From bralich at HAWAII.EDU Tue Dec 1 02:08:25 1998 From: bralich at HAWAII.EDU (Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 16:08:25 -1000 Subject: Workshops and Conferences at the 1999 Linguistic Institute Message-ID: I would be interested in having a workshop for working with Ergo Linguistic Technologies NLP tools. The tentative title would be "Making Commercially Viable NLP Software Using the Ergo Tools." Let me know if this is feasible. In addition we would offer training in how to use these tools for linguistic analysis and for the extension of these tools to other languages. Phil Bralich At 10:57 AM 7/13/98 -1000, Peter Lasersohn wrote: >WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES AT THE 1999 LSA LINGUISTIC INSTITUTE > >Linguistics for the 21st Century: Form and Function from Western and >Nonwestern >Perspectives > >The LSA Linguistic Institute has traditionally been a popular venue for >workshops and conferences. The upcoming 1999 Institute will be held at the >University of Illinois, June 21-July 30, 1999. If you are interested in >organizing a WORKSHOP or CONFERENCE at the 1999 Linguistic Institute, please >contact us as soon as possible: > >Peter Lasersohn, Internal Associate Director >Department of Linguistics, MC 168 >4088 Foreign Languages Building >707 South Mathews Ave. >Urbana, IL 61801 >USA > >laser at cogsci.uiuc.edu >(217) 244-3054 > >The infrastructure will be in place to host events that range from 10-500 >participants. We expect dozens of events to be held here during the Institute, >and popular dates and rooms will fill up fast, so please do not delay. > >Information on the web: >About the Institute: >http://www.cogsci.uiuc.edu/~lingi >nst/1999 >About the Linguistics Department at the University of Illinois: >http://www.cogsci.uiuc.edu/linguistics >About the University of Illinois and surrounding community: >http://www.uiuc.edu > Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. President and CEO Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 Tel: (808)539-3920 Fax: (808)539-3924 bralich at hawaii.edu http://www.ergo-ling.com From bralich at HAWAII.EDU Tue Dec 1 02:46:14 1998 From: bralich at HAWAII.EDU (Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 16:46:14 -1000 Subject: Apology Message-ID: In my haste to reply to a message I did not notice it had come through the FUNKNET list and inadvertently posted this message to that group. Please accept my apologies for this oversight. Phil Bralich At 04:08 PM 11/30/98 -1000, Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. wrote: >I would be interested in having a workshop for working with >Ergo Linguistic Technologies NLP tools. The tentative title >would be "Making Commercially Viable NLP Software Using >the Ergo Tools." Let me know if this is feasible. In addition >we would offer training in how to use these tools for linguistic >analysis and for the extension of these tools to other languages. Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. President and CEO Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 Tel: (808)539-3920 Fax: (808)539-3924 bralich at hawaii.edu http://www.ergo-ling.com From funkadmn at RUF.RICE.EDU Sat Dec 5 20:30:22 1998 From: funkadmn at RUF.RICE.EDU (funkadmn Departmental Account) Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 14:30:22 -0600 Subject: LAGB Meeting Message-ID: Could you please put the following conference announcement on your list? Thank you very much. Marjolein Groefsema Meetings Secretary LAGB LINGUISTICS ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN Spring Meeting 1999: University of Manchester First Circular and Call for Papers The 1999 Spring Meeting will be held from 8 to 10 April at Manchester University. The Local Organiser is Philippa Cook (mfux9phc at fs1.art.man.ac.uk). Manchester is England's third (or possibly second) biggest city and as such has facilities for any kind of music, dance, theatre, restaurants and cafes. Apart from a vibrant city centre, the city also benefits from the closeness to beautiful country side; the Lake district, the Peak district and the mountains of North Wales are all within easy reach for day trips. Manchester can be easily accessed by road or by rail and just south of the city is a major intrnational airport with good rail connections with the city centre. The University of Manchester, including the Hall of Residence where the conference will be held, is situated just south of the city centre and there are busses in both directions every few minutes. Accommodation: Accommodation as well as all talks, book displays etc. will be in Hulme Hall, a Hall of Residence, less than ten minutes walk from the main University campus. All bedrooms are single, and there is a choice between rooms with en suite facilities and rooms with shared bathrooms/showers. Travel: The University of Manchester is about five minutes drive from junction 9 of the ring road M60 which is accessible from the M6 (north or south) and the M62 (north east). There are frequent (and often direct) trains to Manchester Piccadilly (or Manchester Victoria) from most big cities in Britain. The train journey from London takes about two and a half hour. The airport is less than half an hours drive from the Hall of residence and it also has excellent train connections with the city centre. Events: The Linguistics Association 1999 Lecture on Thursday evening will be delivered by Professor John McCarthy of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Professor McCarthy will also be participating in a Workshop on 'Applications of Optimality Theory to problems in prosody and morphology' on Thursday afternoon. The workshop is organised by Wiebke Brockhaus (University of Manchester); other contributors are Caroline Fery (Eberhard-Karls-Universitaet), Ren� Kager (Universiteit Utrecht) and Nicholas Sherrard (University of Essex). There will be a Language Tutorial on Turkish, given by Jaklin Kornfilt (University of Syracuse). There will be a Wine Party on the Tuesday evening, sponsored by the Department of Linguistics. Enquiries about the LAGB meeting should be sent to the Meetings Secretary (address below). Full details of the programme and a booking form will be included in the Second Circular, to be sent out in January. CALL FOR PAPERS The LAGB warmly welcomes submissions on any topic within the field of linguistics - theoretical, descriptive or historical - regardless of theoretical framework. Abstracts must arrive by 6 January 1999 and should be sent in the format outlined below to the following address: Professor R. Hudson, Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT. Papers for the programme are selected anonymously - only the President knows the name of the authors. Abstracts must be presented as follows: submit SEVEN anonymous copies of the abstract, plus ONE with name and affiliation, i.e. CAMERA-READY. The complete abstract containing your title and your name must be no longer than ONE A4 page (21cm x 29.5cm/8.27" x 11.69") with margins of at least 2.5cm (1") on all sides. You may use single spacing and type must be no smaller than 12 point. Type uniformly in black and make any additions in black. Use the best quality printer you can, since if the paper is accepted the abstract will be photocopied and inserted directly into the collection of abstracts sent out to participants. WRITE YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE ON THE BACK OF THE ABSTRACT WHICH HAS YOUR NAME ON. The following layout should be considered as standard: (title) Optimality and the Klingon vowel shift (speaker) Clark Kent (institution) Department of Astrology, Eastern Mars University The following guidelines may be useful: 1. Briefly state the topic of your paper. 2. If your paper is to involve an analysis of linguistic material, give critical examples, along with a brief indication of their critical nature. 3. State the relevance of your ideas to past work or to the future development of the field. If you are taking a stand on a controversial issue, summarise the arguments which lead you to take up this position. The normal length for papers delivered at LAGB meetings is 25 minutes (plus 15 minutes discussion). Offers of squibs (10 minutes) or longer papers (40 minutes) will also be considered: please explain why your paper requires less or more time than usual. N.B. ABSTRACTS SUBMISSION DATES: These are always announced in the First Circular for the Meeting in question. Any member who fears that they may receive the First Circular too late to be able to submit an abstract before the deadline specified can be assured that an abstract received by the President by JANUARY 1 or JUNE 1 will always be considered for the next meeting. Conference Bursaries: There will be a maximum of 10 bursaries available to unsalaried members of the Association (e.g. PhD students) with preference given to those who are presenting a paper. Applications should be sent to the President, and must be received by 6 January 1999. Please state on your application: (a) date of joining the LAGB; (b) whether or not you are an undergraduate or postgraduate student; (c) if a student, whether you receive a normal grant; (d) if not a student, your employment situation. STUDENTS WHO ARE SUBMITTING AN ABSTRACT and wish to apply for funding should include all the above details WITH THEIR ABSTRACT. Committee members: President Professor Richard Hudson, Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT. E-mail: dick at ling.ucl.ac.uk Honorary Secretary Professor Anna Siewierska, Department of Linguistics, University of Lancaster, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4YW, E-mail: A.Siewierska at lancaster.ac.uk Membership Secretary Dr. Kersti B�rjars, Department of Linguistics, University of Manchester, MANCHESTER M13 9PL. E-mail: k.e.borjars at manchester.ac.uk Meetings Secretary Dr. Marjolein Groefsema, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Hertfordshire, Watford Campus, Aldenham, Herts. WD2 8AT. E-mail: m.groefsema at herts.ac.uk Treasurer Dr. Paul Rowlett, Dept. of Modern Languages, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT. E-mail: p.a.rowlett at mod-lang.salford.ac.uk Assistant Secretary Dr. April McMahon, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, CAMBRIDGE CB3 9DQ. E-mail: AMM11 at hermes.cam.ac.uk Internet home page: The LAGB internet home page is now active at the following address: http://clwww.essex.ac.uk/LAGB. Electronic network: Please join the LAGB electronic network which is used for disseminating LAGB information and for consulting members quickly. It can be subscribed to by sending the message "add lagb" to: listserv at postman.essex.ac.uk. Future Meetings: Autumn 1999 University of York. Spring 2000 University College London. Autumn 2000 University of Durham Spring 2001 University of Leeds Autumn 2001 University of Reading ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Barlow, Department of Linguistics, Rice University barlow at rice.edu www.ruf.rice.edu/~barlow Athelstan barlow at athel.com www.athel.com (U.S.) www.athelstan.com (UK) From barlow at RUF.RICE.EDU Sat Dec 5 21:13:39 1998 From: barlow at RUF.RICE.EDU (Michael Barlow) Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 15:13:39 -0600 Subject: Funknet Archive Message-ID: Thanks to Anthony Aristar and his colleagues at Linguist, a searchable Funknet archive is available at: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/funknet.html Michael ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Barlow, Department of Linguistics, Rice University barlow at rice.edu www.ruf.rice.edu/~barlow Athelstan barlow at athel.com www.athel.com (U.S.) www.athelstan.com (UK) From dgohre at INDIANA.EDU Tue Dec 8 07:58:12 1998 From: dgohre at INDIANA.EDU (David Gohre) Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 02:58:12 -0500 Subject: FUNKNET: Implicationals in Adverbials? Message-ID: Hello Funknet. I'd like to ask if there's any sort of typological hierarchy for adverbials, much like there is for phonology? Analogous to: A language has unvoiced stops if it has voiced stops, are there implications for Adverbials? Also, on the topic of adverbials, I know that Hungarian is one example of a language that actually can assign accusative case to a seeming adverbial, barring the existence an object NP, for example the following gloss could occur in Hungarian. John worked two hours-ACC Is this common, or another realization of an implicational WRT adverbials? It seems rather reasonable from an analysis of prototypical V-Transitivity, but what about adverbials? Thanks, Funknetters. Dave From bralich at HAWAII.EDU Tue Dec 8 22:02:39 1998 From: bralich at HAWAII.EDU (Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.) Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 12:02:39 -1000 Subject: Training in Ergo's NLP for other languages Message-ID: In order to spur the development of the Ergo NLP tools for other languages we are seeking individuals, departments, and companies who would like to have training to create patented NLP tools like those of Ergo in other languages. We are currently not offering any funding for this, but we would be willing to be partners in such developments with other companies. We would also be willing to serve as consultants as the parsers are developed for other languages. We estimate that it will require from 18 to 24 months of work for 2 or 3 individuals to extend the Ergo tools to another language. Derek Bickerton and myself will both be available for the training and consultation. The tools that we have developed offer improvements in Navigation and Control, Dialoging, and Web and Database searching through enhanced grammatical analysis. Demos of the technology are available at http://www.ergo-ling.com. A more detailed discussion of the sorts of abilities that will be possible is presented at the VRML Consortium Web site as standards for the development of NLP tools for animations (http://www.vrml.org/WorkingGroups/NLP-ANIM.) We recently won the Best Technology award at the VSMM '98 Multi Media and Virtual Reality conference in Japan. The languages we would most like to do first are Spanish, German, Russian, and Japanese. Though we will work with whatever languages serious researchers would like to work with. Our main requirement is that these be serious inquiries only and we would like to establish that the individuals or groups who would like this training are capable of completing the project. Please respond privately to the numbers below. Phil Bralich Philip A. Bralich, President Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 tel:(808)539-3920 fax:(880)539-3924 From charon at UCLINK4.BERKELEY.EDU Tue Dec 15 04:10:59 1998 From: charon at UCLINK4.BERKELEY.EDU (Alan Yu) Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 20:10:59 -0800 Subject: BLS Schedule Message-ID: The 25TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BERKELEY LINGUISTICS SOCIETY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY FEBRUARY 12-15, 1998 CONFERENCE PROGRAM SPECIAL SESSION: CAUCASIAN, DRAVIDIAN, AND TURKIC LINGUISTICS Fri Feb 12, 1999, Alumni House, UC Berkeley PARASESSION: LOAN WORD PHENOMENA Together with the General Session: Sat-Mon Feb 13-15, 1999, Room C230 Cheit Hall, UC Berkeley Further info: http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/BLS/ FRIDAY - FEBRUARY 12, 1999: SPECIAL SESSION 8:00 REGISTRATION MORNING SESSION 9:00 Word games and the hidden phonology of Tuvan K. David Harrison, Yale University 9:30 Epenthesis-Driven Harmony in Turkish Abigail Kaun, Yale University 10:00 TBA Johanna Nichols, University of California, Berkeley 10:40 Language policy and reforms of Uighur and Kazakh writing systems in China Minglang Zhou, University of Colorado at Boulder 11:10 Interpreting genitives in Turkish Mürvet Enc, University of Wisconsin, Madison 11:40 ********** LUNCH ********** AFTERNOON SESSION 12:40 Suffix-order variability in Turkish: How it works and why one should care Jeff Good & Alan Yu, University of California, Berkeley 1:10 Attractiveness and relatedness: Notes on Turkic language contacts Lars Johanson, Universität Mainz 1:50 The phonology of the past tense in Tamil Caroline Wiltshire, University of Florida, Gainesville 2:20 Analyzing contact-induced phenomena in Karaim Eva Agnes Csato, Uppsala University 2:50 ********** BREAK ********** LATE AFTERNOON SESSION 3:00 Evidentiality in the Caucasus: The category 'Witnessed' in Tsez Bernard Comrie, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology & Maria Polinsky, UC San Diego 3:30 Kannada gerund in adnominal positions: A functional perspective Mirjam Fried, UC Berkeley 4:00 Indefinites, questions, and correlatives in a Dravidian language Hany Babu, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena SATURDAY - FEBRUARY 13, 1999: GENERAL SESSION 8:00 REGISTRATION MORNING SESSION 9:00 A cross-linguistic semantic analysis of Czech and Russian "spanning" prefixes Sarah Shull, University of California, Berkeley 9:30 Coronal phonotactics and coronal inventory Yoonjung Kang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 10:00 Imitation as a basis for phonetic learning after the critical period Carol Fowler, Haskins Laboratories, Univ. of Connecticut, Yale Univ. 10:40 Roles and non-unique definites Richard Epstein, Rutgers University - Camden 11:10 ********** BREAK ********** 11:20 Aspects of locative doubling and resultative predication Diana Cresti & Christina Tortora, University of Michigan 11:50 The magic moment. What it means to be a punctual verb Stefan Engelberg, University of Wuppertal 12:20 From ergativus absolutus to topic marking in the Kiraut Balthasar Bickel, Univ. of California, Berkeley and Univ. of Zürich 12:50 ********** LUNCH ********** AFTERNOON SESSION 1:50 Loan words in the English of modern Orthodox Jews: Yiddish or Hebrew? Sarah Benor, Stanford University 2:20 Are loanwords special? Ellen Broselow, State University of New York, Stony Brook 3:00 Implications of Itelmen agreement asymmetries Jonathan Bobaljik, McGill University 3:30 The combinatory properties of Halkomelem lexical suffixes Donna B. Gerdts, Simon Fraser University 4:00 ********** BREAK ********** LATE AFTERNOON SESSION 4:10 Morphosemantics of deverbal adjectives in Malayalam K.P. Mohanan, National University of Singapore 4:50 Metaphor, linguistic practice, and the temporal meanings of gannaaw 'back'and kanam 'front' in Wolof Kevin Moore, University of California, Berkeley 5:20 Proving basic polysemy: Subjects reliably distinguish several senses of 'see' Collin F. Baker, University of California, Berkeley 5:50 Why complement clauses do not include a that-complementizer in early child language Holger Diessel & Michael Tomasello, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology 6:20 A local treatment of nonlocal relativization: A constructional approach Jong-Bok Kim, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 7:00 PARTY - 370-371 DWINELLE HALL SUNDAY - FEBRUARY 14, 1999: GENERAL SESSION MORNING SESSION 9:00 Complex noun, multiple inheritance, and internally headed relative clause in Korean Chan Chung, Dongseo University 9:30 Loan words and their implications for the categorial status of verbal nouns Yukiko Morimoto, Stanford University 10:00 Borrowings: delimitation of corpus, nomenclature, and etymology Garland Cannon, Texas A&M University 10:40 'Some' and the pragmatics of indefinite reference Michael Israel, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology 11:10 ********** BREAK ********** 11:20 A model for the construction of common ground in interpreted discourse Brad Davidson, Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics 11:50 The evolution of binary spatial deictics: French Voilà and Voici Benjamin K. Bergen & Madelaine C. Plauché, Univ. of California, Berkeley 12:20 What is the information structure-syntax interface in Basque? Phyllis Bellver & Laura Michaelis, University of Colorado, Boulder 12:50 ********** LUNCH ********** AFTERNOON SESSION 1:50 ACD, QR, and frozen scope Benjamin Bruening, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2:20 Construction but no constructions: Doing without the lexicon Alec Marantz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 3:00 Evidentiality in Dutch and its implications for modality Ferdinand de Haan, University of New Mexico 3:30 Tmesis and verb second in Early Irish syntax Cathal Doherty, University College Dublin 4:00 ********** BREAK ********** LATE AFTERNOON SESSION 4:10 Loan word phonology in Optimality Theory Junko Itô & Armin Mester, University of California, Santa Cruz 4:50 Patterns of correspondence in the adaptation of Spanish borrowing in Basque José Ignacio Hualde, University of Illinois 5:20 Perception, representation and correspondence relations in loanword phonology Yvan Rose, McGill University 5:50 Lexical words, non-lexical words, subcategorization and lexical stratification Ruben van de Vijver, Universität Tübingen MONDAY - FEBRUARY 15, 1999: GENERAL SESSION MORNING SESSION 9:00 The origins and development of Chinese classifiers: A grammaticization perspective Fengxiang Li, California State University, Chico 9:30 On the rise of suppletion in verbal paradigms Matthew L. Juge, University of California, Berkeley 10:00 A new model of Indo-European subgrouping and dispersal Andrew Garrett, University of California, Berkeley 10:30 TBA Stephen Levinson, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics 11:10 Argument structure and animacy restrictions on anaphora Ash Asudeh, Stanford University 11:40 ********** LUNCH ********** AFTERNOON SESSION 12:40 Constraints on motion verbs in the TIME IS MOTION metaphor Kazuko Shinohara, Otsuma Women's University, Tokyo 1:10 Emergent phonology Bjørn Lindblom, University of Stockholm and University of Texas, Austin 1:50 Loanwords and contact-induced phonological change in Lachixío Zapotec Mark Sicoli, University of Pittsburgh 2:20 A comparison of three metrics of perceptual similarity in cross-language speech perception James D. Harnsberger, Indiana University 2:50 Loan word phonology: A case for non-reductionist approach to grammar Fumiko Kumashiro, University of California, San Diego From bralich at HAWAII.EDU Wed Dec 16 05:09:42 1998 From: bralich at HAWAII.EDU (Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.) Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 19:09:42 -1000 Subject: Contact Pivotal Democratic Congressmen! Message-ID: Here are some email addresses of pivotal democratic congessmen in this debate. david.skaggs at mail.house.gov, lane.evans at mail.house.gov, Ron.Kind at mail.house.gov, texas17 at mail.house.gov, budmail at mail.house.gov, telljim at mail.house.gov, CongMcIntyre at mail.house.gov, CONTACT THEM AND LET THEM KNOW THAT IMPEACHMENT IS AN OBVIOUS ASSAULT ON THE SEPARATION OF POWERS. For those of you who are too busy to compose I have included the letter which I sent (partly borrowed from a friend). Phil Bralich The following is quoted from a friend's email, but it says exactly what I feel needs to be said in this matter and I would like you to have multiple copies of a nice statement of the problem rather than forcing you and your staff to sort through a lot of variations on this one theme. DO NOT VOTE FOR IMPEACHMENT. It will be very important for me and others with whom I meet in the 2,000 election. It is just two more years to that election and the threat to the constitution over this right wing abuse of power. Any one who votes for this impeachment must be taken as suspect and should not receive funding, votes or support for their policies. All the policies they support should be looked at with a very jaundiced eye toward an agenda that would remove the balance of power in favor of an unelected elite. THE QUOTED STATEMENT FOLLOWS THE SIGNATURE. Phil Bralich Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. President and CEO Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 (808)539-3921 (808)539-3924 >Please vote against this absurd and destructive impeachment resolution. >If this action succeeds, IT WILL UNDERMINE THE CONSTITUTIONAL SEPARATION >OF POWERS THE FOUNDING FATHERS PUT IN PLACE. IT WILL WEAKEN EVERY SUCCEEDING >PRESIDENT. > >The American people do not want this, as they signalled in the 1992, >1996, and just now again in the 1998 elections, and as the polls continue >to show. > >75% of Americans believe Starr completely overstepped his proper bounds. > >400 Distinguished Legal Scholars, and again 400 distinguished historians >wrote open letters to Congress expressing that the current proceedings >would do grave damage to our Constitutional process of government. > >The way to 'hold the president accountable' is by censure, not impeachment. > >[The impeachment charges are flimsy, trumped up, and not supported by the >facts.] >No amount of rhetoric, no amount of grandstanding by Mr Hyde or Mr Starr, >no matter how many reams of so called evidence can obscure two facts: > 1) The impeachment charges are flimsy, trumped up, and > do not stand any legal scrutiny. > > The only real charge Mr. Starr and the committee can make is that > Mr Clinton gave narrow and misleading answers to ambiguous questions > in a civil deposition unrelated to his functions in the US Government. > > Even Mr Starr did not accuse the Presdent of 'perjury', a charge which > would be impossible to prove, given legal definitions used by the Jones > attorneys. > > 2) Even if a charge of perjury in a civil deposition were sustained, > there is nothing that remotely justifies an impeachment proceeding. These > other articles alledging 'abuse of power' are trumped up, even laughable. > The only grounds for impeachment are serious abuses of power concerning > the executive functions of government, such as entering into illegal > activities. > >[Mr Starr has debased the Office of Independent Counsel] > On the other hand, it is clear that Mr. Starr has cynically abused >and disgraced his role as the Independent Counsel and used it, not for >impartial fact-finding but for a political witch-hunt. In addition, he >violated the law by 24 instances of leaking supposedly sealed grand jury >testimony, and the OIC >is now under investigation for this. > >[The Judiciary Committe has acted with partisan, criminal irresponsibility] > It is also clear that the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have >engaged in blatantly partisan tactics, completely unlike the bipartisan >deliberations undertaken 24 years ago in Mr. Nixon's case. > >The Republican majority has shamelessly, cynically, engaged in a propaganda >campaign to bring down Mr. Clinton because they dislike him and disagree >with his policies. But this is not the ground for an impeachment proceeding. > >An impeachment is not an appropriate instrument for censure. It is an >attempt to remove from office. >No one expects the impeachment trial to succeed in the Senate. Then why is >it being brought? Evidently in the hopes it will force the President to >resign. But this also would set a very dangerous historical precedent. > >This Constitutional crisis is being manufactured by a right wing agenda >for partisan, narrow and short sighted purposes. IT WILL BEING REAL HARM >TO THE COUNTRY, IS CRIMINALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND MUST BE DEFEATED. Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. President and CEO Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 Tel: (808)539-3920 Fax: (808)539-3924 bralich at hawaii.edu http://www.ergo-ling.com Philip A. Bralich, President Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 tel:(808)539-3920 fax:(880)539-3924 From john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL Wed Dec 16 09:40:34 1998 From: john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL (John Myhill) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 11:40:34 +0200 Subject: Philip Bralich Message-ID: I would like to request that you, Philip Bralich, think a little bit about what funknet is supposed to be for before posting messages. You seem to be under the impression that it is intended to be used for whatever purposes you please--marketing your products and enlisting support for political topics totally unrelated to linguistics (e.g. your recent posting about the impeachment process). While I'm sure there is no hard-and-fast rule about what is appropriate and what isn't, you might display a little courtesy. John Myhill From Jon.Aske at SALEM.MASS.EDU Wed Dec 16 13:41:10 1998 From: Jon.Aske at SALEM.MASS.EDU (Jon Aske) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 08:41:10 -0500 Subject: convergence Message-ID: There is an interesting article on evolutionary convergence in the NYT's science section this week that reminded me so much of what some functionalists/typologists are saying about language (as opposed to what some formalists/nativists are saying). http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/121598sci-evolve.html The following quote seemed perfect for a book on functional typology: "Convergences keep happening because organisms keep wanting to do similar things, and there are only so many ways of doing them, as dictated by physical laws." --Dr. Rudolf A. Raff, evolutionary developmental biologist at the Molecular Biology Institute of Indiana University in Bloomington. Jon ___________________________________________ Jon Aske Salem State College, Salem, Massachusetts email: Jon.Aske at salem.mass.edu ___________________________________________ No matter how far you've gone down the wrong road, turn back. --Turkish Proverb. From nrude at ucinet.com Wed Dec 16 13:58:07 1998 From: nrude at ucinet.com (Noel Rude) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 05:58:07 -0800 Subject: Philip Bralich Message-ID: I second this motion. Noel From wcmann at JUNO.COM Wed Dec 16 16:13:42 1998 From: wcmann at JUNO.COM (William Mann) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 11:13:42 -0500 Subject: against use of Funknet as a political broadcast channel Message-ID: I object to the use of funknet as a political broadcasting medium. Bill Mann List member . . . Best reply address is: bill_mann at bigfoot.com . ..... end of Bill's message, apologies for the ad at the bottom. ..... From bingfu at SCF-FS.USC.EDU Wed Dec 16 19:50:01 1998 From: bingfu at SCF-FS.USC.EDU (Bingfu Lu) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 11:50:01 -0800 Subject: Summary of object-like adverbials Message-ID: Dear netters, About ten days ago, I posted a query about duration adverbials patterning with objects. I have got dozen responds so far. The first one came from Martin Haspelmath, who informs me of: "the expression of temporal extent as a kind of direct object is attested widely in the world's languages. See ch. 8 of my book "From space to time: Temporal adverbials in the world's languages" (Munich: Lincom 1997). In this book, I survey 53 languages for several kinds of temporal adverbials, and I find various degrees of similarity to objects in two dozen languages". His book tells us that in fact, the object marking is the most frequent means to express duration expressions. The second frequent one, being much less than the first, is benefactive marking (like English 'for'). If I had had read this chapter of Martin's book, I would have not posted the query. However, form the responds, some new points have been raised anyway. Now, my further questions are: 1. It seems natural that duration expressions are patterned with typical objects, since both are indefinite inanimate. (See Comrie 1987: Definite and Animate Direct Objects: A natural class.Linguistica Silesiana 3: 13-21) However, the accusative case first marks definite and animate objects, namely, atypical objects. But duration expressions are patterned with typical objects more than with atypical objects. There seems to be some seeming inconsistency. How to explain this inconsitancy? 2. Martin does not distinquish 'duration' and 'frequency' expressions in his dada. In fact, they are not the same in all aspects. "He visited me (*for) two times/twice" (Does any English native speaker accept "He visited me for two times"?) Frequency expressions seem to be patterned first with adverbials, but not objects. What are the ways to mark frequency expressions in ohter languages? Are they still patterned first with objects? I would like to thanks the following responding netters to my query (including the data they mentioned), in addition to Martin. Hans-Juergen Sasse (Albanian, Modern Greek) Masja Tamm ( Finnic, Baltic and some of the Slavic languages e.g. Polish, Russian and, most probably, in the other East Slavic languages) Johanna Laakso (Finnish) Lucyna Gebert (Slavic, especially Polish) Paul Hopper (qestioning about the notion of 'adverbs/adverbials") Randy LaPolla (questioning the notion of 'object') Bjoern Wieme (Polish, in some detail, negative) Maria Vilkuna (Finnish in some detail) Alan R. King (Basque much in detail) Bingfu Lu From David_Tuggy at SIL.ORG Wed Dec 16 14:53:00 1998 From: David_Tuggy at SIL.ORG (David_Tuggy at SIL.ORG) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 09:53:00 -0500 Subject: Contact Pivotal Democratic Congressmen! Message-ID: Hey, could we keep politics off limits for funknet? If for no other reason as a courtesy to those who don't happen to live in the mighty US of A? --DT ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Contact Pivotal Democratic Congressmen! Author: bralich at HAWAII.EDU at internet Date: 12/16/98 12:09 AM From macw at CMU.EDU Thu Dec 17 19:47:30 1998 From: macw at CMU.EDU (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 14:47:30 -0500 Subject: politics vs. software Message-ID: It's fine by me to chide people (Bralich or others) for doing "general purpose" politics on FunkNet. However, I feel that Phil Bralich (and Derek Bickerton) should be welcome to tell us about their linguistic analysis software. I realize that some readers view these software announcements as "ads". But these are not "general purpose" software programs. Rather they are programs designed for a very small niche which many of us occupy. On the other hand, such announcements would more of a contribution if Bralich and/or Bickerton could explain how the analyses produced by their programs help illuminate interesting issues in the functional (as opposed to merely formal) analysis of language and conversational processes. --Brian MacWhinney From bralich at HAWAII.EDU Thu Dec 17 21:54:54 1998 From: bralich at HAWAII.EDU (Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 11:54:54 -1000 Subject: politics vs. software Message-ID: At 09:47 AM 12/17/98 -1000, Brian MacWhinney wrote: >It's fine by me to chide people (Bralich or others) for doing "general >purpose" politics on FunkNet. However, I feel that Phil Bralich (and Derek >Bickerton) should be welcome to tell us about their linguistic analysis >software. I realize that some readers view these software announcements as >"ads". But these are not "general purpose" software programs. Rather they >are programs designed for a very small niche which many of us occupy. On >the other hand, such announcements would more of a contribution if Bralich >and/or Bickerton could explain how the analyses produced by their programs >help illuminate interesting issues in the functional (as opposed to merely >formal) analysis of language and conversational processes. > Thanks for the support and the criticism. When I sent the political post I understood there would be some negative feedback, but felt it was risk I had to take and I had to suffer the consequences whatever they may be in the face of situation that is seriously threatening a very good political system and one that is important in the world. However, I think one can be sure my real interests lie in theoretical syntax and in computational linguistics as a proving ground of a theory of syntax. Thus, you can be sure that the political post was as unusual as the current political sitiuation. I and Derek Bickerton both are interested in the functional issues that are triggered by our results, but of course our attention is regularly drawn to the immeidate needs of our further development of the theory and the NLP tools. As you all know my main point about this particular formalism is that its status as an effective model of what the brain does is established by its ability to actually perform grammatical functions and operations that humans can do and that the particular parser we have does it far better than others and for that reason should be considered a very interesting challenge to theoretical linguistics and theoretical syntax. I am also aware that my posts do have an advertising air to them, but I try to be sure they are never purely ads. I am in the interesting position of being on the industry side of a partnership between academia and industry -- one of a growing number of such partnerships that are becoming crucial to the future of academia and to a number of industries-- high tech being one of the most obvious. However, I cannot shirk my responsibility to those on either side of the fence. There are students and professors as well as marketers and CEOs and CTO's who need the full range of the information I present to make decisions about the futures of their careers as well as of their respective departments. For example, I cannot walk into a board meeting and then be shocked or surprised because I am presenting as new something that exists at an MIT or IBM web site. This is also true for others in linguistics. Thus, if I increase awareness of our theory but only tell a few people that there are working software programs that illustrate them I am creating a situation where some of your colleagues could be embarassed at a board or committee meeting. (Having someone pop at a meeting with software tools you claim do not exist is as embarassing as having some one site a major article from a major publication that contradicts your position--one that you are unaware of. So while my advertising may have a somewhat "unclassical" academic edge to it, it does server two purposes (besides the benefits my company receives) 1) it allows those who are working within academia and industry to be aware of what is available and avoid potential embarassments, and 2) it provides evidence of NLP abilities and of a theory of syntax that is important to researchers PARTICULARLY because no one else can create similar tools in this domain. Thus, while I recognize the political post was problematic, I felt the situation warranted dramatic means, and while I understand that advertising per se is not pure academics, it is a reality of modern life that we all have to be aware of. And Derek and I are aware that our particular formalism has interesting implications for functionalists and that we do not have time to address them directly. However, I have not excluded our posts from this list because there are syntacticians and theoretical and computational linguists on this list who use this information in their thinking and as part of their work. Phil Bralich Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. President and CEO Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 Tel: (808)539-3920 Fax: (808)539-3924 bralich at hawaii.edu http://www.ergo-ling.com From nrude at ucinet.com Thu Dec 17 22:59:39 1998 From: nrude at ucinet.com (Noel Rude) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 14:59:39 -0800 Subject: politics Message-ID: Sir, On the political front, were one of us from the "far right" (pretty common out here in the West) to post our political opinion, I'm quite sure you would object. So in the interest of fairness (and curbing this arrogance), why not henceforth take this "inspired" zeal to a more appropriate audience. We've got minds to do our own thinking. Noel From kuzar at research.haifa.ac.il Fri Dec 18 09:10:08 1998 From: kuzar at research.haifa.ac.il (Ron Kuzar) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 11:10:08 +0200 Subject: Fwd: Info. about Ralph Weiman Message-ID: I am writing a book on cases of convergence of linguistic and political discourse in Palestine/Israel. Ralph Weiman figures prominently in one of the chapters, since he was the first structuralist linguist to describe modern Hebrew as is, being a precursor of Haiim Rosen who declared the existence of 'Israeli Hebrew' two years later. Weiman did this in his 1950 text 'Native and Foreign Elements in a Language'. I seek answers to three questions with regard to him: 1. I have an article by him entitled 'The Re-Creation of Hebrew', but I have no reference. I was told it was published in Commentary, but I don't have the issue/year. I was also told that there is a slight chance that it was not Commentary but Midstream. Any info. re this article will be appreciated. 2. Does anybody know of any other articles by him on Hebrew or on other Jewish/political matters (scholarly or journalistic)? 