HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: alufml@purple.fnma.com (Francois-Michel Lang)
Subject: Re: Article before name in Spanish
Organization: Fannie Mae, Washington, DC
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 14:35:26 GMT

In article <1992Sep14.004739.1@sol.yorku.ca> lbianchi@sol.yorku.ca (Luigi M. Bianchi) writes:
>In article <Sep13.153848.28042@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU>, komives@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Robert Komives) writes:
>> A question about Spanish if that is appropriate.
>> 
>> My daughter just reported that she hears people refer to others by name in
>> Ecuador placing an the article before there name.
>> 	La Josefina no esta'. The Josefina is not here.

>Is is certainly common in colloquial and dialectal Italian and German (at least
>around the Stuttgart area, to my knowledge).  In Italian it seems to be more
>commonnly used with female names.

I've also heard this in (colloquial) French.  It's certainly not
Academie-Francaise French, however.  To me, use of this structure
en francais implies either derision (e.g., "le Jean-Pierre" might
be rendered as "that so-and-so JP") or, conversely, endearment
(my wife and her buddies in the Ph.D. program in Romance Languages
at Penn frequently referred to each other as "le Norman" and "la Jody",
and so on).

>Please note, I am not a professional linguist--I just happen to be familiar
>with these lenaguages.

Same here...
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Francois-Michel Lang          (202) 752-6067   FAX: (202) 752-4463
alufml@fnma.com ............. Fannie Mae; Asset/Liability Strategy
lang@linc.cis.upenn.edu ..... Dept of Comp & Info Science, U of PA
Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english
From: pesetsk@athena.mit.edu (David M Pesetsky)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Cognitive Phonology (was: Cognitive linguistics...)
Date: 11 Sep 92 11:32:20 GMT
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In article <82462@bcsaic.boeing.com> rwojcik@atc.boeing.com writes:
> Generative theory, unless it has evolved beyond any similarity 
>with its past, takes the grammar to be an intuition-generating device.  How
>that relates to the noises the child makes when it attempts to speak isn't
>entirely clear.

That's like saying that human beings are a brainwave-generating device.
Intuitions give us clues about the nature of the grammar, and they are
the often the best or only clues we have, but the grammar along doesn't
generate intuitions, and intuitions are not any sort of "purpose" of the
grammar.  A grammar is one of the things people have, and "generative
theory" tries to discover what this grammar is, using intuitions, among
other sources of data.  ERP studies, child act-out tasks, MRI imaging
perhaps -- all are possible alternative tools in this endeavor.  Would
you then say that the grammar is an "ERP-generating device"?

-David Pesetsky
From: connolly@memstvx1.memst.edu
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: phonology question
Date: 10 Sep 92 14:02:32 -0600
Organization: Memphis State University

In article <1992Sep8.184709.22732@midway.uchicago.edu>, goer@ellis.uchicago.edu (Richard L. Goerwitz) writes:
> connolly@memstvx1.memst.edu writes:
> 
>>>>Most of your examples are totally irrelevant because they are compounds
>>>formed within English, and the voicing adjustment rule simply does not apply
>>>>to such compounds, most of which, by the way, are written with a word
>>>>space between the elements.
>>>
>>>C'mon.  Are you seriously arguing that the words I've listed above are
>>>compounds.  Do I productively add "tad" and "pole" together to arrive
>>>at "tadpole"?  Try the "ob-" in "obtain."  Do you even know what the
>>>element "ob-" means on its own?
>>
>>I am maintaining that _tadpole_ is a compound, even though neither
>>_tad_ nor _pole_ exists as a free morpheme (I assume they are not
>>identical with our normal _tad_ and _pole_).  Its phonology gives it
>>away: a full vowel with some degree of stress in the second syllable,
>>contiguous voiced and voiceless stops.
> 
> I've heard this argument before, but have always wondered how we can
> claim that a word is compounded out of two morphemes when one, if not
> both ("obtain") of the purported constituents does not occur in iso-
> lation.  If they don't exist in isolation, how can you call them a com-
> pound except by circular argument?

The argument would be circular if I used the intonation of _tadpole_
to prove it is a compound, while also using the compound nature of
_tadpole_ as the *only* evidence connecting this intonation with
compounding.  Such is not the case.  One examines a large number of
undisputed compounds, notes that they have peculiar intonation and
various phonetic anomalies precisely at the "joint" of the compound,
finds a few residual words such as _tadpole_ which show the same
peculiarities even though their "parts" are not recognizable as
separate morphs, and concludes on the basis of intonation and the
phonetic anomaly that _tadpole_ should be grouped with _outhouse_
and its ilk.  Whatever else that argumentation is, it's not circular.

