From nordquis at UNM.EDU Wed Dec 6 05:14:24 2000 From: nordquis at UNM.EDU (Dawn Nordquist) Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 22:14:24 -0700 Subject: Conference Posting Message-ID: The fourth annual High Desert Linguistics Conference will be held at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, March 30 and 31, 2001. Keynote speakers: Shana Poplack, Department of Linguistics, University of Ottawa Sherman Wilcox, Department of Linguistics, University of New Mexico We invite submissions of proposals for 20-minute talks and 10 minute discussion sessions in any area of linguistics from any theoretical perspective. Papers in the following areas are especially welcome: language change and variation, grammaticization, signed languages, applied linguistics, Native American languages, and corpus/computational linguistics. Please note that selected papers from this conference will be published. Submissions must include 2 copies of an anonymous abstract and an index card including the following information: *Name *Title of Abstract and area (phonology, syntax etc.) *Affiliation(s) *Mailing address *e-mail address Abstracts must be at most one page with one-inch margins and typed in at least 11-point font. An optional second page is permitted for data and citations. Submissions are limited to 1 individual and 1 joint abstract per author. Abstracts by e-mail are accepted. Abstracts must be received no later than January 19, 2001. We will only consider submissions that conform to the above guidelines. ABSTRACTS SHOULD BE SENT TO: K. Aaron Smith Department of Linguistics, 526 Humanities Bldg. University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131 or kaaron at unm.edu From mattjuge at SOCRATES.BERKELEY.EDU Thu Dec 7 22:49:29 2000 From: mattjuge at SOCRATES.BERKELEY.EDU (mattjuge at SOCRATES.BERKELEY.EDU) Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2000 14:49:29 -0800 Subject: Q: Postpositions in English? Message-ID: (apologies to those who get this more than once) Colleagues, I am wondering if anyone can suggest criteria for deciding whether the English words "away" (1-3) and "ago" (4-5) should be considered postpositions. Part of my interest in the question stems fro the fact that, unlike prepositions, they are never stranded (3, 5; cf 6-7) (to my knowledge; I have done only preliminary corpus searching). 1 They are away. 2 They are far away. 3a How far away is it? 3b *How far is it away 4 It happened two years ago. 5a How long ago did it happen? 5b *How long did it happen ago? 6 They gave it do Chris. 7 Who did they give it to? It occurs to me that rather than NP PostP, we might assign a structure more like DEG Adv, where DEG stands for degree of difference (like the ablative of degree of difference in Latin). Then non-stranding would not illustrate differential treatment of adpositions (pre- versus post-) but would instead show something else entirely. One problem with such an approach is the ungrammaticality of (13). 6 It had happened two years before. 7 How long before had it happened? 8 They were several feet behind us. 9 They were behind us. 10 Two hours later, we decided to leave. 11 Later, we decided to leave. 12 Two years ago I took a film class. 13 *Ago I took a film class. Finally, if "ago" and "away" should be counted as postpositions, are there any others in English that I'm missing? Any thoughts y'all have on any aspect of this would be greatly appreciated. I'll post a summary if there's sufficient interest. Matt Juge TCU Department of English TCU Box 297270 Fort Worth, TX 76129 817-257-6983 From john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL Fri Dec 8 07:09:24 2000 From: john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL (John Myhill) Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 09:09:24 +0200 Subject: Q: Postpositions in English? Message-ID: Umm, actually I think 'How far is it away?' sounds fine. Maybe you should investigate this. 'How long did it happen ago?' doesn't sound so good, but 'How long was it ago?' seems okay. I think it has to do with the length of the intervening material. Oh, also there's 'apart', as in 'They were three feet apart'. John Myhill >(apologies to those who get this more than once) > >Colleagues, > >I am wondering if anyone can suggest criteria for deciding whether the >English words "away" (1-3) and "ago" (4-5) should be considered >postpositions. Part of my interest in the question stems fro the fact >that, unlike prepositions, they are never stranded (3, 5; cf 6-7) (to my >knowledge; I have done only preliminary corpus searching). > >1 They are away. >2 They are far away. >3a How far away is it? >3b *How far is it away > >4 It happened two years ago. >5a How long ago did it happen? >5b *How long did it happen ago? > >6 They gave it do Chris. >7 Who did they give it to? > >It occurs to me that rather than NP PostP, we might assign a structure >more >like DEG Adv, where DEG stands for degree of difference (like the ablative >of degree of difference in Latin). Then non-stranding would not >illustrate >differential treatment of adpositions (pre- versus post-) but would >instead >show something else entirely. One problem with such an approach is the >ungrammaticality of (13). > >6 It had happened two years before. >7 How long before had it happened? >8 They were several feet behind us. >9 They were behind us. >10 Two hours later, we decided to leave. >11 Later, we decided to leave. >12 Two years ago I took a film class. >13 *Ago I took a film class. > >Finally, if "ago" and "away" should be counted as postpositions, are there >any others in English that I'm missing? > >Any thoughts y'all have on any aspect of this would be greatly >appreciated. >I'll post a summary if there's sufficient interest. > >Matt Juge > >TCU >Department of English >TCU Box 297270 >Fort Worth, TX 76129 >817-257-6983 From jl.mackenzie at LET.VU.NL Fri Dec 8 10:54:32 2000 From: jl.mackenzie at LET.VU.NL (Lachlan Mackenzie) Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 11:54:32 +0100 Subject: ago Message-ID: To me, ago is a portmanteau form for "before now", used when you want to specify the period of time that has elasped between the event being portrayed and the moment of speech. So 2 analyses are possible: as an adverb with an obligatory degree specifier/premodifier (which is unusual, possibly unique in the langauge) or as a postposition, which is also unusual. (As for other postpositions in English, some people regard "genitive" 's as an enclitic postposition, and notwithstanding can occur both as preposition and postposition.) The fact that both analyses are rather unusual may be connected with the status of ago as having undergone grammaticalization from a participle of go – the other West European languages I know, with one exception, all have equivalents that are derived from or identical to verb forms: a week ago is in Dutch een week geleden (from an archaic sense