LINGUIST List 11.1255

Mon Jun 5 2000

Qs: Time Metaphors, Montessori Grammar Tools

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>



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Directory

  • Denny Greenberg, Metaphors of Time in Mandarin or Cantonese
  • Toby Ayer, Montessori grammar tools?

    Message 1: Metaphors of Time in Mandarin or Cantonese

     Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2000 16:40:02 +1000
    From: Denny Greenberg <dennymatra.com.au>
    Subject: Metaphors of Time in Mandarin or Cantonese


    I am looking for examples of the metaphors used in the conception of time in Mandarin or Cantonese. I am concerned with these categories: time is a substance time is a container time is a valuable commodity time is labour early is up, late is down past is up, future is down past is in front, future is benhind

    Does anyone know of a corpus of these metaphors?

    Denny Greenberg dennymatra.com.au

    Message 2: Montessori grammar tools?

     Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 10:00:33 +0100 (BST)
    From: Toby Ayer <toby.ayerworcester.oxford.ac.uk>
    Subject: Montessori grammar tools?


    I was looking through a catalogue of Montessori supplies, and was curious about the language tools. The first one that caught my eye was a pair of objects, one a black tetrahedron, one a red sphere, with the explanation that they are for "the introduction of the noun and the verb." Then I saw the whole set of little colored shapes, representing different parts of speech, which are evidently combined to create sentence-forms, presumably according to sequence rules. E.g. a full DP like [Det Num Adj N] would be a series of triangles: [little-blue medium-blue medium-black big-black].

    Anyway, it seems that this sort of abstract sentence construction is exactly the sort of thing you *don't* need to help a toddling language-learner with. On the other hand, it might help later on for other things, like writing well or learning a second language.

    Does anyone have experience with these tools, thoughts on them, or pointers to interesting literature?

    Thanks,

    Toby Ayer tobyworc.ox.ac.uk