Introducing Language in Use: a Coursebook
Fun with Language
Startings and Finishings
Add as many items as possible to each of the following lists and explain (using precise linguistic terminology) what the pattern is and therefore why your chosen items continue the list:
- book, king, great, tyre, enormous, sugar…
- make, kernel, elevate, teardrop, opportune, near…
- I, on, the, four, alive, sleepy, coinage, elephant…
- hoof, phalange, judge, jerk, cuddle, levitation, knee…
- scene, below, obfuscate, dictionary…
- my, many, minimum, maximalize, memorisation…
If it is impossible to continue a list, explain why.
The linguistic points listed below might help you in your explanations.
Of course, now you can try any of these activities in any other language that you know. The same linguistic points will be valid for consideration.
Linguistics points for consideration (these questions all relate to the examples of English given above):
- Which individual letters can start and finish a word? Can all letters come at the end of a word? Can all letters come at the beginning of a word?
- Which pairs of letters can start and finish a word? Can all pairs of letters start or finish a word? Which ones can appear in either position?
- What about three-letter clusters? Can they come equally well at the beginning or end of a word?
- How many letters are there in a word? Are there any constraints on which letters can appear in single-letter words or two-letter words?
- What sounds (as opposed to letters) can start and end a word? The word jerk ends with the sound [k] and therefore the word cuddle (which begins with [k]) is an acceptable next word in the sequence. Similarly, the word knee begins with [n] (not [k]) and therefore is an acceptable word to follow levitation.
- How many syllables might there be in a word? What is a syllable?
- The final list combines issues of how many syllables there are in a word as well as keeping the first letter of each word constant.
Now create some similar rules for yourself and see how many words you can create following those rules.