of the past participle of lijden, "pass"), French il y a une semaine (il y a "there is"), Spanish hace una semana (hace "it makes"), Italian una settimana fa (fa "it makes"). Only German uses a preposition, vor einer Woche, literally "before a week", as though the notion of “before” has somehow been transferred to what in English is the premodifier of ago. As for what looks like stranding, I think that on the analysis of ago as an adverb, you can question the premodifier and put it in clause-initial position, or you can take the adverb along: 1a. How long was that ago? 1b. How long was that before now? 2a. How long ago was that? 2b. How long before now was that? Personally, I don’t see any reason to regard either away or apart as postpositions. In far away and far apart, far surely indicates the extent of the "awayness" or the separation rather than being in any way the complement of away or apart. Further evidence is surely that both away and apart can themselves be complemented by prepositional phrases with from as in far away from home, well apart from each other; it’s hard for me to see how this would square with analysing them as postpositions. So I would see away and apart as adverbs, and they seem to allow the same as ago: 3a. How many miles does he live away (from here)? 3b. How many miles away (from here) does he live? 4a. How many miles do they live apart (from each other)? 4b. How many miles apart (from each other) do they live? My preference seems to go with complexity: if you include the complement from-phrase, I prefer the first of each pair; if you don’t, I prefer the second. All in all, I conclude that we must see all three, away, apart and ago as adverbs, with ago unusually requiring premodification (for understandable historical reasons), and with away and apart permitting an optional complement prepositional phrase with “from”. Lachlan Mackenzie Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam From paul at BENJAMINS.COM Fri Dec 8 20:14:14 2000 From: paul at BENJAMINS.COM (Paul Peranteau) Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 15:14:14 -0500 Subject: New Book: Fischer Message-ID: John Benjamins Publishing announces a new work in functional linguistics: Pathways of Change. Grammaticalization in English. Olga FISCHER, Anette ROSENBACH and Dieter STEIN (eds.) (University of Amsterdam / Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf) Studies in Language Companion Series US & Canada: 1 55619 939 2 / USD 105.00 (Hardcover) Rest of world: 90 272 3056 0 / NLG 210.00 (Hardcover) There is a continual growth of interest among linguists of all-theoretical denominations in grammaticalization, a concept central to many linguistic (change) theories. However, the discussion of grammaticalization processes has often suffered from a shortage of concrete empirical studies from one of the best-documented languages in the world, English. Pathways of Change contains discussion of new data and provides theoretical lead articles based on these data that will help sharpen the theoretical aspects involved, such as the definition and the logical connection of the component processes of grammaticalization. The volume is concentrated around a number of themes that are important or controversial in grammaticalization studies, such as the principle of unidirectionality, the relation between lexicalization and grammaticalization -- and connected with these two factors the possibility of degrammaticalization -- the way iconicity interweaves with grammaticalization processes, and with the phenomenon of grammaticalization on a synchronic or discourse level, also often termed subjectifization. Contributions by: Olga Fischer & Anette Rosenbach; Sylvia Adamson; Minoji Akimoto; Guohua Chen; David Denison; Olga Fischer; Susan Fitzmaurice; Elly van Gelderen; Roger Lass; Ursula Lenker; Bettelou Los; Robert McColl Millar; Rafat Molencki; Sali A. Tagliamonte; Ilse Wischer. John Benjamins Publishing Co. Offices: Philadelphia Amsterdam: Websites: http://www.benjamins.com http://www.benjamins.nl E-mail: service at benjamins.com customer.services at benjamins.nl Phone: +215 836-1200 +31 20 6762325 Fax: +215 836-1204 +31 20 6739773 From davpark at MICROSOFT.COM Mon Dec 11 20:12:39 2000 From: davpark at MICROSOFT.COM (David Parkinson) Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 12:12:39 -0800 Subject: Q: Postpositions in English? Message-ID: Another interesting case, similar to 'ago', is 'hence'. Like 'ago', 'hence' does not appear without some premodifying expression of duration: 1a. *Hence, we will go to the carnival. (Acceptable, but not with 'hence' meaning 'some time from now') 1b. Three weeks hence, we will go to the carnival. Stranding seems to me to be highly unlikely with this: 2. ??How long will you go there hence? But 'hence' is a pretty upscale and uncommon word when used in this way; so real data would be scarce. I worked on this problem in our English grammar not long ago, and decided to treat 'ago' and 'hence' (as well as 'apart', 'downstream', 'northward', &c. &c.) as adverbs, not prepositions; mostly this decision was motivated by my perception of the non-strandability of 'ago' or 'hence' from the NP, as well as the fact that not only nominal, but also adverbial, material could specify the duration at least of 'ago' (e.g., 'long ago'). Making this a postposition would require that the postpositional object slot also be allowed to be filled by adverbial material, which is a bit odd. It seemed to be a more attractive solution to mark certain adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, and subordinating conjunctions as permitting or requiring premodification by nominal material: Adjective: [ [Three weeks] pregnant] at the time... Adverb: [ [4 years] prior to the outbreak of war]... they arrived [ [5 min.] early]... I like fishing [ [25%] more than I used to] Preposition: [ [Twelve days] after her birthday] ... Conjunction: [ [Twelve days] after she celebrated her birthday] ... Just about any preposition which indicates a path (and thereby implies a physical distance) can be premodified by a noun phrase of distance: 3a. I live under the bridge ~ I live twenty feet under the bridge 3b. I walked along the path ~ I walked 4 miles along the path 3c. She cam into the room ~ She came barely a foot into the room Interestingly, 'from', when used in this way, also (like 'ago' and 'hence') requires nominal premodification: 4a. *We lived [from Houston] 4b. We lived [ [about 30 miles] from Houston] On a slightly unrelated note, a nice fact about 'notwithstanding' as postposition is that it can be postposed to a 'that' complement clause: [ [That she was principal] notwithstanding], ... ---------------- David Parkinson, English Grammarian Natural Language Group Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 -----Original Message----- From: John Myhill [mailto:john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL] Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2000 11:09 PM To: FUNKNET at listserv.rice.edu Subject: Re: Q: Postpositions in English? Umm, actually I think 'How far is it away?' sounds fine. Maybe you should investigate this. 