Re: Conlang paper

Jonathan Lipps scripsit:
> Hi everyone,
>
>
>
> I had to do a final paper
A well-written and convincing document, indeed.

A few nits:

1) I think your use of "model language" is idiosyncratic; while that's no
problem in itself, it should be labeled as such.

2) In the point about understanding ergativity, you could cite Giambattista
Vico, who told us that "man only understands what he has made himself."

3) On Navajo:  Navajo codetalking was not simply the unrestricted and natural
use of Navajo.  Codetalkers actually memorized associations between Navajo
words and semantically unrelated (or only fancifully related) English ones;
a mapping from the English alphabet to Navajo words was also devised in order
to spell out words not in the code.  Navajo codetalking was used only in
tactical situations where immediate response was essential: ordinary cryptanalysis
would easily have broken it.  The main advantage of a Navajo-word code over an
English-word code was that it is much easier to acquire a near-native accent
in English than in Navajo, and so impersonators would be easy to detect (in fact,
no such impersonations were ever attempted).

--
Her he asked if O'Hare Doctor tidings sent from far     John Cowan
coast and she with grameful sigh him answered that      www.ccil.org/~cowan
O'Hare Doctor in heaven was. Sad was the man that word  www.reutershealth.com
to hear that him so heavied in bowels ruthful. All      jcowan@reutershealth.com
she there told him, ruing death for friend so young,
algate sore unwilling God's rightwiseness to withsay.   _Ulysses_, "Oxen"