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Lojbab:
> At 08:20 PM 12/6/02 +0000, And Rosta wrote:
> >Lojbab:
> > > At 12:52 AM 12/6/02 +0000, And Rosta wrote:
> > > >Right. It bugs me that because it is monosyllabic you go for {le}
> > > >It's not your choice that bugs me; it's that the choices made by
> > > >the language designers in allocating phonological shapes to cmavo
> > > >should have such an impact on what we choose to say in our Lojban
> > > >sentences
> > >
> > > Do you realize you are being strongly Sapir-Whorfian in the
> > implications of
> > > that line? If the matter of one syllable in sound length leads us to
> > > choose what you consider a less effective mode of communication, with a
> > > slightly different meaning therefore being communicated, then the
> > structure
> > > of the language is indeed determining how we think in a rather strong way
> >
> >Isn't it fairly uncontroversial that what speakers actually say in
> >their sentences is quite heavily determined by what things the
> >language makes easy to say and what things the language makes hard?
>
> If I understand the anti-Whorfians (Chomskyists, in general), then it would
> be controversial for them
I doubt it. Antiwhorfianism is normally a rejection of the idea that
language determines or constrains how we think, not what we say.
Also, the idea that (in possibly trivial ways) language enables
certain thoughts is not very controversial.
--And.