Questions tagged [reference-request]
Questions seeking books, websites, articles, papers, research, or downloadable content on any linguistic topic.
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Cross-linguistic study of distribution of number of verbal arguments
I think I remember reading once that cross linguistically, at least in "normal" spoken or written language, verbs almost never take more than ~4-5 obligatory arguments. This seems to be true in my ...
3
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0answers
33 views
Words per minute - language list?
I have an idea on how fast a Dutch speaker speaks:
130 wpm = medium
160 wpm = fast
100 wpm = slow
I'd like to have that same knowledge about other languages.
Is there a list somewhere that ...
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3answers
97 views
List of vowel and consonant sequences across languages
Wondering if there is any sort of list either across languages or for individual languages, either complete or partial, that list the sequences of vowels and/or consonants used in that language. If no ...
3
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0answers
52 views
Are there written languages that commonly start direct speech without marking?
In English and many common languages nowadays, punctuation marks are used to introduce direct speech. This makes it possible to start direct speech without lexical clue, as in the second example here:
...
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0answers
33 views
What does “referentiality” mean?
I have problems with the linguistic terms. I did not find satisfactory explanation
about "referentiality". On the other hand, what are the differences between "case" and "referentiality"? If there is, ...
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0answers
14 views
Is there any detailed documentation of VerbNet's semantic representation?
In VerbNet, each frame has a semantic representation like this:
cause(Agent, E) manner(during(E), directed motion, Agent)
!contact(during(E), Agent, Patient) manner(end(E),forceful, Agent)
...
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0answers
66 views
Language aesthetics [closed]
This is my first post on this site.
My question is this: are there any theories developed (or simply thoughts put on paper) by language/linguistic theorists as to the aesthetical aspect of language?
...
4
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1answer
56 views
Is there a better series of sentences for observing features of a language?
I've often tried to find a few short sentences that encapsulate most of the features of a language, a sort of Learn X in Y Minutes for spoken languages, if you will.
Tim Ferriss, a Renaissance man of ...
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41 views
What book introduces sound for laypeople trying to learn phonetics, but who loathe physics?
I'm reading about sound only because I like linguistics. I loathe, and have never taken any, physics. But I can do high school math, as I like statistics (not mathematical physics).
I'm too dumb to ...
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2answers
89 views
What are the best books to study generative syntax?
I'm looking for a good book to study generative syntax from an introductory level to intermediate or advanced.
2
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1answer
38 views
Learning control over formants and sounds energy distributions
Using spectograms like Praat and Chrome Musiclabs Spectogram. I discovered that I can control my first formant by moving my tongue between front to back by consciously moving between the vowel [u] [ae]...
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0answers
34 views
What is the state of the art for diacritic restoration?
Diacritic restoration is a term for guessing the original form of a text, after it's been converted to ASCII in a lossy way. In Lingála, for example, writing in ASCII merges two pairs of vowels and ...
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1answer
70 views
What are the best books to study Phonology at an introductory level?
I'm looking for a good introduction to phonology book with good examples of diverse languages.
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0answers
110 views
Language where baby's first word is a swear word
I remember coming across an interesting language where the first sounds out of a baby's mouth were not considered to be "mother" and "father," but were instead considered to be a curse word. I want ...
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2answers
75 views
Zellig Harris and the alphabet
I would be very interested if someone could provide me with a useful link to read Zellig Harris's text on the origin of the alphabet. The reference is:
Harris, Zellig S. 1933. “Acrophony and ...
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0answers
35 views
(How) Can one create a language in a classroom setting?
My wife questioned me if there's a subject that I cannot teach effectively (per my standards of making the students salivate for more). I mentioned my weakness at teaching languages, English for ...
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0answers
37 views
davidsonian semantics
I hope everyone is fine. I was wondering if you could help me with some suggestions about which book(s) should I start with to learn the Davidsonian semantics, so that I will be able to read and write ...
