This is usually the first chapter of an intro linguistics book.
I suggest we drop it in favor of covering the same info implicitly.
The usual points are that lanauages:
* have symbols & grammatical signals
I.e. are communicated in some mode(s): written, oral, gestural (,
...?). Modes should be covered in the first chapter, to set up the next
three. That it's symbolic is covered throughout.
* are shared by a community
Well, not necessarily at first ne. :-P
But this should be covered implicitly under language change (contact,
etc) and in the last chapter on getting the language spread.
* are (hierarchical) systems
Covered implicitly.
* are relatively arbitrary
Covered under language change (trend towards arbitrariness).
* change over time
Ditto.
Is there anything that doing it this way would not cover, or would lose
pedagogically? I'd like CL101 to avoid all the boring (to
non-ling-geeks) preambles about philosophy of language etc, and just
jump straight into the actual language creation.
- Sai
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