5-1339msg1.txt

贝叶斯学习算法源码

Subject: sum : wh animal

i recently ask about whether one say ' who ' or ' what ' to ask what variety of animal in context such as : a . a person walk into a room with a swell arm . you say : ' wh - bite you ? ' or b . you see an animal disappear into the wood . you say : ' wh - be that ? ' the follow language ( thanks to the people list for the info ) seem to use ' what ' only , although in context a give some of the respondent do not like either alternative . greek ( a speaker who wish not to be identify by name ) finnish , swedish ( jussus karlgren ) english , hebrew ( david gil ) dutch , french ( bert peeter ) georgian ( ivan derzhanskus ) german ( john peterson ) norwegian , swedish ( marit julien ) danish ( soren harder ) i would add polish to this list , base on my own judgement . ivan derzhanskus add bulgarian to the list , his testimony be particularly valuable , since he feel a clear contrast between bulgarian and russian here , but greg gouzev say that he would use ' who ' in context a ( but not b ) . on the other hand , dale russell report that in cheyenne : " people be all animate , but so be rock , tree and leave ( but not branch ) and the sun . animal be all animate , so far as i know . some body part be animate , roughly those that be voluntarily movable . nose be not animate , finger be . if you point to a rock and ask " what be this ? " , a native speaker will correct you , and say " who be this ? " , then answer the question - - at least that be my experience , in a field-method type language learn experience . " jonathan bobaljnik report that itel ' man sometime use ' who ' and sometime ' what ' for refer to animal . unfortunately , there 's very little datum on the language , so i can't be very specific about the condition determine which you get when . the clearest example of a language that use ' who ' be russian ( in a strike contrast to closely relate polish and bulgarian ) , as state in standard work on this language and confirm to me by alex eulenberg , arus solovyova , and ivan derzhanskus ( but i must add that daniel radzinskus report that at least one speaker he speak with give different judgement ) . i find particularly interest the fact that russian linguist work on other language routinely note this difference between russian and whatever language they be describe ( i have see this probably dozen of time in russian grammar or dictionary of various language of the former empire ) . barbara abbott note a reference i have miss : chomsky 's in _ current issue in linguistic theory _ ( mouton , 1964 ) , p . 40 , note that we cannot say " what be eat its dinner ? ( the cat or the dog ) " , and that ' who ' be also not natural in that context . a lot of the respondent indicate similar difficulty in other language . i have not keep track of these , but they include french , danish , etc . , as note by various respondent ( include frank gladney on english ) . cathy ball say that older form of english sometime use ' what be you ? ' in address a human be . special thanks to osten dahl who first point out to me that you have to define very particular context for this question , since in many context many lg allow neither ' who ' nor ' what ' . alexis manaster ramer