Bruce,

I profited from those comparative studies--at least the French/English
and the Spanish/English both the phonology and the grammar ones.  I
actually submitted a copy of my dissertation to Professor Stockwell, 
the author of one of the Spanish/English studies.  He was quite
complimentary and asked if he could get a copy to write a review once 
I had it published. 

Unfortunately, my marriage and academy both dissolved shortly after I got 
my diploma and I foolishly put off sending a copy to Ann Arbor as the
university required until I found another position nine months later.  
I was not worried because I had three copies left: a hardbound and a 
loose-leaf for University Microfilms and a copy for me.  

Unhappily, my not-for-profit university merged with the University of
Sarasota, which later merged with New York University which merged with
other schools to become Argosy University.  After Katrina swept away my
thesis and two dissertations (PhD and STD) as well as over 2000 books on
grammar, onomastics, illuminated manuscripts, and medieval social history; 
I emailed Argosy to get a copy of my PhD dissertation only to find that all
dissertations from Southeastern had been lost in the shuffle.  I sighed and
asked myself why I expected more from a school named for a 1950's men's
magazine.  I am retired on disability and no longer need documents; however,
on occasions, I have longed in vain to share my dissertation.
Scott

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 6 Nov 2007 04:07:59 -0700
From:    "Bruce D. Despain" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Comparative Semantics was Plurality in nouns

Scott,

Thank you for pointing out the fact that languages differ in how they treat 
the same phenomena.  This is a very crucial point that we sometimes want to 
ignore when we do an analysis.  Another important facet is that there is 
always more to discover in that enormous interface between the grammatical 
elements made available by our language and the semantic elements of meaning

coming out of our multitudinous interpretations and understandings.  There 
were a number of comparative studies that came out in the 70's treating the 
phonology of  certain languages over and against English that were very 
helpful to the ESL teacher.  I think some of this kind of work should be 
made available in the area of semantics and I would have enjoyed reading 
your thesis.  Maybe there are many other works out there like yours that 
would contribute to such an effort.

Bruce

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 8:30 PM
Subject: Re: Plurality in nouns; was ATEG Digest - 3 Nov 2007 to 4 Nov 2007 
(#2007-153)
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date:    Sat, 3 Nov 2007 22:13:54 -0600
> From:    "Bruce D. Despain" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: modals and tense
>
> Bruce--
> One of the reasons for our problems with teaching issues concerning
> plurality is that most educated speakers of a standard English learned 
> usage from their parents--not from a book; e.g., the distinction in usage 
> between > 'some' and 'any' is extraordinarily complex.  After teaching a
> few ESOL classes in the late '50s/early '60s, I attempted to find a
> satisfactory explanation to distinguish mass nouns--which can be
> pluralized only by a counter--from count nouns which take a variety of
> plural forms but which primarily are -s and -es [how to decide was well
> covered when I went to school].  Because I could not find a suitable text
> for an ESOL class, I wrote my doctoral dissertation on Discrepant
> subcategorization of nouns in English and Spanish.  I had to develop a
> matrix to distinguish between count nouns, mass nouns, and limited count
> nouns (those that can be pluralized but not counted).  I did not find one
> for Spanish either so I developed a matrix for Spanish also.  I focused on
> instances in which Spanish and English had different assignments for
> similar words.
> I have not perused the literature since 1982 when I graduated; someone may
> have written a book by now that covers the subject adequately.
> Scott

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