3. Is he alive? Does anybody know his address? email? Internet searches don't help. I had some wrong hits. Anything else about Weiman that might be pertinent in this context will be most welcome. Thanks Ron Kuzar +--------------------------------------------------------+ | Dr. Ron Kuzar | | Department of English, University of Haifa | | IL-31905 Haifa, ISRAEL | | Office fax: +972-4-824-9711 | | Home phone: +972-2-641-4780 | +--------------------------------------------------------+ From gd116 at CUS.CAM.AC.UK Wed Dec 30 20:27:03 1998 From: gd116 at CUS.CAM.AC.UK (Guy Deutscher) Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 20:27:03 +0000 Subject: Qs: 'Review article' on functionalism In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear funknetters, I have been asked by a palaeontologist colleague if there is a good article which summarises the differences between the functionalist and generativist approaches to language. Can anyone recommend an article (or even a book) which (1) would be accessible to non-linguists and (2) would give a fair assessment of the functionalist view of language and its development? Thanks, Guy Deutscher ========================= Dr Guy Deutscher St. John's College Cambridge CB2 1TP England From cumming at HUMANITAS.UCSB.EDU Thu Dec 31 00:49:22 1998 From: cumming at HUMANITAS.UCSB.EDU (Susanna Cumming) Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 16:49:22 -0800 Subject: Qs: 'Review article' on functionalism In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.19981230202703.0086f870@pop.cus.cam.ac.uk> Message-ID: Guy & colleagues, I think every functionalist would make a slightly different statement (which is why we tend to resist calling ourselves a "theory" with a catchy acronym), but I can't resist the opportunity to mention the chapter by me & Yoshi Ono: Cumming, Susanna & Tsuyoshi Ono (1996). "Discourse and grammar." In Teun A. van Dijk (ed.), Discourse: a multidisciplinary introduction, vol. 1: Discourse as structure and process, 112-137. Beverly Hills: Sage. I'm posting this to the list since some of you might not have run across it & might find it useful for students or colleagues. (There are also many other good papers in the collection.) This chapter does not, however, compare functional & generative approaches -- it is simply an introductory-level overview of what we take to be the major findings & trends of discourse-functional approaches to grammar. Susanna Cumming On Wed, 30 Dec 1998, Guy Deutscher wrote: > Dear funknetters, > > I have been asked by a palaeontologist colleague if there is a good article > which summarises the differences between the functionalist and generativist > approaches to language. Can anyone recommend an article (or even a book) > which (1) would be accessible to non-linguists and (2) would give a fair > assessment of the functionalist view of language and its development? > > Thanks, > > Guy Deutscher > > ========================= > Dr Guy Deutscher > St. John's College > Cambridge CB2 1TP > England > From fjn at U.WASHINGTON.EDU Thu Dec 31 01:39:01 1998 From: fjn at U.WASHINGTON.EDU (Frederick Newmeyer) Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 17:39:01 -0800 Subject: Qs: 'Review article' on functionalism In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.19981230202703.0086f870@pop.cus.cam.ac.uk> Message-ID: Guy, If I might also be so immodest as to suggest something that I wrote myself, you might consider my book LANGUAGE FORM AND LANGUAGE FUNCTION, published just this month by MIT Press. In it, I lay out what I see as the differences between functionalist and generativist approaches and argue that the autonomy of language structure is compatible with central aspects of that structure being functionally motivated. Fritz ********************************************* Frederick J. Newmeyer Professor and Chair Department of Linguistics University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195-4340 USA TEL: 206-543-2046 FAX: 206-685-7978 E-MAIL: fjn at u.washington.edu HOME PAGE: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~fjn/ On Wed, 30 Dec 1998, Guy Deutscher wrote: > Dear funknetters, > > I have been asked by a palaeontologist colleague if there is a good article > which summarises the differences between the functionalist and generativist > approaches to language. Can anyone recommend an article (or even a book) > which (1) would be accessible to non-linguists and (2) would give a fair > assessment of the functionalist view of language and its development? > > Thanks, > > Guy Deutscher > > ========================= > Dr Guy Deutscher > St. John's College > Cambridge CB2 1TP > England > From yamazaki at U.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Dec 31 01:56:47 1998 From: yamazaki at U.ARIZONA.EDU (Masatsugu Yamazaki) Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 18:56:47 -0700 Subject: Qs: 'Review article' on functionalism In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.19981230202703.0086f870@pop.cus.cam.ac.uk> Message-ID: On Wed, 30 Dec 1998, Guy Deutscher wrote: > Dear funknetters, > > I have been asked by a palaeontologist colleague if there is a good article > which summarises the differences between the functionalist and generativist > approaches to language. Can anyone recommend an article (or even a book) > which (1) would be accessible to non-linguists and (2) would give a fair > assessment of the functionalist view of language and its development? > > Thanks, > > Guy Deutscher > > ========================= > Dr Guy Deutscher > St. John's College > Cambridge CB2 1TP > England > Dr. Deutscher, The following journal issue might also be of use: Language and Communication, 1991, vol 11, num 1/2, pp 3-114. This can be seen as a special issue on 'formalism vs. functionalism', although no such designation per se appears on the covers. It starts with a stage-setting article dealing with (and supporting) "the autonomy thesis", followed by 16 response articles from the same number of noted scholars (many on the functional side, see below), and ends with the first author's counter-response. This collection may thus not constitute a pure introduction to formalism or functionalism for those with 'no' background at all in linguistics, but I gather that it will nonetheless interest paleontologists, as the central theme concerns "the role of natural selection in the origin of and ... the 'progress' of language" (from the prefatory statement to the issue). The table of contents might help you get a better idea: Opening: F. J. Newmeyer/ Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language Commentary: J. T. Andersen/ On genetic encoding and communication A. L. Becker/ Language and languaging D. Bickerton/ Language origins and evolutionary plausibility R. S. Fouts/ Dirty bathwater, innateness neonates and the dating game O. J. Hopper/ Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language D. Hymes/ Is poetics original and functional? G. Lakoff/ Cognitive versus generative linguistics: how commitments influence results P. Lieberman/ Preadaptation, natural selection and function D. Lightfoot/ Subjacency and sex N. Love/ Generativism, genes and grammar P. Muhlhausler/ Comments on Newmeyer's 'Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language' E. F. Prince/ On 'Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language' S. Romaine/ Last tango in Paris J. Scancarelli/ An unwarranted dismissal of functional linguistics S. G. Shanker/ Selective forces at work S. A. Thompson/ On addressing functional explanation in linguistics Author's Response: F. J. Newmeyer/ O, what a tangoed web they weave ... As noted above, this issue may be a bit too rich in content, but it does make clearer some of the fundamental differences between 'formalism' and 'functionalism'. I hope this helps. Masa Yamazaki East Asian Studies University of Arizona From yamazaki at U.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Dec 31 02:44:56 1998 From: yamazaki at U.ARIZONA.EDU (Masatsugu Yamazaki) Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 19:44:56 -0700 Subject: Qs: 'Review article' on functionalism Message-ID: I apologize if this is a duplicate. =========================================== On Wed, 30 Dec 1998, Guy Deutscher wrote: > Dear funknetters, > > I have been asked by a palaeontologist colleague if there is a good article > which summarises the differences between the functionalist and generativist > approaches to language. Can anyone recommend an article (or even a book) > which (1) would be accessible to non-linguists and (2) would give a fair > assessment of the functionalist view of language and its development? > > Thanks, > > Guy Deutscher > > ========================= > Dr Guy Deutscher > St. John's College > Cambridge CB2 1TP > England > Dr. Deutscher, The following journal issue might also be of use: Language and Communication, 1991, vol 11, num 1/2, pp 3-114. This can be seen as a special issue on 'formalism vs. functionalism', although no such designation per se appears on the covers. It starts with a stage-setting article dealing with (and supporting) "the autonomy thesis", followed by 16 response articles from the same number of noted scholars (many on the functional side, see below), and ends with the first author's counter-response. This collection may thus not constitute a pure introduction to formalism or functionalism for those with 'no' background at all in linguistics, but I gather that it will nonetheless interest paleontologists, as the central theme concerns "the role of natural selection in the origin of and ... the 'progress' of language" (from the prefatory statement to the issue). The table of contents might help you get a better idea: Opening: F. J. Newmeyer/ Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language Commentary: J. T. Andersen/ On genetic encoding and communication A. L. Becker/ Language and languaging D. Bickerton/ Language origins and evolutionary plausibility R. S. Fouts/ Dirty bathwater, innateness neonates and the dating game O. J. Hopper/ Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language D. Hymes/ Is poetics original and functional? G. Lakoff/ Cognitive versus generative linguistics: how commitments influence results P. Lieberman/ Preadaptation, natural selection and function D. Lightfoot/ Subjacency and sex N. Love/ Generativism, genes and grammar P. Muhlhausler/ Comments on Newmeyer's 'Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language' E. F. Prince/ On 'Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language' S. Romaine/ Last tango in Paris J. Scancarelli/ An unwarranted dismissal of functional linguistics S. G. Shanker/ Selective forces at work S. A. Thompson/ On addressing functional explanation in linguistics Author's Response: F. J. Newmeyer/ O, what a tangoed web they weave ... As noted above, this issue may be a bit too rich in content, but it does make clearer some of the fundamental differences between 'formalism' and 'functionalism'. I hope this helps. Masa Yamazaki East Asian Studies University of Arizona From dick at LINGUISTICS.UCL.AC.UK Thu Dec 31 08:01:46 1998 From: dick at LINGUISTICS.UCL.AC.UK (Dick Hudson) Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 08:01:46 +0000 Subject: functionalism vs generativism vs ... Message-ID: Guy Deutscher's query implies that there are only two positions: functionalism or generativism. Those who align themselves with one of these positions may like to think this is so, but it ain't. There's also cognitivism (non-modular, but also not functionalist in the `discourse' sense), and Labov's view (explicitly non-functional but not generativist in the normal sense either), and .... The binary game is very dangerous: if A and B are the only possibilities, then arguments against A must count as evidence for B. If functionalism is wrong, generativism must be right (or vice versa). But that conclusion is only as safe as the assumption that there are no other options. Let a thousand theories bloom - so that we can eliminate 999 of them. Richard (= Dick) Hudson Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT. +44(0)171 419 3152; fax +44(0)171 383 4108; http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick From macw at CMU.EDU Thu Dec 31 19:06:52 1998 From: macw at CMU.EDU (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 14:06:52 -0500 Subject: paleontologists Message-ID: Dear Guy and FUNKNET, My guess is that Guy's paleontologist colleague might find the functionalist-generativist contrast interesting because of the centrality of a parallel contrast inside paleontology and systematic biology more generally. I believe the opposition there is between "cladists" and "non-cladists". I think that the cladists emphasize autonomy of species classifications and the non-cladists focus on statistical properties and the functional bases of speciation. If your colleague manages to learn about the functionalist-generativist contrast, I would love to hear how he/she thinks it parallels or fails to parallel the contrast in linguistics. By the way, I agree with Dick Hudson about the misleading nature of binary contrasts. They are typically social groupings whose existence is grounded on primate urges toward group formation, rather than intellectual phenomena. Dick might have read the classic article by Allan Newell titled "You can't play 20 questions with nature". Newell argues that attempts to divide the world by opposition between scientific yin and yang are scientifically misguided. But they are real facts of the sociology of science and worth understanding on that level. --Brian