Re: CHAT: Early Conlang Archives

Edward Heil wrote:
> If I know one thing about neuroscience, it is that as far as the brain
> is concerned, memorization and subsequent retrieval are *always* more
> effective and efficient than calculation -- to *use,* anyway.  The brain
> has an effectively unlimited storage volume
Granted.  HOWEVER, derivations are probably stored seperately, which is
why you can talk about a "cold hot dog", because "hot dog" is stored as
a single entry, and thus the "cold hot" paradox does not interfere.
When you come upon a new word, a word you've never seen before, it helps
to be able to figure out it's meaning from the structure.  You may never
have heard the word "antidenationalizationist", but you could figure out
that it means "someone who is opposed to denationalization (which in
turn would mean "undoing the process of nationalization").  Once you
have heard that word, your brain probably stores it as a seperate entry,
especially since derived words often don't mean exactly what their
structure would imply, sometimes dramatically so, as in the case of
"inflammable".  So, it seems to me that derivation *is* truly useful,
ESPECIALLY for an auxlang, but even in natlangs.  It makes new words
easier to comprehend, and it makes it easier to discuss new ideas, by
creating words on the spot, as I did with "antidenationalizationist".