LINGUIST List 3.128

Sun 09 Feb 1992

Qs: LFG, Historical, Semiotics, Monkeys

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

  • Bruce E Litow, Lexical Functional Grammars
  • David W. Talmage, Looking for software tools for historical linguistics
  • , Semiotics
  • Michael Hancher, Monkeys at typewriters

    Message 1: Lexical Functional Grammars

     Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 15:18:28 -06Lexical Functional Grammars
    From: Bruce E Litow <litowcsd4.csd.uwm.edu>
    Subject: Lexical Functional Grammars


    I would like to know if LFG formalism is still being used. The result of Berwick-Nishino that LFG grammaticality is NP-complete is not so negative as it might first appear. Any information on LFG research would be appreciated.

    Bruce Litow Computing Services Division P.O. Box 413 Univ. Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, 53201 litowcsd4.csd.uwm.edu

    Message 2: Looking for software tools for historical linguistics

     Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 08:16:43 ESTLooking for software tools for historical linguistics
    From: David W. Talmage <talmageluvthang.aquin.ori-cal.com>
    Subject: Looking for software tools for historical linguistics


    I would like to correspond with historical linguists who are using software tools in their work. I'm especially interested in tools for the comparative method and/or internal reconstruction.

    Please reply directly to me. I'll summarize to the Linguist.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------ David W. Talmage (talmageluvthang.aquin.ori-cal.com) "Once more. This is deixis. This is your brain on deixis. Any questions?"

    Message 3: Semiotics

     Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 16:43:08 +00Semiotics
    From: <HUMA1FRCICT81.bitnet>
    Subject: Semiotics


    Ron Smyth m'a indique l'existence d'un ouvrage publie par l'Universite de Toronto "Essays in Applied Visual Semiotics" qui est un receuil d'articles du Toronto Semiotic Circle. Quelqu'un peut-il me faire parvenir l'adresse electronique (si elle existe) de Paul Bouissac qui est au departement de francais de l'University deToronto.Victoria College, Toronto, Canada. Ce dernier semble etre en mesure de me donner plus de renseignement a propos de cet ouvrage. Si de votre cotes vous possedez des renseignements a ce propos, pouvez-vous me les communiquer. Thanks.

    MALIN Franck, Universite de Toulouse le Mirail, France.

    Message 4: Monkeys at typewriters

     Date: Sat, 8 Feb 92 10:28 CST
    From: Michael Hancher <MHvx.acs.umn.edu>
    Subject: Monkeys at typewriters


    "If I let my fingers wander idly over the keys of a typewriter it _might_ happen that my screed made an intelligible sentence. If an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters they _might_ write all the books in the British Museum." A. S. Eddington called this "a rather classical illustration" when he introduced it into his discussion of entropy in _The Nature of the Physical World_, Gifford Lectures 1927 (New York: Macmillan; Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1931), 72. The general concept of generating a text by randomly scattering letters is as old as Cicero (_De Natura Deorum_ 2.37). But was the monkeys-at- typewriters example a "classical" one by 1927? Or did Eddington invent it?

    Michael Hancher / English / University of Minnesota