Language without Abstraction



Language without Abstraction

The original idea for this language comes from an alternate Earth in which it is a linguistic universal to lack a concept for anything abstract, non-existent, or fictional. Now, this doesn't mean that there are no stories, emotions, ideas, or concepts of nothingness—just that they are perceived (and literally brought into existence) as concrete objects rather than murky, intangible, non-pictoral abstractions that stay in the mindspace for the most part.

Words and sentences are brought into fruition by thinking them into being to exist in as physical, tangible entities that others can experience just as vividly as the originators had thought them into being. This is far more permanent a method of communication than simple verbal speech, and since the default mode of communication is so permanent, there is no need for a separate written language. However, there is also an auditory/sound component associated with each words, similar to what we consider verbal speech—but it is more along the lines of sound symbolism and sounds manifesting themselves with the various other words projected forth through one's thoughts. For instance, the consonant-vowel and syllabic consonant syllable structures are representative of modifiers—and particular types of them, in the case of the syllabic consonants, particular vowel onsets, and particular consonant codas. The consonant-vowel-consonant syllabic structure is likewise symbolic of words that can be modified (i.e. nouns and verbs), perhaps with their onsets, nuclei, and codas also symbolic of particular types of words/semantic categories relating to what they do, what kind of noun or verb they are, what properties they deal with, and so on.

There is no distinction drawn between “real” and “fictional.” In such a society, everything told in a story exists in just the same manner as the air you breath or the ground beneath you—and is perceived as just as tangible, concrete; there is no abstract, because literally everything imagined is perceived as immediately right there (either right in front of you, or else physically somewhere where you can engage it with the senses), in their world. For them, there is no “mental image.” Imagined things are perceived as in the physical space right in front of people, that they can directly experience and interact with, rather than confined to the mind's eye. There is no such thing as “abstract concepts.” Things that are abstract to us, such as emotions and ideological notions, all have physical, synesthetic-like forms and are perceived as experiences directly in the world in front of them perceiver/experiencer just like all other imagined things and “anchored things.” All “abstract” (abstract to us humans, anyway) terms are described in terms of how they are perceived in reality, using expressions of synesthesia and physical processes related to the “abstract word.” This extends even to closed-class words such as 'the' or 'and.'

Anchored things are things or organisms already in the background regardless of and independent of the perceiver/experiencer's thoughts: they are in a sense “anchored” to the background that is the world one (of this particular species) experiences/perceives. The anthropmorphism virus which made every (mentioned) aspect of the fictional world sentient and its effects are directly visible and obvious, with no levels of dormancy to show people only the “real world” view of non-humans and objects as non-sentient, sessile, as there is no need to divide between the world of fiction and the world of the real. It is all the same to them, and part of one realm. People and the people, places, things they create co-exist in the same realm, as intellectual equals.

Among the anchored things—or non-”abstract” (technically, nothing is abstract to them, but this is just for temporary clarification to us humans)--are things which are described in terms of their states as anchored things: their pre-existent qualities, which are only those already there in a concrete way and not the perceiver/experiencer's synesthetic attribution of tangible qualities onto them.

The synesthetic things—or “abstract” things, even though they are not perceived as abstract and experienced as tangible, real things that can be sensed in particular ways/with particular sensory associations—are things which are abstract to us humans, but perceived/experienced as concrete and tangible by speakers of this language, with words described in accordance to the synesthetic forms and sensations they take and bring on.

If something derives from the background/physical world around oneself and can be seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted, then it is an anchored thing. If something derives first from the imagination of the perceiver/experiencer and is later perceived/experienced as part of the immediate physical world surrounding the person, then it is a synesthetic thing.

Different cultures carry different combinations of synesthetic sensory assocations with synesthetic words, which are classed or inflected variously according to the color, shape, size, position in time/space, texture, consistency, smell, flavor, sound, temperature, and the like they bring on. One “abstract” or synesthetic word may be perceived/experienced as a green liquid in one culture, and alternately as a blue gas in another. These little cultural variations in synesthetic meaning are what give way to wholly different languages.

Also, it is key to consider the huge importance of what are the equivalent of metaphors—which in this case do not function as symbolic stand-ins for other things, but actually occur in reality as said/ perceived/thought into existence. This especially applies to basic patterns/systems of metaphors—e.g. 'good is up' in English.

Word order is SVO, determined by a hierarchy of physical forms.

No, how about instead have it just be (although still SVO) case-num-adj/adv/det-noun + tense-asp-verb + case-num-adj/adv/det-noun (+ conj + additional clause)

The order of modifiers added on to nouns and verbs are also determined by the hierarchy of physical forms. This mainly has to do with the location of something in time and space. The earliest-occurring things/events and things perceived/experienced closest to the speaker are put at the front of the sentence; the latest-occurring things/events, and things perceived/experienced farthest from the speaker put at the end of the sentence. If two things are located equally far from the speaker, their position in the sentence is determined by intensity of sensation, size, motion, number, and pitch; with stronger-smelling/tasting, more textured (e.g. scratchy, jagged, sharp, rough, ridged, waffled vs. dull, smooth, plain), hotter, smaller, moving (versus stationary) singular, and higher-pitched things occurring at the front of the sentence.

