User talk:Sophiersg/sandbox

Lead Section
Overall, this section feels clear and provides a nice orientation for the reader in terms of where Semelai is spoken, who speaks it, and some other important contextualizing facts about the language. I am not totally sure of this, but since the trainings say that the lead section should provide somewhat of an overview of what the wiki article will cover, it could potentially be helpful to provide a very general structural framework for phonology, morphology, and syntax in Semelai that doesn’t delve into any details but introduces us a little more to the type of language Semelai is.

Some specifics on the lead section Missing a period between "languages and However." Could be helpful to provide a link to a relevant wiki page for the specific level of endangerment.

Phonology Section
The text and tables covering the phonological inventory were clear. Make sure in the next draft to use the necessary wiki code so that everything is properly aligned in the tables. Also make sure to link to the relevant wiki pages for the different phonemes that have wiki pages made.

Specific Notes The use of “ten vowel qualities” is slightly unclear, maybe it would be clearer to say 10 basic vowels. Mentioned this above, but again make sure to link to the relevant wiki pages also in the consonant table for each place and manner of articulation

Morphology Section
Some of the information in this section felt a little redundant (for instance the first line of the morphology section is then repeated at the beginning of the affixation section). I think the first line appearing right under morphology should give a more general overview so maybe just indicating that Semalai uses various types of affixation, includes both derivational and inflectional morphology, etc.

This section was a little inconsistent in terms of defining abbreviations used so just make sure all abbreviations (even those that seem a little more obvious are stated explicitly), as I think this will make it much easier to follow the examples.

I was a little confused by the Inflectional Affixation section, as the information in this section seemed to be referring to combining derivational and inflectional affixation so it might be helpful to have a heading that better signals that discussion.

Make sure to use the necessary wiki code to properly align the 3-line gloss.

Syntax Section
There are some words such as “clitics” that you link more than once to the relevant wiki page but not every time. Probably helpful to remain consistent with this so I think it would be fine to link just the first time you use the word.

Are you sure that Semalai is completely head initial? In other words, were you able to find an example of every head and complement pair? If not, maybe better to say predominantly head initial and then list off the specific head complement pairs that you found this to be true for.

The syntax section, in general, feels a little less developed than the other sections. I think it would be helpful to include more examples of the head/complement pairs.

Thoughts on Article as a Whole
I think the information is covered in a really clear, concise way and is very accessible to readers coming from a wide range of linguistic backgrounds. I obviously can’t tell where any gaps exist without knowing more about your grammar, but I think it could be helpful to go through each section and provide some more information that extends beyond the practicum preps just to give the reader a fuller picture of your language. I think it would be helpful to go back through and add in a lot more links to wiki articles, as there are a lot of terms used that the reader might not know so that could be a helpful way of allowing the reader to get a better understanding of the term.

Dhoffman 20 (talk) 13:04, 11 April 2019 (UTC)

Lead
In general, the lead is clear and provides useful information. There are a couple of typos. It might be helpful to state where the 6b language status comes from, because it probably isn’t common knowledge.
 * “Penninsular Malaysia” -> “Peninsular Malaysia”
 * “typical of Aslain languages” -> “typical of Aslian languages”

Phonology
This section provides a good overview of what the phonology of Semelai looks like. The tables provide information in a clear manner. In the Vowels section, it’s mentioned that there are some vowels that are difficult to tell apart — it might help to include who it’s difficult for, because how the sentence is phrased right now makes it ambiguous as to whether it’s difficult for speakers of Semelai or the author of the grammar. Some nitpicky things:
 * I think the semicolon in the Vowels section would be better off as a colon, since semicolons join two independent clauses.
 * In the Syllabic Structure section, I’m not sure if “See examples below” is the best way of introducing the examples.

Morphology
The morphology section is detailed and provides several examples. However, it’s a bit messy right now because the glosses are a little hard to read, and because I think the list of affix types in the introduction to this section can be removed, since you relist them in the following subsection.

Syntax
This section is well-organized and clear. I’m not sure about the quote in the introduction to the section—it might be a little more concise to paraphrase what the grammar says. There’s a typo after the VOS example. Also, it might help to include some more examples showing how Semelai is head-initial.
 * “uses VSO word other” -> “uses VSO word order”

As a Whole
In general, the article is organized in a logical manner, with a clear purpose to each of the individual sections. It could probably be improved with some cosmetic changes to make it a little easier to read, and with the removal of some redundant links to other pages. I think there are multiple links to the consonants page and vowels page. Also, the individual links to different vowel types seems like a bit much, since the vowels page includes descriptions of all of those vowel types.

I think the Syntax section could do with a little expanding, since it's a little sparse compared to the other sections. The other two sections seem pretty fleshed-out, which I think was a strong point of your article.

Kwjjeon (talk) 20:34, 13 April 2019 (UTC)