Alan Reed Libert & Christo Moskovsky 27 Journal of Universal Language 16-2 September 2015, 27-62 Terms for Bodies of Water in A Posteriori and Mixed Artificial Languages Alan Reed Libert & Christo Moskovsky University of Newcastle, Australia Abstract In this paper we look at words for bodies of water (e.g., words for ‘lake’ and ‘river’) in a large number of a posteriori and mixed artificial languages. After presenting the data and briefly discussing some of them, we analyze some aspects of them, including which meanings seem to be more basic than others. For example, words meaning ‘river’ appear to be unmarked with respect to words meaning similar, but smaller, bodies of water (e.g., ‘brook’), since some artificial languages derive the latter from the former, but no languages in our sample derive the latter from the former. This sort of analysis can be applied to other semantic fields in artificial languages. Keywords: a posteriori languages, mixed languages, lexicon Alan Reed Libert School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia Phone: 61-2-49215117; Email:
[email protected] Christo Moskovsky School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia Phone: 61-2-49215163; Email:
[email protected] Received August 11, 2015; Revised September 22, 2015; Accepted Septermber 25, 2015 28 Terms for Bodies of Water in A Posteriori and Mixed Artificial Languages 1. Introduction1 Looking at specific areas of the vocabulary of artificial languages (henceforth ALs) can give one an idea of the nature of such languages, at least with respect to the lexicon and perhaps also concerning derivational morphology.