COPYRIGHT 1993 Wendy Ashby & Ronald Clark

PARALELI TEXTU

Glosa Textu

A prima vista posi id feno u no-spe ergo de face u verba-lista; qi fu sati panto nece volu de interkomunika; sed inklude ne ma de, posi, u kilo basi verba. U nova-papira uti minimo 20,000 verba; e in English mero de mikro English - French lexiko proxi 10,000 gene lista. Pe ne nece studi id mega tem te detekti u mega mero de lista es ne-nece.

U logika ge-face verba-lista sio apo multi sinonima alo proxi-sinonima, de qi Anglo-Amerika lingua es ple. Ex. little-small, big-large, begin-commence. Id ne nece tolera funktio imbrika homo band - ribbon - strip. Plus, id sio evita excesi specializa per face mo verba akti qod in Plu Palaeo Lingua gene face per tri alo ma. Exempla, u France demo nima un extra tegu de homi soma la peau, u-la de cepa la pelure; e u-la de botuli la cotte. Anti na es mei precise de France demo, na auto supra-kargo u lexiko per ko-responde seri skin - rind - jacket - peel. Kron na vide u difere inter thread - twine - cord - string - rope - tow na solo kumu nima epi nima pro qo es, a fini u metri-difere.

Na sio pote facili vice u nu ma de sati verba semani lauda alo no-lauda per oligo nima. Sed u-ci apo ne sio tena na intra u mo-kilo verba limita. Na nece skope as hetero-lo pro auxi; e ci no pote apliko ko profito, si na aplika id sofi, u basi principo de Dalgarno "Art of Symbols".

Pan Euro-lingua habe plu verba; qi inklude u semaini de grupa. Exempla, u generali termi clothes include bi duce klasi; plu infra-ve [...] e extra-ve [...]. Homo-co, domi include sko-do, drama-do, puni-do, rura-do, patho-do, monstra-do.

U kura compara examina posi sio detekti; Nu-English habe ma-boni generali verba homo food, drink, container, instrument klasi de exempla, France- alo Espania-linqua.

Id es fo-klari; plu klasi verba de u-ci speci, nece akti u gravi rola in u tekto de ekonomi vokabuulari; kausa mu sti na pote dice alo grafo de u maxi numera de difere ra, operatio e qalita, per mini numera de idio nima. A funda, verba ekonomi pende ex sofi elekti de plu generali termi e deskribe parafrase pro plu speciali uti.

English Text

At first sight it may seem a hopeless task to construct a vocabulary that would cover all the essential words of intercommunication, yet contain not more than, say, a thousand basic words.

A modern newspaper assumes acquaintance with perhaps 20,000, and in the English section of a very humble English - French pocket dictionary some 10,000 are listed. It requires no lengthy scrutiny to discover that a large portion of the material is not essential.

A rationally constructed word-list would discard many synonyms or near-synonyms, of which Anglo-American is chock-full. Ex. little-small, big-large, begin-commence. It need not tolerate such functional over-lapping as band - ribbon - strip. It would also steer clear of over-specialization by making one word do what in natural languages is often [done] by three or more. Thus, the outer cover of the human body is called la peau in French, that of the onion is la pelure, and that of the sausage la cotte. Though less fastidious than the French, we ourselves overburden the dictionary with the corresponding series skin - rind - jacket - peel. When we distinguish between thread - twine - cord - string - rope - tow we are merely heaping name upon name for what is ultimately a difference in size.

We could easily replace the existing plethora of vocables denoting apporval or disapproval by a bare handful of names. But rejection of such would not keep us within the 1000 word limit. We have to look elsewhere for help; and here we can apply with profit the basic principles of Dalgarno's Art of Symbols. All European languages have words which embrace the meaning of a group. Thus the general term clothes includes 2 main classes; under-clothes including vest, shirt, knickers, petticoat and outer clothes including frock, skirt, trousers, coat. In the same way building covers school, theatre, prison, villa, hospital, museum etc. etc.....

A careful comparative investigation would probably reveal that modern English is far better equipped with words of the food, drink, container, instrument class than French or Spanish for instance. It is self-evident that classifying words of this sort must play an important part in the build-up of an economical vocabulary, becuase they enable us to refer to a maximum number of different things, operations and properties with a minimum of separate anmes. At bottom word economy depends on judicious selection of general terms and descriptive periphrase for specific uses.

From Prof. Hogben's Language Planning.

   from "CENTRAL GLOSA"
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   Wendy Ashby and Ronald Clark
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