6.1412, Qs: Grammar, Viable, Anaphora, Chinese, Fonts
The Linguist List
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Fri Oct 13 14:38:25 UTC 1995
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LINGUIST List: Vol-6-1412. Fri Oct 13 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 208
Subject: 6.1412, Qs: Grammar, Viable, Anaphora, Chinese, Fonts
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1)
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 12:33:40 BST
From: domeij at nada.kth.se (Rickard Domeij)
Subject: Grammar checking
2)
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 05:59:07 EST
From: ZBOND%OUACCVMB.bitnet at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: viable language
3)
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 00:25:33 PDT
From: 2020sw at ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Soren Wichmann)
Subject: qu: typology of anaphora etc.
4)
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 09:30:35 EDT
From: wei at mbm1.scu.edu.tw (jennifer wei)
Subject: resources on chinese language choice and identity
5)
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 02:10:57 EDT
From: danap at uoguelph.ca (Dana Paramskas)
Subject: QS: phonetic fonts for a WWW page
---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 12:33:40 BST
From: domeij at nada.kth.se (Rickard Domeij)
Subject: Grammar checking
To all linguists with experience of grammar checking!
I would like you to tell me how you would tell people (perhaps your students if
you are a teacher) to use a grammar checker like Grammatik. I suppose you would
tell them to integrate the tool with their own revision strategies in some way.
But how? As researchers have pointed out, there is a risk that they get
obsessed with surface level errors. And we all want them to realize the
importance of higher level revision, don't we?
I see at least three possible ways of integrating the grammar checker with
human revision:
1. The safe way.
The safest way to use a grammar checker seems to be as a post-processor to
human revision. In this way, students can first on their own revise their texts
on all
levels, and especially concentrate on higher levels of revision without being
disturbed in this process by the grammar checker's complaints about low-level
errors. The grammar checker is then mainly used for catching errors that have
been overlooked. This would be safe, because in this way overlooked errors can
be catched by the grammar checker with minimal risk of interferring with human
revision.
2. The economical way.
Another way to use a grammar checker is as a pre-processor to human revision.
This seems economical, since machine detected errors are sorted out before
human
revision and thereby human revisors are relieved from some of the cognitive
load
involved in revising. Since the grammar checker takes away mostly low-level
errors, the human revisor gets more time for revising on higher levels. Perhaps
there is a risk that he/she is tempted to get even more economical and leave
the
text as it is. After all it has already been proof-read - by the computer.
3. The computer-guided way.
The third possible method is to let the grammar checker support and guide
students through the whole revision process, trying to give attention to all
levels, encouraging human interactive revision. Perhaps some day, it will be
possible to design such a tool, helping (?) teachers succeed in a task were
they have often failed: making students realise that revision is not only a
chase
for surface errors. But using today's grammar checkers this way simply doesn't
work, or?
One problem in using grammar checkers is that they are often promised to, or
are
popularly expected to, cover the whole area of human revision. Since today's
grammar checkers do not stand up to that, teachers have an important role in
telling students how such device best should be used to support human revision.
So, how is grammar checkers best used by students (and others) in your opinion,
and what is the good thing about them?
/Rickard
P.S. A similar letter was sent to the Wricom list. I promise to summarize the
answers from both lists for the Linguist list.
- ----------------------------------------------------------
Rickard Domeij/Comp. Linguist Tel: +46-8-790 66 34
KTH/Royal Inst. of Technology Fax: +46-8-10 24 77
NADA, IPLab Email:domeij at nada.kth.se
S-100 44 Sthlm, SWEDEN http//:www.nada.kth.se/~domeij
- ----------------------------------------------------------
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2)
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 05:59:07 EST
From: ZBOND%OUACCVMB.bitnet at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: viable language
Are there any data about the number of speakers necessary for a language
to be viable? I have read discussions about species viability, in terms
of breeding pairs in a population. I am wondering if analogous concerns
apply to language viability.
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3)
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 00:25:33 PDT
From: 2020sw at ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Soren Wichmann)
Subject: qu: typology of anaphora etc.
Hello everybody,
I am looking for literature that deals with constraints on coordinate
deletion, verb-ellipsis, and NP-anaphora (excluding reflexives and purely
pragmatically conditioned anaphora). I want to look at these things from
a typological point of view. Having acquired familiarity with many
studies dealing with English, I am asking for references to studies
dealing with *any other language*, including sections of reference
grammars that might be of help (the literature need not be written in
English). Also, if any of you out there have a similar interest and any
ideas you think might be of use, please let me know.
Thanks. I won't forget the summary.
Soren Wichmann
2020sw at ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu
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4)
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 09:30:35 EDT
From: wei at mbm1.scu.edu.tw (jennifer wei)
Subject: resources on chinese language choice and identity
Dear linguists:
I am interested in issues on language choice and identity and would like to do
an
ethnographic in Hong Kong. I haven't been able to find useful references or
results on this
issues, at least not in the U.S. nor Taipei. I read "Sociolinguistics: from
International
perspectives" which is a collection of several conference papers from the 1st
Hong Kong
conference on language and society. It's nice but many of the most interesting
conference
papers were not included, such as "Lg attitudes and use in H.K. : a case for
Putonghua,"
"Chinese-English code-switching in personal letters," "Polyglossia in the
printed Cantonese
mass media in H.K.," "The interface of sociolinguistics and
neurolinguistics,"...etc. Does
anybody know where I can find more updated and empirical resources regarding
issues on
lg. choice and identity (in the Hong Kong case)? Please share them with me!!
Thanks in advance.
Jennifer Wei
Wei at mbm1.scu.edu.tw
English Dept.
Soochow Univ.
Taipei, Taiwan
Taipei, Taiwan
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5)
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 02:10:57 EDT
From: danap at uoguelph.ca (Dana Paramskas)
Subject: QS: phonetic fonts for a WWW page
Cross-posted to HUMANIST, with apologies to members who subscribe to both:
I am attempting to create a WWW version of an applied linguistics course,
with the much appreciated help of our Teaching Support Staff. For part of
the material, we need to be able to use phonetic symbols *incorporated*
into the text (I realize that .GIF files can create phonetic symbols, but
they cannot be integrated and also slow everything down). So... if there
is anyone out there with an idea as to how this can be done, *please* let
us know... I've been told that it is *impossible*, but would rather not
believe that before consulting the community of e-scholars...
Dana Paramskas
French Studies
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
<danap at uoguelph.ca>
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