way that is linked to our sensory experience of those referents (hence, language-independent). I haven't read the original article yet, though. Lise Menn On Mon, 29 Sep 1997, George Elgin, Suzette Haden Elgin wrote: > I would very much appreciate hearing something from the knowledgeable > members of Funknet about their reaction to the recent (July 10, 1997) > report in *Nature* (and media worldwide) that persons who learn more than > one language as infants store them in a single location in the brain while > those who learn additional languages as adults store them in separate > locations in the brain. (Brutal summary, I know, but enough to identify the > topic in question.) The research was done using functional MRIs, > pre-surgery. Could I have some reactions? And a reaction to the claim that > no matter how many separate areas of this sort are established, the > "semantics" of all languages acquired is stored in a single area? Thanks > for your help.... > > Suzette Haden Elgin > ocls at ipa.net > From eyrich at ZEDAT.FU-BERLIN.DE Tue Sep 30 06:43:42 1997 From: eyrich at ZEDAT.FU-BERLIN.DE (Christoph Eyrich) Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 08:43:42 +0200 Subject: TEXT: New editors Message-ID: ANNOUNCEMENT Future Directions T E X T an interdisciplinary journal for the study of discourse Mouton de Gruyter * Berlin * New York As of 1998, TEXT will be edited by Srikant Sarangi and John Wilson. While ensuring that the full range of fields and topics in discourse studies are explored, the new editors aim to strengthen the focus on methodological issues concerning cross-disciplinary text analysis as well as considerations of practical/social applications of text-based discourse studies (in domains as diverse as artificial intelligence, computer-based corpus studies, forensic linguistics, rhetoric and composition, stylistics, narratives, institutional ethnography, sociology of science). Maintaining ist strong scholarly and academic tradition, every effort will be made to enhance the reputation of TEXT as a widely cited source of ground-breaking research within the field of discourse studies. The full report of the new editors as well as guidelines for contributors are available at http://www.degruyter.de/journals/text/futdir.html or directly from the publisher. * * * TEXT is published in one volume of four issues per year. Approx. 600 pages per volume. 14,8 x 21 cm. Paperback. ISSN 0165-4888 Subscription rates for Volume 18 (1998): Institutions/Libraries: DM 354,- / US$ 235.00 Single Issues: DM 98,- / approx. US$ 61.25 Special rate for individual subscriptions: DM 72,- / US$ 45.00 Postage extra. Individual rate not available for residents of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. US dollar prices apply only to orders placed in North America. _______________________________________________________________________ Mouton de Gruyter Walter de Gruyter, Inc. Postfach 30 34 21 200 Saw Mill River Road D-10728 Berlin Hawthorne, NY 10532 Germany USA Fax: +49 (0)30 26005-351 Fax: +1 914 747-1326 email: mouton at degruyter.de WWW: http://www.degruyter.de From wilcox at UNM.EDU Tue Sep 30 16:14:52 1997 From: wilcox at UNM.EDU (Sherman Wilcox) Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 10:14:52 -0600 Subject: Job announcement Message-ID: Linguistics position: Phonetics/Phonology The Department of Linguistics at the University of New Mexico seeks applicants for a tenure track Assistant Professor position beginning August 17, 1998, pending budgetary approval. Minimum qualifications: specialization in phonetics and phonology; Ph.D. by date of appointment; program of research that is consistent with the functional and cognitive orientation of the Department. Desirable qualifications: expertise in experimental phonetics or phonology; established record of research; research involving a language area of focal interest to the Department (Native American language--especially of the Southwest, a signed language, or Spanish); ability to contribute to core curriculum teaching; ability to communicate effectively with students and colleagues. Interested candidates should send a letter of application detailing how they meet the position description, a curriculum vitae, samples of papers or publications, and names of three referees who have been asked to send letters of recommendation directly to the committee. All application materials must be received by December 15, 1997. Send materials to: Search Committee Department of Linguistics Humanities 526 University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131-1196 USA E-mail inquiries may be sent to Professor Joan Bybee, chair of the Search Committee, at jbybee at unm.edu. The University of New Mexico is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. From macw at CMU.EDU Tue Sep 30 19:14:00 1997 From: macw at CMU.EDU (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 14:14:00 -0500 Subject: bilingual fMRI Message-ID: Dear FunkNet, Lise's account of the Kim, Relkin, Lee, and Hirsch paper sees reasonable. However, having just now gone over the article, I might add a few points. 1. The task was covert subvocalization. In other words, this is a full language task that involves grammar and lexicon, but no clear input or output phonology. Subjects were describing what they had done earlier that day. However, they had formulated the descriptions earlier. So this is a replay of an earlier internalized narrative. 2. There was no difference between late and early bilinguals in Wernicke's area, only in Broca's. Apparently, no other areas showed significant activation in the task, which is a bit surprising. Maybe they just didn't report on other areas. 3. The authors point to Kuhl's work on perceptual magnets in auditory development as indicating that the region of cortex responsible for a language task may change with development. However, they then go on and somehow suggest that Broca's area may be involved in phonetic processing. Quite a non sequitur, I would say. So the authors don't really present any account of their findings. Lise's mention of the fact that late bilinguals are "more bilateral" seems to be relevant. However, I worry about the fact that the Kosslyn/Damasio work is about individual concrete nouns and this task was one involving connected discourse. I think that Lise is correct that Broca's has some activation in the Kosslyn/Damasio studies, but I would need to double check all of that before pursuing it as the account for these findings. Let me try to float another explanation. In a few recent papers, I have argued that early bilinguals project the input linguistic data to a single space, because that space is not yet saturated by weights on synaptic connections and the two systems can be learned together in a computationally reasonable sense without worrying about catastrophic interference. In adult L2 learning, the optimal area for an ability has already been occupied and new learning must either use the old territory in a new way or else coopt adjacent "new" territory. In Broca's area, this would involve particularly the use of adjacent cortical areas to control alternative planning patterns for sentence production and the activation of words in sequence. The fact that Wernicke's shows a reuse of the older area roughly matches up with a Kroll/DeGroot account of L2 conceptual learning through parasitism on L1 conceptual structure. However, I would also expect to see some other cortical mismatches in other motor areas and other auditory areas. The fact that these were no detected in this study may be attributable to the internalized nature of the task. A lot of what is at issue here is exactly what the role of Broca's area in language processing might be. I am not pushing the grammar box theory, but I would think that viewing Broca's as the seat of semantic organization (not a term used in the original article, but in Suzette's message) is also inadequate. I would like to think of Broca's as controlling high level sequential planning for language and related abilities. The occasional use of Broca's for object recognition would be in terms of matching the affordances from objects to higher level action plans. Suzette, hope this helps. Comments invited. --Brian MacWhinney