Language
- Sounds: blank chart
- Consonants
- points of
articulation: bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, alveopalatal, palatal,
velar, back velar, labiovelar, uvular, glottal
- degree of openness: stops,
affricates, fricatives, nasals, laterals, flaps, trills, glides
- Vowels
- front to back: front, mid/central,
back
- degree of openness: high, mid, low
- modifications: rounding, length, nasalization, tone
- glides
- Structure: phonology, grammar, reference (sound-meaning)
- Phonology hierarchy
- phones
- phonemes
- syllables: V, CV, VC, CVC, CCVC, CCVCC, CCCVC, CCCVCC (onset, rhyme[nucleus, coda])
- words
- clauses/sentences: intonation
- discourse: volume
- Grammar hierarchy
- morphemes: free, bound—smallest meaning part of language
- stems—combination of morphemes (one of which is a root)
- words: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, prepositions/postpositions, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections, particles—smallest independent utterance (root is head)
- phrases: NP, VP, PP—meaningful combination of words
- clauses: types: main (independent), subordinate (dependent); order: SOV, SVO, VSO, OSV, OVS, VOS—combination of subject and predicate (verb is head)
- sentences: simple, compound, complex—one or more related clauses that can stand alone (main clause is head)
- paragraphs: recursive—statement of idea; may be recursive (topic sentence is head)
- discourse—independent statement of idea; is complete within itself
- Grammatical Categories of Languages
- Marked and unmarked
- On articles: definiteness, information/identification, tangibility, proper
- On demonstratives: location, visibility
- On nouns: size, value, causation
- On nouns, adjectives, pronouns, articles, demonstratives: gender, number, case, size, shape, animateness, value
- On pronouns: person
- On verbs: value, shape, texture, gender, number, person, time/tense, aspect, voice, mode/mood
- On conjunctions: indefiniteness, direction
- Organization of Languages
- Pidgins, creoles
- By structure
- By word order
- By genealogy
- Language Learning
- First Language
- Second Language Acquisition
- Language School
- LAMP Method
- Semantics (Meaning)
- Words have a range of meaning
- Words change meaning
- Synonyms overlap meaning, but not exactly same range
- Sentences have a range of meaning
- Translation Theory
- Formal Equivalence (word for word)
- Dynamic Equivalence
- Mistranslations
- Among the Zanaki thieves knock to see if someone is home; honest people call
- Among the Marshallese "under the law" means "illegal"
- Among the Chol in Mexico "close up his bowels" (1 John 3:17)
means "to be constipated" and
"close up his heart" means "to have epileptic fits"
- Translator in Africa had "clean breath" for "Holy Spirit"
- Borrowed Words
- church, bishop
- Zapotecs use Spanish domingo "Sunday" to mean "dance"
- Aztecs use Spanish gloria "glory" to mean "drunken fiesta and brawl"
- Quechuas use Spanish santo "saint" to mean "a child's doll"
- Aztecs use Spanish virgen "virgin" for the moon
- Missing Word
- Navajos have no word for kingdom
- No word in English for paidagogos
- Some places do not have sheep (e.g. New Guinea)-- use pigs or deer?
- Paraphrase
- Language Families
http://www.bterry.com/anthropology/language.htm hosted at http://bible.ovu.edu/terry/anthropology/language.htm
Last updated on March 8, 2005
Page maintained by
Copyright © 2000 Bruce Terry