Dear Terry,
You might usefully look at ergative and accusative aspects in different languages. English is accusative. That is, the primary presumption is that some one did something. For example, Keith broke the glass. In ergative languages there is a primary notion that something happened or some state has come to pass, but there is no upfront need to find an actor/cause. Maori, for example, is more ergative than any other Polynesian language.
Keith
> On 2 Oct 2014, at 11:01 pm, Terence Love <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
> Can you recommend a simple straightforward text in English?
>
> A question (possibly very naive) comes to mind about how does semiotic analysis go with the idea that the use of nouns and verbs (objects and actions, entities and causes) isn't universal across all languages? Rather, it seems more to be a kind of structure that fits an entity relationship model that happens to be common to many of the languages of the developed world and also fits well with the idea of sequential causality. Some languages are exceptions both to use of verbs and nouns (and hence agents and actants) (e.g. Riau - which sounds like something my cat speaks) and some do not assume sequential causality (on which the idea of action depends).
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|