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Sesquipedalian #10, December 2, 1993
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Subject: Sesquipedalian #10, December 2, 1993
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The SESQUIPEDALIAN WEEKLY HERALD Volume IV, Number 10
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December 2, 1993
[This poem was generated by entering Lewis Carroll's poem
"Jabberwocky", from "Through The Looking Glass" into an Apple Newton.
Nonsense words in the original were each written three times to get
the most consistent match.]
TABLESPOONS
Teas Willis, and the sticky tours
Did gym and Gibbs in the wake.
All mimes were the borrowers,
And the moderate Belgrade.
"Beware the tablespoon my son,
The teeth that bite, the Claus that catch.
Beware the Subjects bird, and shred
The serious Bandwidth!"
He took his Verbal sword in hand:
Long time the monitors fog he sought,
So rested he by the Tumbled tree,
And stood a while in thought.
And as in selfish thought he stood,
The tablespoon, with eyes of Flame,
Came stifling through the trigger wood,
And troubled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and though,
The Verbal blade went thicker shade.
He left it dead, and with its head,
He went gambling back.
"And host Thai slash the tablespoon?
Come to my arms my bearish boy.
Oh various day! Cartoon! Cathay!"
He charted in his joy.
Teas Willis, and the sticky tours
Did gym and Gibbs in the wake.
All mimes were the borrowers,
And the moderate Belgrade.
Lewis Carrol's JABBERWOCKY as "recognized" by the Apple Newton,
(c) 1993 Robert McNally. Permission is granted to reproduce this
if the copyright remains intact.
['"It seems very pretty," she said when she had finished it, "but it's
rather hard to understand!" (You see she didn't like to confess even
to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.)'
-- Lewis Carrol, _Through the Looking Glass_]
-\-\-\ LOOK WHO'S TALKING /-/-/-
-- Joseph Greenberg presented 'Is Indo-European Alone in the World?'
to the Linguistics Department at San Jose State University on November
24. The author is quick to point out, that one can conclude the
answer is 'No'; otherwise the talk would have been extremely short.
-- LOOK WHO'S WRITING: Suzanne Kemmer (Ph.D. Stanford University,
1988) has just published a book titled 'The Middle Voice,' from John
Benjamins Publishing Co. The book contains some further development
of work started in her thesis.
-\-\-\ LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM /-/-/-
The next Linguistics Colloquium will be held on Friday, December 3rd
at 3:30 in Cordura 100 (CSLI). The speaker will be Saule Tazhibaeva,
a Visiting Scholar from the Dzhambul Pedagogical Institute,
Kazakhstan. The usual Happy Hour will follow.
CAUSAL CONSTRUCTIONS IN THE KAZAKH LANGUAGE
Saule Tazhibaeva
Dzhambul Pedagogical Institute, Kazakhstan
A discussion of causals can be found in all descriptive grammars.
Linguists have analysed the syntactic system of causals, and the
meaning of different conjunctions and constructions. There is much
work which has been conducted in Russian linguistics (L. Babalova,
1974; E. Klobukov, 1984; Teremova, 1988). Though interesting, these
studies fail to consider the full spectrum of causals. As for the
Turkic languages of the former Soviet Union, causals have been studied
>From the structural point of view without, however, taking into
consideration the meaning of the constructions. Soviet scholars A.
Cononov (1973), N. Baskakov (1988) maintain that there is no necessity
to do comparative research in Turkic syntax because of the relative
closeness of all Turkic languages. Bur our reearch shows clearly that
Kazakh, Altai and Tuvinian - three of the many Turkic languages - each
has a unique semantic type of "because-clause." The accepted view of
Soviet linguists must therefore be challenged.
In comparative linguistics there is a long tradition of
studying different language phenomena at the structural level. I
propose, first, that it is time to go beyond a formal discussion of
structure and address the meaning expressed by the forms.
