Aspect, time, and associative relations in Australian languages

Dieser Beitrag wendet sich gegen die starke Version der lokalistischen Hypothese, nach der temporale Kategorien in der Grammatik immer ihren Ursprung in räumlichen Kategorien haben und die Verbindungen zwischen ihnen metaphorischen Charakters sind. Es wird gezeigt, dass in einigen Aboriginalsprachen die komitativen Marker – denen räumliche Bedeutungen in der Kernsemantik fehlen und die im Allgemeinen keine historischen Verbindungen mit räumlichen Morphemen aufweisen – in die verbale Domäne eingedrungen sind, wo sie Tempus- und Aspektkategorien markieren. Es besteht Grund anzunehmen, dass sie auch als diachronische Quelle der Verbalmarkierungen temporaler Kategorien gedient haben. Es wird eine nicht-metaphorische Motivation für diese Bedeutungserweiterung und Grammatikalisierung vorgeschlagen, und zwar über eine komplexe Satzkonstruktion, in der zwei Teilsätze durch eine komitative oder assoziative Relation verbunden sind. Formal ist hier ein Prozess der syntagmatischen Generalisierung beteiligt; semantisch gesehen liegt Abstraktion vor, nicht Metapher

Studies on Thioxo- and Selenoxo- Malonates

Thermally labile cycloadducts of diethyl thioxomalonate (46) were found to be most easily synthesised, in reasonable yields, by heating the corresponding ketone (48) with phosphorus pentasulphide in pyridine. The cyclopentadiene adduct (93) and, more usefully, the anthracene adduct (95) were found to dissociate on heating to regenerate diethyl thioxomalonate which then reacted regiospecifically in situ with other dienes (retro-Diels-Alder reaction) or with (-)-B-pinene ('ene' reaction). These labile cycloadducts (93) and (95) were oxidised with peracid to the corresponding S-oxides (173) and (172). These S-oxides also dissociated on heating, to give diethyl thioxomalonate S-oxide (148) which reacted in situ, regioselectively, with other dienes. Flash vacuum pyrolysis of the anthracene adduct (172) also liberated (148), free of anthracene, which enabled studies on the 'isolated' species (148) at lower temperatures. Less success was achieved in synthesising cycloadducts of diethyl selenoxomalonate (229). This species was generated in situ by treating either diethyl selenocyanatomalonate (244) or the selenosulphate (250) with triethylamine in the presence of a diene. However, only the cyclopentadiene adduct (230) and the 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene adduct (244) were succesfully synthesised, in poor to moderate yields with low reproducibility

Third person interpretation and the sociolinguistics of verbal communication

PhD ThesisThis thesis is addressed to analysts of talk in social scenes. Its principal aim is to develop a framework for systematically investigating third person interpretations of what communicates and what is communicated in the data products of everyday verbal exchange. The programme of research that is designed to meet this aim is based on analytic and descriptive techniques adopted from a wide range of disciplines concerned with the study of verbal communication, and particularly those associated with the work of John Gumperz (1982a; 1982b). By focussing on the nature of third person descriptions of what goes on and who is involved in various tape recorded products of talk, the research seeks to explore the nature of members' interpretive resources for recovering and warranting communicative norms that are not normally verbalised as talk is in progress. The investigative method developed for this purpose provides professional observers with an empirical means of citing evidence in support of their own analytic claims about what participants are doing in talk. It also provides an enabling device for generating and testing hypotheses about the communicative salience of different sociolinguistic factors, much as Gumperz (1982a) suggests. On the basis of the work presented, it is argued that whatever the disciplinary motivation of the analyst or the sociolinguistic contexts in which talk occurs third person interpretive methods offer a powerful descriptive tool. The research potential of this tool is evaluated in terms of its utility for not only investigating the interpretive resources of different individuals within a specific culture, but also for developing culturally sensitive theories of communicative language use in general

Frs. Herman Nekes and Ernest Worms' Dictionary of Australian Languages, Part III of 'Australian Languages' (1953)

Frs. Herman Nekes and Ernest Worms’ monumental Australian languages consists of five parts, of which three are dictionaries. These account for the bulk of the work, some 775 of 1067 pages, the remainder being about two-thirds grammar and one third texts. Part III, Dictionary native languages — English (a paradigmatic syntax) has some 630 typescript pages, amounting to over 9,000 headwords, in a range of Australian languages, with particular focus on those of the Dampier Land peninsular and nearby areas, most of which are represented by 1,500-2,000 entries. This is a singular document, both in conceptualisation, and because it presents some of the only extant information on various moribund and almost moribund languages (e.g. Jabirrjabirr, Nimanburru). The structure of the dictionary will be described both at the macro-level of organisation and contents (lexeme selection) and the micro-level of entry format; these will be linked to the authorsÂ’ notions of morphology, syntax, semantics, and etymology. The dictionary will be situated in relation to contemporary lexicography, and will be evaluated in terms of the quality of scholarship it represents, and its significance to modern concerns