Re: making up words

    Being a lexivore and lingua-mangler sort of ConLanger, I truly love the
process of _root-creation_ - esp'ly what is called by some "motivated
root-creation."  Motivated root-creation is creating new, ad hoc forms outta
pre-existing forms - the new form perhaps resembles one or more of these
pre-existing forms. In another words an _a posteriori_ approach - somewhat
similar IMO to neologism and portmanteau, etc..
To use musical metaphors, this approach is like improvising a _raga_ or
composing on a theme. Or creating a musical scale/tuning based on some
pre-existing ones.
    This approach is in contrast to _ex-nihilo_ root-creation in which
root-creation seems to be highly arbitrary and to have little-to-no
lexicological basis - other than perhaps phonology &/or orthography - for
forming roots. The musical metaphors for this approach can be: improvising
music from notecards drawn at random or composing music from a limited
selection of note sequences (i.e., 12 Tone Serialism or Minimalism). Or
creating a musical scale/tuning from intuitive "feel" or personal aesthetic
tastes, or basing it on mathematical formulae or random
machine/computer-generation.

    :)
Hanuman Zhang {HANoomaan JAHng} /'hanuma~n  dZa'hN/

~§~

"...So what is life for? Life is for beauty and substance and sound and
colour; and even those are often forbidden by law [socio-cultural
conventions]. . . . Why not be free and live your own life? Why follow other
people's rules and live to please others?..." ~Lieh-Tzu/Liezi, Taoist Sage
(c. 450- c. 375 BCE)

_Ars imitatur Naturam in sua operatione._ <from Latin> = "Art is the
imitation of Nature in her manner of operation." It turns out that Chaos is
nature's creativity: "The most beautiful order is a heap of sweepings piled
up at random." ~ Heraclitus, c. 500 BCE

~§~ jinsei to iu mono wa, kinchou na geijyutsu to ieru deshou ~§~
<from Japanese> = lit. "one can probably say that 'life' is a precious
artform")