MacWhinney From bralich at HAWAII.EDU Tue Dec 1 02:08:25 1998 From: bralich at HAWAII.EDU (Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 16:08:25 -1000 Subject: Workshops and Conferences at the 1999 Linguistic Institute Message-ID: I would be interested in having a workshop for working with Ergo Linguistic Technologies NLP tools. The tentative title would be "Making Commercially Viable NLP Software Using the Ergo Tools." Let me know if this is feasible. In addition we would offer training in how to use these tools for linguistic analysis and for the extension of these tools to other languages. Phil Bralich At 10:57 AM 7/13/98 -1000, Peter Lasersohn wrote: >WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES AT THE 1999 LSA LINGUISTIC INSTITUTE > >Linguistics for the 21st Century: Form and Function from Western and >Nonwestern >Perspectives > >The LSA Linguistic Institute has traditionally been a popular venue for >workshops and conferences. The upcoming 1999 Institute will be held at the >University of Illinois, June 21-July 30, 1999. If you are interested in >organizing a WORKSHOP or CONFERENCE at the 1999 Linguistic Institute, please >contact us as soon as possible: > >Peter Lasersohn, Internal Associate Director >Department of Linguistics, MC 168 >4088 Foreign Languages Building >707 South Mathews Ave. >Urbana, IL 61801 >USA > >laser at cogsci.uiuc.edu >(217) 244-3054 > >The infrastructure will be in place to host events that range from 10-500 >participants. We expect dozens of events to be held here during the Institute, >and popular dates and rooms will fill up fast, so please do not delay. > >Information on the web: >About the Institute: >http://www.cogsci.uiuc.edu/~lingi >nst/1999 >About the Linguistics Department at the University of Illinois: >http://www.cogsci.uiuc.edu/linguistics >About the University of Illinois and surrounding community: >http://www.uiuc.edu > Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. President and CEO Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 Tel: (808)539-3920 Fax: (808)539-3924 bralich at hawaii.edu http://www.ergo-ling.com From bralich at HAWAII.EDU Tue Dec 1 02:46:14 1998 From: bralich at HAWAII.EDU (Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 16:46:14 -1000 Subject: Apology Message-ID: In my haste to reply to a message I did not notice it had come through the FUNKNET list and inadvertently posted this message to that group. Please accept my apologies for this oversight. Phil Bralich At 04:08 PM 11/30/98 -1000, Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. wrote: >I would be interested in having a workshop for working with >Ergo Linguistic Technologies NLP tools. The tentative title >would be "Making Commercially Viable NLP Software Using >the Ergo Tools." Let me know if this is feasible. In addition >we would offer training in how to use these tools for linguistic >analysis and for the extension of these tools to other languages. Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. President and CEO Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 Tel: (808)539-3920 Fax: (808)539-3924 bralich at hawaii.edu http://www.ergo-ling.com From funkadmn at RUF.RICE.EDU Sat Dec 5 20:30:22 1998 From: funkadmn at RUF.RICE.EDU (funkadmn Departmental Account) Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 14:30:22 -0600 Subject: LAGB Meeting Message-ID: Could you please put the following conference announcement on your list? Thank you very much. Marjolein Groefsema Meetings Secretary LAGB LINGUISTICS ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN Spring Meeting 1999: University of Manchester First Circular and Call for Papers The 1999 Spring Meeting will be held from 8 to 10 April at Manchester University. The Local Organiser is Philippa Cook (mfux9phc at fs1.art.man.ac.uk). Manchester is England's third (or possibly second) biggest city and as such has facilities for any kind of music, dance, theatre, restaurants and cafes. Apart from a vibrant city centre, the city also benefits from the closeness to beautiful country side; the Lake district, the Peak district and the mountains of North Wales are all within easy reach for day trips. Manchester can be easily accessed by road or by rail and just south of the city is a major intrnational airport with good rail connections with the city centre. The University of Manchester, including the Hall of Residence where the conference will be held, is situated just south of the city centre and there are busses in both directions every few minutes. Accommodation: Accommodation as well as all talks, book displays etc. will be in Hulme Hall, a Hall of Residence, less than ten minutes walk from the main University campus. All bedrooms are single, and there is a choice between rooms with en suite facilities and rooms with shared bathrooms/showers. Travel: The University of Manchester is about five minutes drive from junction 9 of the ring road M60 which is accessible from the M6 (north or south) and the M62 (north east). There are frequent (and often direct) trains to Manchester Piccadilly (or Manchester Victoria) from most big cities in Britain. The train journey from London takes about two and a half hour. The airport is less than half an hours drive from the Hall of residence and it also has excellent train connections with the city centre. Events: The Linguistics Association 1999 Lecture on Thursday evening will be delivered by Professor John McCarthy of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Professor McCarthy will also be participating in a Workshop on 'Applications of Optimality Theory to problems in prosody and morphology' on Thursday afternoon. The workshop is organised by Wiebke Brockhaus (University of Manchester); other contributors are Caroline Fery (Eberhard-Karls-Universitaet), Ren? Kager (Universiteit Utrecht) and Nicholas Sherrard (University of Essex). There will be a Language Tutorial on Turkish, given by Jaklin Kornfilt (University of Syracuse). There will be a Wine Party on the Tuesday evening, sponsored by the Department of Linguistics. Enquiries about the LAGB meeting should be sent to the Meetings Secretary (address below). Full details of the programme and a booking form will be included in the Second Circular, to be sent out in January. CALL FOR PAPERS The LAGB warmly welcomes submissions on any topic within the field of linguistics - theoretical, descriptive or historical - regardless of theoretical framework. Abstracts must arrive by 6 January 1999 and should be sent in the format outlined below to the following address: Professor R. Hudson, Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT. Papers for the programme are selected anonymously - only the President knows the name of the authors. Abstracts must be presented as follows: submit SEVEN anonymous copies of the abstract, plus ONE with name and affiliation, i.e. CAMERA-READY. The complete abstract containing your title and your name must be no longer than ONE A4 page (21cm x 29.5cm/8.27" x 11.69") with margins of at least 2.5cm (1") on all sides. You may use single spacing and type must be no smaller than 12 point. Type uniformly in black and make any additions in black. Use the best quality printer you can, since if the paper is accepted the abstract will be photocopied and inserted directly into the collection of abstracts sent out to participants. WRITE YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE ON THE BACK OF THE ABSTRACT WHICH HAS YOUR NAME ON. The following layout should be considered as standard: (title) Optimality and the Klingon vowel shift (speaker) Clark Kent (institution) Department of Astrology, Eastern Mars University The following guidelines may be useful: 1. Briefly state the topic of your paper. 2. If your paper is to involve an analysis of linguistic material, give critical examples, along with a brief indication of their critical nature. 3. State the relevance of your ideas to past work or to the future development of the field. If you are taking a stand on a controversial issue, summarise the arguments which lead you to take up this position. The normal length for papers delivered at LAGB meetings is 25 minutes (plus 15 minutes discussion). Offers of squibs (10 minutes) or longer papers (40 minutes) will also be considered: please explain why your paper requires less or more time than usual. N.B. ABSTRACTS SUBMISSION DATES: These are always announced in the First Circular for the Meeting in question. Any member who fears that they may receive the First Circular too late to be able to submit an abstract before the deadline specified can be assured that an abstract received by the President by JANUARY 1 or JUNE 1 will always be considered for the next meeting. Conference Bursaries: There will be a maximum of 10 bursaries available to unsalaried members of the Association (e.g. PhD students) with preference given to those who are presenting a paper. Applications should be sent to the President, and must be received by 6 January 1999. Please state on your application: (a) date of joining the LAGB; (b) whether or not you are an undergraduate or postgraduate student; (c) if a student, whether you receive a normal grant; (d) if not a student, your employment situation. STUDENTS WHO ARE SUBMITTING AN ABSTRACT and wish to apply for funding should include all the above details WITH THEIR ABSTRACT. Committee members: President Professor Richard Hudson, Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT. E-mail: dick at ling.ucl.ac.uk Honorary Secretary Professor Anna Siewierska, Department of Linguistics, University of Lancaster, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4YW, E-mail: A.Siewierska at lancaster.ac.uk Membership Secretary Dr. Kersti B?rjars, Department of Linguistics, University of Manchester, MANCHESTER M13 9PL. E-mail: k.e.borjars at manchester.ac.uk Meetings Secretary Dr. Marjolein Groefsema, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Hertfordshire, Watford Campus, Aldenham, Herts. WD2 8AT. E-mail: m.groefsema at herts.ac.uk Treasurer Dr. Paul Rowlett, Dept. of Modern Languages, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT. E-mail: p.a.rowlett at mod-lang.salford.ac.uk Assistant Secretary Dr. April McMahon, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, CAMBRIDGE CB3 9DQ. E-mail: AMM11 at hermes.cam.ac.uk Internet home page: The LAGB internet home page is now active at the following address: http://clwww.essex.ac.uk/LAGB. Electronic network: Please join the LAGB electronic network which is used for disseminating LAGB information and for consulting members quickly. It can be subscribed to by sending the message "add lagb" to: listserv at postman.essex.ac.uk. Future Meetings: Autumn 1999 University of York. Spring 2000 University College London. Autumn 2000 University of Durham Spring 2001 University of Leeds Autumn 2001 University of Reading ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Barlow, Department of Linguistics, Rice University barlow at rice.edu www.ruf.rice.edu/~barlow Athelstan barlow at athel.com www.athel.com (U.S.) www.athelstan.com (UK) From barlow at RUF.RICE.EDU Sat Dec 5 21:13:39 1998 From: barlow at RUF.RICE.EDU (Michael Barlow) Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 15:13:39 -0600 Subject: Funknet Archive Message-ID: Thanks to Anthony Aristar and his colleagues at Linguist, a searchable Funknet archive is available at: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/funknet.html Michael ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Barlow, Department of Linguistics, Rice University barlow at rice.edu www.ruf.rice.edu/~barlow Athelstan barlow at athel.com www.athel.com (U.S.) www.athelstan.com (UK) From dgohre at INDIANA.EDU Tue Dec 8 07:58:12 1998 From: dgohre at INDIANA.EDU (David Gohre) Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 02:58:12 -0500 Subject: FUNKNET: Implicationals in Adverbials? Message-ID: Hello Funknet. I'd like to ask if there's any sort of typological hierarchy for adverbials, much like there is for phonology? Analogous to: A language has unvoiced stops if it has voiced stops, are there implications for Adverbials? Also, on the topic of adverbials, I know that Hungarian is one example of a language that actually can assign accusative case to a seeming adverbial, barring the existence an object NP, for example the following gloss could occur in Hungarian. John worked two hours-ACC Is this common, or another realization of an implicational WRT adverbials? It seems rather reasonable from an analysis of prototypical V-Transitivity, but what about adverbials? Thanks, Funknetters. Dave From bralich at HAWAII.EDU Tue Dec 8 22:02:39 1998 From: bralich at HAWAII.EDU (Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.) Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 12:02:39 -1000 Subject: Training in Ergo's NLP for other languages Message-ID: In order to spur the development of the Ergo NLP tools for other languages we are seeking individuals, departments, and companies who would like to have training to create patented NLP tools like those of Ergo in other languages. We are currently not offering any funding for this, but we would be willing to be partners in such developments with other companies. We would also be willing to serve as consultants as the parsers are developed for other languages. We estimate that it will require from 18 to 24 months of work for 2 or 3 individuals to extend the Ergo tools to another language. Derek Bickerton and myself will both be available for the training and consultation. The tools that we have developed offer improvements in Navigation and Control, Dialoging, and Web and Database searching through enhanced grammatical analysis. Demos of the technology are available at http://www.ergo-ling.com. A more detailed discussion of the sorts of abilities that will be possible is presented at the VRML Consortium Web site as standards for the development of NLP tools for animations (http://www.vrml.org/WorkingGroups/NLP-ANIM.) We recently won the Best Technology award at the VSMM '98 Multi Media and Virtual Reality conference in Japan. The languages we would most like to do first are Spanish, German, Russian, and Japanese. Though we will work with whatever languages serious researchers would like to work with. Our main requirement is that these be serious inquiries only and we would like to establish that the individuals or groups who would like this training are capable of completing the project. Please respond privately to the numbers below. Phil Bralich Philip A. Bralich, President Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 tel:(808)539-3920 fax:(880)539-3924 From charon at UCLINK4.BERKELEY.EDU Tue Dec 15 04:10:59 1998 From: charon at UCLINK4.BERKELEY.EDU (Alan Yu) Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 20:10:59 -0800 Subject: BLS Schedule Message-ID: The 25TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BERKELEY LINGUISTICS SOCIETY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY FEBRUARY 12-15, 1998 CONFERENCE PROGRAM SPECIAL SESSION: CAUCASIAN, DRAVIDIAN, AND TURKIC LINGUISTICS Fri Feb 12, 1999, Alumni House, UC Berkeley PARASESSION: LOAN WORD PHENOMENA Together with the General Session: Sat-Mon Feb 13-15, 1999, Room C230 Cheit Hall, UC Berkeley Further info: http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/BLS/ FRIDAY - FEBRUARY 12, 1999: SPECIAL SESSION 8:00 REGISTRATION MORNING SESSION 9:00 Word games and the hidden phonology of Tuvan K. David Harrison, Yale University 9:30 Epenthesis-Driven Harmony in Turkish Abigail Kaun, Yale University 10:00 TBA Johanna Nichols, University of California, Berkeley 10:40 Language policy and reforms of Uighur and Kazakh writing systems in China Minglang Zhou, University of Colorado at Boulder 11:10 Interpreting genitives in Turkish M?rvet Enc, University of Wisconsin, Madison 11:40 ********** LUNCH ********** AFTERNOON SESSION 12:40 Suffix-order variability in Turkish: How it works and why one should care Jeff Good & Alan Yu, University of California, Berkeley 1:10 Attractiveness and relatedness: Notes on Turkic language contacts Lars Johanson, Universit?t Mainz 1:50 The phonology of the past tense in Tamil Caroline Wiltshire, University of Florida, Gainesville 2:20 Analyzing contact-induced phenomena in Karaim Eva Agnes Csato, Uppsala University 2:50 ********** BREAK ********** LATE AFTERNOON SESSION 3:00 Evidentiality in the Caucasus: The category 'Witnessed' in Tsez Bernard Comrie, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology & Maria Polinsky, UC San Diego 3:30 Kannada gerund in adnominal positions: A functional perspective Mirjam Fried, UC Berkeley 4:00 Indefinites, questions, and correlatives in a Dravidian language Hany Babu, Friedrich-Schiller-Universit?t Jena SATURDAY - FEBRUARY 13, 1999: GENERAL SESSION 8:00 REGISTRATION MORNING SESSION 9:00 A cross-linguistic semantic analysis of Czech and Russian "spanning" prefixes Sarah Shull, University of California, Berkeley 9:30 Coronal phonotactics and coronal inventory Yoonjung Kang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 10:00 Imitation as a basis for phonetic learning after the critical period Carol Fowler, Haskins Laboratories, Univ. of Connecticut, Yale Univ. 10:40 Roles and non-unique definites Richard Epstein, Rutgers University - Camden 11:10 ********** BREAK ********** 11:20 Aspects of locative doubling and resultative predication Diana Cresti & Christina Tortora, University of Michigan 11:50 The magic moment. What it means to be a punctual verb Stefan Engelberg, University of Wuppertal 12:20 From ergativus absolutus to topic marking in the Kiraut Balthasar Bickel, Univ. of California, Berkeley and Univ. of Z?rich 12:50 ********** LUNCH ********** AFTERNOON SESSION 1:50 Loan words in the English of modern Orthodox Jews: Yiddish or Hebrew? Sarah Benor, Stanford University 2:20 Are loanwords special? Ellen Broselow, State University of New York, Stony Brook 3:00 Implications of Itelmen agreement asymmetries Jonathan Bobaljik, McGill University 3:30 The combinatory properties of Halkomelem lexical suffixes Donna B. Gerdts, Simon Fraser University 4:00 ********** BREAK ********** LATE AFTERNOON SESSION 4:10 Morphosemantics of deverbal adjectives in Malayalam K.P. Mohanan, National University of Singapore 4:50 Metaphor, linguistic practice, and the temporal meanings of gannaaw 'back'and kanam 'front' in Wolof Kevin Moore, University of California, Berkeley 5:20 Proving basic polysemy: Subjects reliably distinguish several senses of 'see' Collin F. Baker, University of California, Berkeley 5:50 Why complement clauses do not include a that-complementizer in early child language Holger Diessel & Michael Tomasello, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology 6:20 A local treatment of nonlocal relativization: A constructional approach Jong-Bok Kim, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 7:00 PARTY - 370-371 DWINELLE HALL SUNDAY - FEBRUARY 14, 1999: GENERAL SESSION MORNING SESSION 9:00 Complex noun, multiple inheritance, and internally headed relative clause in Korean Chan Chung, Dongseo University 9:30 Loan words and their implications for the categorial status of verbal nouns Yukiko Morimoto, Stanford University 10:00 Borrowings: delimitation of corpus, nomenclature, and etymology Garland Cannon, Texas A&M University 10:40 'Some' and the pragmatics of indefinite reference Michael Israel, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology 11:10 ********** BREAK ********** 11:20 A model for the construction of common ground in interpreted discourse Brad Davidson, Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics 11:50 The evolution of binary spatial deictics: French Voil? and Voici Benjamin K. Bergen & Madelaine C. Plauch?, Univ. of California, Berkeley 12:20 What is the information structure-syntax interface in Basque? Phyllis Bellver & Laura Michaelis, University of Colorado, Boulder 12:50 ********** LUNCH ********** AFTERNOON SESSION 1:50 ACD, QR, and frozen scope Benjamin Bruening, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2:20 Construction but no constructions: Doing without the lexicon Alec Marantz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 3:00 Evidentiality in Dutch and its implications for modality Ferdinand de Haan, University of New Mexico 3:30 Tmesis and verb second in Early Irish syntax Cathal Doherty, University College Dublin 4:00 ********** BREAK ********** LATE AFTERNOON SESSION 4:10 Loan word phonology in Optimality Theory Junko It? & Armin Mester, University of California, Santa Cruz 4:50 Patterns of correspondence in the adaptation of Spanish borrowing in Basque Jos? Ignacio Hualde, University of Illinois 5:20 Perception, representation and correspondence relations in loanword phonology Yvan Rose, McGill University 5:50 Lexical words, non-lexical words, subcategorization and lexical stratification Ruben van de Vijver, Universit?t T?bingen MONDAY - FEBRUARY 15, 1999: GENERAL SESSION MORNING SESSION 9:00 The origins and development of Chinese classifiers: A grammaticization perspective Fengxiang Li, California State University, Chico 9:30 On the rise of suppletion in verbal paradigms Matthew L. Juge, University of California, Berkeley 10:00 A new model of Indo-European subgrouping and dispersal Andrew Garrett, University of California, Berkeley 10:30 TBA Stephen Levinson, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics 11:10 Argument structure and animacy restrictions on anaphora Ash Asudeh, Stanford University 11:40 ********** LUNCH ********** AFTERNOON SESSION 12:40 Constraints on motion verbs in the TIME IS MOTION metaphor Kazuko Shinohara, Otsuma Women's University, Tokyo 1:10 Emergent phonology Bj?rn Lindblom, University of Stockholm and University of Texas, Austin 1:50 Loanwords and contact-induced phonological change in Lachix?o Zapotec Mark Sicoli, University of Pittsburgh 2:20 A comparison of three metrics of perceptual similarity in cross-language speech perception James D. Harnsberger, Indiana University 2:50 Loan word phonology: A case for non-reductionist approach to grammar Fumiko Kumashiro, University of California, San Diego From bralich at HAWAII.EDU Wed Dec 16 05:09:42 1998 From: bralich at HAWAII.EDU (Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.) Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 19:09:42 -1000 Subject: Contact Pivotal Democratic Congressmen! Message-ID: Here are some email addresses of pivotal democratic congessmen in this debate. david.skaggs at mail.house.gov, lane.evans at mail.house.gov, Ron.Kind at mail.house.gov, texas17 at mail.house.gov, budmail at mail.house.gov, telljim at mail.house.gov, CongMcIntyre at mail.house.gov, CONTACT THEM AND LET THEM KNOW THAT IMPEACHMENT IS AN OBVIOUS ASSAULT ON THE SEPARATION OF POWERS. For those of you who are too busy to compose I have included the letter which I sent (partly borrowed from a friend). Phil Bralich The following is quoted from a friend's email, but it says exactly what I feel needs to be said in this matter and I would like you to have multiple copies of a nice statement of the problem rather than forcing you and your staff to sort through a lot of variations on this one theme. DO NOT VOTE FOR IMPEACHMENT. It will be very important for me and others with whom I meet in the 2,000 election. It is just two more years to that election and the threat to the constitution over this right wing abuse of power. Any one who votes for this impeachment must be taken as suspect and should not receive funding, votes or support for their policies. All the policies they support should be looked at with a very jaundiced eye toward an agenda that would remove the balance of power in favor of an unelected elite. THE QUOTED STATEMENT FOLLOWS THE SIGNATURE. Phil Bralich Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. President and CEO Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 (808)539-3921 (808)539-3924 >Please vote against this absurd and destructive impeachment resolution. >If this action succeeds, IT WILL UNDERMINE THE CONSTITUTIONAL SEPARATION >OF POWERS THE FOUNDING FATHERS PUT IN PLACE. IT WILL WEAKEN EVERY SUCCEEDING >PRESIDENT. > >The American people do not want this, as they signalled in the 1992, >1996, and just now again in the 1998 elections, and as the polls continue >to show. > >75% of Americans believe Starr completely overstepped his proper bounds. > >400 Distinguished Legal Scholars, and again 400 distinguished historians >wrote open letters to Congress expressing that the current proceedings >would do grave damage to our Constitutional process of government. > >The way to 'hold the president accountable' is by censure, not impeachment. > >[The impeachment charges are flimsy, trumped up, and not supported by the >facts.] >No amount of rhetoric, no amount of grandstanding by Mr Hyde or Mr Starr, >no matter how many reams of so called evidence can obscure two facts: > 1) The impeachment charges are flimsy, trumped up, and > do not stand any legal scrutiny. > > The only real charge Mr. Starr and the committee can make is that > Mr Clinton gave narrow and misleading answers to ambiguous questions > in a civil deposition unrelated to his functions in the US Government. > > Even Mr Starr did not accuse the Presdent of 'perjury', a charge which > would be impossible to prove, given legal definitions used by the Jones > attorneys. > > 2) Even if a charge of perjury in a civil deposition were sustained, > there is nothing that remotely justifies an impeachment proceeding. These > other articles alledging 'abuse of power' are trumped up, even laughable. > The only grounds for impeachment are serious abuses of power concerning > the executive functions of government, such as entering into illegal > activities. > >[Mr Starr has debased the Office of Independent Counsel] > On the other hand, it is clear that Mr. Starr has cynically abused >and disgraced his role as the Independent Counsel and used it, not for >impartial fact-finding but for a political witch-hunt. In addition, he >violated the law by 24 instances of leaking supposedly sealed grand jury >testimony, and the OIC >is now under investigation for this. > >[The Judiciary Committe has acted with partisan, criminal irresponsibility] > It is also clear that the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have >engaged in blatantly partisan tactics, completely unlike the bipartisan >deliberations undertaken 24 years ago in Mr. Nixon's case. > >The Republican majority has shamelessly, cynically, engaged in a propaganda >campaign to bring down Mr. Clinton because they dislike him and disagree >with his policies. But this is not the ground for an impeachment proceeding. > >An impeachment is not an appropriate instrument for censure. It is an >attempt to remove from office. >No one expects the impeachment trial to succeed in the Senate. Then why is >it being brought? Evidently in the hopes it will force the President to >resign. But this also would set a very dangerous historical precedent. > >This Constitutional crisis is being manufactured by a right wing agenda >for partisan, narrow and short sighted purposes. IT WILL BEING REAL HARM >TO THE COUNTRY, IS CRIMINALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND MUST BE DEFEATED. Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. President and CEO Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 Tel: (808)539-3920 Fax: (808)539-3924 bralich at hawaii.edu http://www.ergo-ling.com Philip A. Bralich, President Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 tel:(808)539-3920 fax:(880)539-3924 From john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL Wed Dec 16 09:40:34 1998 From: john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL (John Myhill) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 11:40:34 +0200 Subject: Philip Bralich Message-ID: I would like to request that you, Philip Bralich, think a little bit about what funknet is supposed to be for before posting messages. You seem to be under the impression that it is intended to be used for whatever purposes you please--marketing your products and enlisting support for political topics totally unrelated to linguistics (e.g. your recent posting about the impeachment process). While I'm sure there is no hard-and-fast rule about what is appropriate and what isn't, you might display a little courtesy. John Myhill From Jon.Aske at SALEM.MASS.EDU Wed Dec 16 13:41:10 1998 From: Jon.Aske at SALEM.MASS.EDU (Jon Aske) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 08:41:10 -0500 Subject: convergence Message-ID: There is an interesting article on evolutionary convergence in the NYT's science section this week that reminded me so much of what some functionalists/typologists are saying about language (as opposed to what some formalists/nativists are saying). http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/121598sci-evolve.html The following quote seemed perfect for a book on functional typology: "Convergences keep happening because organisms keep wanting to do similar things, and there are only so many ways of doing them, as dictated by physical laws." --Dr. Rudolf A. Raff, evolutionary developmental biologist at the Molecular Biology Institute of Indiana University in Bloomington. Jon ___________________________________________ Jon Aske Salem State College, Salem, Massachusetts email: Jon.Aske at salem.mass.edu ___________________________________________ No matter how far you've gone down the wrong road, turn back. --Turkish Proverb. From nrude at ucinet.com Wed Dec 16 13:58:07 1998 From: nrude at ucinet.com (Noel Rude) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 05:58:07 -0800 Subject: Philip Bralich Message-ID: I second this motion. Noel From wcmann at JUNO.COM Wed Dec 16 16:13:42 1998 From: wcmann at JUNO.COM (William Mann) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 11:13:42 -0500 Subject: against use of Funknet as a political broadcast channel Message-ID: I object to the use of funknet as a political broadcasting medium. Bill Mann List member . . . Best reply address is: bill_mann at bigfoot.com . ..... end of Bill's message, apologies for the ad at the bottom. ..... From bingfu at SCF-FS.USC.EDU Wed Dec 16 19:50:01 1998 From: bingfu at SCF-FS.USC.EDU (Bingfu Lu) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 11:50:01 -0800 Subject: Summary of object-like adverbials Message-ID: Dear netters, About ten days ago, I posted a query about duration adverbials patterning with objects. I have got dozen responds so far. The first one came from Martin Haspelmath, who informs me of: "the expression of temporal extent as a kind of direct object is attested widely in the world's languages. See ch. 8 of my book "From space to time: Temporal adverbials in the world's languages" (Munich: Lincom 1997). In this book, I survey 53 languages for several kinds of temporal adverbials, and I find various degrees of similarity to objects in two dozen languages". His book tells us that in fact, the object marking is the most frequent means to express duration expressions. The second frequent one, being much less than the first, is benefactive marking (like English 'for'). If I had had read this chapter of Martin's book, I would have not posted the query. However, form the responds, some new points have been raised anyway. Now, my further questions are: 1. It seems natural that duration expressions are patterned with typical objects, since both are indefinite inanimate. (See Comrie 1987: Definite and Animate Direct Objects: A natural class.Linguistica Silesiana 3: 13-21) However, the accusative case first marks definite and animate objects, namely, atypical objects. But duration expressions are patterned with typical objects more than with atypical objects. There seems to be some seeming inconsistency. How to explain this inconsitancy? 2. Martin does not distinquish 'duration' and 'frequency' expressions in his dada. In fact, they are not the same in all aspects. "He visited me (*for) two times/twice" (Does any English native speaker accept "He visited me for two times"?) Frequency expressions seem to be patterned first with adverbials, but not objects. What are the ways to mark frequency expressions in ohter languages? Are they still patterned first with objects? I would like to thanks the following responding netters to my query (including the data they mentioned), in addition to Martin. Hans-Juergen Sasse (Albanian, Modern Greek) Masja Tamm ( Finnic, Baltic and some of the Slavic languages e.g. Polish, Russian and, most probably, in the other East Slavic languages) Johanna Laakso (Finnish) Lucyna Gebert (Slavic, especially Polish) Paul Hopper (qestioning about the notion of 'adverbs/adverbials") Randy LaPolla (questioning the notion of 'object') Bjoern Wieme (Polish, in some detail, negative) Maria Vilkuna (Finnish in some detail) Alan R. King (Basque much in detail) Bingfu Lu From David_Tuggy at SIL.ORG Wed Dec 16 14:53:00 1998 From: David_Tuggy at SIL.ORG (David_Tuggy at SIL.ORG) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 09:53:00 -0500 Subject: Contact Pivotal Democratic Congressmen! Message-ID: Hey, could we keep politics off limits for funknet? If for no other reason as a courtesy to those who don't happen to live in the mighty US of A? --DT ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Contact Pivotal Democratic Congressmen! Author: bralich at HAWAII.EDU at internet Date: 12/16/98 12:09 AM From macw at CMU.EDU Thu Dec 17 19:47:30 1998 From: macw at CMU.EDU (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 14:47:30 -0500 Subject: politics vs. software Message-ID: It's fine by me to chide people (Bralich or others) for doing "general purpose" politics on FunkNet. However, I feel that Phil Bralich (and Derek Bickerton) should be welcome to tell us about their linguistic analysis software. I realize that some readers view these software announcements as "ads". But these are not "general purpose" software programs. Rather they are programs designed for a very small niche which many of us occupy. On the other hand, such announcements would more of a contribution if Bralich and/or Bickerton could explain how the analyses produced by their programs help illuminate interesting issues in the functional (as opposed to merely formal) analysis of language and conversational processes. --Brian MacWhinney From bralich at HAWAII.EDU Thu Dec 17 21:54:54 1998 From: bralich at HAWAII.EDU (Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 11:54:54 -1000 Subject: politics vs. software Message-ID: At 09:47 AM 12/17/98 -1000, Brian MacWhinney wrote: >It's fine by me to chide people (Bralich or others) for doing "general >purpose" politics on FunkNet. However, I feel that Phil Bralich (and Derek >Bickerton) should be welcome to tell us about their linguistic analysis >software. I realize that some readers view these software announcements as >"ads". But these are not "general purpose" software programs. Rather they >are programs designed for a very small niche which many of us occupy. On >the other hand, such announcements would more of a contribution if Bralich >and/or Bickerton could explain how the analyses produced by their programs >help illuminate interesting issues in the functional (as opposed to merely >formal) analysis of language and conversational processes. > Thanks for the support and the criticism. When I sent the political post I understood there would be some negative feedback, but felt it was risk I had to take and I had to suffer the consequences whatever they may be in the face of situation that is seriously threatening a very good political system and one that is important in the world. However, I think one can be sure my real interests lie in theoretical syntax and in computational linguistics as a proving ground of a theory of syntax. Thus, you can be sure that the political post was as unusual as the current political sitiuation. I and Derek Bickerton both are interested in the functional issues that are triggered by our results, but of course our attention is regularly drawn to the immeidate needs of our further development of the theory and the NLP tools. As you all know my main point about this particular formalism is that its status as an effective model of what the brain does is established by its ability to actually perform grammatical functions and operations that humans can do and that the particular parser we have does it far better than others and for that reason should be considered a very interesting challenge to theoretical linguistics and theoretical syntax. I am also aware that my posts do have an advertising air to them, but I try to be sure they are never purely ads. I am in the interesting position of being on the industry side of a partnership between academia and industry -- one of a growing number of such partnerships that are becoming crucial to the future of academia and to a number of industries-- high tech being one of the most obvious. However, I cannot shirk my responsibility to those on either side of the fence. There are students and professors as well as marketers and CEOs and CTO's who need the full range of the information I present to make decisions about the futures of their careers as well as of their respective departments. For example, I cannot walk into a board meeting and then be shocked or surprised because I am presenting as new something that exists at an MIT or IBM web site. This is also true for others in linguistics. Thus, if I increase awareness of our theory but only tell a few people that there are working software programs that illustrate them I am creating a situation where some of your colleagues could be embarassed at a board or committee meeting. (Having someone pop at a meeting with software tools you claim do not exist is as embarassing as having some one site a major article from a major publication that contradicts your position--one that you are unaware of. So while my advertising may have a somewhat "unclassical" academic edge to it, it does server two purposes (besides the benefits my company receives) 1) it allows those who are working within academia and industry to be aware of what is available and avoid potential embarassments, and 2) it provides evidence of NLP abilities and of a theory of syntax that is important to researchers PARTICULARLY because no one else can create similar tools in this domain. Thus, while I recognize the political post was problematic, I felt the situation warranted dramatic means, and while I understand that advertising per se is not pure academics, it is a reality of modern life that we all have to be aware of. And Derek and I are aware that our particular formalism has interesting implications for functionalists and that we do not have time to address them directly. However, I have not excluded our posts from this list because there are syntacticians and theoretical and computational linguists on this list who use this information in their thinking and as part of their work. Phil Bralich Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. President and CEO Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 Tel: (808)539-3920 Fax: (808)539-3924 bralich at hawaii.edu http://www.ergo-ling.com From nrude at ucinet.com Thu Dec 17 22:59:39 1998 From: nrude at ucinet.com (Noel Rude) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 14:59:39 -0800 Subject: politics Message-ID: Sir, On the political front, were one of us from the "far right" (pretty common out here in the West) to post our political opinion, I'm quite sure you would object. So in the interest of fairness (and curbing this arrogance), why not henceforth take this "inspired" zeal to a more appropriate audience. We've got minds to do our own thinking. Noel From kuzar at research.haifa.ac.il Fri Dec 18 09:10:08 1998 From: kuzar at research.haifa.ac.il (Ron Kuzar) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 11:10:08 +0200 Subject: Fwd: Info. about Ralph Weiman Message-ID: I am writing a book on cases of convergence of linguistic and political discourse in Palestine/Israel. Ralph Weiman figures prominently in one of the chapters, since he was the first structuralist linguist to describe modern Hebrew as is, being a precursor of Haiim Rosen who declared the existence of 'Israeli Hebrew' two years later. Weiman did this in his 1950 text 'Native and Foreign Elements in a Language'. I seek answers to three questions with regard to him: 1. I have an article by him entitled 'The Re-Creation of Hebrew', but I have no reference. I was told it was published in Commentary, but I don't have the issue/year. I was also told that there is a slight chance that it was not Commentary but Midstream. Any info. re this article will be appreciated. 2. Does anybody know of any other articles by him on Hebrew or on other Jewish/political matters (scholarly or journalistic)? 