4
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0answers
90 views
4 or 5: is thumb a finger? Distribution across languages
Researching the origins of counting systems, I came across the question I cannot seem to find an answer for: what is the typological distribution of languages that consider thumb a finger (5 fingers ...
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0answers
36 views
Is there any topological foundations for biosemiotics?
I'm currently studying Biosemiotics from the school of barbeiri. I stumbled upon this article, "topological aspects of biosemiotics".
In this article, the author argues that, there are ...
4
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0answers
39 views
Looking for a thorough comparison of French and Spanish
Either in English, Spanish or French.
I haven't found a comparative grammar but I got pretty excited with this monograph:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Portuguese_and_Spanish
I'm ...
3
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0answers
43 views
Is there a phrasal verb corpus somewhere online?
I'm working on a project where I have syntactic frames in the form of something like "N.agent V PP.stimulus", where each PP consists of a P and a N.
I have a set list of verbs, and a list of PPs for ...
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0answers
74 views
Research on development of language of modality in children 8-12?
Let me quickly introduce myself to provide a context for my questions. My PhD research focuses on ways that we can teach primary school children (9-12) ways of handling complex, contradictory and ...
4
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0answers
135 views
Any online recording of [ʀ̆]?
Strangely, the the Wikipedia page doesn't contain any recording for it (usually it has a recording for each consonant or vowel).
Background: I'm a native Hebrew speaker who's interested in ...
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1answer
69 views
Can anyone send me a link or recommend me a book about IPA diacritics?
What I am interested in knowing is what exactly a specific diacritic does to a sound, and which muscles in the vocal tract are responsible for making those sounds.
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0answers
95 views
What historical change(s) shortened vowels in Old and Middle English?
In a 1968 paper by Kiparsky ("Linguistic universals and linguistic change"), a historical-change argument is made for the brace notation of SPE, based on the history of vowel shortening. The premise ...
3
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1answer
37 views
Reference work needed for Phrase Markers in English
I need a thorough online site or downloadable text that goes into detail about English phrase markers as in this example from Beth Levin's Verb Alternations book "This alternation involves verbs found ...
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0answers
69 views
The current state of the study of languages on the brain and thought processes
As a premise, I'm not a linguistic student nor have I really any experience in this discipline so I ask for forgiveness should my question be naive or not studied by the Linguistic discipline or ...
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1answer
100 views
Looking for a database of minimal pairs
I'm looking for a database of english minimal pairs that is at least somewhat organized by some principle such as features or phonemes similar to :
https://www.speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?...
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1answer
110 views
Is there a word-list for child English?
Are there any publications which list words of English that one might reasonably expect a child to know? I assume that "father" would be on the list, and "allophone; metallurgy" would not be. As for ...
6
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0answers
119 views
What are the different schools of PIE reconstruction?
I have read some works on Proto-Indo-European which mention different schools that advocate for different paradigms of reconstruction, such as the Leiden and the Erlangen schools. I'd like to know if ...
6
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0answers
45 views
What to reference for grammatical features being more reliable than lexical features for diachronic research?
I often hear people mention in passing that grammatical features are more reliable than lexical features in diachronic research, specifically when detecting pseudepigraphs, because it is relatively ...
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0answers
25 views
Online data giving numbers and frequencies of nouns in some well-known novels?
Are there any freely available online data giving the numbers and frequencies of nouns used in some well-known novels, whether or not the novels are in the public domain? I mean data such as
Dan ...
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0answers
17 views
Research on information entropy correlation between texts and their summaries?
There is established research on information entropy in text, as well as on summarization of text.
Is there any research to investigate possible correlation (or its absense) of entropy between texts ...
4
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2answers
61 views
Are negative comparative operators like “less” typologically rarer than their positive counterparts?
I'm looking for a reference to the claim that negative comparative operators like "less" are cross-linguistically rarer than their positive counterparts.
