LCC1 Talks and Panels

Conlanging and the Linear Aspects of Syntax

This talk will look at the ideas on linearization developed in Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) and related frameworks. Starting from a traditional phrase structure view, it will be shown that the separation of linear precedence and dominance relations yields some previously uncaptured generalizations. Furthermore, it provides a way to see further generalizations about the ordering of words and phrases. I will discuss three of these generalizations: ordering of information-structure functions, ordering by “weight,” and ordering of arguments vis-à-vis their prominence on the thematic hierarchy. Thus, linearization offers another tool, beyond Greenbergian typology, to help conlangers design more natural language-like syntaxes for their conlangs.

VIDEO of presentation | Handout (PDF) | HPSG – Some Leading Ideas

Language as Growth-in-Time

When we first learn foreign languages, we’re often introduced to a way of thinking that’s dangerous to understanding what a language actually is and how it works: questions of “why” directed at baroque inflectional or conjugational systems are answered with a curt “because it’s just that way.” But there’s almost always a good reason why, and that why lies in the history of the language. I’ll be discussing language as growth-in-time, as opposed to a static entity, and what implications this has for conlangers whose aim is naturalistic languages. In addition to sound change, I’ll also cover changes driven by conceptual shifts among speakers of a language, with the development of the four-way gender distinction in Iroquoian as a paradigm case.

Study (PDF) | Correspondences (PDF) | Handout 1 (JPG) | Handout 2 (JPG) | Handout 3 (JPG) | Handout 4 (JPG) | Handout 5 (JPG) | Handout 6 (JPG) | Handout 7 (JPG) | Handout 8 (JPG)

The Medium and the Internet Conlanger: Vision, Venue, and Play

In this talk I will generally examine what we do on the Internet in the way of “playing.” My term “medium” is double-edged in that I refer both to the famous medium Héléne Smith, and the media by which we we air this new activity (old, actually, but not given the means by which fellow inventors can confer and interact as we do now). How has the Internet both expanded and closeted what we do? Why is inventing a language something outsiders associate with child’s play? Why was Hildegard a “serious” conlanger but not Smith who was deemed hysterical and regressive? How have various media, combined with social attitudes, shaped the way in which we engage ourselves in this pursuit and how we (and outsiders) perceive it? With these and other questions, I can be freer in this conference of fellow conlangers to wear both my hats–as language inventor and scholar of language invention–and thus reveal what it is I think I’m doing now, what I thought I was doing before I came upon CONLANG, and where I see myself and the rest of you in these overlapping continua of play, language, art, self-expression, and system.

VIDEO of presentation

Semantic Primes: aUI to Esperanto with Stops Along the Way

Semantic primes are units of meaning, presumably relatively few in number (relative to the OED anyhow), in terms of which “all” other meanings can be defined. That there must be such things has been known since defining began to be studied and they were early involved in created languages (histories always offer up typographical horrors from the 17th century, e.g., Urqhart’s). We will look at how this notion plays out in a few modern created languages: aUI, in which it is of central importance, informing word construction as well as semantic; toki pona, in which the notion is not explicit but is clearly active in vocabulary choice; Lojban (and Loglan), in which the notion is rejected in favor of semantic primitives, a larger list which are still meant to allow defining everything else, but which may themselves also be defined; and Esperanto, in which the notion plays almost no role at all. We shall also look at the notion in the context of scientific linguistics, where the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) program is attempting to find the semantic primes of various languages in the hope of developing a list which works for all languages. This search is obviously an empirical one, while many created languages use an apriori (or intuitive) approach to selecting primes. These approaches as well as the limitations on techniques for forming definitions using primes are topics we take up. Along the way we will look at how vocabulary is related to meaning units, at some problems that proposed systems of primes run into, and at an emreging set of primes and definition techniques.

