>English has served us adequately, but we can do much better. In
>particular, we can try to fix the well-known identifiable problems
>like sexism, unintentional ambiguity, poor adaptability to new
>concepts, cultural dependencies, and others. Whatever we create
>will no doubt evolve other problems--but we'll never find our way
>out of the maze until we free ourselves from the straitjacket first.
I'm afraid that this extends to be more of a pesky memetic problem
than one of linguistics. It is how people use the language...not the
language itself. Ask Eugene Leitl...he'll tell you that there are 'sexist'
words in Germany; likewise, Anders could tell you the same for the Swedish
language. Most words in *any* language are ambiguous, and thankfully so.
Ambiguity *increases* freedom of perception --it hones a language and gives
it character-- rather than illeviating such freedom. So before we try to
quell certain words in English (why am I reminded of "1984"?), we should
modify the perception. Personally, I have no qualms with the language...my
life is based upon it! Enough rambling.
Ingredi Externus!
-E. Shaun Russell
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~~~:~~~> E. ternity E. Shaun Russell
:~~> E. xpansion e_shaun@uniserve.com
:~~~> E. xtropy Extropic Artist,
Transhumanities editor for
All life is art, --kineticize your potential. Homo Excelsior Magazine
http://www.excelsior.org
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