Consequently, this could shed light on many interesting factors of
Language. And second, I propose that more work needs to be done
across language families. For example, there are several meanings of
CAUSE in Kazakh. And there also seem to be parallel meanings in other
languages. I suggest that the meaning is similar, though it is
expressed using diffeent forms. It's this kind of comparative work
that is vital to our understanding of causality, and to which I'm
contributing.
Causal constructions in Kazakh have two types of clause
linkage: synthetical and analytical.
SYNTHETIC CLAUSE LINKAGE is marked by a non-finite verb form with a
case affix or a postposition.
ANALYTIC CLAUSE LINKAGE is marked by conjunctions.
I show the formal differences in clause linkage correspond to systematic
semantic differences. Analytic clause linkage expressses non-causal relations
(motive, supposed cause).
(1) Aqsaqal olardy baiqa-ma-Gan bolu kerek, ouitkeni olarGa kouz salGan joq
old man them notice-NEG-Part.-is possible-because at them glance gave not
"perhaps the reason the old man didn't notice them is that he didn't give them
a glance."
There are three semantic types of synthetic clause linkages, each expressing a
different meaning: PURE CAUSE, EMOTIONAL REACTION, SANCTION.
PURE CAUSE: Qar zau-Gandyq-tan, kyn suytty
snow fall-ppart.-nom-abl, days become cool
"Because it snowed, the days became cool."
EMOTIONAL REACTION: An emotive verb governs a participle in the dative case.
Emotive verbs express a) positive reaction (to be glad, to be happy...)
Sening kel-feni-ne quandym
your-gencc. come-part.-3p.sing.-dat.case, happy I was
I was happy because of your coming.
b) negative reaction (to be angry, to be displeased...)
Marattyng bul jumysty bitir-megeni-ne renzidik
Marat-Gen.c. this work-acc.c. finish-not-p.part.-3p.sing.-dat. angry we
were
We were angry because of Marat's not finishing this work.
SANCTION (I couldn't find a good equivalent in English for this type of causal
construction): A verb with a meaning of social activity governs a participle
with a postposition.
Verbs with the meaning of sanction express:
a) encouragement (to be awarded with a medal, to take pride...)
b) punishment (to be kept in prison, to be sent to jail, to be accused...)
c) stimulation or punishment by speech (to thank smb. to, to swear...)
Sarah zaqsy kitap zaz-Gany yshin nagradaga usyndy
Sarah good book write-p.part. because-post position, award-dat.c. suggested.
Sarah was awarded, because she wrote a good book.
The specific feature of SANCTION AND EMOTIONAL REACTION is
that the subject is always personalised - a human being - while in
pure causals it doesn't matter whether a subject is personalised or
not.
Comparative research I did in Altai, Tuvinian and Russian
langauges show that the meaning of causals coincides with those,
outlined in Kazakh. I want to establish a typology of because-clauses
in English as well. I hope such kind of analyses will help linguists
to clear up and settle many interesting factors of Language.
-\-\-\ PHONOLOGY WORKSHOP /-/-/-
The next Phonology Workshop will take place on TUESDAY, Dec. 7th, 7:30
p.m., in Ventura 17. Orhan Orgun will be presenting:
Monotonic cyclicity and Optimality Theory
Orhan Orgun
University of California, Berkeley
Evidence for cyclicity and level ordering (e.g., Mascaro 1976,
Kiparsky 1982, 1993, Hargus 1993, Inkelas 1993) seems to pose a
serious challenge to nonderivational approaches to phonology (e.g.,
Goldsmith 1993, Lakoff 1993, Prince and Smolensky 1993). Cyclic
phonology is thought to require serial derivations. But serial
derivations are cognitively implausible, and hard to parse.
Proponents of nonderivational phonology have responded to this
issue in two very different ways.
i) Optimality Theory: Cyclic effects are claimed to be an
epiphenomenon resulting from constraints on alignment between morpheme
edges and metrical constituents (McCarthy and Prince 1993). This
approach is based on the tacit assumption that all cyclic effects
occur at morpheme junctures.
ii) Harmonic Phonology and related approaches (Goldsmith 1993, Lakoff
1993) assume three simultaneous phonological representations (levels)
with constraints on correspondences between levels. This approach is
based on two apparent generalizations: First, one never seems to need
more than two phonological cycles (this claim is found in Cole 1990).
Secondly, it never hurts to have more than one phonological cycle.
This paper presents two cases of cyclic phonology that cannot
be analyzed in either of the above approaches. I then present a new
theory of the morphology-phonology interaction inspired by
unification-based grammars (e.g., Kay 1979, GPSG/HPSG, Fillmore, Kay
and O'Connor 1993) which is declarative, yet derives cyclic effects in
phonology as a direct consequence. This approach also provides us with
a nondiacritic way of expressing the contrast between cyclic and
noncyclic levels (Mohanan and Mohanan 1984, Halle and Mohanan 1985,
Mohanan 1986). Furthermore, a well-known locality condition, the
"bracket erasure" of Pesetsky 1979, Kiparsky 1982 also follows from
the phrase structure.
-\-\-\ CALL FOR PAPERS /-/-/-
-- FLSM-V: The fifth annual meeting of the Formal Linguistics Society
of Mid-America (May 20-22, 1994, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign). Abstracts are invited for 20-minute talks in all
areas of linguistic theory. Papers presented will be published in the
FLSM-V proceedings. Please submit ten copies of a one-page abstract
suitable for reproduction (an additional page with examples and
references may be included). Authors should identify themselves on a
separate 3x5 card including name, address, affiliation, e-mail address
and phone numbers. Address abstracts by January 31, 1994, to
ABSTRACTS -- FLSM-V
Department of Linguistics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
4088 Foreign Languages Building
Department of Linguistics
707 S Mathews
Urbana IL 61801
email: flsm5@cogsci.uiuc.edu
phone: 217/333-3563
-- SALSA-II: The Symposium About Language and Society-Austin is
pleased to announce its Second Annual Meeting to be held April 15-17,
1994 at the University of Texas at Austin. Abstracts are invited on
topics concerning the relationship between language, culture and
society. These include but are not limited to: Linguistic
anthropology, variation and social networks, natural discourse,
ethnography of communication, discourse-based approaches. Papers
delivered at the conference will be published as an edition of the
Texas Linguistic Forum. Speakers will be allowed 20 minutes for
presentation and 10 minutes for discussion. Papers will be selected
based on the evaluation of an anonymous proposal which may not exceed
1 page (unreduced). The proposal should include a specific statement
of the topic or issue, a brief description of the relevant data and
the conclusions. Please submit six (6) copies of the proposal, to the
address below. Proposals should be accompanied by a 3x5 card with the
following information: 1) The title of the paper 2) Authors name(s) 3)
Author's affiliation 4) Address and phone number at which the author
wishes to be notified. In addition, please submit a 100 word abstract
of the proposal, on a 3.5" disc, for publication in the conference
program. Discs can be either Macintosh or IBM, in text-only or ASCII
format. Please label your disc clearly. Submissions must be received
by January 18, 1994. Late submissions will not be accepted, and we
cannot accept papers which are to be published elsewhere. Notification
of acceptance or rejection will be sent in early February, 1994.
Registration fees will be $15 for students and $25 for non-students.
Papers must be received by May 6, 1994 to be included in the published
proceedings. Send all correspondence to
SALSA
Department of Linguistics
University of Texas at Austin
Austin TX 78712-1196
Tel: (512) 471-1701
email: SALSA@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu
-\-\-\ TRUE LINGUISTS /-/-/-
LINGUISTIC SWIFTIES: The following linguistic 'Tom Swifties' were
gleaned from _Studies out in Left Field_ (John Benjamins Publishing
Co.), via the Chronicle of Higher Education:
'Why don't you sit here?' he suggested in Lapp.
'I'm going to go lie out in the sun,' he announced in Basque.
'Down, Spot!' he commanded in Dalmatian.
'Too bad I can't castle now,' Kasparov said in Czech.
'Roquefort or Thousand Island?' the waiter asked in Lettish.