'How long did it happen ago?' doesn't sound so good, but 'How long was it ago?' seems okay. I think it has to do with the length of the intervening material. Oh, also there's 'apart', as in 'They were three feet apart'. John Myhill >(apologies to those who get this more than once) > >Colleagues, > >I am wondering if anyone can suggest criteria for deciding whether the >English words "away" (1-3) and "ago" (4-5) should be considered >postpositions. Part of my interest in the question stems fro the fact >that, unlike prepositions, they are never stranded (3, 5; cf 6-7) (to my >knowledge; I have done only preliminary corpus searching). > >1 They are away. >2 They are far away. >3a How far away is it? >3b *How far is it away > >4 It happened two years ago. >5a How long ago did it happen? >5b *How long did it happen ago? > >6 They gave it do Chris. >7 Who did they give it to? > >It occurs to me that rather than NP PostP, we might assign a structure >more >like DEG Adv, where DEG stands for degree of difference (like the ablative >of degree of difference in Latin). Then non-stranding would not >illustrate >differential treatment of adpositions (pre- versus post-) but would >instead >show something else entirely. One problem with such an approach is the >ungrammaticality of (13). > >6 It had happened two years before. >7 How long before had it happened? >8 They were several feet behind us. >9 They were behind us. >10 Two hours later, we decided to leave. >11 Later, we decided to leave. >12 Two years ago I took a film class. >13 *Ago I took a film class. > >Finally, if "ago" and "away" should be counted as postpositions, are there >any others in English that I'm missing? > >Any thoughts y'all have on any aspect of this would be greatly >appreciated. >I'll post a summary if there's sufficient interest. > >Matt Juge > >TCU >Department of English >TCU Box 297270 >Fort Worth, TX 76129 >817-257-6983 From Malcolm.Ross at ANU.EDU.AU Sun Dec 17 00:17:37 2000 From: Malcolm.Ross at ANU.EDU.AU (Malcolm Ross) Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2000 11:17:37 +1100 Subject: Publication: null subjects in Bislama Message-ID: PACIFIC LINGUISTICS is happy to announce the publication of a work which may be of interest to FUNKNET subscribers. Prices are in Australian dollars (one Australian dollar is currently equivalent to about US$ 0,55.). Orders may be placed by mail, e-mail or telephone with: The Publications Administrator Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia Tel: +61 (0)2 6249 2742 Fax: +61 (0)2 6249 4896 mailto://jmanley at coombs.anu.edu.au Credit card orders are accepted. For our catalogue and other materials, see: http://pacling.anu.edu.au (under construction) _______________________________________________________________ Constraints on null subjects in Bislama (Vanuatu): Social and linguistic factors Miriam Meyerhoff PL 506 How can developments in a contact language inform the inquiry into the structural nature of language? How do they help us better understand the nature of language change and the processes of grammaticisation? Using data from everyday conversations in Bislama (the national language of Vanuatu), this book focuses on one variable, the alternation between overt pronominal and phonetically null subjects. It shows how an emergent system of subject-verb agreement in Bislama interacts with functional constraints on the interpretability of a subject; this interaction accounts for much of the alternation between the two forms of subject. The rich array of social functions that Bislama serves in the communities studied is examined in some detail, and yet it is shown that as Bislama becomes increasingly elaborate morphosyntactically, this kind of structural innovation takes place largely independently of social factors. By adopting the methods of sociolinguistics grounded in participant observation, and being grounded in theoretical treatments of subject agreement, this volume shows how the study of change in a contact language helps to bridge issues in different subfields of linguistics. 2000 ISBN 0 85883 522 3 206 + xi pp. AUS $41.80 ($38.00 international) Weight 500g _______________________________________________________________ -- _____________________________________ Dr Malcolm D. Ross Senior Fellow Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies Australian National University CANBERRA ACT 0200 From ht37 at CORNELL.EDU Sun Dec 17 06:03:49 2000 From: ht37 at CORNELL.EDU (Hongyin Tao) Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2000 01:03:49 -0500 Subject: Visiting Assistant Professor position at UCLA In-Reply-To: <4.2.2.20001130105830.00a73bd0@mail.navpoint.com> Message-ID: Visiting Assistant Professor of Chinese The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA is seeking applications for a Visiting Assistant Professor position for the academic year 2001-2002. The successful applicant is expected to teach two courses per quarter in the Chinese division of the Department. Salary commensurate with experience. Review of applications will begin on February 1, 2001, but applications will be accepted until position is filled. Please send a letter of application, CV, and arrange three recommendation letters to: Chinese Search Committee Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures 290 Royce Hall, Box 951540 UCLA Los Angeles, CA 90095-1540 AA/EOE From Anju.Saxena at LING.UU.SE Sun Dec 17 11:21:49 2000 From: Anju.Saxena at LING.UU.SE (Anju Saxena) Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2000 12:21:49 +0100 Subject: 2nd CFP: 7th Himalayan Languages Symposium Message-ID: ***** Call for Papers ***** SEVENTH HIMALAYAN LANGUAGES SYMPOSIUM Uppsala University Uppsala, Sweden September 7-9, 2001 Plenary Speaker: Professor Bernd Heine, University of Cologne Workshop: Language change in the Tibeto-Burman area Main speaker: James Matisoff (University of California, Berkeley) Workshop organizer: Jadranka Gvozdanovic (University of Mannheim, Germany) The Himalayan Languages Symposium brings together scholars working on languages and language communities of the greater Himalayan region: north-western and north-eastern India, Nepal, Bhutan and the Tibetan Plateau, northern Burma and Sichuan, and Nuristan, Baltistan and the Burushaski-speaking area in the west. We invite abstracts for presentations on topics including, but not limited to: - Descriptions of lesser-known languages - Language change and variation - Multilingualism and language contact - Historical-comparative studies - Typological studies - Field reports - Corpus-based analysis - Language death and language preservation - Language policy and language planning - Ethnology and folklore - Himalayan languages and new