2019-12-24

Louis Couturat (2): Leibniz, logic, & artificial language

Now on my web site: a section of Louis Couturat's essay 'The Principles of Logic' in Logic (1913) by Arnold Ruge et al, with a focus on univocity & reversibility in an artificial language, with examples from Ido:

Logic and Language (The Principles of Logic) by Louis Couturat

Couturat's essay reflects the philology (ancestor of modern linguistics) of the time, with notions about the evolution of natural languages and so on. I am not familiar enough with the language Ido to judge its application if any of univocity with respect to the lexicon (semantics), or if the grammar is more logical than Esperanto in ways other than word derivation, not that I am familiar with word derivation in Ido either. Word derivation in Esperanto is inconsistent and less than logical, and the prepositions still carry some idiomatic uses over from Esperanto's source languages. Note also that Couturat is concerned here strictly with logic and precision. There is no consideration of aesthetics, artistic uses, or the speech community of an artificial language, which is where Ido's ancestor, Esperanto, most successfully pitched its tent.

On my web site see also:

Histoire de la Langue Universelle par Louis Couturat & Léopold Leau (1903)

"Leibniz, Couturat kaj la Teorio de Ido" de Tazio Carlevaro

“Lingvoplanado” (Language Planning) de Rudolf Carnap

You will find also updated and additional links on Couturat's work on Leibniz and logic.

No comments: