toki! anyone has texts about Toki Pona?

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jan Josan
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Re: toki! anyone has texts about Toki Pona?

Post by jan Josan »

Not so much about how language controls thoughts, but more how thoughts can be traced in language. But maybe these experiments could help with this question. Check out this Radiolab podcast. Here's the synopsis:

In today’s podcast, a look at what scientists uncover when they treat words like data. In Agatha’s case, an English professor makes a diagnosis decades after her death. And in a study involving 678 nuns—as Dr. Kelvin Lim and Dr. Serguei Pakhomov from the University of Minnesota explain—an unexpected find in a convent archive leads to a startling twist. In both examples, words serve as a window into aging brains…a window that may someday help pinpoint very early warning signs for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. We also hear from Sister Alberta Sheridan, a 94-year-old Nun Study participant.
janKipo
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Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:20 pm

Re: toki! anyone has texts about Toki Pona?

Post by janKipo »

Hey, I 'm a philosopher, not a scientist! I don't design experiments, I just critique what others do. The point is that so far no one has formulated a hypothesis that both does justice to Whorf's various discussions and has empirical consequences (mainly the former). I have never been able to come up with one either, leading me think -- as I am pretty sure Hoijer thought -- that the whole is a feel-good sciency vague idea, that falls to pieces when someone tries to pin it down. I would like to be wrong about that, but it's going on 200 years now with nothing to show for it (the original modern version is from von Helmholtz in the early 1800's, some say Plato had the idea back in the day).
The studies involving words and brain function are parts of neuro-psychology (there's another kind?) and don't have anything to do with S-W at the moment. It might be an interesting question whether different languages affect the brain differently, but that hasn't been done, so far as I know.
Logomachist
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Joined: Sun May 02, 2010 8:42 pm

Are you agreeing with me? I can't tell.

Post by Logomachist »

Are you agreeing with me? I can't tell.
janKipo
Posts: 3064
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:20 pm

Re: toki! anyone has texts about Toki Pona?

Post by janKipo »

I forget what your point was in restating my own, but I think I do agree to some extent -- how much depends on how the data hold up. Still, the dream of SWH moves a lot of work in conlanging at least, so it is not useless.
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