19 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Lojban for Experimental Linquistics
Lojban is a predicate language, with no distinct nouns, verbs, or adjectives. What are the linguistic (communicative) properties of such a system? The answer has been partially explored through symbolic logic. But do people, when thinking linguistically, mimic in any way the processes of formal logic? What effects would a formal-logic– based language have on those linguistic thinking processes? Is the resulting language susceptible to the same analysis as natural language, in terms of the var...Folksonomies: language artificial
Folksonomies: language artificial
Natural languages lack the controls necessary for experimentation, but an artificial language works for testing Sapir–Whorf hypothesis.
22 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Rigid Dogma Destroys Truth
It is rigid dogma that destroys truth; and, please notice, my emphasis is not on the dogma, but on the rigidity. When men say of any question, 'This is all there is to be known or said of the subject; investigation ends here,' that is death. It may be that the mischief comes not from the thinker but for the use made of his thinking by late-comers. Aristotle, for example, gave us out scientific technique ... yet his logical propositions, his instruction in sound reasoning which was bequeathed ...Not the dogma, but the rigidness.