Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: CHAT: Unsolicited abuse

From:Matt Pearson <mpearson@...>
Date:Tuesday, May 11, 1999, 23:45
>Matt Pearson wrote: > >> I should clarify that the psychologist in question was not my >> therapist, nor was he acting in a professional capacity at the time >> of our conversation. But he was something of an authority figure - >> viz., the father of the family I stayed with when I was an exchange >> student in Sweden, about 11 years ago. [...]
>Ah... you've mentioned this incident before. Do you think there is any >possibility that he misunderstood what you said? Do you think he thought >you meant you liked to make up words for fun rather than a systematic, >rule-governed *language*? Most people, I would think, have so little >understanding of what conlanging is that they might assume you just play >around >with words or something like that, not knowing about the intracacies that >grammars can have (much as most people think linguists just know lots of >languages).
I know exactly what you mean. Yes, it's *possible* he thought that, but I doubt it. When I told him that one of my hobbies was making up a language, he asked me whether the language was 'logical', and then went on to pontificate about Esperanto and its function as a medium of international communication. Although not exactly a fan of Esperanto, he was intrigued by the Esperanto concept (in addition to being a psychologist and professor of pedagogy, he was also a specialist in 'peace studies' or some such - all very Swedish!). It was only after I informed him that *my* language was not intended as an auxlang that he became hostile and started spouting catch phrases like "mental masturbation". So I don't think he thought of me as a schizophrenic or a glossalalic. In his mind, language has a purely utilitarian function, so any artificial language project which is 'just for fun' would be a waste of valuable time - a reaction which many other people on this list have reported. Matt. ------------------------------------ Matt Pearson mpearson@ucla.edu UCLA Linguistics Department 405 Hilgard Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90095-1543 ------------------------------------