Why Did Language Go To Jail? Satellite-Framed It.

The authors of the three pieces this week cover distinct concepts in linguistics, examining specific cases of their topics to illustrate the larger ideas that the pieces discuss. Atkins and Levin train their focus on “shake,” and the verbs synonymous to it, in order to demonstrate the syntactic differences between what are recognized to be semantically close words. They attribute these apparent differences to whether or not the verbs rely on internal or external causation, where the subject of the verb is either the source of the action described or is not, respectively.

Meanwhile, Haspelmath describes and defines the distinction between lexemes and word-forms, which each word-form belonging to a lexeme. Among other examples, he looks at the specific case of “insula” in Latin to present this initial idea, and later discusses how variations in morphemes, the shortest meaningful parts of an expression, contribute to the variation in word-forms. Haspelmath indicates how lexemes can be compounded – maybe with interfixes as in German – into nominal compounds that are either endocentric or exocentric that utilize tree diagrams to examine and exhibit their hierarchical structure.

Finally, Slobin looks intently at versions of the frog-story in order to discover how portrayal and understanding of the same story differs based on the specificity of the verbs typically used in one’s language, whether a language is satellite-framed such as English, and the scope of a verb is narrowed by a preposition, or if a language is verb-framed, like Spanish, and the verb itself specifies a manner, path of motion, etc. What is interesting to consider is whether or not there is a bias towards either type of construction in English. Do authors who rely more heavily on verb-framed expressions in English become more popular or receive more critical acclaim for their specificity and command of language/vocabulary? Do orators who utilize more explicit or precise verbs in telling stories or in calling people to action become more charismatic, more persuasive?