Miles Jackson wrote:
>
>
> No, if one person "reinvents" a language, it's gibberish (think of
> Wittgenstein's private language argument). Language is a social
> product through and through; it's part of a way of life, and it
> cannot change simply on the basis of individual preference or
> imagination. There must be complex social relations (media,
> government apparatus, subcultures, family) to create and sustain any
> language system.
>
The death of Latin illustrates this. Latin continued to be a living langauge throughout the middle ages; then the Renaissance Humanists campaigned for a return to pure classical latin -- in effect, they tried to invent a new language, since there was no social context in which Classical Latin could be spoken except as an artificial invention. C.S. Lewis is good on this.
Carrol
> Miles
>
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