VIDEO of presentation | Handout (DOC) | Lords Prayer (DOC) | Scan (PNG) | Semantic Primes (DOC)

Non-Linear Fully 2-Dimensional Writing Systems

All natural writing systems are linear; they can be arranged as a purely arbitrary sequence of symbols in a string with no loss of meaning. This talk explores the idea of non-linear writing systems – design considerations, desirable features, psychological ramifications, problems that would need to be addressed, potential implementations, and what they would have to offer that linear languages are intrinsically incapable of doing.

VIDEO of presentation | NLF2DWS Manifesto draft

Case, Aspect, and Argument Structure: One Conlanger’s Investigations

This talk explores case and agreement systems in different
languages, with particular reference to the ways in which case-role assignment interacts with factors related to argument and event structure, such as animacy, definiteness and specificity, ‘aktionsart’ (whether the predicate is stative or dynamic, telic or atelic, etc.), and aspect (perfectivity, habituality, etc.). The talk includes both a typological and an autobiographical component: I begin by briefly illustrating how case/agreement interacts with argument and event structure in various natural languages. I then show how my own efforts at language construction have been informed by these phenomena, and how my attempts to create different kinds of case systems have broadened my understanding of the syntax and semantics of argument and event structure.

VIDEO of presentation | Handout (DOC)

Down with Morphemes: What Word and Paradigm Morphology Can Teach Us About Language Creation

In any introductory linguistics class, the student is taught that a morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language. Thus, in a word like “cats”, one combines the morpheme “cat” (meaning “cat”) and the morpheme “-s” (meaning “plural”) to get “cats” (meaning “more than one cat”). Under the morpheme-based account of language, meaning is merely strung together like beads on a string, and is in a one-to-one correspondence relationship with more or less fixed phonological entities (i.e., roots and affixes). Thus, to explain a language, in a morpheme- based theory, all one has to do is come up with a list of roots and affixes, and rules on how to combine them.

Whether this view of language is accurate or not is not relevant to language creation, per se. What is relevant is how useful a morpheme-based account is to language creation. In this talk I will argue that a morpheme-based account of language is detrimental to the creation of a naturalistic language. As an alternative, I will summarize the basic principles behind Word and Paradigm Morphology–a non-morpheme-based approach to linguistic analysis–and demonstrate how the insights gained from Word and Paradigm Morphology can help to create a more naturalistic conlang. After all, as the present/past tense pair “take”/”took” shows, creating a language is more complicated — and far more interesting — than merely coming up with a list of roots and affixes.

VIDEO of presentation | Presentation (PPT) | 6 slides (PDF)

Applying Concepts from Cognitive Linguistics to Your Conlang

A brief introduction to the basic history and premises of cognitive linguistics will be provided (“grammar as conceptualization”, i.e., that grammar is merely a reflection of generic cognitive processes as applied to language). The focus of the presentation is to demonstrate the importance of understanding/applying basic concepts of cognitive linguistics to increase the “realism” and individuality of a conlang, and to help avoid inadvertently mirroring the subconscious linguistic patterns of one’s native language when designing a conlang. Specific topics to be discussed and illustrated with particular focus on how they can impact the design of a conlang include (1) construal, perspective, and iconicity; (2) image schemas and spatial conceptualization; (3) prototypes and fuzzy categories; (4) conceptual metaphors; (5) frame semantics; (6) polysemy.

VIDEO of presentation | Booklist (DOC) | Handout (DOC) | Presentation (PPS) | Links (ZBB)

Panel: Conlang Teaching

In recent years, language creation has started to be taught in earnest at the college level. This panel will discuss the future of conlanging classes, how they could be used to teach introductory and advanced linguistics, creative writing, etc., and the panelists’ experiences with teaching, participating in, or behind-the-scenes lobbying on behalf of such classes.

Panel: Conlang Aesthetics

Within the field of language creation, there are many different specialties. This panel will discuss what they are, and what the goals, desiderata, and aesthetics are of the various “schools” of conlanging.