Goal: List any features that shift for modality or communication situation
Note: Modality refers to the method of transmission while communication situation reflects purpose.
Tip: Use this as a guide for yourself as you begin creating longer pieces.
Work focus: Organize/Plan/Structure
Spend time today making a list, table, or other guide that highlights the features you want to have shift for modality and/or communication situation. So far this year, the prompts I’ve given have focused on how your language works in its most basic sense—in the daily kind of communicative needs your speakers might have. This list should target the ways you want the language to shift when it is used outside those daily communication situations.
Modality refers to the method of transmission. If you wanted to develop a writing system for your language, then you might be focusing on what linguistic features are more likely to occur in written language versus spoken language.
Communication situation is a larger concept that reflects the purpose of communication, and it applies to any modality of language. For instance, your speakers may write stories that narrate their histories, but they may not have any written language and instead use oral traditions to pass their stories from generation to generation.
The guide you create today will help keep your thoughts on language features specific to particular genres/modalities organized as you move forward with more translation and language expansion.