8.141, Qs: Negation, Orwell quote, Readability

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-8-141. Thu Jan 30 1997. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 8.141, Qs: Negation, Orwell quote, Readability

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1)
Date:    Wed, 29 Jan 1997 17:23:43 +0200 (EET)
From:  Matti Miestamo <matmies at utu.fi>
Subject:  Qs: Negation vs. Affirmation

2)
Date:  Wed, 29 Jan 1997 08:50:16 -0500
From:  Kate Gladstone & Andrew Haber <kate at global2000.net>
Subject:  Orwell quote; imposed social stratification of speech

3)
Date:           Wed, 29 Jan 1997 09:29:21 GMT
From:  <SHAPERJJ at m4-arts.bham.ac.uk>
Subject:        readability

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 29 Jan 1997 17:23:43 +0200 (EET)
From:  Matti Miestamo <matmies at utu.fi>
Subject:  Qs: Negation vs. Affirmation

Dear Listers,

I am doing my MA thesis on the relationship between negation and
affirmation.  Especially I am interested in the way the marking of
tense/aspect/mood or other categories is affected by negation. I would
be grateful, if you could point out to me languages where for instance
a tense/aspect/mood-distinction made in the positive is neutralised in
the negative (or vice versa!) or any languages that are interesting as
far as the relationship between negation and affirmation is
concerned. I am already aware of a number of languages that could be
relevant for my study, but any information is welcome.  Also, I would
appreciate information on books and articles relevant for my study. I
will post a summary.

Thank you,
Matti Miestamo, University of Turku, Finland


-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Wed, 29 Jan 1997 08:50:16 -0500
From:  Kate Gladstone & Andrew Haber <kate at global2000.net>
Subject:  Orwell quote; imposed social stratification of speech


Hi!

/1/ I'm trying to find the source for a George Orwell quote re an
incident with linguitsic implications which he observed while in
Burma.

INCIDENT:
A Burmese waiter at a British restaurant or officers' club told a
British officer, "I am very sorry, but it is impossible for us to keep
the ice cold in this climate."
      The officer became irate and shouted, "Blast you, how dare you
talk like that?! 'Sorry, can't keeping ice cool ' - that's what you
*should* be saying!" (in other words, it offended the guest that a
person whose social/ethnic-group status "entitled" him only to the
production of non-standard/non-native English should dare to speak as
the officer spoke.

Does anyone have the exact source of the quote?

/2/ Does anyone have any similar incidents to report/reflect on (from
personal experience, observation, or reading)?

/3/ Does any of this have any relation to black/white dialect issues
in the USA: in other words, are there (or have there been) instances
or eras in which competent, native-speaker usage of standard American
English by American blacks has been punished or otherwise
discountenanced by American whites?




Yours for better letters,

Kate Gladstone
Handwriting Repair
325 South Manning Boulevard
Albany, NY 12208-1731

518-482-6763

kate at global2000.net


-------------------------------- Message 3 -------------------------------

Date:           Wed, 29 Jan 1997 09:29:21 GMT
From:  <SHAPERJJ at m4-arts.bham.ac.uk>
Subject:        readability

Does anyone out there know of any text readability formulae which do
not make use of sentence (or word) length?

j.j.shapero at bham.ac.uk


Jess J. Shapero,
M.Phil student,
School of English,
University of Birmingham,
England.

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