Syntaxing
2005 05 26
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One day, I'll have to remember why it is I should never forget that my interest in language and linguistics is confined mainly to word origins and evolution. I like etymology - no, that's not the one with the bugs. I'm taking a lingustic anthropology course that is, unfortunately, exposing me yet again to the portions of linguistics that I don't like, such as the differences between non-human primate and human brains, the separation of speech sounds a la alveolar, fricative, and labial (there are much more interesting connotations to that word which I won't indulge in detailing for you), and the joy that is syntax.
Well, actually, syntax isn't all that horrible in some senses. I remember the first time I took a linguistics course, one that was dedicated to nothing but syntax. Outside of the fact that I had a nearly incompetent tutor for the course, we did this one exercise that involved taking apart a section from the Jabberwocky poem, deciding what parts of speech (what word forms) each of Carroll's inventions each of the words might represent, and replacing them with word choices of our own. I recall I got a fairly good grade on that assignment. I'm only sorry I lost the paper. It was a fun exercise.
Apparently, homo sapiens would not have acquired the power to speak if they had not also learned to walk upright. The way the body parts are arranged in an upright walker is such that it provides the necessary physical features to allow for the speech process.
For someone who says she doesn't care much for that part of the course, I'm certainly doing a good job of retaining the information, aren't I?
Diacritic marks are also an intense pain in my posterior - mainly because they're small and my eyesight is less than stellar.
Thank gawd there's no exam for this course. I need only put pen to paper for three essays and two quizzes.