From larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk Mon Dec 13 14:11:46 1999 From: larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk (Larry Trask) Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 09:11:46 EST Subject: Q: Watkins's IE dictionary Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- The first edition of the American Heritage Dictionary carried a dictionary of the PIE roots attested in English, compiled by Calvert Watkins. Can anybody tell me if that dictionary can be bought separately, and, if so, where? Larry Trask COGS University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9QH UK larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk From jrader at m-w.com Tue Dec 14 17:30:43 1999 From: jrader at m-w.com (Jim Rader) Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 12:30:43 EST Subject: Watkin's IE dictionary Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I'm sending this to the list rather than to Larry alone since it may be a matter of wider interest. When the first edition of the _American Heritage Dictionary_ was published in 1969, the list of PIE roots was printed as an addendum at the back of the book. The list was maintained as an addendum in a desk dictionary (the "New College Edition") published in 1976 (at least I believe it was--I don't have a copy at hand). When _The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition_ was published in 1982, however, the PIE roots were dropped as an addendum and published as a separate book, _The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots_, which came out in 1985. As far as I know, this is the only occasion when this part of the dictionary was ever published in separate form. It's out of print, though I imagine copies of it could be found through WWW search services such as Amazon.com's used book department. The scuttlebutt in reference publishing was that the exclusion of the list was not popular among customers. When _The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition_ was published in 1992, the PIE roots were restored to the back of the book as an addendum, and they have been maintained in _The American Heritage College Dictionary, Third Edition_, published in 1993. (The assignment of edition numbers is confusing--there never was an "American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition," because, for reasons known only to the publisher, Houghton Mifflin, "second edition" was assigned to the re-edited desk dictionary published in 1982.) To those not acquainted with American dictionary publishing, a word about terminology might be appropriate. A "desk dictionary" is more or less the size of a conventional book that can be easily pulled off the shelf with one hand. It retails in the U.S. for $21-$25 or thereabout. All four of the major desk dictionaries put out by U.S. publishers have the word "College" or "Collegiate" in their title (the latter is a trademark of Merriam-Webster, which published the first "Collegiate" dictionary in 1898, and more or less launched the desk dictionary business). _The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language_ is larger and bulkier and sells for a good deal more: $50 retail. Its only direct competitor in size and price is the recently published _Encarta World English Dictionary_, published in the U.S. by St. Martin's Press and bankrolled by Microsoft. Above these two in size and price are the so-called "unabridged" dictionaries, of which only two are worth mentioning, _Webster's Third New International Dictionary_, published by Merriam-Webster in 1961, and _Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary_, originally published as _The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition Unabridged_ in 1987. Both of these dictionaries are too large to be pulled off a shelf with one hand and are usually placed on dictionary stands in American public and academic libraries. When the list of Indo-European roots was prepared for the first American Heritage dictionary, Calvert Watkins enlisted the services of a number of people at Harvard in the '60's, mostly graduate students as I've heard the story. Among this group some names stand out for work later done on their own: I mention Bruce Bolling, Ives Goddard, Jay Jasonoff, Peter Jorgenson, Michael Silverstein, and Robert Underhill as names I immediately recognize, though others may be equally well-known. I have no idea how much input Watkins himself had on the roots list--only he could answer that question. It's obvious, though, that it leans very heavily on Pokorny if you spend any time working with it. There are patent drawbacks to compiling a list of Indo-European roots that can only use as comparanda words that happen to exist--either by inheritance or borrowing--in English. You can't draw in comparanda from languages virtually without reflection in the English lexicon, such as Lithuanian or Hittite. The American Heritage style also has no means of showing roots attested, say, only in Germanic, or only in Ingvaeonic, or only in Old English. The 1st edition does say for English "follow," for example, "...Old English and , from Germanic (unattested)"; the 3rd edition, however, simply ends at "Old English ." The 3rd edition of the American Heritage Dictionary as a whole has considerably reduced the number of Indo-European bases cited in the Addendum compared to the 1st edition. Some of the trimming, most likely done for reasons of space,is justifiable, e.g., the dropping of ", curving, crooked; hypothetical base for a variety of Germanic words with initial ," where Pokorny has by the unconstrained use of root extensions lumped together a great jumble of heterogeneous Germanic etyma. Other omissions are surprising, though; "apple," for example, is not carried past Old English in the 3rd edition, whereas the first reconstructed . I have no idea how much input Prof. Watkins had on the editing down of the root list--again, only