Re: OT: auxlangers vs. artlangers (was OT: lingua fracas)

Let me add a few more comments.  First of all, I wish to add a caveat:
I am an artlanger myself (as many people here probably know),
so I am somewhat biassed towards one side; hence, don't expect
a perfectly neutral, objective position from me.

In the original message of this thread, I had raised the question
why artlangers (seemingly) tend to be better linguists than auxlangers.
The answer I suggested was that anyone with a deeper understanding
of languages would perhaps realize the futility of the quest for an
artificial IAL.

Several people contributed their own answers to the same question
(see my last post).  It was suggested that it was beacuse auxlangers
want to "fix" language (Roberto Suarez Soto) or want to inscribe themselves
in history (Tristan McLeay); another suggestion was that only the bad
linguists care about the details the various IAL proposals disagree on,
while the others, if into IALs at all, happily use Esperanto Lars Henrik Mathiesen).

So it seems to boil down to a difference in personality structure.
The auxlanger is typically of the sort who thinks (s)he has found
a way to better the world; (s)he considers the languages that are spoken
in this world to be flawed and aims at fixing them.  One could say
that the auxlanger is of a "visionary leader" personality.
(L. L. Zamenhof, inventor of Esperanto and the world's best known
auxlanger, is an excellent example of this personality type.)
Such people tend to erect mental barricades against any kind of input
that seems to threaten their world-view and thus endanger their mission.
They have a grand plan in their head and live to fulfill it.

The artlanger, in contrast, has no such aspirations, or at least,
they are not why (s)he creates languages.  The artlanger wishes
to create a language as a work of art; (s)he is of an "artist" personality
as opposed to the "visionary leader" personality of the auxlanger.
Like most artists, (s)he aims at mastership in the art (in this case,
of making languages), and thus endeavours to obtain a good
understanding of language.

Jörg.

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