--Leo Connolly
Newsgroups: sci.lang
From: anne@techunix.technion.ac.il (Anne Weill)
Subject: Re: Article before name in Spanish
Organization: Technion, Israel Institute of Technology
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 06:27:37 GMT

komives@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Robert Komives) writes:

>A question about Spanish if that is appropriate.

>My daughter just reported that she hears people refer to others by name in
>Ecuador placing an the article before there name.
>	La Josefina no esta'. The Josefina is not here.

>I found the same to be true among farmers in Guatemala but was told by
>college educated people there that this custom is "bad" Spanish. The closest
>expressions I can think of in English are pejorative. "That Josefina isn't here
>". Meaning there is some fault in her that causes her not to be here.
>Is this form common in Spanish (or elsewhere)?


I have often heard Spanish people using this form of speech, and it 
was not in a pejorative way . I don't know about spanish spoken
in South America.  It is not uncommon in German too.
However , in French it is definitely pejorative ,although you 
can find it in rural districts. For example in Alsace I have often
noticed it - it must be the influence of the local germanic dialect 
which was spoken in villages till recently.
There is an alsatian popular tune "Der Hans im Schnockenloch" 
 Anne
  
Newsgroups: sci.lang,soc.culture.europe
From: cockburn@edieng.enet.dec.com (Craig Cockburn)
Subject: Info on Celtic languages from Cambridge Encyclopedia of language
Organization: Digital Equipment Co. Ltd., Reading, England
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 21:01:46 GMT


In article <1992Sep4.170332.8773@rdg.dec.com>, I wrote...
> 
>From what I can remember, the list is:
> 
>Insular Celtic 
>P-Celtic: Welsh, Breton, Cornish, Cumbric(extinct)
>Q-Celtic: Scots Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Manx
> 
>Non Insular Celtic (all extinct)
>Gaulish (France)
>Galatian (Spain)
>I think there was another in the middle east
> 
Here's the corrected version, from the Cambridge encyclopedia of language.

Goidelic (Q-Celtic)
Scots Gaelic
Irish Gaelic
Manx
(this branch entered the British Isles when a wave of Celts left the
Bordeaux area of France in the 4th century BC. These three languages 
descend from "Common Gaelic" and started to become distinct around
the 10th century AD)

Brythonic (P-Celtic)
Cumbrian (extinct)
Welsh
Cornish
Breton (descended mainly from Cornish)

Both the above branches are "insular Celtic". The languages below (all
extinct) are "Continental Celtic"

Celtiberian (Spain) (found in partly decipherable inscriptions in the
north and east of Spain)
Gaulish (France, north Italy, Belgium, north Germany, Netherlands)
Galatian (Balkans, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia)
  Galation remained in use until about the 5th century AD.

These three languages are not related in the sense that the three
Gaelics are related. They form three seperate branches in their own right.

The book also mentions a Celtic language called "Leponic" which has
been found in Switzerland on inscriptions from the 2nd century BC. No
mention of Leponic is made in the Indo-European tree given in the book.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Craig Cockburn, Digital Equipment Co. Ltd, Reading, England.     Suas
  Internet: cockburn@edieng.enet.dec.com                           leis
  UUCP:..!decwrl!edieng.enet.dec.com!cockburn                      a'
                                                                   Gha\idhlig!
  Views here are my own, and are not necessarily those of Digital
Newsgroups: sci.lang
From: arild@adler.ims.uni-stuttgart.de (Arild Hestvik)
Subject: Re: Cognitive Phonology (was Cognitive Linguistics...)
Followup-To: sci.lang
Reply-To: arild@ims.uni-stuttgart.de
Organization: IMS, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 11:38:51 GMT

In article <82761@bcsaic.boeing.com> rwojcik@atc.boeing.com (Richard Wojcik,snake) writes:

   In modern discussions about the ontology of the "generative grammar," it is
   fairly common to be told what the grammar doesn't do.  We are told that the
   grammar is "used," but never precisely how it is used or what that means.

Agreed -- the path from the grammar to the elicitation of an intuition is
not well understood. But that doesn't mean that the process doesn't exist,
or that you cannot study the grammar as a static system of information
separate from the parser. 

