On May 9, 2005, at 10:56 AM, Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
There's a much more parsimonious explanation (two, actually, but I already suggested one in another note) but it would be pretty damn vicious to air it, so I won't.
That is one reason I prefer wolfling languages to Galactic: If I understand correctly, such a statement as that (saying something clearly by pointedly not saying it) is one of the things would not be possible in Galactic.
Gotta love them there Wolfling nuances.
(That was one thing which struck me right off about the Galactic languages: I love playing with language (obviously) and think I would find it very boring to try to communicate in a language which is set up where everything has a single clear interpretation . . . )
I wonder how possible such a language is. We have a language now that is lucid and direct -- but mathematics, as useful as it is for describing many things, doesn't cover the full range of possible expression or experience.
What I'm suggesting is that there may be a "high" Galactic that is used for unambiguous communication, but also possibly a "low" version that covers everything else. Even ambivalence can be muddy, and it's generally a simple emotional state; the more complex an emotional state becomes, the harder it might be to be clear on it. It's difficult for me to imagine intelligence developing without these complex states, which suggests that a language used by those intellects would have to reflect at least some ambiguity.
Unless *all* Galactics are, at all times, single-pointed in their emotional states and responses. Maybe that's so; I seem to recall the Soro, at least, being fairly one-minded.
I wonder too if there's any idea of dualism possible in such a dialect. Is there a mind/body separation? Is it my finger, or am I the finger, or does the question even make sense -- is it even askable -- in Galactic?
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf
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