the linguistics of honking

[gusl]

If any linguists are reading this, may I suggest doing a field study in Brazil, about the semantics and pragmatics of honking. I'm sure it's different from North American honking, but the biggest advantage is that data is plentiful... all you need is a webcam + microphone and an apartment in my building.

Comments

[wjl.livejournal.com]

when i was in Rio, i noticed that taxi drivers were quite likely to honk while going around a blind corner. though this practice is technically required in the US, too (i think?), it was clearly much more necessary for safety in Brazil, given the speed with which they were taking those corners :)