Re: Bootstrapping a cooperative conlang

This is in fact an exercise that we were given to do in linguistics
seminars: take a set of likes (nouns, adjectives...) for example mouse, rat,
hamster, squirrel... and draw up truth tables for each of them, a la minimal
pairs in phonemics, until you arrive at a set of characteristics that
distinguish each member of the set. It's a good exercise!
Mike

>> Picture of deer mouse: "sawiki". Picture of four-leafed clover: "sawiki
>> nui". Picture of striped grass mouse: "sawiki". Picture of volcano:
>> "sawiki nui".
>>
>
> A picture only shows what the animal looks like.  It doesn't give any of
> the
> rest of the meaning of the word, like how it moves, what sounds it makes,
> what
> kinds of food it eats, why it's a pest or pet.
> The "convoluted definition built from a minimal vocabulary" gives a
> comprehensive definition of the complex meaning of the word "mouse".  The
> minimal
> vocabulary ensures that it can be understood by anyone who knows those
> English
> primitives.
> This type of definition also allows one to compare the differences in
> definition between synonyms and other related words.  What part of the
> definition of
> "mouse" does not apply to "rat", e.g., and what parts are common to both?
> I
> don't have a similar type of definition of "rat", so I won't try to answer
> that
> question, but these explications permit such fine discrimination.

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