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Re: Ye@H-YeP! ambiguous fun in language! (was Re: The pitfall of Chinese/Mandarin

From:Patrick Dunn <tb0pwd1@...>
Date:Saturday, December 8, 2001, 8:34
On Sat, 8 Dec 2001, J Y S Czhang wrote:

> Took the words right outta my mouth & written much better than my > "version." > ::bows to Patrick Dunn::
Thank you. :)
> Points to possibly ponder: > 1> If a language doesn't have "fun" and "playfulness" either built into > it somehow or latent in its ambiguity, how long will it last? I have always > felt that if a language is resistant to wordplay, neologisms and borrowings, > that language is possibly cutting it's own throat. (Also IMHO any language > that allows large numbers of neologistic words & compound words to be > copyrighted seems to me "less free" as well).
Quite right. W@hich is why I like Esperanto more than Glosa -- more room for word play.
> 2> ConLangs that have high amounts of "fun" & "strangeness" seem to be > much more attractive to peeps - & not just us conlanging peeps - than > something totally cut-&-dried "logical" & "scientific."
Exactly right. People take a certain glee in the strangeness of their languages.
> Chaos is a strange attractor ;) esp'ly creative chaos... it can actually > help in the language-learning process to have odd lexical & grammatical & > even phonological "aberrations" - to have something for the mind to "toy" > with, or something for the mind to chew on, or spin... *gigglabyte* idioms > and metaphors (coming to think of it, IMHO certain auxlanger claims of > "scientific logic" or "mathematical precision" in their auxlangs are - in an > extended sense - idiomatic ... possibly rooted in a mainly elitist/educated > Eurocentric cultural viewpoint).
And there's such a great thrill in discovering, for example, the heart radical in xiang3 and going, "ehh, I get it, what you want is in your heart, how clever is that?" Or going, "Oh, I get it, helado can mean both ice cream and frozen to death, depending on the verb, and boracho means either drunk or alcoholic -- how cool is that?"
> Patrick, can I quote this eventually on my website (when I have a > website)? You will have credit (& if you so desire a link to your website - > if you have one... I can't remember if you do or not). >
Yup.
> czHANg, who had too much "fun" [ok, "mischief"] in AuxLang land to be > tolerated... & is simply glad to be here ::tip o' the hat to all on this > list, even the utterly-confused-&-confusing Su Cheng Zhong::
This is, of all the lists I've ever subscribed to, the most fun. Even the flame wars, like the current one, are relatively low heat. --Patrick ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Prurio modo viri qui in arbore pilosa est. ~~Elvis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~