User:Peter Grey/scratch

This page contains rough notes which are intended to eventually become parts of proper articles, but which presently should not be considered encyclopedic content.

Roots of Language
Notes based on


 * pidgin versus creole language
 * language origin: three cases: new languages created without input - creoles closest example; child language acquisition; acquisition of second language and pidgins by adults
 * superstrate and substrate: superstrate - prestige dialect, typically of ethnic group of elite; substrate - indigenous language(s) being displaced
 * consider case of children learning language where adults speak a pidgin and not a fully developed language
 * Bickerton, comparative study of HPE (Hawaiian Pidgin English) and HCE (Hawaiian Creole English); creole developed 1910-1920
 * missing from HPE: marking tense/aspect/modality; relative clauses; movement rules, embedded complements, infinitive constructions; articles || where occurring based on first language grammar (therefore inconsistent across pidgin-speaking community)
 * Also limited vocabulary
 * children of HPE speakers speak HCE - HCE is homogeneous, no distinction indicating bias of parents in terms of grammar or vocabulary


 * Syntactic distinction HPE - HCE
 * movement rules (deviation from SVO for emphasis)
 * object-fronting: OSV for contrast, correct listener's inference
 * predicate-fronting: new information for identified subject
 * SVO - basic order S VP NP
 * VS, VOS - predicate fronting VP (NP) S
 * OSV - object fronting NP S VP
 * OVS - object fronting and predicate fronting NP VP S
 * deas leitli dis pain chri 'They recent these pine trees'.
 * articles (presence/use of definite and indefinite articles)
 * definite article (definite): all and only specific-reference noun phrases known to listener
 * indefinite article (non-definite): all and only specific-reference noun phrases unknown to listener
 * zero article (non-specific): all and only non-specific noun phrases
 * verbal auxiliaries: TMA=tense-modality-aspect, in order of decreasing proximity to verb
 * aspect marker - stei marks non-punctual aspect (punctual aspect meaning single non-durative actions or events)
 * modality maker - go marks irrealis mode
 * tense marker - bin marks anterior tense
 * for-to complementization (realized/unrealized)
 * go for infinitive construction of realized action
 * ai gata go haia wan kapinta go fiks da fom I had to hire a carpenter to fix the form
 * fo for infinitive construction of unrealized (or not necessarily realizezd) action
 * mo beta a bin go hanalulu fo bai maiself It would have been better if I'd gon to Honolulu to buy it myself
 * relativization and pronoun-copying
 * full noun-phrase contrastive (including first mention) subjects employ pronoun with verb; note indefinite reference inherently first mention; means of 'fronting' subject for contrast with SOV basic order
 * pronoun-copying linked with movement rules
 * presence of relative clause marked with pronoun outside of clause: sambadi goin ova dea dei gon hia nau - Anybody who is going over there will hear [it] now.


 * creole language
 * features more or less common accross creoles (HCE and GC (Guyanese Creole) the main examples)
 * movement rules: focused constituents moved to sentence-initial position
 * GC assumes NP and V fundamental constituents, but not VP: if VP moved, copy of verb left behind to recover meaning
 * HCE exhibits VP moving as unit
 * GC exhibits equative copula, HCE had greater superstrate influence
 * articles - strongly uniform accross creoles
 * TMA
 * anterior+irrealis = counterfactual conditions
 * anterior+nonpunctual = past-before-past durative/habitual
 * irrealis+nonpunctual = durative/habitual unrealized actions
 * anterior+irrealis+nonpunctual = counterfactual of duration/habituality
 * impact of completives on TMA system (p.94)
 * realized and unrealized complements
 * complementization (p.99): factive, nonfactive, serial verbs
 * complements of verbs of perception
 * non-finite sentence with zero subject, finite clauses delete subject only under identity
 * relativization and subject-copying
 * (!)negation
 * existential and possessive
 * copula
 * adjectives as verbs
 * questions
 * (!)question words
 * passive equivalents
 * N V N => actor-action-patient
 * N V => patient-action


 * child language acquisition


 * questions in language origins

Language and Species

 * Notes based on

Regionalisms
Regions of Canada (based on demographics, not politics)

E=anglophone, F=francophone
 * EF Canada Heartland (Ottawa-Montreal-Sherbrooke)
 * E- Ontario South
 * -F Laurentia Centre - Greater Saguenay
 * EF Temiskaming
 * EF Acadia
 * E- Newfoundland and Labrador
 * E- Assiniboine
 * E- Alberta
 * E- British Columbia
 * EF Hudson
 * E- Arctic

History
Perspectives on the History of Canada


 * The Year of Our Lord 1453
 * The Age of Discoveries 1453-1517.
 * The Age of Religious Conflict 1517-1598
 * Colonization 1583-
 * Transitions
 * France and Absolutism 1685, -1714
 * England and Revolution 1604-1707
 * The Age of Great Empires 1714-1763
 * The Victorian Era
 * World War I: 1914-1918
 * Our Finest Hour: 1939-1945
 * The Quiet Revolution: 1960-1982
 * The Charter Era: 1982

Questions about the 11 September 2001 attacks

 * It looks like a demolition
 * bin Laden not indicted