(This week's lab is a series of TEDEd videos on language. Source)
How Languages Evolve
- The thousands of languages that exist today can be traced back to a much smaller number
- The world used to have a much smaller population. As population grew, groups split and separated from the main group, creating their own new languages
- Languages can be shown to be related to each other through shared syllables, pronouns, numbers, etc
How Did English Evolve?
- English comes from Anglo-Saxon (Old English) of the British
- Old Norse combined with Anglo-Saxon. Then bits of Latin and French was incorporated. All of this adapted the English language
How many verb tenses are there in English?
- There are aspects that further divide the common verb tenses (Past, Present, and Future)
- Continuous/Progressive Aspect - actions are still happening at the time of reference
- Perfect Aspect - actions that are finished
- Perfect Progressive Aspect - combination describing the continuous part of a completed action
- Simple Aspect - basic form of past, present, or future tense where action isn't specified as continuous or discreet
Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki, and Na'vi real languages?
- They are all conlangs, which are real languages
- What makes a languages real?
- Grammar
- Change over time
- Exceptions
Where do new words come from?
- From other languages
- English gets over half of its vocabulary from other languages
- Sometimes another language has a better word to describe something
- Combining existing words that each have part of the new concept
- Old words acquiring new meanings
- Ordinary people that have the right combination of useful and catchy
How to use a semicolon?
- Fills the space inbetween a comma and a period
- Links together independent clauses
When to use apostrophes
- Mark possession, contraction, or pluralization with single letters
Does grammar matter?
- Descriptivism - how a language is actually be used
- Prescriptivism - how a language should be used
Bibliography
How Languages Evolve by Alex Gendler
How Did English Evolve? by Kate Gardoqui
How many verb tenses are there in English? by Anna Ananichuk
Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki, and Na'vi real languages? by John McWhorter
Where do new words come from? by Marcel Danesi
How to use a semicolon? by Emma Bryce
When to use apostrophes by Laura McClure
Does grammar matter? by Andreea S. Calude
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