John Hodges on "Why Lojban?"

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@GREBYN.COM>]

John Hodges submitted the following essay, and asked that I post it
to the net for comment.  He is interested in comments from non-Lojbanists
as well as Lojbanists, hence I am posting it to conlang as well.  As
will be obvious from the posting, John is among other things a student of
philosophy/ethics, and is especially interested in philosophical issues
of conlangs.

lojbab

Consider Klingon.  Noticeable numbers of Star Trek fans are teaching
themselves to speak Klingon.  You commented, "They have certain
marketing advantages."  Certainly they do- publicity, media exposure,
celebrity endorsement, support of a major publishing giant.  Fans learn
it to associate and identify with these great adventure stories on TV.
(We should tell SF and fantasy writers that this other strange, simple,
carefully-worked-out language is available, public domain.)  We have to
think about marketing ourselves.

Consider also Esperanto.  One (by no means the only) approach to ethics
regards it as the practical question of how to maintain peaceful and
cooperative relations with your neighbors.  By this approach, the
ultimate goal of ethics would be World Peace.  (You expand your circle
of neighbors until you are maintaining peaceful and cooperative
relations with all the people there are.)  This is the moral crusade
that the Esperantists set out on over 100 years ago.  Dr.  Zamenhof saw
his neighbors (in eastern Poland) divided into hostile groups largely
along lines of language.  He reasoned that a constructed language,
culturally and politically neutral (i.e. not the property of any
contending party), and easy to learn, would provide a way for people
divided by language to meet each other halfway.

The International Language movement, having begun with Volap k, switched
en masse to Esperanto.  Later came the Ido split, which divided this
movement for World Peace into quarreling factions and thereby took a lot
of wind out of their sails.  Then came World War 2; The Nazis (of
course) saw them as undesirables and killed many.  Since WW2 there have
been other problems... by sheer persistence the Esperantists have
accumulated ~10,000 books translated or written in their language, have
built a network of organizations spanning ~100 countries, and have
taught ~2,000,000 people.  On the one hand, this is only 0.04% of the
world's population; on the other, it is far beyond the accomplishments
of other constructed languages, which typically number their active
membership in the dozens.  I believe their persistence owes much to
their moral idealism; it is not just a hobby to them.

Soon Lojban will have printed, bound books to sell.  How shall we sell
them?  What reasons shall we give, when people ask "Why Lojban?"  What
is our point?  What useful function do we serve?  What moral crusade do
we offer, what hope for making the world better?  I have a proposal for
discussion.

We can give five reasons.
     1) The hope for beneficial Sapir-Whorf effects.
     2) The potential for computer applications.
     3) Future potential as an international common tongue.
     4) A game, a personal mind-expander.
     5) The Elephant.

The original and still primary goal of Lojban is to serve as an
experimental vehicle for scientific research into the interaction of
language, thought, and culture.  In particular, we hope to test the
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, which states that the structure of a language
constrains the thinking of people using it.  Lojban has a grammar built
around predicate logic, and is designed to be exceedingly flexible in
expression, to minimize constraints on thought.  We hope that people who
think in Lojban will think more logically and/or more flexibly than they
do in a natural language.

I have a personal fondness for this goal.  The early pioneers of
aviation had a dream:  "Someday, people will fly."  The Esperantists
have a dream:  "Someday, people will not be divided by language."  I
have a dream:  "Someday, people will think logically."  Even if there is
no effect on thinking, Lojban can be used as a teaching vehicle for
logic and language.  Somebody (Perhaps me- any others?) would have to
write teaching material with that orientation.

Is this in any way a moral cause?  Science is a method of inquiry, of
seeking increased understanding.  There are certain virtues necessary to
the practice of scientific inquiry... beginning with the admission that
we are not infallible and may not already know the complete truth.
(Including the complete truth about ethics.)  Honesty, willingness to
learn from all sources, giving a fair hearing to original thinking and
diverse views, willingness to admit error, care and attention to detail,
being observant, subordinating your own theories and wishes to the
evidence.  The pursuit of understanding is certainly a moral goal,
beneficial both to the individual and to society.  The attitudes and
virtues of science, when carried over to dealing with other people,
create a non-authoritarian and democratic sort of society.  (For more on
this, see John Stuart Mill, ON LIBERTY, and Jacob Bronowski, SCIENCE AND
HUMAN VALUES.)

A second major goal influencing the design of Lojban was to make it
"computer-friendly."  The grammar, pronunciation, and word- forms of
Lojban are unambiguous.  Lojban words have no homonyms and no multiple
unrelated meanings.  Computers can transcribe, parse, analyse, and
translate it far more easily than any other human language.

There may be many computer applications of Lojban, for databases, AI
work, etc., but my favorite dream here is the translator-box.  Travelers
could carry a box, into which they speak (or type) Lojban, and out of
which comes an automatic translation that may be wordy and stilted but
WILL say what they intended to say.  Given such boxes, people would have
a reason to learn Lojban even if no one in the country they are to visit
speaks it.  The usefulness of Lojban to travelers would not depend on
the number of other speakers but on the number of plug-in languages
available for the translator-box.  Also, those studying another natural
language could use the box as an interactive teacher, for any of the
available plug-in languages.

Machine translation seems to me the project most likely to give tangible
results within a small number of years.  It is a project that can be
worked on by a small number of widely scattered people.  It is a project
that is academically respectable, suitable for theses and grants.  It
can be done by people who are not terribly fluent in anything but their
native tongue.  Intermediate results, software that gives bad but
decipherable translations, can still be useful, as research and as
teaching tools.

People who are not AI programmers can still contribute to the
development of translator boxes.  By searching out "How would you say
X", and adding to the vocabulary, you are adding to the translation
algorithm/database between Lojban and your native tongue.  You thereby
contribute to the future fluency OF all Lojban speakers IN your native
tongue.

A third goal is future use as an international common tongue.  The
obvious first question is "What about Esperanto?"  Do we wish to
challenge the Esperantists for this particular niche?  In my opinion,
not just now.  But, maybe later.

Chapter 3 of David Richardson's Esperanto textbook begins "Early schemes
for an international language were rather more the work of philosophers
than linguists.  These inventions seem to have been intended to promote
logical thought as much as to facilitate universal communication."
Descartes and Leibnitz, for two examples, worked on inventing such a
language, but the state of the art in relevant fields was insufficient.
Lojban is the modern- day incarnation of that dream.  Esperanto, by
contrast, was invented by a linguist (polyglot) for ordinary people to
use in mundane life, and he focused on making it simple, functional, and
easy to learn.  If Esperanto is the peacemaker's language, and Lojban
the philosopher's, they may coexist.  But if they both aim at being a
global common tongue, conflict seems inevitable.

Relations between Lojbanists and Esperantists are a complex subject.  I
have great admiration and respect for the Esperanto movement, and I
would like to see some accomodation, even alliance, made.  To start
with, I think for the time being anyone whose major interest is an
international common tongue should learn Esperanto, either "in addition"
or just plain "instead."  We should also have an Esperanto translation
of our teaching material.

The field of "constructed languages intended to serve as an
international common tongue" is a natural monopoly.  You only need one;
you only want one.  Whatever the virtues or flaws of Esperanto, the
relevant question for any alternate candidate is not "Is it better?" but
"Is it ENOUGH better to justify abandoning all the work that the
Esperantists have already done?"

To answer "yes", an alternate language would need to have radical
advantages.  I think that well-functioning, cheap, portable
translator-boxes would provide one.  At present, it is far easier in
most parts of the world to find a speaker of English or French than of
Esperanto.  To use Esperanto, not only YOU have to speak it, but those
you are speaking TO must also.  But given translator- boxes, you could
make yourself understood in places where no one else spoke Lojban.
That, and a few dozen words of the local tongue, would suffice for most
travelers.  If such boxes became common, local people who do business
with travelers would be constantly hearing Lojban followed by
translations in their own tongue; they might learn Lojban themselves
that way, or study it just to eliminate the middlebox.  The boxes would
provide the entering wedge, to give everyone learning a second language
a practical reason to choose the same one.  Once started, the forces of
"natural monopoly" would take over, and eventually the boxes would no
longer be needed.

