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Sesquipedalian #23
the SESQUIPEDALIAN Volume VI, No. 23
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First person executed by guillotine (1792) April 25, 1996
PHILLY PHUN-ICS (How to speak Philadelphian)
by Michael Lawrence Ellis III
I. Philadelphian Greetings/ Common Vocabulary
Webster's ..............................Philadelphian
Hello Yo.
Hello. What's happening? Yo, Supp?
Glad to meet you. Hay
Pleasure. What's happening? Hay Supp?
Yes, pardon me, what's that? Yeah, Huh, Wah?
You people Yuze (or Yizz; Yuzz)
Is that all right? Eye't?
Oh, definitely Oh, Deaf Lee
I've been there Bin Dare
Thank you Tanks
Where have you been? Where Ya Bin?
What has been going on? Skowne On?
Are you coming with us? Comin' wit?
Water Wooder
Hello, friend of Italian decent Yo Goomba
Nice to meet you Nice Ta Meechas
Beautiful Be You Dee Full
Are you out of bed yet? Yo Yup?
Are you speaking on the telephone? Yo Yawn a Phone?
We're not allowed to do that Wena Loud
They're not allowed to do that. Dana Loud
II. Places to go in and around Philadelphia
South Philadelphia Sow Fluffya
South Street Sow Street
Conshohocken (suburban city) Con Chee
King of Prussia (suburban city) Kinga Presha
New Jersey beaches Donna Shore
New Jersey boardwalk Donna Boards
Our favorite Grocery Store (Acme) Dah Ack uh me
City Hall Siddy Haw
Suburban Station Spur Bin
III. Philadelphians go abroad
Europe Yerp
Italy It Lee
Ireland Eyerrr Lin
Germany Germ Knee
England Eng Lin
Scotland Scot Lin
Iraq Eye Rack
----- Speaking foreign Languages
English Spanish Philadelphian
Thank You Gracias Grassy Ass
Good Night Buenos noches Bones & Nachos
Please Por favor Pore Some More
No Problem No problema No Pro Blame Oh
I don't speak Spanish No hablo espanol No Ah Blow Escargot
English Italian Philadelphian
What do you say Che se dice Kay Said "each?"
English Japanese Philadelphian
Yes Hai Hi
IV. What you will hear in the Philadelphia downtown
Baseball/football stadium Downed Vet
(Veterans Stadium)
Baseball team (the Phillies)Dah Fills
Football team (the Eagles) Dah Iggles
Hockey team (the Fliers) Dah Fly Yers
Basketball team (the 76ers) Dah Semi Sixes
Have you eaten yet Jeat Yet?
No, Have you? No, Jew?
I'd like Italian lunchmeat,
lettuce, tomato, oil, and oregano
on a roll. Yo Gimmie a Hoagie
Fried Cheesesteak Sandwitch Cheese Take
Fried Pig entrails with eggs Scrapp Lynn Eggs
V. Philladelphian Sayings
I forget exactly where I Fur Get Zack Lee Where
Are you going to the shore? Yuze Goin' Donnashore
Are you going to the Pocono mountians Yizz headed up dah Pokes?
All of you will love the Eagles Yizzle Luv Diggles
South on the Roosevelt Boulevard Donna Rose Fell Bull Far
Shopping Mall Shah Pin Maw
Where is my pocketbook Where's my Pock a Book At
The street betwixt 4th and 6th Fif
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Mon Dee, 2's Dee, When's Dee
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Thirsty, Fry Dee, Sare Dee,
Sunday Sunny
Yesterday Yesterdee
Tomorrow Tumm Are
Our Favorite Wine "I Wanna Go Donnashore!"
Attitude Addytude
Please Pah Lee's
I'm only human I'm only Ewe Min
VI. At the Itallian Market
At the Italian Market Donna Talian Mork It
The sidewalks of Passyunk Payments of Pash Unk
Five for one Dollar, ma'am Fiva a Dolla Babe
Do I make myself clear? Yunner Stan?
