Re: Most challenging features of languages?
From: | Thomas Wier <trwier@...> |
Date: | Wednesday, June 22, 2005, 4:15 |
From: Chris Bates
> > I'm curious to know which feature of a language (nat-, con-, or aux-) that
> > individuals here found the most difficult to understand and/or master.
>
> The answer is simple: complex irregular morphology. Things that work in
> a systematic way, no matter how outlandish they seem to English
> speakers, aren't so difficult, but when you get screwy complicated
> changes depending on the shape of the root and the surrounding affixes
> (eg many polysynthetic Amerind languages or Georgian) then it gets
> difficult.
I agree with your general point, but Georgian is not so good an
example. Georgian has lots of suppletion, but its morphophonology
is relatively limited compared, to, say, Mohawk or some other
Iroquoian languages.
=========================================================================
Thomas Wier "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637