Precodes and continuation markers

[Kevin Donnelly]

Hi Brian

::::On Thursday 08 December 2011 Brian MacWhinney said::::
> On Dec 7, 2011, at 6:11 PM, Kevin Donnelly wrote:
> > ::::On Wednesday 07 December 2011 Brian MacWhinney said::::
> >> If one defines mixed as meaning that one or more words in an utterance
> >> come from the other language, then just looking for utterances with @s
> >> would tell you whether something is mixed.  Isn't that true?
> > 
> > If you have a predominantly English text, where English is a null marker,
> > and then you get a line of Spanish, tagged @s:spa, in which one or more
> > words are indeterminate (ie occur in both English and Spanish
> > dictionaries - this may match Erika's unassigned), tagged @s:eng&spa,
> > you would have only @s tags, and this would count as mixed.  But if you
> > had another line of Spanish with no indeterminates, you would also have
> > only @s tags, and this would count as Spanish.  So counting only @s may
> > be deficient.
> 
> If you have a line full of nothing but Spanish words, you are supposed to
> code that with the precode [- spa].  In that case, there would be no @s
> words on that line and it would not count as mixed.

Hehe, you're right of course. :-)  What I meant to say in the second sentence, 
before my brain went for a late-night walk, was that if you had another line 
of Spanish with no indeterminates, but some English words, you would also have 
@s tags (either on the English if you're using [- spa], or on the Spanish if 
you're using null or [- eng]).  But this type of utterance is qualitatively 
different from the other one (clearly one or other language, as opposed to 
having "in-between" elements), so just counting only @s without looking at the 
rest of the tag may be deficient.

-- 
Pob hwyl / Best wishes

Kevin Donnelly
kevindonnelly.org.uk

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