Yes you may do that Guh Head
Don't bruise the produce Yo, Doan Squeeze
Italian Water Ice Talian Wooder Ice
Root Beer Rue Beer
Strawberry Straw Bree
VII. Philadelphians In the USA
Bufflao, NY BUFF-low
New York City, NY N'York
Toronto, Canada Tronno
Atlantic City, NJ Lannic City
Sea Isle City, NJ Senile City
Cape May, NJ Kay May
Baltimore, MD Baldy More
Washington, DC Dee See
Atlanta, GA Lanna
Clearwater FL Clear Wooder
Roxburry, PA Rox Burr
Broomall, PA Broom Awe
Willow Grove, PA Will a Grove
Saint Paul, MN Sane Paw
Salt Lake City UH Saw Leg City
Portland ME, OR Poor Lynn
-\-/-\ LOOK WHO'S TALKING \-/-\-
-- Arto Anttila and Young-Mee Cho presented a paper on Optimal Change
at the Chicago Linguistics Society annual meeting earlier this month.
-- Rudi Gaudio has accepted a position as Assistant Professor of
linguistic anthropology in the Anthropology Department at the
University of Arizona starting in August '96 with teaching and
advising responsibilities in the ling anthro program, as well as in U
of A's interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Linguistics and
Anthropology.
-\-/-\ LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM \-/-\-
-- Friday, April 26, 3:30 pm, Margaret Jacks Hall (460), Rm 146.
Hye-Won Choi
Stanford University
Optimizing Structure in Context: the Case of Scrambling
A Dissertation Proposal
My dissertation examines the relationship between syntactic structure
and pragmatic/contextual meaning of language focusing on the
scrambling phenomena in German and Korean. I pursue this issue from
the perspective that different ordering possibilities are motivated
and constrained by interactions between syntactic, semantic, and
pragmatic principles of these languages. In particular, I utilize
Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, Grimshaw 1995) to
demonstrate how these principles interact and resolve conflicts among
one another to yield the ``optimal'' output, i.e., a sentence with a
particular word order, in a given context.
Taking the various scrambled variants of a sentence as
competing candidates, I derive each scrambled structure as the best
matching output to the given context, which is represented as the
`information structure' (cf. Vallduvi 1992) in the input. In the
first part of the talk, I propose that the Optimality-Theoretic
account of scrambling, i.e., the search for the optimal syntactic
structure in a given context, naturally leads to the explanations of
the often-observed semantic and pragmatic effects associated with
scrambling such as the `definiteness/specificity' effect (Moltmann
1990, de Hoop 1992), the `anti-focus' effect (Lenerz 1977, Abraham
1986, Webelhuth 1992), and the `contrastive focus' effect (Abraham
1986, Moltmann 1990). In the second part, I also argue that the OT
account provides a systematic analysis of the problematic dual
characteristic of the _nun_ marking in Korean (cf. _wa_ in Japanese),
i.e., the dual function of marking topic and contrastive focus.
Finally, the OT account I propose here also makes some predictions
about the markedness of each scrambled variant, and this seems to
match a statistical study of the frequency of some scrambled examples
in real texts (Hoberg 1981).
----------
Reception follows.
For directions and a complete list of colloquia, see
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/~kessler/colloq/
-\-/-\ CALL FOR PAPERS \-/-\-
--LASSO XXV: 25th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Association of the
Southwest (October 11-13, 1996, Louisiana State University, Baton
Rouge, Louisiana). Proposals for papers in any area of linguistics
will be considered. Submissions for the 1995 meeting in Baton Rouge
are particularly encouraged in the areas of discourse analysis,
languages and variation in Louisana, and Mayan linguistics. Papers by
graduate students are especially solicited and may be considered for
the Helrnut Esau Prize, a $250 cash award made annually by LASSO.
