This topic may have been covered before, so please direct me to
it if you remember any. I read some brief discussion on how
lojbanists actually expect to test sapir whorf scientifically, but the
transcripts I was reading were from ten years ago. What are the
latest plans, if any?
So far all I can say is that speakers from a wide variety of
cultures need to be collected into a single area with suitable
extended-period living quarters. From there they would go
through complete lojban immersion until they were fluent.
Somebody mentioned a test that would be taken before and then
after this multi-year experiment in hopes of detecting a change,
but I can't be sure exactly what the nature of the test would be.
Another option is to test discretely, when they don't know they're
being tested.
This type of testing requires vigorous scientific consideration --
any loophole could ruin years of hard work and thousands of
dollars of spending. A second option is to leave Sapir Whorf on a
subjective basis; you learn the language, discover specific
examples where lojban is much easier and more expressive,
and leave it at that.
Similar to the second option is to raise children in an
environment where english and lojban are spoken equally. If it is
true that bilingual speakers in such an environment will choose
the language most conventient for their needs, this may be
grounds for observing Sapir Whorf effects. Bilingual speakers
today may already experience them, but it is my hope that they
will be more apparent when one of the languages is Lojban.
mu'omi'e .okus.
To unsubscribe, send mail to lojban-unsubscribe@onelist.com
Yahoo! Groups Links