technologies SUBMISSION PROCEDURE Abstracts should be no longer than one page with one-inch margins using at least an 11-point font. Along with the abstract, please enclose a separate page specifying the authors' affiliation, address, and e-mail address. Abstracts may be submitted electronically (as an attached file in RTF, postscript, PDF or MS Word format). IMPORTANT DATES * Abstract due: 1 February, 2001 * Acceptance notification: 1 March, 2001 * Symposium: 7-9 September, 2001 REGISTRATION Pre-registration (before June 30): $45 (faculty), $25 (students) Registration at conference site: $50 (faculty), $30 (students) LOCAL ORGANIZATION Östen Dahl, Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University Gunilla Gren-Eklund, Department of African and Asian Languages, Uppsala University Anju Saxena, Department of Linguistics, Uppsala University CONTACT INFORMATION For any information related to the HLS-7, please contact: Anju Saxena Department of Linguistics Uppsala University Box 527 SE-751 20 Uppsala Sweden phone: +46-18-471 14 57 fax: +46-18-471 14 16 email: anju.saxena at ling.uu.se Workshop organization and contact information: Jadranka Gvozdanovic Faculty of Philosophy, Slavic Dept., University of Mannheim, Schloss EW 327, D-68131 Mannheim, Germany, Europe. email: jadranka at rumms.uni-mannheim.de fax: +49 621 181 2291 phone: +49 621 181 2402. The Permanent Secretariat for this annual Symposium is maintained at Leiden University in the Netherlands. *************************************************************************** News about the symposium will also be posted on the symposium's Web page at http://www.afro.uu.se/HLS-7.html ============================================================== PRE-REGISTRATION FORM Seventh Himalayan Languages Symposium Uppsala University 7-9 September, 2001 Name: Title: Affiliation: Mailing address: E-mail address: I intend to participate: Yes / No I intend to present a paper: Yes / No I prefer receiving information by: e-mail / surface mail Please send this form to: Anju Saxena Department of Linguistics Uppsala University Box 527 SE-751 20 Uppsala Sweden e-mail: anju.saxena at ling.uu.se From john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL Wed Dec 20 13:08:12 2000 From: john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL (John Myhill) Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 15:08:12 +0200 Subject: New position at University of Haifa Message-ID: The Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Haifa invites applications for a possible tenure-line position in linguistics with a specialization in one or more of the following areas: bilingualism/multilingualism, corpus linguistics, first language acquisition, syntax, translation. Ph.D. in linguistics or applied linguistics is essential. Scholars of all ranks are encouraged to apply. Responsibilities include teaching two classes per semester (8 academic hours, 6 hours of class time) and directing theses; the University of Haifa is a research-oriented institution and appointees are expected to maintain an active line of scholarly research. Classes and department business are conducted in English; there are presently five other linguists in the department. Salary will be determined by rank. Information about our department can be found at http://english.haifa.ac.il/. Send applications (deadline Feb. 15, 2001), including a letter, CV, three letters of recommendation, and two sample publications, to Linguistics Search, Dept. of English Language and Literature, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel. From ono at U.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Dec 22 05:35:23 2000 From: ono at U.ARIZONA.EDU (Tsuyoshi Ono) Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 22:35:23 -0700 Subject: grad program announcement Message-ID: Dear colleagues, We are writing to announce that our department has recently added a third linguist of Japanese (and new head of the department), Timothy Vance. The strength of our graduate programs for the past several years has been data-driven approaches to linguistics and language teaching, and Tim's arrival adds to that strength. We are one of only a handful of programs in the nation which has three linguists who take this particular approach to the study of Japanese. Our current projects include the development of a Japanese conversation video corpus and a study of gender-related differences in Japanese workplace speech. We offer a Ph.D. program in Japanese linguistics and M.A. tracks in Japanese linguistics and teaching Japanese as a second language. Currently, Ph.D. students can major in either discourse and grammar, or sociolinguistics. Our respective specializations are: Kimberly Jones: sociolinguistics, language and gender Tsuyoshi Ono: discourse and grammar, language change, research methodology Timothy Vance: phonology, phonetics, morphology Teaching and research assistantships are available on a competitive basis. For the past several years we have been able to award all of our students with some financial assistance. We ask that students who wish to be considered for financial aid start the application process early. Please note also that the deadline for admissions applications (2/1/00) is fast approaching. Information about our programs can be found at: . If you have further questions, please don't hesitate to contact Kimberly Jones, graduate advisor, (kjones at u.arizona.edu) or myself (ono at u.arizona.edu). Thank you. Yoshi Ono Univ. of Arizona From renzhang at YORKU.CA Fri Dec 22 17:49:24 2000 From: renzhang at YORKU.CA (Ren Zhang) Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 12:49:24 -0500 Subject: non-subcategorized complement Message-ID: Dear linguists, In Chinese, there is a well-known type of construction in which a verb is followed by a non-subcategorized complement noun or noun phrase: 1. xie zhe-zhi bi write this pen "write with this pen" 2. chi shi-tang eat dining-hall "go to a dining-hall for a meal" 3. xie hei-ban write blackboard "write on the blackboard" 4 xi liang shui clean cool water "shower with cool water" It seems there has been no aggreement as to how constructions like these should be analyzed in Chinese linguistics. My general impression is that the non-subcategorized complement somehow modifies the action expressed by the verb in terms of manner. It also conveys new information, as has been pointed out by some researchers. I am interested in similar phenomena, if any, in other languages and would like to get pointers as to any literature dealing with the issue, from any perspective. While I am aware of a few Chomskyian style syntactic analyses of such constructions, those that adopt a semantic/functional/cognitive perspective to argument structure would be particularly useful to me. If there is enough interest, I would post a summary to the list. Thanks a lot! Ren Zhang York University -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From