Re: Conlang Books - ASP & CL101

> I mean issues of how the infinite range of real-world meanings
> can be mapped to a finite set of words in various possible
> ways.  Color vocabulary, for instance; kinship terminology;
> folk taxonomy vs. scientific taxonomy; literal and metaphorical
> meanings of spatial adpositions; etc.  Talk about how to
> analyze a semantic field, notice how it is divided up
> in a particular way in your native language (what meanings
> are lumped together and denoted by the same word,
> which ones get distinguished by unique root words or
> by derived words, what meanings can only be expressed with
> a phrase), and think about alternative ways it
> could be divided up in a conlang.
Hmm. Part of that should come under the vocab gen chapter - eg folk vs
scientific taxonomy, color vocab.

However... how much of this is appropriate for an intro-intermediate
linguistics textbook? I certainly agree that it's fun stuff that
should be addressed, but perhaps this should be in the form of an
essay in ASP rather than a chapter in CL101?

I'll definitely pass it on to John C in the draft of the vocab gen chapter.

My only concern here is on a) space, and b) sophistication level. Can
we work these into an intro book in such a way that it's not
overwhelming, is well contextualized, and doesn't require knowledge we
haven't already taught? Does it deserve a separate chapter, or are
these simply topics to make sure to touch upon in other chapters?

 - Sai

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