Prof. E. H. Sturtevant, for the Standing Committee on Research (E. H. Sturtevant, Chairman, term expiring Feb. 1, 1940; F. Edgerton, term expiring Feb. 1, 1938; G. M. Bolling, term expiring Feb. 1, 1939), presented the following report, which was ordered to be received and filed: Your Committee has considered such projects for research as have been submitted, but no recommendations have been made during 1937. Two manuscripts that have been submitted to us are now undergoing revision. We hope that they may be recommended for publication at an early date. Prof. E. H. Sturtevant, for the Delegates to the American Council of Learned Societies (E. H. Sturtevant, term expiring Dec. 31, 1938; E. Prokosch, term expiring Dec. 31, 1940), presented the following report, which was ordered to be received and filed: The annual meeting of the American Council of Learned Societies was held in New York, January 29 and 30, 1937. Both the Delegates and the Secretary of the Linguistic Society were present. It was voted to admit the American Numismatic Society to representation in the Council, thus raising the number of Constituent Societies to twenty. The resolution adopted by the Executive Committee of the Linguistic Society by authorization given on December 28, 1936, urging the Council to undertake a study of the proper place of the humanities in American education, was presented to the Council. As a result of this resolution and of a similar one presented by the American Philological Association, it was voted to instruct the Executive Committee of the Council to confer with the Executive Committees or officers of the National Research Council, the Social Science Research Council, and the American Council on Education, with a view to undertaking a general study of the problems referred to in the resolutions of the American Philological Association and the Linguistic Society of America, especially as they affect the place of the various scientific and cultural disciplines in American education In spite of its reduced resources the Council has continued its support of the Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada during the year 1937. A subvention has now been secured from the Rockefeller Foundation which will make possible the completion during 1938 of the mapmaking and editing of the New England section of the Atlas. The field work in Virginia and North Carolina has been finished, but funds are not available for continuing work in the South or anywhere else outside New England. The Council has recently had very little money to appropriate for research in Native American Languages, but the work has been continued by a number of scholars, partly with the aid of funds provided from other sources. In 1937 the Council appropriated $1000 for a conference to consider the present state and needs of the study of native American languages and to formulate plans for further work in that field. The Council has a fund to assist in the training of research personnel, especially in the fields of study which the Council is endeavoring to develop. The largest grant made from this fund in 1937 is of particular interest to the Linguistic Society. The Council and Yale University have jointly made it possible for Dr. George L. Trager to spend eighteen months in studying Balto-Slavic linguistics at various places in Europe. It is hoped that this grant may eventually lead to putting this branch of study in the United States on a solid foundation. Prof. Franklin Edgerton, as Chairman of the Committee to Nominate Officers for 1938, presented the following nominations, which, he explained, included one change from the list printed in the Circulars of the meeting; Prof. M. J. Andrade had withdrawn his name, feeling that his absence on field-work at the time of the regular meetings made his holding of office undesirable: President, Prof. Louis H. Gray, Columbia University. Vice-President, Prof. Kemp Malone, Johns Hopkins University. Secretary and Treasurer, Prof. Roland G. Kent, University of Pennsylvania. Executive Committee, the preceding, and Prof. Hermann Almstedt, University of Missouri; Prof. C. C. Fries, University of Michigan; Prof. A. L. Kroeber, University of California. Editor and Chairman of the Committee on Publications: Prof. George Melville Bolling, Ohio State University. Member of the Committee on Publications, to serve through 1940: Prof. Edward Sapir, Yale University. Nominations from the floor were called for by the President, but no such nominations were made. The report was then adopted in the usual manner, and the nominees were declared elected, for terms beginning with January 1, 1938. Prof. C. M. Lotspeich, for the Committee on Resolutions, presented the following report, which was on motion adopted: We suggest for adoption these resolutions: Resolved, that the Linguistic Society of America express its sincere appreciation (1) to the Secretaries of the Modern Language Association of America and the American Philological Association for their admirable cooperation in making arrangements for the meetings; (2) to the Local Committees for their thoughtful planning and cordial reception; (3) to the Hotels Drake, Knickerbocker, and Benjamin Franklin, particularly to their convention managers, for excellent accommodations and numerous courtesies. The Vice-President now left the chair, calling Professor Franklin Edgerton to preside during the remainder of the session. Under the final item of other business, brought up by any member of the Society, two matters were handled. Prof. E. Cross stated that he understood that the Society's policy was to keep apart from matters of politics and religion, and that a quotation from a private letter had been printed in the account of the award of the Laetare Medal to Prof. J. D. M. Ford (LANGUAGE 13.260), which had been understood by many persons as an endorsement of one side in