nordquis at UNM.EDU Wed Dec 6 05:14:24 2000 From: nordquis at UNM.EDU (Dawn Nordquist) Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 22:14:24 -0700 Subject: Conference Posting Message-ID: The fourth annual High Desert Linguistics Conference will be held at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, March 30 and 31, 2001. Keynote speakers: Shana Poplack, Department of Linguistics, University of Ottawa Sherman Wilcox, Department of Linguistics, University of New Mexico We invite submissions of proposals for 20-minute talks and 10 minute discussion sessions in any area of linguistics from any theoretical perspective. Papers in the following areas are especially welcome: language change and variation, grammaticization, signed languages, applied linguistics, Native American languages, and corpus/computational linguistics. Please note that selected papers from this conference will be published. Submissions must include 2 copies of an anonymous abstract and an index card including the following information: *Name *Title of Abstract and area (phonology, syntax etc.) *Affiliation(s) *Mailing address *e-mail address Abstracts must be at most one page with one-inch margins and typed in at least 11-point font. An optional second page is permitted for data and citations. Submissions are limited to 1 individual and 1 joint abstract per author. Abstracts by e-mail are accepted. Abstracts must be received no later than January 19, 2001. We will only consider submissions that conform to the above guidelines. ABSTRACTS SHOULD BE SENT TO: K. Aaron Smith Department of Linguistics, 526 Humanities Bldg. University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131 or kaaron at unm.edu From mattjuge at SOCRATES.BERKELEY.EDU Thu Dec 7 22:49:29 2000 From: mattjuge at SOCRATES.BERKELEY.EDU (mattjuge at SOCRATES.BERKELEY.EDU) Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2000 14:49:29 -0800 Subject: Q: Postpositions in English? Message-ID: (apologies to those who get this more than once) Colleagues, I am wondering if anyone can suggest criteria for deciding whether the English words "away" (1-3) and "ago" (4-5) should be considered postpositions. Part of my interest in the question stems fro the fact that, unlike prepositions, they are never stranded (3, 5; cf 6-7) (to my knowledge; I have done only preliminary corpus searching). 1 They are away. 2 They are far away. 3a How far away is it? 3b *How far is it away 4 It happened two years ago. 5a How long ago did it happen? 5b *How long did it happen ago? 6 They gave it do Chris. 7 Who did they give it to? It occurs to me that rather than NP PostP, we might assign a structure more like DEG Adv, where DEG stands for degree of difference (like the ablative of degree of difference in Latin). Then non-stranding would not illustrate differential treatment of adpositions (pre- versus post-) but would instead show something else entirely. One problem with such an approach is the ungrammaticality of (13). 6 It had happened two years before. 7 How long before had it happened? 8 They were several feet behind us. 9 They were behind us. 10 Two hours later, we decided to leave. 11 Later, we decided to leave. 12 Two years ago I took a film class. 13 *Ago I took a film class. Finally, if "ago" and "away" should be counted as postpositions, are there any others in English that I'm missing? Any thoughts y'all have on any aspect of this would be greatly appreciated. I'll post a summary if there's sufficient interest. Matt Juge TCU Department of English TCU Box 297270 Fort Worth, TX 76129 817-257-6983 From john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL Fri Dec 8 07:09:24 2000 From: john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL (John Myhill) Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 09:09:24 +0200 Subject: Q: Postpositions in English? Message-ID: Umm, actually I think 'How far is it away?' sounds fine. Maybe you should investigate this. 'How long did it happen ago?' doesn't sound so good, but 'How long was it ago?' seems okay. I think it has to do with the length of the intervening material. Oh, also there's 'apart', as in 'They were three feet apart'. John Myhill >(apologies to those who get this more than once) > >Colleagues, > >I am wondering if anyone can suggest criteria for deciding whether the >English words "away" (1-3) and "ago" (4-5) should be considered >postpositions. Part of my interest in the question stems fro the fact >that, unlike prepositions, they are never stranded (3, 5; cf 6-7) (to my >knowledge; I have done only preliminary corpus searching). > >1 They are away. >2 They are far away. >3a How far away is it? >3b *How far is it away > >4 It happened two years ago. >5a How long ago did it happen? >5b *How long did it happen ago? > >6 They gave it do Chris. >7 Who did they give it to? > >It occurs to me that rather than NP PostP, we might assign a structure >more >like DEG Adv, where DEG stands for degree of difference (like the ablative >of degree of difference in Latin). Then non-stranding would not >illustrate >differential treatment of adpositions (pre- versus post-) but would >instead >show something else entirely. One problem with such an approach is the >ungrammaticality of (13). > >6 It had happened two years before. >7 How long before had it happened? >8 They were several feet behind us. >9 They were behind us. >10 Two hours later, we decided to leave. >11 Later, we decided to leave. >12 Two years ago I took a film class. >13 *Ago I took a film class. > >Finally, if "ago" and "away" should be counted as postpositions, are there >any others in English that I'm missing? > >Any thoughts y'all have on any aspect of this would be greatly >appreciated. >I'll post a summary if there's sufficient interest. > >Matt Juge > >TCU >Department of English >TCU Box 297270 >Fort Worth, TX 76129 >817-257-6983 From jl.mackenzie at LET.VU.NL Fri Dec 8 10:54:32 2000 From: jl.mackenzie at LET.VU.NL (Lachlan Mackenzie) Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 11:54:32 +0100 Subject: ago Message-ID: To me, ago is a portmanteau form for "before now", used when you want to specify the period of time that has elasped between the event being portrayed and the moment of speech. So 2 analyses are possible: as an adverb with an obligatory degree specifier/premodifier (which is unusual, possibly unique in the langauge) or as a postposition, which is also unusual. (As for other postpositions in English, some people regard "genitive" 's as an enclitic postposition, and notwithstanding can occur both as preposition and postposition.) The fact that both analyses are rather unusual may be connected with the status of ago as having undergone grammaticalization from a participle of go – the other West European languages I know, with one exception, all have equivalents that are derived from or identical to verb forms: a week ago is in Dutch een week geleden (from an archaic