4 ms·

Reminds me of of emoji almost. Ambiguous, short on vocabulary, but you can get ideas across. An advantage over Toki Pona is that everyone already "speaks" it, b

by Gaelan 10y ago

Reminds me of of emoji almost. Ambiguous, short on vocabulary, but you can get ideas across. An advantage over Toki Pona is that everyone already "speaks" it, but I assume TP has more in terms of linguistic structure

unhammer 10y ago
There’s good reason to think that emoji are more like gesture than language. When you crunch the numbers (and I have), the face, hand, and heart emoji are by far the most popular — not the emoji that represent noun-like items. Furthermore, the vast majority of emoji are used beside words, not all by themselves in extended emoji-only stories. People aren’t using emojis as a substitute for language, they’re using it as an addition to it, just like you wouldn’t want to talk in person with your hands tied behind your back and a paper bag over your head. […] Emoji are a universal language the same way that pointing at stuff and grunting is a universal language. Useful, under a certain set of circumstances! But what makes language really powerful is its ability to talk about stuff beyond the here and now, beyond the easily visualizable. In other words, abstraction. […] For example, look at the tremendous difficulty that scientists have had in communicating the fairly simple concept DANGER THERE IS NUCLEAR WASTE HERE STAY AWAY in a way that will continue to make sense to humans for the next 10,000 years. Circle with a slash? Nope, could be a sideways hamburger. Skull and crossbones? Nope, could refer to the Day of the Dead and/or pirates. from http://lingthusiasm.com/post/154520059101/lingthusiasm-episode-1-speaking-a-single-language http://lingthusiasm.com/post/154520059101/lingthusiasm-episo... (via http://lingthusiasm.com/post/154520059101/lingthusiasm-episode-1-speaking-a-single-language http://lingthusiasm.com/post/154520059101/lingthusiasm-episo... )

by Gaelan 10y ago

unhammer 10y ago

There’s good reason to think that emoji are more like gesture than language. When you crunch the numbers (and I have), the face, hand, and heart emoji are by far the most popular — not the emoji that represent noun-like items. Furthermore, the vast majority of emoji are used beside words, not all by themselves in extended emoji-only stories. People aren’t using emojis as a substitute for language, they’re using it as an addition to it, just like you wouldn’t want to talk in person with your hands tied behind your back and a paper bag over your head. […] Emoji are a universal language the same way that pointing at stuff and grunting is a universal language. Useful, under a certain set of circumstances! But what makes language really powerful is its ability to talk about stuff beyond the here and now, beyond the easily visualizable. In other words, abstraction. […] For example, look at the tremendous difficulty that scientists have had in communicating the fairly simple concept DANGER THERE IS NUCLEAR WASTE HERE STAY AWAY in a way that will continue to make sense to humans for the next 10,000 years. Circle with a slash? Nope, could be a sideways hamburger. Skull and crossbones? Nope, could refer to the Day of the Dead and/or pirates. from http://lingthusiasm.com/post/154520059101/lingthusiasm-episode-1-speaking-a-single-language http://lingthusiasm.com/post/154520059101/lingthusiasm-episo... (via http://lingthusiasm.com/post/154520059101/lingthusiasm-episode-1-speaking-a-single-language http://lingthusiasm.com/post/154520059101/lingthusiasm-episo... )