Lexis (linguistics) Puns

Hello conlang people, linguist here fascinated by language, particularly rule based aspects of language. Please forgive me if this is trivial but I’ve always wondered. It seems pretty intuitive to me how one may design syntax, phonetics/phonology, morphology and even potentially some aspects of semantics but how does a conlanger develop Lexis to a point where any such concept is able to be communicated? Do you design all the words? Do you employ a recursive rule based system? Modern languages have so many borrowings from other languages that lexis never (and thankfully) appears to be uniform in its orthography, production and later semantics. So I’m curious as to how you develop rich enough lexis to function as an entire language.

Sign language

Edit: I'm signing off now. Thanks to everyone for all your questions and kind words. I hope to do another AMA soon! If you want to learn more about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture, check out my podcast series: The Story of Language podcast with Dan Everett

Proof here: https://twitter.com/canguroenglish/status/1392156667471704066

Some of the things that you might want to ask me about are:

The four decades I have spent working on about 20 Amazonian languages, including living over 7 years in villages of the Pirahã people, along the Maici River in the Amazon jungle.

Jungle experiences, including attacks by large anacondas, Amazonian giant centipedes, Wandering spiders, jaguars, pumas, and so on. I also have had all three types of malaria of the Amazon multiple times, including once when I had malaria, vivax, and falciparum simultaneously.

I began my career in the Amazon as an evangelical protestant missionary but became an atheist, which caused severe problems in my family, and led to loss of employment as a missionary (who needs an atheist missionary?)

I have a 15-year running debate with Chomsky in which he (and others) have called me a charlatan, though many other linguists, anthropologists, and cognitive scientists agree with me. If I am right - I am - Chomsky’s principal theoretical works - that language is innate and that all human languages have recursive sentences, are wrong.

In my book Dark Matter of the Mind: The Culturally Articulated Unconscious, I created a “ranked-value” theory of culture and how culture and language build each other, a cognitive symbiosis.

My most recent book, How Language Began, argues that language is a human invention, that it is over 1.5, probably 2, million years ago. I have followed up on this with an archaeologist co-author, Dr. Larry Barham, in which we use data from tool construction and treatment to argue that Homo erectus had language. More and more data from many other scientists shows that language is far older than our species.

For a college assignment (no points awarded for it, but I do have to deliver a presentation) I need to find two 'texts' - written or spoken - about roughly the same event. Then I need to analyse differences between their grammar and lexis based on a number of models that we're learning about. 'Grammar' here is quite broad, more to do with the way that content is structured, agency is assigned etc.

They have to vary in some way that would lead to interesting lexical/ grammatical differences, e.g.:

• An eyewitness account vs. a textbook account.

• A speech given by a populist leader about some topic vs. an academic paper about it.

• A public speech vs. a leader's private thoughts about the same topic recorded in their diary.

• Speeches given by the same person to different demographics.

• The language used in a fierce debate between opponents vs. a relaxed discussion among members of the same 'side'.

• A dramatised version of a famous speech (e.g. from a movie) vs the actual speech.

• An text from 1940 vs. another from 2010.

.... and so on.

I'm going back through various history podcasts that I've listened to for ideas, but this really isn't my area and nothing springs to mind.

I wonder if any of you folks have suggestions of particular events/ texts that I could investigate? Just looking for an interesting angle really. Thanks!

This is a massive deal for me, because not only do I get to compete in the international round, but I also don't have to do entrance exams for linguistics at the university where I want to study anymore - they'll accept me based just on my performance! Wanted to share this with someone and this sub came to mind :)

What's something that brought you joy recently?

Hi Reddit! I’m John McWhorter, professor of linguistics, American studies, and music history at Columbia University and host of the Lexicon Valley podcast on Slate. I’ve written multiple books that examine the way we speak, write, and read.

In my new book, NINE NASTY WORDS, I investigate nine of our favorite curse words from every angle – historical, sociological, political, and linguistic – to show how, as language evolves, so, too, does what we consider profane or unspeakable. I share where our urge to curse comes from(hint: it’s not the same part of the brain that processes speech), why “hell” is the most confoundingly illogical swear word, and why you do, in fact, need all of those different slang words for “phallus,” among other topics, with the goal of helping readers understand what makes these (mostly) 4-letter words so much more than words.

If you have questions about the origin of the word “f*ck,” today’s most taboo swear words, George Carlin’s infamous comedy routine, or just want to share your favorite piece of profanity, I am here for it. AMA!

Proof: https://twitter.com/JohnHMcWhorter/status/1389282983278960643

I work as a linguist among a Bantu people group in West Africa. A French linguist came here and studied their language and music. He paid them, bought them food, drink, etc. When he had gathered data he went back to France. He called from time to time while finishing his dissertation. Once it was done he visited again and even gave out a couple copies of his dissertation. He returned to France and never called again. People from here called him from time to time but after awhile he asked them to stop calling. Now it is the consensus here that he was really a spy and was no better than the colonizers of the past.

Another (national) linguist basically did the same thing. She came to one of the villages, studied the language, paid people gave them gifts and food. But once she finished her dissertation she has never been back.

