Re: Linguistics journals

[Colin Fine <colin@KINDNESS.DEMON.CO.UK>]

vecu'u le notci po'u <877836948.1012837.0@listserv.cuny.edu> la HACKER G
N <c9709244@ALINGA.NEWCASTLE.EDU.AU> cu cusku di'e
>On Tue, 21 Oct 1997, Chris Bogart wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 24 Oct 1997, HACKER G N wrote:
>> > > Well if they've already done all this, why are *we* reinventing the
>> > > wheel?
>> >
>> > Ha, ha, ha! That's the most insightful question I've seen anyone ask on
>> > this list. Why indeed? I don't know.
>>
>> OK, let me be more specific.  What interests *you* about Lojban enough to
>> be subscribed to the list?
>
>Another good question. I've addressed a couple of these issues already in
>different postings, but just for the sake of putting them all together in
>one letter, here goes.
>
>I like conlangs. They're fun. The idea of a made-up language has always
>appealed to me. On a more practical note, they enable me to write my diary
>in a language that no one around me can understand, which I have used both
>Lojban and Esperanto for in the past. But any conlang might fit this bill.
>
>I also like conlangs that are more rational than natural languages, and
>both Lojban and Esperanto fit this bill, but not some other languages.
>Klingon, for example, was designed to mimic some of the quirks of natural
>language, and although I am a Trek-head, Klingon just doesn't interest me.
>
>Finally, I like languages that are really WEIRD, and Lojban is weird. It
>was designed that way, to have a structure unlike natural languages.
>Esperanto, by constrast, is so European that it's too familiar. It's
>really boring, and I get little sense of the thrill of the exotic from it.
>
>Enough of what DOES interest me about Lojban; now onto what does NOT
>interest me.
>
>I do not take Lojban seriously as a scientific project. Its original
>purpose, to test the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, is something that it is
>already dubious to many people that Lojban can actually carry out, partly
>because it is claimed not to be focused enough, and partly because
>it is debatable whether the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is actually testable.
>
>I do not think that there is anything that Lojban, or ANY language,
>natural or constructed, can do to improve my thinking. I do not think in
>Lojban, or English, or any other language; I just THINK. You usually have
>to CONSTRUCT a language in which to express your ALREADY EXISTING
>thoughts, and I consider that thought and language are separate things.
>
>I would not use Lojban for a computer language because I can see no
>advantage to this. There are already computer languages around that are as
>powerful as Lojban could be, if not more so. Plus, they have the advantage
>that you do not have to learn a WHOLE NEW language just to learn to
>program. That fact alone stops Lojban from being commercially relevant.
>
>I am not interesting in the prospect of an international constructed
>language, mainly because I think it's a bit of a pipe dream. There will
>always be too much of an advantage to be gained in learning a natural
>language becuase of the enormous number of ALREADY EXISTING speakers of
>that language - for better or worse, that language right now is English.
>
>I have doubts that any language can be culturally netural, any more than
>an IQ test can be culturally neutral. Semantic space alone is so pliable
>that it is dubious that any one language can adequately capture the space
>of every other significant language. The Welsh word 'glas', for example,
>covers all of blue, but also some (but not all) of 'green' and 'grey'.
>
>Despite all this, though, Lojban is just plain FUN. And while it continues
>to be fun for me, I will probably continue to be here.
>
>Geoff

I concur with pretty well all the above.
--
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|     Colin Fine    66 High Ash, Shipley, W Yorks. BD18 1NE, UK       |
|  Tel: 01274 592696/0976 635354  e-mail:  colin@kindness.demon.co.uk |
|        "Don't just do something! Stand there!"                      |
|              - from 'Behold the Spirit' (workshop)                  |
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