he could answer that question. A very long-winded answer to Larry's question, but I hope that these observations from someone inside the American dictionary business may be of passing interest to list members. Jim Rader > The first edition of the American Heritage Dictionary carried a > dictionary of the PIE roots attested in English, compiled by Calvert > Watkins. Can anybody tell me if that dictionary can be bought > separately, and, if so, where? > > > Larry Trask > COGS > University of Sussex > Brighton BN1 9QH > UK > > larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk > From DEHolt01 at gwm.sc.edu Tue Dec 14 17:32:46 1999 From: DEHolt01 at gwm.sc.edu (D. Eric Holt) Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 12:32:46 EST Subject: Final Call: ILA Session on Optimal Approaches to Language Change Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- (Cross-posted to HISTLING, OPTIMAL and LINGUIST; apologies if you receive multiple copies of this message.) FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS: (abbreviated from the original call) "OPTIMAL APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE CHANGE" A special session to be held at the 45th Annual Conference of the International Linguistic Association, April 7-9, 2000, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. The 45th ILA conference has as its major theme Language Contact/Language Change, and abstracts are solicited for a session on the application of Optimality Theory to language change. To date there has been no gathering dedicated to bringing researchers in this area together to share their work and discuss it as primary issue, rather than as part of a larger more general meeting. This session solicits abstracts related to the analysis of some issue related to historical linguistics and/or to the application of OT to language change from a more general perspective. Submission information is given below. >From the original ILA call: The 45th ILA conference will have as its major theme Language Contact/Language Change. While papers on that theme are especially welcomed, abstracts on any subject in theoretical and applied linguistics are also solicited. Invited speakers: Lila Gleitman, University of Pennsylvania and Lesley Milroy and Sarah Thomason, both of the University of Michigan. Local host: Father Solomon Sara. Single-spaced abstracts, bearing the title of the paper (but no author), of not more than 425 words should clearly state the problems or research questions addressed, and should give some indication of results or conclusions. Send via e-mail to the Session organizer (see below). Simultaneously, send via airmail 3 camera-ready hard copies of the abstract, plus a 3x5 card bearing name, title of paper, addresses, affiliation, and audio-visual equipment needed. (Anonymity will be preserved when abstracts are forwarded to the judges.) Presentations will be 20 minutes (plus discussion). Submissions on diskette will not be accepted. Deadline for submission of abstracts for the special session on OT: January 7, 2000. Any questions regarding the conference itself may be addressed to either the Conference Chair, Ruth Brend (rbrend at umich.edu) or the Conference Secretary Johanna Woltjer (ilaconf.woltjer at gte.net). Abstracts designed for this panel will be judged by the general conference committee, who will send direct notification regarding acceptance. Send e-mail and hard copies of abstracts and 3x5 information card to: D. Eric Holt Organizer, ILA session on OT and language change Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese & Program in Linguistics University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 holt at sc.edu [Please send abstracts in one of the following formats, listed in descending order of preference: Word97, RTF, WordPerfect, PDF, or as text in the body of an e-mail message.] From larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk Tue Dec 14 17:35:39 1999 From: larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk (Larry Trask) Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 12:35:39 EST Subject: Sum: Watkins's IE dictionary Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Yesterday I posted a query about this well-known dictionary of PIE roots represented in English. I've already received a large number of replies, for which I am grateful. Jim Rader has already posted a very detailed summary of the history of this publication, but I might add a couple of points stressed by some other respondents: 1. The first edition contains a number of errors -- presumably for the reasons Jim gives. 2. These errors were at least partly corrected in the separata version. 3. The version of the PIE dictionary in the third [sic] edition of the AHD was heavily pruned from the original. 4. Houghton Mifflin didn't merely let the separata sell out; they actually recalled the unsold copies and pulped them, fearing that it was cutting into the sales of the dictionary. Here are the full publication details: The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, revised and edited by Calvert Watkins. 1985. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-36070-6 (pb); 0-395-37888-5 (hb). xxvii+ 113 pp. No prices available. All sources agree that the separata is out of print, and the HM website doesn't mention it. Presumably there are no plans to reissue it. By the way, a (new?) edition of the American Heritage Dictionary (formerly published in Britain as the Heritage Dictionary) has recently appeared in the bookshops over here, or rather in Borders. It comes with a CD-ROM, but all copies are sealed, so I can't readily find out whether it's a genuinely new edition or merely a flashy repackaging. The cover mentions the Watkins dictionary, but what version I can't tell. Anyway, my reason for inquiring was this. An acquaintance of mine has a retired father who has conceived a passion for IE. He is desperately searching for some kind of IE dictionary, without success. His daughter asked me to suggest something as a Christmas present, and, since the father can't read German, I suggested the Watkins thing, which ought to be nearly perfect for his purposes. For some reason, I couldn't get through to amazon.com yesterday, so I posted my query instead. Amazon.com make their usual offer to search for a secondhand copy, but things don't look obviously promising: one respondent checked a few used-book websites, but couldn't find it. So we may have to fall back on a photocopy of the original AHD version, which I have on my shelf -- though another respondent reports that he has seen copies on sale in US bookstores. Thanks again to Paul Hopper, Ross Clark, Thomas Cravens, Alexander Vovin, Marc Picard, Michael Morrison, Lyle Campbell, Yongnam Um, Bobby Bryant, Jade Corn, Gordon Whittaker, Robert Stockwell, Martin Huld, Patrick Ryan, Robert Rankin, Alice Harris, Peter Michalove, and Jim Rader for their responses. Larry Trask COGS University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9QH UK larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk From mmorrison at vnet.ibm.com Tue Dec 14 13:28:02 1999 From: mmorrison at vnet.ibm.com (Michael C. Morrison 8-543-4706) Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 08:28:02 EST Subject: Q: Watkins's IE dictionary Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- *** Reply to note of Mon, 13 Dec 1999 09:11:46 -0500 (EST) *** by larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk Larry Trask writes: >The first edition of the American Heritage Dictionary carried a >dictionary of the PIE roots attested in English, compiled by Calvert >Watkins. Can anybody tell me if that dictionary can be bought >separately, and, if so, where? American Heritage did produce a separate volume entitled: "The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots" by Watkins (Houghton-Mifflin, 1985). Amazon.com claims the book is out of print, though. And I couldn't find the book on Houhgton-Mifflin's own site. Good luck! Michael ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael C. Morrison IBM Software Solutions Phone (408)463-4706 Data Replication Santa Teresa Laboratory FAX (408)463-4763 Lotus Notes ID: MCMORRIS at IBMUSM55 IBMLink: MORRISON at TORIBM Internet ID: MMORRISON at VNET.IBM.COM or USIB47H4 at IBMMAIL.COM IBM Mail Exchange: USIB47H4 at IBMMAIL or USIB4MCM at IBMMAIL X.400 Address: G=mcmgm; S=morrison; P=ibmmail; A=ibmx400; C=us ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From ph1u at andrew.cmu.edu Tue Dec 14 13:27:28 1999 From: ph1u at andrew.cmu.edu (ph1u at andrew.cmu.edu) Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 08:27:28 EST Subject: Q: Watkins's IE dictionary Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- The dictionary is now out of print, I believe. Here's the full reference (you may be able to get a used copy from amazon.com or bn.com): The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, revised and edited by Calvert Watkins. Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1985. ISBN 0-395-36070-6 pbk or 0-395-37888-5 hardback. - Paul Hopper --On Mon, Dec 13, 1999 9:11 am +0000 "Larry Trask" wrote: > ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- > The first edition of the American Heritage Dictionary carried a > dictionary of the PIE roots attested in English, compiled by Calvert > Watkins. Can anybody tell me if that dictionary can be bought > separately, and, if so, where? > > > Larry Trask > COGS > University of Sussex > Brighton BN1 9QH > UK > > larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk From l.campbell at ling.canterbury.ac.nz Thu Dec 16 14:07:36 1999 From: l.campbell at ling.canterbury.ac.nz (Lyle Campbell) Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 09:07:36 EST Subject: Phd Scholarship for Historical Linguistics (revised) Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- ANNOUNCEMENT (Revised): PhD scholarship for Historical Linguistics Sponsor: Marsden grant (Royal Society of New Zealand). Grant title: How languages are shown to be related Location: Dept of Linguistics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ Supervisor: Prof. Lyle Campbell Terms: Award of $14,000 NZ per year for 3 years, + $3,000 tuition per year. (Note: citizens of Australia, France, and Germany pay the same fees as New Zealanders, $3400/year; students from other countries pay foreign fees, $14,000 per year.) (This $14,000 NZ is considered very substantial in New Zealand, where living costs are low.) This award is for PhD study in Historical Linguistics. The PhD here is by thesis only (no course work); the dissertation topic must contribute to the goals of the grant which involve historical linguistics broadly, and include such things as language classification, the history different language families and how they were established, methods for comparing languages and establishing language relationships, grammatical evidence in establishing language relationships, the relationship between typology and historical linguistics, assessment of proposed long-range genetic relationships, methodological issues, and so on. To apply: send a cover letter or e-mail message with details of your education, linguistic courses taken and other relevant background, plus details about how to contact you. If you are selected as a candidate, you will be asked to supply two letters of reference and a statement of the proposed topic of your PhD thesis research. Award of the scholarship is contingent upon admission to the University. Admission requires minimally the equivalent of a BA Honours in Linguistics. Contact: For further information, please contact: Professor Lyle Campbell, Head of Department Dept. of Linguistics University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch, New Zealand E-mail: l.campbell at ling.canterbury.ac.nz Fax: 64-3-364-2969 Phone: 64-3-364-2242 Application