I think it might be useful to remember that the use of intuitions is not
special to linguistics, but is quite common in other fields of experimental
psychology (spatial orientation is a good example). I don't think the
question of the mechanics of producing the reported intuition occupies
these researchers as much as the intuitions themselves and the
psychological mechanisms they reflect on. 

-Arild Hestvik
Newsgroups: sci.lang
From: net@cs.tu-berlin.de (Oliver Laumann)
Subject: Re: Article before name in Spanish
Organization: Technical University of Berlin, Germany
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 14:34:41 GMT

komives@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Robert Komives) writes:
> My daughter just reported that she hears people refer to others by name in
> Ecuador placing an the article before there name.
> 	La Josefina no esta'. The Josefina is not here.

In Germany, this form is quite common in circles for which I don't have
a better description than `leftist/alternative living communities'
(`links-alternative Wohngemeinschaften' in German; I don't think this
is a wide-spread phenomenon in the US).

A sentence like

    ``Du, Maria, der Detlef hat das ganze Bio-Muesli aufgegessen.''

(word for word translation: ``You, Maria, the Detlef has eaten up all the
Bio-Muesli'') is typical for this kind of article-before-name usage.
Also note the initial ``Du,'', which is sometimes used in direct speech
to indicate an increased level of sensitivity/awareness/familiarity.

By the way, this is based on first-hand knowledge; I have lived in
`links-alternativen Wohngemeinschaften' here in Germany for several years.
From: winalski@adserv.enet.dec.com (Paul S. Winalski)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Toads and Frogs
Date: 8 Sep 92 23:03:13 GMT
Reply-To: winalski@adserv.enet.dec.com (Paul S. Winalski)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Nashua NH


In article <9209081655.AA07080@TIS.COM>,
richard@TIS.COM (Richard Clark) writes:
|>
|>	Its them dang cats! Seriously! Cats go over fences with the greatest
|>of ease, and kill just for the sheer pleasure of the chase. A case in point
|>is the toad population in my own yard. No lack of toads here, lots and lots!
|>I encourage my dog to chase the cats out of the yard, but have also taught
|>her to not bother the toads. I live in the woods, with zillions and
|>zillions of bugs, and since toads eat bugs I try to keep them fat dumb
|>and happy!

On the other hand, I have a friend who keeps nine cats and his urban yard
always has several toads in residence.  Depends on the cats, I guess.

--PSW
Xref: sparky sci.bio:3183 sci.skeptic:16256 soc.men:16277 soc.women:16443 comp.ai.philosophy:6047
From: arsmith@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Alan Smith)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.skeptic,soc.men,soc.women,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: missing verbs (was: Biological Sex Differences...)
Date: 11 Sep 92 01:39:33 GMT
Organization: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO  80523

In article <1992Sep9.230021.5182@news.media.mit.edu> minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky) writes:
>
>Umm, no.  The problem was to replace phrases like "A defeated B" by a
>homologous phrase with the same meaning, like "B <verbed> A", where A
>and B are of equivalent status.  Really, half of the verbs seem to be
>missing, in this sense.  It is really hard to say that <Jack verbed
>Jim> in a case in which we regard Jack as coming out the worse for the
>event. 

"I lost to Jim?"

Big Al.  Pretty obvious, huh?
From: jstravis@bass.bu.edu (John Travis)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: quick immunology ?
Date: 8 Sep 92 14:45:55 GMT
Reply-To: jstravis@bass.bu.edu (John Travis)
Followup-To: sci.bio
Organization: Boston University

what are immunophilins?

john travis
jstravis@bu-pub.bu.edu 
Xref: sparky sci.bio:3225 sci.skeptic:16442 soc.men:16421 soc.women:16592 comp.ai.philosophy:6092
From: szabo@techbook.com (Nick Szabo)
Subject: Re: missing verbs
Organization: TECHbooks --- Public Access UNIX --- (503) 220-0636
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 12:01:24 GMT


Dr. Minsky has pointed out a curious assymetry in the English language,
but does any language _not_ have such an assymetry?

In article <BILL.92Sep9232609@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu> bill@nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs) writes:

>Anyway, English (and other languages) are full of curious asymmetries.
>For example, it's okay to say "The bicycle is next to the house", but
>it's not okay to say "The house is next to the bicycle", though
>logically they ought to mean the same thing.

