Non native speaker?

[Dennis R. Preston]

Someone (T. M. I guess, since he has done it before, even in a
book-length treatment) seems to be confusing "native" and "fluent,"
particularly "fluent in a genre." I am a native speaker of English,
remarkable disfluent in many genres.

dInIs





>I agree with Lesa Dill "it's easy, intentionally or not, to sound garbled,
>illiterate and/or non-native." So what's the use of the native/non-native
>distinction?
>
>Incidentally, I'd like to know what forensic linguists think of specimens
>(freshman English, of course) such as the following. I did get an expert
>opinion in 1985. But I would like a second opinion if anyone would care to
>comment, even for fun. The basic syntax seems perfect.
>
>"During the Middle Ages everybody was middle
>aged.... After a revival of infantile commerce slowly creeped into
>Europe, merchants appeared. They roamed from town to town expo-
>sing themselves and organized big fairies in the countryside.... Finally
>Europe caught the Black Death. It was spread from port to port by
>inflected rats.... Theologically, Luther was into reorientation muta-
>tion.... Great Brittian, the USA and other European countrys had
>demicratic leanings. Among the goals of the chartists were universal
>suferage and an anal parliament.... In 1937 Lenin revolted Russia.
>Germany was displaced after WWL... War screeched to an end when a
>nukuleer explosion was dropped on Heroshima. The last stage is us."
>(Britannica 1984 Book of the Year)
>
>T. M. Paikeday
>www.paikeday.net
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Lesa Dill" <lesa.dill at WKU.EDU>
>To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 2:23 PM
>Subject: Re: Non native speaker?
>
>
>>  The debate about the identity  of the sniper is being debated currently on
>the
>>  Forensic Linguistics listserv.  There's quite an argument about whether
>the
>>  person is native or non-native.  I'd have to agree with you and say
>native.  I
>>  agree with your comments about the phrasing of the statement about our
>>  children being in danger.  It is stylistically well formed.  I also think
>it's
>>  easy, intentionally or not, to sound garbled, illiterate and/or
>non-native.
>>
>>  Isn't the sound subsitution regular in Black English/Ebonics/African
>American
>>  English?  What's PC in linguistics for that these days?  Certainly not the
>>  latter.
>>
>>  Lesa
>>
>>  Duane Campbell wrote:
>>
>>  > According to published reports, the notes left by the sniper are in an
>>  > imperfect English indicating perhaps a non-native speaker. Yet the one
>>  > sentence they have released -- "Your children are not safe at any time
>or
>>  > in any place." (from memory) -- strikes me as a very well crafted
>>  > sentence. Not just lucid and free from error, but stylish.
>>  >
>>  > Any forensic linguists on the list? Is there such a thing as a forensic
>>  > linguist?
>>  >
>>  > While I'm asking questions, Chief Moose (who is, incidentally, Dr.
>Moose)
>>  > replaces all of his "th" sounds with either a hard "D" (initial) or "F".
>>  > I have heard this from time to time, though usually not so pronounced,
>>  > including a classmate in 1950s rural Pennsylvania with a 100 percent
>>  > white school population. I had always assumed it was a minor speech
>>  > impediment (is there a new PC word for this?) or an ideomorph. Are there
>>  > dialects that include this shift?
>>  >
>>  > D
>>

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
740 Wells Hall A
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office - (517) 353-0740
Fax - (517) 432-2736