Re: Nattiki (was: Re: speaking and saying)

Mathias asked:

>Does making up this language make your students more comfortable with
>linguistics ?
I don't know.  The purpose of the project was to allow me to introduce
the concept of principles and parameters to the students - i.e., what
kinds of variation are found in natural languages, versus what sorts of
features seem to be universal.  Some of the students have really taken to
Nattiki, and are writing their term papers on Nattiki-related subjects
(one student is inventing a non-standard dialect of Nattiki, another
is inventing a history and culture for the Nattiki speakers, another
is writing about Nattiki religious practices...).  Other students
seem to feel that the whole thing is a big joke - or at best, a
diverting game.  They seem not to have understood the serious intent
behind it, despite all my efforts.  (Oh well, if there's one thing
you learn as a teacher, it's that no strategy works for everyone...)

Matt.

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Matt Pearson
mpearson@ucla.edu
UCLA Linguistics Department
405 Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1543
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