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

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


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Prurio modo viri qui in arbore pilosa est.
                        ~~Elvis

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