the Spanish conflict. The Secretary assumed all responsibility for printing the quotation, whose wording was on its face absolutely impartial and merely a condemnation of civil disturbance; he said that he had so understood it, and would not otherwise have allowed its appearance in LANGUAGE, and that he would print this statement in the Proceedings of the Meeting, and in the first available issue of LANGUAGE (which would be the second issue in 1938). The meeting was satisfied with this disposal of the matter. Dr. F. R. Preveden demanded that the Society take cognizance of the charges brought by him against certain members of the Society, in the printed 'Appeal' which he had recently circulated through the mails to most of the Society's members. His motion to this effect drew forth a full statement from Prof. C. D. Buck in refutation of his charges, and the motion was laid on the table. After other discussion, including reports of separate examinations by the Secretary of the Society and by Prof. E. A. Hahn, the Society adopted, with apparent unanimity, the minute of Prof. C. C. Fries, as follows: In view of the evidence before it, namely the statement made by Professor Buck and the confirmation of the facts by Professors Kent and Hahn, it is the sense of this meeting that the charges made by Mr. Preveden are without foundation. The reading of papers was then taken up: Prof. Hans Kurath (Brown University), The Linguistic Geography of the Connecticut Valley; illustrated with lantern-slides. Discussion by Messrs. Edgerton, Joos, Voegelin. Dr. Ralph L. Ward (Yale University), The Simplification of Long Mr. Martin Joos (University of Wisconsin), A Dialect of Albanian. Adjournment was taken at 12.55 P.M. The Fifth Session of the Linguistic Society was held on the afternoon of Tuesday, December 28, in the Ball Room of The Knickerbocker. President Buck called the meeting to order at 2.20 P.M. About 30 persons were present during the session. The reading of papers was at once begun: Dr. Harold D. Rose (Cambridge, Mass.), Phonemes, Morphemes, Semantemes. Prof. Edgar H. Sturtevant (Yale University), Hittite Evidence against Full Grade o (short or long). Discussion by Messrs. Buck, Peter sen, Swadesh, Edgerton. Prof. E. Adelaide Hahn (Hunter College), The Development of the Non-Restrictive Relative Clause in Hittite. Discussion by Messrs. Kent, Hitchcock. Prof. Walter Petersen (University of Chicago), Initial Hittite hu-. Discussion by Messrs. Edgerton, Swadesh, Sturtevant, Buck, Kent, Walther. Dr. Robert J. Kellogg (Ottawa, Kas.), Hittite Siunas 'sun, Sun (god), God'; Tawan-/Tun- 'Skygod, Sungod, God'. This paper was read by title only, in the absence of the author. Adjournment was taken at 4.18 P.M. The Session of the Modern Language Association of America, held on the evening of Tuesday, December 28, in the Lantern Room of The Drake, is here chronicled, because it was an invitation program largely of linguistic nature, sponsored by the Association's Committee on Research Activities. Members of the Linguistic Society were especially invited to attend, and most of those who had been at the Sessions of the Society were present at this evening session. After reports of certain committees and of the Delegates to the American Council of Learned Societies, the following papers were presented: Prof. Leonard Bloomfield (University of Chicago), Science among the Humanities. Prof. Franklin Edgerton (Yale University), Etymology and Interpretation. Prof. Leo Spitzer (Johns Hopkins University), Linguistic and Literary Comments on a Modern French Text. An Informal Gathering was held in Philadelphia on the morning of Thursday, December 30, in Room 206 of The Benjamin Franklin, designed to meet the desires of those eastern members who were unable to make the trip to Chicago. The Secretary of the Society called the meeting to order at 11.02 A.M., and asked Prof. L. H. Gray, Presidentelect of the Society for 1938, to take the chair, which he took with the approval of the gathering. About 50 persons were present. The Secretary presented a report on the business transacted by the Society at the Chicago meeting, and Prof. Ephraim Cross, Prof. E. Adelaide Hahn, and Prof. Edgar H. Sturtevant gave brief summaries of the papers read at Chicago, and general impressions of the meeting as a whole. Dr. G. L. Trager reported on the meeting of the American Anthropological Association, just held at New Haven, including the election of Prof. Edward Sapir as President of that organization for 1938. Two papers were then read: Dr. Truman Michelson (Smithsonian Institution), Report on the Sea- Adjournment was taken at 12.55 P.M. The Sixth Session of the Linguistic Society was held on the afternoon of Thursday, December 30, in the Betsy Ross Room of The Benjamin Franklin, jointly with the American Philological Association. Prof. H. A. Sanders, President of the Association, called the meeting to order at 2.06 P.M., and presided during part of the session, when Prof. Lily R. Taylor succeeded him in the chair. About 100 persons were present. The reading of papers was at once begun (those presented on behalf of the Philological Association are marked with *): Dr. J. Alexander Kerns (New York University), The Imperfect in Armenian and Irish. Dr. George L. Trager (Yale University), The Position of Mute e and the Semivowels in the French Sound System. Discussion by Messrs. Kent, Cross. Dr. R. E. Saleski (Woodridge, Va.), Semantics as the Study of the Import of Words. Discussion by Mr. Trager. *Prof. E. H. Sturtevant (Yale University), The Greek Smooth Breathing. Discussion by Messrs. Post, Trager. *Prof. E. Adelaide Hahn (Hunter College), Hittite kwiskwis. Discussion by Messrs. Sturtevant, Carr. *Prof. Elizabeth C. Evans (Wheaton College), Varro's List of Sabine Divinities. *Prof. Walter H. Juniper (Cumberland College), A Study of Verb Synonyms in Plautus. |