3. Is he alive? Does anybody know his address? email? Internet searches don't help. I had some wrong hits. Anything else about Weiman that might be pertinent in this context will be most welcome. Thanks Ron Kuzar +--------------------------------------------------------+ | Dr. Ron Kuzar | | Department of English, University of Haifa | | IL-31905 Haifa, ISRAEL | | Office fax: +972-4-824-9711 | | Home phone: +972-2-641-4780 | +--------------------------------------------------------+ From gd116 at CUS.CAM.AC.UK Wed Dec 30 20:27:03 1998 From: gd116 at CUS.CAM.AC.UK (Guy Deutscher) Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 20:27:03 +0000 Subject: Qs: 'Review article' on functionalism In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear funknetters, I have been asked by a palaeontologist colleague if there is a good article which summarises the differences between the functionalist and generativist approaches to language. Can anyone recommend an article (or even a book) which (1) would be accessible to non-linguists and (2) would give a fair assessment of the functionalist view of language and its development? Thanks, Guy Deutscher ========================= Dr Guy Deutscher St. John's College Cambridge CB2 1TP England From cumming at HUMANITAS.UCSB.EDU Thu Dec 31 00:49:22 1998 From: cumming at HUMANITAS.UCSB.EDU (Susanna Cumming) Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 16:49:22 -0800 Subject: Qs: 'Review article' on functionalism In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.19981230202703.0086f870@pop.cus.cam.ac.uk> Message-ID: Guy & colleagues, I think every functionalist would make a slightly different statement (which is why we tend to resist calling ourselves a "theory" with a catchy acronym), but I can't resist the opportunity to mention the chapter by me & Yoshi Ono: Cumming, Susanna & Tsuyoshi Ono (1996). "Discourse and grammar." In Teun A. van Dijk (ed.), Discourse: a multidisciplinary introduction, vol. 1: Discourse as structure and process, 112-137. Beverly Hills: Sage. I'm posting this to the list since some of you might not have run across it & might find it useful for students or colleagues. (There are also many other good papers in the collection.) This chapter does not, however, compare functional & generative approaches -- it is simply an introductory-level overview of what we take to be the major findings & trends of discourse-functional approaches to grammar. Susanna Cumming On Wed, 30 Dec 1998, Guy Deutscher wrote: > Dear funknetters, > > I have been asked by a palaeontologist colleague if there is a good article > which summarises the differences between the functionalist and generativist > approaches to language. Can anyone recommend an article (or even a book) > which (1) would be accessible to non-linguists and (2) would give a fair > assessment of the functionalist view of language and its development? > > Thanks, > > Guy Deutscher > > ========================= > Dr Guy Deutscher > St. John's College > Cambridge CB2 1TP > England > From fjn at U.WASHINGTON.EDU Thu Dec 31 01:39:01 1998 From: fjn at U.WASHINGTON.EDU (Frederick Newmeyer) Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 17:39:01 -0800 Subject: Qs: 'Review article' on functionalism In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.19981230202703.0086f870@pop.cus.cam.ac.uk> Message-ID: Guy, If I might also be so immodest as to suggest something that I wrote myself, you might consider my book LANGUAGE FORM AND LANGUAGE FUNCTION, published just this month by MIT Press. In it, I lay out what I see as the differences between functionalist and generativist approaches and argue that the autonomy of language structure is compatible with central aspects of that structure being functionally motivated. Fritz ********************************************* Frederick J. Newmeyer Professor and Chair Department of Linguistics University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195-4340 USA TEL: 206-543-2046 FAX: 206-685-7978 E-MAIL: fjn at u.washington.edu HOME PAGE: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~fjn/ On Wed, 30 Dec 1998, Guy Deutscher wrote: > Dear funknetters, > > I have been asked by a palaeontologist colleague if there is a good article > which summarises the differences between the functionalist and generativist > approaches to language. Can anyone recommend an article (or even a book) > which (1) would be accessible to non-linguists and (2) would give a fair > assessment of the functionalist view of language and its development? > > Thanks, > > Guy Deutscher > > ========================= > Dr Guy Deutscher > St. John's College > Cambridge CB2 1TP > England > From yamazaki at U.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Dec 31 01:56:47 1998 From: yamazaki at U.ARIZONA.EDU (Masatsugu Yamazaki) Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 18:56:47 -0700 Subject: Qs: 'Review article' on functionalism In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.19981230202703.0086f870@pop.cus.cam.ac.uk> Message-ID: On Wed, 30 Dec 1998, Guy Deutscher wrote: > Dear funknetters, > > I have been asked by a palaeontologist colleague if there is a good article > which summarises the differences between the functionalist and generativist > approaches to language. Can anyone recommend an article (or even a book) > which (1) would be accessible to non-linguists and (2) would give a fair > assessment of the functionalist view of language and its development? > > Thanks, > > Guy Deutscher > > ========================= > Dr Guy Deutscher > St. John's College > Cambridge CB2 1TP > England > Dr. Deutscher, The following journal issue might also be of use: Language and Communication, 1991, vol 11, num 1/2, pp 3-114. This can be seen as a special issue on 'formalism vs. functionalism', although no such designation per se appears on the covers. It starts with a stage-setting article dealing with (and supporting) "the autonomy thesis", followed by 16 response articles from the same number of noted scholars (many on the functional side, see below), and ends with the first author's counter-response. This collection may thus not constitute a pure introduction to formalism or functionalism for those with 'no' background at all in linguistics, but I gather that it will nonetheless interest paleontologists, as the central theme concerns "the role of natural selection in the origin of and ... the 'progress' of language" (from the prefatory statement to the issue). The table of contents might help you get a better idea: Opening: F. J. Newmeyer/ Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language Commentary: J. T. Andersen/ On genetic encoding and communication A. L. Becker/ Language and languaging D. Bickerton/ Language origins and evolutionary plausibility R. S. Fouts/ Dirty bathwater, innateness neonates and the dating game O. J. Hopper/ Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language D. Hymes/ Is poetics original and functional? G. Lakoff/ Cognitive versus generative linguistics: how commitments influence results P. Lieberman/ Preadaptation, natural selection and function D. Lightfoot/ Subjacency and sex N. Love/ Generativism, genes and grammar P. Muhlhausler/ Comments on Newmeyer's 'Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language' E. F. Prince/ On 'Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language' S. Romaine/ Last tango in Paris J. Scancarelli/ An unwarranted dismissal of functional linguistics S. G. Shanker/ Selective forces at work S. A. Thompson/ On addressing functional explanation in linguistics Author's Response: F. J. Newmeyer/ O, what a tangoed web they weave ... As noted above, this issue may be a bit too rich in content, but it does make clearer some of the fundamental differences between 'formalism' and 'functionalism'. I hope this helps. Masa Yamazaki East Asian Studies University of Arizona From yamazaki at U.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Dec 31 02:44:56 1998 From: yamazaki at U.ARIZONA.EDU (Masatsugu Yamazaki) Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 19:44:56 -0700 Subject: Qs: 'Review article' on functionalism Message-ID: I apologize if this is a duplicate. =========================================== On Wed, 30 Dec 1998, Guy Deutscher wrote: > Dear funknetters, > > I have been asked by a palaeontologist colleague if there is a good article > which summarises the differences between the functionalist and generativist > approaches to language. Can anyone recommend an article (or even a book) > which (1) would be accessible to non-linguists and (2) would give a fair > assessment of the functionalist view of language and its development? > > Thanks, > > Guy Deutscher > > ========================= > Dr Guy Deutscher > St. John's College > Cambridge CB2 1TP > England > Dr. Deutscher, The following journal issue might also be of use: Language and Communication, 1991, vol 11, num 1/2, pp 3-114. This can be seen as a special issue on 'formalism vs. functionalism', although no such designation per se appears on the covers. It starts with a stage-setting article dealing with (and supporting) "the autonomy thesis", followed by 16 response articles from the same number of noted scholars (many on the functional side, see below), and ends with the first author's counter-response. This collection may thus not constitute a pure introduction to formalism or functionalism for those with 'no' background at all in linguistics, but I gather that it will nonetheless interest paleontologists, as the central theme concerns "the role of natural selection in the origin of and ... the 'progress' of language" (from the prefatory statement to the issue). The table of contents might help you get a better idea: Opening: F. J. Newmeyer/ Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language Commentary: J. T. Andersen/ On genetic encoding and communication A. L. Becker/ Language and languaging D. Bickerton/ Language origins and evolutionary plausibility R. S. Fouts/ Dirty bathwater, innateness neonates and the dating game O. J. Hopper/ Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language D. Hymes/ Is poetics original and functional? G. Lakoff/ Cognitive versus generative linguistics: how commitments influence results P. Lieberman/ Preadaptation, natural selection and function D. Lightfoot/ Subjacency and sex N. Love/ Generativism, genes and grammar P. Muhlhausler/ Comments on Newmeyer's 'Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language' E. F. Prince/ On 'Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language' S. Romaine/ Last tango in Paris J. Scancarelli/ An unwarranted dismissal of functional linguistics S. G. Shanker/ Selective forces at work S. A. Thompson/ On addressing functional explanation in linguistics Author's Response: F. J. Newmeyer/ O, what a tangoed web they weave ... As noted above, this issue may be a bit too rich in content, but it does make clearer some of the fundamental differences between 'formalism' and 'functionalism'. I hope this helps. Masa Yamazaki East Asian Studies University of Arizona From dick at LINGUISTICS.UCL.AC.UK Thu Dec 31 08:01:46 1998 From: dick at LINGUISTICS.UCL.AC.UK (Dick Hudson) Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 08:01:46 +0000 Subject: functionalism vs generativism vs ... Message-ID: Guy Deutscher's query implies that there are only two positions: functionalism or generativism. Those who align themselves with one of these positions may like to think this is so, but it ain't. There's also cognitivism (non-modular, but also not functionalist in the `discourse' sense), and Labov's view (explicitly non-functional but not generativist in the normal sense either), and .... The binary game is very dangerous: if A and B are the only possibilities, then arguments against A must count as evidence for B. If functionalism is wrong, generativism must be right (or vice versa). But that conclusion is only as safe as the assumption that there are no other options. Let a thousand theories bloom - so that we can eliminate 999 of them. Richard (= Dick) Hudson Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT. +44(0)171 419 3152; fax +44(0)171 383 4108; http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick From macw at CMU.EDU Thu Dec 31 19:06:52 1998 From: macw at CMU.EDU (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 14:06:52 -0500 Subject: paleontologists Message-ID: Dear Guy and FUNKNET, My guess is that Guy's paleontologist colleague might find the functionalist-generativist contrast interesting because of the centrality of a parallel contrast inside paleontology and systematic biology more generally. I believe the opposition there is between "cladists" and "non-cladists". I think that the cladists emphasize autonomy of species classifications and the non-cladists focus on statistical properties and the functional bases of speciation. If your colleague manages to learn about the functionalist-generativist contrast, I would love to hear how he/she thinks it parallels or fails to parallel the contrast in linguistics. By the way, I agree with Dick Hudson about the misleading nature of binary contrasts. They are typically social groupings whose existence is grounded on primate urges toward group formation, rather than intellectual phenomena. Dick might have read the classic article by Allan Newell titled "You can't play 20 questions with nature". Newell argues that attempts to divide the world by opposition between scientific yin and yang are scientifically misguided. But they are real facts of the sociology of science and worth understanding on that level. --Brian MacWhinney