Philosophical language
A philosophical language is any
Early Modern times, partly motivated by the goal of revising normal language for philosophical (i.e. scientific) purposes. The term ideal language is sometimes used near-synonymously, though more modern philosophical languages such as Toki Pona
are less likely to involve such an exalted claim of perfection. The axioms and grammars of the languages together differ from commonly spoken languages.
Overview
In most philosophical languages, words are constructed from a limited set of
compound words, which are coined from a small (theoretically minimal) set of morphemes
. Languages like Toki Pona similarly use a limited set of root words but produce phrases which remain series of distinct words.
History
Work on philosophical languages was pioneered by
An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language, 1668). Those were systems of hierarchical classification that were intended to result in both spoken and written expression. In 1855, English writer George Edmonds modified Wilkins' system, leaving its taxonomy intact, but changing the grammar, orthography and pronunciation of the language in an effort to make it easier to speak and to read.[1]
binary calculus.[2]
These projects aimed not only to reduce or model grammar, but also to arrange all human knowledge into "characters" or hierarchies. This idea ultimately led to the Encyclopédie, in the Age of Enlightenment. Under the entry Charactère, D'Alembert critically reviewed the projects of philosophical languages of the preceding century.
After the Encyclopédie, projects for a priori languages moved more and more to the fringe. However, from time to time, some authors continued to propose philosophical languages until the 20th century (for example,
).See also
- Characteristica universalis
- Engineered language
- Ideal language philosophy
- Linguistic philosophy
- Natural semantic metalanguage
References
- ^ Edmonds, George. A Universal Alphabet, Grammar, and Language. Richard Griffin and Company, London and Glasgow, 1855.
- ^ history-computer.com
Bibliography
- The Search for the Perfect Language, 1993.
- Alan Libert, A Priori Artificial Languages. Munich, Lincom Europa, 2000. ISBN 3-89586-667-9