7.269, Qs: NPI typology, Relative clause, Computerising dictionary

[The Linguist List]

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-7-269. Wed Feb 21 1996. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines:  123
 
Subject: 7.269, Qs: NPI typology, Relative clause, Computerising dictionary
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu> (On Leave)
            T. Daniel Seely: Eastern Michigan U. <dseely at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Associate Editor:  Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
Assistant Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
                   Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
                   Annemarie Valdez <avaldez at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Software development: John H. Remmers <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Editor for this issue: dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu (Ann Dizdar)
 
We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually
best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is
then  strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list.   This policy was
instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we
would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.
 
---------------------------------Directory-----------------------------------
1)
Date:  Sun, 18 Feb 1996 19:39:56 +0900
From:  clee at plaza.snu.ac.kr
Subject:  NPI typology: discussion
 
2)
Date:  Sun, 18 Feb 1996 12:33:47 GMT
From:  pss126 at bangor.ac.uk (Lee)
Subject:  Relative clause
 
3)
Date:  Sun, 18 Feb 1996 17:30:38 GMT
From:  jf4 at ukc.ac.uk ("J. Fix")
Subject:  Re: Computerising German Dialect Dictionary - Help
 
---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date:  Sun, 18 Feb 1996 19:39:56 +0900
From:  clee at plaza.snu.ac.kr
Subject:  NPI typology: discussion
 
 
I am interested in the typology of NPIs. I assume some languages have
'any' as NPI (as in English), some other languages have indefinite
specifiers [either from wh-words or non-wh indefinite
pronominal/adjectival/adverbial](as in Greek, Chinese and Japanese) as
NPIs, and still others have both of them as NPIs (as in Korean). On
the other hand, some languages need the above elements plus concessive
(or disjuntive/additive or emphatic) markers to function as NPIs. What
about languages you know?  If there are enough responses, I will make
a summary and post it later.  Thank you in advance.  Best,
   Chungmin Lee
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2)
Date:  Sun, 18 Feb 1996 12:33:47 GMT
From:  pss126 at bangor.ac.uk (Lee)
Subject:  Relative clause
 
 
Does anyone know of a language which has ALL of the following
syntactic properties:
 
(1) In an NP consisting of a relative clause, the head noun follows
the relative clause.
 
(2) The gap relativization strategy is (obligatorily or optionally)
used for at least one grammatical function (i.e., subject, object,
etc.) of a clause.
 
(3) Null subject and object are NOT allowed.
 
If you know of none, do you know if any (functional or formal)
syntactic theory would predict the non-existence of such a language?
 
Ming-wei Lee
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3)
Date:  Sun, 18 Feb 1996 17:30:38 GMT
From:  jf4 at ukc.ac.uk ("J. Fix")
Subject:  Re: Computerising German Dialect Dictionary - Help
 
 
I am a German Postgraduate student in Canterbury, UK, doing a masters in
Applied Languages and Computing.
 
I have had the idea of "computerizing" a not yet completed paper
dictionary of a German dialect which I have worked on as an assistant for
some time.  The goal of this project is not so much to provide a
possibility for extensive research on the language material, but to make
it more easily available for the staff to answer queries.  There should
also be the possibility of being able to search for conceptually related
entries.  To use the capabilities of today's technology and not just to
produce a reflection of the paper version, I would like to include
hypertext links to sound files (to illustrate pronunciation) and to
pictures (to illustrate eg. no longer existing objects).  In a later
version I would perhaps include online links to other dictionaries which
were used as sources.
 
The data of this dictionary is, as is the case with most dictionaries,
quite varied.  There are entries of one line as well as ones filling many
pages, there are entries filling only  compulsory slots, such as
"lemma" and "meaning" and others using all the possible slots.
 
Because of this diversity, it seems problematic to me to feed the data
into an ordinary database (let alone how).  I was therefore wondering if
there is anybody else facing a similar problem, if they had found an
existing database system (as eg. MS Access) as a solution to this
problem or that they had to create their own one.
 
I would greatly appreciate any helpful hint and will post a summary of
them.
 
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     Jakob Fix, University of Kent at Canterbury, jf4 at ukc.ac.uk
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