Re: [lojban] Re: emphasis

[xah lee <xah@xahlee.org>]

On Mar 19, 2005, at 6:25 AM, John E Clifford wrote:

...

--- MorphemeAddict@wmconnect.com wrote:
> ...
> Xah, why do you think that there is a
> difference in emphasis?  Everything
> I've read and heard tells me that they mean
> exactly the same thing.


I can't find the original post of the above message... but anyway, 
great discussion...

i think this is a good illustration of one example that lojban can 
never become a popular human language while remaining its logical 
basis:

in communication, people take all things into consideration, not just 
the content of the message. By the very fact that a language provides 
two ways to say the same thing, and a person made one choice, says 
something. May it be a personal joke, circumstantial, etc. This is one 
of the origin of slangs, new (illogical) coinage of words, usage, 
idioms etc. (if you are acquainted with the etymology of English words 
and idioms, you'll find all sorts of odd origins, from stories to 
mistakes.)

imagine a practical example, where you are trying to woo a girl and say 
she is beautiful. It matter exactly how it is said, even if the content 
is semantically equivalent.

(actually i think pickup lines illustrates a lot. In possibly a 
majority of human communication, how things are said adds significantly 
to the total effect of utterance.)

... i haven't had much training in linguistics (formal or otherwise)... 
but isn't this called pragmatics?

PS am reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatics now.

 Xah
 xah@xahlee.org
 http://xahlee.org/PageTwo_dir/more.html