16.2293, Qs: Culture-bound Expressions;Database of French Words

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-2293. Sat Jul 30 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.2293, Qs: Culture-bound Expressions;Database of French Words

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>
 
Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org) 
        Sheila Dooley, U of Arizona  
        Terry Langendoen, U of Arizona  

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Jessica Boynton <jessica 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.

In addition to posting a summary, we'd like to remind people that it
is usually a good idea to personally thank those individuals who have
taken the trouble to respond to the query.

To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at
http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html.


===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 27-Jul-2005
From: Anel Isaeva < anel at inbox.ru >
Subject: Cultural References / Culture-bound Expressions 

2)
Date: 11-Jul-2005
From: Bruce Anderson < bruce-anderson at rogers.com >
Subject: Public Database of French Words 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 07:21:50
From: Anel Isaeva < anel at inbox.ru >
Subject: Cultural References / Culture-bound Expressions 
 

Hello,

1. I'm trying to find out if the works on cultural references exist in
English or French.

By cultural references I mean names, phrases, dates, quotations that evoke
certain associations for people of one particular nation or social group -
for example, Ivy League (associations: Harvard, elitism etc) or ''I have a
dream'' (Martin Luther King) for the Americans, 1968 for the French and a
different 1968 for  the Czech.

There is a recent theory in Russia which studies such references as a
system (a very brief summary at
http://www.philol.msu.ru/rus/izd/97sod3/6.html).

But I have huge problems trying to find at least remote equivalents of this
theory or its terminology in English.

Honestly, I feel lost between the Anthropology, Sociolinguistics,
Pragmatics and Applied linguistics shelves in the library. Every branch
seems to be interested in the relationship between language and culture, as
well as intercultural communication, but neither seems to study cultural
references as such.


2. Could you recommend a dictionary of linguistic terms that would trace
the history and give different interpretations of terms? I'm using
R.E.Asher's 10-volume Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics at the
moment, but really need some reliable dictionary , listing terms in
alphabetical order. 

Thank you in advance!

Anel Isaeva, Moscow. 

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics
                     Applied Linguistics
                     Sociolinguistics

Subject Language(s): English (ENG)
                     French (FRN)



	
-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 07:21:54
From: Bruce Anderson < bruce-anderson at rogers.com >
Subject: Public Database of French Words 

	

Masculine/Feminine in French has been driving me nuts for 40+ years & I'd
like to build a program to drill myself on the gender of french nouns.

To do that, I need to find an appropriate word list that includes, as a
minimum, part of speech and gender.  The list should be something that I
can process in Visual Basic or MS Access (i.e. a text list, a CSV or a
simple database).  Size is an issue unless there is some indication of how
frequently the word is found (i.e  I'd like to concentrate on more common
words and leave out obscure ones).  I'm guessing that a list with between
2,000 and 20,000 nouns would be perfect.

Of course, if there were more information, I wouldn't complain :-)

I already have computerised dictionaries (e.g. Le Petit Robert) but they do
not permit programmatic access to their contents.

Does anyone know where to find such a list/database?

Thanks in advance,
Bruce Anderson 

Linguistic Field(s): Lexicography


 



-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-16-2293