11.1553, Qs: Minimal Pairs, Int'l Business Communication

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-11-1553. Sat Jul 15 2000. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 11.1553, Qs: Minimal Pairs, Int'l Business Communication

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1)
Date:  Fri, 14 Jul 2000 13:18:56 +0100
From:  "Scobbie, Jim" <JScobbie at QMUC.ac.uk>
Subject:  Disc: Homophony and minimal pair counts cross-linguistically

2)
Date:  Fri, 14 Jul 2000 18:09:50 -0400 (GMT-0400)
From:  JUAN ANTONIO PENA <jpena1 at rrpac.upr.clu.edu>
Subject:  Cross cultural business communication

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

Date:  Fri, 14 Jul 2000 13:18:56 +0100
From:  "Scobbie, Jim" <JScobbie at QMUC.ac.uk>
Subject:  Disc: Homophony and minimal pair counts cross-linguistically

Can anyone quantify the amount of homophony in different languages in major
category words? I don't know whether this is an unanswerable request, given
the difficulty of establishing criteria (let alone cross-linguistic
criteria) for distinguishing homophony (different headwords with same
phonology) from multiple subsenses of the same headword.

Rather more easily, are there cross-linguistic quantifications of the
numbers of minimal pairs (in total, per contrast, relative to number of
items in the inventory) given a standard phonemic inventory?

I see there is a brief discussion of quantifying homophones and minimal
pairs in LINGUIST List 4.2 Wed 06 Jan 1993 by John Higgins, and my interest
was sparked.



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

Date:  Fri, 14 Jul 2000 18:09:50 -0400 (GMT-0400)
From:  JUAN ANTONIO PENA <jpena1 at rrpac.upr.clu.edu>
Subject:  Cross cultural business communication

Dear List members,
   My name is Juan Antonio Pena. I teach Business Communication in Spanish
at University of Puerto Rico. I am writing to you in look for your help.
    I am trying to locate different kinds of resources on international
business communication, language and culture barriers. Specifically, what
I am most interested in is how each country/people write differently, what
characteristics each people, culture, has. In other words, when one
communicates with another country, what differentiates the style of each
language: is length of sentences clearly different, do one people use
mostly a polished language while the other goes straight to the point, do
each country write salutations always with or without titles? This is a
very interesting topic, and one that is gaining importance given the surge
in global communication..
    I have searched the Library of Congress catalog, Amazon, my own
university, and, of course, Internet. However, and contrary to what I
expected, I have only found very few, indeed very few, references.
    Since this research is for an international conference in September, I
wondered if you would know of an Internet site, journals, people...indeed
whatever, that could interest me.
   I know this is a burden for you, but I  would greatly appreciate your
help.
Sincerely,
JAPena

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