Sunday, July 14, 2013

Introducing Linguistics - A Graphic Guide - Quiz

I have returned to the wonderful fairy tale world that is our library. Among the many books I have at my disposal, I decided to start with "A Graphic Guide to Linguistics" - because I love comics and this is a graphic guide, but also what better subject with which to start then the study of words and language.




These little books are jam-packed with information, so here comes one of the first of the quizzes I will make for the book. 




  1. Who took the first step in European Linguistics?
  2. Who was the first to classify between nouns, verbs, articles, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, and participles?
  3. What other language used the Greek analysis to order their language accordingly?
  4. Which 17th century scholars put together a remarkably original "universal" grammar of French?
  5. Saussure said that "A linguistic sign is not a link between a thing and a name but between a _____ and a ______".
  6. While Saussure died without publishing his ideas, how were his ideas spread?
  7. What is the difference between synchronic and diachronic structures?
  8. Who was the first to make the connection between culture and language?
  9. Post-Bloomfield Structuralists were the first to?
  10. Generative Grammar was invented by whom?


Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Religious Life of the Fertile Crescent

The flooding of the Tigris and the Euphrates was violent and unpredictable: from one day to the next, life-giving rain could change into an agent of devastation.



It was believed the gods controlled these powerful forces, with humans little more than slaves subject to the whims of fate.



This put religion firmly at the center of daily life, with a temple dedicated to one of the major gods at the heart of each town or city.


Initially these were fairly simple mud-brick constructions, decorated with cone geometrical mosaics and frescos with human and animal figures.



A rectangular shrine, known as a "cella", had a brick altar or offering table in front of a rituals, food sacrifices and libations took place on a daily basis, as well as monthly feasts and annual celebrations of the New Year.












Friday, May 17, 2013

Record Keeping of the Fertile Crescent

The ancient civilization of Sumer had thrived in agriculture, trade and industry.


It was one of the first civilizations to develop a system of writing. 


Initially pictographs or icons were used, with one of the earliest dictionaries containing about 2,000 graphic symbols, each one meant to resemble that which it represented. 


However, as society developed and the need to record complex matters increased, the limitations of pictorial representation became apparent. 


Gradually people realized that written signs could be used to represent sounds rather than things. 


So pictures were replaced by cuneiform script, a written code based on a series of wedge-shaped characters, usually inscribed on to a soft surface, such as clay.