i18n@... wrote:

>
> Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>
> > Nicholas Bodley wrote:
> >
> > > Is ululation an utterance?
> >
> > No.
>
> Why not?
>
> To me an utterance conveys meaning verbally, but it may or may not be
> part of the syntax and grammar of any particular language. I am pretty
> sure ululating conveys meaning in context, as much as a moan or a yelp
> or muttering under one's breath might.

None of which are utterances.

> Maybe I missed that day in vocabulary class... is there a more academic
> meaning you are referring to?

Of course. It's the very beginning of Bloomfield's Postulates for the
Study of Language (Language 1 [1924]). An utterance is a stretch of
speech, and the first Postulate is "Utterances may be the same or partly
the same." (Don't hold me to the wording. You can find the article in
Joos's Readings in Linguistics and in Hockett's Bloomfield Anthology --
I assume it survived the condensations of both books published by
Chicago.)
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...