There are no adjectives, adverbs, determiners, quantifiers, or numerals as separate words or units. Adjectives, adverbs, determiners, quantifier, and numerals instead function as additional, modifying components of nouns and verbs, respectively. They are additional components, added on to be hovering in the margins of the foreground/main noun words. They go in front of the modified noun or verb, forming compound words. Multiple modifiers can be added on to a single noun or verb, just as long as the “plain” form (the noun or verb being modified) goes at the end of the compound word. Coordinating conjunctions occur in-between the clauses they connect, and subordinating conjunctions function as modifiers, modifying the clause they introduce. The pictorial forms they take resemble radicals of a logographic script, but are also used like an alphabet because there is a particular sound associated with each idea brought forth into the physical reality. That is, each thought has a sound—or more accurately, collection of sounds, determined by the categories into which the idea's constituents are placed (each category has a particular sound associated with it, and the whole idea is characterized by a combination of those sounds, with their order also being of symbolic importance).

Once a modifier is added on to a plain noun or verb, that noun or verb's position in the sentence order is adjusted accordingly, depending on whether the adjectival/adverbial modifier clarified it as something which would make it closer to the front (proximal, singular, small, active, in-motion, in-progress, beginnings, hot, high-pitched, more textured, stronger smelling/tasting, past things/events) or closer to the back (distal, plural, big, stationary, finished/complete, endings, cold, low-pitched, less-textured, bland, future things/events) of the sentence.

Modifiers alter the physical appearance, personality, basically the essential quality of things when they are used to describe them. Nouns and verbs are wholly different in nature after particular modifiers are used to characterize them—and the word 'characterize' is key here because that is precisely what is a modifier does; that is, it gives (traits of) character or personality to nouns or verbs lacking in them, or nouns/verbs in the modal/default/plain form.

In order to say a “plain” version of an adjectival or adverbial modifier, the adjectival/adverbial modifier glyphs are enlarged and put out into the foreground—like a radical made into a main character. The categories which modifiers are placed into are only there for organizational purposes, and do not take on a separate word or glyph of their own; they are just there to sort them into various semantic categories.

Non-modifier glyphs are all sorted into a finite amount of character shapes/outlines. All non-modifier glyphs are intended to look like what they represent. The character shape which they take on is determined by which of various semantic and descriptive categories and properties they take on, and how they are used in a sentence (grammatical function). Round things are circular (maybe other “round” shapes?), flat things are a long rectangle, long skinny things are a tall rectangle, non-round wide boxy or general unrounded “big” things are squares, sharp or pointy things are inverted triangles, amorphous “natural” forms are non-inverted triangles (with “feet” on the ground), etc.
 * Circular = round things
 * Long, horizontal rectangle = flat things
 * Tall, vertical rectangle = long, skinny things
 * Square = non-round wide boxy or general unrounded “big” things
 * Standing triangle = amorphous “natural” forms (e.g. mountain, pile of rocks, piles of things, stacks)
 * Inverted triangle = sharp or pointy things
 * Standing semicircle = arcs, entrances, entryways, exits, doors, windows
 * Upside-down semicircle = containers (e.g. cup, bucket, bag)

Modifier glyphs occur on the margins of the main (i.e. non-modifier) glyphs, and their position respective to the main glyph which they modify is likewise determined by their semantic and descriptive properties. That is, certain elements occur at certain positions, and the positions are in accordance to the metaphorical associations (see section on metaphors for further reference): 'close' words occur on the bottom/underneath the main, 'far' words on the top/above the main, 'past/from/beginning' words on the left, and 'future/towards/ending' words on the right.
 * Opposite direction of where writing starts; direction where writing ends (for us this would be right, because we write left-to-right) = far, away from, back, behind, past
 * Direction of where writing starts (for us this would be left, because we write left-to-right) = near, toward, ahead, front, future
 * Bottom/underneath = big, more, whole/all, increase, more intense/stronger
 * Top/above = small, less, part of a whole, decrease, less intense/weaker

Actually, maybe rethink shape outlines of main/non-modifier glyphs a bit, although modifier glyphs are still on margins.

There is an actual corresponding sound/phoneme for each type of individual shape part or component used to make up a glyph—including margins, and have it largely based on sound symbolism and differing syllable structures for modifiers. Each—with the exception of a particular category of syllabic consonant modifiers—has a different subset of consonants that can occur at the beginning and ending of syllables. Modifier onset consonants can only be of a particular limited set, and likewise for modifier coda, non-modifier onset, and non-modifier coda consonants; modifier and non-modifier onset groups cannot contain the same phonemes, and likewise with modifier and non-modifier coda groups.

Sometimes, an epenthetic vowel (schwa) will need to be added between neighboring consonants. However, the schwa is not transcribed as anything; only the plain consonants show up. For example, what are pronounced as 'hət' and 'nəm' are written as 'ht' and 'nm.'