deadline (revised): Feb 1, 2000 Professor Lyle Campbell, Head of Department Dept. of Linguistics University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch, New Zealand Fax: 64-3-364-2969 Phone: 64-3-364-2242 From W.Schulze at lrz.uni-muenchen.de Fri Dec 17 17:02:04 1999 From: W.Schulze at lrz.uni-muenchen.de (Wolfgang Schulze) Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 12:02:04 EST Subject: Nota Accusativi Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Dear all, as a newcomer to this list I would like to say 'hello' to everybody. Let me combine these greetings with a very short query: Currently, I'm collecting data concerning the grammaticalization of what is known as the 'nota accusativi' (cf. Armenian _nora gorceal e z-gorc_ 'he has done the work', where _z-_ is the nota accusativi (< *dhe-)). The term 'nota accusativi' refers to case suffixis/prefixes as well as to corresponding clitics or other elements the main fucntion of which is to encode the 'accusative' function (in rather traditional terms). I would be interested to learn whether we can state a lexical source for a given element (e.g. verb, adverb, pre/posposition etc.), and/or whether a given nota accusativi has a secondary function that encodes e.g. an allative, locative-essive or what so ever. I myself have already parsed most of Indo-European, but would be interested (with respect to IE languages) in non-Persian Iranian languages. I also have checked Turkic, Mongolian, Caucasian languages, and Semitic (hence no data required from these languages, too). Many greetings, Wolfgang ***************************** Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulze Institut fuer Allgemeine und Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet München Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1 D-80539 München Tel.: +89-21805343 / Fax: +89-21805345 Email: W.Schulze at lrz.uni-muenchen.de http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~wschulze/ ***************************** From joseph.reisdoerfer at ci.rech.lu Sun Dec 19 18:17:12 1999 From: joseph.reisdoerfer at ci.rech.lu (Joseph Reisdoerfer) Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 13:17:12 EST Subject: E-publication Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- - I have published on the W3 two texts dating from the beginning of the XIXth century and illustrating Lorraine and Walloon dialects. These documents come from a great linguistic survey on the languages spoken in France launched by napoleonic Administration. - JR -- Dr Joseph Reisdoerfer, hdr Affiliation: Chargé de cours aux Universités de Trèves et de Sarrebruck Courriel: Pagina domestica: From Michele.Goyens at arts.kuleuven.ac.be Thu Dec 23 14:04:13 1999 From: Michele.Goyens at arts.kuleuven.ac.be (Michele Goyens) Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 09:04:13 EST Subject: No subject Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- THE DAWN OF THE WRITTEN VERNACULAR IN WESTERN EUROPE International Colloquium Leuven, may 18th-20th 2000 Objectives: The colloquium aims to outline the state of research done in the field of the linguistic situation in Western Europe at the end of the Middle Ages, particularly in the field of the development of the written vernacular since the 11th century. Besides Latin, the international language of the scholars which is taken as an example for linguistic communication, written forms of the vernacular appear in most of the linguistic zones. These written forms rapidly develop tendencies towards standardization, though with very different orientations. During the colloquium these developments, which differ with regard to their chronology, their linguistic evolutions and the cultural history, can be brought together and compared. All the linguistic zones of medieval Western Europe will serve as framework, but special consideration will be granted to French, Italian, Spanish on the one hand, and English, Dutch, German and Scandinavian languages on the other. Sections: The Latin language as a standard and its relation to the vernacular Variation and standardization in the Romance area Variation and standardization in the Germanic area Linguistic variation and standardization in their literary and historical context At this moment we already expect contributions from : M. Van Uytfanghe (Gent), S. Lusignan (Montréal), P. Swiggers (Leuven), P. Stotz (Zürich), E. Kadens (Princeton), W. Van Hoecke (Leuven), P. Van Reenen (Am-sterdam), M. Mostert (Utrecht), J. Herman (Venezia), J. Wüest (Zürich), A. Dees (Am-sterdam), L. Stanovaïa (St-Petersburg), A.R. Somolinos (Madrid), R.Van Deyck (Gent), U. Jokinen (Jyväskylä), L. Gasperini (Perugia), S. Vanvolsem (Leuven), O. Zwartjes (Oslo), M. T. Echenique (Valencia), A. Hunt (Oxford), D. Edel (Utrecht), J. van der Horst (Leuven), A. Berteloot (Münster), L. Draye (Leuven), K. Gaertner (Trier), R. Peters (Münster), D. Huth (Bonn), M. Goyens (Leuven), P. Wunderli (Düsseldorf), Cl. Buridant (Strasbourg), G. Latré (Leuven), M. van der Wal (Leiden) Papers: Those who are interested are still invited to offer papers for the conference. Lectures can be given in English, French or German and run up to 20 minutes, followed by a 10 minutes discussion: Colloquium fee: 1.000,- BEF for administration costs, payable at the beginning of the colloquium Colloquium administration: · Prof. Dr. Michèle Goyens Departement Linguistiek Blijde-Inkomststraat 21 B - 3000 Leuven Tel.: + 32 (0) 16 32 47 98 Fax: + 32 (0) 16 32 47 67 E-mail: michele.goyens at arts.kuleuven.ac.be · Prof. Dr. Werner Verbeke Instituut voor Middeleeuwse Studies Blijde-Inkomststraat 21 B - 3000 Leuven Tel.: + 32 (0) 32 49 94 Fax.: + 32 (0) 32 49 93 E-mail: werner.verbeke at arts.kuleuven.ac.be Prof. Dr. Michèle Goyens Franse taalbeheersing Franse diachrone taalkunde Faculteit Letteren Blijde-Inkomststraat 21 B - 3000 Leuven Tel: 016/32 47 98 Fax: 016/42 47 67 E-mail: michele.goyens at arts.kuleuven.ac.be From larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk Mon Dec 13 14:11:46 1999 From: larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk (Larry Trask) Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 09:11:46 EST Subject: Q: Watkins's IE dictionary Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- The first edition of the American Heritage Dictionary carried a dictionary of the PIE roots attested in English, compiled by Calvert Watkins. Can anybody tell me if that dictionary can be bought separately, and, if so, where? Larry Trask COGS University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9QH UK larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk From jrader at m-w.com Tue Dec 14 17:30:43 1999 From: jrader at m-w.com (Jim Rader) Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 12:30:43 EST Subject: Watkin's IE dictionary Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I'm sending this to the list rather than to Larry alone since it may be a matter of wider interest. When the first edition of the _American Heritage Dictionary_ was published in 1969, the list of PIE roots was printed as an addendum at the back of the book. The list was maintained as an addendum in a desk dictionary (the "New College Edition") published in 1976 (at least I believe it was--I don't have a copy at hand). When _The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition_ was published in 1982, however, the PIE roots were dropped as an addendum and published as a separate book, _The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots_, which came out in 1985. As far as I know, this is the only occasion when this part of the dictionary was ever published in separate form. It's out of print, though I imagine copies of it could be found through WWW search services such as Amazon.com's used book department. The scuttlebutt in reference publishing was that the exclusion of the list was not popular among customers. When _The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition_ was published in 1992, the PIE roots were restored to the back of the book as an addendum, and they have been maintained in _The American Heritage College Dictionary, Third Edition_, published in 1993. (The assignment of edition numbers is confusing--there never was an "American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition," because, for reasons known only to the publisher, Houghton Mifflin, "second edition" was assigned to the re-edited desk dictionary published in 1982.) To those not acquainted with American dictionary publishing, a word about terminology might be appropriate. A "desk dictionary" is more or less the size of a conventional book that can be easily pulled off the shelf with one hand. It retails in the U.S. for $21-$25 or thereabout. All four of the major desk dictionaries put out by U.S. publishers have the word "College" or "Collegiate" in their title (the latter is a trademark of Merriam-Webster, which published the first "Collegiate" dictionary in 1898, and more or less launched the desk dictionary business). _The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language_ is larger and bulkier and sells for a good deal more: $50 retail. Its only direct competitor in size and price is the recently published _Encarta World English Dictionary_, published in the U.S. by St. Martin's Press and bankrolled by Microsoft. Above these two in size and price are the so-called "unabridged" dictionaries, of which only two are worth mentioning, _Webster's Third New International Dictionary_, published by Merriam-Webster in 1961, and _Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary_, originally published as _The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition Unabridged_ in 1987. Both of these dictionaries are too large to be pulled off a shelf with one hand and are usually placed on dictionary stands in American public and academic libraries. When the list of Indo-European roots was prepared for the first American Heritage dictionary, Calvert Watkins enlisted the services of a number of people at Harvard in the '60's, mostly graduate students as I've heard the story. Among this group some names stand out for work later done on their own: I mention Bruce Bolling, Ives Goddard, Jay Jasonoff, Peter Jorgenson, Michael Silverstein, and Robert Underhill as names I immediately recognize, though others may be equally well-known. I have no idea how much input Watkins himself had on the roots list--only he could answer that question. It's obvious, though, that it leans very heavily on Pokorny if you spend any time working with it. There are patent drawbacks to compiling a list of Indo-European roots that can only use as comparanda words that happen to exist--either by inheritance or borrowing--in English. You can't draw in comparanda from languages virtually without reflection in the English lexicon, such as Lithuanian or Hittite. The American Heritage style also has no means of showing roots attested, say, only in Germanic, or only in Ingvaeonic, or only in Old English. The 1st edition does say for English "follow," for example, "...Old English and , from Germanic (unattested)"; the 3rd edition, however, simply ends at "Old English ." The 3rd edition of the American Heritage Dictionary as a whole has considerably reduced the number of Indo-European bases cited in the Addendum compared to the 1st edition. Some of the trimming, most likely done for reasons of space,is justifiable, e.g., the dropping of ", curving, crooked; hypothetical base for a variety of Germanic words with initial ," where Pokorny has by the unconstrained use of root extensions lumped together a great jumble of heterogeneous Germanic etyma. Other omissions are surprising, though; "apple," for example, is not carried past Old English in the 3rd edition, whereas the first reconstructed . I have no idea how much input Prof. Watkins had on the editing down of the root list--again, only