Re: Speculative linguistics(*)

On Thu, 31 May 2007 14:35:07 GMT, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:

In article <1hyzfo4.gic8qi17acqaoN%spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Jonathan L Cunningham <spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Gerry Quinn <gerryq@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <1hyzqd4.1x3hjjr1xyx0s4N%zeborah@xxxxxxxxx>,
zeborah@xxxxxxxxx says...

So how does one speculate on linguistics, without those tropes to rely
on? Should I be looking at how early sf writers speculated on physics
back before they had the tropes that are now second nature to us?

Some SF involves linguistic ideas, usually proposing that the use of a
particular language provokes a mental transformation. This is a common
enough trope; obvious examples are Vance's _The Languages of Pao_ and
Ted Chiang's _Story of your Life_.

My favourite example is Babel-17, by Samuel Delany.

If we're sticking to linguistics meaning linguistics, not code
for any-art-or-science-that-doesn't-have-tropes-yet, then Janet
Kagen's _Hellspark_ is very good. A survey team on an
INN-teresting planet can't recognize what the locals use for
language, even though they themselves come from such disparate
linguistic groups that they can barely understand each other.
They all speak a common interlingua, but they're still thinking
in their own languages, with all their individual assumptions
*and* serious differences in body language.

Dorothy J. Heydt
Albany, California
djheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx

Or, from another direction, H. Beam Piper: "Naudsonce."

Regards,
Ric

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