4.1.2. Some categories of vocabulary

I am going to suggest some categories of essential vocabulary for you as a basic speaker of the language. However, I encourage you to only refer to this list when you run short of ideas from other sources. Keep examining every aspect of your daily life in the situation where you will be using the language and identify the objects, places, and activities that will be important to you. Let those be your inspiration in choosing vocabulary to learn. If you are preparing for a session and you run short on ideas, scan the following suggestions. According to my most conservative tally, if the language you are learning is that of a group of people with a rudimentary material culture, these suggestions should yield five hundred vocabulary items. In most situations they should yield at least a thousand. It would be a good exercise for you, as homework, to flesh out these categories by listing a number of common English words that would fall under each one. Some “words” will actually be phrases. For example, old man could be treated as a vocabulary item, since it is such an essential category of human beings. By way of contrast, tall man would not be considered a vocabulary item, although both tall and man would be important items.

If you keep a log of the vocabulary you learn, the items in your log will suggest new possibilities for vocabulary. The word for water may be in your log. Then think of all the things you can say about water: it flows, drips, freezes, boils, soaks into things, soaks through things, leaks out of things, people pour it, splash it, spray it, etc. etc.

Subsections

4.1.2.1 Words for referring to human beings

4.1.2.2 Items used by human beings

4.1.2.3 Places frequented by humans

4.1.2.4 Common substances not yet covered

4.1.2.5 Nature

4.1.2.6 Time