Re: Universal Translation Language

-----Original Message-----
From: Raymond A. Brown <raybrown@...>
To: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG <CONLANG@...>
Date: Thursday, May 27, 1999 10:51 PM
Subject: Re: Universal Translation Language


> I have grave doubts whether it is possible to eliminate all
>ambiguity.  Classical Yiklamu has possibly the largest vocabulary of all
>conlangs and was design specifically to be as unambiguous as possible as
>regards lexicon.  But I suspect one skilled in its use could still be
>umbiguous if s/he wished to be.

Ambiguity is an essential part of any language.  What would poetry be
without deliberate ambuguity.  How would you translate "'Twas brillig in the
slithy toves..." into an unambiguous IAL, since the whole piece is _meant_
to be ambiguous, and would lose all its "meaning" if it were disambiguated.

--G