"Is" here seems to carry far more than an Aristolean logic semantics;
in particular it seems to imply an action -- one would park a bicycle
next to the house, but not vice versa.


-- 
szabo@techbook.COM  	  Tuesday, November third  ##  Libertarian  $$  vote
Tuesday  ^^ Libertarian  --  change  **  choice && November 3rd @@Libertarian
From: MWB6@psuvm.psu.edu
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: cells inside of cells?
Date: 15 Sep 92 21:38:54 GMT
Organization: Penn State University

Yes, except for parasites (Brucella etc,) think of symbionts.
Species of Rhizobium or Bradyrhizobium can be found in special organels on the
roots of leguminous plants,called nodules. The bacteria are actually situated
within the plant tissue, and are able to fix nitrogen. Excellent recent reviews
 are available, please E-mail if you are interested.
Michael Breedveld, PennState, Dept Food Science.
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.skeptic,soc.men,soc.women,comp.ai.philosophy
From: bevans@carina.unm.edu (Mathemagician)
Subject: Re: Biological Sex Differences? ("Women only" excusable ?)
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 92 09:35:53 GMT
Organization: Society for the Preservation of E. coli

In article <1992Sep9.034138.15488@news.media.mit.edu> minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky) writes:
>More generally, I have found only a very few verbs that reflect any
>appreciable discredit upon the subject-agent.  It is almost impossible
>to admit to a fault without using the passive, or other form of
>periphrase to be evasive.  Could this be a subtle way of imparting a
>society's values to its members?  Weird.

I'd disagree.  It depends upon what is being spoken:

I lost.
I lost the game.
I biffed it.
I ate it.
I bit it.
I spooged.
I fucked up.
I bought the farm.

Yes, I'll agree that one must indicate to whom one lost, that doesn't
make losing a necessarily passive construction.

-- 
Brian Evans                |     "Bad mood, bad mood...Sure I'm in a bad mood!
bevans@carina.unm.edu      |      I haven't had sex...*EVER!*" -- Virgin Mary
From: klier@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Toads and Frogs
Date: 8 Sep 92 19:21:13 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <1992Sep8.230313.13720@rdg.dec.com>, winalski@adserv.enet.dec.com (Paul S. Winalski) writes:
> 
> On the other hand, I have a friend who keeps nine cats and his urban yard
> always has several toads in residence.  Depends on the cats, I guess.

Standard accidental "experiment" for young biologists:  
1) handle toad
2) rub your eye before washing your hands
3) spend next half hour washing out your eye and hoping that anything
that hurts this badly isn't doing permanent damage.

Works with most toads.

Gerald Durrell, in Birds, Beasts & Relative, or My Family & other Animals,
or one of his other "childhood books", describes the Mad Dog Foaming Reaction
engendered in one of his dogs who had picked up a toad (and promptly set
it back down!).

Kay Klier  Biology Dept   UNI 
Xref: sparky sci.bio:3157 sci.skeptic:16194 soc.men:16222 soc.women:16391 comp.ai.philosophy:6031
From: bill@nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.skeptic,soc.men,soc.women,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: missing verbs
Date: 10 Sep 92 06:26:09 GMT
	<1992Sep9.162211.11503@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com>
	<1992Sep9.230021.5182@news.media.mit.edu>
Organization: ARL Division of Neural Systems, Memory and Aging, University of
	Arizona

minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky) writes:

   > The problem was to replace phrases like "A defeated B" by a
   > homologous phrase with the same meaning, like "B <verbed> A",
   > where A and B are of equivalent status.  Really, half of the
   > verbs seem to be missing, in this sense.  

Yeah, but I'm not convinced that there's anything sinister going on.
It seems to me that some sort of agent-patient stuff might explain
what's going on -- in English, agents (entities that cause the state
of affairs to come about) tend to get active verbs, and patients tend
to get passive verbs.  If "A defeated B", presumably this state of
affairs was not desired by B, so B was not the agent, so B should not
be placed in subject position with an active verb.

Anyway, English (and other languages) are full of curious asymmetries.
For example, it's okay to say "The bicycle is next to the house", but
it's not okay to say "The house is next to the bicycle", though
logically they ought to mean the same thing.

