Re: Introduction and a few novice questions

On Tue, 12 Mar 2002, Paul Edson wrote:

> Introduction first: I’m a strange mongrel mix… I do project
> management for a US Navy document management system during
> the day (as a contractor) and sing professionally (chorus
> and small roles) with the Washington Opera by night. I live
> in Maryland and am hoping to progress from ‘wannabe’ to
> ‘author’ in the next year or so. My knowledge of linguistics
> as a field is strictly self-acquired, and I certainly am
> blessed with what I'd like to think is a productive
> ignorance.
Good to meet you, Paul.  Don't worry excessively about ignorance; most of
us here are not linguists.

> Firstly, does anyone here know of a good online  linguistics
> dictionary? An example illustrating  my need: recent posts
> discussed 'telicity'  and I struck out trying to find a
> definition at Dictionary.com. If there's a good HTML or
> (better  yet!) PDF glossary of linguistic terms that  covers
> the scope fairly thoroughly, I'd truly appreciate a
> reference. [If not, I suppose I  could start gathering up
> terms myself and *make* one.]
Hmm.  I use a linguistics textbook, myself.

> The question, then, is: What factors do you use  to allow
> you to narrow the range of  strategies/features you
> incorporate into your languages? How does one cope with such
> an embarrassing wealth of possibility?
I make lots of language sketches.  :)  But my main language is simple,
mostly inflectionless (unless you count the verb affixes, which I guess
you ought to).  I'll futz about in my sketches with possibilities, then if
I like them I'll ask, "Can I incorporate them into Mujai?"  Mujai
therefore has transitive markers and evidentiality markers because I like
them; it doesn't have cases because I hate them.

One other thing is to look at a language similer or different for that
matter from the one you want to make.  I looked into Indonesian for
inspiration.  That'll show you how many features a language typically has.
It'll also give you ideas for how to introduce irregularities, which are
half the fun.

--Patrick


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Prurio modo viri qui in arbore pilosa est.
                        ~~Elvis

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