Re: ,Language' in language name?

En réponse à Padraic Brown <agricola@...>:

> >
> > I think I disagree. Is a piano not really a piano, because that is not
> what a
> > piano calls itself?
>
> What they call themselves is, of course, unpronounceable by human
> mouths. [We have rather too few strings and dampers and things to
> speak that language!]
>
:))) <Rolling on the floor from laughter, imagining living pianos talking to
each other>

>
> I agree that all these names are just labels - but to my way of
> looking at things, the labels given by the people concerned are of a
> different order than those applied by outsiders. This viewpoint is
> derived from my philosophy of conlanging: that of discovery, not
> creation. I can't just sit down and say "these people I shall call
> 'Dacridations'" on a whim. I have to visualise them, look around,
> explore and ask them what they call themselves. Just a minor
> misunderstanding, I think!
>
It reminds me of a question I read a few years ago in Philosophy class (my God,
it's been 8 years ago!!!): Are Mathematics invented or discovered? I think the
same kind of question could be asked about conlangs. Do you people invent your
conlangs, or do you discover them?

I guess someone like David Peterson would argue that everybody really create
their conlang, while Irina Rempt would be exactly on the opposite side, that
people really discover conlangs. I tend to have a middle view (which happens to
be the same as for maths): IMVHO, people invent the basic principles of their
conlangs (like people invent the foundating hypotheses of mathematical
theories), but afterwards, the rest comes naturally, springs out of those
principles, and like any system conlangs nearly build themselves out of those
principles, which means that the rest of the work is more a work of discovery
than of creation (like in mathematics. Theorems are discovered, not created,
because they were already there, even though not written yet, by the simple
fact that they can be proved by formerly known ideas or theorems, or themselves
derived from formerly known work). Concultures work the same way in my opinion.

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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