> ---In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Sai Emrys <sai@...> wrote:
> >This is way too early to be sure of anything yet, but he is a
> >plausible speaker for a future LCC.
> >I'd just like to gather some suggestions from y'all for things you'd
> >like to hear him talk about.
> >See
http://www.sil.org/sil/roster/payne_thomas.htm and
> >
http://www.uoregon.edu/~tpayne/ for his profile & research.
> >FWIW, he is not himself a conlanger, and would most likely prefer to
> >talk about something that's closer to 'straight' linguistics.
> >Thanks,
> >- Sai
>
> I'd like any or all (Ha! Wouldn't that take more than a day?) of the following;
> but what I'd like to hear him say probably isn't limited to this.
>
> I. "accidents" or "desinences", and, "parts-of-speech".
> -A. A complete list of all, or a list of the 25 cross-linguistically most-common,
> major (open) classes of words -- major grammatical categories.
> --1. Is it common, or, How common is it, for "verbs" to be divisible into two or
> more such classes?
> --2. Is it common, or, How common is it, for "nouns" to be divisible into two or
> more such classes?
> --3. Is it common, or, How common is it, for "adjectives" to be divisible into
> two or more such classes?
> --4. Is it common, or, How common is it, for "adverbs" to be divisible into two
> or more such classes?
> --5. Is it common, or, How common is it, for
> ---a. "adpostions"
> ---b. "pronouns"
> ---c. any other major class
> --to be divisible into two or more such classes?
> -B. A complete list of all, or a list of the 25 cross-linguitically most-common,
> accidents (inflectional categories or derivational categories) which, cross-
> linguistically, apply to more than one of the major open grammatical categories
> of words.
> -C. A complete list of all, or a list of the 25 cross-linguitically most-common,
> accidents (inflectional categories or derivational categories) of verbs.
> -D. A complete list of all, or a list of the 25 cross-linguitically most-common,
> accidents (inflectional categories or derivational categories) of nouns.
> -E. A complete list of all, or a list of the 25 cross-linguitically most-common,
> accidents (inflectional categories or derivational categories) of adjectives.
> -F. A complete list of all, or a list of the 25 cross-linguitically most-common,
> accidents (inflectional categories or derivational categories)
> --1. of adpositions; and/or
> --2. of adverbs.
> --(3? any other major "part-of-speech"?)
>
> II. Clause types, clause combinations, and transformations.
> -A. Cross-linguistically most common clause-types.
> -B. Cross-linguistically common "transformations" on clauses.
> -C. Cross-linguistically common ways of combining clauses;
> --1. semantics
> --2. syntax
> --3. morphology
> --4? pragmatics?
>
> III. Typology
> -A. What are the major ways of dividing languages into types based on
> morphosyntax?
> --1. And what are the major types in each such way?