Re: Constructive linguistics
| From: | Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, February 22, 2005, 7:03 |
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On Monday, February 21, 2005, at 03:53 , Sally Caves wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jim Grossmann" <jimg4732@...>
[snip]
>> FWIU (from what I understand), they aren't useful in testing
>> the Whorf-Sapir hypothesis.
>
> So what?
Because some conlangs were constructed specifically to test the
Whorf-Sapir hypothesis - most notably James Cooke Brown's Loglan, and the
various other subsequent loglans such as Lojban. If they had had some
success in testing the hypothesis, then surely these conlangs at least
would be of interest to academia.
> Isn't that a little over-rated?
Not sure what you mean. Some of us, including myself, do not hold with the
hypothesis. But surely a hypothesis really ought to be tested. As far as I
know, this one has not been. It would have been useful if JCB or the
Lojban community has been able to produce some results. As far as I know,
they have not.
Ray
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Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight,
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as of the reason." [JRRT, "English and Welsh" ]