6.726, Possessives, Ling in Science Fiction, Official Lang of USA

[The Linguist List]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List:  Vol-6-726. Wed 24 May 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 89
 
Subject: 6.726, Possessives, Ling in Science Fiction, Official Lang of USA
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Assoc. Editor: Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
Asst. Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
               Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
               Annemarie Valdez <avaldez at emunix.emich.edu>
 
-------------------------Directory-------------------------------------
 
1)
Date: Sun, 21 May 1995 17:55:48 +0100
From: Osten.Dahl at tele.su.se (Oesten Dahl)
Subject: 6.701, Possessives
 
2)
Date:          Fri, 19 May 1995 12:47:35 MET-1
From: GYORIG at btk.jpte.hu
Subject:       Linguistics in Science Fiction / genderless languages
 
3)
Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 18:32:11 +0200 (MESZ)
From: Elsa Lattey (elsa.lattey at uni-tuebingen.de)
Subject: official language
 
-------------------------Messages--------------------------------------
1)
Date: Sun, 21 May 1995 17:55:48 +0100
From: Osten.Dahl at tele.su.se (Oesten Dahl)
Subject: 6.701, Possessives
 
Benji Wald writes, in connection with constructions with 's in English:
) I mean what other language has things
)like "the girl I'm thinking of'S boyfriend"?
Swedish does. The genitive "s" ending behaves very similarly in Swedish and
English, and "flickan jag taenker paa's pojkvaen" is clearly possible in
spoken language. But we don't get the "a friend of John's" cases, though.
Oesten Dahl
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2)
Date:          Fri, 19 May 1995 12:47:35 MET-1
From: GYORIG at btk.jpte.hu
Subject:       Linguistics in Science Fiction / genderless languages
 
On May 9 Ande Ciecierski (ciecierski at routledge.com) wrote:
 
     I'm surprised no one has mentioned _Woman on the Edge of Time_ by
     Marge Piercy. In it, a woman travels to a future time in which there
     are no more gender-specific pronouns. They use "per" for he and she
     (and his and hers if I'm remembering correctly). It was confusing at
     first, but by the end of the book, I found myself wanting to use it in
     conversation. It was a good read.
 
This phenomenon is not just science fiction. Hungarian has no gender
specific pronouns, simply because it has no gender distinction at
all. Does anyone know about similar languages? (As far as I know this
goes for all Uralic and maybe also for the Turkic languages.)
 
Gabor Gyori
(gyorig at btk.jpte.hu)
 
Dept. of English
Janus Pannonius University
Pecs, Hungary
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3)
Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 18:32:11 +0200 (MESZ)
From: Elsa Lattey (elsa.lattey at uni-tuebingen.de)
Subject: official language
 
 
Just to set the record straight:  What A. Stenzel
attributed to "Elsa Lattey adds that..." in his
summary regarding the Muhlenberg legend was part
of a quote I sent him, duly attributed to the
source: Shirley Brice Heath "English in our language
heritage" in Ferguson, Charles A. & Shirley Brice Heath.
Language in the USA. Cambridge Univ. Press. 1981, p.9.
 
Elsa Lattey
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-6-726.