sense of the past participle of lijden, "pass"), French il y a une semaine (il y a "there is"), Spanish hace una semana (hace "it makes"), Italian una settimana fa (fa "it makes"). Only German uses a preposition, vor einer Woche, literally "before a week", as though the notion of “before” has somehow been transferred to what in English is the premodifier of ago. As for what looks like stranding, I think that on the analysis of ago as an adverb, you can question the premodifier and put it in clause-initial position, or you can take the adverb along: 1a. How long was that ago? 1b. How long was that before now? 2a. How long ago was that? 2b. How long before now was that? Personally, I don’t see any reason to regard either away or apart as postpositions. In far away and far apart, far surely indicates the extent of the "awayness" or the separation rather than being in any way the complement of away or apart. Further evidence is surely that both away and apart can themselves be complemented by prepositional phrases with from as in far away from home, well apart from each other; it’s hard for me to see how this would square with analysing them as postpositions. So I would see away and apart as adverbs, and they seem to allow the same as ago: 3a. How many miles does he live away (from here)? 3b. How many miles away (from here) does he live? 4a. How many miles do they live apart (from each other)? 4b. How many miles apart (from each other) do they live? My preference seems to go with complexity: if you include the complement from-phrase, I prefer the first of each pair; if you don’t, I prefer the second. All in all, I conclude that we must see all three, away, apart and ago as adverbs, with ago unusually requiring premodification (for understandable historical reasons), and with away and apart permitting an optional complement prepositional phrase with “from”. Lachlan Mackenzie Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam From paul at BENJAMINS.COM Fri Dec 8 20:14:14 2000 From: paul at BENJAMINS.COM (Paul Peranteau) Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 15:14:14 -0500 Subject: New Book: Fischer Message-ID: John Benjamins Publishing announces a new work in functional linguistics: Pathways of Change. Grammaticalization in English. Olga FISCHER, Anette ROSENBACH and Dieter STEIN (eds.) (University of Amsterdam / Heinrich Heine Universit?t D?sseldorf) Studies in Language Companion Series US & Canada: 1 55619 939 2 / USD 105.00 (Hardcover) Rest of world: 90 272 3056 0 / NLG 210.00 (Hardcover) There is a continual growth of interest among linguists of all-theoretical denominations in grammaticalization, a concept central to many linguistic (change) theories. However, the discussion of grammaticalization processes has often suffered from a shortage of concrete empirical studies from one of the best-documented languages in the world, English. Pathways of Change contains discussion of new data and provides theoretical lead articles based on these data that will help sharpen the theoretical aspects involved, such as the definition and the logical connection of the component processes of grammaticalization. The volume is concentrated around a number of themes that are important or controversial in grammaticalization studies, such as the principle of unidirectionality, the relation between lexicalization and grammaticalization -- and connected with these two factors the possibility of degrammaticalization -- the way iconicity interweaves with grammaticalization processes, and with the phenomenon of grammaticalization on a synchronic or discourse level, also often termed subjectifization. Contributions by: Olga Fischer & Anette Rosenbach; Sylvia Adamson; Minoji Akimoto; Guohua Chen; David Denison; Olga Fischer; Susan Fitzmaurice; Elly van Gelderen; Roger Lass; Ursula Lenker; Bettelou Los; Robert McColl Millar; Rafat Molencki; Sali A. Tagliamonte; Ilse Wischer. John Benjamins Publishing Co. Offices: Philadelphia Amsterdam: Websites: http://www.benjamins.com http://www.benjamins.nl E-mail: service at benjamins.com customer.services at benjamins.nl Phone: +215 836-1200 +31 20 6762325 Fax: +215 836-1204 +31 20 6739773 From davpark at MICROSOFT.COM Mon Dec 11 20:12:39 2000 From: davpark at MICROSOFT.COM (David Parkinson) Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 12:12:39 -0800 Subject: Q: Postpositions in English? Message-ID: Another interesting case, similar to 'ago', is 'hence'. Like 'ago', 'hence' does not appear without some premodifying expression of duration: 1a. *Hence, we will go to the carnival. (Acceptable, but not with 'hence' meaning 'some time from now') 1b. Three weeks hence, we will go to the carnival. Stranding seems to me to be highly unlikely with this: 2. ??How long will you go there hence? But 'hence' is a pretty upscale and uncommon word when used in this way; so real data would be scarce. I worked on this problem in our English grammar not long ago, and decided to treat 'ago' and 'hence' (as well as 'apart', 'downstream', 'northward', &c. &c.) as adverbs, not prepositions; mostly this decision was motivated by my perception of the non-strandability of 'ago' or 'hence' from the NP, as well as the fact that not only nominal, but also adverbial, material could specify the duration at least of 'ago' (e.g., 'long ago'). Making this a postposition would require that the postpositional object slot also be allowed to be filled by adverbial material, which is a bit odd. It seemed to be a more attractive solution to mark certain adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, and subordinating conjunctions as permitting or requiring premodification by nominal material: Adjective: [ [Three weeks] pregnant] at the time... Adverb: [ [4 years] prior to the outbreak of war]... they arrived [ [5 min.] early]... I like fishing [ [25%] more than I used to] Preposition: [ [Twelve days] after her birthday] ... Conjunction: [ [Twelve days] after she celebrated her birthday] ... Just about any preposition which indicates a path (and thereby implies a physical distance) can be premodified by a noun phrase of distance: 3a. I live under the bridge ~ I live twenty feet under the bridge 3b. I walked along the path ~ I walked 4 miles along the path 3c. She cam into the room ~ She came barely a foot into the room Interestingly, 'from', when used in this way, also (like 'ago' and 'hence') requires nominal premodification: 4a. *We lived [from Houston] 4b. We lived [ [about 30 miles] from Houston] On a slightly unrelated note, a nice fact about 'notwithstanding' as postposition is that it can be postposed to a 'that' complement clause: [ [That she was principal] notwithstanding], ... ---------------- David Parkinson, English Grammarian Natural Language Group Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 -----Original Message----- From: John Myhill [mailto:john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL] Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2000 11:09 PM To: FUNKNET at listserv.rice.edu Subject: Re: Q: Postpositions in English? Umm, actually I think 'How far is it away?' sounds fine. Maybe you should investigate this. 'How long did it happen ago?' doesn't sound so good, but 'How long was it ago?' seems okay. I think it has to do with the length of the intervening material. Oh, also there's 'apart', as in 'They were three feet apart'. John Myhill >(apologies to those who get this more than once) > >Colleagues, > >I am wondering if anyone can suggest criteria for deciding whether the >English words "away" (1-3) and "ago" (4-5) should be considered >postpositions. Part of my interest in the question stems fro the fact >that, unlike prepositions, they are never stranded (3, 5; cf 6-7) (to my >knowledge; I have done only preliminary corpus searching). > >1 They are away. >2 They are far away. >3a How far away is it? >3b *How far is it away > >4 It happened two years ago. >5a How long ago did it happen? >5b *How long did it happen ago? > >6 They gave it do Chris. >7 Who did they give it to? > >It occurs to me that rather than NP PostP, we might assign a structure >more >like DEG Adv, where DEG stands for degree of difference (like the ablative >of degree of difference in Latin). Then non-stranding would not >illustrate >differential treatment of adpositions (pre- versus post-) but would >instead >show something else entirely. One problem with such an approach is the >ungrammaticality of (13). > >6 It had happened two years before. >7 How long before had it happened? >8 They were several feet behind us. >9 They were behind us. >10 Two hours later, we decided to leave. >11 Later, we decided to leave. >12 Two years ago I took a film class. >13 *Ago I took a film class. > >Finally, if "ago" and "away" should be counted as postpositions, are there >any others in English that I'm missing? > >Any thoughts y'all have on any aspect of this would be greatly >appreciated. >I'll post a summary if there's sufficient interest. > >Matt Juge > >TCU >Department of English >TCU Box 297270 >Fort Worth, TX 76129 >817-257-6983 From Malcolm.Ross at ANU.EDU.AU Sun Dec 17 00:17:37 2000 From: Malcolm.Ross at ANU.EDU.AU (Malcolm Ross) Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2000 11:17:37 +1100 Subject: Publication: null subjects in Bislama Message-ID: PACIFIC LINGUISTICS is happy to announce the publication of a work which may be of interest to FUNKNET subscribers. Prices are in Australian dollars (one Australian dollar is currently equivalent to about US$ 0,55.). Orders may be placed by mail, e-mail or telephone with: The Publications Administrator Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia Tel: +61 (0)2 6249 2742 Fax: +61 (0)2 6249 4896 mailto://jmanley at coombs.anu.edu.au Credit card orders are accepted. For our catalogue and other materials, see: http://pacling.anu.edu.au (under construction) _______________________________________________________________ Constraints on null subjects in Bislama (Vanuatu): Social and linguistic factors Miriam Meyerhoff PL 506 How can developments in a contact language inform the inquiry into the structural nature of language? How do they help us better understand the nature of language change and the processes of grammaticisation? Using data from everyday conversations in Bislama (the national language of Vanuatu), this book focuses on one variable, the alternation between overt pronominal and phonetically null subjects. It shows how an emergent system of subject-verb agreement in Bislama interacts with functional constraints on the interpretability of a subject; this interaction accounts for much of the alternation between the two forms of subject. The rich array of social functions that Bislama serves in the communities studied is examined in some detail, and yet it is shown that as Bislama becomes increasingly elaborate morphosyntactically, this kind of structural innovation takes place largely independently of social factors. By adopting the methods of sociolinguistics grounded in participant observation, and being grounded in theoretical treatments of subject agreement, this volume shows how the study of change in a contact language helps to bridge issues in different subfields of linguistics. 2000 ISBN 0 85883 522 3 206 + xi pp. AUS $41.80 ($38.00 international) Weight 500g _______________________________________________________________ -- _____________________________________ Dr Malcolm D. Ross Senior Fellow Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies Australian National University CANBERRA ACT 0200 From ht37 at CORNELL.EDU Sun Dec 17 06:03:49 2000 From: ht37 at CORNELL.EDU (Hongyin Tao) Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2000 01:03:49 -0500 Subject: Visiting Assistant Professor position at UCLA In-Reply-To: <4.2.2.20001130105830.00a73bd0@mail.navpoint.com> Message-ID: Visiting Assistant Professor of Chinese The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA is seeking applications for a Visiting Assistant Professor position for the academic year 2001-2002. The successful applicant is expected to teach two courses per quarter in the Chinese division of the Department. Salary commensurate with experience. Review of applications will begin on February 1, 2001, but applications will be accepted until position is filled. Please send a letter of application, CV, and arrange three recommendation letters to: Chinese Search Committee Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures 290 Royce Hall, Box 951540 UCLA Los Angeles, CA 90095-1540 AA/EOE From Anju.Saxena at LING.UU.SE Sun Dec 17 11:21:49 2000 From: Anju.Saxena at LING.UU.SE (Anju Saxena) Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2000 12:21:49 +0100 Subject: 2nd CFP: 7th Himalayan Languages Symposium Message-ID: ***** Call for Papers ***** SEVENTH HIMALAYAN LANGUAGES SYMPOSIUM Uppsala University Uppsala, Sweden September 7-9, 2001 Plenary Speaker: Professor Bernd Heine, University of Cologne Workshop: Language change in the Tibeto-Burman area Main speaker: James Matisoff (University of California, Berkeley) Workshop organizer: Jadranka Gvozdanovic (University of Mannheim, Germany) The Himalayan Languages Symposium brings together scholars working on languages and language communities of the greater Himalayan region: north-western and north-eastern India, Nepal, Bhutan and the Tibetan Plateau, northern Burma and Sichuan, and Nuristan, Baltistan and the Burushaski-speaking area in the west. We invite abstracts for presentations on topics including, but not limited to: - Descriptions of lesser-known languages - Language change and variation - Multilingualism and language contact - Historical-comparative studies - Typological studies - Field reports - Corpus-based analysis - Language death and language preservation - Language policy and language planning - Ethnology and folklore - Himalayan languages and new technologies