Date:  Sat, 23 Mar 1996 01:08:52 -0700

From:  Rudy Troike <RTROIKE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU>

Subject: Defining Asia



It is interesting, and curious, how the discussion of the limits of Asia

keeps drifting to folk-identifications, rather than professional definitions

by our fellow social scientists, geographers (whose relevance to linguistics

geography should not be overlooked). For those interested, I would suggest

looking at some basic geography texts in the library, or for those on

university campuses, taking advantage of the presence of a whole department

of people specialized in this field to ask. A survey of folk-definitions

(like Dennis Preston's interesting study of folk-impressions of regional

varieties of American English) is another matter, but presumably should

begin from a base of professional definitions, just as linguists are not

content to let folk-concepts determine our own analyses.



--Rudy Troike (rtroike[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ccit.arizona.edu)