The people here feel used. Like these people came acting like they were helping this undocumented language, but really they were just getting data for themselves.

I cannot speak to the motives of these linguists, but I am curious as to what the linguistic community thinks. If you pay people for their help, and credit them for their work, is that enough? Or do we owe them more? If we do owe them more, what?

EDIT : Someone said I should add that 15 years past before the French linguist told the language consultant that he no longer wanted contact. Also, it is extremely likely that these calls at least sometimes included requests for financial aid.

https://twitter.com/matt_fortuna/status/1390796225608261633?s=21

Pretty much the thread question. How did you get into Linguistics? What pulled you to the subject?

So I was doing a reread and noticed towards the end of book 2 that not very long after Kvothe starts studying Yllish with master linguist he becomes ill and master heme takes over his duties.

Does this seem a bit suspicious to anyone else? Like someone wanted to put a stop to kvothes studies of Yllish?

I think that religion, language and cultural beliefs all make Jewish people very different from the rest of the ethnic and cultural groups in the Middle East (and world).

Even when Jewish people share a language with the people around them they are still mistrusted such as in 20th century Europe. I need a history lesson though, was the Yiddish they also spoke different enough that Germans didn't understand them and this created some separation and mistrust? But this seems to indicate religion and culture is more of a discriminating factor than language.

Although many Jewish people in America seemingly now identify as American first as they don't go to a synagogue or practice the Jewish faith. In cases like this where they speak the same language and share the same cultural beliefs as other Americans, discrimination and prejudice aren't as bad as when groups don't share a language, religion or cultural beliefs. There is still antisemitism in America but it doesn't have the same flavour as antisemitism in the Middle East for example.

So I think the conflict Jewish people have experienced through their existence is certainly partly religious but also linguistic and cultural too. It is not just ethnic as some ethnic groups share enough that they don't fight nearly as badly as Israel and Palestine.

Even dialects like irish english and aave, which lost th, still have word initial w.

Extra fact: the reason some English words begin with wh and others w is because they used to be pronounced differently (and still are in some dialects). w was /w/ but wh was /h^(w)/. This "wh" actually comes from the same words as latin qu, which is easily seen in question words. Compare English "when" to Latin "qualis" and Spanish "cual", all from Proto Indo-European "k^(w)ís".

Edit: apparently jutlandic has word initial w, and elfdalian has it too as well as voiced th (ð), very cool!

I imagine it might sound something like how Shakespeare's Elizabethan English sounds to us today, only much more because of the time difference. Additionally, has the Quran and the Hadith language somehow "preserved" the older Arabic? What percentage would you subjectively say is still spoken of that Arabic?

Edit: I understand that many types of Arabic is spoken today around the many Arabic speaking countries. Just answer from your perspective, please.

Thank you!

Hi everyone!

The creators of the Linguistics Bowl (a linguistics competition for high schoolers, made by high schoolers) are working on more events for linguistically-minded high schoolers such as ourselves!

We're currently working on expanding our program to include all sorts of events, from movie nights to museum tours to conlanging activities. We're also working to get the official approval and backing of the Linguistics Society of America. If you're a current high school student interested in linguistics, we'd love if you'd help us out by completing this short survey about which events YOU would like to see! Your support is greatly appreciated!

If I was going to arrive in a foreign country, I’d try to gather as much information as I could, especially if I anticipated I’d be visiting a royal court as an ambassador. Was there any valuable information about Japan and China at this time that they could have brought along?

For me it's the counters. That is probably subject to change since I have been learning for only 1 month I think. Nonetheless I think it's pretty dumb to have to identify an object further if you count it. In written language you understand what is counted because it's named and in spoken language it has been named at some point of the conversation and is known from context.

Update: thanks so much for taking the time to do this! The survey is now closed. A lot of people said they hadn't heard of the expressions before which is actually super helpful. I'll share results if anyone is interested or if resulta are especially interesting for Latin American Spanish!

(Posted with mod approval)

This is for a research project that my husband is doing. He could use some more participants for his study and is short on time

It would also be really helpful to have some older participants, so if you have someone in mind that you could forward it onto that would be really cool too!

Here is the link:

https://forms.gle/853usdzp8NPL9zNt9

Thank you so much!!

Like, I'm just genuinely fascinated by it, but I can see how it might be seen as ... like "so, what set of stereotypes should I ascribe to you?" or "but where are you from really?"

The ones that are on top of my head:

• Belgium: French vs Flamish (vs German)

• The Philippines: Tagalog supremacy/preferential treatment vs other indigenous languages

• Malaysia: vernacular schools

I'm going to start with my country, Indonesia: it's the biggest archipelago nation, with lots of islands, lots of cultures, ethnic groups, and languages, so our founding fathers, instead of making the language of the biggest ethnic group, the Javanese, which was also the political center of Indonesian politics during our independence era, they chose the Malay language (the Malays were only ~3% of Indonesia's population back then), standardized it to become the Indonesian language, and forced the whole population (with cold iron hands), regardless of your ethnicity, to learn it, making it the sole language of education, government, etc. Now virtually everyone speaks it.