Re: CHAT: models and miniatures

Thomas Wier wrote:
>J Matthew Pearson wrote:
>
> > Somehow I fail to find the term "model" at all pejorative.  A
> > model ship is not a toy, or a counterfeit, or a fraud.  It's a
> > depiction (or "imitation", in the Aristotelean sense) of a real
> > ship--just as a painting of a house is a depiction of a house.
> > Similarly with model languages.  Far from being belittling, I
> > find that this point of view ennobles conlanging, placing it
> > firmly within the sphere of Art.
>
>Indeed, I think your reference to Aristotle is quite apt:  he saw
>imitation (mimesis) as an instinctual ability that sets humans
>apart from animals. If that is so (and it is probably disputable
>to some extent), conlanging, far from being artificial, as a subset
>of the world of art would be one of the most human and natural
>features of our existence.
"Artificial" is a many-meaninged word. I usually use it in the sense
"man-made", and under that definition not only conlangs, loglangs,
programming languages etc, but also all natlangs are "artificial"!

                                                        Andreas

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