2008년 3월 3일 월요일

Replies to comments

My cunning mind told me that I could easily fill another blog entry just by replying to comments I received. And what fun is blogging, this modern form of exhibitionism, if I don't interact with its readers? I could keep a journal inside the locked drawer in my desk, instead of broadcasting my writings instantly to the world at large.

Re: Learning and Research, James wrote: "I think... this is just a semantic matter; that is, scientists must indeed love learning, else why would they bother to do the research?"

I would like to draw an analogy to the field of writing. I think most professional writers love reading. But reading is not what they are paid for; writing is. So it's safe to say that SF(Science Fiction) writers read less SF than avid SF fans; they are busy writing!

If one loves reading, more than writing, one would be a critic, an editor, or a reader; but not a writer. If one loves learning science, one would subscribe to Nature, Science, or Scientific American; one would read all popular science books by Carl Sagan or Stephen Hawking; one may enjoy reading science fictions as a hobby; but one would not be a scientist. Scientists do not learn science; scientists do science.

Re: Second person, James wrote: "Where in the world did you learn so much about linguistics?"

In regard to linguistics, I'm mostly an autodidact. There are good books and internet resources you can learn from. I guess the real question is why, not where. Why on earth would one read grammar books as a hobby?

The short answer is that I am a conlanger. It means that I practice conlanging. To conlang is to construct languages. Often, it means to constuct languages as an art form, like novels, paintings, and musical compositions. It means playing with phonology and morphology and syntax and inflection of your own fictional language; devising roots and deriving words for it; constantly tweaking the language to make it beautiful; and wasting lots of time while having great fun. I know that sounds weird. I hope I can elaborate on conlanging in the future.

댓글 2개:

Unknown :

Thank you for visiting my blog! I'm majoring in Computer Science. Which area are you interested in Computer Science?

James Knaack :

Wow, Sanghyeon,you never cease to surprise me. A conlang, huh? I'm embarrassed to admit that this is the first I've heard of what must be a fascinating hobby (and one that likely makes you far more qualified to address our classes grammar questions than me). I would really love to hear more about this pastime, and what you've done with it. I'll have a look around the Internet and see what societies of language builders are lurking out there.

Has your study led to discovery of preferred grammatical patterns and structures (that is, those that you find to be the most aesthetically pleasing, for whatever reason)?

Regarding your responses to my earlier comments, I am not sure that I quite agree with your analogy comparing scientists to science fiction writers. If I recall correctly, I think I wrote that scientists must be motivated by a love of learning, or there would be no reason for them to do research. I did not say that the only way to pursue a love of scientific learning was to perform research; certainly, for people such as myself with neither the aptitude nor the interest to perform research, simply reading the occasional scientifically-oriented magazine will fit the bill. For scientists, however, I don't know why they would bother to do the research if they were not interested in the outcome- surely not for purely financial reasons. If money were the motivator, they'd be doctors or lawyers, not biologists or chemists. Perhaps you are imagining a sort of performance-art scientist, for whom the very process of research provides its own reward, regardless of outcome?

James