7.1569, Qs: Quantitative Sociolinguistics, Names

The Linguist List linguist at tam2000.tamu.edu
Wed Nov 6 14:50:59 UTC 1996


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List:  Vol-7-1569. Wed Nov 6 1996. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines:  101
 
Subject: 7.1569, Qs: Quantitative Sociolinguistics, Names
 
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 Editors: Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
                   Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
Assistant Editor:  Sue Robinson <robinson at emunix.emich.edu>
Technical Editor:  Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Software development: John H. Remmers <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Editor for this issue: robinson at emunix.emich.edu (Susan Robinson)
 
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:  Mon, 04 Nov 1996 19:55:40 CST
From:  david at utafll.uta.edu (David Silva)
Subject:  Quantitative Sociolinguistics
 
2)
Date:  Tue, 05 Nov 1996 15:40:06 +1000
From:  Laurie.Bauer at vuw.ac.nz (Laurie Bauer)
Subject:  Query: Names
 
---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date:  Mon, 04 Nov 1996 19:55:40 CST
From:  david at utafll.uta.edu (David Silva)
Subject:  Quantitative Sociolinguistics
 
 
 
For all those out there who teach sociolinguistics courses I have the
following three questions:
 
(1) To what extent do you incorporate discussions of QUANTITATIVE
analysis into your syllabus(es)?  (Do you have a separate course for
quantititative socioling?)
 
(2) What sorts of quantitative tools do you cover?  t-tests?
correlation?  regression?  VARBRUL?  ANOVA?  Other(s)?
 
(3)  For those who do talk about / teach VARBRUL:
        a) what do you assign for readings?
        b) which version(s) of the software do you use?
        c) do your students get "hands on" training?
 
As per the rules, please be sure to reply to me directly
(david at uta.edu).
Many thanks for your responses.  I shall post a summary if there is
sufficient interest.
 
- David Silva (david at uta.edu)
  Asst Prof of Ling
  U Texas at Arlington
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2)
Date:  Tue, 05 Nov 1996 15:40:06 +1000
From:  Laurie.Bauer at vuw.ac.nz (Laurie Bauer)
Subject:  Query: Names
 
 
On p. 29 of +Aspects+, Chomsky refers to 'the assumption that proper
names, in any language, must designate objects meeting a condition of
spatiotemporal contiguity'.  It would seem that the same is true of
concrete nouns in general, although, as Chomsky says, it is not a
logical necessity.  In a footnote, Chomsky points out that 'The United
States' is an object, given a name, which does not appear to meet such
a condition.  The same is true of virtually any country made up of a
number of islands (though 'the United States' is particularly
interesting because of Canada's appearance between Washington State
and Alaska), 'The University of London' and a number of other cases.
 
But these lack spatial contiguity.  What about temporal contiguity?
The only example I have been able to come up with is 'The Hundred
Years' War', waged in the fourteenth century plus a bit between the
Kings of England and France, and having a long peace in the middle.
Are there any other names which fail to meet a condition of temporal
contiguity?  More particularly, are there any +words+ (as opposed to
idiomatic phrases) which have this property?  Reply to me, and I'll
summarize for the list if there's interest.  Thanks.  Laurie
 
 
Laurie.BAUER at vuw.ac.nz
Department of Linguistics, Victoria University, PO Box 600, Wellington, New
Zealand
Ph: +64 4 472 1000 x 8800  Fax: +64 4 495 5057
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-7-1569.



More information about the LINGUIST mailing list