I suspect that the responses that this thread will be getting will not help Dan much in his pursuit because Elisabeth Leiss' response will shift the focus. That said, I do not believe we should let it go unnoticed. I find her response rude, unprofessional, and downright distasteful.<div>
<br></div><div>Joseph<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2009/12/18 Yaron Matras <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Yaron.Matras@manchester.ac.uk">Yaron.Matras@manchester.ac.uk</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">Shame on you, Professor Leiss, for such a reply! <div><br></div><div>We are all entitled to freedom of research and to the freedom to point out issues of interest to our colleagues; it is up to them whether they take an interest or not. You have no right to ask a colleague not to pursue a question, certainly not to pass judgement whether somebody should or should not help answer a query posted on this list by a fellow member of the association.<div>
<br></div><div>Yaron Matras<br><div><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br><div><div>On 18 Dec 2009, at 13:43, Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Leiss wrote:</div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
Dear Daniel Everett,</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;min-height:14px"><br></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">just give it up to find primitive languages.</div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">There are a lot of languages without epistemic verbs. Nevertheless, there</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
are intricate patterns of marking epistemicity in a different way. You are</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">not the person, linguistically trained enough, to find out these patterns.</div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Nobody should help you to do your kind of work.</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;min-height:14px">
<br></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Elisabeth Leiss</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;min-height:14px"><br></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
Elisabeth Leiss</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;min-height:14px"><br></div> <blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
Folks,</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;min-height:14px"><br></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">I am interested in beginnng a statistical study on the relative rarity of</div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">the following patterns (this query will not be the basis for the study!</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
Just a tool to start gathering data). I am first interested in knowing of</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">languages that have any one of the specific properties below.<span> </span>Next I am</div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">interested in learning of any languages that are described by any subset</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
of these. Please respond to me individually, rather than to the list as a</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">whole.<span> </span>I will post a summary if there are enough responses. I would</div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">particularly appreciate any suggestions for particular corpora to consult</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
in rarer languages.</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;min-height:14px"><br></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Thanks very much in advance for your answers.</div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;min-height:14px"><br></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Dan</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
**</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">1. The language lacks independent<span> </span>factive verbs and epistemic verbs (not</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
counting the verb 'to see').</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">2. The language has no morphosyntactic marker of subordination.</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
3. It has no coordinating disjunctive particles (no words like 'or').</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">4. It has no coordinating conjunctive particle (no words like 'and').</div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">5. No unambiguous complement clauses (no strong evidence for embedding as</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
opposed to juxtaposition).</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">6. No multiple possession (no structures like 'John's father's son' -</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
whether pre or postnominal) .</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">7. No multiple modification (no structures like 'two big red apples').</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
8. No scope from one clause into another: 'John does not believe you left'</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">(where 'not' can negate 'believe' or 'left', as in 'It is not the case</div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">that John believes that you left' vs. 'It is the case that John believes</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
that you did not leave')</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span> </span>9. No long-distance dependencies:</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
'Who do you think John believes __ (that Bill saw__)?'</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">'Ann, I think he told me he tried to like ___'</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;min-height:14px">
<br></div> </blockquote><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;min-height:14px"><br></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;min-height:14px">
<br></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Leiss</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Lehrstuhl für Germanistische Linguistik</div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Department für Germanistik, Komparatistik und Nordistik, Deutsch als</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
Fremdsprache</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">LMU München</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Schellingstraße 3/RG</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
80799 München</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Tel.: +49 (0)89 2180 2339 (Büro)</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Tel.: +49 (0)89 2180 5744 (Sekr.: Frau Burauen)</div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Tel.: +49 (0)89 769 969 23 (priv.)</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><a href="http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~GL/Leiss" target="_blank">http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~GL/Leiss</a></div>
</blockquote></div><br></div></div><div> <span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><div>
________________________</div><div>Yaron Matras</div><div>Professor in Linguistics</div><div>School of Languages, Linguistics & Cultures</div><div>University of Manchester</div><div>Manchester, M13 9PL, UK</div><div>
Phone (direct) +44 161 275 3975</div>
<div><br></div><div>Romani project: +44 161 275 5999</div><div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3"><a href="http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk" target="_blank">http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk</a>/</font></div>
</div><div><a href="http://languagecontact.humanities.manchester.ac.uk" target="_blank">http://languagecontact.humanities.manchester.ac.uk</a>/</div><br></span></span></span><br></span> </div><br></div></div></div></div>
</blockquote>
</div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Joseph T. Farquharson<br>Lecturer<br>Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies<br>University of Technology, Jamaica<br>237 Old Hope Road<br>Kingston 6 Jamaica<br>Website: <a href="http://www.jotifa.com">www.jotifa.com</a> Alternative Email 1: <a href="mailto:joseph.farquharson@utech.edu.jm">joseph.farquharson@utech.edu.jm</a><br>
Alternative Email 2: <a href="mailto:joseph.farquharson@uwimona.edu.jm">joseph.farquharson@uwimona.edu.jm</a> Blog:<br><a href="http://jtfarquharson.wordpress.com/">http://jtfarquharson.wordpress.com/</a><br>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
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