6.805, Qs: Tenses & time, Buccalization, Compounds, ASL

[The Linguist List]

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-6-805. Mon 12 Jun 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 169
 
Subject: 6.805, Qs: Tenses & time, Buccalization, Compounds, ASL
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu>
 
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               Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
               Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
               Annemarie Valdez <avaldez at emunix.emich.edu>
 
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[We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually
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would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.]
 
-------------------------Directory-------------------------------------
 
1)
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 1995 08:18:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dan Alford (dalford at s1.csuhayward.edu)
Subject: Tenses & Time
 
2)
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 1995 10:03:16 +0100 (BST)
From: "Larry Trask" (larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk)
Subject: Query: Buccalization
 
3)
Date: Fri, 09 Jun 1995 09:48:34 -0300 (BST)
From: BJKEEGAN at tcd.ie
Subject: Compounds
 
4)
Date:         Fri, 9 Jun 1995 14:48:41 EST
From: "Carol S. Goldin" (GOLDIN at instlres.rutgers.edu)
Subject:      American Sign Language - Foreign Language??
 
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1)
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 1995 08:18:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dan Alford (dalford at s1.csuhayward.edu)
Subject: Tenses & Time
 
Dear LINGUIST-L Colleagues,
 
I'm puzzled about something, and maybe our Tonguesters can help.
 
Indo-European languages (generally?) have an actual future tense except
(only?) when you get to the Germanic branch, where we use modals and
other structures to express our notion of future (including such mixings
as present tense + progressive denoting future-time in "I'm leaving
tomorrow," etc.)
     *Questions: 1)  Are there IE branches other than Germanic that have
no future tense? 2) Did PIE have a future tense? 2a) If so, when did
Germanic lose it and develop modals instead to express the future, and
why? 2b) If not, when did non-Germanic IE languages develop a future
tense, and why?
 
A related set of questions refers to the linear "River of Time" cultural
notion that generally (?) accompanies the IE past/present/future-tense
linguistic scheme.
     Our semantic space around time in English places our future "ahead"
or "in front of" us, the direction we are headed toward (floating as if
in a boat, or by a perspective trick the future moving toward us like
scenery, as in "the coming week"), while our past is "behind" or "in back
of" us, the direction we're inexorably leaving forever. The inevitable
Graduation Day speeches this time of year habitually reinforce this image
("Our past is behind us, our future is ahead of us...").
     I once read somewhere that the ancient Greek "River of Time" flowed
exactly the opposite -- circling around the Earth, I seem to remember,
with the future coming up from "behind" us, "back" where we don't have
eyes to see what is coming, then flowing through the body and "ahead" to
the past, "in front of" us such that we can see its effects, both what is
happening now and what happened earlier. If you think about it, this
metaphorical system makes just as much senseas ours!
     **Questions: 3) Are there still European languages where
directionally the past is ahead and the future behind?  4a) Does anyone
have evidence for a "River of Time" image in Sanskrit, and which
direction it flowed?  4b) How about in PIE?  5) Does anyone have evidence
(or even good ideas) concerning when and how this "River of Time" turned
around (or we turned around in it) since the ancient Greek era? And, of
course, it goes almost without saying for this group, 6) Is it possible
I'm just 'going tangential' based on some egregiously wrong notion about
ancient Greek  from a source I can't remember, akin to the Great Eskimo
Snow Vocabulary Hoax?!
 
If there is enough interest by substantive response, I'll post a summary.
 
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2)
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 1995 10:03:16 +0100 (BST)
From: "Larry Trask" (larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk)
Subject: Query: Buccalization
 
Debuccalization, the historical development of an oral stop into a
glottal stop, is a fairly well-attested change (Pacific languages,
urban British English, and doubtless elsewhere).  But I haven't been
able to find any clear cases of the opposite change: a glottal stop
developing into an oral stop.  Does anybody know of any examples of
this, either systematic or sporadic?  If it exists, I suppose it
ought to be called `buccalization'.
 
If anything turns up, I'll summarize the responses.
 
Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
England
 
larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk
 
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3)
Date: Fri, 09 Jun 1995 09:48:34 -0300 (BST)
From: BJKEEGAN at tcd.ie
Subject: Compounds
 
Content-Length: 333
 
                Linguists,
        Would anyone out there be able to help me? I am looking for languages,
or instances of language usage (such as poetic or technical language), that are
particularly rich in compound words. Is there a language that could claim to be
the most compound-rich?
 
        Regards,
                Brian Keegan
                IN%"bjkeegan at vax1.tcd.ie"
 
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4)
Date:         Fri, 9 Jun 1995 14:48:41 EST
From: "Carol S. Goldin" (GOLDIN at instlres.rutgers.edu)
Subject:      American Sign Language - Foreign Language??
 
Content-Length: 1473
 
To Linguist subscribers:
 
The Office of Institutional Research and Planning at Rutgers
University has been asked to comment on proposed state legislation
urging institutions of higher education and local school districts to
award foreign language credit for the completion of American Sign
Language courses.  I would appreciate your input on the following
questions:
 
Does your institution offer courses in American Sign Language (ASL)?
 
Can ASL be used in fulfillment of foreign language requirements at
your institution?
 
Does ASL satisfy a foreign language requirement in the public high
schools in your state?
 
Thanks in advance.  Please write to me at:
 
GOLDIN at INSTLRES.RUTGERS.EDU
 
With appreciation,
 
Carol Goldin
 
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