Re: What is it we are saying in our languages?

Sally Caves wrote:
>In other words, what are we saying that is unique in our languages,
>and how do our languages help us *say* something that the world can hear--
>or deem unique?
>
>How is conlanging itself a kind of message about language?
>=========================================================================
It has always been my intention to write philosophical poetry in Ithkuil,
i.e., a poem or poems expressing a philosiphical view.  Because Ithkuil's
raisons d'etre include (1) semantic exactitude and precision, (2) overt
expression of actual cognition than natlangs permit, and (3)
morpho-phonological conciseness, I believe it to be an excellent vehicle for
expressing "heavy" philosophical thoughts and musings in a way that would
hinder the speaker/writer from trying to manipulate language metaphorically
the way most philosophy is written.  (Lakoff and Johnson spend the last part
of their 1999 opus "Philosophy in the Flesh" deconstructing various
philosopher's writings based on the metaphors they use to convey their
ideas).  The result being a more "pure" (pardon the metaphor!) expression of
philosophical thought that can be judged on its face more objectively than
most philosophical writings.  (Indeed, of all the comments and adulatory
statements I’ve read about Ithkuil from various blogs, bulletin boards, etc.
in the last two and a half years, the entry that has meant the most to me
was a blog entry by someone posting a derogatory entry about the writings of
some apparently postmodern philosopher named DeLeuze.  The blogger suggested
more or less that if DeLeuze’s work were translated into Ithkuil he’d be
exposed for the philosophical charlatan the blogger believed him to be.)

At the same time, Ithkuil's incredibly flexible and concise morpho-phonology
would allow philosophical thoughts to be conveyed in very unique sorts of
words which would allow me to write such philosophical ‘treatises’ as
poetry.  An example of such a word would be < ierwaqût’ > “characteristic of
a single component among the synergistic amalgamation of things.”

Alas, the creation of such writings will be all-consuming of my time, and
given all the other more short-term items on my to-do list, I doubt I will
be able to pursue this idea until I retire....

As for Sally's other question as to how conlanging might be itself a message
about language, I feel the most profound answer is probably the
simplest...Art.  Conlangers simply realize that language itself can be used
as an artistic medium, i.e., a way of recreating the world in a personally
idealized subjective fashion where the nature of the creation itself offers
its own aesthetic and intellectual pleasure to enjoyed and subjective
mysteries to be analyzed and dwelt upon.

--John Quijada

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