9.1710, Qs: Creole classifiers, Chinese resultative, French

[LINGUIST Network]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-9-1710. Fri Dec 4 1998. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 9.1710, Qs: Creole classifiers, Chinese resultative, French

Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Wayne State U.<aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at linguistlist.org>
            Andrew Carnie: U. of Arizona <carnie at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: Andrew Carnie: U. of Arizona <carnie at linguistlist.org>

Associate Editors:  Martin Jacobsen <marty at linguistlist.org>
                    Brett Churchill <brett at linguistlist.org>
                    Ljuba Veselinova <ljuba at linguistlist.org>

Assistant Editors:  Scott Fults <scott at linguistlist.org>
		    Jody Huellmantel <jody at linguistlist.org>
		    Karen Milligan <karen at linguistlist.org>

Software development: John H. Remmers <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
                      Chris Brown <chris at linguistlist.org>

Home Page:  http://linguistlist.org/


Editor for this issue: Jody Huellmantel <jody at linguistlist.org>
 ==========================================================================

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:  Wed, 02 Dec 1998 20:20:52 PST
From:  "Adam Schembri" <acschembri at hotmail.com>
Subject:  Classifiers in creole languages

2)
Date:  Fri, 4 Dec 1998 10:22:53 +0800
From:  "chen liang" <vanechen at 163.net>
Subject:  Chinese resultative

3)
Date:  Thu, 03 Dec 1998 13:25:35 PST
From:  "Mobutu African" <african97 at hotmail.com>
Subject:  French songs

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

Date:  Wed, 02 Dec 1998 20:20:52 PST
From:  "Adam Schembri" <acschembri at hotmail.com>
Subject:  Classifiers in creole languages


Research on creole signed languages, such as ISN in Nicaragua, has
indicated that these languages have a class of polymorphemic verbs of
motion, location and handling which include handshapes morphemes
commonly known as "classifiers" (Senghas, 1994). I've read somewhere
that classifiers are unknown in spoken language creoles, but can't
locate the reference. Can anyone supply a reference for this, or would
any creolists like to comment?

Adam Schembri
Renwick College
Private Bag 29
Parramatta NSW
2124 AUSTRALIA
Ph (voice/TTY): (61 2) 9872 0303
Fax: (61 2) 9873 1614






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

Date:  Fri, 4 Dec 1998 10:22:53 +0800
From:  "chen liang" <vanechen at 163.net>
Subject:  Chinese resultative


Dear Linguists,

I am doing my MA project on Chinese resultative. The surface structure
of secondary predication seems to differ from that of English,
there is a morpheme DE between the two predicates as in:

  (1) "John  ku    DE  Tom  hen    shangxin"
       John  cry   DE  Tom  very   sad
            Lit. "John cried such that Tom got very sad.)
  (2) "John ku      DE hen   shangxin"
       John cry     DE very  sad
           Lit. John cried such that John became sad.

What is interesting about the Chinese data is (a) the fact that we get
a kind of subject control structure, in (2), and (b) the act that the
article DE precedes not only the resultative predicate but also the
affected DP Tom in (1) (DE developed historically from the full verb
de meaning 'obtain'(the result of ).  I would like to know whether
there are other languages in the world which requires the same DE-like
morpheme to form a secondary predication.

Please contact me through e-mail: Chen Liang<vanechen at 163.net).


P.S.
Professor Tim Stowell gives me some wonderful suggestions. He assumes
that further research would be needed, (a) to get further evidence for
the subject status of the post-DE DP, something that would probably be
difficult, and (b) to elucidate the nature of the relation between the
main verb (or some other element in the main clause) and the
resultative clause, and also between the subject of the resultative
and the main predicate. These are still unresolved problems in
English, in my view; perhaps only a careful cross-linguistic
comparison of resultatives will resolve this. I thank professor Stowell
for this.

What are your opinions on these two issues?  If I get enough
feedback, I will post a summary with the information received.




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

Date:  Thu, 03 Dec 1998 13:25:35 PST
From:  "Mobutu African" <african97 at hotmail.com>
Subject:  French songs


Dera linguists,

I am looking for a postdoc to research on colloquial French and
"francais populaire" in a corpus of French songs.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-9-1710