Journal Entry #2 - Reading review

[Mark Kligman]

From the readings that we were required to read I was reassured that structure is very important when learning a language since every language has its own structure, phonetic and grammatical pattern. I have noticed this pattern when learning new languages in school and comparing their structure and patterns in retrospect of the languages I already knew well. When I learned Spanish I saw that, similarly to what was stated in the readings, sentences could mean completely different things depending on sentence structure, a grammatical misplacement or a missing hyphen. It is easier to learn of these patterns by distinguishing fields make memorizing structure easier. When learning a language our top priority should be delivering meaning through our words and this cannot be attained if our structure is prone to errors. Words, capitalization, spelling and sound are all components of meaning and interpretations of a language. Each language applies these differently in their sentences and words, that is why we must not solely compare the language we are learning to the language we know but study the new language's trends while avoiding the trends and patterns that we are able to notice in our own language. Semantics plays a large role in the interpretation of words but in some cases we must avoid the rules of semantics and apply lexemes since they show how words with similar structure can mean different things. It is also important to classify antonyms as gradable, non-gradable, or as converse terms since some words simply cannot be altered in the same way as others to have a similar meaning, especially in different languages where the alteration of words is permitted and not permitted in various scenarios.