why con lang?

2016

Constructed languages (purposefully invented languages like Esperanto and Klingon) have long captured the human imagination. They can also be used as pedagogical tools in the linguistics classroom to enhance how certain aspects of linguistics are taught and to broaden the appeal of linguistics as a field. In this article, I discuss the history and nature of constructed languages and describe various ways I have successfully brought them into use in the classroom. I conclude from the results of my courses that linguists should take a closer look at how they might benefit from similarly enlisting this often criticized hobby into more mainstream use in the linguistics classroom.

2019

Since its cultural inception less than 300 years ago, modern conlanging has become ever more popular. By examining individual constructed languages – reasons for their creation, the dominant linguistic qualities, their creators, and the impact they have on pop culture, art, and academia – we can better understand this rising popular linguistic phenomenon.

Investigationes Linguisticae, 2022

In the first half of the twentieth century, the fields of interlinguistics and Esperanto studies emerged as branches of linguistics focused on the study of languages designed for international communication (such as Volapük, Esperanto, and Ido). Yet, why are there specific fields to study language creation and why should linguists care about this? Looking at the history of constructed languages, this article explores the institutionalization of interlinguistics by focusing on the history of the Centre for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems (CED, in its Esperanto acronym), a research center founded in 1952 whose developments encapsulate certain aspects of this broader narrative. From an analysis of CED's 44 th Esperanto Studies Conference, in 2022, I flesh out the potential of interlinguistics to contribute back to linguistics and to the humanities disciplines that originated it. Ultimately, this article calls for the reinsertion of constructed languages into general linguistics debates.

Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 2009

The aim of this paper is to show the manifold use of language despite its formal and structural importance. Language serves the communicative, societal, political, religious, economic and educational tasks. Languages cannot be imprisoned only in the wall of its structures…………..the empirical side of it, is volatile, flexible……………. A language as we see is the medium of communication, the very simple way of calling it. A language as it is maintained at all the levels or domains- social, political, religious, cultural, educational and from grassroots to the higher levels. The communication takes place as there are reasons and there is a way to express the reasons. What serves the purpose at that time? A language; which can also be called a way, a medium to convey you to the other person serves its vital purpose. You are understood as the right codes are being transmitted to you and the listener vice-versa. The codes or the linguistic items comprised of sounds, words, and sentences.

Texts in Computer Science, 2013

Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio , 2022

This paper examines how the idea that there are different languages is treated by approaches that employ the notion of «languaging», focusing on Love and Cowley. It seems that within their critical reconsideration of the traditional view of what «language» is the importance of languages (i.e., linguistic diversity) is downplayed. Against this view, this paper argues that languages are indeed a relevant factor in shaping people's actions, perception, thinking, etc. Arguments in support of thesis can be found in the most recent studies in linguistic relativity. They are focused on the interactional and situated features of human linguistic activity, just like «languaging» is concerned with embodied coordinated interactivity. However, points of theorical divergence remain. Moreover, the ontological tenets in languaging seem to get in the way of a reconciliation.