6
votes
Do linguists ever learn another language just to increase their own knowledge of linguistics?
The answer depends on what you mean by "learning" the language.
It's a common misconception that all linguists are fluent in a great number of languages, in the sense of being able to read or speak ...
- 52k
6
votes
How to find most common expressions starting with "iron"?
Using the Corpus Query Processor or a similar corpus engine with a suitable corpus to answer your question, the query
[word="[Ii]ron.*"][word=".*"]
and a frequency breakdown on the types does the ...
- 25.9k
4
votes
Current prospective efforts in the decipherment of ancient scripts
Undeciphered languages do not always have a small corpus. For example, the Iberian language of eastern and southern Spain, or the Etruscan language of Italy, have large corpora but even so many ...
- 305
4
votes
How to find the first use of a word?
They made a movie of it. Look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary (available online through a library near you). This would give the first published instance, not spoken instance. Also it covers ...
- 67.6k
4
votes
Can anyone download this paper?
This paper is copyrighted and when your local university library does not hold it, you can buy it (at a price that may be prohibitive for you, or due to some sanctions the paper may not be delivered ...
- 25.9k
3
votes
'Non-standard' indexicals
If I understand the question correctly, then answer is yes.
In short, languages are not 1:1 and that includes function words. That is why translation is hard and, in some cases, impossible.
Note ...
- 6,831
3
votes
Metadata for a paper in the generative framework?
The names for the metadata fields that you drop sound like Dublin Core and the linked Wikipedia article has some explanation and further links. Note that Dublin Core metatada fields can occur in any ...
- 25.9k
3
votes
What is the protocol to determine sample size in phonetic research?
This could get too complicated to pursue in comments. I've seen a seat of the pants number of 10 per variable: you might read this. When you've sorted out the logical structure of the question, you ...
- 67.6k
3
votes
Is language/grammar (mathematically?) scientific (like Math)? Is a grammar construct a delineation = to a math formula?
Was the work of Aristotle science? Were geocentric theories of the universe science? Science is related to methodology within a given framework of understanding, and to the ways of evolving that ...
- 1,497
3
votes
What's the significance of correct grammar (as long as the information gets across)?
There are two senses of grammar. The popular sense is the prescriptive sense, which you may learn a bit about in school when they tell you that you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition, or you ...
- 67.6k
3
votes
Accepted
How to find most common expressions starting with "iron"?
Using a BYU corpus, you can search for iron* _nn* where the first part matches words starting with “iron” and the second part matches nouns.
It’s as simple as typing that into the search box, though ...
- 432
3
votes
Do linguists ever learn another language just to increase their own knowledge of linguistics?
In my experience, it is not common for professional linguists to study languages in the sense of general language acquisition study (as opposed to focused technical research). By "study" I mean "study ...
- 67.6k
2
votes
Where can I find a set of Spanish-English comparable texts? ***(Not translations)***
The starting point for a corpus search is the Virtual Language Observatory by the European CLARIN ERIC. Entering the words English Spanish comparable corpus in the search slit gives nine results, ...
- 25.9k
2
votes
Accepted
Could the proto-human language still play a role in the interlingual communication?
This part seems to have some presuppositions that need to be corrected:
Is there a non-negligible chance that this correct guess could be
actually caused by the shared root of the proto-human ...
- 67.6k
2
votes
What functional motivations are there for the choice of light verb constructions over full verbs?
The following is what I see.
As pointed out by @jlawler above, such constructions are often considered alongside other periphrastic constructions. It is believed that the main purpose they serve is ...
1
vote
Categorising parameters of speech&language output&comprehension in aphasia
Not knowing much about aphasia, I'll give it a shot from a general perspective: Apparently you want to try some music treatment for patients who are affected in different ways and degrees by aphasia. ...
- 302
1
vote
Where can I find a set of Spanish-English comparable texts? ***(Not translations)***
Try here: Menu of free parallel texts Spanish English. (But these texts would not be as carefully controlled as you asked.)
- 12.3k
1
vote
Accepted
What functional motivations are there for the choice of light verb constructions over full verbs?
It's a circular answer, but light verbs are particularly prominent as a strategy in borrowing verbs from other languages, and that is because verbs are a more closed class than nouns. We use light ...
- 3,224
1
vote
Old English forms of address
In Anglo-Saxon lēof 'beloved, dear' was used in a similar manner, though it was not as formal. e.g. "lēofa Bēowulf" 'dear Beowulf', "lēof ealdormann" 'Mister Alderman'.
In Old Norse some sources have ...
- 6,754
1
vote
Accepted
How do linguists search the web for text containing special characters?
One solution is to use a linguistic corpus like the Corpus of Contemporary American English (or, if you can program, build your own corpus for your purposes, for example using Python NLTK).
The ...
- 4,925
1
vote
What functional motivations are there for the choice of light verb constructions over full verbs?
Per your request, this is only an opinion...
Some speakers will align a question's construction pattern with an answer. The LVC question, "Did you make a decision?" Will result in the LVC response, "...
- 654
1
vote
'Non-standard' indexicals
Japanese has rainen, raigetsu, raishuu (next year, next month, next week) as well as sarainen, saraigetsu and saraishuu (the year after next, the month after next and the week after next). Japanese ...
- 111
1
vote
'Non-standard' indexicals
I try to avoid "survey/list" questions like these to which there's no right answer, but here's one...
My aunt, a linguist and translator in Nepal, reports that the Indo-Aryan language Maithili has a ...
- 2,208
1
vote
Reearch paper subject
Look up the "Chomsky hierarchy" and "context free language". Context free phrase structure grammar describes certain computer languages (the first was Algol 60, I think) and has been proposed as a ...
- 12.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible