Seminarium: Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies (SCAS)

ABSTRACT: 
The term constructed languages denotes languages that were purposefully created by one or several language makers at a specific point in time. In this talk, I will, first, introduce and discuss some such languages along with the metalinguistic practices which brought them into being.

Secondly, I will analyse the visions and intentions of a handful language makers, highlighting the intended social and psychological powers which the creators of E-prime, Toki Pona and Ithkuil ascribed to their languages. Embodying a reversed linguistic relativity of sorts, these constructed language projects are all grounded in the view that alleged improvements in linguistic form can result in enhanced cognition and improved 
logical thinking. Yet, despite being underlain by a shared vision of language, cognition and linguistic design, these languages are fundamentally distinct in form. Finally, I will discuss some of the implications of these constructed languages and, more generally, of language making for some of the foundational assumptions of linguistic research.  

http://www.swedishcollegium.se/subfolders/Events.html