'Why do they call him Old Yellowtooth?' he pondered in Tartar.
'That laser beam sure took care of MIT!' the mad scientist cackled in
Zapotec.
'You're confusing Musial with Yogi Berra,' he said in Hindustani.
'Sounds like a shady deal to me,' he warned in Umbrian.
'What do fools do where angels fear to tread?' he asked in Russian.
'This means sudden death!' the coach explained in Thai.
-\-\-\ 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.)
-- SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY: Applications are being accepted for a
tenure-track position in Linguistics starting September 1, 1994,
subject to approval of funding. Appointment will be made at the
assistant professor rank. A primary specialization in applied
linguistics and a strong secondary field of expertise within
Linguistics are required for this position. The successful candidate
will be assigned primary responsibilities in the department's programs
for teachers of English as a Second Language. Teaching duties will
include courses on Teaching English as a Second Language and other
applied linguistics courses, as well as a range of other linguistics
courses at various levels. Candidates should hold a Ph. D. in
Linguistics or other field with a linguistics specialization, show
strong promise as a researcher, be prepared to become active in the
development and management of undergraduate programs, particularly in
the TESL area, and to accept graduate supervision duties. Send a
letter of application, curriculum vitae, and sample publications (by
January 15, 1994) to
Prof. Thomas A. Perry
Chair, Department of Linguistics
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B. C. V5A 1S6
Canada
phone: (604) 291-3554
fax: (604) 291-4585
email: perry@sfu.ca
Candidates should arrange for three letters of recommendation to be
sent to the Department by the deadline. In accordance with Canadian
Immigration requirements, this advertisement is directed to Canadian
citizens and permanent residents. SFU offers equal employment
opportunities to qualified applicants.
-- UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO: Applications are invited for the position of
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in the Linguistics Section of the School of
Languages, University of Otago. [Lecturer is equivalent to US
Assistant Prof.; Sr. Lecturer is equivalent to US Associate Prof.]
Candidates should have a completed PhD in linguistics, and teaching
experience at tertiary level. The successful applicant will be
responsible for teaching core courses in phonetics and phonology and
should have a demonstrated commitment to research in these areas.
Secondary research or teaching expertise in one or more of the
following areas will be an advantage: applied linguistics, educational
linguistics, language acquisition, psycholinguistics, or second
language teaching. Field experience or specialization in a particular
language or language family will be an additional advantage, and
candidates should specify which language or language families they
have worked on. The appointee will also play an active role in the
future deveopment of the linguistics programme. Appointment will be
limited to three years in the first instance [i.e. is expected to be
converted to a permanent position], and will be at an appropriate step
on the lecturer's scale $NZ37,440 - 45,448 per annum, or senior
lecturer's scale, $NZ52,000 - 60,994 p/a. The position is available
>From 1 Feb. 1994. Specific inquiries may be directed to Prof. A. G.
Fox, Head, School of Languages, University of Otago (Fax: (64) (3)
479-2305; Internet agfox@gandalf.otago.ac.nz) and further information
is available from the Registrar, Mr D. W. Girvan, University of Otago,
PO Box 56, Dunedin, NZ (Fax: (64) (3) 474- 1607). Applications
quoting reference number A93/134 close with the Registry on 28 January
1994. Equal opportunity in employment is University policy. A
complete description of the conditions of employment and the structure
of the linguistics programme at the University of Otago are available
>From Prof. Fox at the address above; or email me with your postal
address at the Internet address below.
Claudia Brugman
Linguistics Programme and English Dept.
University of Otago
PO Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
email: cbrugman@gandalf.otago.ac.nz
-- UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS: The Department of Speech-Language-Hearing at
the University of Kansas has a tenure-track position available for an
Assistant Professor. The department has a long tradition of research
and training in communication disorders, with a particular emphasis on
language acquisition and language disorders. The department values
cross-disciplinary investigation and collaborative research. In
conjunction with the departments of Human Development, Linguistics,
and Psychology, the department sponsors the doctoral program in Child
Language. Adjunct appointments are also possible in the Life Span
Institute and in the Gerontology Center. Qualifications: Ph.D. or
equivalent, research experience, and expertise in a topic area
relevant to language science and disorders. Preferred qualifications
include teaching experience, evidence of successful collaborative
research, and clinical certification in speech/language pathology.