he could answer that question. A very long-winded answer to Larry's question, but I hope that these observations from someone inside the American dictionary business may be of passing interest to list members. Jim Rader > The first edition of the American Heritage Dictionary carried a > dictionary of the PIE roots attested in English, compiled by Calvert > Watkins. Can anybody tell me if that dictionary can be bought > separately, and, if so, where? > > > Larry Trask > COGS > University of Sussex > Brighton BN1 9QH > UK > > larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk > From DEHolt01 at gwm.sc.edu Tue Dec 14 17:32:46 1999 From: DEHolt01 at gwm.sc.edu (D. Eric Holt) Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 12:32:46 EST Subject: Final Call: ILA Session on Optimal Approaches to Language Change Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- (Cross-posted to HISTLING, OPTIMAL and LINGUIST; apologies if you receive multiple copies of this message.) FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS: (abbreviated from the original call) "OPTIMAL APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE CHANGE" A special session to be held at the 45th Annual Conference of the International Linguistic Association, April 7-9, 2000, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. The 45th ILA conference has as its major theme Language Contact/Language Change, and abstracts are solicited for a session on the application of Optimality Theory to language change. To date there has been no gathering dedicated to bringing researchers in this area together to share their work and discuss it as primary issue, rather than as part of a larger more general meeting. This session solicits abstracts related to the analysis of some issue related to historical linguistics and/or to the application of OT to language change from a more general perspective. Submission information is given below. >From the original ILA call: The 45th ILA conference will have as its major theme Language Contact/Language Change. While papers on that theme are especially welcomed, abstracts on any subject in theoretical and applied linguistics are also solicited. Invited speakers: Lila Gleitman, University of Pennsylvania and Lesley Milroy and Sarah Thomason, both of the University of Michigan. Local host: Father Solomon Sara. Single-spaced abstracts, bearing the title of the paper (but no author), of not more than 425 words should clearly state the problems or research questions addressed, and should give some indication of results or conclusions. Send via e-mail to the Session organizer (see below). Simultaneously, send via airmail 3 camera-ready hard copies of the abstract, plus a 3x5 card bearing name, title of paper, addresses, affiliation, and audio-visual equipment needed. (Anonymity will be preserved when abstracts are forwarded to the judges.) Presentations will be 20 minutes (plus discussion). Submissions on diskette will not be accepted. Deadline for submission of abstracts for the special session on OT: January 7, 2000. Any questions regarding the conference itself may be addressed to either the Conference Chair, Ruth Brend (rbrend at umich.edu) or the Conference Secretary Johanna Woltjer (ilaconf.woltjer at gte.net). Abstracts designed for this panel will be judged by the general conference committee, who will send direct notification regarding acceptance. Send e-mail and hard copies of abstracts and 3x5 information card to: D. Eric Holt Organizer, ILA session on OT and language change Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese & Program in Linguistics University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 holt at sc.edu [Please send abstracts in one of the following formats, listed in descending order of preference: Word97, RTF, WordPerfect, PDF, or as text in the body of an e-mail message.] From larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk Tue Dec 14 17:35:39 1999 From: larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk (Larry Trask) Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 12:35:39 EST Subject: Sum: Watkins's IE dictionary Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Yesterday I posted a query about this well-known dictionary of PIE roots represented in English. I've already received a large number of replies, for which I am grateful. Jim Rader has already posted a very detailed summary of the history of this publication, but I might add a couple of points stressed by some other respondents: 1. The first edition contains a number of errors -- presumably for the reasons Jim gives. 2. These errors were at least partly corrected in the separata version. 3. The version of the PIE dictionary in the third [sic] edition of the AHD was heavily pruned from the original. 4. Houghton Mifflin didn't merely let the separata sell out; they actually recalled the unsold copies and pulped them, fearing that it was cutting into the sales of the dictionary. Here are the full publication details: The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, revised and edited by Calvert Watkins. 1985. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-36070-6 (pb); 0-395-37888-5 (hb). xxvii+ 113 pp. No prices available. All sources agree that the separata is out of print, and the HM website doesn't mention it. Presumably there are no plans to reissue it. By the way, a (new?) edition of the American Heritage Dictionary (formerly published in Britain as the Heritage Dictionary) has recently appeared in the bookshops over here, or rather in Borders. It comes with a CD-ROM, but all copies are sealed, so I can't readily find out whether it's a genuinely new edition or merely a flashy repackaging. The cover mentions the Watkins dictionary, but what version I can't tell. Anyway, my reason for inquiring was this. An acquaintance of mine has a retired father who has conceived a passion for IE. He is desperately searching for some kind of IE dictionary, without success. His daughter asked me to suggest something as a Christmas present, and, since the father can't read German, I suggested the Watkins thing, which ought to be nearly perfect for his purposes. For some reason, I couldn't get through to amazon.com yesterday, so I posted my query instead. Amazon.com make their usual offer to search for a secondhand copy, but things don't look obviously promising: one respondent checked a few used-book websites, but couldn't find it. So we may have to fall back on a photocopy of the original AHD version, which I have on my shelf -- though another respondent reports that he has seen copies on sale in US bookstores. Thanks again to Paul Hopper, Ross Clark, Thomas Cravens, Alexander Vovin, Marc Picard, Michael Morrison, Lyle Campbell, Yongnam Um, Bobby Bryant, Jade Corn, Gordon Whittaker, Robert Stockwell, Martin Huld, Patrick Ryan, Robert Rankin, Alice Harris, Peter Michalove, and Jim Rader for their responses. Larry Trask COGS University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9QH UK larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk From mmorrison at vnet.ibm.com Tue Dec 14 13:28:02 1999 From: mmorrison at vnet.ibm.com (Michael C. Morrison 8-543-4706) Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 08:28:02 EST Subject: Q: Watkins's IE dictionary Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- *** Reply to note of Mon, 13 Dec 1999 09:11:46 -0500 (EST) *** by larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk Larry Trask writes: >The first edition of the American Heritage Dictionary carried a >dictionary of the PIE roots attested in English, compiled by Calvert >Watkins. Can anybody tell me if that dictionary can be bought >separately, and, if so, where? American Heritage did produce a separate volume entitled: "The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots" by Watkins (Houghton-Mifflin, 1985). Amazon.com claims the book is out of print, though. And I couldn't find the book on Houhgton-Mifflin's own site. Good luck! Michael ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael C. Morrison IBM Software Solutions Phone (408)463-4706 Data Replication Santa Teresa Laboratory FAX (408)463-4763 Lotus Notes ID: MCMORRIS at IBMUSM55 IBMLink: MORRISON at TORIBM Internet ID: MMORRISON at VNET.IBM.COM or USIB47H4 at IBMMAIL.COM IBM Mail Exchange: USIB47H4 at IBMMAIL or USIB4MCM at IBMMAIL X.400 Address: G=mcmgm; S=morrison; P=ibmmail; A=ibmx400; C=us ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From ph1u at andrew.cmu.edu Tue Dec 14 13:27:28 1999 From: ph1u at andrew.cmu.edu (ph1u at andrew.cmu.edu) Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 08:27:28 EST Subject: Q: Watkins's IE dictionary Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- The dictionary is now out of print, I believe. Here's the full reference (you may be able to get a used copy from amazon.com or bn.com): The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, revised and edited by Calvert Watkins. Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1985. ISBN 0-395-36070-6 pbk or 0-395-37888-5 hardback. - Paul Hopper --On Mon, Dec 13, 1999 9:11 am +0000 "Larry Trask" wrote: > ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- > The first edition of the American Heritage Dictionary carried a > dictionary of the PIE roots attested in English, compiled by Calvert > Watkins. Can anybody tell me if that dictionary can be bought > separately, and, if so, where? > > > Larry Trask > COGS > University of Sussex > Brighton BN1 9QH > UK > > larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk From l.campbell at ling.canterbury.ac.nz Thu Dec 16 14:07:36 1999 From: l.campbell at ling.canterbury.ac.nz (Lyle Campbell) Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 09:07:36 EST Subject: Phd Scholarship for Historical Linguistics (revised) Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- ANNOUNCEMENT (Revised): PhD scholarship for Historical Linguistics Sponsor: Marsden grant (Royal Society of New Zealand). Grant title: How languages are shown to be related Location: Dept of Linguistics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ Supervisor: Prof. Lyle Campbell Terms: Award of $14,000 NZ per year for 3 years, + $3,000 tuition per year. (Note: citizens of Australia, France, and Germany pay the same fees as New Zealanders, $3400/year; students from other countries pay foreign fees, $14,000 per year.) (This $14,000 NZ is considered very substantial in New Zealand, where living costs are low.) This award is for PhD study in Historical Linguistics. The PhD here is by thesis only (no course work); the dissertation topic must contribute to the goals of the grant which involve historical linguistics broadly, and include such things as language classification, the history different language families and how they were established, methods for comparing languages and establishing language relationships, grammatical evidence in establishing language relationships, the relationship between typology and historical linguistics, assessment of proposed long-range genetic relationships, methodological issues, and so on. To apply: send a cover letter or e-mail message with details of your education, linguistic courses taken and other relevant background, plus details about how to contact you. If you are selected as a candidate, you will be asked to supply two letters of reference and a statement of the proposed topic of your PhD thesis research. Award of the scholarship is contingent upon admission to the University. Admission requires minimally the equivalent of a BA Honours in Linguistics. Contact: For further information, please contact: Professor Lyle Campbell, Head of Department Dept. of Linguistics University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch, New Zealand E-mail: l.campbell at ling.canterbury.ac.nz Fax: 64-3-364-2969 Phone: 64-3-364-2242 Application