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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=FR link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Dear all,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Whether a linguistic phenomenon is conceived of as rare 1) as far as the combination of features (not so rare by themselves) is concerned, or 2), more interestingly, with respect to what meanings are grammaticalized, as Walter says (I would rather say “what meanings are name-worthy in a language and not in others), the notion I would propose to use instead of “rare languages” is “revealing languages”. I define a <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify'><b><i><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>revealing language</span></i></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> as one which 1) exhibits explicit correlations between structures seemingly unrelated in other languages, and 2) thus reveals significant properties of human language, and indicates thereby the limits beyond which we think that no grammar can go are more extended than we believe. To give two examples:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='margin-left:36.0pt;text-align:justify;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>1)<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><u><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Striking answer anticipation in conversational Lhassa Tibetan interrogative sentences</span></u><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>khyedrang-tsho phebs-payin-pas ,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>2 -PL go -1SG -INTERR”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“did you go there?”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>In this example, there is a striking absence of co-reference between the <b><i>second</i></b> person pronoun (<i>khyedrang</i>) and the intrafixed personal index -----<i>payin</i>-, which is <b><i>first</i></b> SG (blended with Past): the speaker, here, anticipates the answer by using, in the VP, the personal index corresponding to the listener replying as ego. This is an effect of what I have called (C. Hagège, <i>La structure des langues</i>, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1982, 100) the </span><b><i><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>egophoric system, </span></i></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>here manifested as egophoric pressure.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>2)<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><u><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Unusual gender and number agreement between totally unrelated elements in the Italian dialect of Ripatransone</span></u><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> (located in the Marchese):<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>a)<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>l<b><i>u</i></b> fr</span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"UT IPA Times"'>I</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>kí </span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"UT Greek Ancient Sans"'>å</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> ít<b><i>u</i></b> a r:</span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"UT Greek Ancient Courier"'>ü</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>m<b><i>a</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>ART.MASC.SG boy is gone(MASC.SG) to Rome <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“the boy has gone to Rome”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>b)<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> </span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>l<b><i>e</i></b> fr</span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"UT IPA Times"'>I</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>kíne </span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"UT Greek Ancient Sans"'>å</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> ít<b><i>e</i></b> a r:</span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"UT Greek Ancient Courier"'>ü</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>m<b><i>e</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>ART.FEM.SG girl is gone(FEM.SG) to Rome<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“the girl has gone to Rome”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>In these examples, we observe gender and number agreement between the subject and the directional complement. Thus, one language at least gives the lie to the principle according to which only functionally related elements may agree. This revealing language therefore shows that, as far as agreement is concerned, the limitations observed in most languages are not universal, and thus cannot be retained as defining features.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>(these examples are quoted, along with others, in C. Hagège, <i>The Language Builder</i>, An essay on the Human Signature in Linguistic Morphogenesis, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, CILT IV, vol. 94, 1993, 77 and 85)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Best<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Claude<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>