SUBMISSION PROCEDURE Abstracts should be no longer than one page with one-inch margins using at least an 11-point font. Along with the abstract, please enclose a separate page specifying the authors' affiliation, address, and e-mail address. Abstracts may be submitted electronically (as an attached file in RTF, postscript, PDF or MS Word format). IMPORTANT DATES * Abstract due: 1 February, 2001 * Acceptance notification: 1 March, 2001 * Symposium: 7-9 September, 2001 REGISTRATION Pre-registration (before June 30): $45 (faculty), $25 (students) Registration at conference site: $50 (faculty), $30 (students) LOCAL ORGANIZATION ?sten Dahl, Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University Gunilla Gren-Eklund, Department of African and Asian Languages, Uppsala University Anju Saxena, Department of Linguistics, Uppsala University CONTACT INFORMATION For any information related to the HLS-7, please contact: Anju Saxena Department of Linguistics Uppsala University Box 527 SE-751 20 Uppsala Sweden phone: +46-18-471 14 57 fax: +46-18-471 14 16 email: anju.saxena at ling.uu.se Workshop organization and contact information: Jadranka Gvozdanovic Faculty of Philosophy, Slavic Dept., University of Mannheim, Schloss EW 327, D-68131 Mannheim, Germany, Europe. email: jadranka at rumms.uni-mannheim.de fax: +49 621 181 2291 phone: +49 621 181 2402. The Permanent Secretariat for this annual Symposium is maintained at Leiden University in the Netherlands. *************************************************************************** News about the symposium will also be posted on the symposium's Web page at http://www.afro.uu.se/HLS-7.html ============================================================== PRE-REGISTRATION FORM Seventh Himalayan Languages Symposium Uppsala University 7-9 September, 2001 Name: Title: Affiliation: Mailing address: E-mail address: I intend to participate: Yes / No I intend to present a paper: Yes / No I prefer receiving information by: e-mail / surface mail Please send this form to: Anju Saxena Department of Linguistics Uppsala University Box 527 SE-751 20 Uppsala Sweden e-mail: anju.saxena at ling.uu.se From john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL Wed Dec 20 13:08:12 2000 From: john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL (John Myhill) Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 15:08:12 +0200 Subject: New position at University of Haifa Message-ID: The Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Haifa invites applications for a possible tenure-line position in linguistics with a specialization in one or more of the following areas: bilingualism/multilingualism, corpus linguistics, first language acquisition, syntax, translation. Ph.D. in linguistics or applied linguistics is essential. Scholars of all ranks are encouraged to apply. Responsibilities include teaching two classes per semester (8 academic hours, 6 hours of class time) and directing theses; the University of Haifa is a research-oriented institution and appointees are expected to maintain an active line of scholarly research. Classes and department business are conducted in English; there are presently five other linguists in the department. Salary will be determined by rank. Information about our department can be found at http://english.haifa.ac.il/. Send applications (deadline Feb. 15, 2001), including a letter, CV, three letters of recommendation, and two sample publications, to Linguistics Search, Dept. of English Language and Literature, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel. From ono at U.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Dec 22 05:35:23 2000 From: ono at U.ARIZONA.EDU (Tsuyoshi Ono) Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 22:35:23 -0700 Subject: grad program announcement Message-ID: Dear colleagues, We are writing to announce that our department has recently added a third linguist of Japanese (and new head of the department), Timothy Vance. The strength of our graduate programs for the past several years has been data-driven approaches to linguistics and language teaching, and Tim's arrival adds to that strength. We are one of only a handful of programs in the nation which has three linguists who take this particular approach to the study of Japanese. Our current projects include the development of a Japanese conversation video corpus and a study of gender-related differences in Japanese workplace speech. We offer a Ph.D. program in Japanese linguistics and M.A. tracks in Japanese linguistics and teaching Japanese as a second language. Currently, Ph.D. students can major in either discourse and grammar, or sociolinguistics. Our respective specializations are: Kimberly Jones: sociolinguistics, language and gender Tsuyoshi Ono: discourse and grammar, language change, research methodology Timothy Vance: phonology, phonetics, morphology Teaching and research assistantships are available on a competitive basis. For the past several years we have been able to award all of our students with some financial assistance. We ask that students who wish to be considered for financial aid start the application process early. Please note also that the deadline for admissions applications (2/1/00) is fast approaching. Information about our programs can be found at: . If you have further questions, please don't hesitate to contact Kimberly Jones, graduate advisor, (kjones at u.arizona.edu) or myself (ono at u.arizona.edu). Thank you. Yoshi Ono Univ. of Arizona From renzhang at YORKU.CA Fri Dec 22 17:49:24 2000 From: renzhang at YORKU.CA (Ren Zhang) Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 12:49:24 -0500 Subject: non-subcategorized complement Message-ID: Dear linguists, In Chinese, there is a well-known type of construction in which a verb is followed by a non-subcategorized complement noun or noun phrase: 1. xie zhe-zhi bi write this pen "write with this pen" 2. chi shi-tang eat dining-hall "go to a dining-hall for a meal" 3. xie hei-ban write blackboard "write on the blackboard" 4 xi liang shui clean cool water "shower with cool water" It seems there has been no aggreement as to how constructions like these should be analyzed in Chinese linguistics. My general impression is that the non-subcategorized complement somehow modifies the action expressed by the verb in terms of manner. It also conveys new information, as has been pointed out by some researchers. I am interested in similar phenomena, if any, in other languages and would like to get pointers as to any literature dealing with the issue, from any perspective. While I am aware of a few Chomskyian style syntactic analyses of such constructions, those that adopt a semantic/functional/cognitive perspective to argument structure would be particularly useful to me. If there is enough interest, I would post a summary to the list. Thanks a lot! Ren Zhang York University -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: