Re: Real Conlangs Here, Made-to-Order!

En réponse à Andrew Nowicki :


>There are computer programs which make music,
False. There are computer programs which help people to make music, but the
human input is vital. Computers don't have ideas. And without ideas you
can't create anything.

>  so I will not be
>surprised if a computer program makes grammar and vocabulary
>of a language.
Impossible to do. Languages are such complex things that no computer is
able to fully analyse them, even less create some from scratch. The best
there is currently is vocabulary generators, but they make only possible
forms according to rules that human people have to give, and the human
input is always necessary.

>  I could not distinguish such a computer-generated
>language from a language made by a human artist.
How do you know, since there's no such program around. They are impossible
to create. Tell me, how do you program inspiration?

>  The only
>exception are philosophical languages.
On the contrary. Because of their specific structure, philosophical
languages are much easier to handle for computers. They cannot create any
either, but they can easily parse them and analyse them.

>  The compound words of
>these languages are descriptions, so the language-making
>computer would have to know as much about the world as we do.
That's true for any language. And since non-philosophical languages have
words which often are actually descriptive, but in metaphorical ways, they
are even more difficult to handle by computers than philosophical
languages. Look at the problems of automatic translation (still a dream)
and speech to text programs.

>Would it be desirable to run the language-making program round
>the clock and have it post its new languages on the web at a
>rate of, say, one language per hour?
First make such a language, then we'll talk. But talking about ghosts of a
uncertain future is certainly not a way to argue. You only make your case
weaker since you seem to have to resort to imaginary arguments.

Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.

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