Duties: Duties of the faculty member include collaborative research in
language science and disorders,and potential for extramurally funded
research. Expected teaching load of 2 courses per semester. Service
to the department, university, and profession is expected. Salary
range: Negotiable. Starting Date: August 16, 1994. Applications must
be received by February 1, 1994. Send letter of application, vita,
and names, addresses and phone numbers of three references to
Mabel L. Rice, Professor
Department of Speech-Language-Hearing
3031 Dole Center
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045
Phone: (913) 864-4570.
-- Position: Assistant Professor of Speech and Language Pathology
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern
University. Specialty Area: Fluency, disfluency and stuttering with
emphasis on speech motor control. Responsibilites:Teaching,
conducting research, supervising doctoral student research and
directing related clinical programs. Salary: Negotiable, depending on
qualifications and experience. Qualifications: Ph.D. required;
established record of research and publication, CCC-SLP highly
desirable. Starting Date: September, 1994. Send letter of
application, vita, copies of publications and at least three letters
of recommendation to
David R. Rutherford, Chair
Search Committee
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Frances Searle Building
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL 60208-3570
d-rutherford@nwu.edu
phone (708) 491-5073
To ensure full consideration, application must be received by January
15, 1994. Review of applications begins immediately. Northwestern
University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.
Hiring is contingent upon eligibility to work in the United States.
-- HANSEO UNIVERSITY: Hanseo University seeks for a tenure-track
instructor with specialized interest in: Teaching English as a Foreign
Language or English Linguistics, or Applied Linguistics. Position
begins March, 1994 for a 1-year initial contract which is renewable.
Duties include teaching EFL courses and administrative duties in the
English language program. Applicants must have MA in hand and a
near-native competence in English. International experience and/or
university teaching experience preferred. Review of candidates will
begin on January 4, 1994, and will continue until position is filled.
For initial screening, please send a CV and 2 references, names and
addresses, and self-addressed postcard to
English Search Chair
Department of English
Hanseo University
360 Taegok-li, Haemi-myen, Seosan-kun
Chungnam 352-820
SOUTH KOREA
(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 /-/-/-
METAPUZZLE: On the island of knights and knaves, knights always tell
the truth, knaves always lie, and each native is either a knight or a
knave. A philosopher once visited the island because of a rumour that
gold was buried there. He first met a native named Ard and asked him,
'Is there gold on this island?' Ard replied, 'I once claimed there
is.' This was none too helpful! Then the philosopher met a second
native, Bork, and asked him if there was gold on the island. Bork's
reply was even less informative: 'I never claimed there isn't.' Then
he met a native, Clag, who he learned was acquainted with Ard and
Bork, and asked, 'Are Ard and Bork of the same type-- both knights and
knaves-- or are they of different types?' Clag told him the answer,
but the philosopher was still in the dark since he didn't know whether
Clag was a knight or a knave. Finally he met a fourth native, Dag,
and asked him, 'Are you and Clag of the same type?' Dag answered
directly and the philosopher then knew whether or not there was gold
on the island.
Is there gold on the island? First answer that convincingly
demonstrates the solution wins.
(Contributed by G. Wein)
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-\-\-\ CONSERVE DISK SPACE /-/-/-
So you may delete your copy after you've read it (or better yet,
before you've read it), the Sesquipedalian Weekly Herald is stored
online both at Stanford (in directory /user/linguistics/Sesquip), and
at Berkeley (in the directory /usr/pub.) The most current issue of
the Herald can be found by typing 'help quip'.
Neither Stanford University nor the Linguistics Department, nor any of
their employees, makes any warranty, whatsoever, implied, or assumes
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endorsement purposes.
Contains no CFCs
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