Re: Language superiority, improvement, etc.

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Gerald Koenig wrote:
> > Vector tense time claims can be made as vague or nonexistent as you
> > like, there is nothing obligatory about it. You choose your level of
> > specifity. Is choice a bad thing? Is obligatory vagueness and
> > imprecision a good thing? Or should it be used as an art form? Is it
> > best for production contracts?
>
> Okay, granted *maybe* an artificial language could be superior to
> natural languages (altho I'm rather skeptical that NGL's wonderful
> features would remain in place if it *were* actually spoken), BUT of
> natural languages, you can't say one is definitely better than another.
> Japanese is superior to English for the Japanese culture, and English i=
s
> superior to Japanese for English-speaking cultures.
But wait, remember, we are talking about the language as a whole.  No
matter what NGL proposes to add to its linguistic repertoir, by the very
act of defining what it can do it defines what it can also _not_ do.  Tha=
t is,
by not saying explicitly whether a given language has (e.g.) a system of
honorifics, it is implicitly stating that there is no _coherent_ (i.e., o=
rganized)
system of honorifics available in the language.  It could then be claimed=
 that
that language is not as _easy_  (keeping questions of coherence/difficult=
y
away from ones of complexity), and therefore, not as good.  _Ex hypothesi=
_,
there is no way to have a system of any kind of representation without
limiting it, and so if there are limits, some people might think that tho=
se
things not allowed for in the system are exactly what they would want
made explicit.  It is still a question of subjectivity when you are talki=
ng about
artificial languages then, not just natlangs. :)

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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

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