Re: Word categories (Was: Re: Borrowing Wordlist)

This looks very similar to my own taxonomy, only mine is a list of nouns
(with addenda for verbs and adjectives). I started with the human body,
human clothing, human kinship relations, the house, the garden, the farm,
food substances, spreading out then to the city, and then aspects of the
city state: trades, education, sport, medicine, government, law enforcement,
religion, etc.) then moved from there to time, to the earth and its
elements, then to sensations, abstract concepts, and so forth.  Not
necessarily in that order.

It's a stiff bill, and I'm still filling in, which I think will take years.
Part of the difficulty is transferring information from one list to another.
I don't have directions in "teotax"; that's in my chapters on
pre/post/positions and adverbs in the Grammar.

Sally
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teotax.html
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/grammar.html



----- Original Message -----
From: "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh@...>

> Funny you should mention this, but I've just been compiling a list of
> word categories which I intend to use to fill up gaps in Tatari
> Faran's lexicon. Personally, I prefer using word categories as a
> checklist of stuff I need, rather than explicit word lists, which tend
> to have semantic boundaries too closely tied to a particular language.
>
> Anyway, I thought I should post this so that fellow conlangers can
> make use of it. Note that this is not intended to be an exhaustive
> list of word categories, neither is it guaranteed to have a 100%
> consistent taxonomy. It's just a rough checklist of semantic areas a
> language would need to cover in order to be able to handle everyday
> conversations.  Specific examples of words aren't intended to be
> followed to the letter, but are just to give the prospective conlanger
> an idea of what kind of words would be needed to cover a particular
> category. (Note that the exhaustive volcanic terminology is due to the
> fact that I compiled this list for Tatari Faran; other conlangs would
> probably have some other area where they are more focused on.)
>
> - Directions
>   - Up, down, left, right, forwards, backwards;
>   - Cardinal directions: north, south, east, west, etc.
>   - Spatial relationships (in front of, behind, beside, on top,
>     underneath)
> - Actions (stand, sit, walk, turn, lie, jump, roll)
> - Adverbs (fast, slow, repeatedly, often, rare, ...)
> - Body parts
> - Personal adjectives (tall, short, beautiful, ugly, etc)
> - Family (kinship terms)
>   - Parents, grandparents
>   - Siblings, cousins
>   - Children
> - Social:
>   - Chief, slave, servant, peers
>   - Friendship:
>      - Promises, agreements, disagreements, loyalty
>      - Gifts, communications (letters?)
>      - Gratitude (thanking, acknowledgements)
>      - Companionship, together, alone, etc.
>   - Rewards, punishments
> - Food (vegetables, meats, liquids, etc.)
>   - Cooking
>   - Tastes (meaty, fruity, yucky, etc.)
>   - Smells
>   - Textures (chewy, soft, delicate, tough, crumbly)
> - Greetings
> - Temporal nouns
>   - Time of day, calendar days, months, etc.
>   - Relative temporal nouns: now, just now, afterwards, later
>   - Seasons
> - Environmental
>   - Sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, stars
>   - Rain, fog, smoke, fire, water, mud, etc.
>   - Fauna & flora
>   - Volcanic phenomena
>      - Earthquakes
>      - Eruptions
>         - Eruption type (based on visual appearance)
>         - Tephra, pyroclastic flows, mud floods
>         - Geyser eruptions (steam)
>         - Smog, ashfall
>      - Hot springs, sulfur (smell, etc.)
>      + Lava words
>   - Water flood, lava flood, earthquakes, etc.
> - Physique:
>   - Fatigue, strength, weakness, illness
>   - Injury, healing
> - Psychological:
>   - Thinking: comprehension, perception, etc.
>   - Feelings: angry, happy, sad, calm, excited.
>   - Decisions: decide, wish, hope, planning
> - Sizes:
>   - large, small, wide, long, deep, high.
> - Everyday accessories:
>   - Clothing, headwear, footwear
>   - Beddings, common accessories (containers, vessels, etc.)
> - Tools:
>   - Furniture
>   - Utensils (bowls, pans, pots)
>   - Tools (knives, spears)
> - Exploration:
>   - Hunting
>   - Searching, hiding, digging, burying
>   - Journeying (climb, pioneer, discover)
> - Construction:
>   - Housing (houses, shelters)
>   - Building (erect a tent, cut wood, build a structure)
>   - Transportation (vehicles, transportation devices)
> - Mortality:
>   - Birth, death
>   - Killing, murder, accidents, crime
>   - Burial, mourning, celebration
>
>
> If I missed any major categories here, please speak up.  :-)  It might
> be useful if people can suggest improvements/revisions to this list,
> so that I can post it up on my conlang site as a resource for future
> conlangers. Suggestions for massive taxonomical reorganizations are OK
> too, since this list as it stands is very rough and could use some
> tidying up.
>
>
> T
>
> --
> Elegant or ugly code as well as fine or rude sentences have something in
> common: they don't depend on the language. -- Luca De Vitis
>