Re: phonology, grammar and lexicon

On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 2:45 PM, Jack Hall <jha0808@...> wrote:
> Hi! I've created many conlangs, but one thing seems unclear, does it play any
> role in wich order you create the phonology, grammar and lexicon? And if it
> does, i know that first i will create the phonology but if it play any role, in
> wich order should i do the grammar and the lexicon? Regards
You could, in theory, start with the lexicon -- coming up with definitions
to be attached later to actual words, figuring out the semantics of the
language before you know anything about its grammar or phonology,
and then work out the grammar with placeholder English words,
as others have pointed out, and finally figure out the phonology and
come up with actual word forms for the definitions in your lexicon.
But that seems like it might be extra work compared to the more usual
order of phonology --> grammar & lexicon.

One aspect where that order might make sense is that the phonology
you choose (especially its phonotactics) might be influenced by your
decisions about morphology, and whether you want the language to
be primarily prefixing or suffixing or what.

I tend to work on all those parts of a new conlang simultaneously,
like Gary -- "using the language into existence", in his phrase --
but of those areas, the phonology is the first to stabilize, then
the morphology, then the syntax, with the lexicon continuing to
grow for as long as I keep working on the conlang.

--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/conlang/fluency-survey.html
Conlang fluency survey -- there's still time to participate before
I analyze the results and write the article