Presentation time for papers will be limited to twenty minutes plus
ten minutes for discussion. The deadline for receipt of abstracts is
June 15, 1996; notification of acceptance of papers will be sent out
by August 1, 1996. Only one abstract as single author and a second as
co-author will be accepted from any individual. Abstracts must be no
longer than one page (c. 250 words) and should summarize the main
points of the paper and explain relevant aspects of the data,
methodology, and argumentation employed; abstracts of accepted papers
will be published exactly as received in a booklet for distribution at
the meeting. At the beginning of your abstract place the paper title,
and at the end of the abstract (or on a separate page) repeat the
title along with your name, affiliation, mailing address, telephone
number, and e-mail address. It is preferred that abstracts be
submitted by email to: ditmg@ttacs1.ttu.edu
In the absence of e-mail, or if your abstract contains any
special symbols, send one hard copy of the abstract (preferably with a
diskette, labeled for operating system and word processing program)
to: Mary Jane Hurst, Department of English, Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX 79409-3091 Tel. (806) 742-2501 Presentation of papers at
the LASSO annual meetings is a privilege of membership in LASSO; 1995
dues must be paid by June 15 in order for your abstract to be
considered. Annual membership dues for individuals are US$15.00 (or
US$7.50 for students, retired persons, and those not employed). To pay
dues or for additional information, contact:
Garland D. Bills
Executive Director, LASSO
Department of Linguistics
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-1196 USA
Tel. 505-277-7416
Fax 505-277-6355
E-mail: gbills@.unm.edu
-\-/-\ FELLOWSHIPS/ASSISTANTSHIPS \-/-\-
-- The Stanford Humanities Center promotes humanistic research and
education at Stanford and nationwide. Its programs include:
fellowships for advanced research by faculty from Stanford and other
institutions; fellowships for advanced Stanford Graduate students;
research workshops for faculty and graduate students; and public
presentation of new work in the humanities through lectures,
colloquia, conferences and publications. In particular, the Stanford
Humanities Center stresses work of an interdisciplinary nature. The
following two types of fellowships have an application deadline of May
15: Pre-doctoral fellowships, which are intended for Stanford doctoral
students of unusual promise and achievement who are normally in their
third or fourth year of graduate work and have completed their formal
course work; and Dissertation Resident Fellowships, which are awarded
to a small number of humanities dissertation fellows who are writing
their theses and can bring support from other granting agencies such
as Whiting, Compton, Ford, Mellon, etc. or who have outside support
for their writing year. Application forms may be picked up at the
Humanities Center office in Mariposa House. For further information
please contact Susan Sebbard, 415 723 3053
-\-/-\ TRUE LINGUISTICS \-/-\-
-- Fortune magazine reported in October on the foresightedness of
Procter & Gamble in registering names for potential exclusive Internet
addresses. It won the right to use, among other names:
toiletpaper.com, pimples.com, germs.com, bacteria.com, dandruff.com,
underarm.com, badbreath.com, and diarrhea.com. [Fortune, 10-16-95;
Louisville Courier-Journal, 10-9-95]
-\-/-\ JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS \-/-\-
(REDUNDANCY NOTICE: For fuller listings of these and other jobs, don't
forget to check the Jobs binder in the Greenberg Room, and the file
'jobslist.txt' on the CSLI directory /user/linguistics.)
-- UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII: The Department of English as a Second
Language at the University of Hawai'i is looking to fill a
tenure-track Assistant or Associate Professor position (#83294),
full-time, 9-month, to begin January 1, 1997 or August 1, 1997,
pending availability of position and funding. Applicants must have
major publications and instructional competence in one or both of the
following two areas: language use and language socialization in
multilingual societies, second language qualitative research
methodology. Minimum Qualifications: For both ranks, doctorate in
Second Language Acquisition, ESL, applied linguistics, or closely
related field; ability to carry out research in the above major
area(s) of specialization; demonstrated research ability evidenced by
publication in journals or books; second or foreign language teaching
experience; demonstrated excellence in teaching. Additional
qualifications for Associate Professor: strong record of scholarly
achievement, including publications in the major journals and presses
in the field; prior appointment at the rank of associate at a
comparable university, or a minimum of four years full-time teaching
at the rank of assistant. Desirable Qualifications: Research or
instructional competence in one or more of the following areas: pidgin
and creole languages, sociolinguistics and second languages, bilingual
education, and second language analysis; experience in Asia or the
Pacific Basin, especially Hawai'i; prior teaching experience in an ESL
or equivalent graduate program; teacher training experience. Send
letter of application; CV; names, addresses, phone numbers of at least
three references, list of courses taught, sample publications,
supporting documents to
Chair; Department of ESL
University of Hawai'i
1890 East-West Road
Honolulu HI 96822
phone: 808-956-2800
fax: 808-956-2802.
Closing date: August 1, 1996. EOE/AA
(REDUNDANCY NOTICE: For fuller listings of these and other jobs, don't
forget to check the Jobs binder in the Greenberg Room, and the file
'jobslist.txt' on the CSLI directory /user/linguistics.)
-\-/-\ INSTA-PRIZE \-/-\-
HARDLY WORKING: Name the twelve labors of Hercules for this week's
insta-prize.
Solution to EMILY'S STEPFATHER: 'Kurt' appears to be the most likely
name in English to satisfy these conditions.
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-\-/-\ CONSERVE DISK SPACE \-/-\-
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