From Mfcepdd at fs1.art.man.ac.uk Tue Apr 29 21:07:54 2003 From: Mfcepdd at fs1.art.man.ac.uk (David Denison) Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 17:07:54 EDT Subject: A new corpus of 18c English Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- We are pleased to announce the release of a new corpus of never-before transcribed letters written to Richard Orford, a steward at Lyme Hall in Cheshire, between 1761 and 1790, held in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. These are unselfconscious practical letters, often by uneducated people, on matters of business, farming, mining, and social relations. A Corpus of late 18c Prose contains about 300,000 words, available free for ftp download as a single text file for electronic searching or as three linked HTML files for maximum readability. For details, sample transcriptions and an access request form, please go to http://www.art.man.ac.uk/ENGLISH/staff/DD/late18c.htm Apologies for cross-postings. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> David Denison Dept of English and American Studies University of Manchester | Manchester M13 9PL | U.K. +44 (0)161-275 3154 (phone) +44 (0)161-275 3256 (fax) d.denison at man.ac.uk (email) http://www.art.man.ac.uk/ENGLISH/staff/DD/ (WWW) From l.campbell at LING.CANTERBURY.AC.NZ Wed Apr 30 14:14:37 2003 From: l.campbell at LING.CANTERBURY.AC.NZ (Lyle Campbell) Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 10:14:37 EDT Subject: Farmers and language dispersals Message-ID: Dear All, If you have not yet seen or heard of it, let me mention Jared Diamond and Peter Bellwood's "Farmers and their languages: the first expansions" (SCIENCE vol 300, 25 April 2003) (available also on www.sciencemag.org, at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/300/5619/597, if you have access). My hunch is that many mainstream historical linguists and specialists in various language families will find much to disagree with in this paper; my question is, is anyone intending a letter to SCIENCE in response? (I am not able to respond myself. If anyone is really interested, a paper of mine responding to major claims is available on the departmental website here: http://www.ling.canterbury.ac.nz/lyle-pubs.html [In press. What drives linguistic diversity? Language-Farming Dispersals, ed. by Colin Renfrew and Peter Bellwood. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.]) I am surprised and somewhat sorry that Peter Bellwood, one of the authors of the Science paper and an editor of the volume where my paper will appear, did not take into account the serious problems pointed out there for the hypotheses advocated in this Science piece. Best, Lyle -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Mfcepdd at fs1.art.man.ac.uk Tue Apr 29 21:07:54 2003 From: Mfcepdd at fs1.art.man.ac.uk (David Denison) Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 17:07:54 EDT Subject: A new corpus of 18c English Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- We are pleased to announce the release of a new corpus of never-before transcribed letters written to Richard Orford, a steward at Lyme Hall in Cheshire, between 1761 and 1790, held in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. These are unselfconscious practical letters, often by uneducated people, on matters of business, farming, mining, and social relations. A Corpus of late 18c Prose contains about 300,000 words, available free for ftp download as a single text file for electronic searching or as three linked HTML files for maximum readability. For details, sample transcriptions and an access request form, please go to http://www.art.man.ac.uk/ENGLISH/staff/DD/late18c.htm Apologies for cross-postings. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> David Denison Dept of English and American Studies University of Manchester | Manchester M13 9PL | U.K. +44 (0)161-275 3154 (phone) +44 (0)161-275 3256 (fax) d.denison at man.ac.uk (email) http://www.art.man.ac.uk/ENGLISH/staff/DD/ (WWW) From l.campbell at LING.CANTERBURY.AC.NZ Wed Apr 30 14:14:37 2003 From: l.campbell at LING.CANTERBURY.AC.NZ (Lyle Campbell) Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 10:14:37 EDT Subject: Farmers and language dispersals Message-ID: Dear All, If you have not yet seen or heard of it, let me mention Jared Diamond and Peter Bellwood's "Farmers and their languages: the first expansions" (SCIENCE vol 300, 25 April 2003) (available also on www.sciencemag.org, at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/300/5619/597, if you have access). My hunch is that many mainstream historical linguists and specialists in various language families will find much to disagree with in this paper; my question is, is anyone intending a letter to SCIENCE in response? (I am not able to respond myself. If anyone is really interested, a paper of mine responding to major claims is available on the departmental website here: http://www.ling.canterbury.ac.nz/lyle-pubs.html [In press. What drives linguistic diversity? Language-Farming Dispersals, ed. by Colin Renfrew and Peter Bellwood. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.]) I am surprised and somewhat sorry that Peter Bellwood, one of the authors of the Science paper and an editor of the volume where my paper will appear, did not take into account the serious problems pointed out there for the hypotheses advocated in this Science piece. Best, Lyle -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: