4.1154 Responses (4/104)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 12 Mar 91 17:01:19 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 1154. Tuesday, 12 Mar 1991.


(1) Date: Mon, 11 Mar 91 20:53:49 -0500 (35 lines)
From: green3@husc9.harvard.edu (Maria Green)
Subject: Re: 4.1127 Grammar and Gender

(2) Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1991 12:49 MST (18 lines)
From: LHAMPLYONS@cudnvr.denver.colorado.edu
Subject: Re: 4.1152 Rs: ...Gender

(3) Date: Mon, 11 Mar 91 20:33 EST (13 lines)
From: Peter Zaas <ZAAS@SIENA>
Subject: re: Elena Benedeto's query about WP-Word translation

(4) Date: Tue, 12 Mar 91 08:28:03 EST (38 lines)
From: Henry Rogers <ROGERS@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Phonetic Laser Fonts

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 91 20:53:49 -0500
From: green3@husc9.harvard.edu (Maria Green)
Subject: Re: 4.1127 Grammar and Gender

>The response to Gary Stonum's query about the origins of the concept of
>gender is that it is indeed the Greeks who were responsible. Of course he is
>right about the numerous incongruities between grammatical and natural gender.
>But the classification goes back to the beginnings of grammar, specifically
>to the 5th century Sophists.

I missed the original query, but enjoyed the response -- it was nice to
get a run-down on the Greek side of things. However, a statement that
places the "beginnings of grammar" in 5th c. Greece is bound to raise a
smile in anyone familiar with the Sanskrit grammatical tradition. I
happened to show the Humanist posting to a visiting acquaintance, and he
was moved to write the following reply. Yours, Maria Green, Sanskrit
Dept, Harvard (green3@husc9. harvard.edu)

To say that the Greeks were responsible for the origin of the concept of
gender (Dirk Held, Tuesday 5 March) is incorrect. The Sanskrit
grammarian Panini (5th century B.C.) gives a very sophisticated analysis
of gender. He states more than 80 rules providing for feminine
suffixes, and gives others differentiating nominal terminations for the
masculine, feminine, and neuter genders. Panini himself is preceded by
a long tradition of linguistic analysis which recognizes the concept of
gender.

It is well known that the analysis of language by the Indian grammarians
far surpasses that of any other grammatical tradition until perhaps the
birth of Indo-European linguistics in the 18th century. The discovery of
Indian grammar was itself a major factor in the rise of the science of
linguistics in the West.
Dr. Peter M. Scharf, post-doctoral fellow
University of Penn., Dept of Linguistics

(I'm afraid that Peter Scharf doesn't have an E-mail address, but of
course I'll pass on any replies -- Maria)
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------27----
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1991 12:49 MST
From: LHAMPLYONS@cudnvr.denver.colorado.edu
Subject: Re: 4.1152 Rs ...Gender

Lesli LaRocco, whom I thought was a gentleman is a lady. I am always
curious about my own assumptions about gender on the basis of text.
What then, Lesli, differentiates you from your sisters? For some to go
to colege and some not in a family is common, but for some to get
advanced educations and others to be "functionally illiterate" is
unusual. It recalls for me the tales of my mother 's childhood, where
as one of 12 children all the boys were allowed to stay at school past
the legal req. (in those days in England, age 12), and her oldest
sister was too. But for her and her 3 younger sisters it was out to
work at 11 1/2 or 12 1/2. So my question still remains: I have so
rarey found instances where individuals are solely responsible for their
fates (indeed, the entire Affirmative Action movement is based on the
principle that they are NOT) that your reply just shifts the locus of
the question rather than answering anything.
Liz
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------17----
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 91 20:33 EST
From: Peter Zaas <ZAAS@SIENA>
Subject: re: Elena Benedeto's query about WP-Word translation


There are several commercial utilities available to translate Word
Perfect files (or other PC-formats) into MS-Word (or other Macintosh
formats). One that I have used successfully is called MacLink Plus, by
Dataviz corp. It includes a large number of translaters for PC-Mac and
Mac-Mac file conver- sion. You download the Word Perfect file to the
Mac via modem, then run the conversion program on it. If you have a Mac
SE/30 or better, you can use the conversion programs supplied along with
the Apple File Exchange utility to convert the files directly from a
3-l/2" DOS diskette.
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------46----
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 91 08:28:03 EST
From: Henry Rogers <ROGERS@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Phonetic Laser Fonts

Elena Benedicto asked about phonetic laser fonts. I know of two
companies which both offer phonetic fonts as well as a variety of
foreign language fonts.

Ecological Linguistics
PO Box 15156
Washington, D.C.
20003

Linguist's Software
PO Box 580
Edmonds, Wash.
98020-0580
(206) 775-1130

Prices run around $100. They have both Helvetica and Times. I have
used both an d they look fine. I have found their keyboard codings odd
at times. These can e asily be rearranged, however, if you have
Fontographer.

I have been working on adding phonetic symbols to Palatino, but it still
need s a lot of refining. When this font is more polished, I would be
happy to pass it on to anyone interested.

Three related queries:

1. Does anyone know of a program that allows you to reprogram the coding
on the keyboard? That is, if for a special job, you need a character
that is cl umsy to enter, you could temporarily assign it to a key that
is easy to type, but not needed at the moment. This just changes the
code that a key sends to t he computer; it doesn't change the coding for
the font. MacKeymeleon did this, but it seems to work only with older
systems.

2. Is there a DA like Keycaps that shows the keystroke entry for the
codes requiring two-stroke entry, like option-e u?

3. Does anyone know anything about a Bassomatic font editor for TrueType
fonts? or any other editor for TrueType?

Henry Rogers
Department of Lingusitics
University of Toronto