Lojban was originally designed for the purpose of supporting research on a concept known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Simply expressed, this hypothesis states that the structure of a language constrains the thinking of people using that language.
One of the things that fascinates me most about language (and pains me so much that my brain is so resistant to learning any) is how it expresses the thought processes of the people who use it.
I'm always telling people the story about how the guy who was trying to teach us Irish Gaelic explained that the Irish do not have words that mean unequivocably "yes" or "no" -- only "mostly yes" at best, and the resulting lightbulb that went off in my head. I "get" my whole family (including me) a little better since that meme.
I was surprised at just how turned off I was by the idea of a language that is so logical. I found myself pondering what is lost in a language that can't be ambiguous.
I think it's a fantastic concept and I would love to learn how to speak it and use it in conversation with other people who speak it -- for the exploration of logical concepts.
I also want to learn Irish so I can better understand the way my family thinks.
And I want to learn a host of other languages so I can get how the internal landscape of their cultures look. (I'be been told Arabic is the ultimate language for poetry.)
One of these days I will figure out how to train my brain to absorb that kind of knowledge. There is a way of accessing it if I can just find the right path.
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regna
the uses of language
Date: 2002-10-18 08:30 am (UTC)One of the things that fascinates me most about language (and pains me so much that my brain is so resistant to learning any) is how it expresses the thought processes of the people who use it.
I'm always telling people the story about how the guy who was trying to teach us Irish Gaelic explained that the Irish do not have words that mean unequivocably "yes" or "no" -- only "mostly yes" at best, and the resulting lightbulb that went off in my head. I "get" my whole family (including me) a little better since that meme.
I was surprised at just how turned off I was by the idea of a language that is so logical. I found myself pondering what is lost in a language that can't be ambiguous.
I think it's a fantastic concept and I would love to learn how to speak it and use it in conversation with other people who speak it -- for the exploration of logical concepts.
I also want to learn Irish so I can better understand the way my family thinks.
And I want to learn a host of other languages so I can get how the internal landscape of their cultures look. (I'be been told Arabic is the ultimate language for poetry.)
One of these days I will figure out how to train my brain to absorb that kind of knowledge. There is a way of accessing it if I can just find the right path.