International Language and Science: Considerations on the Introduction of an International Language into ScienceCouturat, Louis
Science
International Language and Science: Considerations on the Introduction of an International Language into Science
Couturat, Louis
Communication in science; Language, Universal
But our languages often require to express the inverse relation,
namely, that of the individual possessing a quality to that
quality. For just as there are names of qualities which are derived
from adjectives, as _beauté_, _gaieté_, _bellezza_, _tapferkeit_,
_gleichheit_, so there are others which are primary and from
which, therefore, the corresponding adjectives are derived:
_courage_, _courageux_; _joie_, _joyeux_; _beauty_, _beautiful_;
_glück_, _glücklich_; _freude_, _freudig_. And, as one sees, our
languages employ in these cases a series of analogous suffixes.
The international language must evidently imitate them, for it
cannot decree that all the names of qualities shall be derivative,
nor that they shall all be primary; that would amount to an
arbitrary uniformity contrary to the spirit of our languages and
probably also to our logical instincts. The international language
must, therefore, have a suffix which will serve to derive from
the name of a quality the name of the possessor of that quality.
That will be _-oz_, a Latin suffix (_formosus_, _generosus_,
etc.), occurring very frequently in the Romance and even Germanic
languages (_mysteriös_, _mysterious_, _mystérieux_, _misterioso_).
This suffix is the logical inverse of the preceding one (_-es_)
and is quite as indispensable as it. It is a curious fact that
our languages exhibit examples of the superposition of these two
suffixes considered in respect of their sense, if not their form:
_glück_, _glücklich_, _glücklichkeit_; _beauty_, _beautiful_,
_beautifulness_. Latin has derived _formosus_ from _forma_; Spanish
in its turn has derived _hermosura_ from _hermoso_, etc. Languages
also provide us with frequent examples of the reciprocity of these
suffixes.
On the one hand, On the other hand,
_gaie_ gives _gaieté_; _joie_ gives _joyeux_;
_gay_ " _gaiety_; _joy_ " _joyful_;
_allegro_ " _allegrezza_; _gioja_ " _giojoso_;
_fröhlich_ " _fröhlichkeit_; _freude_ " _freudig_.
The international language is, therefore, faithful not only to
logic, but to the spirit of our languages, in admitting at the
same time the two inverse derivations: _gaya_, _gayeso_; _joyo_,
_joyoza_. A language which contained the suffix -es, and not the
suffix _-oz_, would be lame or one-armed.
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