Re: Constructive linguistics

--- Kevin Athey <kevindeanathey@...> wrote:

<snip>

> As I see it, any study of constructed languages
> would fail to be a science
> in anything but the most trivial way.  Although it
> would be possible to
> develop testable theories, conlanging is so
> dependant on fashion that any
> such theories would be either grossly simplistic or
> grossly broad.
One possible exception would be in the area of auxlang
studies where it might be possible to test which
features of an auxlang make it most accessable, or
easy to learn for speakers of a large variety of
languages.  It might, in other words, be possible to
quantify candidate auxlangs by some objective measure
of "goodness", and in doing so, have more concrete
criteria for the design of future auxlangs.

Or, alternatively, it might be possible to demonstrate
that the whole auxlang movement is doomed to failure
(my own personal belief) and back up that claim with
objective studies of one sort or another.

--gary