	-- Bill
Newsgroups: sci.bio
From: 901371d@dragon.acadiau.ca (Danny Nathin DiDio)
Subject: Uv light on plants (question)
Organization: Acadia University
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 02:39:04 GMT

 I'm now growing a small plant at home and I have a ultra-violet
lamp that has two frequences.I was wondering if I could enhance
the growth by using this device and if so how.If it depends on the type
of plant or other details please email me and we could discuss it.
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: scorpion info
From: z_mcwestkj@ccsvax.sfasu.edu
Date: 9 Sep 92 19:02:19 CST
Organization: Stephen F. Austin State University

wayne, from Botany Dept. of U-georgia (athens) writes (paraphrased):

>...the only scorpion in my area is the little black critter 
>   about 2 or 3 cm long.  I've been seeing more of them lately in
>   my kitchen......  what are they called?

well, considering there is only one known scorpion speciesin that 
area, and it is small and dark (brown-mahogany-like) my best educated
guess is that this critter is _Vaejovis carolinianus_ (Beauvois, 1764?).

_V. carolinianus_ is a member of the largely american family Vaejovidae.
of the 80 or so scorpion species in the U.S. about 15-20 are *not*
vaejovids.   _V. carolinianus_ is the only member (known) of the family
east of the mississippi river...with the exception of a *very* few
spp. in the middle-east and malaysia (?).

_V. carolinianus_ is quite harmless.
distribution is from NE alabama, into GA, and up the app's to the
cumberland gap region.

thanx, wayne

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kari McWest                       8 Ancient Greek cure for scorpion sting:
SFA Box 15543                     8 ride backward on an ass for three days-
Nacogdoches, TX 75962             8                    -HL Stahnke
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From: dbell@cup.portal.com (David J Bell)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Pets/Projects
Date: Fri,  4 Sep 92 18:16:26 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: world

I go out of town a couple of days and all the threads I was
watching expired! Let's see: laptop, cellular, modem.... Some day!

In the mean time, what happened to the twin threads on Bacteria
as Pets, and Winogradski Column construction? Did the gentleman
who offered to post the Column information ever get back to us?

For that matter, where could one look to find sci.bio news archives?

Dave
dbell@cup.portal.com
Xref: sparky sci.bio:3161 sci.skeptic:16205 soc.men:16227 soc.women:16401 alt.discrimination:4268 misc.education:3333
From: hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.skeptic,soc.men,soc.women,alt.discrimination,misc.education
Subject: Re: Biological Sex Differences? ("Women only" excusable ?)
Date: 10 Sep 92 13:29:01 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Statistics Department

In article <1992Sep9.215226.5884@access.usask.ca> bickis@skmath3 (M. Bickis) writes:
>In article <BuBC3A.2FI@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> hrubin@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
			
			.....................

>The issue is more complicated than that.  Granted that mathematics is 
>context-free, it still takes less time to understand a word-problem if
>you are familiar with the subject matter. The standardized tests are
>written under time stress.  

In that case, the mathematics has not been properly taught.  Not that I
am willing to agree that much of it is properly taught.  But the problem
in testing is to find out what students can do which is different from
the stuff they memorize for their tests, or even to find out if they
have retained that little after the courses' ends.

>A more important issue than gender- or culture-biased questions is that
>the attitude towards writing multiple-choice tests is a contributing
>factor in the score obtained, and this is one place that sex differences
>appear.  Although males outperform females on the math SAT, this sex
>difference does not carry through in university performance.  So
>although one can say that men are better (on average) than women on
>writing SAT math tests, that does not imply that they are better at
>doing mathematics.  Mathematicians rarely take multiple choice tests as
>part of their work.

While I am a strong critic of multiple choice tests, what is usually 
called evidence in university performance is even worse.  Having taught
for more than 40 years, I would totally condemn grades and the extreme
damage they do to the learning process.  The great bulk of the courses,
and this includes courses in mathematics and statistics, are nothing 
more than memorization and regurgitation, or routine manipulation.

Many, if not most, university faculty can do better.  But flunking a
majority of the students in a class because they cannot think is difficult
to get away with.

>It can be much the same way in many measures of alleged sex differences
>in cognitive abilities. Although such differences can be found, it is an 
>unresolved question whether the sex difference is in the ability itself,
>or in the response to the instrument doing the measuring.

The only non-PC behavioral conclusion drawn in any of the articles in this
string is that gender quotas are wrong.  This applies to any other type of
quotas based on wishful thinking.

-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet)  
{purdue,pur-ee}!pop.stat!hrubin(UUCP)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.skeptic,soc.men,soc.women,alt.discrimination