Natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) is a linguistic theory claiming that: all lexical items (lexemes) in any human language are made up of a small number of simple concepts (‘semantic primes’); the semantic primes cannot be broken down into more basic concepts; the semantic primes are universal: the same semantic primes underlie every language. Also, for each…… Continue reading NSM Natural Semantic Metalanguage
Tag: Acquisition L1
Some differences in prepositions
Prepositions are some of the trickiest things to get right when learning a language. Many languages (probably all) have prepositions that they use in some circumstances when other languages use a preposition that is not the one that most routine and obvious general translation equivalent. Here is a good example I found in Sugisaki (2016).…… Continue reading Some differences in prepositions
Kids and prepositions
Use of prepositions is notoriously arbitrary, and subject to great variation, both between different languages and between different speakers in a single language. Learning which propositions to use is often one of the hardest parts of learning to speak a foreign language. A couple of months ago, our youngest grandchild (4 years 8 months) said…… Continue reading Kids and prepositions
Wall chart in a Punjabi script
This Sunday, we visited Pollock’s Toy Museum, open as part of London’s annual Open House Festival. One thing catching my eye was a wall chart about letters, evidently a learning aid. The person in charge told me a visitor had recently informed her that it was in Punjabi. Checking Wikipedia when I got home, I…… Continue reading Wall chart in a Punjabi script
Scottish languages make progress
A bill aiming to boost the use of Gaelic (Gàidhlig) and of Scots has passed another stage in the Scottish Parliament. If the Scottish Languages Bill becomes law, it will enable parents to ask for a Gaelic school to be established in their area. Local authorities would then be required to assess whether the request…… Continue reading Scottish languages make progress
A human pattern in whale song
Researchers have detected in whale song a statistical pattern known as Zipf’s law. Zipf’s law shows up in human language and in the statistical distribution of many other social and natural phenomena, including the size of cities. However, the researchers say that this is the first time Zipf’s law has been found in sounds made…… Continue reading A human pattern in whale song
Xmas with kids
Spending a week with our grandchildren between Christmas and New Year, I noticed a few things about how they use language. Strong verbs I came across 2 more examples of some creative formations of a past participle and of a simple past tense from strong verbs: our middle grandson (now 7 years 0 months) produced…… Continue reading Xmas with kids
Talking at three and a half
Spending a few days recently with our grandsons, I got a good chance to see how their language is coming on. 3-year-old The youngest one (3 years 7 months) speaks very clearly now. The only pronunciation feature I noticed was in words beginning with the sequence /fl-/. He doesn’t quite pronounce the initial /f-/ fully.…… Continue reading Talking at three and a half
I can’t see it everywhere
I recently heard our youngest grandson (3 years, 4 months) say: ‘I can’t see it everywhere’. That’s an interesting combination. He selected the combination not (or n’t) … everywhere, rather than: standard English not (or n’t) … anywhere. In this combination, anywhere is an example of a ‘negative polarity item’ (NPI), which can only be…… Continue reading I can’t see it everywhere
English Grammar Day 2024
I went last week to an event called English Grammar Day 2024 at the British Library. This event has been held for the last 10 years, but I went for the first time in 2023. The event is sponsored by UCL (the official short name of University College London), the University of Oxford and the…… Continue reading English Grammar Day 2024