deadline (revised): Feb 1, 2000 Professor Lyle Campbell, Head of Department Dept. of Linguistics University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch, New Zealand Fax: 64-3-364-2969 Phone: 64-3-364-2242 From W.Schulze at lrz.uni-muenchen.de Fri Dec 17 17:02:04 1999 From: W.Schulze at lrz.uni-muenchen.de (Wolfgang Schulze) Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 12:02:04 EST Subject: Nota Accusativi Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Dear all, as a newcomer to this list I would like to say 'hello' to everybody. Let me combine these greetings with a very short query: Currently, I'm collecting data concerning the grammaticalization of what is known as the 'nota accusativi' (cf. Armenian _nora gorceal e z-gorc_ 'he has done the work', where _z-_ is the nota accusativi (< *dhe-)). The term 'nota accusativi' refers to case suffixis/prefixes as well as to corresponding clitics or other elements the main fucntion of which is to encode the 'accusative' function (in rather traditional terms). I would be interested to learn whether we can state a lexical source for a given element (e.g. verb, adverb, pre/posposition etc.), and/or whether a given nota accusativi has a secondary function that encodes e.g. an allative, locative-essive or what so ever. I myself have already parsed most of Indo-European, but would be interested (with respect to IE languages) in non-Persian Iranian languages. I also have checked Turkic, Mongolian, Caucasian languages, and Semitic (hence no data required from these languages, too). Many greetings, Wolfgang ***************************** Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulze Institut fuer Allgemeine und Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet M?nchen Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1 D-80539 M?nchen Tel.: +89-21805343 / Fax: +89-21805345 Email: W.Schulze at lrz.uni-muenchen.de http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~wschulze/ ***************************** From joseph.reisdoerfer at ci.rech.lu Sun Dec 19 18:17:12 1999 From: joseph.reisdoerfer at ci.rech.lu (Joseph Reisdoerfer) Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 13:17:12 EST Subject: E-publication Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- - I have published on the W3 two texts dating from the beginning of the XIXth century and illustrating Lorraine and Walloon dialects. These documents come from a great linguistic survey on the languages spoken in France launched by napoleonic Administration. - JR -- Dr Joseph Reisdoerfer, hdr Affiliation: Charg? de cours aux Universit?s de Tr?ves et de Sarrebruck Courriel: Pagina domestica: From Michele.Goyens at arts.kuleuven.ac.be Thu Dec 23 14:04:13 1999 From: Michele.Goyens at arts.kuleuven.ac.be (Michele Goyens) Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 09:04:13 EST Subject: No subject Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- THE DAWN OF THE WRITTEN VERNACULAR IN WESTERN EUROPE International Colloquium Leuven, may 18th-20th 2000 Objectives: The colloquium aims to outline the state of research done in the field of the linguistic situation in Western Europe at the end of the Middle Ages, particularly in the field of the development of the written vernacular since the 11th century. Besides Latin, the international language of the scholars which is taken as an example for linguistic communication, written forms of the vernacular appear in most of the linguistic zones. These written forms rapidly develop tendencies towards standardization, though with very different orientations. During the colloquium these developments, which differ with regard to their chronology, their linguistic evolutions and the cultural history, can be brought together and compared. All the linguistic zones of medieval Western Europe will serve as framework, but special consideration will be granted to French, Italian, Spanish on the one hand, and English, Dutch, German and Scandinavian languages on the other. Sections: The Latin language as a standard and its relation to the vernacular Variation and standardization in the Romance area Variation and standardization in the Germanic area Linguistic variation and standardization in their literary and historical context At this moment we already expect contributions from : M. Van Uytfanghe (Gent), S. Lusignan (Montr?al), P. Swiggers (Leuven), P. Stotz (Z?rich), E. Kadens (Princeton), W. Van Hoecke (Leuven), P. Van Reenen (Am-sterdam), M. Mostert (Utrecht), J. Herman (Venezia), J. W?est (Z?rich), A. Dees (Am-sterdam), L. Stanova?a (St-Petersburg), A.R. Somolinos (Madrid), R.Van Deyck (Gent), U. Jokinen (Jyv?skyl?), L. Gasperini (Perugia), S. Vanvolsem (Leuven), O. Zwartjes (Oslo), M. T. Echenique (Valencia), A. Hunt (Oxford), D. Edel (Utrecht), J. van der Horst (Leuven), A. Berteloot (M?nster), L. Draye (Leuven), K. Gaertner (Trier), R. Peters (M?nster), D. Huth (Bonn), M. Goyens (Leuven), P. Wunderli (D?sseldorf), Cl. Buridant (Strasbourg), G. Latr? (Leuven), M. van der Wal (Leiden) Papers: Those who are interested are still invited to offer papers for the conference. Lectures can be given in English, French or German and run up to 20 minutes, followed by a 10 minutes discussion: Colloquium fee: 1.000,- BEF for administration costs, payable at the beginning of the colloquium Colloquium administration: ? Prof. Dr. Mich?le Goyens Departement Linguistiek Blijde-Inkomststraat 21 B - 3000 Leuven Tel.: + 32 (0) 16 32 47 98 Fax: + 32 (0) 16 32 47 67 E-mail: michele.goyens at arts.kuleuven.ac.be ? Prof. Dr. Werner Verbeke Instituut voor Middeleeuwse Studies Blijde-Inkomststraat 21 B - 3000 Leuven Tel.: + 32 (0) 32 49 94 Fax.: + 32 (0) 32 49 93 E-mail: werner.verbeke at arts.kuleuven.ac.be Prof. Dr. Mich?le Goyens Franse taalbeheersing Franse diachrone taalkunde Faculteit Letteren Blijde-Inkomststraat 21 B - 3000 Leuven Tel: 016/32 47 98 Fax: 016/42 47 67 E-mail: michele.goyens at arts.kuleuven.ac.be