Significant Sapir-Whorf improvements in thinking, if any occur, would
also give a reason for preferring Lojban to Esperanto.  So, AFTER we get
tangible results in the areas of Sapir-Whorf or machine translation, we
may have grounds for invading the Esperantist's turf.  Even in that
event, cooperation may be possible.  There is much work being done on
computer analysis and translation of Esperanto.  Once experiment shows
that good T-boxes are possible, rather than take either language as it
stands, perhaps what has been learned can be used to make a new
language, adding cmavo to Esperanto perhaps, to make a language both
speakable and machine-friendly.  "T-box E-o" might be a superset of
existing E-o, with added logical operators, scope delimiters, and spoken
punctuation.  Even if not, if Lojban "as is" wholly displaces Esperanto,
we would be offering an alternate route to the same goal.  If the goal
of fostering world peace by means of an international common tongue was
achieved, I think Zamenhof would not much mind that the language was not
his.

A fourth reason is as a game, a personal mind expander.  A speakable
form of logic, extremely flexible in expression, offers a good chance of
learning SOMETHING from every exercise in translation or composition.
The effort of saying things in Lojban, "in the Lojbanic spirit",
involves getting beyond familiar structures and idiom, stating what you
mean clearly in a culture- transcending way.  You see more deeply into
logic, language, AND the subject of which you are speaking.  There are
also varieties of wordplay not found elsewhere, to compensate for some
that are lost.  Every completed composition contributes to the other
goals of Lojban as well.

Finally, the Elephant.


               The Blind Men and the Elephant
               by John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887)

It was six men of Indostan to learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant (though all of them were blind),
That each by observation might satisfy his mind.

The first approached the Elephant, and happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side, at once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant is very like a wall!"

The second, feeling of the tusk, cried "Ho! What have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp? To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant is very like a spear!"

The third approached the animal, and happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands, thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant is very like a snake!"

The fourth reached out an eager hand, and felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like is mighty plain," quoth he;
" 'Tis clear enough the Elephant is very like a tree!"

The fifth who chanced to touch the ear, said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most; deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant is very like a fan!"

The sixth no sooner had begun about the beast to grope
than, seizing on the swinging tail that fell within his scope,
"I see,' quoth he, "the Elephant is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Indostan disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right, and all were in the wrong!

                         MORAL

So oft in theologic wars, the disputants, I ween,
rail on in utter ignorance of what each other mean,
and prate about an Elephant not one of them has seen!



To the question "Why Lojban?" we can answer, "There are many possible
uses for Lojban, and different people will focus on different aspects.
But all the uses interact.  Beyond all the particular uses, there is a
larger whole."

There is an elephant beyond the six blind men.  Yes, Lojban is fun.
Yes, it offers potential for computer applications.  Yes, it may help
people to think more flexibly and/or logically.  Yes, it offers hope as
an international language.  But these can be seen as parts of a grander
whole.  The discipline required to write for computer translation forces
clear and non-culturebound expression.  This is mind-expanding for the
individual and enriching to the world.  This is the human side of
machine translation; computers may someday translate from Lojban to
natural languages, but only what people have expressed in Lojban to
start with.  Writing prose, letters, diaries, and drama in Lojban, in
the spirit of Lojban, is therefore writing them for the ages, for all
people and cultures.  The formal language, and the literature therein,
is what we wish to share with the world.

(For a cover illustration for the textbook, how about an elephant
standing behind an open-eyed Englishman, Chinese, Hispanic, Russian,
Hindu, and Arab?  Perhaps with R2-D2 down in front.)  (For a logo, a
small stylized elephant.)

a'o ro le prenu cu cilre la lojban .i co'omi'e

                                   John Hodges.
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EOT