zompist bboard

Zompist, I was looking over the (extremely impressive) Verdurian Thematic Lexicon, and I was wondering how you went about organizing it? How did you decide what categories to use and where to put different words and phrases? You see, I have been trying to work on the lexicon for my conlang and thought it would be easiest to do a thematic lexicon to make sure I don't have any gaps, but I don't know what the thought process should be for me to construct it. Are there questions I should keep in mind? I know that person could just simply import the divisions used for Verdurian or English thematic lexicons, but Verdurian and English and Lexorfa are three different languages with different cultures associated with them, so I did not think that it was that naturalistic to just lift those categories necessarily.

I'd say about 75% of the categories could be applied to any language.

But where you can find an opportunity to showcase how your people think, go for it. In my list this included the seven types of elements, the parts of the soul, the temperaments, the sins, religions, and literary genres.

As in most areas of conworlding, attempt to monitor yourself for making assumptions based on how our own society works, and see if you can change some of them.

zompist wrote:I'd say about 75% of the categories could be applied to any language.

But where you can find an opportunity to showcase how your people think, go for it. In my list this included the seven types of elements, the parts of the soul, the temperaments, the sins, religions, and literary genres.

As in most areas of conworlding, attempt to monitor yourself for making assumptions based on how our own society works, and see if you can change some of them.

Thanks, Zompist.