11.1255, Qs: Time Metaphors, Montessori Grammar Tools

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-11-1255. Mon Jun 5 2000. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 11.1255, Qs: Time Metaphors, Montessori Grammar Tools

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1)
Date:  Sun, 04 Jun 2000 16:40:02 +1000
From:  Denny Greenberg <denny at matra.com.au>
Subject:  Metaphors of Time in Mandarin or Cantonese

2)
Date:  Mon, 5 Jun 2000 10:00:33 +0100 (BST)
From:  Toby Ayer <toby.ayer at worcester.oxford.ac.uk>
Subject:  Montessori grammar tools?

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Sun, 04 Jun 2000 16:40:02 +1000
From:  Denny Greenberg <denny at matra.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
denny at matra.com.au


-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Mon, 5 Jun 2000 10:00:33 +0100 (BST)
From:  Toby Ayer <toby.ayer at worcester.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
toby at worc.ox.ac.uk

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