Is anyone familiar with this claim, and able ...
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0answers
21 views
Is there an generally positive / appraisal / emotion boundary?
I am working on a dataset for an NLP task connected with sentiment analysis. While thinking on word roles in composing of the overall sentiment and marking particular as being positive/negative, we ...
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0answers
25 views
Dictionary English - logic/formal symbols/expresssions
I'd like to know whether there's some kind of database offering the logic or formal" equivalent of English expressions, for example the conjunction "whereas", which has at least two meanings, each ...
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0answers
40 views
Are there any studies of language variation that deal with orthographic variation?
I'm interested in reading up on any sociolinguistic literature that deal with orthography in terms of variation, à la variationist sociolinguistics. I've never actually come across references to such ...
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0answers
73 views
Early language acquisition from non-native input
This answer on the Parenting Stack Exchange describes the possible effect on a child's overall language ability when well-meaning immigrant parents with limited mastery of the local language attempt ...
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3answers
78 views
Formalization and representation of semantic and pragmatic knowledge? [closed]
Are there efforts to formalize and formally represent (e.g. as semantic network, as some kind of logic) of semantic of pragmatic knowledge. It is known, that every speaker/listener has two types of ...
4
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0answers
49 views
Copulas and the Split VP Hypothesis
Copulas are regarded as semantically vacuous auxiliaries merged in V, then raised to T. Lexical verbs are merged in V and are raised to v. I have not found any literature discussing the copula with ...
2
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1answer
68 views
What languages have extraction markers?
I'm looking for languages that have extraction markers or wh-agreement markers like those cited in Chung (1994) in Chamorro below:
The example shows wh-agreement morphology on the verb when the ...
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1answer
102 views
Evidence proving lingustic perception of speech in brain?
Is there any evidence that speech is perceived linguistically, meaning is there evidence that shows that speech in the brain is perceived as phonemes, morphemes, and so on?
I was thinking whether ...
1
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1answer
60 views
Where does one find data on sonority hierarchies for specific languages?
Sorry for the novice question. I've sincerely been searching, but all I can find are articles/papers exploring very specific topics for mostly unrelated languages. I'm looking for something more basic,...
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0answers
22 views
Online facsimile of the original Cours de linguistique générale
I am looking for the original 1916 edition of Ferdinand de Saussure's Cours de linguistique générale. The book must be out of copyright by now; does there exist an online scan or similar facsimile ...
4
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1answer
95 views
Good recent historical grammar of Sanskrit, preferably in English?
Does there exist a reliable, reasonably up-to-date historical-comparative grammar of Sanskrit written in English? Failing that, what are the standard works for historical Sanskrit phonology and ...
4
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1answer
54 views
comprehensive reference grammar on any sign language
I have been reading Velupillai's An Introduction to Linguistic Typology, and the author stresses how much work still needs to be done for sign languages in general. She mentions in particular that ...
2
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1answer
88 views
Theta-Marking, Case-Marking and Argumenthood in Copular Sentences
Nominal predicates in copular sentences are peculiar because in certain languages, they acquire case other than accusative case. Even English was so, e.g. "it is I (NOM)" vs. "it is me (ACC)." Perhaps ...
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0answers
62 views
Is there any resource about “exceptional” examples of false cognates available?
As an amateur I lack information about specialized resources for linguists. What I’m looking for is a list of stunning examples of false cognates in any discipline, that can be either exact matches, ...
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0answers
30 views
Any good, up-to-date advanced textbooks/handbooks in statistical parsing?
I was wondering if there are any good, up-to-date advanced textbooks in parsing, after having finished the preliminary treatments in Jurafsky & Martin and Manning & Schütze. Either ...
6
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1answer
259 views
French dialects from west to east: no distinct breaks, blend into German?
A long time ago, I remember reading about a work that showed that there were no distinct breaks in the local dialects as one travelled from west to east across France, and how at the easternmost areas,...
