LINGUIST List 9.875

Sat Jun 13 1998

Qs: Yiddish/Cockney,Names,NLP,SOV Adverbs

Editor for this issue: Martin Jacobsen <martylinguistlist.org>



We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.

Directory

  • Gaby Charing, Influence of Yiddish on Cockney
  • Juan Carlos Azkoitia, Names translations
  • Sun Honglin, Qs: What does "ontology" mean in NLP?
  • Thomas Ernst, SOV Adverbs

    Message 1: Influence of Yiddish on Cockney

     Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 19:47:08 +0100
    From: Gaby Charing <gcharingdial.pipex.com>
    Subject: Influence of Yiddish on Cockney


    In British English, "The boy done good!" is a cliche usually attributed to football managers.

    "Done" instead of "did" is cockney (i.e. London working class) English. But this sentence doesn't mean "The boy did good" (as in good works). It means "The boy did well".

    I have always believed that that this construction is an example of the influence on cockney of Yiddish. Does anyone know if I'm right?

    Gaby Charing London, UK

    Message 2: Names translations

     Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 23:56:55 +0200
    From: Juan Carlos Azkoitia <zozocucsteleline.es>
    Subject: Names translations


    Concerning the articles about translating names, mostly royalty names, is there any research about this topic? And about toponyms, and the apparently arbitrary tendency to translate ones and not others? Beijing but Moscow,Varanasi but Prague...? Translation seems to happen mostly among toponyms rather than among names. Where do this translations tend to come from?

    Juan Carlos Azkoitia Barcelona, Spain

    Message 3: Qs: What does "ontology" mean in NLP?

     Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 15:33:44 +0800
    From: Sun Honglin <sunhlpublic.bta.net.cn>
    Subject: Qs: What does "ontology" mean in NLP?


    The word "ontology" is often used in NLP field recently,but I don't know what's the exact meaning of it.For example,in the following sentence:

    ********************************************** The design of the envisioned NLU module will involve deciding what existing technology can be used (e.g., for robust parsing), extending and modifying components as necessary, and constructing appropriate linguistic knowledge sources such as grammars, lexicons, and ontologies. ******************************************* Please help me. Thank you in advance.

    Sun Honglin E-mail:sunhlblcu.edu.cn

    Message 4: SOV Adverbs

     Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 14:00:19 -0400 (EDT)
    From: Thomas Ernst <ternstrci.rutgers.edu>
    Subject: SOV Adverbs


    A quest for references:

    I would like to find references for material describing the distribution of manner adverbials, and/or arguing for their base position(s), in SOV languages (e.g. Japanese, Korean, Turkish). I will post a summary if there is sufficient interest.

    Tom Ernst ternstrci.rutgers.edu