On 29/06/2009, at 10:58 AM, Nick Arnett wrote:
On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 3:00 PM, KZK <evil.ke...@gmail.com> wrote:
I'd like to hear Dr. Brin's thoughts on this:
http://edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html
He touched on the concept in some of the Uplift Novels, where galactic
languages have generally been constructed in a way that eliminates
metaphore.
I don't recall that.. and it would have struck me, I would have
thought, since it seems impossible to have language without
metaphor. It's almost not language unless there's metaphor.
Hmmm. I think that's pushing the definition of language. While
wordplay and flexibility are hallmarks of English and many other
languages, it was a lot harder to do metaphor in Latin, and not
possible at all in most machine languages (and totally overused in,
say, Mayan...). If we treat language as a system of symbols or sounds
designed for communication, metaphor can often be as detrimental to
communication as it can be evocative. It's almost not language without
simile, maybe. (Or smilies... ;-) Wahay, worked a pun in...)
I do recall something about language in the Uplift books, but the much
more blatant example is Marain in the Culture books - again designed
to eliminate confuzzlement.
Charlie.
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