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Towards a Linguistic Worldview for Artificial Languages (PDF) UNIWERSYTET IM. ADAMA MICKIEWICZA WYDZIAŁ NEOFILOLOGII INSTYTUT JĘZYKOZNAWSTWA TOWARDS A LINGUISTIC WORLDVIEW FOR ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGES IDA STRIA Rozprawa doktorska napisana pod kierunkiem prof. UAM dr hab. Ilony Koutny Poznań 2015 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my both supervisors: the initial one, Professor Jerzy Pogonowski, who guided my interest towards artificial languages, for his patience and leniency, and the final one, Professor Ilona Koutny, to whom I am truly indebted for her relentless support and belief in me. No short note can express how great her help was. I would also like to thank my colleagues from the Institute of Linguistics, particularly from the Department of Applied Logic, for their invaluable tips and encouragement (special thanks to Sławek and Agnieszka). My thanks also go to Michael Farris for putting up with my English. Finally, I wish to thank my husband for his love. Q: How many Lojbanists does it take to change a broken light bulb? A: Two: one to decide what to change it into and one to figure out what kind of bulb emits broken light. All errors are my own. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................... 2 List of figures ........................................................................................................... 4 List of tables............................................................................................................. 5 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 6 Research objectives................................................................................................................... 6 Pre-existing research................................................................................................................ 7 Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 8 1 Linguistic worldview ................................................................................. 9 1.1 Short history ................................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Definitions and crucial concepts .......................................................................... 12 1.3 The relation language – culture – thought ........................................................ 17 1.4 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 20 2 Artificial languages ................................................................................. 29 2.1 Definitions ..................................................................................................................... 29 2.2 History and motives of creation ........................................................................... 34 2.2.1 Universal languages .............................................................................................. 38 2.2.2 Formal languages ................................................................................................... 48 2.2.3 International auxiliary languages ................................................................... 50 2.2.4 Artistic languages .................................................................................................. 59 2.2.5 Modern glossopoeia .............................................................................................. 66 2.3 Typology and classifications .................................................................................. 69 2.3.1 Traditional classifications: structure and source of material.............. 70 2.3.2 Traditional classifications: purpose ............................................................... 72 2.3.3 Blanke’s functional classification .................................................................... 78 3 Natural vs. artificial ................................................................................ 81 3.1 Properties of human language .............................................................................. 81 3.2 The scale of naturalness .......................................................................................... 89 3.2.1 The continuum of deliberate influence ......................................................... 89 3.2.2 Lyons’s classification ............................................................................................ 94 3.3 Borderline cases ......................................................................................................... 99 3.3.1 Pidgins and creoles ............................................................................................... 99 3.3.2 Language revitalisation and revival ............................................................ 103 3.3.3 Other cases ............................................................................................................ 106 4 Esperanto as a transitional case ...................................................... 112 4.1 Naturalness of Esperanto ..................................................................................... 112 4.2 Sociolinguistic situation of Esperanto speakers ......................................... 114 5 Linguistic worldview for artificial languages ............................. 125 5.1 The subject: author or community? ................................................................. 125 5.2 Possible objects of study ...................................................................................... 132 5.3 Linguistic worldview in non-native languages ............................................ 141 5.4 Linguistic worldview for Esperanto ................................................................ 145 6 Research problems on the example of a pilot study ................ 154 6.1 The respondents ...................................................................................................... 156 6.2 The questions ........................................................................................................... 162 6.3 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 180 Final remarks .................................................................................................... 183 The boundaries of artificiality ........................................................................................ 183 A linguistic worldview for artificial languages ......................................................... 184 References .......................................................................................................... 187 Appendix: The questionnaire ...................................................................... 200 Summary in Polish / Streszczenie ............................................................. 211 Summary in Esperanto / Resumo .............................................................. 218 List of figures Figure 1 The (simplified) relationship language – culture – perception ............... 19 Figure 2 Relationships between artificial and international languages ................. 34 Figure 3 Federico Gobbo’s coordinate system (2014) .................................................. 74 Figure 4 Classification of invented languages by Albani & Buonarotti (1994) ... 75 Figure 5 The Gnoli triangle (around 1997) ....................................................................... 76 Figure 6 Coloured version of the Gnoli triangle modified by R. A. Brown ............ 76 Figure 7 Jan van Steenbergen’s hexagon (2008) ............................................................. 77 Figure 8 Baron’s natural language spectrum (1994) .................................................... 91 Figure 9 Baron’s computer language spectrum (1994) ............................................... 92 Figure 10 Scale of artificiality/naturalness ....................................................................... 93 Figure 11 Age distribution among the participants .................................................... 157 Figure 12 Native languages of the respondents ........................................................... 158 Figure 13 Usage of Esperanto among the respondents ............................................. 159 Figure 14 Usage of four most popular languages according to activities ........... 160 Figure 15 Usage of Esperanto vs. native languages according to activities ....... 160 Figure 16 In which language would you read a book if the original language was not known to you? .................................................................................................................... 161 Figure 17 Usage of Esperanto vs. native languages according to activities ....... 161 4 List of tables Table 1 Classificatory matrix (simplified with examples) ........................................... 77 Table 2 Hockett’s design features applied to artificial languages ............................ 84 Table 3 Hockett’s design features in formal languages ................................................ 89 Table 4 Languages and their naturalness .......................................................................... 96 Table 5 Languages and their naturalness II ...................................................................... 98
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