Re: OT: 'Dry' textbooks

J.K. Hoffman wrote:
> >
> > Date:    Sun, 29 Aug 2004 13:49:12 +0200
> > From:    Carsten Becker <naranoieati@...>
> > Subject: OT: 'Dry' textbooks (was: Re: CHAT: _Describing Morphosyntax_)
> >
> >
> > Well, you could wrap it in a nice little story :þ
>
> Okay, that got me thinking yesterday, so....
>
> Perhaps having examples that were relevant to the culture?  In know this
> won't always work, but maybe using lines from traditional myths and
> stories might help.  I know it would make it more interesting for me!
A good idea; in fact, many of the early reports on Native American languages
did just that. Likewise reports on "obscure" Indonesian languages. The
downside is that such stories tend to be in the "literary" or high register
of the language, which is usually quite different from everyday speech.

Still, even I got tired of cranking out variations on "Mr. Toloti bought a
new house" and "Shenji loves Mina" when I was working on Kash syntax.  Maybe
I should go back and do some re-writing.......
The problem is, I don't know much about Kash mythology or literature.